US says airstrikes killed 350 in Ramadi, Iraq, in past week
U.S. airstrikes in recent days killed an estimated 350 Islamic State fighters holed up in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, an American military spokesman said Thursday, suggesting the extremists lost as much as half of their defending force.
Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S. military command in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon that there had been an estimated 600 to 1,000 Islamic State fighters inside Ramadi, which the extremist group captured in May. Despite this depletion of Islamic State forces, U.S. officials are reluctant to predict how long it will take to reclaim the city, which is the capital of Anbar province and a key to the Iraqi government's hopes of restoring its borders.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking separately Thursday, said Iraqi progress in retaking Ramadi has been "disappointingly slow."
