The last “R” is Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar province, where Carter said the US would do more in terms of providing assistance and fire support to local Iraqi forces to take on ISIS.
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The U.S.is taking a more active military role on the ground in the fight against Islamic State, even as it intensifies diplomatic efforts to end the war in Syria by agreeing to Iran’s participation in worldwide talks. Their soldiers are already back in combat in Iraq, against Isis, and soon, if Mr Carter is correct, they will be in Syria.
Hadithi’s response to the prospect of United States direct involvement comes amid mounting pressure from Iraq’s ruling coalition on the prime minister to request Russian airstrikes against ISIL.
Carter’s testimony came as activists said the extremist group killed three of its captives in Syria’s ancient city of Palmyra by tying them to Roman-era columns at the site, then blowing the structures up with explosives.
White House Press Secretary Eric Schultz was quoted in the report as saying the White House had “no intention of long-term ground combat”.
“The death of any service member is a tragedy”, “While our mission in Iraq is to train, advise and assist our Iraqi partners, in situations such as that operation where we have actionable intelligence and a capable partner force, we want to support our partners and we will.”
That option includes temporarily deploying a few US special operations forces inside of Syria to advise moderate Syrian opposition fighters for the first time and, potentially, to help call in USA air strikes, one official said.
Although the two sides signed a document to avoid mid-air collisions over Syria, it does not represent cooperation and would not affect USA airstrikes against ISIS, he said.
They are seeking targets for air strikes and their presence could indicate Moscow’s next move and help identify whether their targets are moderate Syrians or IS jihadists. The best one can say about this, is that Carter is making the point that there are not regular troops sent to Iraq to engage in combat on the ground.
Dunford said, “I think the balance of forces right now are in Assad’s advantage”.
On Tuesday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that the Pentagon does not rule out conducting ground attacks against the Islamic State.
“We expect to intensify our air campaign, including with additional USA and coalition aircraft, to target ISIL with a higher and heavier rate of strikes”, he said.
Carter said the U.S. approach to removing Assad has been mostly a political effort.
Islamic State’s advance through Iraq may well have been contained, but in their heartlands they’re not exactly on the back foot.
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“McCain, who was defeated by Obama in the 2008 presidential election, said, “We’ve tried to leave the Middle East. Now into this vacuum has stepped [Russian President] Vladimir Putin”, with Russian Federation conducting an aerial campaign against rebel groups fighting Syrian troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad”.
