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 "The fight will not be easy. There will be ebb and flow on the
battlefield," retired General John Allen told reporters during a
visit to Baghdad. "This will take time and requires patience."
The Islamic State has seized large chunks of territory in Iraq since
June, when the Iraqi military collapsed as the militants took
northern Iraq's biggest city, Mosul, and then charged through the
Tigris River valley.
The jihadists also control much of eastern Syria, which is embroiled
in a three-year-old civil war, and have erased much of the border
between the neighboring countries as it pursues its goal of creating
a caliphate.
Allen cautioned that launching a campaign to take Mosul was not on
the immediate horizon.
"It will kick off within a year. I can't be more specific. It's not
a single battle. It's a campaign," Allen said.
Allen also described the Iraqi government's hopes to woo Sunni
tribes to fight Islamic State as in its early stages. "There is no cookie-cutter approach to the tribes. Each one has to
be taken separately," he said.
"How that ultimately plays out in terms of what they can harvest
from a relationship with the tribes I think is going to unfold over
time."
Allen, mindful of deep suspicion among Iraq's Shi'ite majority of
the United States' intent nearly three years after the U.S. withdrew
its troops from the county, reiterated Obama's message that no U.S.
combat troops would be sent to Iraq.
"We must build Iraqi capacity to take on the fight. This is why the
United States will not send combat troops to Iraq, but instead will
continue our support for Iraqi security forces through military
advisers training and capacity building," he said.
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Allen, a former military commander in Anbar province in 2007, is
expected to visit Belgium, Jordan, Egypt and Turkey on this trip.
Accompanied by his deputy, Brett McGurk, he arrived in Iraq on
Thursday to meet Iraqi officials and regional leaders "on U.S.
support for and cooperation with Iraq in the fight against ISIL,"
the State Department said.
U.S. officials have said Allen's main purpose is to develop greater
support for the coalition, which has conducted air strikes against
Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
(Reporting By Ned Parker; Editing by Larry King)
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