ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The US Central Command on Saturday announced that they had provided around $219 million in the first quarter of the 2022 fiscal year in aid to their allies in Iraq and Syria through the Global Coalition against Islamic State (ISIS).
“Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve provided approximately $219 million in assistance to Iraq partner forces and vetted Syrian partner forces in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2022 through the Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund, or CTEF,” read the statement from the US Central Command.
The statement added that since its inception in 2014, the CTEF has provided over $8.9 billion in assistance to its allies in Iraq in Syria, and the aid has included military vehicles, forklifts, ambulances, wreckers, fuel and water tankers, and communication assets ranging from radios to air traffic control systems and weapons packages.
The global coalition against ISIS was formally established in October 2014, after ISIS took control of vast swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria. Consisting of 79 nations and five international organizations, the US-led coalition’s mission has been “degrading and ensuring Daesh’s enduring defeat,” it says on its website, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
The terror group was territorially defeated in 2017, but it remains a serious security threat, especially in areas where there is a security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad.
The mission has over the years aided the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces, the Iraqi army, and their Kurdish-led Syrian ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The combat mission of the coalition ended in Iraq at the end of the last year but it continues in Syria. The coalition continues advising Iraqi forces and Peshmerga.