The Islamic State seal. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – More than 1,000 members of the Islamic State and other jihadist terror groups have been killed in U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria since September, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

“Since the beginning of the strikes [on Sept. 23] at least 1,171 people, including 1,119 militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front, were killed by Arab and international strikes in Syria,” the Observatory said in a statement, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that Islamic State has been looting Christian churches and other ancient artifacts to fund its terror operations. According to a report in the U.K.-based daily The Times, Islamic State is “selling today artifacts worth millions of dollars directly to collectors in the West,” said Willy Bruggeman, a former director of Europol and president of the Belgian federal police council, who has been investigating an illegal Islamic State smuggling ring that has been traced to black-market routes and buyers in Europe.

“Islamic State elements use bulldozers in order to get gypsum and wall paintings from old churches, which brings them a lot of money,” the report said.

Earlier this year, the Iraqi Intelligence Services reported that Islamic State was able to collect roughly $36 million from the sale of Christian artifacts in the Syrian city of Nabaq.