U.S. President Barack Obama (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
WANmahani
- Secara terbuka mengumumkan bahwa agensi perisikan Amerika Syarikat "pandang ringan" kehadiran dan aktiviti Negara Islam militan di Syria, Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama dlm 1 temu bual dengan CBS dipanggil negara ini "tanah sifar" untuk jihad antarabangsa.
"Sejak beberapa tahun yang lalu, dalam keadaan huru-hara perang saudara Syria, di mana pada dasarnya anda mempunyai petak besar di negara ini yang benar-benar tidak atau, mereka dapat menyusun semula diri mereka dan mengambil kesempatan daripada keadaan huru-hara itu," kata Obama dalam satu temu bual dibuat pada hari Jumaat tetapi disiarkan pada hari Ahad.
"Dan hal ini menjadi alasan sifar untuk jihad di seluruh DUNIA," katanya.
Obama bergema komen sebelum ini yang dibuat oleh James Clapper, Pengarah perisikan negara Amerika Syarikat yang mengakui bagaimana ADALAH di Syria telah dipandang ringan.
Pada masa yang sama, Obama yang mengakui keupayaan tentera Iraq dalam menangani kumpulan militan juga dipandang remeh. Clapper membuat kenyataan serupa dengan kolumnis Washington Post awal bulan ini.
"Saya tidak melihat kejatuhan pasukan keselamatan Iraq di utara akan datang," Clapper dipetik sebagai berkata. "Saya tidak melihat bahawa. Ia bisul ke mera-malkan kehendak untuk melawan, kerana seorang yg tdk terbayangkan akibatnya."
US ‘Underestimated’ Islamic State militants in Syria – OBAMA
Publicly announcing that US intelligence agencies “underestimated” the presence and activity of Islamic State militants in Syria, US President Barack Obama in an interview with CBS called the country a “ground zero” for international jihadists.
“Over the past couple of years, during the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially you have huge swaths of the country that are completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos,” Obama said in an interview made on Friday but aired on Sunday.
“And so this became ground zero for jihadists around the WORLD,” he added.
Obama echoed comments previously made by James Clapper, US director of national intelligence which acknowledge how IS in Syria had been underestimated.
At the same time, Obama admitted that the Iraqi army’s capabilities in dealing with militant groups were also overestimated. Clapper made similar comments to a Washington Post columnist earlier this month.
“I didn't see the collapse of the Iraqi security force in the north coming,” Clapper was quoted as saying. “I didn't see that. It boils down to predicting the will to fight, which is an imponderable.”
Sebuah pesawat pejuang dari Negara Islam, yang sebelum ini dikenali sebagai Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (Isil), Mans sebuah meriam anti-pesawat yang dipasang di belakang kenderaan di Mosul (A fighter from the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), mans an anti - aircraft gun mounted on the rear of a vehicle in Mosul (Reuters, Stringer)
IS telah membunuh beribu-ribu orang dan telah mengadakan 3 pemancungan kepala berprofil tinggi sangat bagi orang barat dalam penyitaan berterusan kepada bahagian-bahagian Syria dan Iraq utara-barat.
Minggu lalu, serangan udara yang diketuai terhadap IS yang bermula pada bulan Ogos di Iraq berpindah ke Syria, dan Obama telah cuba untuk menjalin pakatan yang lebih luas yang lebih kukuh terhadap pengganas, dengan usaha antarabangsa dengan rakan-rakan Arab dan yang melibatkan orang-orang seperti Denmark, Perancis dan United Kingdom.
Obama pergi untuk menerangkan strategi keseluruhan tentera menentang IS.
"Kami hanya perlu menolak mereka kembali, dan mengecilkan ruang mereka, dan pergi selepas mereka perintah dan kawalan, dan keupayaan mereka, dan senjata-senjata mereka, & mengisi mereka, & memotong pembiayaan mereka, & berusaha untuk menghapuskan aliran pejuang asing, "katanya.
BACA LANJUT: Tindakan balas untuk serangan udara diketuai Amerika Syarikat di Syria akan mengikuti, cabang sumpah Al-Qaeda READ MORE: Retaliation for US-led airstrikes in Syria will follow, Al-Qaeda offshoot vows
Tetapi pegawai tentera Amerika Syarikat mengakui bahawa serangan udara ke atas kubu kuat IS tidak mencapai cukup dan kempen darat yang diperlukan untuk menghancurkan pengganas - dengan kuasa2 Kurdish di Iraq dan "pembangkang sederhana 'dilatih dan dilengkapkan oleh Amerika Syarikat di Syria.
"Ya, perlu ada satu komponen tanah untuk kempen terhadap Isil di Syria," Bersama Ketua Turus Pengerusi Jeneral Martin Dempsey berkata minggu lepas, sambil menambah bahawa angka-angka awal yang membabitkan sekumpulan 5,000 bakal tentera Amerika Syarikat terlatih mungkin tetapi sebahagian kecil daripada apa yang benar-benar diperlukan untuk merendahkan dan memusnahkan Negara Islam.
BACA LANJUT: Pentagon bersedia untuk melatih sehingga 15,000 pemberontak Syria READ MORE: Pentagon ready to train up to 15,000 Syrian rebels
IS has killed thousands of people and has staged three very high-profile beheadings of westerners in their ongoing seizure of parts of Syria and north-western Iraq.
Last week, US-led air strikes against IS which began in August in Iraq moved to Syria, and Obama has been attempting to forge a stronger broader coalition against the terrorists, with an international effort with Arab partners and involving the likes of Denmark, France and the UK.
Obama went on to describe his overall military strategy against IS.
“We just have to push them back, and shrink their space, and go after their command and control, and their capacity, and their weapons, and their fueling, and cut off their financing, and work to eliminate the flow of foreign fighters,” he said.
But US military officials admit that air attacks on IS strongholds are not achieving enough and a ground campaign is needed to crush the terrorists – with Kurdish forces in Iraq and the "moderate opposition" trained and equipped by the US in Syria.
“Yes, there has to be a ground component to the campaign against ISIL in Syria,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said last week, adding that earlier figures pertaining to a group of 5,000 prospective US-trained forces may be but a fraction of what is truly required to degrade and destroy the Islamic State.
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/3oo35b
