Defense Secretary Ash Carter signaled Wednesday that the U.S. military will expand efforts to target Islamic State militants beyond the group's territory in Iraq and Syria, potentially involving airstrikes and raids in other Islamic countries.
“The threat posed by ISIL, and groups like it, is continually evolving, changing focus and shifting location,” Carter said, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State group.
“That’s why the Defense Department is organizing a new way to leverage the security infrastructure we’ve already established in Afghanistan, the Middle East, East Africa, and southern Europe into a network to counter transnational and transregional threats like ISIL,” Carter said.
“They help us act decisively to prevent ISIL affiliates from becoming as great of a threat as the parent tumor itself,” Carter said.
For example, Carter pointed to a U.S. airstrike in Libya in November that killed a man known as Abu Nabil, an Iraqi national who was a senior Islamic State leader in Libya.
The U.S. has also begun targeting some Islamic State militants in Afghanistan.
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