IS destroys bridge as Iraqi forces close in on Ramadi

USA officials have frequently expressed frustration with how long it has taken the Iraqi army and other security forces to press an offensive in Ramadi, but in recent days, they have pointed to important battlefield progress. “In the medium term, by seeming to Americanize the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, we could well turn those fighting [the Islamic State] or inclined to resist their rule into fighting us instead”.

“I know of no expert that doesn’t believe that as long as this caliphate exists in Raqqa, they are going to be able to orchestrate attacks and metastasize and maybe even move to Libya”, McCain warned about implications of failing to retake ISIS’s capital.

“There is 20 to 30,000 of them”, McCain said.

The centre of Ramadi remains under Islamic State control, but Rasool said the militants, which Iraqi intelligence estimates number between 250 and 300 fighters, are losing the initiative and suffering food and ammunition shortages after government forces cut their last supply line into the city last month.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has extended its support to the Iraqi Government to regain control of the city of Ramadi, Iraq, from ISIS. Following the Second Battle of Fallujah in 2004, Ramadi became a chief al-Qaeda stronghold, and one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds of the war.

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, one of the fiercest critics of Obama’s strategy to fight the militants, missed the hearing with Carter.

Those steps come amid high-profile operations claimed by the Islamic State, like last month’s deadly attacks in Paris in Beirut, and apparently inspired by it, like last week’s shooting rampage in San Bernardino, California.

Carter defended the administration’s decision not to deploy a heavy USA ground force to drive IS from Syrian and Iraqi territory.

Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for the USA military command in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon in that there had been an estimated 600 to 1,000 ISIS fighters inside Ramadi, which the extremist group captured in May.

Carter said he has personally “reached out to my counterparts in 40 countries around the world in the coalition and asked them to contribute more, in many cases, contribute much more to enhancing the fight against ISIL”.

“You can’t defeat ISIS without having people on the ground”, Odierno, who retired in August, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.

Iraqi government forces are advancing slowly because they face booby traps and mines, Warren said. “I, too, wish that particularly the Sunni Arab nations of the [Persian Gulf] would do more”, Carter said.

Carter “urgently” called on Congress to lift “holds” on the final tranche of funds in the Syria equipping program, which amounts to about $116 million dollars. Those caught trying to flee are detained by the fighters, and the head of the family risks being executed as a warning to others.

“This (IS) is an extremist, violent movement which threatens America and needs to be defeated”, said Carter.

McCain pushed back, citing an obligation to taxpayers.

Earnest added that Iraqi forces were making “modest progress” on their own in retaking the city.

“Very soon, we will finish Ramadi”, he said.