“The only thing I’ll say is the (Expeditionary Targeting Force) is in position, it is having an effect and operating, and I expect it to be a very effective part of our acceleration campaign”, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said.
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The official also said there was “no plan to make a detention center”, in Iraq, adding that captured ISIS operatives would be held either by the Kurds or the Iraqi government.
The Mosul Dam, built on a bad foundation in the 1980s, requires “extraordinary engineering measures” to fill in holes that constantly grow in the foundation in order to keep the dam operational in the best of times, according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) report in 2007.
Obama is trying to close the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, but is unlikely to succeed given staunch resistance in Congress.
“As our partners take control of Shadadi, I believe we will learn a great deal more about ISIL’s criminal networks, its criminal enterprise and what it does to sustain them”, Carter said, using an acronym for the group.
“Any detention would be short term and coordinated with Iraqi authorities”, he said.
As is protocol, Defense Department officials notified the International Committee of the Red Cross, which monitors the treatment of detainees, that they were holding an Islamic State fighter.
So far, the raids of the USA expeditionary targeting force have been shrouded in secrecy in order to protect future missions.
Nine months ago, USA officials handed Umm Sayyaf to Iraqi Kurdish authorities for eventual prosecution. It would be an expansion, he said, of the assistance US forces provided Iraqi troops when the local troops pushed militants out of Ramadi, another Iraqi city, in December.
The officials also ruled out establishing a long-term American facility to hold Daesh captives.
Cities downstream on the Tigris River such as Tikrit, Samarra and the Iraqi capital Baghdad could be inundated with smaller, but still significant levels in the event of a breach, US officials warned on Sunday.
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A senior Iraqi army officer and seven others were killed overnight when Islamic State militants attacked a military headquarters near Haditha, a military commander said on Tuesday.
