(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Islamic State's territory shrank by 40% from its maximum expansion in Iraq, and by 20% in Syria in 2015, as international forces pushed it out of several cities, the US-led coalition fighting it said yesterday.
There was no immediate comment from the hardline militant group on the estimates from the coalition, made up of countries including Britain, France and Jordan that have been bombing its positions.
"We believe in Iraq it's about 40% ... And Syria, harder to get a good number, we think it's around 20," coalition spokesman US Army Col Steve Warren told a press briefing in Baghdad.
"Taking together Iraq and Syria " they lost 30% of the territory they once held," he said.
Islamic State swept through a third of Iraq in 2014, seizing Mosul, the largest city in the north, and reaching the vicinity of Baghdad.
Warren also said Islamic State has launched several offensives near the city of Haditha in northwest Iraq in the past 48 hours.
Coalition air strikes helped the Iraqi army repel a first onslaught towards Haditha on Monday by about 200 militants, Warren said.
He said more than 100 Islamic State fighters were killed, without giving a figure for casualties on the Iraqi government side.
"Every one of these Daesh (IS) attacks has been broken by a combination of coalition air power and Iraqi security forces," he said.
He said Islamic State was diverting attacks to Haditha, 190km northwest of Baghdad, after losing Ramadi, the capital of the western province of Anbar.
Warren denied claims by the the group on Monday that it had captured Barwana and Sakran, two towns near Haditha.
Counter-offensives by Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces supported by the US-led coalition, and by Iran-backed Shia militias have forced them out of several cities since, including Tikrit, north of Baghdad, and Ramadi, to the west last month.
In Syria, Islamic State is fighting the army of President Bashar al-Assad and other rebel groups opposed to his rule. It is facing air strikes by the US-led coalition and by Russia which has sent warplanes to support its ally, the Syrian government.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month said 2016 will be the year of "final victory" on the hardline group.
Meanwhile In Libya, Islamic State militants attacked checkpoints near the oil port of Es Sider for a second day yesterday and an oil storage tank in the port was set on fire by a long-range rocket, a spokesman for the security guards said.
Ali Hassi said militants had attacked checkpoints 30-40km from the port, and that two guards were killed and 16 wounded in the fighting. Seven guards were killed and 25 were wounded in Monday's clashes, he said.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the oil tank fire started just as firefighters were close to bringing under control another blaze at an oil tank that was hit during fighting in the nearby port of Ras Lanuf on Monday.
Both fires were still burning on Tuesday afternoon.
Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Libya's biggest oil ports, have been closed since December 2014. They are located between the city of Sirte, which is controlled by Islamic State, and the eastern city of Benghazi.
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