U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the military campaign to stop the Islamic State group has killed more than 10,000 of its fighters.

His comments to France’s Inter radio came a day after he and officials from other coalition partners met in Paris with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to discuss their strategy to fight IS.

The U.S. began leading a campaign of airstrikes against Islamic State targets last August in support of Iraqi ground troops, and a month later expanded to bombing sites in neighboring Syria. 

Those airstrikes — an average of 14 per day — have helped pro-government forces reclaim some areas, but the militants continue to make gains, including seizing the western Iraqi city of Ramadi last month.

Blinken said Tuesday that despite some setbacks, combining the aerial campaign with training, equipping and assisting effective local forces is a “winning strategy.”

Abadi, however, said pro-government forces are not getting enough support from the international coalition. 

He said before Tuesday’s talks there needs to be more intelligence, and that the number of foreign fighters crossing into Iraq has not slowed down despite that being one of the goals set out by the coalition.

Participating in the conference by telephone from the United States, where he returned following an injury in a bicycle crash in France over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told meeting participants that the defeat of Iraqi forces by IS militants in Ramadi is prompting a U.S. shipment of anti-tank rockets to use against the vehicles used in suicide bombings.

“[Islamic State] is a resilient and utterly ruthless foe that has weaknesses and can be defeated.  We have known from the start that this would be a difficult, multi-year campaign.  And make no mistake: What happened in Ramadi was a setback.  But it is one that we can help the Iraqis overcome,” said Kerry. 
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