IS airfield and garrison damaged in new strikes

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon confirmed Saturday a fresh round of airstrikes by the US military and coalition partners against Islamic State group targets in Syria and Iraq.
The strikes were carried out by US Air Force and Navy aircraft as well as by warplanes from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE, the CentCom statement said.
The strikes hit seven targets in Syria, US Central Command said, including an IS building and two armed vehicles at the border crossing in the besieged Kurdish town of Ain Al-Arab, also known as Kobane.
The IS advance on the town has sent 160,000 refugees streaming into Turkey.
Other targets in Syria included IS vehicles and buildings near Al-Hasakah, as well as an IS command and control facility near Minbej, near the western limit of the group’s control, CentCom said.
“An ISIL-held airfield, an ISIL garrison and an ISIL training camp near Raqa were damaged,” it added, using an alternate acronym for the group.
In Iraq, three strikes were conducted southwest of Arbil, destroying four armed vehicles and a fighting position.
A US defense official told AFP on Friday that the Syria mission is now similar to US-led air raids against the IS group in Iraq, with “near continuous” combat sorties.
The US has been carrying out strikes in Iraq since Aug. 8 and in Syria, with the help of Arab allies, since Tuesday, in a campaign it says is aimed at “degrading and destroying” the IS militants.
A day after the UK Parliament voted to allow British warplanes to attack IS in Iraq, two British fighter jets flew a mission over the country, the Ministry of Defense said, adding they had gathered intelligence but did not carry out airstrikes.