Syrian Arab Coalition has 'made progress' - Pentagon

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (KUNA) -- The Syrian Arab Coalition has made progress specifically in the key town Al Haffah, as they move closer to Raqqa, Pentagon Spokesperson Peter Cook told reporters on Tuesday.
"This is a sign of progress by local, motivated, capable forces that have shown a willingness to fight," Cook affirmed.
"There are going to be steps backward, but right now that seems to be an encouraging sign of progress right now." Earlier this week, there were reports that the US had made a second delivery of ammunition to the fighters.
Meanwhile, Cook said that the US acknowledged that Russia gave advance notice of its most recent airstrikes in Syria that "appeared" to hit an ISIL-held territory.
He insisted that the US is "not cooperating with Russia," but, "if the Russians would like to focus their efforts on ISIL, we would welcome that." Cook added, "We're confident that the Memorandum of Understanding we have in place and the protocols we have in place for our aircraft and their aircraft are sufficient to deal with the situation over Syria right now." The spokesperson could not give an estimate to how far in advance the Russians notified the US but said, "it was professional." However, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford urged allies of the US to take further steps and increase pressure on ISIL in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks.
Dunford, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) at the annual WSJ CEO Council meeting, said: "Over the weekend, as we started looking at the implications of Paris, one of the things we did was identify kind of a list of all those things that we would want to see in terms of contributions from both parties inside of NATO but as importantly, inside of the region." He assessed that "the rules may have changed in Paris last week" and in the wake of Paris, "a much more energized approach towards getting people to make a contribution is kind of what we're after". (end) ak.hb