Iraqi aircraft joined the U.S.-led coalition in airstrikes targeting Islamic State convoys and killing at least 250 fighters, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad told Fox News Thursday.
(FOX)- The strikes unfolded Tuesday night into Wednesday, Col. Christopher Garver said.
The first convoy was spotted southwest of Fallujah in an area with known ISIS influence, according to Garver. Iraqi Security Forces fought the militants on the ground, he said, before coalition strikes destroyed some 55 vehicles.
The official said a second convoy formed east of Ramadi later Wednesday before coalition and Iraqi jets launched more strikes. He said that air assault destroyed nearly 120 ISIS vehicles, but in both attacks, Iraqi Security Forces destroyed more.
Reuters was first to report the air assault.
The U.S. airstrikes come roughly 24 hours after the triple suicide bombing at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport that killed more than 40 people. ISIS is considered the prime suspect, according to top U.S. officials.
CIA Director John Brennan on Wednesday said the attack “bears the hallmarks of ISIL’s depravity.”
“If anybody here believes the U.S. homeland is hermetically sealed and that ISIL would not consider that, I would guard against it,” Brennan said, using another acronym for the group.
Earlier this month, Brennan told Congress that the U.S. battle against the Islamic State has not yet curbed the group’s global reach and that they are expected to plot more attacks on the West and incite violence by lone wolves.
He said ISIS has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially act as operatives for attacks in the West.