President: There will be no letup against ISIL
 
  
  **WASHINGTON (Feb. 26, 2016) —** Even if there is a cessation of hostilities to get food and
medical aid to besieged civilians in Syria, there will be no letup against the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, President Barack Obama said yesterday
evening at the State Department following a meeting of the National Security
Council. “If implemented -- and that’s a
significant ‘if’ -- this cessation could reduce the violence and get more food
and aid to Syrians who are suffering and desperately need it,” the president
said. “It could save lives. Potentially, it could also lead to negotiations on
a political settlement to end the civil war so that everybody can focus their
attention on destroying ISIL.” The United States will do all in its
power to ensure the success of the cessation, Obama said. “At the same time, I
want to make totally clear that there will be absolutely no cease-fire with
respect to ISIL,” he said. “We remain relentless in going after them.” **Coalition Increases Strength** The president directed the national
security team to continue accelerating the campaign against ISIL on all fronts.
The coalition against the terror group is stronger, he said. He praised Defense
Secretary Ash Carter’s efforts to get more contributions from coalition
partners. “Just about all of our military partners have agreed to increase
their contributions, buying into our conception of how we ramp up the pressure
on ISIL,” the president said. He noted that Dutch aircraft are now
striking ISIL targets in Syria, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
are expanding their roles in the air campaign. And the president thanked Canada
for tripling its personnel dedicated to helping train and advise forces in
Iraq. “Every day, our air campaign -- more
than 10,000 strikes so far -- continues to destroy ISIL forces, infrastructure
and heavy weapons,” Obama said. “ISIL fighters are learning that they’ve got no
safe haven. We can hit them anywhere, anytime -- and we do.” **Taking Ground from ISIL** Iraqi and Syrian ground forces,
working with coalition special operations forces, are pushing back ISIL’s
forces, he said. “After intense block-by-block fighting, Iraqi forces recently
succeeded in pushing ISIL out of Ramadi,” Obama said. “ISIL has now lost a
series of key Iraqi towns and cities -- more than 40 percent of the areas it
once controlled in Iraq.” The next phase in the campaign will
target ISIL-controlled Hit in Iraq’s Anbar province, he said, with the ultimate
goal of retaking Mosul -- Iraq’s second-largest city. In Syria, local forces continue
their gains against ISIL. The ultimate goal there is to squeeze the terror
group into its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa and crush it, Obama said.
“Raqqa is not the capital of a growing caliphate; it’s increasingly under
stress as ISIL territory shrinks,” the president said. “This remains a difficult fight,”
Obama said. “The situation in Syria and Iraq is one of the most complex the
world has seen in recent times. ISIL is entrenched, including in urban areas,
using innocent civilians as human shields. Even in places where ISIL has been
driven out, it leaves behind utter devastation.” The president said the fight in
Syria has become a proxy war between regional powers. “Beyond Syria and Iraq, I want to
point out that we continue to go after ISIL wherever it tries to take root,
working with partners from Nigeria to Afghanistan,” Obama said. “As we showed
last week with our strike on an ISIL training camp in Libya, which targeted a
senior ISIL operative, we will continue to use the full range of tools to
eliminate ISIL threats wherever they are.” He noted that the United States will continue to
work with Libya to establish a functioning government there.