The air campaign mounted by the United States and its five Arab allies against Islamic State targets in Syria on Tuesday is expected to slow down, U.S. defense officials said.

Foreign policy experts warn that the operation is likely to settle to a pace similar with the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq launched six weeks ago.

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This, according to some liberal and conservative experts, is brought on by the lack of a ground strategy to support the limited capacity of aerial bombardments.

Pentagon announced that as of Thursday, the U.S. has already carried out 209 airstrikes in Iraq and some 30 airstrikes in Syria, totalling to an average of five attacks per day since the campaign began on August 8.

According to The Hill, the number excludes the airstrikes launched by U.S. allies, including the five Arab nations that joined the fighting early this week.

The slow pace has made President Barack Obama's critics especially frustrated.

The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ed Royce (R-California), told CNN on Thursday that Kuwait was invaded during the Gulf War with 116,000 airstrikes carried out in a matter of weeks.

Royce reaffirmed his support for President Obama's decision to strike down the Islamic State targets in its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, but said the coalition has to come up with a more robust strategy.

Conservative foreign policy expert James Jay told The Wall Street Journal that what the coalition is doing is not winning the war against the Muslim fundamentalist group. Rather, the coalition is expanding it.

Jay's statement was supported by a left-leaning fellow of the Center for American Progress, Brian Katulis. He said unless the coalition comes up with a broad strategy that will tie up the air campaign with ground support for Syrian troops, this present approach would lead to an acceleration of conflict to an already exacerbated condition in Syria.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the Syrian campaign will grow less intense overtime. However, it will be punctuated with large-scale strikes such as those conducted during the first two waves against Islamic State in Raqqa and the attack against the Mosul Dam in Iraq. 

TagsSyrian airstrikes, Iraq, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh