“It will take time to root them out”, Obama added using another name for Daesh. He said that would be the job of local forces with American and coalition training and air support.
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Over the weekend, the US-led coalition bombed the de facto IS capital – Raqqa in Syria – conducting some of heaviest air strikes in months.
WASHINGTON, July 6, 2015 – President Barack Obama discussed the strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with civilian and military leaders of his national security team at the Pentagon today. The extremists also claimed responsibility for recent attacks on a Tunisian hotel and Kuwaiti mosque.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State forces had taken Ain Issa and surrounding areas from the YPG militia, which only seized the town from Islamic State control two weeks ago. If confirmed, Szubin will oversee the economic component of the fight against the Islamic State.
The Isil-affiliated Aamaq news agency released a video of what it said was the effects of shelling by a U.S. drone on Raqqa.
The president did not get in touch with for a lot more bombs or more troops, but as an alternative announced a shifting focus to counter ISIL’s public relations machine whilst instruction neighborhood forces to sustain progress produced on the ground there. They will also continue to train and equip the moderate opposition in Syria which is in the throes of a brutal civil war.
They identify themselves as 21-year-old Faysal Hussein Habibi and 20-year-old Bishr Abdul-Azim and say they received $400 per month for the filming.
The PYD, in turn, has close ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, called the PKK., which has waged a 30-year armed struggle against the Turkish government to establish an independent Kurdistan.
“The president portrayed the U.S.-led coalition as gaining ground in a long fight against the Islamic State, which he described as a nimble and opportunistic enemy”.
“ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple”, he has said.
A spokesman from Speaker of the House John Boehner’s, R-Ohio, office said, “A speech isn’t a strategy”. “It can be, and must be, defeated”.
But Obama stressed that the U.S. is not at war with Islam.
Flanked Monday by America’s top military officer, Gen. Martin Dempsey, as well as other brass including Gen. Joseph Votel, head of United States Special Operations Command, President Obama was most interested in once again emphasizing his belief that this approach is a non-starter.
“There is no situation on the ground that has prompted this”, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
Barack Obama has said the U.S. needs to do more to combat the threat of Islamic State and has insisted the military campaign will take time to complete.
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“And a glimmer of good news is, I think, an increasing recognition on the part of all the players in the region that, given the extraordinary threat that ISIL poses, it is important for us to work together as opposed to at cross-purposes to make sure that an inclusive Syrian government exists”, he said. “Our service members haven’t missed a paycheck”, he said.
