Barack Obama speaks alongside Attorney General Loretta Lynch (L), Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (2nd L), General James Dunford (2nd R), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James Clapper (R), Director of National Intelligence, following a National Security Council meeting on the Islamic State at the Department of Treasury, June 14, 2016. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
US President Barack Obama speaks alongside Attorney General Loretta Lynch (L), Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (2nd L), General James Dunford (2nd R), Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and James Clapper (R), Director of National Intelligence, following a National Security Council meeting on the Islamic State at the Department of Treasury in Washington, DC, June 14, 2016.
US President Barack Obama on June 14 said the Islamic State group was losing ground in Iraq and Syria, and that the number of foreign fighters joining the extremists was plummeting. “ISIL lost nearly half of the populated territory it had in Iraq and it will lose more. ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well,” Obama said after a meeting of the National Security Council on the fight against the jihadist group. “In short, our coalition continues to be on offense. ISIL is on defense,” Obama said, using an alternate acronym for the group.
/ AFP / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
