Carter expects NATO endorsement of anti-IS campaign plan

Defense secretary Ash Carter also said the US would contribute $3.4 billion from its defense budget to the European reassurance initiative.

“I’m very pleased that so many nations have stepped up and answered the call, even in recent days”, Carter said.

The Australian Defence Force is already making the second-largest military contribution to the effort in Iraq.

He also predicted “tangible gains” on the ground in the coming weeks, vague terminology that could mean anything from territorial advances to strikes against militant leaders or infrastructure. Carter noted, however, there will be no cease-fire in the war against the Islamic State.

He said that 60 percent of the coalition members have increased their contributions, and another one-third said they will seek authority from their governments to do more.

Carter has repeatedly referred to the Islamic State group as a “cancer”, which is spreading beyond and Syria and Iraq to other countries such as Libya and Afghanistan.

Earlier Thursday, NATO defence ministers agreed “in principle” to a United States request to deploy its AWACS surveillance aircraft so as to free up USA planes which would then be deployed against ISIS. He suggested that countries not answering his call to do more may regret their choice when the struggle is over. “We will all look back after victory and remember who participated in the fight”.

The continued fight against the IS group comes as world powers met in Munich on Friday and agreed an ambitious plan to cease hostilities in war-racked Syria.

The U.S. strategy in Syria is likely to come under intense scrutiny after four months of Russian air strikes have tipped momentum toward President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s five-year-old civil war.

During the coalition meeting, Carter shared the Obama administration’s military campaign plan, bringing in Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top coalition commander to brief the ministers about “the campaign progress and the way forward”. The pledges involve airstrikes, special forces and logistics, with the Netherlands saying it will extend its air attacks to Syria, Carter said.

USA and Russian Federation are to lead a working group meeting Friday to work out aid delivery details.

“We are with the political process, but we have to see the humanitarian issues are solved”, said Salem Meslet, a spokesman for the rebels, per the AP.

The air campaign in Syria and Iraq, for example, is advertised as a 13-nation undertaking.

-Saudi Arabia indicated last week it could send ground troops into Syria.

The head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency cautioned this week that Iraqi forces were unlikely to recapture Mosul this year, despite hopes by Baghdad.

“The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL [Islamic State] terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria and the wider global community”, the release stated. Canada, for instance, announced it would triple the number of special forces training Kurdish militia in northern Iraq to about 210.