Posted: December 1, 2015 4:37 PM
U.S. ‘Expeditionary Targeting Force’ To Deploy as Part of Accelerated Campaign Against ISIS
By OTTO KREISHER, Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is sending an “expeditionary targeting force” of special operations troops into Iraq to support Iraqi and Kurdish fighters and to conduct raids, coordinate air strikes and collect intelligence, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Dec. 1.
The force, of undisclosed size, also will “be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria,” Carter told a House Armed Services Committee (HASC) hearing.
The new deployment, which would be the first U.S. unit openly authorized for missions on the ground in Syria and appears to be in addition to the 50 special operations personnel previously announced, was part of an “acceleration” in the campaign against ISIL, also known as ISIS, in Iraq and Syria, which includes the new focus on hitting oil producing facilities and tanker trucks that the group uses to collect millions of dollars to fund its operations, he said.
During a three-plus hour hearing, Carter and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, insisted that the military was executing a comprehensive strategy to deter and ultimately to defeat the extremist organization, which claims to have established an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria. “We are doing absolutely everything we can to defeat ISIL,” Carter said.
But HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry and many of the committee’s Republican members repeatedly said they are not convinced that President Barack Obama has allowed the military to devise and carry out a strategy that has any real chance of defeating ISIS, which has shown a widening reach with a growing presence in Libya and the recent deadly attacks in Paris.
“I didn’t hear anything that says the military has a freer hand” to get the forces and to use tactics needed to defeat ISIS, Thornberry told reporters after the hearing.
Thornberry repeated his complaints about the White House’s “micromanagement” of the campaign against ISIS, including tight control over the number of combat troops and the use of air power.
“If you have to go all the way to the president to get 25 more troops, that puts a dampening effect on the military commanders,” he said.
Carter emphasized the recent progress against ISIS, with Kurdish forces retaking Sinjar in northern Iraq, which cuts ISIS’s direct supply lines from Syria to Mosul, and new territorial gains by Kurdish and Arab troops in northern Syria.
He and Dunford also stressed the focus on building the capabilities of local forces, which Carter said would be necessary “to make victory stick” after the coalition-supported troops drive out ISIS.
The two top defense leaders cited the recently intensified strikes on ISIS’s revenue sources, particularly oil, noting the destruction of “nearly 400” tank trucks used to transport ISIS’s oil to markets.
But committee Republicans asked why that hadn’t been done before and two GOP members demanded to know why the truck drivers were given the opportunity to leave their trucks before they were bombed and were not killed as combatants.
Dunford said the step up in the strikes against oil-producing assets was the result of recent detailed analysis showing how much it contributed to ISIS’s funding and what the key assets were. He then went to Carter to propose the additional efforts, he said.
Dunford and Carter also said the drivers were considered men who were just trying to make a living and not ISIS members.
Carter revealed the deployment of the “specialized expeditionary targeting force” in his opening statement, and said it would “over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture ISIS leaders. That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids and more momentum,” he said.
“Our effectiveness is linked to the intelligence we are able to collect,” Dunford said. “This force adds to that.”
Committee members from both parties pressed the two leaders on more direct military support to the Kurdish Peshmerga, who have been the most effective fighters in Iraq, and called for Congress to debate and vote on a new authorization for the use of military force to cover the changed situation since the one that focused on al-Qaida after the 9/11 attacks.
Dunford said a new authorization for the use of military force would help the campaign against ISIS by showing the troops the nation is behind them.
http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20151201-new-strategy.html
