US airstrike campaign against IS fosters Iraqi success

Air raids against Islamic State group targets are "striking the head of this snake", say US military officials, who claim that a number of high-profile killings have helped the Iraqi army win victories on the ground.

Iraqi, Syrian rebel and Kurdish forces have all taken ground from the extremist group in recent months, which culiminated in Iraqi forces capturing the Anbar capital, Ramadi, earlier this week.

Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren has said that this has been achieved - in part - by US-led air raids on IS command facilities.

"We're striking at the head of this snake," he said. "[But] it's still got fangs."

US air raids were said to be key in the Iraqi forces' capture of Ramadi city on Monday, held by IS militants since May.

European connection

The US says its air raids have largely targeted high-ranking members of IS, along with critical areas of economic and military interest for the group.

This strategy claims to be hugely dissimilar to Russia's bombardment of civilian areas, usually held by Syrian rebel forces who are at war with both IS and President Bashar al-Assad's Damascus regime.

Among those also killed this month by the US was French national Charaffe el-Mouadan, who Washington said was linked to the alleged ringleader in November's Paris attacks. Mouadan was also a senior figure in IS, according to officials.

"He was a Syrian-based [IS] member with a direct link to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attacks cell leader," Warren said.

Abaaoud was killed in a police raid in Paris five days after coordinated attacks by IS sympathisers which left 130 people dead.

However a French source told AFP that there was no evidence showing Mouadan was directly involved in the Paris attacks.

Mouadan was, however, close to Samy Amimour, one of the suicide bombers who attacked the Bataclan music venue, the source said.

Among the other senior IS figures recently targeted by the US-led coalition was Abdel Kader Hakim, an "external operations facilitator", who was an experienced fighter and forgery expert and died in Iraq on 26 December.

"His death removes an important facilitator with many connections in Europe," Warren said.

Also killed this month was alleged hacker Siful Haque Sujan, a Bangladeshi fighter educated in the UK.

Tottenham Ayatollah

Another leading figure of IS killed was the son of the Syrian-born radical cleric Omar Bakri - known as the "Tottenham Ayatollah" after his time leading Hizb ut-Tahrir in north London.

A pro-Iraqi government paramilitary group said that it and the security forces had killed Bilal Omar Bakri, whose father was known in the UK for his extremist views.

Bakri Jr was "leading a group that tried to attack one of our units", in Salaheddin north of Baghdad, read a statement from the Popular Mobilisation militia forces.

His brother, Mohammad Omar, also died fighting for IS in Aleppo several months earlier.

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Ramadi on Tuesday and declared victory for his forces by planting an Iraqi flag on top of a government building.

Analysts believe that Ramadi will be used as a launchpad for Iraqi forces to advance north into IS territory, while Kurdish forces in the west and east continue their advances.