Obama vows to hit IS harder, says commandos now in Syria

Although he did not make any announcement about employing new capabilities against Daesh, the Pentagon is believed to have proposed to Obama the need for aligning US bases across the world against Daesh.

“Since this summer, [the Islamic State group] has not had a single successful major offensive operation on the ground in either Syria or Iraq”, Obama said, speaking to reporters in the Pentagon briefing room.

Overall, the U.S coalition has conducted almost 9,000 air strikes using fighter jets, bombers and drones to pinpoint ISIS positions on the ground.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told Congress last week that USA troops stand ready to advise the Iraqi army and provide Apache attack helicopters to help retake the strategic city of Ramadi from Islamic State militants if the Iraqi government requests it.

That is a major shift since Obama’s first term in the White House, when he was hailed for authorizing a high-risk special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

President Obama’s job approval has sunk to its lowest level in more than a year in a new poll as terrorism and national security emerge as top concerns for Americans. AP National Security Correspondent Sagar Meghani reports from the Pentagon.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter Carter was leaving immediately after the meeting to visit allies in the Middle East in hopes of drumming up more “military contributions” against Islamic State forces, Obama said, without specifying Carter’s destinations.

Obama also dispatched Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow to try to narrow gaps with Russian Federation over a political transition to end Syria’s civil war.

The president’s string of appearances this week, shortly before Christmas, happens amid public jitters about the specter of extremism after deadly attacks in California and Paris. He said special forces in Syria had started their work helping local groups cut off IS supply lines and put pressure on Raqqa, the unofficial capital of Islamic State group’s “caliphate”.

Since October 31, the group has claimed credit for bombing a Russian passenger jet, the coordinated attacks in Paris and the Inland Regional Center massacre in San Bernardino.

“We recognize that progress needs to keep coming faster”, said Obama.

The Pentagon announced last month that the U.S. Special Forces will be taking specific combat roles as well as chasing Daesh leaders and gathering intelligence about the militant group in Iraq and Syria.

After the meeting, Obama said Islamic State has lost thousands of miles in Syria and ground in Iraq.

“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”.

In recent weeks, the US-led coalition has killed a number of its leaders and attacked the oil facilities it uses to finance its operations, he added.

This might explain, in part, the wide support Republican candidate Donald Trump has found for his heated and often ugly rhetoric. Majorities of both Republicans and independents oppose letting in refugees, while Democrats are more likely to be in favor than opposed, 41 percent to 32 percent.

Forty-two percent of those surveyed by the Associated Press and GfK favored deploying US troops.