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U.S. Military Campaign Takes Toll on Islamic State

(New York Times) Matthew Rosenberg - American airstrikes have killed 25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria and incinerated millions of dollars plundered by the militants, according to Pentagon officials. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have taken back 40% of the militant group's land in Iraq, the officials say. Yet the fight against ISIS is likely to go on for years. While ISIS fighters in the Middle East have proved susceptible to American airpower, the U.S. and its European allies must now also engage in a far more complex struggle against homegrown militants who need relatively few resources to sow bloodshed in the West. "You can defeat ISIS in ISIS-controlled territories, but you're not going to defeat ISIS itself. The ideology of jihadism continues to evolve and continues to exist," said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the Treasury Department who is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
2016-04-13 00:00:00
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