Transcripts For CSPAN General Votel Questioned On Mosul Air Strike Says Investigation Is Underway 20170330

This Armed Services committee is one hour and 45 minutes. Committee will come to order. We turn our attention to the Central Command area of operations, where much of the nations military power has been engaged since 1991. While we are rightfully focusing attention on other threats, such as a resurgent russia and assertive china, the threat of terrorism has not gone away. As discussed a few weeks ago, it is difficult to see how isis is totally eliminated from syria, and al qaeda has not disappeared either. While terrorist have physically spread to other locations, some have become quite adept on posting online comic instigating terrorists incidents in the west. Iran poses a significant threat to regional stability. None of us will prevent will forget the central fight to prevent afghanistan from becoming a base for terrorism. I appreciate the witnesses answering our questions. I want to mention one additional issue that has been in the news lately. There have been press reports about civilian casualties in mosul related to u. S. Aerial support reclaiming the city from isis. I would suggest that everyone be cautious. Environmentrban there may well be civilian casualties. Even the finest military in the world can make mistakes. We know for certain that isis uses innocent civilians as human shields, and they can arrange civilian deaths to further their misguided. Misguided narratives. I think we should always give the benefit of the doubt to the professionals who are working every day to keep us safe. Let me turn to mr. Smith for any comments you would like to make before turning to our witness. I want to echo the comments about how important this region is. The challenges are great. The issue i want to highlight and have the general discussion as we continue in iraq, the problem continues to be that the baghdad government is not inclusive enough of the sunni population. Tribal leaderunni the other day. Obviously the Prime Minister is trying, there has not been much improvement. There is a sense that baghdad is closer to iran than their own sunni population. Until we fix that problem, if you have a disgruntled pushed aside sunni population in iraq, you will have Fertile Ground for al qaeda and extremists that want to exploit it. I am curious what we are doing intointegrate the sunnis the baghdad government so that it is not sectarian, but a government for iraq. With that, i think the general for his service and look forward to the testimony. Without objection your written statement will be entered into the record. You are recognized for any oral comments you would like to make. For the members of the committee, i want to highlight we have put a map at each of your spaces. There is coverage on both sides. The backside focuses on iraq and syria. Red blots highlight where we think isis is located currently. Distinguished members of the committee, good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to appear to discuss the state of readiness of u. S. Central command. I come on behalf of the outstanding men and women of the command military, civilians and contractors, along with coalitions and partners from 60 patients. Our people are the best in the world. Could not be more proud of themi or their families. Without question, they are the strength of our Central Command team. Over the past 12 months we have dealt with significant challenges in afghanistan, pakistan, yemen, egypt, sinai, and elsewhere throughout our area of responsibility. We are making progress in many areas. But much work remains. We are also dealing with maligned activities by iran and its proxies operating in the region. It is my view that iran poses the greatest longterm threat to stability in this part of the world. Generally speaking, the central reason remains a highly complex area, widely characterized by pervasive instability and conflict. The fragile security environments that reflect intervening factors such as heightened effort knowsectarian tensions, economic uncertainty, weak or corrupt governance, civil wars and unitarian exploited by extremist organizations and terrorist groups such as al qaeda and that isis. Our interest abroad in the interest of partners and allies at the same time, the Central Region is increasingly crowded with external nationstates such as russia and china, who are pursuing their own interests in attempting to shift alliances within the region. Is,point i would emphasize while there may be other more strategic or consequential threats to regions in our world, today the Central Region of come to represent a nexus for security challenges our nation faces. Threats inantly, the this region continue to pose the most direct threat to the u. S. Homeland and global economy. Thus, and must remain a priority and be resourced appropriately. We appreciate this committees continued strong support and particularly as it pertains to our budget request and the funding provided. But across centcom, the department of defense. We could not do what we do on a daily basis without that support. Meanwhile, the team at u. S. Central command is focus on doing what is necessary to protect our natural interests and those of our partners. Our strategic approach is straightforward, prepare, pursue, prevail. We prepare the environment to ensure an effective posture and strong relationships across the region. We actively pursue opportunities to strengthen relationships and support our interest. When we do put our forces into action, we prevail in our assigned missions. I would also point out to you that today, to the credit and professionalism of our armed forces and Coalition Partners, we are executing campaigns in the Central Region with significantly fewer u. S. Forces on the ground than in previous years. As you are seeing clearly demonstrated in iraq and syria, afghanistan, yemen, and area throughout our area of responsibility, we have adopted an approach that puts a heavy reliance on indigenous forces. Well this approach presents moreenges and can be timeconsuming, it is proving effective and is likely to pay significant dividends going indigenous force partners continued to build needed capability and capacity on their personally invested in the conduct of operations and thus inclined to do what is necessary to preserve the gains they have achieved going forward. We also have a vested interest in increased security in strategically important Central Regions. To this end i will close by highlighting three areas where i believe if we apply the appropriate energy and effort we can and will have a lasting positive impact in this part of the world. We must restore trust with partners in the region while at the same time maintain strong trust in our leadership in washington. We cannot surge trust in times of crisis. We must do what is necessary now with our commitment and staying power. Second, we must link military objectives with campaigns as closely as possible with policy objectives into our other instrument of national power. In other words, we must align military objectives and power capabilities with desire national and strategic instincts. Recognizing if we do not do this, we risk creating a space for adversaries to achieve strategic aims. Finally, we must make sure we are postured for purpose in this region. We must have a credible, ready force coupled with Foreign Military financing programs that serve to build and shape partner nation capability in a timely and effective fashion. Ours is a challenging and important mission. Much is at stake in the Central Region. We recognize this fact and i assure you that the centcom team stands ready and willing to do what is necessary to protect our National Interests and the interests of our allies and partners. Thise close by thinking committee once again for the strong support you continue to teamde to the worldclass in the United States Central Command and our forces in the region. 