ISIL is no weaker than it was a year ago when the United States began an open-ended military aerial campaign against the terrorist group, American intelligence agencies conclude.
Despite billions of dollars spent and more than 10,000 militants killed, the ISIL group remains a well-funded terror network able to replenish its ranks with foreign fighters as quickly as the US can eradicate them, according to assessments by the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies.
The terrorist organization has even managed to expand its territory into other countries other than Iraq and Syria, including Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan, The Associated Press reports, citing unnamed intelligence officials.
The new intelligence estimate puts the Takfiri group’s total strength at between 20,000 and 30,000 militants, the same estimate as last August.
“We’ve seen no meaningful degradation in their numbers,” a US defense official said.
The new assessment is in contrast with the optimistic line taken by the Obama administration’s special envoy against ISIL, retired General John Allen, who told a forum last week that the terror group is “losing” in Iraq and Syria.
US President Barack Obama has pledged to degrade and ultimately destroy the ISIL terrorist group.
Intelligence officials, however, say that the US campaign against ISIL could take well over a decade to dislodge the militants from their safe havens.
Observers say that while the US and its allies claim they are fighting against terrorist groups like ISIL, they in fact helped create and train those organizations to wreak havoc in Muslim countries.
The Takfiri network uses a campaign of terror that involves gruesome methods such as videotaped beheadings, summary executions, and shockingly inventive methods to kill.
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