US President Barack Obama revealed at the G7 summit of world leaders on Monday that the country still has no "complete strategy" to fight against the Islamic State which has scored a string of victories in Syria and Iraq.
The President's admission of a lack of concrete plan on how to prevent the Islamic terrorist group from boosting its ranks and conquering more cities comes 10 months after the US started conducting airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq, ABC News reported.
"We don't yet have a complete strategy," Obama said at the G7 summit of world leaders in Germany on Monday. "The details of that are not yet worked out."
Obama said a proposal for increasing the speed and scale of the training of Iraqi forces will be announced "when a finalized plan is presented to me by the Pentagon." Iraqi forces, on the other hand, still have to commit to complete the strategy.
The US leader's comments were similar to his statement last August when the US-led airstrikes on ISIS targets began. "We don't have a strategy yet," Obama also said then. This was in response to a question on whether he would ask Congress' approval for a US military campaign against the Islamic group.
Before speaking to the media on Monday, Obama met Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the G7 Summit in Germany. The two leaders vowed that ISIS will eventually be defeated. Iraq is not a G7 member but was there as a member of an outreach group to discuss terrorism and development.
"I'm confident that although it is going to take time and there will be setbacks and lessons learned, that we are going to be successful, ISIL is going to be drive out of Iraq, and ultimately it is going to be defeated," said Obama.
"Undoubtedly, we will win the war," Abadi said, assuring Obama that the loss of Ramadi to ISIS will not be a permanent one.
