U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) talks with U.S. envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, Brett McGurk during a ministerial meeting regarding the Islamic State group in Rome, Italy on February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's special envoy for the fight against Islamic State said on Tuesday that coalition forces were making progress and planning assaults on key cities in Iraq and Syria, but U.S. lawmakers criticized the progress as too slow.
Brett McGurk testified at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations hearing that morale is falling within the militant group as it loses territory. But he said efforts to find a political solution were making little progress and could not predict an end to fighting as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained in power.
