US Defense Secretary Warns More Operations Against IS group

A month long U.S. air campaign against the Islamic State in Libya has helped back the group into “a single neighborhood” in its coastal stronghold of Sirte, where an ongoing offensive seeks to dislodge the militants from their strategic foothold, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday.

Addressing an audience at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, Carter said, the campaign in Libya, along with intensified operations in Iraq and Syria, is a step in delivering a “lasting defeat” to the group.

“They are still a dangerous adversary, and a lasting defeat will take time, but we will not let up until ISIL is defeated,” said Carter, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has warned more operations are coming against the Islamic State (IS) group.

“We’ve also seen results where we’ve been countering ISIL’s metastasis.  Working alongside our Afghan partners, U.S. forces have conducted two large operations against ISIL in Afghanistan, dealing the organization severe blows including killing its top leader there, degrading its infrastructure, logistics bases and training, and more operations are coming.” Carter said.

Carter said the U.S. and the U.K. are leading a historic coalition to deliver ISIL a lasting defeat. We’re fighting in different ways, across all domains, to destroy both the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on ISIL’s barbaric ideology.

“As I speak to you today,” the secretary said, “we’ve entered a decisive phase in our coalition counter-ISIL military campaign. Thanks to the contributions and sacrifices of our local partners there in the region and of British, American and coalition service members, we’ve accelerated the military campaign and we have the momentum firmly on our side.”

He added, “We’re seeking this year to put ISIL on a path to the lasting defeat it will surely suffer and richly deserves.”

Carter said a lasting defeat requires that the coalition identify and enable capable, motivated local forces, and that is the strategic approach because local forces are the only ones that can hold and govern territory after it has been retaken from ISIL.