The U.S. military will intensify air strikes and may carry out more direct ground attacks as it steps up efforts against Islamic State militants following a failed bid to train Syrian rebels, Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers on Tuesday.
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That signals a fundamental change in what has been until now a war of attrition, with air strikes to kill enemy fighters and destroy their equipment without dislodging them from key cities like Ramadi and Mosul in Iraq and Raqaa in Syria, where the headquarters for ISIS is located.
Fabius said last week that France is working towards presenting a draft UN Security Council resolution to stop President Bashar al-Assad’s regime from using barrel bombs. But this happened in Kobani, in Syria, where Kurdish forces reached out to the Americans after they were surrounded by ISIS forces. And chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, told the Senate panel he would consider recommending more USA soldiers be placed with Iraqi troops.
Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called “moderate” rebel groups, who are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other. “I don’t think the world will stand for another illegal USA invasion so for the U.S. to send another army into Syria would be another illegal invasion and I don’t think that it will likely happen”.
Hadithi said the United States is required to coordinate through Baghdad any military activity in the country, including the airstrikes that an worldwide US-led coalition is now conducting against ISIL targets on Iraqi soil.
The United States, by reorienting airstrikes and weapons drops to support the forces in Syria advancing against Raqqa, is hoping those proxies will encircle the city, weaken its defenses, and eventually retake it.
In response to Russias bombing raids against ISIS, Washington is now contemplating to announce officially (what they have been doing for the last four years) their resolve to have boots on the ground in an extended military operation.
He said: ‘We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground.
“I’d have to be candid”, Carter said, “[Iraqi Prime Minister] Abadi does not have complete sway over what happens in Iraq”. “So it’s not a very sensible strategy, but that appears to be what his behaviours suggest”, Carter said. Graham noted that Russian, Iranian and the Hezbollah militant group all are supporting Assad.
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“Russia, Iran and Hezbollah are going to fight for their guy and we are not going to do a damn thing to help the people who want to change Syria for the better by getting rid of the dictator in Damascus”, Senator Lindsey Graham said, calling the U.S. approach “half-assed” at best.
