US spends $9.1 mn per day in fight against IS

The United States has spent roughly $9.1 million a day — $2.74 billion — so far in fighting Islamic State (IS), the Pentagon said on Thursday, breaking down the costs for the first time.

The United States has spent roughly $9.1 million a day — $2.74 billion — so far in fighting Islamic State (IS), the Pentagon said on Thursday, breaking down the costs for the first time.

Most of the money was spent on airstrikes — 55% — and the rest on weapons, and missions involving military carriers and other operations strutting last August.

After ending the Iraq war in 2011 and bringing home American troops, President Barack Obama began sending forces to Iraq in batches of hundred starting middle of 2014. Their objective is to stop the spread of IS and retake cities captured by it in Iraq — Mosul and Ramadi, the most prominent among them.

The White House announced earlier this week that 450 additional troops were being sent to Iraq to train and advise local forces from a new, and fifth, base, this one in Anbar province.

The US now has 3,550 troops in Iraq, all of them engaged in training and advisory roles, not in combat, the president insists.

Before the president expanded the war against IS to cover its assets and personnel in Syria, the war was costing the US exchequer $5.6 million a day. It’s gone up since.

Total expenses on IS crossed the $1 billion mark in December and $2 billion by April.