WASHINGTON –
The U.S.-led coalition is making significant progress in the
campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, despite facing a
long road ahead, the Joint Staff’s senior official who oversees the U.S.
military’s daily global operations told Pentagon reporters today
Focusing on the Operation Inherent Resolve mission in Iraq
and Syria, Navy Rear Adm. Andrew L. Lewis, the vice director of operations for
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the coalition of more than 60 nations has
degraded the enemy’s ability to move freely on the battlefield while regaining
significant amounts of territory and degrading ISIL’s leadership and resources.
Lewis also emphasized the Iraqi security forces’ increased
success with its newly trained fighters and expanded capabilities to counter
ISIL.
The ability of Iraqi forces to recapture territory, such as
Hit and Mahkmour, with coalition support is an important stepping stone as the
Iraqis prepare to take back Mosul from ISIL control, he added.
Coalition in Syria Regains Territory
In Syria, the coalition aided the recapture of Shaddadi and
nearly 3,800 square miles of territory from ISIL control in the
Iraq-neighboring nation, Lewis said.
“[The coalition also] continues to target senior ISIL leadership
and our successes are degrading their ability to govern and control their
forces and territory,” he said.
With coalition airstrikes contributing significantly to the
counter-ISIL fight, Lewis noted that intelligence continues to improve the coalition’s
ability to target ISIL leaders and other high-priority targets.
ISIL Fights to Maintain Organization
And as ISIL weakens, it is becoming desperate, the admiral
said.
“We assess the attacks in Paris and Brussels are not signs
of ISIL’s strength, but rather, a reflection of their distorted attempts to
maintain the ability to recruit in the face of their failures on the
battlefield,” he said.
“We do not assess there was a direct correlation,” Lewis
added, “but they demonstrate [the] twisted lengths to which ISIL will go as it
attempts to survive as an organization.”
As coalition forces stay focused and postured around the
globe to degrade, destroy and defeat ISIL -- and deny terrorists safe havens,
“There’s no hole deep enough in which they can hide,” the admiral said. “Time
is not on their side.”
While U.S. troops from all branches of the services protect
the nation and make great sacrifices, he said, they do so willingly and with
humility and dignity.
“They execute the mission precisely -- and violently, when
necessary -- always maintaining their values,” Lewis said. “It is truly
eye-watering to be a part of it.”