| CNN | - |
Washington
(CNN) The U.S. is considering increasing its attacks on ISIS through
more ground action and airstrikes, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said
Tuesday.
U.S. weighing 'direct action on the ground' in Iraq
Ash Carter: Graves were ready for hostages in Iraq 02:22
Story highlights
- The White House has yet to make a decision on the options for upping the campaign against ISIS
- Several GOP senators blasted what they heard about the new anti-ISIS proposals Tuesday
Washington (CNN)The
U.S. is considering increasing its attacks on ISIS through more ground
action and airstrikes, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday.
Carter
told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. "won't hold
back" from supporting partners carrying out such attacks or from
"conducting such missions directly, whether by strikes from the air or
direct action on the ground."
The
White House, however, has yet to make a decision on the options for
upping the campaign against ISIS, according to defense and
administration sources. They said that further involvement on the ground
was one of the possibilities being presented.
The
ground option Carter mentioned to the committee was part of a
three-prong effort -- which he dubbed the "three Rs" -- to adapt the
U.S. policy on countering ISIS.
In
addition to increased ground action and airstrikes, or "raids," Carter
also spoke of the need to increase pressure around the ISIS stronghold
of Raqqa in Syria, where "we will support moderate Syrian forces"
fighting the terror organization there.
The
last "R" is Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, where Carter
said the U.S. would do more in terms of providing assistance and fire
support to local Iraqi forces to take on ISIS.
But
several GOP senators blasted what they heard from Carter and Joint
Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, who also testified Tuesday.
"This
is a half-assed strategy at best," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a
Republican presidential candidate, said after a lengthy back-and-forth
with Carter about how the U.S. is supporting fighters in Syria.
The
U.S. earlier this month announced it was pausing its costly program to
train and equip Syrian rebels that has resulted in limited gains,
focusing instead on supplying military aid to opposition leaders.
Graham
and committee Chairman John McCain of Arizona peppered Carter with
questions about how the U.S. would protect forces as Russia carries out
airstrikes that have been hitting forces opposed to Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad.
"Are we going to protect them from being barrel bombed by Bashar Assad and protected from Russia?" McCain asked.
"We have an obligation to do that. We made that clear right from the beginning of the train-and-equip program," Carter said.
"We haven't done it. We haven't done it," McCain disagreed.
Carter
said to date, no forces that have been part of the U.S. training
program have come under attack from Russian forces, but McCain once
again disagreed.
"I promise you they
have," McCain said. "You will have to correct the record. ... These are
American-supported and coalition-supported men who are going in and
being slaughtered."
Graham also drilled
down on the new strategy, including whether U.S.-trained forces will
continue to have the administration's support if they begin to fight
Assad and not just ISIS.
One of the
principal criticisms of the administration's train-and-equip plan has
been that it only supports Syrian rebels in their fight against
terrorism, but with the nation in the throes of a civil war, those
rebels largely also want to take out Assad.
Assad's
regime is supported by Russia, and U.S. officials have said that
Moscow's military intervention in Syria appears more focused on
protecting Assad than stopping ISIS.
"If
I'm Assad, this is a good day for me, because the American government
has just said, without saying it, that they're not going to fight to
replace me. The Russians and the Iranians and Hezbollah, this is a
really good day for them because their guy has no military credible
threat," Graham said.
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