ISIS on defensive, its cause is lost: Barack Obama

ISIS in Iraq and Syria is on the defensive and its “cause is lost,” US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday after meeting with CIA chiefs and other security officials. Mr Obama paid a rare visit to CIA headquarters in Virginia to discuss progress of Operation Inherent Resolve, the 20-month-old US-led campaign against ISIS jihadists in Iraq and Syria. “ISIL is on the defensive, and we are on the offensive,” Mr Obama said, using an IS acronym. “We have momentum, and we intend to keep that momentum.”

Mr Obama pointed to recent US airstrikes that killed three senior ISIS leaders and a report this week showing the group’s ranks are at their lowest level since 2014. “In the days and weeks ahead we intend to take out more (leaders.) Every day, ISIL leaders wake up and understand it could be their last,” Mr Obama said.

ISIS jihadists, meanwhile, have seized a string of Opposition-held villages in Syria’s Aleppo province near the Turkish border, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

Areas around Alep-po have seen a spike in violence on several fronts in recent days, sparking concern over a fragile six-week truce as a new round of peace talks gets under way in Geneva.

“Fierce clashes are raging between rebels and IS after the jiha-dists secured an adva-nce and seized control of six villages near the Turkish border,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The most important village to come under ISIS control was Hiwar Kallis, about one km south of the Turkish border.