WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2016 — President Barack Obama has said that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leaders know they will lose in Syria and Iraq, and they are already shifting their strategy in advance of that sure defeat.
“In fact, the decline of ISIL in Syria and Iraq appears to be causing it to shift to tactics that we’ve seen before — an even greater emphasis on encouraging high-profile terrorist attacks, including in the United States,” Obama said at a news conference after the meeting. “As always, our military, diplomatic, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement professionals are working around the clock, with other countries and with communities here at home, to share information and prevent such attacks, and over the years, they’ve prevented many,” he said after a meeting with security chiefs at Pentagon.
According to him it is still very difficult to detect and prevent lone actors or small cells of terrorists who are determined to kill the innocent and are willing to die. “And that’s why, as we discussed today, we’re going to keep going after ISIL aggressively across every front of this campaign.”
The military portion of the counter-ISIL strategy is showing great progress, the president said, adding that the coalition air campaign continues to hit ISIL targets wherever the terrorists try to hide.
“American pilots are doing their absolute best to avoid civilian casualties in stark contrast to ISIL, which uses noncombatants as shields. With our extraordinary technology, we’re conducting the most precise air campaign in history,” Obama said.
Coalition and local forces continue to take out senior ISIL leaders and commanders, the president said, and this is having an effect on the organization’s command and control and its discipline. “None of ISIL’s leaders are safe, and we are going to keep going after them,” he said and that the terror group ha e continued to lose ground in Iraq and Syria, Obama said.
Iraqi forces have taken Fallujah and are pushing up the Euphrates River valley. They are also pushing up the Tigris River, taking Qayyarah, and are poised to launch an offensive against Mosul – the largest city still under ISIL control.
