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The US Navy Strike Group has begun hitting Islamic State terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria from the eastern Mediterranean Sea after a two-month gap to demonstrate the tremendous warfighting capability and flexibility of the navy.

The US armada, which includes the flagship aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, arrived in the Mediterranean Sea on February 2. It replaced the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, which last struck Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) targets on December 12.

After a two month period, the US navy launched carrier-based strikes in support of Operation Inherent Resolve from the Mediterranean using the 6th Fleet arsenal usually headquartered in Naples, Italy.

The precision strike operations being carried out by the Bush Carrier Strike Group in the eastern Mediterranean Sea continue to demonstrate the tremendous warfighting capability and flexibility of the US Navy, commander of the US 6th Fleet, Vice Adm. Christopher W. Grady said.

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The Navy failed to disclose the number of sorties conducted on Monday or the exact locations of the targets.

By defeating violent extremists in Iraq and Syria, we are simultaneously supporting two separate geographic combatant commands. We remain committed to defeating Daesh, committed to our allies and partners, and committed to global security, Grady added.

Previously, the George H.W. Bush Strike Group was deployed in the Navy's 5th Fleet area of command in the Persian Gulf. Now the group will handle the area of operations previously administered by the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. The previous strike group deployed to the area (from June 28-July 7, 2016, and December 6-12, 2016), completed some 1,899 sorties in support of the US-led operation. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the strike group returned to Norfolk on December 30 after a seven-month deployment.

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the codename for the US military's intervention against the Islamic State which began in Iraq in June 2014 and two months later in Syria. As of February 7, the US-led coalition of 68 states has conducted a total of 18,081 strikes, with 11,050 strikes in Iraq and 7,031 in Syria. The US has carried out the majority of the targeting, conducting some 14,185 strikes.

Washington under President Barack Obama's leadership has never bothered to get any approval from Damascus for the military intervention, unlike the Russian Air Force which was officially invited by the Syrian government to drive out the terrorists.

READ MORE: Americans are welcome in Syria if they come here to work with us Assad

Last week, the Syrian President Bashar Assad said US troops would be welcome in his country provided they work together with the government. At the same time, he accused the US of meddling in his countrys internal affairs and supporting the extremists who would then go on to form Islamic State.

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US carrier group conducts anti-ISIS strikes in Syria & Iraq from Mediterranean - RT

Baghdadi has long been thought to be moving between Isil territory in north-eastern Syria and north-western Iraq as he looks to evade capture.

Last week, Haider al-Abadi, Iraqs prime minister, said the Iraqi government knew where the leader was, butwould not be drawn on his whereabouts.

Mr Abadi told France24 TV station that Baghdadi has few trusted aides left with so many senior leaders killed in coalition air strikes.

Hes almost alone at the moment. He doesnt have many people to trust. He is in isolation, were monitoring his movements, said Mr Abadi, adding that the Isil group chief is keeping a very low profile. His communication with other terrorists is very low. In many times, it is almost nonexistent.

In December, the United States more than doubled the bounty on the elusive Isilleaders head to $25 million (20 million).

Shortly after terrorist fighters swept across swathes of Iraq in June 2014, Baghdadi appeared at the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri to proclaim a state straddling Syria and Iraq in front of thousands of supporters.

It was the last time he is thought tohave been photographed in public.

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Iraq air strikes hit meeting of Isil commanders, leaving leader Baghdadi's fate unknown - Telegraph.co.uk

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The 70-mile stretch of dusty highway connecting Kirkuk to Sulaymaniyah in Northern Iraq looks like any other road in the worldexcept for the 70-plus gas stations lining the shoulder. Some look more like a temple. Or have gold-plated pillars. Or brandish a snappy set of Kurdish flags.

In a country with 140 billion barrels of crude oil reserve, pretty much anyone can start a gas station. Some families own a bunch. The economics of the business push prices as low as $1.60 per gallon. And everyone along Sulaimani-Kirkuk Road is selling pretty much the same stuff. So the filling stations have had to find some way to set themselves apart. The answer will be familiar to anyone who studies deer antlers or peacock plumage: Its all about the ornaments.

Photographer Eugenio Grosso visited the road last September, and the visual experience sent him grabbing for his camera. A petrol station on its own is quite boring, he says. But these stations are all different, and different from what we expect. Grosso hired a taxi driver and spent a day snapping photos of air pumps next to murals of fiery arrows.

Ostentatious roadside architecture has long been a hallmark of car-based societies. The architects Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour figured it out in Learning from Las Vegasif you want to impress someone speeding by in a jaunty automobile, you have to build to be seen quickly, and from a distance, which is to say big, bright, and tall. (See also: classic Los Angeles department stores and Sleeping Beautys Castle.) For the Iraqi gas stations, some kind of weird architectural Darwinian sexual selection is at work; the boldest and brightest wins the thirsty car.

