Gen. John Allen, a retired marine hand-picked by President Barack Obama to lead the US in the ISIS war, will be leaving after one year at the helm, according to multiple media reports.
State Department officials said Allen will be gone by early November, noting that his chief of staff, Karin von Hippel, will also be quitting, according to reports from Bloomberg.
"John Allen has put his heart and soul into trying to make the president's strategy work,” said Derek Harvey, a former senior U.S. military intelligence official, to Bloomberg.
Sources have cited Allen’s frustrations with the US’s anti-ISIS strategy as a major reason for his leaving, in addition to personal reasons.
The US policy in Iraq and Syria is in the throes of controversy. This month, top officials at Central Command, which oversees the war efforts against ISIS, came under fire for allegedly pressuring analysts to alter reports and exaggerate the US’ progress in the war against the militant extremists.
Central Command leader Gen. Lloyd Austin admitted last week that of the thousands of Syrians they hoped to train to fight the Islamic State, only “four or five” are currently fighting.
Allen's resignation is another blow to Obama's ISIS war strategy, which has been criticized by many as weak and ineffective.
