The top commander overseeing the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Syria can't say when the Iraqi army might be ready go on the offensive and roll back the Islamic State extremists who now control large parts of western and northern Iraq.
"It's difficult to put — to designate a specific point in time when they'll be able to do this. As you know, we're doing some things now. They are doing some things now to incrementally recapture ground that's been lost," Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. Central Command, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.
Austin offered an upbeat assessment of the overall mission to "degrade" and ultimately "destroy" the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Islamis State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
"The campaign is on the right track," Austin said. "We're doing the right things, and we're having the right — creating the right effects."
About 1,400 U.S. troops are now in Iraq. About 600 are focused on supporting and advising Iraqi Security Forces and the remaining 800 are providing security for the U.S. Embassy and other U.S. facilities.
The size and scope of that advise-and-assist mission is under constant reassessment, Austin said. "Our role would be, and is, to provide enablers to help [the Iraqis] get the job done on the ground. And I do think that's doable. Now, the degree to which you provide those enablers is always a point in question. And, again, that will change from situation to situation."
While Islamic State militants recently came within 10 to 15 miles of the Baghdad International Airport and the several hundred American troops stationed there, Austin said "the airfield is secure and will be secure for the foreseeable future."
In Anbar province, where the militants have seized towns over the past several weeks, Austin said his intelligence does not suggest a surge in militant force levels.
"I would describe Anbar as contested. It's been that way for some time. I would also say that unlike some of what you have heard in a number of places, we have not seen an appreciable increase of ISIL forces in Anbar from what we saw in the July-August time frame," he said.
The current strategy for Anbar aims to replicate the so-called Anbar Awakening of 2007 and 2008, when U.S. forces in Iraq persuaded local Sunni tribes to turn against the extremists and join the fight against the group then known as al-Qaida in Iraq.
"Anbar will remain contested. I think the solution to this going forward ... is to enlist the help of the tribes. And I think the government is reaching out to do that now. ... With their help, I think we'll be able to move forward very rapidly," Austin said.
"We did the same thing back in 2008 ... and it was very instrumental. So I have every reason to believe that we can do that in this case. We'll be able to create some of the same effects."
Retaking the city of Mosul, which the Islamic State completely controls, will be an important battle, but the Iraqi army is not ready for that right now, Austin said.
"We're going to need to regenerate a bit more [Iraqi army] combat power and do some more things to shape the environment a bit before we go out to Mosul. I think Mosul ... will be a — an important fight and a difficult fight," he said.
"I spent a lot of time in Mosul. It is difficult terrain. So we want to make sure when we take that on, that we have the adequate capability and we set the conditions right to ... get things done."
Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. He is a former Military Times Pentagon reporter and served as a Middle East correspondent for the Stars and Stripes. Before covering the military, he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle in Texas, the Albany Times Union in New York and The Associated Press in Milwaukee.
