Strikes against Islamic State aimed at giving allies time to prepare for fight

Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's spokesman, told reporters that recent airstrikes carried out against targets and militants of the Islamic State have so far been a success in hindering the terrorist group.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Our initial indication is that these strikes (in Syria) were very successful," he said. However they are"only the beginning," of American force in the region.

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Lt. General William Mayville, the director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared with Admiral Kirby, and said that the airstrikes in Syria "are the beginning of a credible and sustainable, persistent campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL."

Mayville then told reporters, "You are seeing the beginnings of a sustained campaign, and strikes like this in the future can be expected."

The "operational pace, the tempo of this thing, will be dictated by the facts on the ground... It would be difficult for me today to kind of lay out some sort of very lockstep process. It's driven by the opportunities that we see," he continued.

Mayville said that the United States has launched multiple airstrikes against the Islamic State in conjunction with five other Arab countries, and that the U.S. also hit the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group. The Khorasan Group "was in the final stages of planning to execute major attacks against Western targets, and potentially the U.S. homeland."

He continued to say that there are currently no plans to put U.S. ground forces in Syria, though the U.S. will train and equip Syrian rebels. Syrian and Iraqi forces will have to do the majority of the fighting to win the civil wars raging across their countries.

"The most important thing is to create some space for the Iraqi Security Forces to reorganize and replace leadership that needs to be replaced; to allow them to reorganize their equipment, rearm ...and to allow them to get on the offensive.

"What we have been doing over these last couple weeks, and what last night's campaign was about, was simply buying them some space so they can get on the offensive," he added.

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