President Obama touted progress in the fight against the Islamic State in both Iraq and in Syria on the same day a cease-fire deal with Syrian rebels and the government went into effect.
“ISIL is entrenched, including urban areas. It uses innocent civilians as human shields,” Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday, using the favored White House accronym for the Islamic State. “Despite these challenges, I can report that we’re making progress. And this week, I directed my team to continue accelerating our campaign on all fronts.”
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The group has “lost more than 40 percent of its areas it once controlled,” Obama said.
He added that a coalition of local forces is tightening its squeeze on the terrorist group’s stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Obama also touched on the cease-fire negotiated between Syria’s government and rebel groups that went into effect this weekend. The president tried to manage expectations over the tenuous deal.
“There are plenty of reasons for skepticism,” he said. “Even under the best circumstances, the violence will not end right away. But everyone knows what needs to happen.”
The cease-fire went into effect on midnight on Friday night. So far the front lines in the civil war are silent, although the BBC reported low-level clashes among fighters.
