Pentagon: 'Islamic State' Remains a Threat

As the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate enters its second year of existence, the U.S. Department of Defense emphasizes that this group has lost a quarter of the territory it controlled since the onset of offensives in Iraq, yet it still poses a threat. According to Reuters, Colonel Steve Warren, spokesperson for the Pentagon, stated on June 29 that the group has lost a quarter of the areas it had seized at the height of its offensives. He also highlighted its defeats and retreats in northern Syria following recent advances by predominantly Kurdish forces in that country. Nevertheless, the group known as the 'Islamic State' still controls Mosul, where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate a year ago, and has recently taken control of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, Iraq's largest province. Steve Warren said, 'A hard battle is underway. We said last year that we expect this battle to take years to drive ISIS out of Iraq. Years.' He described the recent attack by the self-proclaimed Islamic State on the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria as 'limited,' stating that local forces and airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition have pushed them out of the area. Previously, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, reported that the extremist attack was repelled and that Kurdish forces, the People's Protection Units, hold the city. During the brief attack by the Islamic State on Kobani, dozens of civilians were killed. Overall, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights states that in the year since the declaration of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, 3,027 people have been executed by it in Syria, over half of whom were civilians, including 74 children. The spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense added that anti-Islamic State forces have established an impenetrable line from Iraq, near the Turkish border, to Kobani in Syria, a line that stretches nearly 400 kilometers.