Operation Inherent Resolve

Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) is the United States military's operational name for the international war against the Islamic State (IS) including both a campaign in Iraq and a campaign in Syria, with a closely related campaign in Libya.

Through 18 September 2018, the U.S. Army's III Armored Corps was responsible for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF—OIR) and were replaced by the XVIII Airborne Corps. The campaign was primarily waged by American and British forces in support of local allies, most prominently the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Combat ground troops, mostly special forces, infantry, and artillery have also been deployed, especially in Iraq. Of the airstrikes, some 80% have been conducted by the military of the United States, with the rest by the United Kingdom (Operation Shader), Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

By October 2017, around the time of IS's territorial defeat in Iraq, CJTF—OIR claimed that around 80,000 IS militants had been killed by it and its allies (excluding those targeted by Russian and Syrian air strikes). According to the Pentagon, by March 2019, the day of IS's territorial defeat in Syria, CJTF—OIR and its partner forces had liberated nearly 110,000 square kilometers (42,471 square miles) of land and 7.7 million people from IS, the vast majority of the self-proclaimed caliphate's territory and subjects. By the end of August 2019, it had conducted 34,573 strikes. Tens of thousands more were killed by partner forces on the ground (the SDF alone claimed to have killed 25,336 IS fighters by the end of 2017). According to Airwars, between 8,220 and 13,299 civilians were killed in the airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, with an additional 1,437 civilians killed in other operations.