Juan Bernal/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — Gen. Lloyd Austin of US Central Command and Christine Wormuth, the Pentagon’s top policy chief, were on the Hill Tuesday to talk about the authorization of use of military force against ISIS.
Austin noted that airstrikes have killed 8,500 fighters and that U.S. overhead intelligence indicated that Iraq was planning an attack on Tikrit.
Austin told the House Armed Services Committee that “we are making significant progress” against ISIS, as ISIS’s advances have been halted.
The general said that U.S. airstrikes have killed an estimated 8,500 ISIS fighters, destroyed hundreds of vehicles and reduced their ability to gain revenue from oil facilities.
But Austin said that the focus shouldn’t be on the numbers but how the airstrikes have affected ISIS’s behavior – no more large convoys and no longer able to take over large areas of territory:
“The fact is that he can no longer do what he did at the outset, which is to seize and to hold new territory. He has assumed a defense crouch in Iraq. And although he has greater freedom of movement in Syria, he’s largely in a defensive there, as well.”
He stressed that the Iraqi government has to become inclusive: “If we don’t get things right there first before expanding our efforts in Syria, then we risk making matters worse in both countries.” He warned, “They must control the activities of Shia militia. They must guard against any kind of atrocities going forward of those elements.”
Iran is believed to be helping with Iraq’s offensive on Tikrit, and Austin emphasized that there’s no coordination between the U.S. and Iran on the ground in Iraq, which also means that “absolute knowledge of what their intent is, is not always there.”
“Our policy is that we don’t coordinate with Iranian forces on the ground in Iraq,” said Wormuth. “We are not communicating with those forces, we are not coordinating with those forces. So that is our policy.”
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
