America Proudly Proclaims Killing 10,000 ISIS Militants In 9 Months – Are The Figures Relevant Now?

America seems insistent on letting the world know it has killed 10,000 ISIS militants in the 9 months it has begun operations against the group.

Summing up the body count accrued by precision airstrikes by America’s fighter jets, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced that the country’s elite squadrons have been responsible for the death of over 10,000 ISIS militants so far. The announcement comes a few months after the Pentagon itself had attempted to downplay such “counts,” stating they are “simply not a relevant figure in the fight against the Islamic State group.”

Blinken did not confirm the number of civilians that died during these airstrikes. ISIS militants have been known to use cities and its inhabitants as hostages. Thus, taking out a whole team of ISIS militants from above would have surely resulted in some civilian casualties, but the U.S. government isn’t keen to release these numbers.

Late last year, the CIA had estimated that the ISIS has about 31,500 fighters. Combining the two statistics, it means the U.S managed to eliminate almost a third of the militant group’s forces within 9 months of launching offensives at the forward bases and suspected hideouts within the Kurdish mountains.

What makes the announcement interesting is the fact that United States has often been reluctant to present the numbers of people it has killed during militarized conflicts. There have been attempts to either quash the queries pertaining to human casualties or offer explanations that discounted their significance in winning wars. Even when a reporter asked Pentagon spokesman Adm. John Kirby how many ISIS militants the U.S had killed till January, he offered a non-committal reply,

“The less of these guys that are out there, certainly that’s the better, but the goal is to degrade and destroy their capabilities. It’s simply not a relevant figure.”

Besides stepping up recruitment drives, ISIS has been launching fresh and renewed offensives in the regions it had earlier lost control due to courageous Kurdish fighters and their allies. Under the protection of U.S.-led airstrikes Kurdish forces have claimed success in reclaiming large swaths of lands and have recaptured dozens of towns and villages, where the ISIS had planted its flag by butchering thousands of innocent civilians.

As if killing unarmed people and enslaving women wasn’t enough, ISIS has destroyed a number of historically significant relics. However, given America’s past confirmations about casualties, should one believe it has killed just 10,000 ISIS militants?

[Image Credit | Mohammed Sawaf, Mohammed Al-Shaikh / Getty Images]