(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (KUNA) -- US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter sought to reassure lawmakers Thursday that the Obama Administration can defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq, and said the US-led coalition has been targeting the group's chemical weapon capabilities. "Just last week, in one of the single largest air strikes of our campaign, we destroyed a pharmaceutical facility that ISIL tried to use as a chemical weapons plant," Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee at a hearing. "We also continue to aggressively attack ISIL's economic infrastructure, oil wells, tanker trucks, cache storage and more," he said, adding: "We continue to ensure that US, coalition, and Iraqi troops are vigilantly protected from that threat." Earlier this week a rocket with a chemical agent believed to have been launched by IS landed near US and Iraqi troops stationed at Qayyarah air base.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, who testified alongside Carter, said early assessments have shown the chemical to be a "sulfur mustard blister agent." He stressed, however, that "it's clear we have the momentum in the military campaign." "Coalition operations supporting indigenous ground forces -- have disrupted core ISIL's ability to mount external attacks, reduced its territorial control, limited its freedom of movement, eliminated many of their leaders and reduced the resources that they had available.
"Most importantly, the coalition has begun to discredit ISIL's narrative and its aura of invincibility," he added. (end) ys.gb