80,000 less sailors, airmen, coast guardsmen and civilians that make up the command are truly the very best in the world at what they do. I cannot be more proud of them and their families. I know that you are proud of them as well. Thank you, i look forward to answering your questions this morning. General. You, you are right, we share your pride in them and what they do. Briefly before, you expressed interest in addressing some of the press stories regarding civilian casualties, especially in mosul. Let me invite you to do that at this point. Gen. Votel thank you mr. Chairman, i appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about this up front. First off i want to emphasize to everybody here, all the members, that these are tragic and heartbreaking situations. Our hearts go out to the people of the mosul and other places we are operating. We had knowledge are operating to a higher standard. I ensure that our forces operate in accordance with goals and and standards. We take every allegation seriously and we are executing what we have and a welldeveloped process to assess, and if necessary, investigate each allegation. How we do things are as important as the things we do. We are doing everything humanly possible to prevent these type of events and incidents occurring from a result of our operations. Commentse with the from our commander on the ground in iraq when he said there is a fair chance our operations may have contributed to civilian casualties. That i would highlight to each of you that this investigation continues, and there is still much to learn from this. We have a general officer assigned to help us address and understand and discover the facts of this case. We were able to visit the actual site yesterday and get additional evidence and perspective on this situation. In addition, we are reviewing over 700 weapons videos over 810 day period to a 10 ensure we understand the effects of the munitions we drop in this facility. This should be an indicator to you of how intensive a combat situation this is. The investigation will look at command and control, the munitions we employed, importantly, it will look at the behavior of the enemy and how our actions may have played a role in any civilian casualties. The investigation will confirm or deny. It is important to recognize the enemy does use human shields, has little regard for human life, and does it tempt to use civil casualty accusations to hinder our operations. They bear responsibility for this, as well. The nature of this fight has evolved in this two and a half year campaign. Of how we have evolved has been our effort to enable and entrust our leaders with a capital edge with authorities they need to help our partners when. We have not relax to the rules of engagement. The deploymented of rules of engagement to the appropriate level, due to the tough urban fight we knew was coming in mosul. To be clear, there were no changes in the rules of engagement that we are allowed to engage. We are aware of all of the reporting, especially from organizations like amnesty international, the center for civilians in conflict, and the syrian observatory for human life rights. We look forward to working with them as we complete this investigation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Thornberry let me ask about a couple things you said. As you recognize, there is widespread reporting the rules of engagement have changed and the implication is now we are fearlessly dropping bombs and killing civilians. I thought i heard you pretty clearly, the rules of engagement have not changed. Is that correct . Gen. Votel that is correct, mr. Chairman. Mr. Thornberry and you have a long experience in iraq dealing with this enemy. Describe their ability to create further that they see as in their interest . One example that stuck out in my mind, i remember in iraq after a raid or something, the enemy came and deposited dead bodies and then brought cameras in to make it look like they had been killed as a part of the raid, when in fact, they had not. They were brought in after the fact. Can you describe the sophistication of their efforts . Gen. Votel thank you, mr. Chairman. I agree with you. The enemy we have faced in afghanistan and iraq, syria and other places are particularly savvy and how they use information operations. Isis is well skilled in this. They have professionals who have expertise in this particular area so they know how to manipulate the information environment and create situations that they know will cause concern for us in western countries. As i mentioned in my comments to you, i do believe they do concern touse our operate at Higher Standards and prevent civilian casualties as a way to distract our campaign. It is important we recognize that. That has not changed how we approach things, does not change our values, adherence to law, and the fact that we do operate at a higher standard. It is an important thing to recognize about our enemy. Mr. Thornberry i will conclude by saying, we want to be informed of the results of the investigation. We share your commitment to make sure we do things the right way. But the investigation needs to a core, and then you see what it finds. I will trust you and your folks to keep us fully informed once you are able to reach conclusions on that. Let me yield to the Ranking Member. Thank you, if you could answer the question i raised in my Opening Statement about where the sunni population of iraq is that now. It sounds like it is still a very deep divide. While i concur with the chairmans comments about civilian casualties and most of, i know the sunni population is concerned about the fight that is going on there and the loss of life that is happening on both sides. Aboutre also concerned the shia militias, iranianbacked militias in the general feeling that this continues to be a shiarun country that is not making room for the sunnis. That undermines our entire effort to defeat these groups. Fact, is it an inaccurate or trick, and what are we trying to do to fix what problems remain . Gen. Votel i would characterize it, in the near term as iraq and coalitions confronted the isis enemy they are dealing with, there has been a level of local accommodations, cooperation and collaboration between different groups focused on doing this. I would cite our continued efforts to raise tribal forces to bring them into these areas, particularly sunni areas after they have been cleared. We have seen some success with that. Longterm there is still much work to be done. In my interactions with the Prime Minister we frequently talked about this. He is very concerned about it. Recognizes the balance that will have to be achieved here in the region with a variety of different interests that are ongoing. He clearly recognizes that. I agree with you, more will need to be done to ensure the sunni population feels engaged, empowered, and a part of the government of iraq and the iraqi people. Mr. Smith the issue oarming the kurds or other sunni tre wasruraon pressed that they were not le to t e msirtly and it is our posion, o countrys position that all tt s to go through baghdad i understand thato a certa degree, is that accurate . How is that impacting th abitto arm the kurds and sunni tribesmeweant toig with us . Gen. Votel i believe we made go progrs on tt er the last year. There certainly were some issues with that in theasin terms of how it was done. As we got focused on the i think werom oso saw hi levelf collaboration and cooperation between the kurdistanegional government and theovernmt iraqas they prepared their anand forces for that opation. I ulhighlight that one of the key ccse he,hiha influence the governme of hh level of coordination that took pce at e military level and secury gseasha opeti underway and continues to this da i lieve ats bas for movingorrd. Thatai iisomhi we continue to ke our eye o and movg to syria as people prepare for the a,ou have the kus and turks iold t they do not get involved get on we are trying to figure out what our coalition is inyr, particularly raqqa. What are we ing about the serbs and rd there is engagement onheigpolitical level taking place. The chairman has been a champi fo us in working wit us at the defee level back a fth from a centcom standpoint working with eopn mmd have increased our visibility in ankara on what we are dng. Weecognize it tks interest and concernwi u th are areat ptner, we could not my things who them. Thmoffti force we have right now inyr ithyrn Democratic Forces that consist ofot kur,ra, rkh men, and some chstian organizations. Mr. Ithank y, yield back. Mr. Orer mr. Hian wand get yr perspective on what might happen t fur we s tay sucssappening in most sold with pushg t and deang isifoes bh thur forces and iraqi rc. The question becom, at happens after that . While isis is a ccern, i beev Iranianbacked Shia milita grouparanven greater concern. We do not hear a lot about tha toy but i believe they are a significant concern. The commander of the sa lint groups in that region, i believe wi iranian backing has visionabt whatou b happening in the futurassi isoved out. Speak, iran and iraq have common iertsndefeating isis. Once isis is defeate iran has mind to recreate the shia crescent through that region. Isis and thet question about how governc takes place after that wh the exisng government in iraq, wh do you see ashe future with us ultite deang isis, and what happens with these iranianck sa militant groups, and what happens there withhe ira government in trying to reestablish some type of government icorowi those regions witht is . Thank you coressman. I share your concern autra and longterm intentions. Ith 100,000 plus shia membs on trodhiis