WASHINGTON: US military advisers are likely to take a more direct role in the ground campaign against jihadists in Iraq once Iraqi forces are ready to go on the offensive, the top US officer said in comments aired yesterday.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had not yet encountered a situation where US air strikes would be more effective if US troops were on the ground spotting targets.
But he said that when Iraqi forces are ready to take the offensive against the Islamic State jihadists who have overrun swaths of territory in northern and western Iraq, as well as in Syria, that would likely change.
“Mosul will likely be the decisive battle in the ground campaign at some point in the future,” Dempsey said in an interview with ABC’s This Week referring to the northern Iraqi city seized by IS militants in June.
“My instinct at this point is that will require a different kind of advising and assisting because of the complexity of that fight,” he said.
Former defence secretary Leon Panetta, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation”, said boots on the ground were needed to stop the Islamic State group.
“It doesn’t have to be American boots on the ground, but you have got to have people on the ground who can identify targets and who can help us develop the kind of effective air strikes that are going to be needed if we’re going to be able to undermine, destroy this vicious enemy that we’re dealing with.”
AFP
