Pentagon finalizing Islamic State strategy

WASHINGTON — Pentagon strategists are putting final touches on a stepped-up battle plan against Islamic State and are due to offer President Donald Trump options as early as Monday to accelerate the war against the militants in Iraq and Syria, officials said.

The strategic review, which Trump requested Jan. 28, is expected to include proposals to send more U.S. troops to both countries, deploy more U.S. forces near the front lines, give greater authority to ground commanders, and possibly provide weapons to Kurdish YPG fighters in Syria.

Trump has vowed repeatedly to “defeat” Islamic State but has never spelled out what that means in a conflict with multiple countries backing competing factions in two separate wars — or how to ultimately stabilize the turbulent region.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Thursday that battlefield victories won’t be enough to end the threat of Islamic State and other extremist groups, especially in the multi-sided civil war in Syria.

“Anything we do on the ground has to be in the context of political objectives or it’s not going to be successful,” Dunford said at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

“We need to think about how do the facts on the ground address the political process in Geneva,” where the United Nations backs peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition forces, he added.

“This is not about Syria and Iraq,” he said. “This is about a trans-regional threat.”

The Pentagon has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, and the new plan assumes that Iraqi security forces and Kurdish militias will continue to take the lead in the fighting while the U.S.-led coalition coordinates air strikes, artillery and intelligence to support the ground attack.