SyriaCarter details shift in U.S. ISIS strategy

Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said that the U.S. military will intensify airstrikes and may carry out unilateral ground raids as it steps up its campaign against Islamic State. The shift in U.S. policy comes after the administration had concluded that the previous approach, which was based on equipping and training carefully vetted moderate Syrian rebels, has failed.

Carter said similar missions were likely as U.S. forces adapted to the fight in Syria and Iraq.

“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against Isil [ISIS] or conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Carter said.

NBC News reports that Carter did not say under what circumstances the United States might conduct more ground operations, but added: “Once we locate them, no target is beyond our reach.”

Carter testified before the Senate armed services committee alongside Marine Gen Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

With U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS stalling, Carter outlined a revamped U.S. approach to battling ISIS, an approach which points toward deeper U.S. military involvement in both Syria and Iraq. Defense officials indicated that the among the options being considered are close-air support for Iraqi ground forces with Apache helicopters or other aircraft, and embedding U.S. military advisers with smaller Iraqi units, bringing American troops closer to the frontlines.

Carter said that in Syria, the United States will support moderate Syrian rebels who have made territorial gains fighting ISIS near Raqqa. “In the new train-and-equip effort that we described today, we will look to identify and then support capable and motivated forces on Syrian territory that are willing to take on [ISIS],” Carter said. “We have identified some of them already. And the new approach is to enable them, train them and equip them, rather than trying to create such forces anew, which was the previous approach.”

Carter said that in Iraq, the United States is willing to provide more firepower and other support if the Iraqi government can create a motivated force that includes ethnic Sunnis.

“We’ve given the Iraqi government two battalions worth of equipment for mobilizing Sunni tribal forces … If local Sunni forces aren’t sufficiently equipped, regularly paid and empowered as co-equal members of the Iraqi security forces, Isil’s defeats in Anbar will only be temporary,” Carter said.