The Pentagon is expanding its cyber attacks against ISIL computer networks, senior defense officials said Monday as they claimed to have seized the momentum in the 18-month-old fight against the terrorists.

The Pentagon is expanding its cyber attacks against ISIL computer networks, senior defense officials said Monday as they claimed to have seized the momentum in the 18-month-old fight against the terrorists.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and the US military's top officer, General Joe Dunford, told reporters the United States was determined to "accelerate" the anti-ISIL campaign and indicated cyber warfare is playing an increasingly important role in doing so.

The US-led coalition is working to disrupt ISIL's command chain "to cause them to lose confidence in their networks," Carter said.

He did not offer technical specifics on how the coalition was doing this but said the tactic was to "overload their network so that they can't function, and do all of these things that will interrupt their ability to command and control forces there, control the population and the economy."