The Pentagon is considering military action against ISIL inside Syria as US warplanes continue to target the terrorist group in northern Iraq, according to senior US officials.
At a joint news conference on Thursday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey said the ISIL militants cannot be defeated unless the US or its allies attack them in Syria.
Observers say the statements could be an effort to prepare the Americans for a new US war in the Middle East region.
Hagel said he would not rule out any possible action against ISIL, stressing that the Pentagon is “looking at all options.”
He said the Pentagon is pondering a long-term strategy against the militant group, as it poses an “imminent threat” to US interests around the world. "This is beyond anything we've seen. We must prepare for everything.”
General Dempsey said defeating ISIL would require a variety of instruments, a part of which is airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria.
“This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end-of-days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated,” he noted.
US lawmakers, including Senator John McCain and Senator Bill Nelson, have pressed for the expansion of the US air campaign to hit ISIL bases in Syria.
The US military believes the ISIL terrorists have a highly mobile force that may number as many 17,000 fighters and can move across the Iraq-Syria border with impunity.
US warplanes on Thursday conducted six more strikes on ISIL targets in northern Iraq after conducting 14 on Wednesday following the beheading of American journalist James Foley this week by the militants.
The attacks brought to 90 the total number of airstrikes conducted by the fighter jets, drones, and bombers that the United States has unleashed on the militants since President Barack Obama authorized the strikes earlier this month.
The gruesome execution of Foley has drawn an angry, emotional reaction from members of Congress, with some calling on Obama to redouble the fight against ISIL. “Seldom is the descriptor ‘evil’ applied with perfect accuracy as it is with this monstrous group,’’ said US Representative Adam B. Schiff, a Democrat from California.
ISIL, which controls parts of Syria, sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq in June and quickly seized large swaths of territory straddling the border between the two countries. The US has been providing arms and training to militant groups in Syria to fight the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
According to media reports, the militants were trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012.
AHT/GJH
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/08/22/376205/us-considering-to-strike-isil-in-syria/
'Freemason and Illuminati' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Israel facing hefty deficit due to Gaza war costs: Haaretz (0) | 2014.08.24 |
|---|---|
| Americans among 12,000 foreign militants in Syria, says US (0) | 2014.08.24 |
| ISIS hysteria being ramped up to enforce Petro Dollar Hegemony in Syria and Kurdistan (0) | 2014.08.24 |
| UK minister signals further welfare cuts ahead of 2015 general election (0) | 2014.08.24 |
| German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits Kiev (0) | 2014.08.24 |