Coalition official says ISIS war not a ‘stalemate’

A top coalition official on Friday pushed back against a recent news report in which U.S. intelligence officials characterized the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as a “strategic stalemate.” 

“In my opinion, this is not the same fight as it was when it started, and I look at that based on the effects that we have had on ISIL,” Marine Brig. Gen. Kevin J. Killea said, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.

“Their attacks are smaller, they’re more focused, and they’re less enduring … all you have to do is look at the gains that have been made on the ground recently to see that there is an effect, and there is progress,” said Killea, chief of staff of the Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve. 

{mosads}Killea also said there’s been “significant progress” in Syria, with anti-ISIS fighters gaining more than 5,300 square kilometers back from the terrorist group since May. 

“This is important, as any territory taken back from ISIL means their freedom to maneuver and their access to supply lines gets reduced,” he said. 

Killea’s assessment contrasted with one offered by intelligence analysts in an Associated Press report published Friday that said ISIS remains a well-funded extremist army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadis as quickly as the U.S. can eliminate them, while expanding to other countries, including Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. 

“We’ve seen no meaningful degradation in their numbers,” a defense official told the AP, citing intelligence estimates of ISIS’s strength at between 20,000 and 30,000 — the same as almost a year ago. 

However, Killea said the U.S.-led air campaign against ISIS “continues to have success” in striking ISIS targets, which enables Iraqi Security Forces in Iraq and anti-ISIS fighters in Syria. 

“Airstrikes have gone a long way to degrade ISIL’s ability to mount large offensive attacks, as well as reducing their ability to openly control towns and cities, where they so often inflict terror on those civilian populations,” Killea said. 

He said that since the beginning of operations last August, the coalition has conducted more than 5,600 airstrikes. 

But Killea undercut his own estimate that anti-ISIS fighters in Syria have gained back more than 5,300 square kilometers when he could not answer how much area ISIS still controlls in Syria. 

“I can tell you something about numbers — they change twice a day around here,” he said. 

On an operation to retake Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, Killea said “this operation in many ways is going along as planned.” 

Ramadi fell to ISIS in May, after Iraqi forces decided to abandon the city in the face of an ISIS offensive. 

Killea could not say how long the operation would take, but said it began on July 12 and was in the “isolation phase” — isolating ISIS inside Ramadi and cutting its fighters off from communication and reinforcements. 

“While I won’t go into the details of the ISF’s progress, I can say that the ISF have made some considerable gains in the isolation phase,” he said. “The clearing stage is next, and it promises to test the mettle of the ISF.”

Killea would not say how many Iraqi forces — including government, militia and Sunni tribal forces — were participating in the operation but said two of the Iraqi brigades participating in ground operations and 500 Sunni tribal fighters were engaged in the fight. 

“Overall, the message I would provide to you is that momentum is a better indicator of success than speed, and the ISF have momentum in Ramadi,” he said. 

“It’s a very difficult fight. And so, their deliberate approach there is going to take some time. It’s not going to be quickly. But I couldn’t give you a real good left and right limit,” he added.