Steve Warren

Islamic State-controlled territory has been reduced by about 30 percent last year, says a spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition.

Steve Warren of the U.S. army said in Baghdad on Tuesday that the coalition believes the terrorist group has lost 40 percent of the territory it held in Iraq, and 20 percent in Syria.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) territory shrank by 40 percent from its maximum expansion in Iraq, and by 20 percent in Syria in 2015, as international forces pushed it out of several cities, the U.S.-led coalition fighting it said on Jan. 5. 

An Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) leader with "direct" links to the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed in an air strike in Syria as he was plotting additional attacks, the Pentagon said Dec. 29.

The United States has delivered a fresh supply of ammunition to Syrian Arab fighters ahead of an expected stiff battle with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as they push toward the Syrian town of al-Shadadi, a key logistics hub for the group, U.S. officials told Reuters. 

Suspected U.S.-led coalition air strikes killed at least 26 civilians in a Syrian village on Dec. 7, piling pressure on the alliance after allegations another bombing raid left regime soldiers dead.

Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said strikes on Dec. 7 on the village of Al-Khan in northeastern Syria only left civilians dead.

Syria's government said the U.S.-led military coalition had carried out a deadly air strike on a Syrian army camp, but officials from the U.S-led alliance said the report was false. 

Syria said four coalition jets killed three soldiers and wounded 13 in the eastern Deir al-Zor province on Dec. 6 evening, calling it an act of aggression, the first time it has made such an accusation. 

Iraqi Kurdish forces entered Sinjar on Nov. 13 in a major operation to retake the northern town from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, an AFP journalist reported.

Sevil Erku?sevil.erkus@hurriyet.com.trAnkara has welcomed a U.S. statement that the country is not currently providing arms to the People's Protection Units (YPG), the military force protecting the northern Syrian region of Rojava.

A senior U.S. commander based in Baghdad, Iraq, for the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said his country, as of now, was not providing arms to the People's Protection Units (YPG). 

The United States and Russia could soon sign a pact establishing safety protocols in the skies above Syria as both powers carry out separate bombing campaigns, a US defense official said on Oct. 14.