Obama finally talks tough on ISIS, vows to ‘squeeze its heart’

President Barack Obama updated Americans yesterday on the fight against the Islamic State, or ISIL, saying the group is being hit harder than ever by the USA and allies and is losing ground.

USA and coalition aircraft have dropped almost 9,000 bombs on Islamic State militants since Operation Inherent Resolve began in August 2014, and “last month in November, we dropped more bombs on [Islamic State] targets than any other month since this campaign started”, the president said. Obama said airstrikes had increased and that the coalition had taken out key figures in the group’s leadership “one by one”.

President Obama says he has a strong message for the leaders of ISIS.

Obama said his strategy is moving ahead with “a great sense of urgency”, an assertion that critics say belies the slow pace of progress in Iraq and Syria. Obama is scheduled to attend a briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center on Thursday.

In his remarks, Obama renewed his tacit criticism of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who’s proposed to barring all Muslims from entering the country.

“All that said, we recognize that progress needs to happen faster”, he admitted, explaining there was a particular problem in going after the militants in urban areas, where they are entrenched and often use civilians as use human shields.

This week, he said, “we’ll move forward on all fronts”.

US President Barack Obama voiced fresh determination to destroy the ISIS on Monday, vowing to kill the group’s leaders and win back territory in the Middle East.

Obama said that the anti-ISIS countries were working hard to eliminate the terror group.

“So even as we’re relentless, we have to be smart, targeting ISIL surgically, with precision”, Obama said flanked by Vice-President Joe Biden, the defence secretary, Ash Carter, and three military generals.

The president’s string of terror-related appearances this week, shortly before Christmas, comes amid public jitters about the specter of extremism after deadly attacks in California and Paris.

Seventy-four percent of respondents said they think it is likely the US will deploy ground troops, including 43 percent who said it was “moderately likely” and 31 percent who said it was “extremely/very likely”.

Fears about the Islamic State group, and about possible threats to United States, are running higher.

Particularly after the Paris and San Bernardino attacks, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s strategy to degrade and destroy Islamic State.

The Obama administration has predicted Syrian refugees will be similar to Iraqi refugees, and insists the U.S.is prepared to handle the new influx thanks to the lessons it learned in vetting those Iraqis.