exaoinarily aigoncern as we move forward. Hembassy is welling gauge with the governmentraf iraq as they eage pamility w in their country. E immist has appointed a coite to work thrghhi aspect. Weavprid aice and examples of how we empy tional guas here anhowe would look at that. S thathe paramilitary fcedoot become dupliti tthe coterterrorism surface or iraq there is a valid role for them and they do answer to the government and remain, like the other services, and a political entity apolitical entity. Mr. Wittman staying on the themof iran, looking in the hadian gulf and where we active attack vessels swarm a ship, there is a concern about that connued efforanwhat they are trying to achieve wit that. Or what our action actions mit. Explain the frequency of tse tacks. What is iran trying to achieve withhat . Those maneuvers as i see tm, e dicative of what iran is likely to try to achie in th area, that is to harass our shifts enough to fend us off. What do you think the iranians are trng to achieve their, and what are wtrngo t prevent that. Think iran was to be the regional hegemon. The is no doubt about that. Th i what ey are pursuing. One of the first thingi d after boming commander at centcom igo throu t thits of pmen iranians did not disappoint. Wead both suou us in the area. We had cnctobserve our ship captain and how they respond. Since then iav had chance to see norl repos i i am extraordinarily conde in our leaders and their capabilities to properly defend emselves. Presence of these vot is very seldom if ever preventing us froacmpshing our missions. What they are out there do is demonstrate their presence, the procative. Look over theoue of the course of a year, i think u e probably 30 plus indes this type of nature, and a 15 wld classify as being abnormal, outside the normal pattern of li. They areional, meaning not followin maritime procedures, or unsaf mning they put themselves or our vessel and crews at risk. We are payingxtraordinarily close attention tohisndur ability to protect ourselvesnd rsue our missions. Mr. Ttman r. Hairman, i yield back. Orer m davis. Tha y for yr service. I want to turn to afghanta a theind ofupport russians sending to thtaliban and h dect is their involvement, what does it mean about the ongoing conflict there . Wdootel he is a t nokn aut what rsiis doing. It is fair to assu ty y providing some ndf pport to tm in tes wpons or other things that may there. That is a psibility. Wh russiis attpting to do is be an infriement influeial pay ts rt of the world. They have ncernsecset is close to sovi states they nsered to be within their sphere. There is concern abo tt. It to beconsider helpfutohat we come of coalio has bn ying to accomplish for some time now in afghantan. Ms. Davis could you share wh your share ofhat acmpshment that you can share in this settg . Gen. Votel we are at a stalematright now. It is generally in favor of the , butnment of afghanistan still may have aendency to decline over time. To continue to support this. Weave twoissionsn afghanistan. E our counterterrorism mission, fully resoued ats ing pretty well. I fe cfident in that. Isonher the nato e we ought to consider looking at our objectives and how we ntueo ppt that mission heingorwardnd ense government of afghanistan has thti a capabilieto comp us what they need to. Vi carly, e governnt sees it as imptant. We have been working on that for meime. But there a gre dl of concern that it has not been as robust as is need tt setting. I am n sure i wou believe th is going to increase. Think it could deease. Can you comment on that and e portance of the mission . Gen. Vot that is certainly a topiunr discussion now with the secreta of defense, general nicholn d myse. We are in the process of going through a review of our ste in afghanistan and how we have to look at that going foar predecisional at this point. I would not want to announce anythi iparticular but it is a key topic and one for secretary matus mattis, has been engaged in. Ms. Davis not been hey have filling all the positionfo that region. Mitarys more covered than other partments. You feel these gaps are becomiroblematic . Wh should we be doing about it . Ge votel iavthe bef of having a cabinet secretary o prevus held myob ueran the regn at am operating in right now. Weave a rypen and communicative relationshipe. I fe m tting everything i needrom the deptment head this point in time. Been disadntedhi the traitn comptes and ts put in ple. Ms. Davis to foowp my colleaguesueioabt how we are planning for what comes ne in iraq what igog look like . What ithextent of at planning . How would u see thatight now . Mentioned in my openg aten it has to involve more than just mility. My advice to the secrery and chairman as we begin to look at how weovforwarin these areas, my principal piece of advices at we have to look at a political preparation o sure we ared make adesng some of these longtm issues le we tke about a few moments ago, to how we accommodate dfent par of the population, a plan for governance. There was a lot the military can do but it is extornaly important tt our diplomats and other encies are iolved i this particular process. Y question is, are th . Ge vel ielieve they are. I am confident we are working with ourarers onhis. Ms. Davis thank you. Mr. Ornberry r. Cofa thankou for youlo service ts untry. The ideaasaised earlier about the concerns of the sunni pulati. Thfa is th aer we left the country in 2011, t shiadominat government resorted to worst tendencie and pu dn e sunni arabs and toated an opengor isis gocrs the border from syria and capture those areas wh tt to no resistance because there s simp nloyalty to the government out of bhd. In the iraqi constitution there was a provision insisted by the kurds that allows provinces to ba together and create semi autonomous regions. Should in fact of the sunni ars look at that . Shld we encourage tt . Iteems that without aas where they have some s, ty are only 20 of the pulio in theiruture,ssentially right now all theevue at is just treedy e Central Government out of bada it is a ugh decisi they are in. You have vi othat particular issue . Is onel our policy ir right now. As we apply our mitary operations that is theonxt in which we do that. I would agree with you that there has toe ve serious look at this and we have to ensurehathdifferent parts of iraq are represted in their and other things, their lirynd other security apparatuses and other aspects. They have an opportunity to take vaage of the Economic Opportunity available in iraq. A much there has to be broar scussion aut how we do that. I had hoped that was sothg r vernment would look at fromour sit standpoint, a plomatic standpoint. It is still the vertically integrated government we had left in place prior to the fall of saddam hussein, where all decisions were centrizouof baghdad. Taxation system of at the provinclev. Oink a denalization authority that the kurds now eny ulbe great for the sunni ara a iould like that to beomethi tt look a my meexpre concerns, having served their in 2005 and006 for thmarine corps that the Ranking Member prsedn that thiis a tough situation for the sunni arabs tt regi. The fricti betwe thesehe emilys d the ca populati is not toe discounted. Again, it is an alienation fr every feeling that they are a partfheraqi government. Thank you mrchrm, yield back. Mr. Thornberry mr. Larsen . Thank you for coming toda initially to answer your first queson abo the most soul incident, you said you would asss if necearand investigate. Can you help me understand tt distinction from your perspective . Absolutely. This is unfortunatelyot the first time we have had allegaons of civilian casualties in centcom. Hows a process in place for we standardize and look athi it starts out with the receipt of an allegati. We get them from the news, soal media, people on the stet, much of it is selfreported. At wdo then is what we call a credibily asseme. Thinntion there is to do an initialeview t facts and circumstances to mit and mak a determination about whether we ne toveo a full investigation. Wmake that termination we moved to investigati. For the incintut i was talking about herin mos o weave taken that step and dede as geral towns acowdged, there might be something here. Ere is a fr an he may have contributed to th. So now we mod t investigation phase. It will be aorfoaled approach to look into the details of this as much as we happens,tablish what what t facts are, identify accountability, and the lessons leard t of that. You mentioned on the crer, theris command and control and a few others. What we those . At. Votel we will look command and control, the intelligen whad. This was a very dynamic situation. This was an evolving combat situatn. Weill take a look at t intelligence tt s provided to us by the iraqis we h. T emy costs a reactions here and tryo detandxalyhe re this. We wl look at e nitionwe employed here, d wl ok at the fusg tis. We do have the technology largely supported byongres to veunitions that can be specific. As you hea ger tmpson say yesterday, it should t have crated the effects that ve beeobserved. That causes us tlo at th and see if there are oer in that may have contributed to that, as well. What we do is try to be more compten e investigation. It takes a little time but we uslly have aooaner at the end of it. Mr. Laen thanks. Can i swchears t yemen . Theyou briefly describe u. S. Security jectiv i yemen for us . Thanks. El i think there are o incipal interests in yemen right now. One is that yemen is not used as a platform or sanctuary for attacks on the held. Qaedaets your focus oal in the arabian pensula. Iss a franchise of al qaeda that hemstrated the ability to attack our mend me of those people still exists tre. Th ia key aspect of our interest tre lereoced on disruing qaeda the. The other key interesinhis area is freedom of navigatn. ,t weste cstf men the is a rtrtive strait. It is a chokeoint, i mar transit area for commerce. Not just os,ut ships. 