- President Barack Obama claimed the upper hand in the fight against ISIS
- He said ISIS is on the defensive
- He praised recent progress of US-led coalition in taking back territories from the terrorist group
United States President Barack Obama said during a rare presidential visit to the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, Virginia that the U.S.-led coalition has gained the upper hand in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
As mentioned in Kevin Liptak’s CNN article dated April 14, 2016, Obama said ISIS is on the defensive after a “few bad months” and praised recent progress of the U.S.-led forces in taking back territories from the Islamic extremist group. He said the coalition and the local ground forces have been successful in interrupting key supply routes between cities in Syria and Iraq.
The president said the U.S. and its allies, including Arab partners have the momentum and intends to “keep that momentum.” He also noted the recent successful missions in taking down key leaders of ISIS, which he said would continue in the coming months.
“Today, on the ground in Syria and Iraq, ISIL is on the defensive. We have momentum and we intend to keep that momentum,” President Obama said, using another acronym for ISIS.
“For ISIL’s leadership, it has been a bad few months. Every day, ISIL leaders wake up and understand it could be their last,” he added.
Obama, however, acknowledged that the fight against the terror group remains difficult and cited recent attacks carried out ISIS in Belgium, Iraq and Turkey.
“These depraved terrorists still have the ability to inflict horrific violence on the innocent, to the revulsion of the entire world. Their barbarism only stiffens our unity and our determination to wipe this vile terrorist organization off the face of the earth,” he said.
According to Pentagon, the United States has entered the second phase of its fight against ISIS, which includes driving the terrorists out of its strongholds in Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
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