The top commander for the US-backed campaign against Islamic State said that 45,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed or wounded, and the total number of fighters could be as few as 15,000.
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Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, the outgoing commander of the USA -led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, told a Pentagon press briefing on Wednesday that the number of IS fighters had fallen as a result of worldwide military efforts against the group, also known as “Daesh”. Others questioned whether the Kurds would cooperate with Arab forces to fight [ISIL] beyond their own traditional region, ” he said. It is easier for individuals to carry out those types of suicide attacks, and forces throughout Europe are on high alert.
Today, MacFarland said, the U.S. has shifted its focus “on police training and recruiting”, which would let the Iraqi forces “to be a hold force” once Mosul is recaptured. The city, he said, was largely in the hands of the SDF and the pockets of enemy resistance were shrinking daily. However, US forces still have work to do in terms of turning the Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq into a hub for the battle to retake Mosul.
“We’re going to try to get Mosul back as fast as we can”, MacFarland said, but refused to speculate on exact timeframe.
In June, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the deployment of 560 additional us troops into Iraq, with a majority of those troops being based at the air base.
A member of the Iraqi security forces holds an Iraqi national flag in Khalidiya, east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, on August 1, 2016, during ongoing fighting against Daesh.
Pentagon officials have repeatedly stated the air base will strictly be used to ferry in weapons, supplies and equipment for advancing Iraqi and coalition forces once the siege of Mosul begins. Some teams of US forces have been in and out of the base to evaluate it and the work that must be done, but officials say large numbers of troops have not yet arrived.
ISIS took control of swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking advantage of sectarian divides and popular dissatisfaction with the ruling regimes in both countries.
He however warned that “military success in Iraq and Syria will not necessarily mean the end of Daesh”. “We can expect the enemy to adapt, to morph into a true insurgent force and terrorist organization capable of horrific attacks like the one here on July 3rd in Baghdad and those others we’ve seen around the world”.
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