ISISISIS ranks shrink as its fighters “realize cause is lost”: Obama

Kurdish YPJ sniper targets ISIS fighters // Source: commons.wikimedia.com

President Barack Obama has said that ISIS ranks have shrunk to the lowest level for two years, the group has lost large areas it used to control, and the militant group’s fighters “realize their cause is lost.”

Obama aid that the jihadist group had lost 40 percent of the territory it used to control in Iraq and 10 percent of its territory in Syria. He also noted that ISIS has suffered major financial setbacks as the U.S.-led coalition was going after the group’s sources of income.

The assessment was also offered by deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken in a testimony before a congressional panel earlier in the week.

Blinken did not refer to specific figures on the size of ISIS, but in September 2014, the last estimate to which Blinken referred, U.S. intelligence officials told AFP that ISIS could field between 20,000 and 31.500 fighters, both foreign fighters and local recruits – down from 35,000 earlier that year.

The New York Times quotes Pentagon sources who said that U.S. air strikes have killed more than 25,000 ISIS militants. 

“In other words, the ISIS core in Syria and Iraq continues to shrink,” Obama said. “Their ranks of fighters are estimated to be at the lowest levels in about two years, and more and more of them are realizing that their cause is lost.”

“Our cyber operations are disrupting their command-and-control and communications.  

“We continue to target ISIL’s financial infrastructure, including its oil wells, refineries and supply lines. We’ve reduced their oil production and their oil revenue.

“And every dollar we deny them means one less dollar to pay their fighters and to fund their terror.”

The president also said that as the jihadi group’s position in Iraq and Syria was weakening, it was bolstering its presence in Libya.

In an interview last Sunday, Obama said that he considered his administration’s failure to plan for the aftermath of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall was his “worst mistake” in office.

U.S. intelligence says that in the past year, the number of ISIS fighters in Libya has doubled, and now stands at about 5,000 fighters.

“As we, our allies and partners have made it harder for foreign terrorists to reach Syria and Iraq, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of ISIS fighters heading to Libya,” Obama said.

Obama noted that military gains against ISIS notwithstanding, people must be sober and realistic in assessing what still lies ahead.

“As I’ve said repeatedly, the only way to truly destroy ISIS is to end the Syrian civil war that ISIS has exploited,” he said.

“The cessation of hostilities in the Syrian civil war has largely held for about six weeks. It has reduced the violence, although not eliminated it, but that reduction is meaningful and it’s allowed some humanitarian aid to reach the Syrian people.

“So the cessation has saved lives. But as we’re seeing around Aleppo and other areas, the cessation is tenuous and under strain. ”

Obama also warned that the steady weakening of ISIS in Iraq and Syria does not mean the jihadist group has lost its ability to strike back. “As we’ve seen so tragically — from Brussels to Istanbul to Iraq, where ISIL slaughtered children watching soccer — these depraved terrorists still have the ability to inflict horrific violence on the innocent, to the revulsion of the entire world,” he added.

“With attacks likes these, ISIL hopes to weaken our collective resolve. Once again, they have failed. Their barbarism only stiffens our unity and determination to wipe this vile terrorist organization off the face of the Earth.”