“Congressman McGovern is closely monitoring developments in the USA military campaign against ISIS [IS]”, the aide said.
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Complicating the situation in Syria and Iraq is the new involvement of the Russians and the continuing presence of Iranian forces and Iranian-supported forces from Hezbollah.
Continuing the downward trend, there have been 91 strikes so far this month.
He referenced the recent death of Joshua Wheeler, the first American soldier to die in combat against ISIS.
He indicated that American action on the ground could be involved, with the message coming days after a serviceman was killed in a special operations raid to free 69 Iraqis who were about to be executed by ISIS. Carter said that as the U.S. sees more progress in assembling motivated Iraqi forces, it will be willing to continue providing more equipment and fire support to help them succeed.
He claimed that Washington “won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against [ISIS] or conducting such missions directly”.
“None of us have been briefed”.
At the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Gen. Joseph Dunford and Defense Secretary Ash Carter were raked over the coals for the utterly incoherent approach to Syria. The Obama administration “are putting a lot of stock in Friday’s meetings”, he said.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton has said that she favors a no-fly zone in Syria.
General Joe Dunford, the top United States general who recently travelled to Iraq, said what the military campaign is created to do is provide leverage for a political settlement of the Syrian conflict. Mr Carter said afterwards that he expected “more of this kind of thing”. “This is a half-assed strategy at best”.
“After all these years, we don’t have a concept of operations”, he said.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration appears to have few, if any answers to the rising violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Separately, Obama called Saudi leader King Salman.
“I think they are way beyond their legal authority right now”, fellow panel member Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Al-Monitor.
Yesterday the USA defence secretary signalled his intent to step up the military’s activity in Iraq and Syria.
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In Tehran, where war dead are revered and remembered in giant public murals, newly erected memorials are a sign of the human cost that Iran is paying in Syria, amid worries of what is to come. That option “would be meant to prevent the Syrian air force from barrel bombing or using air power… against the civilian population”.
