WASHINGTON –
The U.S.-led coalition can strike Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant capabilities anytime and anywhere while very deliberately cutting
impact on civilians, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said
today.
Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who also serves as the
Combined Forces Air Component commander for Centcom, told Pentagon reporters
via teleconference from Iraq that coalition airstrikes are effectively
targeting critical terrorist capabilities as the 19-nation air power coalition
continually has successes.
“There is no doubt the coalition air power has and continues
to dramatically dismantle [ISIL’s] ability to fight and conduct operations in
Iraq and Syria,” the commander said, noting that airstrikes on ISIL financial
resources such as banks and oil facilities have set back the extremist
organization’s ability to pay for its operations and fighters.
Recent strikes targeting ISIL logistics and
command-and-control targets in Iraq and Syria have been critical to operations
that support ground forces, he added.
Video Clips Demonstrate Air Power
Brown showed reporters recent video clips of strikes on Raqqa
in Syria and Rutbah in Iraq’s Anbar province to show capabilities used daily.
The first showed airstrikes by newly redesigned B-52 bombers on Raqqah,
destroying an ISIL weapons cache with high-precision guided munitions to
degrade enemy logistics capability, he said.
The second clip demonstrated U.S. F-16 and French Mirage
2000 strikes that were tasked to dynamically destroy ISIL's defensive fighting
position using three precision-guided munitions to destroy the target. It was
conducted to disrupt ISIL’s defenses as Iraq forces moved in to retake Rutbah,
Brown said.
Continuing those types of airstrikes adds pressure on ISIL
and cuts its ability to use homemade bombs and mount offensive attacks, the
general said.
“As the air component, we are … working to keep [ISIL] on
the defense … and enable ground forces to maneuver against as little resistance
as possible,” he said.
More Work to Be Done
But despite consistent progress, now is not the time for the
coalition to pat itself on the back, the general emphasized. “There is still
work to be done,” he said.
Coalition air power will continue forging ahead to do its
part to “persistently strike targets in the deep fight … and continue to
integrate coalition air power with ground force maneuvers, Brown said.
“Regardless of the base of operations on the ground, we will use coalition air
power, its operational reach and flexibility and precision and lethality … to
pressure, to destroy and eventually defeat [ISIL].”