Here Are Pictures Showing The Aftermath Of US Strikes In Syria
The Pentagon provided more details Tuesday morning on the airstrikes launched in Syria the night before, saying they came in three "waves" and were successful in damaging and destroying certain targets.
These new details of the operations came when Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby and Lt. Gen. William C. Mayville Jr. briefed reporters. They described the strikes as successful but stressed they are "only the beginning" of the campaign.
The airstrikes targeted both the group calling itself the Islamic States (also known as ISIS or ISIL) and a group known as the Khorasan, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group the Pentagon warned was in the "final stages" of plotting attacks on both the US and Europe.
Here's the map showing the targets of the airstrikes:
The first wave of airstrikes, Mayville said, was conducted against the Khorasan group near Aleppo. The latter two waves targeted ISIS targets near the Iraq-Syria border and near Raqqa, the de-facto ISIS capital. Coalition partners Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia participated in the second and third wave of strikes.
Mayville also showed before-and-after photos showing the damage done to the various targets.
On picture showed what Mayville described as an ISIS-held finance center in Raqqa that was hit with a Tomahawk missile and severely damaged.
Another photo showed how a strike targeted and damaged a command-and-control center held by ISIS in Raqqa. The Pentagon said it was the first time F-22 Raptors were used in a combat role. Mayville said the strikes did not target individual ISIS leaders and instead hit command-and-control centers like the one below:
Finally, Mayville displayed a before-and-after photo from an ISIS-held training-and-logistics site targeted in a strike. He said the strike targeted locations within the fence-line of the site.
"You are seeing the beginning of a sustained campaign and you can expect to see more strikes in the future," Mayville said.
