http://thehill.com/policy/defense/220691-white-house-strategy-against-isis-succeedingBy Justin Sink - 10/14/14 02:09 PM EDT
The White House said Tuesday that its strategy to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is "succeeding," despite gains the terror group has made in recent days that have raised criticisms about the administration’s approach.
"We’re in the early days of the execution of that strategy," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said of the administration’s use of airstrikes against ISIS. "But certainly the early evidence indicates that this strategy is succeeding."
ISIS has gained ground in both Iraq and Syria.
The group reportedly captured a military training camp in western Iraq and continued to bomb the outskirts of Baghdad, leading to renewed fears of sectarian violence there.
In Syria, ISIS forces are inching closer to capturing Kobani, an ethnically Kurdish town near the border with Turkey despite an escalated air campaign outside the city.
President Obama is meeting on Tuesday with top U.S. military officials and defense ministers from nearly two-dozen coalition partners. Some military leaders have raised concerns that airstrikes alone will not be enough to stop ISIS.
The U.S. is training Syrian rebel groups to fight ISIS and is also relying on Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Earnest hinted the coalition may not be capable of turning back the ISIS advance on Kobani without ground troops.
The White House has ruled out sending U.S. ground forces, and said that the training of vetted Syrian rebels to fight ISIS could take months.
“Of course we don’t want the town to fall,” Earnest said.
"At the same time our capacity to prevent that town from falling are limited … by the lack of a ground force that can take the fight to ISIL. That ground force doesn’t yet exist,” he added using an alternate name for the terror group.
But Earnest pointed to other successes in the battle against ISIS to argue the strategy was, overall, working.
"I don’t think anybody has sought to leave you or anyone else with the impression that these kinds of airstrikes were going to dramatically reverse the situation on the battlefield overnight. They won’t,” Earnest said. “We’ve been pretty candid about the fact that this is a longer-term proposition.”
The president’s meeting with military officials, the White House said, was to ensure that coalition military efforts are "integrated and effectuated in pursuit of this operation."
