US "very soon" will send the military to Syria

The US special representative in the global coalition to combat the "Islamic state" said that "very soon" dozens of US special forces will go to Syria, who will cooperate with Arab forces trying to isolate the capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate and put an end to the terrorist conspiracies of the group.

As Brett McGurk noted on Sunday, speaking on the CBS channel, in recent weeks the coalition has already achieved noticeable results by regaining control over a number of territories and destroying hundreds of militants.

McGurk said that because of the secrecy of the operation, he would not name specific dates. However, according to him, less than 50 servicemen will travel to the north of Syria "very soon."

Their mission, announced at the end of last month, is aimed at preparing and providing advice to Arab forces fighting against jihadists. As McGurk noted, this will be done against the background of the “very successful operation” of these forces.

“In the last two weeks alone they have taken control of about 1000 square kilometers. "They killed about 300 Islamic State fighters and focused on trying to isolate the Islamic State capital of Raqqa, where terrorist plots are believed to be hatching," he said.

According to McGurk, the goal of the operation is to regain control of the territories, destroy the leaders of jihadists, cut off funding and contacts with global networks that supply fighters to the ranks of the Islamic State.

He referred to the resolution adopted on Friday by the UN Security Council, where the terrorist attacks of the Islamic State in Tunisia, Turkey, Beirut and Paris, along with the collapse of the Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula, were called "a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security."

Before leaving Malaysia after the East Asia Summit, President Obama promisedthat an international coalition led by the United States will destroy the Islamic State: “We are intensifying our strategy on all fronts together with local partners. We will continue to weaken the position of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and destroy more and more leaders and commanders of the group so that they cannot threaten us, and we will destroy this terrorist organization.”

However, Democratic senator and intelligence committee member Dianne Feinstein said on Face Cation on CBS on Sunday that she did not consider the Obama administration’s approach effective enough to solve this problem.

“I'm worried that we don't have much time. We need to be aggressive because the Islamic State is a quasi-state. It has 30 fighters, civilian infrastructure, funding, it is spreading to other countries, and this is a very serious problem. Elsewhere there is competition between various terrorist organizations, but the Islamic State stands apart. This group is incredibly strong, and we need to act very decisively,” the senator believes.

Feinstein suggested that a larger presence of special US units in the region might be needed, noting that dozens of military personnel in Syria would not solve the problem.

McGurk insists that the international coalition against the Islamic State is not slow in fulfilling its promise to destroy the group.

“Over the past year, we had to do something to create the conditions to accelerate our efforts. So, for example, in the last two weeks alone, we conducted simultaneous operations in Syria and Iraq in cooperation with Kurdish and Arab forces to block the main supply route between Raqqa and Mosul. These operations were very successful. Our special forces will go to the north of Syria, and their mission will be to organize forces on the ground, a coalition of forces for an attack on Raqqa. Half a year ago it was impossible to do this. But now the necessary conditions have been created for this, ”he explains.

According to him, the strategy is to clamp the “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria, blocking the corridor to Turkey, cutting off the routes from Rakka to Mosul, holding the left flank along the Tigris River and conducting operations to liberate the provincial capital Anbar, Ramadi. In addition, it is planned to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against global networks that supply foreign fighters to the Islamic State.

"Islamic State" took responsibility for terrorist attacks in Paris.

November 13 Paris, a series of terrorist attacks, whose victims were 128 people, more than 250 people were injured, 99 victims are in critical condition.