US, Iraq draw up ground attack plan against ISIS
US, Iraq draw up ground attack plan against ISIS
Coalition air strikes kill 553 militants, 32 civilians in Syria
The United States and Iraq are drawing up a campaign plan for offensive operations by Iraqi ground forces to gradually reclaim towns and cities that have been occupied by ISIS, according to a senior US official.
The report came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said US-led air strikes in Syria have killed 553 jihadists in a month. Thirty-two civilians have also been killed, said the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.
The plan, described as methodical and time-consuming, will not begin in earnest for several months and is designed to ensure that Iraqi forces do not over-extend themselves before they are capable of taking and holding territory controlled by the militants.
It may also include American advisers in the field with the Iraqis, should that be recommended by American military commanders, said the official, who updated reporters on administration strategy on the condition of anonymity. The advisers, the official said, would not participate in combat. President Barack Obama has said repeatedly that no US ground forces would be deployed to Iraq.
With few exceptions, the Iraqi army has concentrated largely on defence and efforts to prevent ISIS from claiming more territory since early June when the militant group took over Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, and began moving south.
Despite some government gains, aided since early August by US air strikes, the militants control about one-third of Iraq, stretching from near Baghdad to the northwest, and across western Anbar province to the Syrian border.
On the ground, an AFP correspondent across the frontier in Turkey reported fierce clashes in several parts of Kobane early yesterday, with heavy gun and mortar fire.
The town's Kurdish defenders have been holding out against an assault by the ISIS militant group for more than a month, buoyed in recent days by a promise of Iraqi Kurd reinforcements and by US air drops of weapons.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said that 200 Iraqi Kurd peshmerga fighters would travel through Turkey to join the battle in Kobane, where about 1,000 ISIS militants are believed to be fighting.
Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers in their capital Arbil agreed on Wednesday to send their peshmerga fighters, after Turkey this week said it would allow them to travel to Kobane.
In Iraq, airstrikes hit ISIS targets including a large "unit" and a training centre. ISIS had again surrounded Mount Sinjar in the country's north where they had trapped thousands of civilians this summer, commanders in the area said.
The first siege of Sinjar was a key moment in the conflict with ISIS, with the plight of the people trapped on the mountain helping to prompt US to begin air strikes against the ISIS.
Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday said ISIS has ordered all girls and women between the ages of 11 and 46 in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation. The “fatwa” would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, it added.