Pentagon: ISIL will 'change and adapt' following airstrikes
Iran Press TV
Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:11PM
The Pentagon anticipates that the ISIL terrorist group will "adapt and change" in response to US airstrikes in Syria.
'We expect them to change and adapt inside Syria. What I can tell you is we are pretty adaptive ourselves and we're going to react appropriately to try to keep putting the pressure on them," Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said on CNN on Thursday.
Kirby said the "pressure" the US was exerting on the militants was prompting them to change strategy, and added that the group's capability of mixing with the civilian population would complicate the US-led air campaign.
The Pentagon official also said the US would require "competent partners" in Syria in order to battle the ISIL terrorists. He referred to Iraqi security forces and insurgents in Syria as partners on the ground in the fight against ISIL.
Kirby went on to say that the war against the militants would take years. 'I think we are in this for a matter of years.'
He said the current airstrikes were targeting 'infrastructure around the refineries' used by ISIL as a major source of revenue.
During the third day of the air campaign, US fighter jets hit ISIL-controlled oil refineries and fields, killing 19 people overnight and early Thursday.
The airstrikes also hit other targets including checkpoints, compounds, training grounds and vehicles along the Euphrates River in northern and eastern Syria, as well as areas near the Turkish and Iraqi borders.
AT/HRJ
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