US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has outlined challenges the US is facing in fight against ISIL in Iraq, citing lack of enough trainees.

"Our training efforts in Iraq have thus far been slowed by a lack of trainees. We simply haven’t received enough recruits," Carter told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the US strategy towards ISIL on Wednesday.

"Of the 24,000 Iraqi security forces we had originally envisioned training at our four sites by this fall, we’ve only received enough recruits to be able to train about 7,000, in addition to about 2,000 counterterrorism service personnel," he said.

Carter further called for “a greater commitment from all parts of the Iraqi government".

However, in order to tackle the issue of recruitment, the US needed to send another 450 troops to Iraq as authorized by the Obama administration following a decision to set up a new US military base at al-Taqaddum in the western Anbar province.

The new deployment, announced last Wednesday, would "close that gap", he claimed.

Washington has already dispatched more than 3,000 troops to Iraq to help train and advise Iraqi forces in their fight against the terrorists, committing atrocities in Iraq and the neighboring Syria, gripped with a deadly unrest since 2011 that also includes Takfiri militancy.

Syria

Carter also spoke about Syria, where the US is supporting and training the so-called moderate militants fighting against the government in Damascus, suggesting they were not competent enough or necessarily anti-ISIL.

"Our train-and-equip mission in Syria has been challenging, but the requirement for a capable and motivated counter-ISIL ground force there also means we must persist in our efforts," said the US defense chief.

"Hope is not a strategy," said committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas). "I see little prospect in having a ground force that we train that can push back against ISIL in the near term."

Apart from Washington’s support for the militants, the US military has also been leading a coalition to conduct airstrikes allegedly aimed at ISIL militants in Syria as well as Iraq since last year, despite which the Takfiris have gained ground in some of the regions.

NT/NT