Obama Warns ISIS Leaders, Says ‘You Aare Next’

United States-led forces are hitting the Islamic State group harder than ever, but progress needs to be made more quickly, President Barack Obama says.

In a rare visit to the Pentagon Monday, Obama discussed the military campaign against the ISIL terrorist group and other national security issues with his top team, including Carter, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Treasury Jacob Lew and Attorney General Loretta Lynch as well as several other senior officials such as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Dunford and Commander of Central Command Gen. Lloyd Austin.

“Iraq syndrome is still hanging there”, he said, referring to a hangover from the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, “and the public doesn’t really think that war is going to solve the ISIS problem”. He noted that his defense secretary, Ash Carter, was undertaking a trip to Turkey and the Middle East to seek more coalition military contributions to the campaign to counter the Islamic State group.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Kirsten Gillibrand of NY urged the administration to press Sunni allies to do more in the fight. Sen.

“Since the summer, ISIL has not had a single successful ground operation in either Syria or Iraq”, he said, adding the coalition was also targeting its oil tanker trucks, wells, and refineries. “We are taking out ISIL leaders, commanders and killers one by one”.

Fears of terrorism are hanging over America’s holiday season, so President Barack Obama is planning a series of events this week aimed at trying to allay concerns about his strategy for stopping the Islamic State group overseas and its sympathizers at home.

The White House scheduled a conference call Monday with religious leaders about ways to fight discrimination and promote religious tolerance. Most Republicans running for president have not called for that, either, although Donald Trump recently said he would support 10,000 troops, a figure originally floated by South Carolina Sen. He said special forces in Syria had started their work helping groups cut off Islamic State supply lines and put pressure on Raqqa, the unofficial capital of Islamic State group’s caliphate, or state ruled under Islamic law. Obama’s aides were also holding separate meetings at the White House with Muslim leaders and with Sikh leaders.

The House of Representatives majority leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy, criticized Obama in response to the Pentagon speech, saying, “The American people are smart enough to know when something is working or not, and it’s obvious that the president’s current strategy isn’t working”. Recent polling shows Americans are more concerned about terror attacks than they used to be.