He also said foreign ground combat troops weren’t needed in Iraq, although it was unclear whether Baghdad seen these USA special operations forces in that job.
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Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 1, 2015, before the House Armed Services Committee hearing on the U.S. Strategy for Syria and Iraq.How Much Has the US Fight Against ISIS Cost?
The Iraqi government “stresses that any military operation or the deployment of any foreign forces – special or not – in any place in Iraq can not happen without its approval and coordination and full respect of Iraqi sovereignty”, he said.
The U.S. has agreed that any operations inside Iraq will be coordinated and conducted alongside Iraqi forces.
“As we further develop plans for these limited forces, we will continue to work closely with our Iraqi partners on where they will be deployed, what kind of missions they will undertake, and how they will support Iraqi efforts”, one USA official said. The force’s operations in Syria would be separate from the scheduled deployment of up to 50 special operations forces that will soon be deployed to northeastern Syria.
After two days of meetings at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, Kerry said several alliance members were bringing more to the battle or would do soon.
Turkey is distrustful of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has proved a useful USA ally in fighting Islamic State. Dunford said that about 43 percent of the revenue that IS derives from oil has been affected by the recent strikes and that the US also is targeting cement and other industries from which IS draws funds.
Carter said the new force would be capable of actions like the raid earlier this year in Syria that killed Abu Sayyaf, a top Islamic State finance official, led to the capture of his wife and allowed US forces to recover what was described as “a substantial amount of intelligence”.
“We will fight any American force deployed in Iraq”, said Jafaar Hussaini, a spokesperson for Kataib Hezbollah, as quoted by Reuters.
“It puts everybody on notice in Syria”.
He also noted that “our capability to develop targets has increased as our intelligence has gotten better; we get better every day”.
“There’s clearly no one in the West who buys it, but unfortunately, this is something that a segment of the Iraqi population believes”, a USA military spokesman told the paper. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.
The goal, Carter told Congress and reiterated at Harvard, is to make Islamic State fighters wonder “when they go to bed at night, who’s going to be coming in the window?”. ISIS, whose officials and fighters have long said they hope to draw the Americans back into Iraq.
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“The raids in Iraq will be done at the invitation of the Iraqi government and focused on defending its borders and building the ISF’s own capacity”, he said referring to the Iraqi Security Forces. Senator Chris Murphy said increasing the number of US military personnel in Iraq “is a mistake”.
