He said the United States had spoken to Gulf Cooperation Council leaders at a Camp David summit in the spring about creating a “Sunni Arab combined force” to help in the fight.
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The United States said on Wednesday that it was prepared to deploy advisers and attack helicopters if requested by Iraq to help it “finish the job” of retaking the city of Ramadi from Islamic State.
Reuters has previously reported on the possible deployment of Apache attack helicopters, and USA forces to operate them, to bolster Iraq’s fight against the group.
Defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant globally and at home requires leveraging the militant organization in its “parent tumor” of Syria and Iraq, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee today.
The U.S. advisers are not expected to engage in combat but their direct role closer to the front lines of a potential major battle indicates another escalation of U.S. involvement in the conflict in Iraq and Syria.
“These things take time, Ramadi is a very hard environment”, he said, adding that it took USA forces six months to “take and stabilize Ramadi” from al-Qaida, the Islamic State’s precursor.
Capture of the sprawling western Ramadi district of al-Taamim and the Anbar Operations Command headquarters on Wednesday (December 9) could advance government efforts to retake Ramadi which fell to Islamic State in May.
“I know of no expert that doesn’t believe that as long as this caliphate exists in Raqqa, they are going to be able to orchestrate attacks and metastasize and maybe even move to Libya”, McCain warned about implications of failing to retake ISIS’s capital. “He is prepared for us to bring him more”.
He predicted tough fighting ahead, but said the Iraqi forces have shown resilience when faced with counter-attacks from IS.
The specialized expeditionary targeting force recently assigned to assist the Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga forces will pressure ISIL with more raids and more intelligence gathering, he said, noting that the force also can conduct unilateral operations in Syria. “They also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops and draining our resources, and using our presence to draw new recruits”, he said. “ISIL has counterattacked several times, but thus far the ISF has shown resilience”, he said.
In the past week, he said, he’s reached out to 40 countries in the coalition to ask for contributions such as special operations forces, strike and reconnaissance aircraft, weapons and munitions and training assistance.
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“The GCC allies, including Turkey, who would want to act in Syria won’t be able to do such a thing without the leadership of the US”, Bishara said.
