New U.S. Airstrikes Launched Against ISIS-Held Areas In Syria

Rear Adm. John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. had executed two airstrikes on an ISIS group staging area in eastern Syria, the Associated Press reported. The target of the strikes was an area used by the group to move equipment across the border in Iraq.

There were also airstrikes carried out against ISIS positions in Iraq — two southeast of Irbil and two west of Baghdad, Reuters reported.

In an earlier interview with the BBC, Kirby said that the U.S. and its allies believe they "have hit what we were aiming at," and that the airstrikes had successfully degraded ISIS's capabilities in Syria.

He added that the group posed a "serious threat," and that "this is not something that we'll be done with within days, or weeks, or months."

"It's going to take a serious effort by all involved. We do believe that we're talking about years here," he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, earlier reported that jets carried out raids to the west of the northern Syrian city of Kobane, near the Turkish border, as well as in the area surrounding the eastern city of Boukamal on Wednesday.

Kurdish forces have been engaged in heavy fighting against ISIS militants in the Kobane area. The fighting in the city forced around 130,000 Syrian Kurds to attempt to flee into Turkey, the BBC reported.