The Wall Street Journal  reports that “the head of U.S. armed forces in the Middle East told Congress on Tuesday that the U.S. will need to employ more military resources to take back key areas of Iraq and Syria, adding he recently made recommendations for that phase of the fight against Islamic State militants.”  

“Gen. Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. Central Command, declined to give details of the recommendations made to top Pentagon officials, such as whether he is seeking more troops. But he said the U.S. would continue to support indigenous forces from the air and that more would be required in future assaults on key Islamic State strongholds.”  

“’As we look towards Raqqa [in Syria] and Mosul [in Iraq], clearly there will be things that we will want to do to increase the capability a bit, to be able to increase the pace of operations, and that will require some additional capability,’ Gen. Austin said.”