Grossos series Oil City showcases an array of architectural frippery, from delicate ivory towers to sinuous, googie-style roofs. Some enterprising owners even rip well-known oil brands logosBO instead of BP, Shall instead of Shell. Humbler spots slap on bright stripes and a string of lights. Sure, the road has its share of shabby, single pump-and-hose places, but most do their best to lure in fickle drivers.

None of the roadside spectacle guarantees success. Grosso noticed more than one location looked a bit deserted. Some looked like a gas station in a ghost villagesomeone sleeping in the shade, no customers there, he says. Perhaps its time to invest in some gold-plated pillars.

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The Weird and Wonderful Gas Stations of Iraq (Yes, Gas Stations) - WIRED

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 13, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber and fighter aircraft conducted 15 strikes consisting of 15 engagements in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed 27 oil barrels, 11 oil storage tanks and two oil tanker trucks.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike destroyed an anti-air artillery system.

-- Near Raqqa, 13 strikes engaged eight ISIL tactical units; destroyed eight fighting positions and a vehicle and damaged four supply routes.

Strikes in Iraq

Artillery as well as attack, fighter and rotary wing aircraft conducted two strikes consisting of 22 engagements in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Mosul, two strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit and a staging area; destroyed eight watercraft, three barges, three vehicles, a tunnel entrance, a mortar system and a weapons facility; and suppressed four mortar teams.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

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Military Strikes Target ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq > U.S. ... - Department of Defense

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, Southwest AsiaIt's an often unheralded and sometimes painful task, but the resupply missions conducted by the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing are critical to the fight against the Islamic State.

Some flights are quick, lasting just under four hours round-trip with just one stop on the way. But others have multiple stops and can take about 12 hours.

"We call it the Iraq pain train," saidTech. Sgt. Nathan Schultz, a loadmaster. "Those can be long and tedious. You're constantly loading, unloading, reconfiguring. A lot of times you'll get to the destination, you'll unload all your pallets, and then you'll have to bring on 50 people, [and] you'll have to put all the seats down. It can be a painful transition back and forth."

And when emergency strikessuch as the Islamic State's October destruction of a sulfur plant near Mosul, which spewed toxic clouds for days as it burned and sickened hundredslogistics officers and transport aircraft work together to get life-saving supplies into the field as quickly as possible. In the case of the sulfur plant attack, this included scrambling to gather hundreds of gas mask filters for coalition forces at the nearby Qayyarah West Airfield, saidCapt. Jeff Benson, a logistics officer assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve.

Multiple times each day, huge C-130s and C-17s from the 386th are packed with cargo and personnel for flights into Iraq and other locations. The 386th flies about 475 cargo sorties per month, moving roughly 6,200 tons of cargo and 6,700 passengers monthly.

This day, though, none of those emergency supplies would be neededit would be a textbook supply run, encountering nothing more dangerous in the air than an Iraqi passenger Airbus.

"That's more of a danger than anything we've noticed in the air," Schultz said.

"It's kind of boring, those days that we have off," Schultz said. "We'd rather be flying, but we need to have a day so that we can recuperate."

On the Jan. 10 flight, the trip to Iraq included a FASTor Fly-Away Security Teamto guard the plane while it unloaded on the Taji runway. One of those FAST airmen, Tech. Sgt. Joseph Cull, wore a pink-and-black patch on his body armor, above pouches packed with spare ammunition, that combined the logos of the comic book vigilante the Punisher and Hello Kitty.

Shortly before takeoff, 11 soldiers from the Armys 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion boarded and strapped themselves into their seats near the front of the cargo hold. Some soldiers folded their arms, lowered their heads and napped. Others pulled out their smartphones and put in their earbuds, or chewed tobacco, or shot the breeze with one another.

Army Sgt. Timothy Kovacs, 27, a team leader, said they had arrived in the region eight days earlier and were headed to Taji for about eight months to lay fiber optic cable there and at other forward operating bases throughout Iraq.

Im ready to get there, he said.

Someone on the flight mentioned going home in a few days. Spc. Laryssa Allen, 21, also on her first deployment, said, Im jelly. I wish I were home.

The others ribbed Allen for her homesicknessand for saying jelly. She took the joking in stride, firing back: It is a word! Look it up.

You just got here, Spc. Alfredo Garza, 26, said with a laugh.

The soldiers let the kidding drop as the plane taxied to the runway and took off. Allen said something to Cpl. Gabriela Danielson, 24 years old and on her second deployment, who nodded. They leaned in close together, Allen held out her smartphone, and she took a selfie of their smiling faces as they flew off to their war.

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The 'pain train': C-130s ferry troops to Iraq, keep bases supplied - AirForceTimes.com