The Pentagon is considering sending more U.S. trainers to Iraq to more quickly prepare local forces to retake Mosul, though they acknowledge the operation is still “many months” away.
Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, said Friday that officials are looking at whether they will need more trainers to speed up how long it takes to prepare 10 battalions to push the Islamic State out of Mosul.
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“It’s not so much about whether or not we can do it. It’s how rapidly you can get them through, right? You know, we can train all 10 with what we have so then it becomes a question of, you know, do you make the pipe a little bit bigger so that you can put more through the pipe faster?” he told reporters at the Pentagon via videoteleconference from Baghdad.
He said officials have yet to make any recommendations to Washington and would likely not have finished their evaluations by the time Defense Secretary Ash Carter meets next month with defense leaders from other countries that are part of the coalition fighting the Islamic State.
Iraqi forces, aided by coalition airstrikes, retook Ramadi last year in a major victory against the terrorist group. Some members of Congress have been critical of a perceived lack of strategy on the administration’s part to take other strongholds of the terrorist group, including Mosul and the group’s self-declared caliphate in Raqqa, Syria.
But Warren said operations in Mosul won’t begin for “many months” and an assault on Raqqa could be pushed back until next year.
