According to IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center's (JTIC) database, the US airstrikes against ISIS terrorists in Iraq not only not weakened the group’s violence and attacks but have enormously increased them.
The Data provided to the NBC News revealed that ISIS “massively stepped up attacks after conquering the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 10 — and has stepped them up further since airstrikes were launched in August.” “Deaths caused by ISIS also climbed since the key city was overrun and have continued to rise since the U.S.-led coalition started bombing the militants.”
“The airstrikes certainly aren’t impairing their ability to intensify their attacks or carry out their campaign,” said Matthew Henman, head of the JTIC. “They’re not cowed by them, they’re not afraid.”
Henman stressed that ISIS is almost certainly responsible for far more violence than the JTIC database can attribute to the group as a result of stringent methodology and verification requirements.
"They’re doing far more than we’re able to ... give them credit for," he said,
"Instead of there being limitations forced on them by airstrikes, they’re the ones that are still calling the shots"
“They have the ability to intensify and de-intensify their operational tempo at will,” Henman said. “Instead of there being limitations forced on them by airstrikes, they’re the ones that are still calling the shots. It’s them that’s dictating the pace, instead of vice versa.”
According to JTIC's database, the average number of attacks carried out by ISIS per day rose 2.75 percent in the two months before the airstrikes began and the first two months and a half of them. The average number of deaths caused by ISIS per day rose 20.7 percent during that same span.
The information provided from the IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center database was mined from open sources and double-sourced wherever possible to ensure accuracy. It does not include information from social media that cannot be verified through conventional and trusted news sources.