Obama: US underestimated ISIL threat

President Barack Obama says it is “absolutely true” the United States underestimated the threat posed by the insurgents who formed the ISIL Takfiri group.

Obama made the comment in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” which is to be broadcast on Sunday. The channel released some excerpts of the interview before airing it.

60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft asked Obama about the remarks made by  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has said the White House  underestimated ISIL.

“That’s true,” Obama replied. “That’s absolutely true.”

Kroft also asked Obama how the ISIL militants were able to seize large swaths of land both in Syria and Iraq.

“During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos,” Obama said.

Obama also accused the Iraqi army of not having the necessary will and ability to resist against ISIL.

The US commander in chief also listed a range of measures he thinks Washington should take in order tp put more pressure on the insurgent group.

“We just have to push them back, and shrink their space, and go after their command and control, and their capacity, and their weapons, and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters.”

The ISIL controls large areas of Syria’s east and north. They sent militants into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of the land straddling the border between Syria and Iraq.

The US and some of its allies have formed a coalition and have been conducting air raids against the ISIL and other Takfiri groups in Syria and Iraq. The airstrikes in Syria, however, are conducted without an approval from the Syrian government.

Washington and its regional and Western allies have been financially and militarily backing the militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al Assad in Syria since 2011.

DT/DT