60 or sps go roh ere a day. With the support of iran, a migration of capabilities we previously observed in the straits of hormuz. They had Coastal Defense systems, explosive both, straight from the straits of hormuz to this particular area. Threatening commerce and ships and our security risks. Mr. Larsen do you assess we will be able to stay with those objectives and not be dragged into other people possible goals . Peoples goals . Gen. Votel as you know, there is a civil war between a Saudiled Coalition and an iranianled coalition. We provide indirect support to that. This is something we are paying close attention to. Ouroes have some impact on principal interest in this area so we do have to Pay Attention to that. Mr. Thornberry mr. Cook . Mr. Cook thank you, mr. Chairman. It willext month or so be very intense here in washington and obviously theres been a lot of talk about health care. There is also something in my mind that will have direct implications for you. That is the continuing resolution, the budget we have you. O pass to support i will be candid, you do not have to answer totally. You can see this one coming. But a number of us are very worried about the indicators. We had folks talking about maintenance. Area, largearge military and everything else. Correctly,t do this can you give us an evaluation in terms of readiness, the operations, and ability to conduct your mission . Gen. Votel thank you, congressman. First off, the support i get from the services is extraordinary. Me everything and i am well taken care of. I share your concern on impacts of continued resolution, that provide capabilities that a commander like myself needs to have. I am concerned when we cannot pursue longterm programs and fund them and approach them over time. I am concerned with the impacts that continue on resolutions and other instruments have had on readiness. What the marine corps provides in my area. They do not come with the same number of helicopters we have had in the past. I believe that is a readiness issue and affects my flexibility, agility, and reaction to the area. I am concerned about this. Necessarilyll not come to me, a goes to the people that provide me with the capabilities i need to pursue our objectives. I am very concerned about this. Mr. Cook i want to switch gears. I am also on Foreign Affairs. We have the issue that continually pops up about Foreign Military sales. Last year, look at the replacement for the saudis, the number of m1 battle tanks they had lost. There was a question about yemen and the toll it is taking their. There. Do you influence at all which state department, foreign sales, particularly for some of our allies that would contribute to your ability to conduct your mission . Gen. Votel we absolutely do. We do it through security cooperation, offices located in many of these countries, almost all the countries we have here. I share your concern about this. Fms are extraordinarily important programs for us. I want to build capabilities for partners to do the things to provide their own security and be integrated with us. I am concerned when we choose not to sell our systems. They would go somewhere else to get them. They will get lesser systems, they will not get their training, and we will not be integrating. That does not help us. We have to recognize this is an important part of our cooperation aspect and we cannot completely define our fms systems at something to change peoples behavior. It has to be focused on building capability, in my mind. Mr. Cook thank you for your service and candor. I yield back. I was wondering if you could clarify what is going on in terms of increased deployments in syria . This month, from a variety of news outlets. It was a reported 400 marines were deployed, a new contingent of marines this month. Why was that decision made and what is their mission . What we are constantly doing, this is an evolving campaign. Changes, we change, and the system changes on the ground. Assess what our requirements are and how we best support our partners through our approach and make sure we have capabilities to fully enable them and help them win. There is a process of assessing what we need. Leaders that our provide rationale for additional capabilities and that we have very clear roles and missions for the things we are bringing forward. We do have a deliberate process. What you have seen here are not just things that came up relatively quickly. These are things we have anticipated for some time. You cited the marines and artillery organizations. We have recognize that as we continue to pursue military objectives in syria, we will need more direct, all weather fire support capability for our Syrian Democratic force partners. That is what you are seeing. They are helping us with that particular aspect and helping us with logistics capability in syria. Syria is a fairly immature area for us in terms of that. We do have a big infrastructure like we have in iraq or other places. So we need help in those particular areas. What i can assure you, there is a rationale and specific rules for all of these capabilities we are bringing. Mr. Courtney thank you for that answer. I do not want to secondguess your military judgment. It sounds like they are starting to get more deeply involved in the fight in raqqa. We voted a couple years ago on a Defense Authorization bill to extend title x. As someone that supported that, it was not about boots on the ground, direct military involvement. But this sound like we are creeping in that direction. Gen. Votel congressman, what i would tell you is that we have not taken our eye off our principal mission, to advise, assist, enable our partners. I think that is what you continue to see with all of these deployments right here. One of our key principles is to help our partners fight, but not fight for them. To bringtinue additional capabilities in, these are things we emphasize. Mission to into our advise, assist, enable our partners. There is a larger question, the authorization of use of force is long overdue to revisit. But that is our problem, not on your side. In the time you have been a Central Command, the carrier gap phenomenon has been occurring from 2007 to 2015. We had continuance presence of carriers and airstrikes against isis. How are you coping with that . Gen. Votel thank you for bringing it up. It is another example of potential he potential readiness concerns. We work through our air and maritime commanders. Occasion brought in Additional Air force organizations to help fill in the gap in those cases. We just completed that with a squadron from the United States the cayman and did an exceptional job for us for 90 days. We also look to our allies in this. French, have sent some of their ships to this area to make up this gap as well. This is a constant management process for us. We expect to do this in this environment. We are looking for ways to balance out what our requirements are with the whole joint and combined force available to us. Mr. Courtney thank you. Dr. Wenstrup. we perceive we are in the process of increasing our or our allies capabilities in the fight against isis right now. I am curious. What is the conduit for this committee to get some knowledge on the number of personnel needed . Number, need an exact we end up using contractors instead of our troops which cost more, but i am trying to get understanding of what you need as far as personnel and where we need to execute the mission so we can somewhat justify the expenditures that may be involved with that . A closedl we have session right after this and i would be happy to talk with you in great detail about the advice i provided what we think we need and what we talked about with our leadership. Dr. Wenstrup