US spending $9M a day in ISIS fight

The U.S. has spent more than $2.74 billion — or roughly $9.1 million per day — in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Pentagon revealed Thursday.

In releasing the new numbers, the Pentagon for the first time offered a cost breakdown, shedding new light on where the money is going. Defense officials had only occasionally released the total amounts spent and average daily costs.

A bulk of the expenses, 55 percent, have been spent on airstrikes, according to the Department of Defense, which broke down the average costs from August through late May.

{mosads}Just under a quarter has been spent on weapons, and the rest has been spent on missions involving military carriers and other operations.

Until U.S. airstrikes expanded to Syria in mid-September, the average daily cost totaled $5.6 million. From mid-September through late May, the average daily cost increased to $9.7 million.  

By April, the U.S. had surpassed the $2 billion mark in its campaign against ISIS and passed the $1 billion mark in December.

The report comes days after the White House announced the administration is planning to deploy 450 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. About 3,050 U.S. service members currently serve in advisory or security roles in the country.