That concludes our live-blogging of the crisis surrounding Islamic State for Monday, December 14. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage.
Obama: U.S. Strategy Against IS Working, But Progress Must Be Faster
U.S. President Barack Obama said on December 14 that Islamic State (IS) militants have lost large swaths of territory that they once controlled in Iraq and Syria, but more progress needs to be made faster against the extremist group.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Obama said he has tasked Defense Secretary Ash Carter with going to the Middle East to secure more military contributions from other countries in the U.S.-led coalition that is fighting against IS.
Working to easy public uneasiness ahead of the holidays, Obama held a meeting of his National Security Council at the Pentagon, a rare move, as part of a push aimed at explaining his strategy to stop IS militants abroad and the group’s sympathizers within the United States.
He told reporters after the Pentagon meeting that the U.S. strategy includes hunting down militant leaders, training security forces in other countries, and stopping the group's financing and propaganda.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
U.S. President Obama is making a statement from the Pentagon to try to explain his strategy for stopping the IS group abroad and its sympathizers at home.
Some of Obama's main points:
-- Our strategy is moving forward and includes:
--- Hunting down and taking out these terrorists
--- Stopping IS recruiting and propaganda
--- Training Iraqi forces
--- Moving forward with political process
-- As we squeeze its heart we make it harder for IS to pump its terror into rest of world
-- Difficult fight, IS dug into civilian areas and uses civilians as human shields so we have to carry out strikes with precision
-- Nearly 9000 air strkes
--Last month we dropped more bombs than ever before
--We are also targeting and killing IS leaders including IS financial chief
-- IS leaders "cannot hide" and message to them is "you are next"
-- going after IS in Raqqa and in Libya
-- every day we destroy more of IS forces
-- In many places IS has lost its freedom of manuever
-- SInce summer IS has not had major succssful operation on the ground in Syria or Iraq
-- In recent weeks we are targeting sources of finance like oil fields
-- IS losing ground in Iraq including Sinjar, Baiji, etc
-- So far IS lost 40 percent of populated areas it once controlled in Iraq
-- Iraqi forces fighting to regain Ramadi
-- FIghters on ground face tough fight ahead and we are going to back them up
-- IS continues to lose ground in Syria
-- We are working with Turkey to seal border
-- IS lost thousands of square miles in Syria
-- More poeple are seeing IS as the thugs and thieves that they are
-- We recognize that progress needs to happen faster
-- Just as U.S. is doing more in this fight -- our allies Germany, UK, Australia are doing more
-- Secretary of State Kerry will be in Russia tomorrow to continue working on political process
Abu Mohammadal-Golani, the leader of Syrian's Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al Nusra Front, has lost support among Syrians after he gave an interview this weekend denouncing rebel factions participating in the Saudi sponsored Syrian opposition talks in Riyadh, Syria Direct reports.
Russia's Foreign Ministry says Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has spoken with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by telephone today to "synchronize chronometers" ahead of tomorrow's planned meeting and agree on a common agenda. The phone call was initiated by the United States, the Ministry adds.
The Ministry wrote in a statement on its website:
"The parties confirmed that, to convene a new meeting of the International Syria Support Group it is vital to ensure compliance with its November 14 decisions, which provide for the preparation of proposals for UN Special Representative Stefan de Mistura on the composition of the delegation of the Syrian opposition for talks with the Syrian government, and also agreement on a list of terrorist groups which must be fought against together."
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has welcomed the reported withdrawal of Turkish troops from Camp Bashiqa in northern Iraq and urged Turkey to continue trying to cooperate with Baghdad, the White House said.
Biden told Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that the troop withdrawal was an "important step to de-escalate recent tensions."
RFI journalist David Thomson points out that pro-IS accounts on Twitter had praised the reports of an attack on a French teacher in a Paris suburb by a man citing IS, saying that the attack had been under IS orders.
The only problem? The attack was made up and never happened, the Paris prosecutor is now saying.
Syrian forces have seized control of a military air base in a Damascus suburb, according to Hezbollah's Al Manar TV and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Marj al-Sultan air base is in the mostly rebel held Eastern Ghouta. Its capture after three years of rebel control is a significant advance for Syrian troops and Hezbollah militia who are operating under Russian air cover.
IS militants have launched counter attacks in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, which Iraqi government forces are trying to recapture, the BBC reports.
An Iraqi security source told the BBC that at least 25 soldiers and Sunni tribesmen were killed in a series of suicide car bombings.