CF-18 Hornet fighter jets depart from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, October 21, 2014, in this Royal Canadian Air Force handout photo provided on October 22, 2014. The jets are part of the Canadian Armed Forces? contribution to coalition assistance to securit
CF-18 Hornet fighter jets depart from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta, October 21, 2014, in this Royal Canadian Air Force handout photo provided on October 22, 2014. The jets are part of the Canadian Armed Forces? contribution to coalition assistance to security forces in the Republic of Iraq who are fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). REUTERS/Cpl Audrey Solomon/Royal Canadian Air Force/Handout REUTERS/Cpl Audrey Solomon/Roy

The series of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition plus the aggressive movement by Iraqi ground forces may have dampened the momentum of the ISIS, but the west could not claim victory yet. According to retired U.S. general David Petraeus, the architect of America's surge in Iraq in 2007, it will still be years away before the western allies claim total victory over the Middle Eastern radical militants.

On Wednesday, Canadian Defence Minister Rob Nicholson disclosed a second airstrike was carried out by Canadian Forces Tuesday night in Iraq. The fighters targeted their bombs on an ISIS fighting area in northern Iraq.

Petraeus said the Iraqi ground forces should also be commended in the recent spate of troubles the ISIS faced because their aggressive offences and defences helped keep the ISIS at bay. Aided by Shiite and Sunni militias, Iraqi army and police "have not only halted the Islamic State but reversed their gains," said Petraeus, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and now the chairman of a major global investment firm. This meant that Iraq could start gradually reclaiming the areas controlled by the ISIS.

However, he reminded the U.S.-led coalition, as well as the Iraqi forces, that things will not go smooth and rapid. He noted the war to squash the ISIS, along with the reclaiming of lost lands, will "play out over months and most likely years."

He likewise dismissed flaunting observations that the U.S.-led coalition need to also send their ground troops to curb the fighting and domination of the ISIS. "The combat forces on the ground have to be Iraqi," the Canadian Press quoted Petraeus. "And various political initiatives that support that, including political reconciliation between Baghdad and the Sunni Arab communities of Iraq that were alienated under the previous prime minister, those actions also have to be Iraqi."

The U.S.-led military coalition has conducted several air strikes against ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria since early August. Canada joined in early November. Two CF-18 Hornets on Wednesday dropped four 2,000-pound (900-kilogramme) bombs on an ISIS fighting position in a desert area near Kirkuk, Iraq, about 265 kilometres north of Baghdad.