Progress in Iraq’s vast Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, has been particularly slow, but on Tuesday, Iraqi forces seized a Daesh operations centre and the strategic Tamim neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city.
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USA airstrikes in current days killed an estimated 350 ISIS fighters holed up within the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, an American military spokesman stated Thurs., suggesting the extremists lost as much as half of their defending force.
The U.S. has 3,500 troops in Iraq in six different locations in support of Iraqi Security forces, Carter said.
Syrian Arabs the US military helped to equip in northeastern Syria are fighting alongside Kurdish forces and have recaptured important terrain, such as Hawl and about 900 square kilometers of surrounding territory, he noted, adding that forces are moving south to isolate ISIL’s claimed capital of Raqqa, with the objective to collapse its control over the city.
“These attacks make it clear that ISIL’s threat against our homeland is real, direct, and growing, that we are not winning this war and that time is not on our side”, said Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate committee, using an acronym for Islamic State.
“The United States is prepared to assist the Iraqi army with additional unique capabilities to help them finish the job, including attack helicopters and accompanying advisers”, says Carter, with two caveats: only if it is necessary and only if Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asks for increased support.
He acknowledged that IS “would love nothing more than a large presence of USA forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria, so that they could have a call to jihad”.
He pointed out that the U.N. Security Council, including Russian Federation, had approved resolutions to provide for delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrians, arguing that a no-fly zone could be enforced under the same resolutions.
The fall of Ramadi was the biggest blow to Iraqi forces since IS captured Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul in the summer of 2014.
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”. “There’s still tough fighting ahead”.
Last week, Gen. Joseph Dunford told the House Armed Services Committee, “We have not contained [ISIS]”, but then went on to say they’ve been contained “tactically” in areas since 2010. “So in the end, while we can enable them, we cannot substitute for them”, Carter said. Then, Carter indicated that up to 100 SpOps troops such as Green Berets or SEALs could be involved in direct fighting against ISIS in both Syria and in Iraq.
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“If we fall into the trap of radical Islamic violent extremists baiting us into a ground fight, we’re actually doing exactly what they want us to do”, Selva said.
