The airstrikes against ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have now been going on for over two months, and during the U.S. led attacks, the terrorist group disguised as a religious caliphate has been severely weakened. Reports from the Associated Press and posted by Yahoo! News have surfaced that the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was at least injured, or as reported in the Inquisitr , possibly killed in a recent attack.
The ISIS airstrikes have also helped to stop outright attacks and even push the terrorists out of populated regions and into borderlands, where presumably armed opposition in Syria and Iraq can begin work to weed the ISIS fighters out. All of this comes months after the bloody rise of the group, which began its march of destruction into Iraq and Syria in June. The list of atrocities ISIS has committed includes beheadings of innocent journalists that were broadcast worldwide, the subjugation and slaughter of women and children, and an outright jihad against all who opposed them.
In Syria, ISIS worked to recruit new members, often from children who were given the choice to fight under the ISIS flag or be killed. Inexplicably, the terrorist outfit was able to recruit around the world, and reports of Americans flying to the middle east to join the group surfaced in late summer. Just last month, as reported by ABC News , the U.S. State Department, in conjunction with German officials, intercepted a group of three teenage girls — one only 17-years-old — from America who were trying to get to Syria to join ISIS.
While the last few months have been filled with almost daily accounts of ISIS and their dastardly deeds, those reports are now being replaced by positive news. The ISIS airstrikes have changed the playing field, and have helped Iraqi soldiers regain some form of control in certain regions , most Shiite-controlled, which is a hotbed of interest of the Sunni-led ISIS. The victories, small or otherwise, are showing the rest of the world that maybe ISIS is not the all-powerful monster the media has made it out to be. The airstrikes are a coalition mission, with the U.K. backing the U.S. in its endeavors. Neither country has put soldiers on the ground to fight, though the U.S. has sent troops to Iraq to work in a supervisory capacity.
If the ISIS airstrikes continue to be successful — successful enough to weaken the group — then Iraqi and Syrian forces can step up and complete the mission to rid their regions of the terrible blight that is ISIS. And if Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hit, and possibly killed, ISIS could be without a leader, and the vacuum created by al-Baghdadi’s absence could cripple the group further, making them easier to eradicate off the face of the planet. The ISIS airstrikes seem to be working.
Do you agree? Do you think that ISIS can be stopped by airstrikes alone? Sound off in the comments below.
[Images courtesy of IBtimes.UK.com; Chrsitiansinpakistan.com; Businessinsider.com]
