BAGDHAD — (CNN) Iraqi forces declared the town of Rutbah “secure” from ISIS, a conclusion the United States agrees with, according to spokesman Col. Steve Warren of the U.S.-led coalition.
The small town in Anbar province has strategic value because it sits on the main road connecting Iraq to Jordan. Before the war, it was estimated that $1 billion in commerce flowed on that road annually.
ISIS used Rutbah as a staging area to preposition fighters and weapons.
The U.S. military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria is taking a fundamental shift , according to a top U.S. military commander.
“Now the focus of the campaign is shifting more toward taking back the enemies’ centers of gravity in Iraq and Syria, Mosul and Raqqa,” said Lt. Gen Sean MacFarland, head of Operation Inherent Resolve.
MacFarland, who was speaking in Baghdad, declined to predict when the final assault on Mosul will be.
“I am really reluctant to make predictions, ” he said, adding “we are trying really hard to make that happen.”
MacFarland said the Iraqi forces the U.S. has worked with have proven to be “resilient and effective.”
“I don’t know how long this campaign is going to last. But we have to do it in a way that the local security forces either in Iraq or our partners in Syria can sustain. We don’t want to rush them out there and achieve fragile victories. We want to make sure their victories are irreversible”
But even MacFarland acknowledges the challenges after that will be ensuring Iraqi forces as well as local militias and Kurds can hold onto Mosul after ISIS is pushed out.
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