Iraq PM: Foreign troops not needed on the ground to fight IS

It’s a battle the USA can’t fight alone, Carter said at the Kennedy School, with a nod to increased participation from France – and potentially the United Kingdom – following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, which Islamic State said it had perpetrated. “That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids and more momentum”, he said.

With previous plans to combat Daesh, also known as ISIL/the Islamic State, in tatters, the Obama administration earlier announced plans to send as many as 50 Special Forces “advisers” into Syria. He said the number in the new expeditionary force would be more than 50.

Carter explained that the “targeting force” will focus on strengthening the Iraqi Security Forces and defending Iraq’s borders.

Because the threat posed by ISIL and similar groups spans regions and US combatant commands, Carter said, the department is organizing a new way to leverage infrastructure already established in Afghanistan, the Levant, East Africa and Southern Europe into a unified capability to counter transnational and transregional threats.

Dunford said a new authorization for the use of military force would help the campaign against ISIS by showing the troops the nation is behind them.

Carter said the force might be American-only but more likely would be a mixed force with perhaps Kurdish troops or others.

Republican Sen. John McCain called the move a “belated step forward” in the fight against IS. The British are debating it. The Germans are capable of doing more, we certainly want them to do more.

Though the new troops will be based in Iraq, they will have the ability to conduct raids across the border in northern Syria.

Dunford said the step up in the strikes against oil-producing assets was the result of recent detailed analysis showing how much it contributed to ISIS’s funding and what the key assets were.

“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”, Abadi said in a statement.

“We’re at war”, the USA defence secretary said. “I have every reason to believe the president will allow us to do more and authorize us to do more when we have more opportunities”.

That strategy has consisted of carrying out air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in support of local ground forces, which have also received weapons and training.

And it puts everybody on notice in Syria that you don’t know at night who’s going to be coming in the window.

But even if this force were formed and defeated ISIS, it would then have to occupy part of Syria, spelling another potentially lengthy deployment of American ground troops in the Middle East. He said IS gains strength by claiming to be fighting against Western aggression.