The nation’s top military officer on Tuesday said the USA has “not contained” the Islamic State, contradicting President Obama’s reassuring remarks last month just before the terrorist attacks in Paris.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the deployment of such a force was not acceptable without Iraq’s approval, raising questions over how closely Washington coordinated the plan with Baghdad.
Carter noted the recent Kurdish victory over ISIS in Sinjar, Iraq, explaining that such a win effectively cut off the line of communication between the Islamic State’s stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, and the other city it controls: Mosul, Iraq.
A USA official later told ABC News that the force is expected to number around 200.
Meanhwhile, Democ-ratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton rejected the idea of sending thousands of US Ground troops to fight ISIS in the Middle East, saying such a move would give the militant group a recruitment tool to boost its ranks. “And we’ll seize every opportunity to increase the tempo and effectiveness of our operations”.
The U.S.is increasing its fight against ISIS by sending a new “specialized expeditionary targeting force” into Iraq.
President Barack Obama has said the United States will not send large-scale, “boots on the ground” deployments of American troops to fight IS.
USA defence secretary Ash Carter offered few details on the new expeditionary group.
“The raids in Iraq will be done at the invitation of the Iraqi government and focused on defending its borders and building the Iraqi security force’s own capacity”, Carter said in his testimony Tuesday.
Carter said the Pentagon is “prepared to expand” the role of these troops in Syria.
Carter said, reported CNN, that one of the purposes of the additional special forces is to gather intelligence along with utilizing “the long reach that nobody has”.
There now are about 3,500 USA troops in Iraq. You don’t know at night who’s going to be coming in the window and that’s the sensation we want all of Isil’s leadership and followers to have.
Despite more than a year of daily plane and drone strikes against ISIL, the U.S. is still struggling to defeat the jihadists.
“I don’t think they’re gaining strength”.
“We have some of our most advanced air and naval forces attacking ISIL”.
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Then, when asked by Congressman Michael Turner of OH if the United States was winning “now”, Carter would say only that “we will win”. “The worldwide community, including our allies and parters, has to step up before another attack like Paris”.