i appreciate that. A generalestion, mentioned russias influence in afghanistan increasing. What is your understanding of their influence and how has it changed . It has not significantly altered our approach of this particular point. What they are attempting to do is to be an influential in afghanistan. I think they are reaching out to the taliban and they have made the decision under their own determination that the government of afghanistan and the coalition that supports them is unable to solve the concern about isis. They have much more concerned about isis and the potential that has to move to Central Asian states and have an impact on them. Narrativecreated a that you have to partner more with the taliban to address this particular threat. They are trying to leverage that into a bigger role to pursue peace agreements with the taliban. Frankly i do not consider that to be helpful to what weve been doing in the process we have been using. Dr. Wenstrup does that change your behavior in any way . Gen. Votel i do not think it has changed our behavior. We have been working with our afghan partners, focused on the Islamic State as it has emerged in afghanistan. We have had a significant amount of success against them. From 15 districts they were operating into about two. We are targeting their leaders, we have consistent pressure on them all the time. It has not impacted our approach. Dr. Wenstrup thank you, general. I appreciate it. I yield back. It is good to have you with us today. I appreciate your taking the time and want to thank you for your service to the nation as well as the remarkable women and men serving in some of the most contested parts of the world. We are forever grateful. I read your written remarks, which i think illustrate so clearly the threats posed by isil, al qaeda and other affiliated groups. Easy clear there are no answers given the seriousness and complexity of the challenge to reverse isiss gains. But i am concerned about the steady buildup of u. S. Forces in the region, in syria. We had a discussion about the authorization for military force, something general mattis called for last week. I was glad to see that. I am concerned that appointment may lead to an expansive, openended commitment. You called it in the evolving campaign that could have longterm consequences, raising substantial and unpredictable risks that have not been fully considered or endorsed by congress as a whole. I am also mindful of the human toll in countries where we are raising a fight against isil, and how mounting human casualties, tragic in and of themselves, can work against our longterm interest in setting the conditions for stability. Ppreciate your redressing addressing it in your opening remarks. But i also appreciate the important Work International groups are playing in monitoring civilian casualties. As reported in the Washington Post yesterday, according to a group you are familiar with, a british monitoring group, the frequency of civilian deaths linked to u. S. Strikes in iraq and syria has outpaced those linked to russia. The scrutiny has been compounded by a string of highprofile reported u. S. Attacks in both countries, including assault on a mosque, a school, and most recently a building apparently used as a shelter in the rocky city of mosul that is currently being investigated, appropriately so. Se reports come alongside they are considering relaxing rules of engagement put in place by the obama administration, which made an f at avoiding civilian deaths. There has not been such a change. Takeaid the coalition will extraordinary measures to avoid harming civilians. Can you tell us how you balance the pursuit of important military perspectives objectives with those measures . And fighting an enemy that increasingly puts civilians in harms way, how much risk should the u. S. And its civilian Coalition Partners except in limiting air or artillery strikes where it may be difficult to confirm civilian presence, especially in mosul, where civilians have been directed to shelter in place . There are so many still there. It seems to be an extraordinary challenge. I am curious to how you are thinking this through to minimize civilian casualties. Thank you, congresswoman for your question. We have provided very clear and concise guidance to our commanders in the field. The principal way we are addressing this is by entrusting enabling are well experienced and trained leaders on the ground. They are the best guard against this. We have seen this in the past and we will see it in the future. Their judgment and experience is the best to ensure this. I have seen commanders very close to this. The key thing we do emphasize to them is that we go to war with our values. A higherurselves to accountability, a higher standard with respect to this. And we always operate within the law of Armed Conflict. We do everything we can to prevent this. What we try to do is work that through our leadership and ensure they understand the obligation that we all expect, and that as they carry out these obligations in what are extraordinarily complex and difficult situations, that theyre are making the best judgments and decisions that they can based on the information they have. Cases theyre making the right calls. I visit iraq every month and speak to our teams. I hear about operations we support. At the same pate pace i hear about operations where we strike, i hear ones where we choose not to strike because we did not have good situational awareness. I think we will trust our processes and people and put emphasis on. Mr. Russell. Y mr. Russell thank you, good to see you again. It is, were not seeing a never ending increase, we are recovering from a massive decrease of engagement in the region. Ago,s not that many years six. Because of that decrease, we see iraq in the throes of the civil war, syria in the throes of civil war, yemen, the area destabilized. It is making a whole number of things harder to deal with. Plus distancing our allies in saudi arabia and egypt, not to mention other Coalition Partners on a whole number of other affairs. I tend to disagree with some of in that view. Here with regard to collateral damage, no one cares more about civilian casualties in the United States military. No one. No one takes more pain or more effort to prevent the needless loss of life. No one has the systems in place to prevented the things that we do in our targeting systems and everything else. Errors about our own because it is us who expose them, discover them, try to refine them. A bashing of into those in uniform and needless loss of civilian casualties or somehow suggesting that we are causing more civilian deaths than the russians, i challenge that and defy that. I reject that. I do not think it reflects anything to our practices as a nation, or certainly our men and women in uniform. Need to use the other instruments of national power. There are a number of areas we see a need to do that. You have spoken to a lot of them. But one of the most troubling things that gets the least amount of attention is the yemen. Now slipsee the gulf into a possible future hormuz strait. There are serious implications. 60 of the human population is malnourished. We have opportunities to do it lot of good things with the president and other efforts. Sales beingary , if you could have the support for the Coalition Efforts as well as centcom efforts, what would you want it to look like . Other than just a military . Gen. Votel thank you, congressman. One thing to address as you have civil conflict. Difficult for us to be persistent in our efforts against al qaeda. It has caused us to break relationships we had with Yemeni Forces and given rise to the threat we have already talked about this morning in the red sea, an area where we have 60 to 70 ships go through every day. Not just u. S. But International Ships go through there. The thing we have to continue to efforts, our diplomatic to resolve that conflict as quickly as we can. Table. Ll help set the things we canaps assist with on the military aside to bring that forward without becoming enmeshed in a civil conflict. We should consider those things. I have talked with our ambassador on a regular basis, he is excellent. He is extraordinarily engaged and we have to continue to press in this particular area. Department,her state and others to help us move through. Mr. Russell do you still see a base of report support . A lot of report has been built over decades and much is lost if we see things tip toward of rebels and al qaeda getting leverage. In thegagement population, assisting them and feeding them, could you speak to that . I do and we have very good partners in the area. Certainly saudi arabia on the united arabnd the emirates have been extraordinary partners and they have good see theships so i do ability to reestablish some of these partnerships again. