More than 6,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed, a top U.S. official said Thursday.
Though the Pentagon has been reticent to discuss exact numbers, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones told Al Arabiya News Channel Thursday that U.S.-led airstrikes have “taken more than half “ of ISIS’ leadership.
Jones also described the airstrikes as having a “devastating” effect on ISIS.
“We estimate that the airstrikes have now killed more than 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq,” Jones said, adding that the airstrikes have “destroyed more than a thousand of ISIS vehicles inside Iraq.”
Jones reiterated that the statistics were “not so important in themselves,” but that they “do show the degradation of ISIS.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday he couldn’t confirm that figure and discounted its importance: “I was in a war with a lot of body count. And we lost that war.”
Rear Admiral John Kirby echoed Hagel, saying Thursday the U.S. is adamant about not keeping a “body count” in the ISIS mission and doing so would be similar to Vietnam War era statistics, according to CNN.
U.S. estimates ISIS has anywhere between 9,000 and 18,000 fighters, but the number can balloon to as many as 31,000 people.
