U.S., allies target ISIS in 23 air strikes

The United States and allies staged 23 air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq on Thursday, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Friday.

A dozen strikes near the Syrian cities of Kobane, Raqqah and al-Hasakah destroyed ISIS vehicles, buildings and fighting positions and also hit a large ISIS unit.

The air raids on the outskirts of Raqqa were the heaviest coalition strikes on the city along the Euphrates River since ISIS group militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his F-16 jet went down near the city on Dec. 24.

An anti-ISIS activist group called Raqqa is Silently Being Slaughtered reported on Friday at least 13 coalition strikes. It said the Furoussiyeh area and the Division 17 military base were among the targets hit.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees activist collective also confirmed the air raids.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Eleven strikes in Iraq targeted ISIS units, buildings, vehicles, equipment, a shipping container and a weapons cache near the cities of Taji, Al-Asad, Fallujah, Baiji, Al Qaim and Mosul.

ISIS fighters have taken parts of Syria and Iraq in a bloody campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate.

(With Reuters and Associated Press)