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman and votel for youral great insights today. Switch back to iran for a moment. You said you believe iran is one of the greatest threats to the today so if thats true and your assessment is true that their overall objective is to be powerful in the region, and to pursue this end, do you has increased destabilizing activity since the howa and if they have, should we react to these alleged activities without risking conflicts and other in the region . Congresswoman, i do believe they have. Believe that iran is operating what i call a gray between its an area normal competition between states and just short of open and they are exploiting this area in a variety of different ways. Raisingit through surrogate forces. They do it through lethal aid facilitation. Through their own cyber activities and they do it through their influence operations and i think they are thisly focused in particular area and i think they have their efforts have particularn this area. I think the things we need to do i think there are three broad things and ive had an opportunity to talk with our it. Onal partners about i think we need to look at opportunities to disrupt through means,y means or other their activities, particularly their facilitation aspects here. Look atwe need to opportunities where we can expose and hold them accountable for the things that they are doing. That has to be done. For thee to account for destabilizing role that they are playing in the region right now and finally i think we do have to address their revolutionary ideology and that has to be addressed and certainly we play a role in that but others in the do, as well. Iran has a role in the region. Theres no doubt about that. And i want to be clear that we think differently about the people of iran than we think the leadership of iran, the revolutionary council that runs iran. Mind, those are two very distinct things and our concern is not with the people of iran is with their revolutionary government. Thank you. Switch a little bit to the greater geopolitical tensions in the region. Is terrorism really the most pressing threats emanating from the middle east . Way to exertr best our influence, if thats true, against those threats . Congresswoman, i think terrorism is what it being of what areut really deep underlying issues that pervade this region. Some serious sectarian issues across the region that have to be addressed. There are disenfranchised populations. There is economic disparity between governments and the they lead and so these deep, underlying issues, many cases still remain across the region and those have to be those have to be addressed and i think the way this being manifest is in violent extremism, when we of isis, when you look at why that came up, the desire for young men and in some cases young women to join organizations like al qaeda or isis. Job. Are looking for a theyre looking for money. Theyre looking for relationships. Economicooking for opportunity that may not exist in their community. Deep underlying issues that have to be addressed in this region that give rise to these threats that we are focused on so i dont want to give the impression that beating will remove at threat but it wont solve many of the underlying challenges in region. Ticular that will take more work. So considering that were a billo be creating fairly soon, where do we best this . R resources to fight what do you need . Think weveoman, i identified, i need, from a need to standpoint, i be able to sustain the operations that we have ongoing and syrialike iraq and really across the region. Theed to ensure that services, that army, navy, air marines, that provide capabilities have the resources develop the capabilities and the resiliency within their formations to me things. Ovide those are the key things that im thinking about right now in terms of the resources that i need moving forward. You. Ank ms. Mcsally. Do you know how many civilians have been killed by isis in iraq and syria . Knowngresswoman, i do not that number. Theres media reports. Id love to hear back from you is. Hat you think the number but its in the tens of thousands, is that probably fair . I think thats fair. Thank you. And having spent a lot of time in the targeting process, shooting 30 million meter out of a10 all the way working all up into the con level, in ourhrough great pains targeting cycle to make sure we agreement with laws. If we have a legitimate target, we do everything we can to minimize casualties but were not allowed to target civilians. We never target civilians. Targeting civilians . I believe they are. Absolutely. Law of violation of the Armed Conflict to have human shields . Yes, it is. So isis is violating a lot of Armed Conflict. For my colleagues, the standard the loac is that we make precautions towards limiting civilian casualties while were hitting legitimate targets. The last administration went above and beyond this, farther ever seen before in my 26 years in the military using that no civilians will be killed. I agree with some retired recently general dunlap published something a few days ago on this, that if we are not hitting legitimate military targets and allowing these terrorists continuing to live, allowing them to continue to sill kill civilians. Enables them to continue terrorist activities to export so whather places general dunlap calls a moral us doing inaction, of nothing on legitimate targets because of near certainty from my view, allows terrorists free reign to tens of to kill thousands of civilians and isis shieldsey can use human to avoid being hit. Its their air defense system. Additionally, its my view, as we move closer into urban theyreinto mosul, and using human shields, civilian casualties will go up. Ofs is a horrible element war and isis started this year so do you agree that the high weel of ridiculous standard had previously has created this behavior by isis that they take humanthey shields, theyll avoid being struck and this is adding to the problem . Do believe they understand our sensitivity to civilian casualties and theyre as we movethat and into urban environments, it will be more and more difficult to apply extraordinarily high standards for the things that were doing although we will try. Thank you. Continuing to to talk with you in the classified realm but this whole line of thinking that somehow because were engaging the enemy and thertunately again investigations ongoing on the latest attack, somehow its our thet that as were engaging enemy, that perhaps civilians are being killed either by because the enemy is using a tactic that actually has them become part of the target. That is on them, not on us. If we then move back further and terrorists to live to fight another day because of this narrative, then were going moretually open up civilians to be killed by these terrorists. Is that a fair line of thinking . Concern,e your congresswoman. Great, thank you. I also want to ask, and maybe the classifiedr setting, when were identifying combatants and noncombatants, a pet peeve of mine. Btvs and id be in would hear the terminology of whether theres women and men. Ren versus theyre combatants and noncombatants and what we saw in of womenwe had a bunch shooting at our troops. Thats been reported in the media. Thatn you confirm with me were still using the terms, and andanalysis of combatants noncombatants and were not assuming that because youre a woman youre not a combatant . Is not the law of Armed Conflict. We do look at it this way. Thank you. Thanks, mr. Chairman, i yield back. General votel, welcome back before the committee. Testimonyu for your and your service and the men and women who serve under you. Do tograteful for all you defend the nation. As our sovereign capabilities maturing particularly with u. S. Cyber command stood up and of cyberand deploying mission teams, can you please discuss with us your views on our cyber of operations against isil, how effective theyve been and what to enhance done them . Thank you, congressman. I look forward to talk about this in a classified setting, as well. Here is i can tell you i think with the great support of admiral rogers and the team command, we have forged a close relationship between com, Cyber Command and their subordinate elements and i socomin there, as well, that has allowed us to use to have effects against this particular enemy and i do think were starting where we didnt have much experience and we are creating effects on the ground. I would share with you that this is an extraordinarily, extraordinarily savvy enemy. Capabilities in this area and we will need to continue to evolve in this. Also add that some of our Coalition Partners have unique capabilities in this area been wellave integrated into this, as well. Beginningink we are