Accelerating the fight to deal ISIL a lasting defeat.
October 26th will mark the one-year anniversary since President Obama authorized a military campaign plan to accelerate the lasting defeat of ISIL.
In that year, our local partners in Iraq and Syria, backed by an international coalition of more than 60 countries, have tightened the noose around ISIL. With the coalition’s help, the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have moved through Ramadi, Hit, Rutbah, Fallujah, Qayyarah, and Q-West. And in Syria, local partners there have moved through Shaddadi, Manbij, Jarabulus, and Dabiq.
In the last week, our local partners in Iraq commenced the military operation to retake Mosul. This battle has been a long time coming, but it was important for our partners to take the time to build their capacity, to plan, prepare, and posture the right forces, and to incorporate lessons learned from previous battles in the campaign.
Today, as our partners progress on their way to collapsing ISIL’s control over Mosul, French Defense Minister Jean Yves Le Drian and I held a defense ministerial with 11 of our counterparts — from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom — countries that, together with France and the United States, represent the core contributors to the counter-ISIL coalition military campaign.
This was the fifth time the coalition defense ministers have met and the third time in this small group setting. These more intimate meetings allow for more free flowing discussions, and provide an opportunity to help set direction for upcoming C-ISIL defense ministerials, which comprise a much larger group of all countries contributing to the military campaign.
During our last meeting in Paris, we rallied behind a common coalition military campaign plan, which was — and is — focused on three objectives. The first is to destroy ISIL’s parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, because the sooner we end ISIL’s occupation of territory in those countries — that is, the sooner we crush both the fact and the idea of an Islamic state based on ISIL’s barbaric ideology — the safer all of our countries will be.
That’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient. So the second objective is to combat ISIL’s metastases everywhere they emerge around world: in Afghanistan, Libya, and elsewhere. And the third objective is to work with our intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement partners to help protect our homelands and our people.
At the same time, we also agreed on our strategic approach of enabling capable, motivated local forces — for that’s the only way to ensure ISIL’s lasting defeat. And we resolved to continue accelerating our campaign, taking advantage of opportunities generated by new intelligence, newly trained partners, and strikes against ISIL leaders, infrastructure, and finances — all of which generated more new opportunities, which we then seized, reinforcing success.
Every time we’ve seen opportunities to accelerate the campaign, the United States has stepped up, and so have every one of our partners — in critical ways. Because whether it’s strike aircraft, additional police trainers, or other enabling capabilities, all of these contributions have been vital to this fight.
Just this weekend, I was in Iraq, where I saw firsthand how our campaign is proceeding according to the plan we laid out throughout the last year.
While there, I met with Prime Minister Abadi in Baghdad and Kurdistan Regional Government President Barzani in Erbil. We could not ask for two better partners. And in a region rife with sectarianism, they’ve set aside their differences and united in shared resolve against their common enemy of ISIL. In fact, in Erbil on Sunday, I met Iraqi Army attack helicopter pilots who were flying missions against ISIL from Kurdish territory. Meanwhile, since the Mosul operation commenced, wounded members of the Iraqi Security Forces are being treated in Kurdish hospitals. And the ISF and Peshmerga have passed through one another’s lines.
This level of cooperation would have been unthinkable a year ago. So I want to commend both Prime Minister Abadi and President Barzani for achieving this unity, and for their leadership of the Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga.
For the coalition’s part, we’re applying every capability we’ve contributed to the campaign — Apaches, HIMARS, airstrikes, logistical support, intelligence support, police training, training and equipping of our local military partners, and special operations forces that are advising, assisting, and accompanying them.
And the coalition is also eliminating ISIL’s leadership in Mosul — targeting more than 35 ISIL commanders there, including many of the highest, in the last 90 days.
As of now, our local partners’ artillery can range into Mosul, increasing the striking power we can bring to bear on the city. And the more territory that’s retaken from ISIL each day, the more geographic latitude coalition forces have to operate in, and the closer we get to the heart of ISIL’s power center in Mosul.
So overall, I’m encouraged by the results of the Mosul operation thus far — it’s been proceeding according to plan, with the Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga each doing their part.
