WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday said the U.S.-led coalition is making progress against Islamic State militants in both Iraq and Syria, as he delivered an update on the campaign aimed at reassuring Americans worried about the spread of extremism-fuel terrorism.
"We are hitting ISIL harder than ever," Obama said, using the shorthand for the Islamic State group. Obama said airstrikes had increased and the coalition had successfully knocked out key figures in the group's leadership "one by one."
"The point is, ISIL leaders cannot hide, and our next message to them is simple: 'You are next.'" Obama said.
The talk came after Obama met with his top national security advisers at the Pentagon, part of a week-long push to explain his strategy for stopping the Islamic State group abroad and its sympathizers at home. Obama is also slated to attend a briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center later in the week.
After a series of setbacks, the U.S. and its coalition partners have claimed progress recently in wresting back territory from the Islamic State and eliminating some of its key leaders in Syria and Iraq. The military has said hundreds of U.S airstrikes in recent days dealt a major blow to the Islamic State ranks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, which the Islamic State seized in May.
Obama has authorized sending small numbers of U.S. special forces to Iraq and Syria but has insisted he won't budge from his determination not to send in major U.S. ground forces.
The president said Monday the U.S. would continue to urge coalition allies to contribute more to the fight. Defense Secretary Ash Carter planned to leave for the Middle East on Monday to ask allies there to step up, Obama said.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.