Petraeus: US needs to do more in Syria

Former CIA chief David Petraeus urged Tuesday that the United States play a more active role in Syria, including implementing no-fly zones to prevent regime planes from dropping barrel bombs and setting up safe havens.

Petraeus received widespread acclaim for overseeing the troop "surge" in Iraq in 2007, but was forced to resign as CIA chief in 2012 after a scandal in which he shared classified information with his mistress and biographer Paula Broadwell.

Testifying before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus said the US-led coalition battling the "Islamic State" group (IS) had made "inadequate" progress in both Iraq and Syria. He also called the Syrian civil war a "geopolitical Chernobyl."

"The fallout from the meltdown of Syria threatens to be with us for decades," he said. "The longer it is permitted to continue, the more severe the damage will be."

Petraeus said the United States had the capability to stop Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's planes from dropping bombs on civilians.

"There are actions the US and only the US can take that would make a difference. We could, for example, tell Assad that the use of barrel bombs must end. And that if they continue, we will stop the Syrian air force from flying. We have that capability," Petraeus said.

Petraeus described the situation in Iraq as a see-sawing battlefront in which IS fighters lose ground in some areas only to gain it elsewhere. He urged the US to boost support for Iraqi security forces, as well as the Kurdish peshmerga and Sunni tribal forces.

Conflicted over Assad

In his testimony, Petraeus brought attention to the dilemma the West faces over Assad. The US and its allies do not want him to remain in power, but do not wish him ousted without knowing who will fill the resulting power vacuum.

"He has to go ultimately, but the key word there is 'ultimately,'" Petraeus said. "Until we have a sense of what will replace him, we need to be very careful not to push him out because what comes after could actually be even worse."

Petraeus said he is in favor of creating secure enclaves, or safe zones, in order to protect the Syrian civilian population. The civil war has killed an estimated 250,000 people in the last four years.

He also offered an apology for his involvement in the scandal which cost him his job as CIA chief.

"Four years ago, I made a serious mistake, one that brought discredit on me and pain to those closest to me," he said. "There's nothing I can do to undo what I did. I can only say, again, how sorry I am."

bw/cmk (AFP, AP)