title: comey must explain why he advised obama not to publicly accuse russia of hacking democrats
text: foreign policy us secretary of defense ashton carter photo by afp 
  us defense secretary ashton carter says the pentagon is planning a ground offensive to oust the daesh isil terrorist group from the syrian city of raqqah the terror groups stronghold in the country 
  speaking to nbc news on wednesday carter said washington was ready to equip syrian and kurdish fighters to launch the assault in the near future 
  it starts in the next few weeks hat has long been our plan and we will be capable of resourcing both groups the pentagon chief noted 
  carter who was in iraq earlier this week amid the ongoing battle to retake the city of mosul from daesh said the raqqah offensive would begin when iraqs second largest city is cleared 
  the iraqi army backed by volunteer forces has been engaged in a large military offensive to cleanse mosul of daesh terrorists since last week a coalition of usled countries has been reportedly providing air support to the operation 
  its been long a part of our plan that the mosul operation would kick off when it did this was a plan that goes back many months now and that raqqah would follow soon behind carter added iraqi forces gather in the alshura area south of mosul october   photo by afp 
  carter acknowledged that us forces wont be directly involved in any of the operations 
  more than  american soldiers are currently stationed in iraq tasked with providing training and intelligence to iraqi forces according to us military officials 
  the usled coalition has also been carrying out airstrikes against purported daesh positions in syria since  
  however the ongoing western efforts in syria have a different nature washington and its allies have come under fire for openly seeking to remove president bashar alassad from power 
  amnesty international a ukbased rights group said wednesday that the usled airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians across syria 
  carters remarks came only a day after british defense secretary michael fallon said uk special forces will soon resume training moderate militants in syria to bolster the fight against daesh 
  the new effort would be an extension of a failed  million program by the pentagon that was supposed to train and equip up to  militants every year but was discontinued in november last year after failing to attract enough volunteers 
  russia which has been pounding daesh across syria upon a request from damascus says the westerntrained militants only use is to oust assad loading