(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, July 22 (KUNA) -- The so-called Islamic State's (IS) huge computer data, recently captured by the coalition, reveals how the group facilitates foreign fighter travel in and out of Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday.
This "gives us valuable insight into stopping the flow of foreign fighters into the region," coalition spokesman US Army Col Christopher Garver told reporters.
This information comes from more than 10,000 items, including more than four terabytes of digital information, which were recently seized by Syrian local fighters and the coalition in Syria.
It also reveals how IS "organize their governance structures to ensure they can completely control all aspects of daily life, from religious practice, to education to tax collection and management of central services," he said.
"We also see indoctrination of the young by rewriting text books with the language of hate for those not following the prescribed Daesh (IS) way of life written into it." Meanwhile, amid the investigation into allegations that civilians were killed during a coalition raid announced two days ago by US Defence Secretary Ash Carter, he said that reports that civilians were mixed in amongst IS fighters came after the decision to launch the strikes.
"During that portion of the fight, our SAC (Syrian Arab Coalition) partner force observed a large group of Daesh (IS) fighters in a convoy who appeared to be readying for a counter attack against SAC troops in the area," he said.
A strike called later on the group "was against both buildings and vehicles. Afterwards, we received reports from several sources, both internal and external, that there may have been civilians in the area who are mixed in and among the Daesh fighters.
"We are reviewing all available evidence to determine if the information we have is credible enough to warrant a formal investigation," he underlined.
Garver went on to stress that coalition forces "apply an extraordinary amount of rigor into our strike clearance procedures to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties or unnecessary collateral damage and to comply with the principles of the law of armed conflict." On the ground, he said Iraqi security forces recently isolated the town of Aswaja Garbi on the east side of the Tigris, while IS still controls towns on the western side of the river - the two largest being Qayyarah and Sharqat in Nineveh Province.
The Iraqi Army have also retaken the Dulab peninsula on the south side of the Euphrates River, while the area north of the river is still controlled by the group.
In Syria, coalition airstrikes-backed Syrian local forces captured an IS headquarters in western Manbij and have now seized just under half the city.
While IS continues to fight hard within the center of Manbij using snipers, improvised explosive devices and "civilians as human shields", he said they are "collapsing back." On the coalition's training of Iraqi security forces, he said, approximately 300 border guard police officers completed an inaugural four-week course on tactical defensive by trainers from Denmark.
He mentioned that additional courses are being planned for forensic police training to these officers by Danish trainers.
The newly-trained police officers will be deployed by the Iraqi government along the borders after the defeat of IS. (end) sd.hb