Paris (AFP) – US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said the Islamic State group would be “very seriously” weakened in Syria and Iraq this year, as France announced that some 22,000 jihadists have been killed by the US-led coalition.
Air strikes by the alliance that includes Gulf states, France and Britain have been pounding IS positions since August 2014.
“I think that by the end of 2016, our goal of very seriously denting Daesh in Iraq and Syria and of trying to have an impact on Mosul (in Iraq) and Raqqa (in Syria) will be achieved,” Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, using an alternative name for IS.
“We are on track, we are doing serious damage to Daesh today,” he said.
The Pentagon estimates that IS has lost 20-30 percent of the total territory they were in control of in Iraq and Syria, including up to 40 percent in Iraq alone.
Kerry said he would meet the foreign ministers of 24 coalition nations in Rome on February 2 to discuss strategy and possible “additional commitments”.

Map of Syria and Iraq showing areas controlled by IS

The US has called on allies to contribute Special Forces as a key part of the efforts to bolster coalition forces fighting the jihadist group.
US Special Forces are already directly engaged in pinpointing targets and launching raids against the Islamic State group in both Syria and Iraq, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Thursday.

US defense Secretary Ashton Carter and French Defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian 

French President Francois Hollande said the anti-IS coalition would “accelerate” its air strikes.
His comments followed a meeting by the defense ministers of seven countries in the coalition on Wednesday, who said their strategy was to free the IS “power centers” of Raqqa and Mosul.