Use al-Qaeda to tackle ISIS

Former CIA chief and retired general David Petraeus wants the United States to consider working with some members of an Al-Qaeda-affiliated organization to tackle the Islamic State group in Syria, he said Tuesday.

In a statement to CNN, Petraeus said some members of the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front might be persuaded to join the coalition battling the ISIS group.

"We should under no circumstances try to use or co-opt Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, as an organization against ISIL," Petraeus told CNN, using another acronym for the ISIS group.

"But some individual fighters, and perhaps some elements, within Nusra today have undoubtedly joined for opportunistic rather than ideological reasons: they saw Nusra as a strong horse, and they haven't seen a credible alternative, as the moderate opposition has yet to be adequately resourced."

So, Petraeus argued, it may eventually be possible to "peel off so-called 'reconcilables' who would be willing to renounce Nusra and align with the moderate opposition to fight against Nusra, ISIL, and (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.)"

Petraeus became a household name in the United States when he oversaw the troop "surge" in Iraq in 2007, and US leaders credited him for salvaging the troubled war effort.

Part of that operation saw the decorated general convince Sunni fighters to stop fighting with al-Qaeda and to work with the US military.

His statement Tuesday followed the publication of a story in the Daily Beast that pointed out the irony of the United States working with anyone connected to al-Qaeda, which carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks and triggered America's so-called war on terror.

The Daily Beast said several officials it had spoken to found Petraeus's idea to be politically toxic, almost impossible to carry out.

Meanwhile, the CIA and US special forces are carrying out a secret campaign using armed drones to target and kill Islamic State leaders in Syria, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The clandestine program is separate from America's wider military operations against ISIS fighters, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed US officials.

Officials told The Post that the drone program has only resulted in a handful of strikes, which are being carried out by the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). The CIA's main role in the operation is identifying and locating senior ISIS leaders. The officials said the program was focusing on "high value targets."

A decision to use the Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center (CTC) and JSOC in the operation reflects rising anxiety about the spread of ISIS fighters, the Post reported.

The CTC led the hunt for Osama bin Laden and JSOC includes the elite Navy SEAL team that carried out the mission to kill the former Al-Qaeda leader in 2011.