Pentagon to send SOF 'expeditionary targeting force' for raids in Iraq, Syria. Do you think this is a good strategy?

The US military plans to increase its commitment to operations against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, in part by sending a Special Operations Forces (SOF) raid team to support Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and to act unilaterally in Syria.

"We're sending on President [Barack] Obama's orders … Special Operations Forces personnel to Syria to support the fight against ISIL [an acronym for the Islamic State]," Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told the US Congress on 1 December.

The SOF force will help "garner valuable ground intelligence, further enhance our air campaign, and enable local forces that can regain and then hold territory occupied by ISIL", he said. "Where we find further opportunity to leverage such capability, we will be prepared to expand it."

Those SOF personnel, to number about 50, had been previously announced, and are now to be joined by newly announced US commandos that will form "a specialised expeditionary targeting force" to assist Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in co-ordination with Iraqi government.

"These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders," he said. "That creates a virtuous cycle of better intelligence, which generates more targets, more raids, and more momentum."

Raids in Iraq are to be conducted at the Iraqi government's invitation but, notably, the force would also be in a position "to conduct unilateral operations into Syria", according to Carter.

http://www.janes.com/article/56354/pentagon-to-send-sof-expeditionary-targeting-force-for-raids-in-iraq-syria