Washington, October 13 (RHC)-- U.S. Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate of the Republican Party, says the United States must strike both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ISIL simultaneously to win the fight against the terrorist group.

In an interview with CNN on Sunday, McCain said the Pentagon should send Special Forces troops and forward air controllers to supplement U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the group in Iraq and Syria.

Since September 23rd, the U.S. and some of its Arab allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. U.S. warplanes have also conducted hundreds of strikes against ISIL in Iraq since mid-August. The air campaign has largely failed to halt ISIL advances.

"They're winning and we're not," McCain said of ISIL, whose terrorists were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government.

The White House has outlined a $500 million program to train and arm 5,000 "moderate" militants in Syria to fight against ISIL and the Assad government, but according to the Pentagon, the number would be something between 12,000 and 15,000.