The Hill – Dec. 1st, 2015 – Pentagon chief Ash Carter announced Tuesday Dec. 1st 2015 that the U.S. military would deploy a “specialized expeditionary task force” that would eventually conduct raids in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.
“These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders,” Carter told the House Armed Services Committee, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids and more momentum,” Carter said.
Raids in Iraq would be at the request of the Iraqi government, but they could also take place in Syria.
“That’s a force that wouldn’t be on the ground all the time in Syria. It would go in, conduct raids, and go out,” Carter added.
The new force would be compromised of U.S. special operators only, or with local partners, such as Kurdish Peshmerga, Carter said.
The U.S. currently has about 3,500 U.S. troops in Iraq and fewer than 50 special operations forces in Syria, according to defense officials.
The new targeting force is just one way the Pentagon is intensifying military efforts against ISIS in recent weeks.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a foreign policy critic of the administration, called the deployment a “belated step forward.”
“Today’s announcement is yet another reactive and incremental step, specifically responding to the Paris attacks, in a policy that has allowed the ISIL threat to metastasize to Libya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere across the globe,” McCain said.
But Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said sending more forces “is a mistake.”
“Though tempting to try to make up the inadequacies of local forces with superior U.S. personnel, the slow build-up of U.S. combat soldiers inside Syria and Iraq risks repeating the mistake of the Iraq War — believing that extremism can be defeated by U.S. troops absent local political and military capacity,” he said in a statement.

JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: ISIS ’NOT CONTAINED’: The United States has “not contained” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the nation’s top military officer said Tuesday, contradicting President Obama’s remarks last month about the terror group.
“We have not contained” ISIS, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. It was his second hearing since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in September.
The comment runs counter to what the president said days before ISIS launched a string of attacks across Paris.
“I don’t think they’re gaining strength,” Obama had said to ABC News. “What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them.”
Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, later said the president’s remarks applied specifically to Iraq and Syria.
Dunford said ISIS has been “tactically” contained in areas they have been in since 2010 but added, “strategically they have spread since 2010.”
His remarks were in response to questioning by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) on whether ISIS has been contained at any time since 2010.
Dunford added that ISIS posed a threat beyond Iraq and Syria to countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Jordan.