“We reviewed and agreed on the next plays in the campaign, which, while the chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] and I can’t discuss them publicly yet, culminate in the collapse of ISIL’s control over the cities of Mosul and Raqqa,” Carter said in a Pentagon press briefing.
Carter noted that the coalition has “identified the capabilities and support required to execute those next plays.”
Mosul has been under siege for approximately seven weeks, in an assault spearheaded by the Iraqi security forces. The Pentagon noted that the timeline for retaking Mosul will depend to a large degree on the capabilities of Iraqi security forces.
The conditions for retaking Raqqa are more ambiguous, as US capabilities on the ground in Syria depend to a large extent on a small group of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
