Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, who commands US troops there now and also fought to liberate Ramadi six years ago, says he will leave the country this month confident that Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga troops have proven they can fight and defeat the Islamic State, or ISIS.
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MacFarland said on Wednesday that the coalition had trained more than 13,500 members of the Iraqi security forces including over 4,000 Iraqi Army soldiers, 1,500 counter terrorism service solders, 6,000 Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq), nearly 1,000 Federal police and 300 border guards in how to combat the insurgency effectively. As Islamic State has suffered losses on the battlefield, it has ramped up its terror attacks in Europe, including July’s attack in Nice that killed 84.
The U.S. -led military effort against the IS started exactly two years ago, aimed at halting the jihadists as they swept across Iraq and Syria.
Gen. Sean McFarland said on Wednesday that soon ISIS will be finished in the Syrian border city of Manbij, and that this will set the stage for taking Raqqa [the de facto capital of the Islamic State], reported the official website of the US Department of Defence. However, US forces still have work to do in terms of turning the Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq into a hub for the battle to retake Mosul.
He said: “They may re-locate or try to re-constitute that capability elsewhere but it won’t be as convenient for the enemy if they do that and it won’t be as effective”.
In Iraq, MacFarland said national forces were gaining ground to recapture the northern city of Mosul.
U.S. -backed opposition forces in Manbij, Syria have claimed to be in control of 90 per cent of the city.
President Barack Obama authorised the deployment of 560 more U.S. troops to Iraq to help transform the air base into a staging area for an eventual battle to oust DAESH from Mosul.
In total, 22 airstrikes using bombers, attack fighters, and remotely piloted aircraft were coordinated against ISIS, the militant group also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh.
“Military success in Iraq and Syria will not necessarily mean the end of Daesh”, he said.
MacFarland cautioned that while there had been successes in both countries, Isis would continue to be a threat.
The US troops is said to include engineers, logistics personnel, security and communications forces.
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