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Here is a basic outline of how the US and its allies gather intelligence to guide bombing raids, without a large ground force:
Satellites orbiting in space, high-altitude spy planes and a range of surveillance aircraft - both manned and unmanned - act as the "eyes" of the US military and its partners, tracking the movement of the Islamic State group over hours and days.
The visual imagery is combined with eavesdropping and other information - including spy networks on the ground - to form a picture of the "battle space" for pilots and commanders.
Requiring less fuel and no pilot on board, robotic drones can fly for hours, lingering over a potential target until an adversary appears.
The latest US fighter jets and bombers are also equipped with elaborate cameras and sensors, allowing them to scan the landscape for targets in a way that was not possible a few years ago.
The storied U-2 spy plane of cold war fame remains one of the key aircraft for surveying the war zone, and is now equipped with state of the art sensors that provide detailed imagery.
The manned E-8 J-STARS aircraft, a modified Boeing 707 with a radar under its forward belly, is highly valued by commanders, as it can track ground vehicles and relay other imagery in real time.
The unmanned Global Hawk performs a similar high-altitude surveillance role to the piloted U-2 spy plane but can stay in the air for 28 hours, more than twice as long as the U-2. Other spy drones include the bat-winged, stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel, as well as turbo-prop Predators and Reapers, which can also be armed with Hellfire missiles.
The Pentagon says there have been more than 700 surveillance flights so far in an air campaign of more than 300 bombing raids.
Both spy and strike planes take video of bombs dropping on targets. The imagery is used to assess the effectiveness of the strikes and some videos are released to the media, to underline the Pentagon's insistence that the raids are both lethal and accurate.
Satellites and special aircraft act as the "ears" for intelligence gathering, picking up phone and radio communications from altitudes of up to 30,000 feet.
The US National Reconnaissance Office runs a constellation of secret spy satellites that can pick up electronic signals continuously over a wide area. And the US army has "Trojan" trucks outfitted with antennae that can swiftly trace the location of a phone intercept.


How US and allies gather intelligence in war against Islamic State

US surveillance planes film bombs dropping on targets. Photo: AP

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