ISIS’s territory shrank by 40 percent from its maximum expansion in Iraq

ISIS’s territory shrank by 40 percent from its maximum expansion in Iraq, and by 20 percent in Syria in 2015, as international forces pushed it out of several cities, the U.S.-led coalition fighting it told Reuters Tuesday.

There was no immediate comment from the hardline Islamist group on estimates from the coalition, made up of countries including France, Britain and Jordan that have been carrying out aerial strikes its positions.

“We believe in Iraq it’s about 40 percent … And Syria, harder to get a good number, we think it’s around 20,” coalition spokesman U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren told a press briefing in Baghdad.

“Taking together Iraq and Syria … they lost 30 percent of the territory they once held,” he said.

In Syria, ISIS is fighting the army of President Bashar Assad and other rebel groups opposed to his rule. It is facing air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition and by Russia which has sent warplanes to support its ally, the Syrian government.

ISIS overran a third of Iraq in 2014, seizing Mosul and reaching the vicinity of Baghdad.

Counter-offensives by Iraqi and Kurdish armed forces supported by the U.S.-led coalition, and by Iran-backed Shiite militias have forced them out of several cities since, including Tikrit, north of Baghdad, and Ramadi, to the west last month. – With Reuters