1st LD: Pentagon chief says U.S. training efforts in Iraq against IS "have far been slowed"

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Wednesday that U.S. training efforts in Iraqi security forces against the extremist group Islamic State (IS) had so far fallen short of what the U.S. military had expected.

"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 2,000 counterterrorism service personnel," Carter told a congressional hearing. "We simply haven't received enough recruits."

U.S. President Barack Obama's anti-IS strategy came under scrupulous scrutiny after the fall of the crucial Iraqi city of Ramadi last month. As vital parts of the Obama administration's strategy, instead of sending large-scale ground troops to confront IS fighters, the United States has since last summer been leading a coalition force to conduct air raids while offering training support to local forces fighting IS on the ground.

In a rare move earlier this month, Obama admitted that there is not a complete strategy for dealing with IS, saying that Baghdad needs to show greater commitment to building a fighting force. Endite