The long-awaited 30-day review of the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State ordered by President Trump is nearly complete, with the final draft expected to be delivered to the White House early next week, according to the Pentagon.
Looking to keep his campaign promise to initiate a plan to destroy the Islamic State, Mr. Trump tasked the Defense Department with spearheading an interagency review of the Obama-era strategy, which he said failed to deliver results in a timely manner.
The plan for the Islamic State will be a major early test for Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster. Named to the post on Monday, Mr. McMaster replaces retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, whose abrupt resignation over Russian ties threw the administration’s national security team into a tailspin.
The review is being completed after U.S.-backed Iraqi forces ousted Islamic State fighters from the eastern half of Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and is gearing up an offensive to reclaim the western side as well. An offensive against the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria, is advancing more slowly.
The review and subsequent recommendations will address “not only ’core ISIS’ in Iraq and Syria,” but also include civilian and possibly military options to engage the group’s growing presence in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said Tuesday.
The review will consider options to confront the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant-Khorasan Province, or ISIL-K, which is the group’s Afghan cell, with headquarters in the eastern part of the country along the Pakistani border.
Providing few specifics, Capt. Davis characterized the review as “an outline of a strategy.” Although it is a Pentagon-led endeavor, he said, it is “absolutely being done with input” from the intelligence community and the diplomatic corps. The review could also address an American role in the postwar mission for Iraq and Syria, once Islamic State forces are driven out of both countries, he said.
During the presidential election, Mr. Trump repeatedly bashed the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat the Islamic State via a network of proxy forces trained by teams of U.S. advisers, backed by American air power and artillery.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump promised to eradicate the terrorist group via a more aggressive combat plan than President Obama’s.
Elements of that strategy could include a dramatic increase in weapons for U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State in Syria, significantly more U.S. airstrikes and an expansion of Special Forces operating on the ground, Pentagon and State Department sources told The Washington Times late last month.
American-backed Iraqi forces are in the early stages of their offensive against the Islamic State-held western Mosul, the final redoubt for the terrorist group’s self-styled capital in northern Iraq.
Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi announced the beginning of the western Mosul advance on Sunday. The assault to retake the western half of the city will be a much tougher slog than the four-month campaign to liberate eastern Mosul, analysts say.
Since the western Mosul operation began, Iraqi forces have retaken nearly 50 square miles south of the city, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, an Iraqi military spokesman, told The Associated Press.
The United Nations estimates that 750,000 people are under siege in western Mosul. Fleeing residents say food supplies have almost run out, bakeries have closed and drinking water is scarce.
Capt. Davis said “there has been no change in authorities” for U.S. military advisers and support forces embedded with Iraqi troops advancing on western Mosul.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.