Obama national security team discuss IS fight
Date
12/14/2015 6:48:28 PM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) U.S. President Barack Obama is chairing a National Security Council meeting on U.S. efforts to fight Islamic State during a visit to the Pentagon Monday.
"The President will receive an update from his national security team and discuss ways to further enhance our campaign to degrade and destroy the terrorist group" a White House statement said.
Obama is due to make a statement to reporters after the talks.
The Obama administration has said it is boosting military pressure on Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
"Our airstrikes are hitting ISIL harder than ever in Iraq and Syria. We are taking out more of their fighters and leaders their weapons their oil tankers. Our Special Operations Forces are on the ground because we’re going to hunt down these terrorists wherever they try to hide" Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday.
Addressing recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernadino California Obama emphasized the need to stay vigilant but stressed "one of the most important things we can do is to stay true to who we are as Americans." He said terrorists like Islamic State are "trying to divide us along lines of religion and background."
"And just as Muslims around the world have to keep rejecting any twisted interpretation of Islam all of us have to reject bigotry in all of its forms. I’ll say it again prejudice and discrimination helps ISIL and it undermines our national security" Obama said.
Last week Defense Secretary Ash Carter provided the Senate Armed Services Committee with an overview of U.S. efforts to “accelerate the campaign” against Islamic State including dispatching special operations units and mounting airstrikes on oil tankers that help finance the group. He said the fight against the group could use more help from other countries around the world.
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