NEW YORK, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq and Syria are tougher than both Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and will not be defeated without a major ground offensive, political analyst Christopher Harmer, from the Institute for the Study of War, told RIA Novosti.
“Of all the terrorist organizations we have seen with military units in the field, they are by far the best. Al-Qaeda never got to the point where they were putting units in the field. Hezbollah did that in 2006 against Israel, where they fought capably and effectively, but lost,” Harmer said Tuesday.
“We didn’t think any other radical militant organization was ever going to pull that off. Then ISIS is deploying 500 people here, 1,000 people there. They will be a tough nut to crack – particularly without substantial forces on the ground to take the fight to them.”
The group, which is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has fought the Syrian government since 2012. It extended attacks to north and west Iraq in June and declared the creation of an Islamic caliphate.
US President Barack Obama says IS can be routed by US-led airstrikes and by bolstering a ground force of Kurds, Iraqis and moderate elements of Syria’s opposition. Critics say he over-depends on air power, lacks reliable allies to act as ground troops and has no strategy for ending Syria’s civil war.
