Pentagon announces new commander for Middle East

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday that the general who heads his special operations forces will be nominated as the next commander for the Middle East.

Army Gen. Joseph Votel would take over leadership of US Central Command, which oversees military operations in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State Group. He would succeed Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, who is retiring.

Carter announced the decision at Central Command headquarters in Tampa, standing alongside Votel. He was in town to meet with his commanders about how the fight against IS will take shape this year.

Votel, 57, is a former commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment and a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He headed the secretive Joint Special Operations Command before taking over Special Operations Command in 2014.

Austin, who currently heads the military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) overseeing Middle East operations, made the argument Thursday that recent IS-claimed attacks like the ones this week in Istanbul and Jakarta are in fact evidence the group is faltering.

“ISIL has assumed a defensive posture in Iraq and Syria,” Austin said at a news conference in Florida.

“Going forward, we can expect to see him rely increasingly on acts of terrorism such as we saw this week in Baghdad and in Turkey, and most recently in Jakarta,” he added.

The IS group, which swept through vast regions of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and 2015 and captured a string of cities, has seen recent setbacks across its self-proclaimed caliphate, including the loss of the key Iraqi city of Ramadi to US-supported local forces.

A US-led coalition has also been hammering the group’s oil infrastructure, including by blowing up hundreds of trucks used to ferry illicit crude oil around Syria, and this week bombed a financial facility in the Iraqi city of Mosul that US officials said held millions of dollars in cash.

Austin, who has headed CENTCOM since March 2013 and will shortly be stepping down, said the IS group is upping its overseas actions to distract from such losses.

“ISIL wants to draw attention away from the growing number of setbacks” that it is experiencing,” Austin said, using an alternative name for the IS group.

“It is important to understand that these terrorist acts don’t necessarily mean ISIL is getting stronger,” he added.

“ISIL by its nature is a terrorist organization and by conducting these attacks, he is attempting to produce an image of invincibility in the wake of setbacks. So overall, we are making progress.”