ISIS leader killed in U.S. airstrike in Iraq?
The
Iraqi defense ministry said a U.S. The White House confirmed the air
raid, but deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, brother of CBS
News president David Rhodes, said the U.S. President Obama huddled with
European leaders and Jordan's king Abdullah about military moves against
ISIS at the…
CBS News
ISIS leader killed in U.S. airstrike in Iraq?
By CBSNews
13 hours ago
Iraqi defense ministry says
U.S. bombing raid near Mosul killed a top lieutenant to the group's
leader, but the White House is treading with caution
The White House
confirmed the air raid, but deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes,
brother of CBS News president David Rhodes, said the U.S. is still
investigating reports of al-Sufi's death.
"We
are very careful not to make declarative statements until we know with
certainty that someone like that, who's a very high value individual in
the organization, has been taken out," Rhodes said. "Any time that
there's a leader taken off the battlefield in a terrorist organization
like that, it does have an impact on their ability to operate as
effectively as they did before."
President
Obama huddled with European leaders and Jordan's king Abdullah about
military moves against ISIS at the NATO summit. Top aides said NATO will
pledge military assistance, but specifics will come later. The White
House conceded that destroying ISIS is a job likely to fall to the next
president.
"It's clearly going to take a very long time to ensure that you've eliminated that threat," said Rhodes.
Obama's described goal of making ISIS a manageable problem contrasted sharply with Vice President Joe Biden's promise that the U.S. would follow ISIS to the "gates of hell" for executing two American journalists.
"I
think the difference is -- when you look at the phases here, there's an
initial phase where you have to degrade an organization, you have to
squeeze them. You have to put in place a structure that can then defeat
them," said Rhodes. "We've done this."
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