The US-led air campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria, which ground to a near halt in late October, has intensified in recent days.



Coalition forces carried out 56 strikes against Isis in Syria in the eight days to 6 November after going the previous eight days with only three strikes, according to US military figures. The strikes focused on the towns of Mar’a, al Hawl, al Hasakah and Dayr az Zawr.

The US and its allies carried out a dozen airstrikes in Syria on Saturday, the US military said in a statement on Sunday.

The jump in air and rocket strikes in Syria coincided with Washington’s shift in approach to the conflict after efforts to train Syrian rebels to fight Isis collapsed. Russia also deployed warplanes to Syria, adding pressure on Washington to take more effective action.

The White House confirmed on 30 October it would deploy dozens of special operations forces to Syria to advise and assist a coalition of rebels already on the ground. Defense Secretary Ash Carter also signaled his intent to intensify the air campaign.

US-backed forces in Syria have renewed their drive to capture the eastern town of al Hawl and to push Isis away from the Turkish border along the Mar’a line north of Aleppo.

The US air campaign has been criticised by Republican lawmakers and others who say the intensity of the strikes is insufficient to reverse the advances of Isis fighters, who overran large parts of Iraq and Syria last year.

The air campaign reached a peak in July, when warplanes carried out 887 airstrikes – 518 in Iraq and 369 in Syria, US military data shows. Since then, strikes in Iraq have remained in the range of 500 per month, while in Syria they dropped steadily each month, reaching a low of 117 in October.

US military officials downplayed the significance of the strike data, saying they represented the ebb and flow of battle and were affected by things like bad weather, which may prompt changes in targeting on a particular day.

“We are not focused on numbers of strikes. We are focused on effects of our strikes,” Colonel Steve Warren, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said in an email.

Since July coalition strikes in Syria have been concentrated around al Hasakah, a town near the north-eastern frontier on the route to Sinjar, Tal Afar and Mosul in northwestern Iraq. About 37% of US airstrikes in Syria focused on that town.

More than 11% of US airstrikes have hit the area around Raqqah, the Syria headquarters of Isis, and more than 10% have targeted the militants around Kobani, a city near the Turkish border Isis tried to capture.

US bombing in Iraq has targeted Ramadi, Sinjar and Mosul. Near Ramadi 18% of US strikes hit Isis militants, while 14% hit the group in the Sinjar area and 13% targeted it near Mosul.