Over 10000 Daesh fighters killed since coalition raids: US

(MENAFN- Arab News) PARIS/BEIRUT: More than 10000 Islamic State militants have been killed in air strikes over a nine-month coalition campaign US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.
'We have seen enormous losses from Daesh (IS) more than 10000 since the beginning of the campaign and this will end up having an impact' Blinken told French radio without specifying whether the losses were in Iraq or Syria.
Blinken was speaking a day after an international conference in Paris in which 20 or so representatives of the anti-IS coalition pledged support for Baghdad's plan to claw back territory from the marauding jihadists who have conquered large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The coalition's strategy has been criticized for relying on air strikes without committing boots on the ground but Blinken stressed there had been 'significant progress.'
Islamic State now controls '25 percent less of Iraq after nine months a lot of their equipment has been destroyed and many Daesh members have been eliminated' said Blinken.
He nevertheless acknowledged the 'resilience' of the group after the coalition has launched about 4000 air strikes on them.
In a separate French radio interview Iraq's ambassador to France Fareed Yasseen said the allies had heeded Baghdad's calls for more weapons to combat the group.
'The Americans have promised us and will shortly deliver missiles that will make the difference against these truck bombs ... which made us lose Ramadi' a key Iraqi city close to the capital.
'The French will be giving us similar weapons ammunition and we are discussing other cooperation projects' the ambassador told Europe 1 radio.

IS fighters attack Syrian city
In Syria Daesh fighter have launched a major attack on the predominantly Kurdish city of Hassakeh in the war-torn country's northeast activists and Syrian state media said on Wednesday.
The push appears to be an attempt by IS extremists to reverse some of the advances made recently by Kurdish fighters in the province.
State TV says IS extremists are battling for control of a juvenile prison still under construction on Hassakeh's southern edge and have so far attacked it with five suicide car bombs.
Until Wednesday's attack Hassakeh had been split between government forces and Kurdish defenders.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Syrian air force is taking part in the battle and that IS gunmen have entered the prison building.