U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told a House panel Wednesday that the most critical line of defense against Islamic State militants is in building a stronger, more inclusive Iraqi government.
Carter said the U.S. is seeking a “greater commitment” from Iraq, especially in recruiting enough soldiers for training to assist in the fight against the Islamic State group.
He told the House Armed Services Committee the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State positions in Iraq requires “capable, motivated, legitimate local ground troops to seize, clear and hold” land.
Carter called last month’s fall of Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital, to Islamic State fighters “deeply disappointing.”
“As I’ve told Iraqi leaders, while the United States is open to supporting Iraq more than we already are, we must see a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government,” he said Wednesday.
He said a lasting defeat for the Islamic State group will require local forces to fight and prevail on the ground.
The U.S. role “is to be an enabler or motivator – not a substitute for a capable ground force,” Carter said. “That’s where we’d like to get to.”
Carter also told lawmakers the U.S. would not meet its goal to train 24,000 Iraqi troops by this fall. “We simply haven’t received enough recruits,” he said.
The U.S. has only enough recruits to train about 7,000 – in addition to about 2,000 counterterrorism service personnel, he said.
The Defense Secretary said U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have produced some clear results in limiting the militants’ freedom of movement and impeding its efforts to reinforce fighters.
However, the ground campaign “is a work in progress, Carter said. The Iraq Security Forces’ performance has been mixed, he added, with some units fighting “admirably and relentlessly” and others dissolving, such as in Mosul last year.
Carter said other U.S. efforts to fight the Islamic State group include denying Islamist militants safe haven in the Middle East region, enhancing intelligence collection on the terrorist group, and to counter the militants’ message and flow of foreign fighters into the region.
Source-VOA
