“We expect to intensify our air campaign, including with additional USA and coalition aircraft, to target ISIL with a higher and heavier rate of strikes”, he said.
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The White House, however, stressed that the Obama administration has “no intention of long-term ground combat”, according to deputy press secretary Eric Schultz, but instead will stick to training, advising and assisting the Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi government never asked for and does not need any U.S. involvement in ground operations against Islamic State terrorists.
In answer to a reporter’s question, the president later said, “I think we always have to guard against mission creep, so let me repeat what I’ve said in the past: American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again.” .
The USA now has around 3,300 troops in Iraq to train and advise Iraqi forces and to protect United States facilities. We artificially treat this as two separate conflicts because we spent billions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq and we didn’t do that in Syria and therefore we strategically prioritize Iraq based on history, but the reality is, this is one conflict at this point happening in two countries where the borders have essentially evaporated.
“Major concentrations of USA forces actively conducting patrolling, actively conducting attacks against specific enemy known locations in order to gain, seize and hold territory…it’s not any of that”, said Army Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Carter told senators the United States was focusing its efforts on the IS stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria and will boost support for rebel groups fighting the jihadists.
The USA has done a few special operations raids in Syria. At first the action was called a unique case, but later Defense Secretary Ashton Carter promised more such attacks, contradicting the earlier explanation.
Graham also drilled down on the new strategy, including whether U.S.-trained forces will continue to have the administration’s support if they begin to fight Assad and not just ISIS.
Carter’s testimony drew criticism from Republicans on the committee, primarily because it does not involve the ouster of Assad.
Commenting on reports the Pentagon might send Apaches to Iraq, Korb noted that attack helicopters would be helpful because they provide more accurate targeting than fighter planes for attacking ISIL positions.
“We’ve been talking about a liberation of Raqqa for quite a long time now, but as far as I’m concerned there’s been nearly no progress since ISIS was driven from Kobani”, said Stephens.
The U.S.in turn said that if Russian Federation started meddling in Iraq, it would not be happy at all.
But after 14 months, O’Hanlon said, not only was there a stalemate – with IS militants still holding a number of cities in northwest Iraq and eastern Syria – the battlefield had become increasingly murky with the introduction of Russian and Iranian trainers in Syria.
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“This is a sad day for America and the region will pay hell for this”. “The Arabs are not going to accept this. For this reason its people must not go near areas where there are Daesh elements” for their own safety, he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
