Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno believes that Iraqi ground forces, not U.S. troops, are needed to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq, according to his spokeswoman.

President Obama has made clear that he does not intend to start another ground war in Iraq, but White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that U.S. troops may call in airstrikes against the Islamic State group, AKA the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

During a Wednesday media roundtable in Germany, Odierno told reporters that airstrikes were not enough to defeat the Islamic State group, the New York Times reported.

"You've got to have ground forces that are capable of going in and rooting them out," the newspaper quoted Odierno as saying.

The story noted that Odierno did not specify if those ground forces needed to be U.S. troops; the headline simply read: "U.S. Army Chief Says Ground Troops Will Be Needed Against ISIS."

In response, Army Lt. Col. Kathleen Turner issued a statement to media outlets on Wednesday clarifying that Odierno was not calling for U.S. ground forces to be used against the Islamic State group.

"The body of the NY Times story is accurate with General Odierno's comments; however their headline is disappointing and misleading," Turner said in the statement. "General Odierno was referring to the Iraqi Ground Forces."

A transcript of Odierno's remarks was not immediately available on Thursday, Turner said.

This is the second time since in recent days that a senior U.S. military commander has had to clarify that he was not contradicting Obama, who has repeatedly said that U.S. ground troops are not returning to Iraq. On Tuesday, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that he may ask Obama for permission to have U.S. troops accompany Iraqi units into combat so that they can call in airstrikes.

Afterward, Dempsey's spokesman told media outlets that the chairman does not think U.S. troops are currently needed to fight alongside Iraqi troops.

"The context of this discussion was focused on how our forces best and most appropriately advise the Iraqis and was not a broader discussion of employing U.S. ground combat units in Iraq," Air Force Col. Ed Thomas said in the statement.

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