Hagel: Assad may benefit from US attacks on Islamic State
WASHINGTON - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be benefiting from U.S. attacks on Islamic State fighters in his country, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday, but he added that US policy still supported Assad's removal from power.
Hagel also told reporters at Pentagon news conference that the systematic killing of Sunni tribesmen in Iraq by Islamic State fighters was the brutal "reality of what we're dealing with" in the conflict.
