ISIL losing battle in Iraq: US general
A US Army general says the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group is losing in Iraq’s battleground.
Baghdad-based Major General Gary Volesky said Wednesday that ISIL was struggling to refill its ranks and more and more unable to mount major operations.
The terrorists’ "ability to conduct large-scale offensive operations has primarily stopped," Volesky told Pentagon reporters in a video call.
"They're more on the defensive, trying to delay Iraqi security forces just to buy time."
The general added that Daesh was "losing terrain every single day."
Volesky said Daesh initially used to launch attacks using dozens of militants at once, but that has now changed.
"When we used to see, you know, 50, 60, 70 fighters, now what we're seeing is five to eight, maybe 15, with a VBIED (car bomber) associated," he noted.
"We're not seeing them generate these large operations. We expect it's about a two- to three-week cycle after they do an operation to be able just to try to generate enough combat power to maintain relevance, frankly."
This is while US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said last week that the US-led military campaign against the Daesh terrorist group “is far from over.”
Speaking at the US military's European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, Carter said the US-led coalition had to do a lot more to curb the terror group.
Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, control parts of the country and also overran neighboring Iraq in 2014.
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