President Barack Obama Monday said the U.S.-led coalition is making progress against Daesh (ISIS) militants in both Iraq and Syria, as he delivered an update on the campaign aimed at reassuring Americans worried about the spread of extremism-fueled terrorism. 


"We are hitting ISIL harder than ever," Obama said, using another name for Daesh. He also said airstrikes had increased and the coalition had successfully knocked out key figures in the group’s leadership "one by one." 


"The point is, ISIL leaders cannot hide and our next message to them is simple: ‘You are next.’" he said. 


Obama’s speech comes as Syrian troops and allied militiamen seized control of a military air base near Damascus, bolstering the regime’s presence in a key area overwhelmingly controlled by rebel forces. 


Earlier, Obama met with his top national security advisers at the Pentagon, part of a weeklong push to explain his strategy for stopping Daesh abroad and its sympathizers at home. Obama is also slated to attend a briefing at the National Counterterrorism Center later in the week. 


After a series of setbacks, the U.S. and its coalition partners have claimed progress recently in wresting back territory from Daesh and eliminating some of its key leaders in Syria and Iraq. The military has said hundreds of U.S airstrikes in recent days dealt a major blow to Daesh ranks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, which Daesh seized in May. 


But progress in Ramadi, as elsewhere, has been slow, leading to calls in the U.S. and abroad for a tougher U.S. response. Aside from authorizing a small number of special forces, Obama has insisted he won’t budge from his determination not to send in major U.S. ground forces. 


Flanked by top military brass, Obama offered some of the first public details about the status of those special forces, ordered before the recent attacks in California and Paris. He said special forces in Syria had started their work helping local groups cut off Daesh supply lines and put pressure on Raqqa, the unofficial capital of the group. 


In an effort to encourage coalition allies to contribute more to the fight, Obama said he was dispatching Defense Secretary Ash Carter to the Middle East on Monday. 


The high-profile visits to agencies charged with keeping the U.S. safe follow an Oval Office address Dec. 6 that aimed to reassure the public but that critics said failed to do the job. 


In Syria, the Syrian army captured the Marj al-Sultan air base, which lies in the eastern suburb of Damascus known as Eastern Ghouta, and had been held by rebels for the past three years. 


The seizure is a rare victory for the government in an area considered an opposition stronghold. It bolsters the government’s hold over Damascus International Airport and splits rebel-held areas. 


The capture was reported by the Lebanese Al-Manar TV. Pro-government websites and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the capture of Marj al-Sultan. Earlier, regime helicopter gunships struck a suburb of Damascus, Daraya, a day after airstrikes in the area killed at least 45 people, activists said. There was no immediate word on casualties from Monday’s attacks 


Fighting on the ground in Syria has intensified even as the international community makes its most serious push yet to restart peace talks between President Bashar Assad’s government and the rebels. 


U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is heading to Russia for talks aimed at narrowing gaps with Russian leaders over a political transition to end the country’s nearly five-year civil war. 


Before departing, Kerry attended a French-hosted foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris to compare notes on a conference of Syrian opposition figures held last week in Saudi Arabia. 


As he headed into the meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last week’s meeting in Riyadh was encouraging. 


“There was some progress, even unexpected for most of us, and when I saw the agreement on some principles by the opposition it was encouraging,” he said. 


Washington and Moscow are deeply divided over the political process they both agree is needed to end the war in Syria. 


A visiting U.N. official Monday said the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged country is “a blot on our collective conscience.” 


Speaking to reporters in Damascus at the end of a three-day visit during which he travelled to the central Syrian city of Homs and met with officials in the Syrian capital, humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien said he was “deeply saddened” by the uptick in violence. 


“This is a tragic reminder of the urgency of finding a political solution and security, a nationwide cease-fire,” he said. “Such indiscriminate attacks are unacceptable and we must do our utmost to protect innocent civilians.” 


Around 6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced, O’Brien said. Two million children are out of school, and 72 percent of the population has no access to drinking water, he added. “This situation is unacceptable,” he said. 


Also Monday, the head of Russia’s military general staff said rebels of the Free Syrian Army are receiving weapons from Moscow – comments that come just days after a Kremlin spokesman denied it. 


Gen. Valery Gerasimov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Russia is supporting the FSA with airstrikes and is also helping “with weapons, ammunition and material.” 


The statement appeared to suggest Russia was supplying the weapons, but the military could not be reached for clarification. 


Last week, President Vladimir Putin said the rebels, who oppose Moscow’s ally Assad, were receiving weapons from Russia, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said Putin meant Assad’s army was getting weapons and the rebels were receiving only air support. 


FSA’s chief of staff has denied receiving Russian weapons. 


If Russia were supplying weapons to the FSA, it would likely be with the understanding that they would direct their fire at Daesh, rather than the Moscow-allied government

Source: NNA