The Islamic extremist group - said General Lloyd Austin - is already losing the ability to govern and maintain the territory in Iraq and Syria after seven months of air strikes carried out by the United States and the coalition.
The US-led military coalition in Iraq has eliminated more than 8500 extremists since last August, when air strikes began.
We will be able to eradicate ISIS - added Austin - with the chosen approach.
Several months ago, the Islamic State could move freely on those long convoys that waved the black flag. Today - Austin pointed out - this is almost impossible because of our planes that would pulverize them without thinking twice. But the real enemies of Isis - concluded the supreme commander of the American armed forces in the Middle East - are the ability to govern and hold the territory together.
President Obama has authorized the dispatch of around three thousand American soldiers, many of whom have been deployed in Iraq to train and advise the Iraqi army. The latter launched a major offensive this week to resume the city of Tikrit.
In Syria, a new program to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels against the Islamic State will start later this month and could allow a coordinated land offensive by the end of the year.
The first American martyr?
According to the daily radio bulletin of the Islamic State, "Brother Abu Dawud al-Amriki launched his truck loaded with explosives." 'Al-Amriki' means 'from America'.
No further details on the identity of the man were given in the message, but if confirmed it would be the first American martyr.
On the twitter accounts close to the terrorists, photos were published that would show Abu Dawud al-Amriki with a masked face in the last moments before sacrificing himself to the cause of the Caliphate.
The attack would have taken place near the city of Samarra, in the province of Salaheddin. Samarra is under government control and was the operational base for the attack to resume Tikrit, which is located further north along the Tigris River. It is estimated that around 20.000 foreign fighters from ninety different countries have traveled to train in the Region.
In the 2014 2500 would have been the Europeans among the ISIS ranks in Iraq and Syria, while in the 2013 they were 1937.
France and the United Kingdom are the countries with the highest number of volunteers left to fight under the black flags of ISIS.
According to data from the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, foreign fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria from Western Europe - the United Kingdom (500), Germany (400) and France (700) in particular - are very more numerous than those from the United States (100) or Canada (100). From the beginning of hostilities, the Americans would have left for Iraq and Syria.
Forty of them would have already returned home.
According to data from the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, fifty were Italians who started fighting in ISIS.
Reckoning the data, it turns out that for the Islamic State a hundred Chinese, eight hundred Russians, two hundred and fifty Australians, three thousand Tunisians, thirty Irish, a hundred Spaniards, a hundred and fifty Dutch, a hundred Danes, fifty Norwegians, thirty Finns, ten Swiss, three hundred Belgians and a hundred Swedes.
Franco Iacch
