U.S.-led coalition hits Islamic State with 25 air strikes: task force

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its coalition partners have launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State, conducting 25 strikes since early Thursday. In a statement on Friday from the Combined Joint Task Force leading the military operation, officials said 13 air strikes hit in Iraq, including eight near Mosul that struck four Islamic state fighter units and destroyed a variety of militant-owned equipment and infrastructure. Several Islamic State buildings in Mosul were destroyed as well as one of its bunkers, a heavy weapons system and seven vehicles, among other targets, according to the coalition statement. Efforts are under way to recapture Mosul, the largest city in a self-declared Islamic State caliphate straddling the border between northern Iraq and eastern Syria. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported the United States and Iraq are preparing for an offensive to recapture it by summer. Islamic State militants took over Mosul in June. In Syria, the U.S.-led coalition conducted 12 strikes, including 10 near the besieged border town of Kobani that struck seven units of militant fighters, the statement said. An air strike near Al Hasaka destroyed a mobile oil drilling rig. (Reporting by Washington Newsroom; Editing by Doina Chiacu)