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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ten weeks into its war against Islamic State extremists,the Pentagon is settling in for the long haul, short on big early successesbut still banking on enlisting Syrians and Iraqis to fight the ground war sothat U.S. troops won't have to.
The U.S. general overseeing the campaign on Friday predicted that thejihadists will be "much degraded" by airstrikes a year from now, in partbecause he is focusing attacks on those resources that enable IS to sustainitself and resupply its fighters.
On Friday, for example, the U.S. military said one of its six airstrikesovernight in Syria hit several IS petroleum storage tanks and a pumpingstation - sites that are central to the militants' ability to resupply theirforces and generate revenue. Likewise, it said two coalition airstrikes inIraq damaged or destroyed IS military targets near the contested town ofBeiji, home of Iraq's largest oil refinery.
In his first public overview of the campaign he leads from the Floridaheadquarters of U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Lloyd Austin cautionedagainst expecting quick progress. He said he cannot predict how long it willtake to right a wobbly Iraqi army and build a viable opposition ground forcein Syria.
"The campaign to destroy ISIL will take time, and there will be occasionalsetbacks along the way," Austin told a Pentagon news conference,"particularly in these early stages of the campaign as we coach and mentor aforce (in Iraq) that is actively working to regenerate capability afteryears of neglect and poor leadership."
While hammering the jihadists daily from the air, the U.S. military istalking of a years-long effort - one that will require more than aerialbombardment, will show results only gradually and may eventually call for amore aggressive use of U.S. military advisers in Iraq
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