And while we know it will continue to be a tough fight — indeed, we’ll probably see more resistance as the fight goes on, and almost certainly as our partners approach the core of the city — I’m confident the Iraqi Security Forces will succeed.
Now, while Mosul may be in the headlines, and is of course an important operation, it’s not the only one underway. In addition to Mosul, there’s ISIL’s power center in Raqqa, Syria, where our local partners will certainly collapse ISIL’s control as well. We’ve already begun laying the groundwork with our partners to commence the isolation of Raqqa.
And as with Mosul, and as we’ve done throughout this campaign, the force that takes Raqqa will have to be a local force — that’s vital to dealing ISIL a lasting defeat.
Next, there’s the Turkish border region, an area where we’ve long wanted to get rid of ISIL, and the security of which I discussed last week in Ankara with President Erdogan, Prime Minister Yıldırım, and our Turkish counterpart, Defense Minister Işık.
This is important not only for the protection of our NATO ally Turkey, but also the security of all of Europe. Our goal there is to cut off the flow of foreign fighters that could threaten Turkey and all of our countries.
That’s why we’ve worked with our Turkish partners and, importantly, local forces to not only seal the Turkey-Syria border between Jarabulus and the Ma’ra line, but also retake towns like Dabiq, which ISIL had said would be the site of a decisive battle.
Then, there’s the territory in between Raqqa and Mosul, including in the Tigris and Euphrates River Valleys, where our coalition has and will continue to horizontally expand our identifying, generating, and enabling of local partners to defeat ISIL in those areas.
In terms of the future, while the collapse of ISIL’s control over Raqqa and Mosul will certainly put ISIL on an irreversible path to lasting defeat, there will still be much more to do after that, as well.
First, we will need to finish training and equipping the police, border guards, and Ninewah province Popular Mobilization Forces that will help secure and hold Mosul after it’s retaken from ISIL.
And it will be a big job for the Iraqi government to consolidate its control over the entire country. So the coalition should be ready to continue performing missions such as training, equipping and logistics, intelligence support, and counterterrorism support, should the Iraqi government request that support.
Second, there will be aid to provide, towns to rebuild, services to reestablish, and communities to restore. And there will need to be continued political support for a multi-sectarian Iraq. Those aren’t military matters, but they’re part of how, after winning the battle, you have to win the peace.
That’s why — as I emphasized when I met in Baghdad with representatives from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, and the Iraqi government coordinator for humanitarian and emergency aid — the international community’s stabilization, reconstruction, and governance efforts cannot be allowed to lag behind our military progress. That’s critical to making sure ISIL, once defeated, stays defeated.
It will therefore be important for our coalition to remain engaged militarily, even after the inevitable expulsion of ISIL from Mosul and Raqqa. This is not the time to lose focus.
Indeed, now that we know how this fight will end in Iraq and Syria, we must prepare to counter not only the threat posed by foreign fighters attempting to return home, but also any attempts by ISIL to survive by reinventing itself in some other shape or form. Whether it tries to mutate into a terrorist network that’s scattered across the globe, or a skeleton organization that lies in wait in the sands of the desert, or even a violent extremist movement that lives and lurks only in the darkest corners of the Internet, we cannot perfectly predict what will happen after our coalition defeats ISIL in Iraq and Syria, so we have to be ready for anything.
Meanwhile, beyond Iraq and Syria, we’re also continuing to counter ISIL’s metastases — in Libya, where ISIL’s presence in Sirte has been reduced to a single neighborhood — and in Afghanistan, where we’ve already undertaken two major operations against ISIL’s presence in that country. We’ve hit them hard and there will be more to come.
And all the while, of course, we’re working with our partners across our governments to help defend our homelands.
In this regard, I am pleased to announce that as a result of our meeting today, the coalition identified more ways to keep accelerating the certain and lasting defeat of ISIL, and the contributions we’ll need to do so.
And, we agreed to sustain the coalition, and our commitments to it — not only for the purposes of helping the Iraqis win the battle, but also to help them win the peace. After all, we cannot perfectly predict what will happen after our coalition defeats ISIL in Iraq and Syria…so we have to be ready for anything, and we have to keep working together. As long as we do so, I’m confident we will deal ISIL the lasting defeat it deserves.
