Obama defends US strategy against ISIL

President Barack Obama says the United States is not losing the war against the ISIL terrorist group, despite the recent loss of key Iraqi territory.

"I don't think we're losing," Obama said in an interview with news magazine The Atlantic published Thursday, days after the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, was overrun by the Takfiri terrorists.

The US president described the situation in Ramadi, where some 40,000 people have been forced to flee, as a tactical setback.

The president of the Anbar Provincial Council, Sabah Karhoot, said on Tuesday that Iraqi security forces were in control of as much as 30 percent of the city.

Analysts believe that ISIL offensive in Ramadi has called into question US strategy against ISIL that has wreaked havoc in much of northern and western Iraq since June 2014.

Instead, Obama blamed the situation in Ramadi on a lack of training and reinforcement of Iraqi security forces. "They have been there essentially for a year without sufficient reinforcements."

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey also defended the US strategy in fighting ISIL.

“Setbacks are regrettable but not uncommon in warfare,” Dempsey said a day after the terror organization announced it had captured Ramadi.

Since August 2014, on Obama's orders, a US-led coalition has carried out more than 6,000 targets in Iraq and Syria with the aim of “degrading and ultimately destroying” the terrorist group.

Obama has refused to send troops on the ground as suggested by many senior military officials.

The ISIL terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

HRJ/HRJ

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