"Enormous complexity" in Syria slowing progress against IS - US Envoy

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (KUNA) -- The Obama Administration's envoy to the coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State (IS) group told lawmakers Wednesday that he is now seeing results from a year and a half of airstrikes in Syria, but acknowledged that successes are few and far between.
"Our progress will not always be linear, and we should expect setbacks and surprises," Brett McGurk told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"We have a long way to go, given the enormous complexity of this challenge," he added.
IS control 80 percent of the country's energy resources and other assets, McGurk said, but the US-led coalition's airstrikes have managed to reduce the group's oil output by 30 percent.
US-backed local forces that now have control of the town of Al-Hawl and the Tishreen dam are also helping isolate IS fighters, he noted.
"These operations, all of which require political and military coordination, have begun for the first time to restrict the supply and access points into (IS) heartland," McGurk affirmed.
Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes in Aleppo - where the Pentagon has insisted IS fighters are not present - are "directly enabling" the group by empowering the Syrian regime, he said.
A major concern for the Obama Administration is also the rising influence of IS in Libya, McGurk said.
While questions have been raised about what steps the US may take to counter the group there, a strategy has yet to be announced. (end) ys.hb