On Wednesday, Carter said the targeting force – operating at the invitation of the Iraqi government – will be used to gather intelligence, conduct raids more frequently, capture Islamic State leaders and free hostages, Carter said. In fact, in the last 24 hours, the Iraqi security forces (ISF) retook the Anbar Operations Center on the northern bank of the Euphrates River across from Ramadi’s city center.
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“Some (militants) are going to stay and fight to the end”.
Al Mahlawi, the Iraqi commander in Anbar, said coalition and Iraqi aircraft contributed significantly to the operation, opening “the way before we sent combat units in”.
“I too wish that particularly the Sunni Arab nations of the Gulf would do more”, Carter said.
Asked whether New Zealand was likely to step up its commitment, he replied: “I think it is unlikely”. Kaine lamented that Congress has declined to take up the issue in the 16 months the US has been fighting the Islamic State.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers on Wednesday that adding a significant USA ground force to the fight against the Islamic State group would “Americanize” the fight and fuel “a call to jihad” in Iraq and Syria.
IS overran large parts of Iraq in June 2014, including major territory in Anbar, which stretches from the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad.
But leaving isn’t necessarily easy.
“Turkey must do more to control its often porous border”. “Daesh made it very clear to all of us that anyone who tries to flee the city will be considered an apostate”.
“This is another way by the U.S. to get more people on board”. “The government is not proving us any guarantees that we will be safe during our trip south”.
Displaced civilians from Ramadi and around the area leave their hometowns towards Baghdad. That didn’t yield immediate results.
Col. Steven Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, said the destruction of the bridge may prove to be a tactical mistake for IS. “They treat us like prisoners”, said Abu Ahmed, speaking from the roof of his house to receive a weak phone signal with a cardboard box over his head so he would not be seen by Daesh patrols.
McCain derided the Pentagon’s strategy as too limited and moving too slowly to deal with the ISIL threat.
Noting that the defence of the homeland must be strengthened, Carter said to be sure, but it is absolutely necessary to defeat ISIS in its parent tumour in Syria and Iraq. He described ISIL-held territory in Mosul (Iraq) and Raqqah (Syria) as the “parent tumor”.
New Zealand has had about 140 troops and personnel in Iraq since March, helping to train local forces to fight Islamic State.
Some families managed to escape through a route controlled by the security forces on the city’s southern outskirts before the militants deployed snipers to shoot anyone trying to reach the exit, residents and security sources said.
The group claimed responsibility for the deaths of 130 people in attacks in Paris last month, the deadliest in France since World War Two. Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, spoke on the phone on Tuesday with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, rejecting the presence of the Turkish troops and calling for them to withdraw immediately, according to a statement from Abadi’s office.
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In Iraq, there are also setbacks. The Arizona Republican said he wants “several thousand additional USA troops”, in addition to the 3,500 already in Iraq.
