Iraqis tout progress against ISIS as U.S. strikes continue

The U.S. and its allies continued striking ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria as local Iraqi officials touted military gains against the extremist group near Baghdad.

U.S. Central Command said there had been 22 airstrikes carried out Friday and Saturday against ISIS forces in Iraq, including areas near the Mosul dam, Fallujah and the northern city of Bayji, which houses an oil refinery.

The U.S. also struck an ISIS artillery piece near the northern Syrian city of Kobani, which has been under siege from the militants for weeks.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces made significant gains against ISIS near Baghdad, retaking most of the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, a senior local official told Reuters.

"We have managed to push out Islamic State terrorists from the town of Jurf al-Sakhar today and now we are raising the Iraqi flag over the government offices," provincial governor Sadiq Madloul told the news agency.

Separately, Reuters reported that Kurdish forces had regained control of the town of Zumar and several surrounding villages in Iraq's north, citing security sources.

Neither development has been independently verified.

In other news, a U.S. Marine died Thursday in a noncombat incident in Baghdad, becoming the second American military death associated with the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to the Pentagon.

The Marine was identified as 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Sean P. Neal of Riverside, California. The Pentagon isn't providing more details and said it's investigating.

On Oct. 2, the Navy said a Marine who ejected from an MV-22 Osprey aircraft over the Persian Gulf was presumed lost at sea. The Osprey flew from aboard a Navy ship supporting U.S. operations in Iraq and Syria.

That was the first death associated with the fight against IS. But Pentagon officials say that Marine isn't on the Defense Department's public list of deaths because the official paperwork hasn't been completed.