The U.S. has not ruled out possible airstrikes against President Bashar Assad’s forces in Syria if the moderate rebels being trained to fight the Islamic State there come under attack, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Wednesday.
Carter used the occasion of a visit by British Secretary of State for Defense Michael Fallon to hold the first Pentagon press conference of his tenure. They were asked by both the U.S. and British press about their evolving roles in Syria and in Iraq, where the allies have a mutual interest in destroying the Islamic State’s ability to further metastasize.
In the coming weeks both U.S. and British forces will be training vetted moderate Syrian rebels at four sites outside Syria to help them counter any further advances by the Islamic State there. But given the rebels’ own civil war against Assad, which has gone on since 2011, it’s not unforeseen that a circumstance could arise where the U.S. would find itself obligated to offer protection to the forces they’ve trained and equipped and end up in a direct firefight with Syrian forces.
Carter said the commitment to protect the trained rebels “obviously follows on from our objective to train and equip,” but added that “we haven’t decided yet in what manner” the U.S. would protect those forces, Carter said.
In Iraq, where Iranian forces and influence have dominated an impending victory against the Islamic State in Tikrit, Carter was asked whether the U.S. would find itself fighting alongside Iranian forces against the Islamic State in Mosul.
Earlier in the day, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said as many as 20,000 Iranian-backed Shi’a militias, and a much smaller number of coalition-trained Iraqi forces, were involved in the operation in Tikrit.
Carter avoided the question on future operations against the Islamic State in Mosul, but emphasized that the heavy amount of Iranian influence in Iraq “is something that is concerning to us, because in particular, the sectarian danger in Iraq is the principle thing that can unravel a campaign against the Islamic State.”
Both Carter and Fallon said they have been politically engaged with the Iraqi government to encourage it to avoid a slide into further sectarianism and be more inclusive toward Iraq’s Sunni population.
“At [the] end of the day, this is going to depend upon the Iraqis,” Carter said.
