Ahead of G-20, Obama reviews strategy with NSC to neutralise ISIS

The Paris attacks suggest that the Islamic State and its affiliates may have a broader reach and pose a deadlier threat to the West than was was believed earlier

United States President Barack Obama, who has arrived in Turkey for the G-20 summit, which likely to train its focus on beefing up counter-terrorism measures at a global level, met with his national security team before his departure for Antalya and reviewed the overall security situation and intelligence information of the country in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, France.

The White House said the President's team briefed him on the latest intelligence surrounding the ISIS-related attacks and reviewed the homeland security posture to ensure they were doing everything necessary to protect the American people.

The President directed his team to take all appropriate measures to ensure the security of U.S.Embassy personnel in Paris and across Europe.

 

The Paris attacks suggest that the Islamic State and its affiliates may have a broader reach and pose a deadlier threat to the West than intelligence officials and the Obama administration had previously believed to be the case, and therefore, according to a Washington Post report, the American strategy could be reworked further to include greater use of military air power to contain and degrade the terrorist outfit that has its bases in Iraq.

President Obama is reportedly of the view that he does not want American troops to be embroiled in another major ground war in the Middle East and believes that U.S. military power can't by itself secure a lasting victory in Iraq and Syria.

Just hours before the Paris terror strike, Obama had said in an interview with ABC News that the campaign against the Islamic State is a "multi-year project", which has succeeded in its initial goal of containing the group.

The Washington Post now says that the Paris attacks could force the American president to adopt a strategy that is more focused on destroying the group's global reach beyond Iraq and Syria.

According to the paper, some administration officials have argued that the United States needs to do much more to address threats from Islamic State affiliates in places such as Libya, the Sinai Peninsula and Yemen. They have also called for introducing more steps to stop Islamic State fighters and the flow of money across borders, and to better understand how the group's core leadership in Iraq and Syria communicates with other nodes.

The United States has reportedly aligned itself with Kurdish and Arab rebels to neutralise ISIS in some parts of northern Syria. The U.S. military is reportedly now providing intensified air support and limited weaponry to help them prepare for an eventual assault on Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital.