U.S. airstrikes have limited effect in Iraq, Syria

WASHINGTON – As warplanes from the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates pounded Islamic State fighters near the Syrian city of Kobi for a third day, the U.S.-led military campaign began running up against the limits of what air power can accomplish.

“Airstrikes alone are not going to save the town of Kobani,” Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday, adding that the militants “are going to continue to grab ground, and there are going to continue to be villages, towns and cities that they take” in Iraq and Syria.

Kirby’s frank acknowledgment came after nine weeks of bombing by the U.S. and its allies, which has not stopped Islamic militants from claiming new territory in Syria and Iraq, a setback that military officials blamed on the poor performance of Iraqi and Syrian forces battling them on the ground.

Roughly 500 miles east of Kobani, the limits of U.S. air power are becoming apparent near Baghdad, where Islamic State fighters are making a less dramatic but potentially more dangerous push to take control of towns and districts within an hour’s drive of the Iraqi capital, U.S. officials said.

Military experts say the capital is not in immediate danger, noting that airstrikes to the south of Baghdad had shown signs of blunting attempts by militants to encircle the city. Pentagon officials hope the campaign to roll back the militants’ gains will regain momentum now that U.S. special forces teams are advising Iraqi commanders and sharing intelligence with at least a dozen Iraqi army and Kurdish units.

In August, during the first days of the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State fighters, bombing helped Iraqi and Kurdish troops regain control of the Mosul dam and halted assaults that threatened Irbil, capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

But the meager results since those early victories could have far-reaching implications, increasing pressure on President Barack Obama to reconsider the strict limits he has placed on the role U.S. troops can play on the ground.

The fall of Kobani to the militants would make it harder for the U.S. to recruit the rebel fighters in Syria whom the U.S. and its allies hope to turn into an effective fighting force over the next year, said Jeffrey White, a former Middle East analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

“It will be seen as a defeat for the U.S., even though our (airstrikes in Kobani) have been limited until recently,” White said. “It will be seen as the U.S. lacking the resolve to get the job done in Syria.”

In Kobani, Kurdish fighters had been battling militants for months without help from the U.S. or neighboring Turkey, to which tens of thousands of refugees have fled.

The U.S. stepped up bombing after it became clear that the militants had moved large amounts of equipment and fighters to the outskirts of the city, one of the last areas not under their control along the Syria-Turkey border.

U.S. officials acknowledged that the air attacks were not being carried out in coordination with the Kurdish fighters on the ground, limiting their effectiveness, and that they had little faith that the city’s defenders could hold out much longer.

The airstrikes are seeking to “relieve some pressure around Kobani,” said a senior military official. But he added that, unlike in Iraq, “we do not have a partner that we are working with on the ground there.” Turkey, which has a large army, has so far declined to use it against the Islamic State fighters.