He spoke to reporters as he flew to Turkey for talks on boosting assistance in the campaign against the militants.
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Still, Obama acknowledged that progress needs to continue more quickly. “We want Turkish forces to join in the air and the ground as appropriate”, he said. Seven in 10 Americans rate the risk of an attack in the U.S.as at least somewhat high, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll – a sharp increase from the 5 in 10 who said that in January.
He made the remarks following his meeting with top security staff. The remarks are said to be squarely aimed at countering criticism that the Obama administration is not doing enough against Daesh.
USA and French forces amplified their airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria following an intricate set of terror attacks in Paris on November 13, and Obama pledged further pressure on the terror group after a deadly December 2 attack on a holiday party in San Bernadino, Calif., that killed 14.
Obama’s comments were seen as an effort to calm Americans unnerved by the brazen ISIS attacks in Paris last month, in which more than 30 people were killed.
US President Barack Obama confirmed the death of Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton known as “Jihadi John”, in an air strike last month and warned the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) that they were “next”.
During a rare trip to the Pentagon, the president received an update from his national security team on counter-IS efforts.
The president ticked off a list of accomplishments by the United States and its allies against the group: Islamic State had lost significant swaths of territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, and leaders were being targeted one by one.
The Pentagon recently sent USA troops to Syria for the first time, deploying several dozen special operations personnel to provide support for Syrian rebel groups fighting ISIS there, a defense official said.
The coalition is destroying Islamic State fighters, bunkers, heavy weapons and bomb making factories.
“Since the summer, ISIL has not had a single successful major offensive operation on the ground in either Syria or Iraq”, Obama said.
Moreover, people in the region are seeing Islamic State “for the thugs and the thieves they are” Obama said, adding that their brutality is repelling local populations.
Just 4 in 10 approve of Obama’s handling of the threat posed by the Islamic State, terrorism or the US role in world affairs more generally.
In an effort to encourage coalition allies to contribute more to the fight, Obama said he was dispatching Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to the Middle East on Monday.
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President Obama on Monday said that USA forces have accelerated their pace of airstrikes against ISIS, noting that 9,000 had been carried out against the network.
