US President Barack Obama says the Takfiri militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, pose a “medium and long-term threat” to the United States.
In an interview with CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ aired on Sunday, Obama said that the ISIL is one of the terrorist groups that pose a threat to the US as he called the threat posed by these groups a “global challenge.”
“There are a lot of groups out there that probably have more advanced immediate plans directed against the United States that we have to be on constant guard for,” he said.
“But I think it's important for us to recognize that ISIS is just one of a number of organizations that we have to stay focused on al-Qaeda in Yemen is still very active and we're staying focused on that. In North Africa, you're seeing organizations including Boko Haram that kidnapped all those young women that is extreme and violent,” Obama added.
His remarks come as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) said on Sunday that the US has been arming the ISIL militants in Syria.
“I think we have to understand first how we got here,” Paul said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ “We have been arming ISIS in Syria.”
Over the recent days, the ISIL militants in Iraq, who are allied with loyalists of Iraq’s former Baathist regime, have been wreaking havoc in the country and committing atrocities against people.
The militants overran large swathes of land in northern Iraq, including the cities of Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, and Tikrit, the birthplace of former Baathist dictator Saddam Hussein, in just two weeks.
Meanwhile, Iraqi army forces have flushed out ISIL militants from a major district near the city of Baqubah in Diyala province. Dozens of militants were killed in the operation and a number of vehicles with Saudi plates were seized.
The US says its military is ready for air strikes against ISIL militants in Iraq and Obama said on Thursday that Washington would send 300 “military advisers” to Iraq.
However, antiwar protesters in a number of US cities – including Washington, New York, and Los Angeles – expressed their opposition to any possible US military intervention in Iraq on Saturday and even said sending military advisers can be a prelude to a large-scale war as it was before the Vietnam War.
They also said that the US only wants to help its military-industrial complex by sending military personnel and materials to Iraq.
“This is an imperialistic move, this is a capitalistic move, this is a move not for the people of Iraq, but for the elite in the United States," said Melba Conway, a protestor.
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