U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top American commander in Iraq, said that within the next six months, he believes U.S.-backed forces will recapture Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq, from the Islamic State.
Raqqa is the militant group's de facto capital in Syria, and in Mosul, ISIS has lost territory in and around the city since Iraqi forces began a ground operation there last October. There are less than 6,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, and experts told Reuters the Pentagon could ask for additional forces or request more helicopters and airstrikes. In Syria, ISIS still holds about 90 percent of Deir Ez-Zor province, the city of Palmyra, and some pockets of Deraa in the south and the Aleppo countryside.
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