Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Washington Free Beacon

The Pentagon has not conducted airstrikes against an estimated 60 Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) training camps that are supplying thousands of fighters each month to the terror group, according to defense and intelligence officials.

The camps are spread throughout ISIL-controlled areas of Iraq and Syria and are off limits in the U.S.-led international bombing campaign because of concerns about collateral damage, said officials familiar with planning and execution of the yearlong bombing campaign.

Additionally, the ISIL (also known as ISIS or IS) camps have been so successful that ISIL leaders are considering expanding the camps to Libya and Yemen. Both states have become largely ungoverned areas in recent years.

The failure to target the training camps with U.S. and allied airstrikes is raising questions among some defense and intelligence officials about the commitment of President Obama and his senior aides to the current anti-ISIL strategy of degrading and ultimately destroying the terror group. “If we know the location of these camps, and the president wants to destroy ISIS, why are the camps still functioning?” one official critical of the policy asked.

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