Major US Airstrike Said to Have Killed 250 Isis Fighters

A series of major US airstrike near Fallujah, Iraq, is said to have killed 260 fighters. The Islamic State is believed to have about 25,000 fighters, so if confirmed, the death toll would be significant relative to ISIS size. Most of the fighters have been recruited from other Arab countries or from Europe.

American airstrikes killed at least 250 ISIS fighters driving in a convoy outside Fallujah on Wednesday, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.

The strikes occurred on the outskirts of the Iraqi city in "southern Fallujah," a second U.S. defense official told Fox News. The Iraqi military wth US support, has mounted a major offensive to take Fallujah back from ISIS, who have occupied the City since August of 2014.

"There was a strike on a convoy of ISIS fighters trying to leave a neighborhood on the outskirts of southern Fallujah that we struck," the official said.

At least 40 vehicles were destroyed in the airstrikes, a U.S. official told Reuters, which was first to report the air assault. Fallujah was the last bastion of Isis in Anbar province, and was ISIS' base of operations for attacks, usually terror attacks, on civilians in Baghdad.

The U.S. airstrikes come roughly 24 hours after the Istanbul airport bombings where ISIS is considered the prime suspect, according to top U.S. officials.

Turkey pointed the finger at Islamic State on Wednesday for a triple suicide bombing and gun attack that killed 42 people at Istanbul's main airport, and President Tayyip Erdogan called it a turning point in the global fight against terrorism.