Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has reported continued Saudi participation in air strikes on Syria.

Officials said Saudi Arabia was a leading contributor to the U.S.-led air strikes on Iraq and Syria.

The officials said the Royal Saudi Air Force was sending U.S.-origin F-15 fighter-jets in operations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Syria.

“They are taking this threat very seriously,” an official said.

On Oct. 13, the military’s Central Command reported Saudi air strikes on ISIL. Centcom said Saudi fighter-jets participated in eight sorties on ISIL, most of them around the Kurdish enclave of Kobane.

“To conduct these strikes, U.S. forces used bomber and fighter aircraft deployed to the Centcom area of operations, and Saudi Arabian forces used fighter aircraft,” Centcom said.

The war against ISIL was said to have encountered opposition in Saudi Arabia. On Oct. 14, an American was killed and another was injured in a shooting in Riyad. A Saudi suspect was shot and arrested.]

Saudi Arabia was said to have contributed between four and six F-15s for the daily air strikes on ISIL in Iraq and Syria. The United Arab Emirates, with a fleet of nearly 80 F-16 Block 60 fighters, was also contributing to the campaign.

Officials said the air strikes southwest of Kobane struck ISIL units. Other sorties targeted ISIL buildings near Kobane and the northwestern city of Raqqa.

Still, officials acknowledged serious difficulties in the air campaign. They said 90 percent of the aircraft were unable to find their ISIL targets.

“They know how to maneuver and how to use populations and concealment,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Oct. 12.

  Centcom, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Kobane, Raqqa, Saudi F-15s continuing air strikes on ISIL in Syria