Some people like to celebrate the New Year with a lot of lights, flashes, and booms. On New Year’s Eve and on New Year’s Day, the Combined Joint Task Force delivered 29 airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The attacks against ISIS were delivered against 29 different targets. There were 17 attacks made in the country of Syria and another 12 in Iraq.

The holiday season has been made especially rough for the terrorist organization. Since Christmas, there has been more than 100 airstrikes made against them.

Two towns where ISIS has especially been hit hard during this season are Raqqa in Syria, and Kobane in Iraq. In Kobane, ISIS had captured some new buildings. These were hit by the airstrikes, and some of their combat units in the city were also hit. U.S. and Arab aircraft have also made airstrikes in Mosul and in Sinjar. Dayr az Zawr has also been hit by several strikes.

One of the airstrikes made against a town south of Mosul has killed some of the leaders of ISIS. They were in a meeting and 15 members were reported to have been killed. An important ISIS leader was killed in a battle that took place east of Fallujah city.

The ability of ISIS to continue to move forward has been greatly limited because of the combination of the recent airstrikes and Iraqi and Kurd forces on the ground. Targets such as supply warehouses, supply routes, and gas and oil wells have been destroyed or taken from the terrorists. Much of their revenue comes from gas and oil wells that they have captured, and then sold.

In the coalition, both Western countries and some Muslim countries are cooperating in the attacks on ISIS. Some of them have joined in the attacks after they realized that their countries are also threatened by the extremist group.

Military trainers from various countries were recently sent to Iraq to train new Iraqi soldiers. New recruits are already being trained and should soon be joining the soldiers already on the field to help fight ISIS.

The ultimate goal of the training is to raise up a sufficient number of soldiers in Iraq to provide a powerful enough force to take back the territory that ISIS had taken from the country. Although ISIS had proclaimed a new caliphate within the country, Iraq hopes to reverse that action soon.

The first batch of recruits included about 1,600 men at one of two training locations. Many others reported to the other one as well.

Coalition leaders are hoping to train as many as 5,000 recruits every six weeks. By spring, they should have enough to be able to make a massive strike against ISIS to be able to push them out of the territory.

In order to help prepare for the spring offensive, airstrikes are being made around Mosul. This is where ISIS is deeply embedded. The goal of the airstrikes is to try to cut off the city’s external supply lines so that ISIS fighters will be drawn out of the city.