ISIS had captured the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq, after overrunning the cities of Mosul, Kirkuk, Baiji, and Tikrit to name a few. Tens of thousands of Yazidis who had fled the ISIS siege were trapped on Mount Sinjar, with nowhere to go.
Those first U.S. strikes were limited -- hitting only some ISIS units and convoys -- but they marked the launch of a broader U.S.-led campaign to eradicate ISIS from Iraq and Syria.
On this anniversary, ABC News looks at the airstrikes in the “War Against ISIS” by the numbers, based on updates from the Department of Defense and the Department of State.
Strikes by the U.S. and coalition partners
As of July 27, 2016, the U.S. and coalition partners have conducted more than 14,000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. Nearly 11,000 of those strikes were from U.S. aircraft. The majority of the strikes -- more than 9,000 -- were in Iraq.
