Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday the formation of a new commando force that will be able to conduct direct raids in Iraq and Syria and help close the gap in intelligence that has so far plagued the fight against the Islamic State group – an apparent escalation of the U.S. role in battling the extremists following the terror attacks in Paris and elsewhere,"This is an important capability because it takes advantage of what we're good at," Carter said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.Carter said this new "expeditionary targeting force" will work alongside Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga through approval of the Iraqi central government, and may operate unilaterally in Syria. Its goals will include freeing hostages and capturing leaders of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, ISIL or regionally as Daesh.
Defense officials at the Pentagon and at the Baghdad headquarters overseeing the war against the Islamic State group confirmed the new unit, but could not provide any more details, including whether the troops comprising it are already in the region.
Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who testified alongside Carter on Tuesday, said the targeting force will chiefly focus on improving U.S. intelligence for the region and for the Islamic State group's activities."Our effectiveness is inextricably linked to the quality of the intelligence that we have," Dunford said. The unit's operations will be intelligence-driven, he said, adding "the enemy doesn't respect boundaries. Neither do we." Some members of Congress expressed surprise at Carter's announcement. "It's kind of just thrown on us, today," said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who joined a few other members of the committee asking for more details on the unit. Carter responded that it could be comprised entirely of Americans on some missions, but most likely would be "a mixed force" including troops from other countries. In a statement after the hearing, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the deployment a "belated step forward." "However, 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," said McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "A comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIL is totally absent, urgently needed, and long overdue.” Since the Islamic State group swept toward Baghdad last summer, the Obama administration's response has faced harsh criticism from some quarters, including for the president's reluctance to deploy ground forces. The administration has opted instead to limit the U.S. involvement largely to an air campaign and to training regional forces on the ground, and only recently announced that fewer than 50 special operations forces would be deployed to Syria.