The US Department of Defense (DOD) will spend 50 percent more in fiscal year 2017 on its fight against the Daesh, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said on Tuesday.

“Because we are accelerating the [anti-Daesh] campaign, DOD is backing that up and we need to back it up in our budget with a total of $7.5 billion in 2017, fifty percent more than in 2016,” Carter said at the Economic Club in Washington, DC. “This will be critical as our updated coalition military campaign plan kicks in.”