A senior U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said last week that the Operation Inherent Resolve coalition has killed some 50,000 Islamic State fighters in the last two years, as it has ousted the terrorist group from vast stretches of land across Iraq and Syria. Information collected recently from territory retaken from the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria helped the U.S.-led coalition with targeting the Dec. 4 drone strike inside Raqqa, the terrorist group’s de facto capital in Syria, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said. Mr Cook said the two involved in the Paris attacks, Salah Gourmat and Sammy Djedou, were close associates of Islamic State external operations leader Abu Mohammed al-Adnani - who was killed in August. The third Ieader killed in the strike, Walid Hamman, was a suicide attack planner convicted in absentia in Belgium for a terrorist plot disrupted in 2015, the Pentagon statement said.
A U.S. airstrike in Al-Raqqah, Syria, kills four ISIL leaders, two of which were confirmed to have roles in the November 2015 Paris Attacks.