to have good effects with this but there certainly is more that we need to do. Good. I look forward to following up and getting more details in the classified session. In yoursk you this, opinion, is the current joint and force areas of command control construct effective, efficient, synchroanized and flicted with other operations taking place in the and also,sponsibility how would you characterize support and integration with u. S. Cyber com . I think theyre excellent in both cases. In fact, when we recently hosted downgressional delegation talk about what were doing, we invited them to be part of that. The integration has been jtf airies andh the leadership there at Cyber Command and in that particular organization have been extraordinarily well engaged with us. You. Ank another topic. We, obviously, rely heavily on forial Operations Forces operations around the globe. The authorities and capabilities socom allow us to keep the outprint small and carry unique activities. However, that utility may have overreliance on soft. Socom commander com commander,nt observations and what can we do to decrease the need around the globe . We wanted to do everything we combatantupport other commanders and general thomas and i have i think a very strong relationship. Frequently. And i think we have been able to manage theways to force moving forward here so i support obviously, the very continued support of them. I will tell you, one of the things that does concern me a bit about socom and some of the unique capabilities that they have is that many of them heavily leveraged in oco. Very unique capabilities and we can talk about this in a classified heavily are very leveraged in oco and that concerns me about the sustainability. Socomcerns me as commander and now as centrom commander. I am concerned about that. I think we need to stabilize to give socomt the things they need to serve the nation. Beyond that, congressman, one of am most proud of being the socom being the commander is the close relationship between our soft forces and conventional forces. Almost indistinguishable how they are able to operate and that comes for a variety of reasons. Experience over the last 15 or 16 years working together and the fact that a lot leaders know each other not just professionally but personally. Thei want to assure committee and i want to assure the American People that we are fighting the enemy together. Not fighting each other here. Casehat was not always the in the military but i am very ased with how our quendle conventional and soft forces are together. Ry closely very good, general. As a former socom commander, i have great confidence that youll balance that force just right. I look forward to the classified session. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Votel for your leadership and your team. Inmany challenging problems your a. O. R. , not just one, two, three i know you and your very hard and we appreciate it. Ofecially with the comments some of our colleagues that say we need to get a congressional authorization for force, i think do. I think what we did in 2001 and 2003 are applicable and i feel like weve got to work towards that in congress and i also want to say that i agree with your iran. Ts on i think your right on target. There, i deployment in there 2007,s our, i believe half of servicemen and women were killed theuse of actions by iran, support they gave to shia say 1,000 ofould our men and women were killed due to iranian actions. Question to you is we can do kinetic operations indefinitely with isis or al qaeda but i the end that wins the fight. How do you see a grand strategy or how do you see our grand strategy to defeat these enemies . We have to go after their ideology, their financing, their recruiting. Do you think we have the right strategy . I do, congressman. Outlinewe do have the of a of a good strategy to youre the things that highlighting here. As you are aware, one of the first things that the new did was direct the secretary of defense and upretary of state to come with a plan to address and isis more completely. Acknowledgment that that is the department of defense, department of state, and many others in the think ist i acknowledgment that we do need to do that. We certainly need to go after their finances. Go after where they are physically. We need to go after the conditions that give rise to particular organizations. And so but i would also add thiswe need to go after ideology and there are things that we can do, but there are certainly things that our do. Ners in the region can there are just some things that as a western country, as the not resonate, will as fully as it will from people in the region, with respect to that. The ideology, in my view, is very, very important. And getting after the underlying about that we talked here, i think is ultimately what we really have to focus on. Followon, in 2007 and 2008, we had Great Success sunni tribesse the came over and started helping us against the fight against al qaeda. Think on a grander level we need that sunni help that youre our agreementt with iran i believe undermined the trust of many sunni countries. Ive heard that from many sunni friends because i think they fear iran as much as they do isis in many cases. Have you seen that same trend when you talk to our sunni friends . There concerns with what we did the past two, three years with iran . Undermine ourthat ability to work with sunni friends . Congressman, i have. Ive had sunni leaders and other arab leaders tell me that same know there certainly is a perception out there about that and as you know, oftentimes in manyon is truth quarters. That is why i think one of the key things that we have to emphasize with our people and with our leadership importance of building and rebuilding trust with our partners in the region. There are difficult situations here and theyre not all perfect. Have to, i think it is better to be engaged with them and to be their preferred partner and frankly, the i get when i talk to all of our partners in the region is they do prefer the United States. To have a relationship with us. And so i think we ought to look can take advantage of that moving forward. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and general, thank you for the job youre doing. Im so glad you are there now past trackgiven your record. When it comes to yemen, im that we are taking steps now to support our allies the area and our friends in the area. People fromlked to the emirates, for instance, their concern isnt isis. A concern but theyre concerned about yemen and the iranian proxy war thats going there. How do you evaluate whats going on in yemen . Had a tragic loss of life with the recent raid and regrettable. But i think its very important that were supporting saudi the gulf states and i think its overdo that were doing that. Are your perspectives on yemen . Congressman. As i mentioned a little bit earlier, i think there are vital interests at stake. We dont want yemen to be used as a platform for attacks on our homeland or allies or partners around the globe or in the have to be focused on that. Im extraordinarily concerned contested maritime choke point in the region so our directly impacts National Interests of freedom of navigation, freedom of commerce our Global Economic objectives here so i think we have to be very, very concerned about that. Are somehink there vital aspects of that. All of that is against the backdrop of this civil war that andtalked about here certainly we all understand the implications of becoming involved in those types of activities and if we dont choose to do it militarily, then ways that weok at can try to move forward and try to resolve that situation. Believe that as long as that continues to boil that, it usl impact the ability for otherlly focus on principal interests we have in that part of the world. Obviously Everyone Wants peace in the area and the fighting to stop but until that happens, i think we have to take the side of our friends and so concernedey are that iran is using the Houthi Rebels as a proxy to destabilize and ultimately come after them. Their perspective and while i dont think we need to any kind of boots on the ground, i think as much as we can do with i. S. R. And things that to support our friends critical. Is if you want to better address this in the closed section of the hearing, tell me that. The but is there more that we could be doing . There is and i think this a really good topic in the closed session, congressman. Thank you. Back. Airman, i yield mr. Gallier . Mr. Chairman and thank you, general. A quick followup on yemen. The ongoingnt as fighter there enhanced or aqas power and reach and do you envision a longterm andence for the emirates saudis in yemen and if so, do longterm objectives in yemen align with our own . I think we have before the