A new report from the Congressional Research Service says the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS) is disorganized and suffers "from a lack of coherence," hindering efforts to defeat the terrorist outfit.
The report says a lack of coordination among the 22 coalition countries fighting against ISIS in Iraq and Syria has resulted in each nation pursuing their own goals, which leads to conflicting objectives that sometimes "contradict" each other, reports Newsmax.
"These coalition coordination challenges were demonstrated in recent military campaigns (and particularly in Afghanistan)," the report reads. "Exacerbating matters, other actors in the region - some of whom are coalition partners - have different, and often conflicting, longer-term regional geopolitical interests from those of the United States or other coalition members."
The report comes amid media reports indicating the fight against ISIS has largely stalled as the group begins to solidify control over key Iraqi cities and, as U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner said this week, expand into Afghanistan, according to The Associated Press.
The Congressional Research Service said coalition partners also have varying tolerances for risk, which can determine "rules of engagement" or "caveats" that have the potential to prevent military commanders from dispatching military forces as they deem fit.
"Without a single authority responsible for prioritizing and adjudicating between different multinational civilian and military lines of effort, different actors often work at cross-purposes without intending to do so," the report states. "While navigable, all these factors can make it considerably more difficult to consolidate gains and achieve campaign success."
As of July 15, the U.S. has spent $3.21 billion on the military campaign against ISIS, according to The Hill. The coalition has carried out more than 5,000 airstrikes and destroyed 7,655 "targets," according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The report also questions the legality of the efforts. Most countries cite several United Nations Security Council resolutions authorizing force, but Congressional Research Services said these resolutions "fall short of explicitly authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State."
