New strategy calls for surrounding ISIS units and destroying them in place

The Hill:
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday that new tactics approved by President Trump to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have thrown the terrorist group on “their back foot.”

Speaking during a Pentagon press conference, Mattis said the U.S.-led coalition was increasing its pressure on ISIS by encircling fighters in their “strongholds.”

“[Trump] directed a tactical shift from shoving ISIS out of safe locations in an attrition fight to surrounding the enemy in their strongholds so we can annihilate ISIS,” Mattis said.

He explained that by “taking the time up front to surround these locations, instead of simply shoving them from one to another” coalition forces are able to “carry out the annihilation campaign so we don't simply transplant this problem from one location to another.”

Speaking alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS Brett McGurk, Mattis noted that commanders have been given greater authority to move quickly in the fight without first seeking approval from Washington.
...
“We estimate that, at its peak, foreign fighter flow in Iraq and Syria was 1,500 fighters per month. And today we estimate that those numbers are less than 100 per month,” Dunford said.

McGurk, meanwhile, said the ability to quickly make a decision without seeking approval in Washington has “made a difference.”
...
There is more.

This is a much more sane approach to military operations than having to get permission from amateurs in the Obama White House for tactical decisions.  The US and its allies are already seeing positive results from the new measures.

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