Halting ISIS Would Require Attacks in Syria, Top General Says [View all]

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Source: New York Times

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and HELENE COOPERAUG. 21, 2014

WASHINGTON — Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday afternoon that it would not be possible to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria without attacking its fighters in Syria.

General Dempsey, speaking at a news conference with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, did not commit the United States to carrying out airstrikes in Syria, and the Obama administration’s broader strategy for defeating the Sunni militant group remained unclear.

Earlier in the day, the Pentagon announced that American warplanes had conducted six more strikes on ISIS targets in the vicinity of the Mosul Dam in Iraq, destroying three Humvees, another vehicle and several improvised explosive device emplacements. The ISIS fighters are a highly mobile force that may number as many as 17,000 men and can move across the Iraq-Syria border with impunity, according to American military and civilian officials.
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The latest attacks brought to 90 the number of airstrikes conducted by the fighter jets, drones and bombers that the United States has unleashed on the Sunni militants since President Obama authorized the strikes as part of the battle against ISIS. There have been 20 attacks since the militants beheaded an American journalist and threatened to behead others if the United States did not stop the airstrikes.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/world/middleeast/isis-believed-to-have-as-many-as-17000-fighters.html