U.S. Defense Department calls for patience in anti-IS campaign

 

(Baghdad) It is imprudent to assess the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State (IS) forces over a course of less than three months, a spokesman of U.S. Defense Department (DOD) said on Friday.

DOD Press Secretary John Kirby said during a Pentagon news conference that the strategy against IS is not just sound, but it’s working.

“The coalition continues to gain both momentum and strength,” Kirby said. “And we know we’re having a direct effect on ISIL inside Iraq and inside Syria.”

Airstrikes against the terrorist group only began Aug. 8, Kirby reminded the reporters. At that time, U.S. government officials said the effort against the extremists would take time, and degrading and destroying the group would be hard and complicated.

“Here we are, not three months into it and there are critics saying it is falling apart, it’s failing, the strategy is not sound,” Kirby said. “You cannot adequately gain a sense of the strength of a strategy over the course of three months. It’s just not possible. And it would be imprudent to do that.”

IS is losing sources of revenue through airstrikes on refineries and crude oil collection points inside Syria, the spokesman said. Other airstrikes have taken out IS command and control facilities and finance centers.

The strikes have hit training camps and destroyed “countless vehicles and artillery pieces and other firing positions,” Kirby said, adding that “they’ve lost hundreds of fighters,” he added.

According to a statement released on Friday by the U.S. Central Command, U.S. military forces continued to attack IS forces in Iraq and Syria over the past two days, using bomber aircraft to conduct 18 airstrikes.

The destruction of IS targets in the two countries further limits the terrorist group’s ability to project power and conduct operations, the statement said.

Among the coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Iraq are the United States, France, Britain, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands, it said, adding that coalition nations conducting airstrikes in Syria include the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Bahrain.