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Kerry: ISIS on the run
Kerry: ISIS 'is on the run' despite recent terror attacks
Story highlights
- Secretary of State John Kerry says ISIS is "on the run" in Iraq and Syria
- Recent terror attacks, Kerry said, are "the desperate actions of an enemy that sees the noose closing around them"
(CNN)Secretary
of State John Kerry insisted Sunday that a recent spate of terrorist
attacks reflects that ISIS is "on the run" in Iraq and Syria.
Kerry
downplayed attacks like the shooting at an Orlando nightclub, a
driver's rampage through a crowd in Nice and the Istanbul airport
attack, saying they don't reflect the strength of the group in its home
bases.
Those
attacks are "the desperate actions of an enemy that sees the noose
closing around them," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."
Tapper pressed Kerry about
the assertion that ISIS "is on the run" given the recent string of
attacks reportedly inspired by them.
"With
all due respect, sir, I'm not sure that it looks that way to the
public, that ISIS is on the run. In just the last few weeks, we have
seen a series of ISIS-inspired attacks. ... I don't think ISIS is on the
run," Tapper said.
"If
people are inspired, they are inspired," Kerry said. "But ISIL, which
is based in Iraq and Syria, is under huge pressure, and that's a fact."
"If
you're saying that one person standing up one day and killing people is
an example of ISIS moving in Iraq and Syria, I think you're dead
wrong," he said.
Kerry said the
United States is doing everything in its power to snuff out ISIS in Iraq
and Syria, and said the group has already lost 40-45% of the territory
it once held.
Pressed by Tapper on
whether the United States could ramp up its military presence there,
Kerry pointed to Congress, saying it hasn't displayed an appetite to
approve new legislation authorizing the use of military force against
ISIS.
"Congress displayed
absolutely zero willingness to do that, and if people have a willingness
to show that now that has changed, the administration will listen," he
said.
Kerry's comments about ISIS come as U.S. intelligence officials have said the terror group isn't desperate, but is adapting.
Recent
raids against ISIS targets have given the U.S. intelligence community a
better understanding of how the terror group is structured and
organized, and about its plans for attacks outside areas it controls in
Syria and Iraq, a senior administration official recently told CNN.
They
also have made it clear that or some time ISIS was planning to focus on
those attacks around the world, although there were no clear
indications of when and where that would have provided actionable
intelligence to prevent them, the senior official said.
"We were aware they were moving this way," the official said. "It's not like we didn't see it coming."
The senior official said ISIS is expected to continue going after so-called soft targets such as airports and shopping areas.
"It's not a sign of weakness or desperation. They are adapting in a different way," the official said.
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