Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has told the Senate Armed Services Committee that from now on Operation Inherent Resolve will revolve around three Rs: Raqqa, Ramadi and raids.
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USA special operations forces and Kurdish peshmerga troops stormed an Isil-run prison near Hawijah in northern Iraq, freeing a few 70 captives who were facing imminent execution.
There have only been 92 this month; the most recent two of these were against relatively low-value targets: an IS vehicle and two mortars.
In fact Moscow is coordinating its air strikes in Syria with a command center based in Baghdad, where all the intelligence is shared between the participating coalition partners – Russia, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
In response to Russia’s bombing raids against ISIS, Washington is now contemplating to announce “officially” (what they have been doing for the last four) their resolve to have boots on the ground in an extended military operation. The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry declared that at his country and Russian Federation “much in common in approach” to settlement of the conflict in Syria.
‘In the new train-and-equip effort that we described today, we will look to identify and then support capable and motivated forces on Syrian territory that are willing to take on IS.
He spoke during a congressionalhearing on American military strategy in the MiddleEast on Tuesday. “They’re going to enhance the very extremism that they say they fear and they have ever reason to fear, because now ISIL and other groups, including Syrian opposition groups of all stripes, are turned against Russian Federation”, Carter said in his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Gen Joseph Dunford, the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said yesterday the USA would be “more aggressive” with air strikes aimed at destroying the oil enterprise operated by IS. Carter and Dunford both repeatedly said that the USA was supporting moderate forces in Syria in the fight against the Islamic State, but not those fighting against Assad.
White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz on October 27 said the administration has “no intention of long term ground combat”, and added that American forces will continue to train, advise and assist anti-Assad rebels.
U.S. military officials said last week that air strikes had attacked IS operations in the al- Omar oilfield in eastern Syria, which is at the heart of the oil enterprise operated by the group.
On the diplomatic side, the state department said it expected Damascus’ key ally Iran to be invited to a new round of talks in Vienna this week on a political solution.
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One plan would use Apache helicopter gunships, which are much more vulnerable to ground fire than jet aircraft, to fly missions in support of Iraqi troops trying to retake the city of Ramadi.
