In late 2015, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that a so-called Expeditionary Targeting Force comprised of elite U.S. special operations units would begin deploying to Iraq and Syria to assist in the war against ISIS. So far, that task force appears to have been instrumental in reversing the tide of the war, most notably in Ramadi, where in December U.S.-backed Iraqi forces managed to retake the city from ISIS after a five-month slog.