US-led coalition conducted 14,100 strikes against IS in Iraq

A US-led international coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq carried out more than 14,100 strikes against the extremists since the alliance was established in mid-2014, according to a coalition spokesman.

"From September 2014 to December 2017, the alliance carried out 14,104 strikes on Daesh targets in Iraq," coalition spokesman Thomas Phil told Turkey's Anadolu agency on Friday, using an Arabic acroynm for the hardline group.

This figure includes airstrikes carried out by coalition warplanes, in addition to attacks by helicopter gunships, drones and ground artillery.

Over the same period, he said the group's total presence in Iraq had shrunken from between 3,500 and 4,500 fighters to fewer than 1,000, most of whom are being hunted down in the desert regions in eastern Syria and Western Iraq.

Earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that the country had been "entirely purged" of IS fighters.