“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.
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The offensive to retake Ramadi, in the works for months, is a major test for Iraq’s military, which has been undergoing extensive training since collapsing in the face of an Islamic State onslaught in 2014.
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.
Earlier, Iraqi forces sealed off most of the routes into the city center.
Carter outlined increased United States military efforts against IS, and said Washington is willing to use attack helicopters to provide air support for Iraqi forces in Ramadi.
Col Warren said there had been an estimated 600 to 1,000 Isis fighters inside Ramadi, but officials are reluctant to predict how long it may take to reclaim the city.
“In the near-term, it would be a significant undertaking that, realistically, we would embark upon largely by ourselves; and it would be ceding our comparative advantage of special forces, mobility, and firepower instead fighting on the enemy’s terms”, Carter said.
Iraqi forces were preparing to push further into the center of the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi as the Sunni militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed 11 people on Wednesday.
“We are not winning this war, and time is not on our side”, McCain said.
“There is still tough fighting ahead”, Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That, he said is when he believes the tide began to turn against the IS group in the Anbar provincial capital.
One tenet of the administration’s strategy is to develop capable, motivated, local ground forces, with United States and coalition forces enabling them.
The defense secretary also blamed Congress for holding up funds and nominees for military leadership positions that he said are key in overall fight. “While we can enable them, we cannot substitute for them”.
‘The notion that the U.S is anti-Muslim is part of ISIS’s narrative, al-Qaeda’s narrative and other terrorist groups, ‘ he said.
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.
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Committee Chairman John McCain, an Arizona Republican, shot back: “I must say, it’s one of the more embarrassing statements I’ve ever heard from a uniformed military officer, that we are anxious about Syria and Russia’s reaction to saving the lives of thousands and thousands of Syrians who are being barrel-bombed and massacred”.
