U.S.

tells allies campaign to defeat Islamic State must be

accelerated
U.S. tells allies campaign to defeat Islamic State must be accelerated - Yahoo News
By Phil Stewart and Robin Emmott
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States pressed allies on Thursday to contribute more to a U.S.-led
military campaign against Islamic State that it says must be accelerated, regardless of the fate of
diplomatic efforts to end Syria's civil war.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter started talks on Thursday in Brussels with more than two dozen
defense ministers, including from key ally Saudi Arabia, which renewed its offerpotentially to send
troops into Syria.
Carter's push came a day after France delivered a rebuke to President Barack Obama, demanding
that Washington show a clearer commitment to resolving the crisis in Syria where Russia is tipping
the military balance in favor of President al-Bashar Assad.
The talks take place as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry leads a diplomatic push in Munich to
rescue imperiled peace efforts, which are being held despite Russian bombing raids to bolster Syrian
forces around the city of Aleppo.
Carter sought to draw a line between military and diplomatic efforts. "Our focus here is going to be
on counter-ISIL and that campaign will go on because ISIL must be defeated, will be defeated,
whatever happens with the Syrian civil war," Carter told reporters, using an acronym for Islamic
State.
"But it certainly would help to de-fuel extremism if the Syrian civil war came to an end."
The United States hopes the face-to-face gathering of coalition defense ministers will allow it to
secure more support for a military campaign that aims to recapture the Islamic State strongholds of
Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.
WARPLANES, TRAINING, SURVEILLANCE
Carter plans to offer a long list of required military capabilities -- which, beyond air power, include
training Iraqi forces and help with intelligence and surveillance. Carter saidcountries that cannot
contribute militarily can help in other ways, like by choking Islamic State financing.
"We'll all look back after victory and remember who participated in the fight," Carter said,
addressing the coalition defense ministers, adding the campaign would move more swiftly "if all of
the nations in this room do even more".

He also predicted "tangible gains" on the ground in the coming weeks, vague terminology that could
mean anything fromterritorial advances to strikes against militant leaders or infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia's Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, a

military spokesman, said his country was ready to send
troops into Syria if there was a consensus in the
coalition. But he declined to elaborate, saying: "It is too
early to talk about go such options."
"Today we are talking at the strategic level," Asseri told
reporters in Brussels.
Carter and U.S. defense officials also sought to manage expectations about the talks, since many
ministers will not be able to make new commitments without first winning support from their
parliaments. The timeline for the campaign to retake Raqqa and Mosul is also unclear.
The head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency cautioned this week that Iraqi forces were unlikely
to recapture Mosul this year, despite hopes by Baghdad.
Carter only said securing Raqqa and Mosul needed to happen "as soon as possible". He also
acknowledged the need to grapple with Islamic State's spread beyond Syria and Iraq, particularly in
Libya.
WASHINGTON FACES SCEPTICISM
Even if there is consensus on the military plan to fight Islamic State on Thursday, it is unlikely to
diminish scepticism about broader U.S. policy in Syria, which has sought to limit America's role in
the civil war.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Wednesday questioned the commitment of the United
States to resolving the Syrian war. Rebel groups say that while Washington has put pressure on
them to attend peace talks, they see less help on the battlefield.
NATO ally Turkey has meanwhile, upbraided the United States for supporting Syrian Kurdish PYD
rebels, saying Washington's inability to understand the group's true nature had turned the region
into a "sea of blood".

Eager to sidestep such friction, NATO allies have focused on grappling with the humanitarian fallout
from Syria's conflict at talks over the past two days.
NATO announced on Thursday it will seek to help slow refugee flows through the Aegean Sea with a
maritime mission to target criminal people smuggling networks.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Robin Emmott, additional reporting by Sabine Seibold, editing by
Peter Millership)
Politics & GovernmentForeign PolicyDefense Secretary Ash CarterSyriaPresident Barack
ObamaUnited Statesmilitary campaign