While Iraq's army has struggled, the Kurdish region's security forces, or peshmerga, have rolled back ISIL militants in northern Iraq and expanded the formal boundary of their semi-autonomous region.
"Here the peshmerga are pretty far along in their capabilities, so they can win on the ground here with our help," Carter said in Arbil, noting coalition support, including training, arms, intelligence and air strikes.
Carter met the Kurdistan region's President Massoud Barzani, a veteran guerrilla leader who fought Saddam Hussein for decades. He also spoke with U.S. and coalition troops advising and training the peshmerga.
Carter's visit to arbil came a day after the Pentagon chief travelled to Baghdad to meet Iraqi leaders as they advance plans to recapture the city of Ramadi which fell to ISIL in May....
hurriyetdailynews.com by Reuters
24/7/15
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US Defense Secretary Visits Iraqi Kurdistan, Meets Barzani...
ReplyDeletePentagon chief Ashton Carter met Iraqi Kurdish president Massud Barzani Friday on the second day of a trip to Iraq aimed at discussing ways to fight the Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamis State in Iraq and Levant).
The US defense secretary reiterated his commitment to assisting the autonomous northern Iraqi region, which has been at the forefront of efforts to counter the Takfiri insurgents.
Carter "commended President Barzani on the battlefield successes they've achieved on the ground in coordination with US and coalition air power," a Pentagon statement said.
Several high-ranking Kurdish military officials attended the talks in the Kurdish capital Arbil with Carter, on his first trip to Iraq since taking office earlier this year.
The threat posed to Arbil by an ISIL advance in early August 2014 was one of the reasons cited by US President Barack Obama for announcing US air strikes days later................http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?eid=222737&frid=23&seccatid=24&cid=23&fromval=1
The US general commanding Allied military operations against the ISIL in Iraq and Syria admitted he did not know the rate of replenishment for ISIL forces or how many troops it could deploy on battlefronts, Marine Corps Brigadier General Kevin Killea told a Pentagon press briefing...
ReplyDelete“I can't talk to the rate of replenishment, and I actually do not a sound figure myself on the number of forces that [ISIL] is fielding right now in Iraq and Syria,” Killea, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Chief of Staff, told the briefing on Friday, according to a Department of Defense transcript.
Killea acknowledged he would have to defer that question to the US Central Command J2 Intelligence section.
“In my opinion, in my position, I should say, the only thing I can tell you with confidence is the effects that I'm seeing on the battlefield,” Killea added.
Earlier in 2015, the US intelligence community estimated that Islamic State combat strength in Iraq and Syria to from 22,000 to 32,000 fighters, but the figure has been slightly reduced from 20,000 to 30,000 in an estimate released to the press this week.
The US-led 62-nation coalition began carrying out airstrikes against the ISIL in Iraq in August 2014, and expanded the air campaign to Syria in September 2014, but without Syrian government approval. The coalition has conducted more than 5200 airstrikes on ISIL targets.
http://sptnkne.ws/7hu
1/8/15