U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says the United States has the right "ingredients" of a strategy to combat Islamic State (IS) militants.
Carter, sworn in on February 17, was speaking after a day of meetings with top U.S. military and diplomatic leaders.
Carter chaired the February 23 meetings at a U.S. military camp in Kuwait to focus on strategy to tackle IS militants.
Carter said the U.S.-led aerial bombing campaign in Iraq is going well, and he expressed confidence that the U.S. military is well suited to carrying out a longer-term effort to train and equip an opposition rebel force in Syria.
He specified two areas for needed improvement in the overall strategy: more creative use of social media to counter the militants' messaging campaign, and getting more out of some coalition member countries, which he did not name.