The United States-led coalition has now killed 50,000 Islamic State militants across Syria and Iraq, marking a grim new milestone in the campaign to destroy the terrorist group.
The figure, disclosed by a senior military official on Thursday, is far higher than previously disclosed estimates and reflects the intensity of a two-year war that has reduced entire cities to rubble and cost American taxpayers billions of dollars — all without Congressional authorization. By comparison, the ISIS body count is now 13,000 more than the total number of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War and just 8,000 fewer than all American military personnel who died fighting in Vietnam.
The Obama administration initiated airstrikes against ISIS in August 2014, soon after the terror group swept through swaths of Iraq and Syria to establish a self-declared caliphate. The U.S. has also provided limited ground troops, weapons, and logistical support to local forces fighting the jihadists, who continue to relinquish much of their territory.
Overall, American-led warplanes and drones have now unleashed nearly 63,000 bombs and missiles against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, recent military statistics show. According to Pentagon figures, these airstrikes have damaged or destroyed more than 31,000 strategic targets, including ISIS buildings, tanks, and oil infrastructure.
The relentless offensive has not come cheap. The price tag for the U.S. military surpassed $10 billion in October, according to the Pentagon. The average daily cost of the campaign is now $12.6 million a day, a 38 percent increase from the $9.1 million daily average from 18 months ago, data shows.
The liberal use of air power by America and its allies — which have included France, Canada and 11 other countries since the bombing raids began — have also inflicted a devastating toll on civilians living under ISIS rule. Airwars, a monitoring group, estimates that at least 1,957 civilians have been killed by weapons deployed by coalition warplanes through December 5, a figure far greater than the 173 civilian deaths acknowledged by the Pentagon to-date.
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