civil war started it was my estimate that we had a very good focus on al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. The civil war changed our posture there and in the ongoing civil war right there, i do believe al qaeda had an opportunity to prosper and to become stronger and to be resilient and continue pursue their objectives so what you have seen us do here most recently is renew our focus on that and we are doing that our partnersy of in the region. The u. A. E. And saudi arabia among the Principal Partners that were working with with respect to that. Respect to their longterm presence, thats probably a better question for them. Insight intoany what their strategic calculations might be there but most ofas we see in these areas, longterm commitment is usually necessary change conditions. Sure. In syria, russia has seemingly on a longterm commitment bag back to the 1950s. Me that russia and iran are in a Tactical Alliance in syria. They share the same organs. Airpower. Vides do you see evidence of a broader Regional Alliance between russia and iran and if so, what are its manifestations . I think there perhaps could be. Im not sure i see specific of that in other areas but certainly they are cooperating together. Of thisthe implications is things that weve seen. Russian jets operating out of iranian bases. And certainly their cooperation together to prop up the regime give them new life here has an implication of that relationship. So im concerned about that. I think we should be concerned about it. I dont know that we have great insight into what the russian longterm perspective is on that relationship. I, too, am concerned. The rise of the russianiranian access has been the Biggest Development in the region the last couple of years related to the iran deal. Bit of continuity in the region has been a return in ofpt to some form authoritarianism. Can you comment . Debateused a great within Foreign Policy circles, both the left and the right. Can you comment on whether the cooperation you need from a military the cecive from egypt . Ent in i think egypt is an extraordinarily important partner to us. We consider them the gateway into the region. Theyre an extraordinarily important country to them. They have been very helpful in sinai, helping to address threats to the Multinational Force there. Were particularly responsive to our request for assistance there and theyve very, very good very, very good partners there. And you know, while weve had perhaps some differences politically with them, one of the things we have been able to maintain i think is a good militarytomilitary compact and a cent comfrom standpoint, i look forward to continuing to build on that. So from your perspective, the have with egypt is achieving its objectives . I dont know. Because right now we do see instances where countries like egypt and others are reaching military hardware from other countries so i think this goes back to the discussion about f. M. F. R i think our f. M. F. Program accomplishes a lot of purposes out there. One of the principal ones from centcommctive as commander is building capability with our partners, especially to be integrated with our capability to we can operate together. Themwe choose not to allow to buy our systems, they will look other places for this. This isnt necessarily help them get lesser systems, they dont get the sustainment, they dont always get the training. Stuff theyck with cant fully use and its not thinkated with us so i f. M. F. And f. M. S. Are extraordinarily important ourrams that fit into security equation across the region. Thank you, general. Im out of time but i know its your a. O. R. , but maybe afterwards we could talk about to what extent our y. P. G. Int with the syria has affected our howtionship with turkey and the relationship with turkey efforts. Our ill add two points on the f. M. F. Discussion. Say virtually all if not all of our allies are very the process. Th you talked about decisions, absolutely, thats one thing. But then the process being so we ultimately if decide that its in our provides to sell or equipment, has even then its a frustration so our oversight and investigations subcommittee is looking into from our standpoint. Hopeful that a number of members on the Foreign Affairs ammittee will look at it from state department standpoint because i think one of your early points was reestablishing is an important thing to reestablish trust. Mr. Wilson . You, mr. Chairman. General votel, its a great honor to be with you. Its some im with you, reassuring and im also so grateful for the American People hear your service. I appreciate it as a member of appreciated also i it as a fellow veteran but i particularly appreciate your military dad. I always like to recognize your meant so much to our family. My oldest son served for a year, artillery in iraq. My second son was a navy doctor, the rangers in iraq. My third son, signal officer, in egypt and im grateful our youngest son was an engineer afghanistan so we certainly cover the centcomm area of times weion and at all appreciate your leadership. Wife fore credit to my training these guys but thank you. As the Iraqi Security forces continue to make progress toward liberating mosul, what is the the operation . And what have been the keys to success . Armys thank you, congressman. On behalf of centcomm, we appreciate all the contributions from team wilson and we are very grateful for it. Mosul, the Iraqi Security forces are making, i think, good progress. This has been an extraordinarily challenging fight. About 100 days to secure the eastern side of the city. Of 490d that at a cost killed in about just over 3,000 wounded so it is an extraordinary price they paid for that. Able toy quickly were get themselves focused on the western part of the city and engaged in what were seeing as a very, very difficult fight there. Their elements are engaged in what is known as the dense,y here, a very urban area, much, much more favors thech more defender than it does the attacker. And so they have got their hands full as they are doing this. The iraqist note that Security Forces just so far in sustainedays have about 284 killed and a little wounded in the western part of the city. The keys to success here have think, the very close relationship they had with both u. S. And coalition advise and teams and the ability for the Iraqi Security forces to come together. Know, institutionally, theyve got some challenges here. Got federal police and answer to the ministry of interior, the iraqi army that answers to the ministry of defense, Counterterrorism Forces that answer to the directorate som these are all separate ministries but what theyve been is get ao successfully common commander in place among all of those different pillars here who really performs a very good integrating areion and so they operating much better in conjunction and in each othertion with and i think that has really paid very, what has been a very difficult and will continue to be a very difficult fight in the weeks and perhaps ahead. Its so important, the American People need to know the over a million persons. Its the second largest city in the country of iraq and how important it is that it be and the subjugation in theople have faced last two years. It was so encouraging all of us affairsk on the Foreign Committee to have the with prime to be the ministeralso of defense, hiali. Again, that country, i think has very positive leadership for you to work with. Additionally, youve testified about russias entry into the it hasconflict and that negatively impacted the balance of power. Whats the latest on russias intrusion into syria . As you know, theyve been focused on i think mostly focused on helping the regime accomplish some of their the western part of the country and i think theyve been successful at that. Russia has achieved probably many of the objectives out to pursue as they got in there, a government access toto them, reports, access to airfields, influence in the region. So i think they have accomplished that. Theyvee i think begun they are continuing to support regime forces, now, in this case, as they fight isis. So to the extent that they are wouldthat, that is, i admit, helpful to what were doing. I would share with you, we do share ahat very congested airspace with the russians. A deconfliction mechanism in place. Deconflicth them to our operations in a compressed airspace over northern syria. Goes pretty well. We are looking to make that a little bit more robust to ensure that we continue our freedom of action as we continue to pursue the campaign. Much. Nk you very gerald, thank you. Tell, members are interested in some further classified in a session which will start in just a few moments upstairs but for now, this hearing stands adjourned. 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