Carter said the USA would intensify the air campaign against ISIS with additional aircraft and heavier airstrikes.
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President Obama claims his current authority to conduct war in Iraq and Syria comes from the 2001 authorization for the use of force against those who attacked the U.S. on 9/11, or from the 2002 authorization for the use of force against Saddam Hussein.
Working with Iraqi forces, they freed around 70 Iraqi prisoners thought to be facing “imminent mass execution” by ISIS near the city of Kirkuk. “We have enough soldiers on the ground”.
“We do not have a concept of operations for a no-fly zone that we’re prepared to recommend”, Carter told the committee.
A Democratic senator also said the administration “seems lost”.
U.S President Barack Obama is set to authorize “direct action on the ground” against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria. USA interventionism has already done enough damage in Iraq and Syria, not to mention Libya.
One is Raqqa, the Islamic State-declared capital in Syria.
Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses the escalation and how significant it is with Here & Now’s Robin Young.
The U.S. has carried out special operations raids in Syria, and took part in a ground operation to rescue hostages last week in northern Iraq, which resulted in the first United States combat death in Iraq since 2011.
“An invitation to Iran to participate, I think Iranian leaders can take to mean that it’s a genuine multilateral invitation”, state department spokesman John Kirby said.
In Iraq, Carter said the U.S.is willing to provide more firepower and other support if the Iraqi government can create a motivated Iraqi force that includes ethnic Sunnis.
The praise lavished on Kurdish militias in the Senate chamber only underscored the enormous crisis and deep contradictions plaguing the United States intervention in the region.
Washington has announced a shake-up of its support to the rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, ending a programme to train fighters outside Syria and instead providing weapons to groups under U.S.-vetted commanders. It is time for the American people to rise up and demand that the Obama Administration bring our military home from this increasingly unsafe no-win confrontation. “… We’re talking about raids, a very specific term – a combat action that is conducted to achieve a certain objective and then the forces are immediately removed”.
“If the YPG moves to the west of the river Euphrates, we will hit it”, the Turkish prime minister said in a televised appearance.
The Arab groups in the new alliance are operating under the name “The Syrian Arab Coalition”. Airstrikes are targeting the remaining 70-miles of the border between Syria and Turkey that the militants still control and the US will help moderate rebels to pressure IS’ self-styled capital of Raqqa.
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Mr. Carter was making a fine distinction between groups the Pentagon is designated to back in the fight against the Islamic State as opposed to groups supported by the broader coalitions that are fighting the Assad regime.
