Secretary of State John Kerry warned Wednesday that defeating the Islamic State and stripping it of its territory in Iraq and Syria won’t mean an end to the battle against terrorism, and said further efforts will be needed to prevent attacks like the one seen in Nice, France, last week.
“We are going to end the terror of Daesh holding territory and holding itself out as a state and terrorizing citizens of cities,” Kerry told reporters in Washington.
“But that will not end terrorism itself,” he added. “We will still have to have an ongoing major level of cooperation, but we’re getting better and better at it.”
Kerry reiterated the fear that many have described: that the Islamic State now has an ability to inspire terrorist acts around the world, even as its territory in the Middle East shrinks.
“Despite these terrible events that happen with someone who jumps in a truck and drives through a crowd, and people who have individual weapons and go out and shoot, that’s an ongoing challenge,” Kerry said. “Nobody should pretend that that disappears the moment Daesh is defeated within Iraq or defeated within Mosul.”
Kerry said the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State — or Daesh, as Kerry prefers — is already ahead of schedule in the effort to retake Mosul from the terrorist group.
“[W]e are ahead of the schedule that we predicted, and we are growing in our capacity to be able to put pressure on, and we are going to continue to do that,” he said.
