Speaking alongside Carter, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said ongoing airstrikes have put the Islamic State group in a defensive position, forcing it to retreat from positions it once held.
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“We agreed that we all must do more, ‘ Carter told a news conference after talks in Paris among the ‘core” military coalition members, which also included Germany, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands.
In his first visit here as defense secretary, prior to the coalition meeting Carter met with Le Drian and then laid a wreath at the makeshift memorial to last year’s Paris attacks at Place de la République.
PARIS (AP) Britain’s top military official says countries allied against the Islamic State group have to capitalize on recent gains made against the extremist organization.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter says there is broad agreement on a coordinated plan to battle IS over the next year and take back key cities in Iraq and Syria from the militants.
He said Iraqi forces retook territory from Daesh and are moving toward Mosul, the militant group’s stronghold, where there will be a need for “ground forces that can seize territory”, and “police forces that can keep security”.
Russian Federation and Iran, two nations that have been “on the wrong side of this fight”, Carter said, can make a difference by “stopping their unending support for [Syrian President] Bashar Assad, a chief instigator of radicalism and terrorism in Syria, and instead support a timely political transition ending that disastrous civil war”.
Le Drian said the group’s finances were “beginning to dry up”.
The Obama administration ended its $500 million program training and equipping moderate Syrian rebels in October, recognizing that the program failed to produce successful ground forces to combat Islamic State militants. Kerry said he planned to meet on February 2 with foreign ministers from 24 of the nations that were the most active in the anti-Islamic State coalition to get additional commitments.
“We like what we’re seeing in terms of their actions and we want to work with them to tighten the screws a little bit further”, said one senior U.S. administration official said of Turkey.
The United States and its allies conducted 19 strikes against Islamic State on Thursday, including two in Syria and 17 in Iraq, the coalition leading the operations said. The defense secretary cited USA success in retaking Ramadi from Daesh. The U.S. led-coalition has struck 47 times in Mosul this week, according to the coalition’s Twitter feed.
Rami Abdulrahman, the Observatory’s head, said that the group has kept male prisoners between the ages of 14 and 55 for more questioning.
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The multipronged effort includes not only talking up military victories in Iraq and Syria, but also countering jihadi messaging that can recruit or inspire followers around the world to join the group or launch their own solo attacks in western nations.
