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Last week, Iraqi, Syrian and U.S. officials confirmed that prominent ISIS military leader Omar al-Shishani died of his wounds from a U.S. airstrike in northeastern Syria earlier this month. U.S. special operations forces also recently captured the head of the ISIS unit researching chemical weapons in Iraq, and airstrikes have targeted the group's chemical weapons infrastructure.

Thanks Obama!!


BAGHDAD — After months of losing ground in Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State group is showing signs of wear and tear, and its opponents say they have seen an increase in desertions among the extremists. But the jihadis appear to be lashing back with more terrorist and chemical attacks.

Under a stepped-up campaign of U.S.-led and Russian airstrikes, as well as ground assaults by multiple forces in each country, the jihadis are estimated to have lost about 40 percent of their territory in Iraq and more than 20 percent in Syria.

At their highest point in the summer of 2014, the group had overrun nearly a third of each country, declaring a "caliphate" spanning from northwestern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad.

Last week, Iraqi, Syrian and U.S. officials confirmed that prominent ISIS military leader Omar al-Shishani died of his wounds from a U.S. airstrike in northeastern Syria earlier this month. U.S. special operations forces also recently captured the head of the ISIS unit researching chemical weapons in Iraq, and airstrikes have targeted the group's chemical weapons infrastructure.

"As bad things start to happen, the less motivated, less disciplined, less radical elements of the force break and run," U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren said. "We're going to keep seeing this."

The United States estimates that as of last month, ISIS fields 19,000 to 25,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria — down from an estimated 20,000 to 31,500 — a number that was based on intelligence reports from May to August 2014.

A U.S. official said the decrease reflects the combined effects of battlefield deaths, desertions, internal disciplinary actions, recruiting shortfalls and difficulties that foreign fighters face traveling to Syria.

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