Defeat of ISIS must be ‘enduring’: US

TDT | Manama                                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Reported by Julia Cassano

CJTF-OIR Commander, Major General Matthew McFarlane, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul, discussed the ongoing D-ISIS mission, the future of the mission, and the Syrian Democratic Forces partnership.

Major General McFarlane discussed the core mission, which is aimed at defeating ISIS and preventing its resurgence.

“We accomplish this through advising, assisting, and enabling our partners, including the Iraqi Security Forces, The Peshmerga, and the Syrian Democratic Forces,” he said.

The CJTF-OIR Commander stressed the coalition’s efforts which enable the stability and security of Iraq and by extension the wider region in North East Syria.

“We are committed to this mission and to our partners as they continue to build capability, capacity, and competence; and they have demonstrated the will to take lead in the fight against ISIS,” he said.

“Although partnerships remain strong in the pursuit against ISIS, there still remains work to be done.” A critical aspect of the approach includes not fighting on behalf of Iraq. The general emphasised that the US is not interested in a “combat role”; however, the US is committed to providing the necessary support to the Iraqi government by providing resources to advise, assist, and enable the Iraqi Security Forces to take the lead in the fight against ISIS.

“We are also focused on ensuring that the defeat of ISIS is enduring, meaning as we continue to strengthen partnerships, we build the necessary military infrastructure and capabilities to ensure that ISIS cannot resurge in Iraq or Syria,” the general noted.

Stroul said: “The US commitment to maintaining its force presence both in Iraq and in Syria is an investment and a commitment that the United States takes very seriously. We are committed to maintaining our force presence in support of the defeat of ISIS and working collaboratively with our partners across the region.”

She pointed out that the last three administrations in the US government have continued support for the mission against ISIS, including changes of parties in the executive branch. “There is still more work to be done in counter-terrorism operations in support of the enduring defeat of ISIS, and even though ISIS no longer holds territory, they still hold a dangerous ideology to inspire and recruit members, and most importantly, have the will to resurge.

“This is what the US does best. We consult endlessly with our partners, both on the ground and internationally, we convene coalitions of willing, capable, and committed allies, we continuously work to expand intelligence sharing, interoperability, and security cooperation in the sharing of a mutual objective, and we focus on that objective until it is accomplished.”

CJTF-OIR Commander, Major General Matthew McFarlane emphasised the efforts made to combat ISIS on both the security and level, saying: “We continue to conduct operations supporting our partners that do wide-area security operations and precision operations to remove ISIS leaders in Syria and Iraq.”

He also mentioned the decrease over the years in the number of ISIS attacks, as well as the effectiveness of those attacks, which speaks to the progress being made to combat the threat of ISIS. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Dana Stroul, said that the US focuses to provide tools regarding humanitarian aid and stabilisation so that communities can recover from the depravities of ISIS, and aim to seize opportunities both economically, politically, and socially post recovery. Also discussed in the online briefing are the Iranian threats the region is facing.

“We see Iranian threats only increasing, by arming and training militia groups, proxy groups, and non-state actors on the ground. Iran poses dangerous air threats in their proliferation of missiles and one-way-attack drones to non-state actors across the region, and also its increasing sea threats regarding its maritime action,” Stroul stated.

“Even though the US has consistently worked with allies and partners to push back on Iranian threats and destabilising activities, we are now at a point where Iranian threats are no longer specific to the Middle East but a global challenge.

“That is a result of the increasing military cooperation between Iran and Russia, and the illicit transfer by Iran to Russia of one-way-attack drones that are being used in Ukraine to kill Ukrainian civilians.

“Now we are shifting not only to what has been long standing efforts to create a regional security architecture to push back and counter these activities in the region, we now need to rally a coalition, not only in the Middle East, but globally.”