A series of American airstrikes killed at least 250 ISIS fighters driving in a convoy outside Fallujah on Wednesday, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.
The strikes occurred on the outskirts of the Iraqi city in “southern Fallujah,” a second U.S. defense official told Fox News.
“There was a strike on a convoy of ISIS fighters trying to leave a neighborhood on the outskirts of southern Fallujah that we struck,” the official said.
At least 40 vehicles were destroyed in the airstrikes, a U.S. official told Reuters, which 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 at least 42 people where 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.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Wednesday his country will overcome terror groups, including Kurdish rebels and ISIS, which have intensified their attacks.
Speaking at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner Wednesday Erdogan said the terror organizations were trying to impede Turkey’s ambitions, including becoming one of the world’s 10 strongest economies and building the world’s largest airport.
“Neither the PKK, the DHKP-C, nor Daesh … will succeed in deterring Turkey from its goals,” he said, referring in turn to the Kurdish rebels, an outlawed leftist militant group and the Islamic State group.
The Turkish leader also said the airport attackers were “not Muslims” and “have prepared their place in hell.”
Erdogan thanked world leaders including President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin, for calling to offer their condolences.(Fox News)
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/06/29/us-airstrikes-kill-at-least-250-isis-fighters-in-convoy-outside-fallujah-official-says.html?intcmp=hpbt3
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