Obama: U.S. intelligence underestimated militants in Syria

President Barack Obama said in an interview airing Sunday that he agrees with intelligence leaders who believe the United States not only underestimated the threat of militants seeking to form the Islamic State (IS) group but also overestimated the ability and will of the Iraqi army to fight. In the “60 Minutes” interview, Obama called Syria ground zero for jihadists around the world. He said military force is necessary to shrink their capacity. He had appeared less adamant about the threat in the past. In an interview published earlier this year by The New Yorker, the president appeared to minimize IS by comparing it to a junior varsity basketball team.

They were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos. And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the world.

President Barack Obama

U.S.-led coalition warplanes on Sunday kept up their strikes against oil sites in Syria that fund the group formerly known as ISIS or ISIL, as well as targeting the jihadists’ command structure. The air raids came a day after al-Qaida’s Syria affiliate threatened reprisals after a key operative was reported killed. The United States, along with coalition partners Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, hit four modular refineries and an IS command and control post, all north of Raqqa in Syria, U.S. Central Command said. On the ground in western Iraq, pro-government forces backed by warplanes on Sunday repelled an IS attack on the strategic town of Amriyat al-Fallujah, security sources said.

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