Pentagon set to offer new anti-IS battle plan
Proposals expected to include more U.S. troops on front line.
The strategy is expected to call for more U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, more forces near the front lines, and arming of Kurd fighters.
Pentagon strategists are putting final touches on a stepped-up battle plan against the 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 monthlong 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” the 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 multisided 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.
Dunford suggested the Pentagon-led plan will also look at options to increase pressure on the al-Qaida network and possibly the Haqqani group in Pakistan, which is aligned with the Taliban.
“This is not about Syria and Iraq,” he said. “This is about a trans-regional threat.”
Defense Secretary James N. Mattis will present the review to the White House. It involved dialogue with key allies, coalition commanders and input from the Departments of State, Treasury and Justice, as well as U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Pentagon has about 5,200 troops in Iraq, and the new plan assumes that Iraqi security forces and Kurdish militias will continue to lead the fighting while the U.S.led coalition coordinates airstrikes, fires artillery and collects intelligence.
“As we look at the future, we’re going to continue to stand by the Iraqi army, the Iraqi people, who are fighting this enemy,” Mattis said Monday in Baghdad.