The changes to the Obama administration’s anti-ISIS strategy are intended be more militarily aggressive in order to break the stalemate that forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have reached, according to Business Insider.
Advertisement
Talking to the Senate Armed Services Committee about Iraq and Syria this week, he said that America would not hold back from supporting “capable partners” with “direct action on the ground”. It follows the death of an American soldier in a Kurdish-led raid to rescue hostages held by ISIS.
Observers say his comments reflect acknowledgment of the lack of progress in defeating the militant group.
Allen said the USA military recently began asking its European allies to join it at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey where the United States is being allowed to launch U.S. fighter aircraft and surveillance missions into Syria.
Friday’s talks in Vienna are seen as a way to end Syria’s civil war by creating an interim unity government and paving the way for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s exit. In Congressional testimony Tuesday, Carter said about the raid, “This is combat, and things are complicated”.
“We’re teaching the Iraqis how to get through the types of obstacles that ISIL has emplaced around Ramadi, and we’re giving them new tools to help”, he said, adding that one example is the Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System.
“If it had operational or strategic impact and we could reinforce success, that would be the basic framework within which I’d make a recommendation for additional forces to be co-located with Iraqi units”, Dunford said.
He wouldn’t be drawn on how or when U.S. forces might go in on the ground without assistance from rebels, Kurdish or Iraqi government forces.
He said he was disappointed that the USA effort to form new moderate Syrian rebel forces to fight ISIS had failed.
It remains highly unlikely that Russian Federation, Syria’s ally, would allow such a measure, which comes amid Western criticism of Moscow’s dramatic intervention in the war to support Assad.
The USA now has about 3,300 troops in Iraq to train and advise Iraqi forces and to protect US facilities.
The so-called Islamic State, or ISIS, took stormed into Ramadi in May, using waves of suicide vehicle bombs to breach government lines and handing the Iraqi Army its worst defeat since the fall of Mosul previous year.
But Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan said the Russians have in sight a political transition in Syria where Assad would eventually step down.
“We do not have a concept of operations for a no-fly zone that we’re prepared to recommend”, Carter told the committee.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who’s seeking the Republican presidential nomination, told Carter that Kerry is “turning over Syria to the Russians and the Iranians”, and that the administration’s strategy on Syria “has completely fallen apart”. Earlier this month, Obama said 5,500 troops would stay in Afghanistan beyond 2017 to prosecute counterterrorism operations against the remnants of al Qaeda and the Islamic State, a major shift from his earlier vow to bring home virtually all American forces before he left office. This is of course a problem for those opposition fighters that both support the Syrian revolution against the Assad regime and are also fighting ISIS on the ground.
Advertisement
“An invitation to Iran to participate, I think Iranian leaders can take to mean that it’s a genuine multilateral invitation”, department spokesman John Kirby said.
