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Obama: Attacks “Terrible” Setback In IS Campaign

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — President Barack Obama on Monday conceded that the Paris terror attacks were a "terrible and sickening setback" in the fight against the Islamic State, but forcefully dismissed critics who have called for the U.S. to change or expand its military campaign against the extremists.

"The strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that is ultimately is going to work," Obama said during a news conference at the close of two days of talks with world leaders. "It's going to take time."

The president grew irritated amid repeated questions about whether he had underestimated the strength of the Islamic State, which now appears to be focusing on targets outside its base in Syria and Iraq. In addition to the terror spree in Paris, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks in Lebanon and Turkey, as well as the downing of a Russian airline in Egypt.

The president said most of his critics are simply "talking as if they're tough" and offering no real ideas. And he brushed aside those who call for sending U.S. ground troops into the region, saying that "would be a mistake" and wouldn't work unless the U.S. was committed to being a permanent occupying force in the region.

"This is not an abstraction," Obama said. "When we send troops in, those troops get injured. They get killed."

While Obama did not single out his critics by name, some Republican presidential candidates, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, have called for sending U.S. forces into Syria. Bush has also suggested that any U.S. assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should be primarily focused on Christians, another idea that rankled Obama.

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"That's shameful," Obama declared. "That's not American. That's not who we are."

Republicans and also some Democrats have challenged Obama's approach to the Islamic State, saying he lacks a clear strategy. The president's approach centers largely on airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, as well as programs to train and equip moderate opposition forces. He's also sent more than 3,000 troops to Iraq to assist that country's security forces and recently announced plans to send up to 50 Americans into Syria.

Obama said he envisioned escalating that strategy, not overhauling it. And he called on other nations to step up their involvement in the fight against the extremists.

France has already ramped up its response following the attacks that killed at least 129 people and injured hundreds. In its heaviest strikes yet, French military bombarded Raqqa, the Islamic State's stronghold in Syria, in hopes of killing Islamic State organizers and trainees

Obama announced a new effort to share intelligence with France following the coordinated terror spree across Paris that killed at least 129 people and injured hundreds. Officials said the U.S. was already using intelligence to help France identify targets for the airstrikes.

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Soldiers patrol in front of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, November 16, …

The Islamic State's increasing focus on targets outside the military has raised questions about whether Obama underestimated the group. He once referred to the extremists as a "JV team" and said shortly before the Paris attack that their capacity in Iraq and Syria had been contained.

The president conceded there were challenges in defeating the Islamic State given that its fighters have a "willingness to die."

"If you have a handful of people who don't mind dying, they can kill a lot of people," he said.

While officials say the U.S. had been aware of the Islamic State's desire to strike targets outside the Middle East, Obama said he had not been briefed on any intelligence that indicated an attack in Paris was likely.

"I'm not aware of anything that was specific," he said.

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Nepalese people light candles for the victims of Paris terror attacks in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nov. 15, …

Obama's comments followed a two-day meeting with leaders from the Group of 20 rich and developing countries. The meeting in the seaside city of Antalya, just a few hundred miles from the Syrian border, was planned before the Paris attacks, but the carnage there ratcheted up the urgency in the talks.

The discussions about the Islamic State came amid a glimmer of progress in efforts to end the Syrian civil war, which created the chaos that allowed the extremist group to thrive. A foreign ministers' meeting in Vienna over the weekend resulted in a new diplomatic plan that envisions negotiations between Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and opposition groups starting by Jan. 1.

Still, sharp differences over Assad's future and disagreements about what militant groups in Syria should be considered terrorists have dampened hopes for a breakthrough.

Obama voiced optimism about the plan, saying he had "some degree of hope" that the plan would provide a path forward. But he added, "We are very clear eyed about the very, very difficult road ahead."

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CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.

The video, which appeared on a website used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday's Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed.

The message to countries involved in what it called the "crusader campaign" was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.

"We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France's and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington," the man said.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which purports to be the work of Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi province of Salahuddine, north of Baghdad.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not comment on the video but said it has not received information indicating a potential attack.

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A man identified in the subtitiles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian speaks at an undisclosed location in t …

"While we take all threats seriously, we do not have specific credible information of an attack on the U.S. homeland," a DHS official said on condition of anonymity.

The French government has called the Paris attacks an act of war and said it would not end its air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date on Sunday, targeting the Islamic State's stronghold in the city of Raqqa, in coordination with U.S. forces.

Police raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across France overnight following the Paris attacks.

"Al Ghareeb the Algerian" also warned Europe in the video that more attacks were coming.

"I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before," he said.

Apparently referring to international talks to end the Syrian war, another man identified in the video as Al Karrar the Iraqi tells French President Francois Hollande "we have decided to negotiate with you in the trenches and not in the hotels."

(Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Lin Noueihed; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Ahmed Aboulenein, Michael Georgy, David Stamp and Jonathan Oatis)

Related video:

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses a news conference following a working session at the Group of 20 (G20) leaders summit in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Turkey, November 16, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

By Matt Spetalnick

BELEK, Turkey (Reuters) - President Barack Obama ruled out a shift in strategy in the fight against Islamic State on Monday despite the deadly attacks in Paris, saying putting more U.S. troops on the ground as sought by his political critics "would be a mistake."

Speaking after a G20 summit in Turkey, Obama described the attacks in France that killed 129 people as "a terrible and sickening setback" and vowed to redouble efforts to destroy Islamic State, even as the group threatened to strike Washington.

Mindful of the difficulties that the United States had in controlling Iraq after its invasion in 2003, Obama is very reluctant to commit American ground forces to Middle East conflict zones.

"We are going to continue the strategy that has the best chance of working," he told a news conference, adding that there would be "an intensification" of the effort against Islamic State.

Obama has been criticized for his administration's handling of the current turmoil in Syria and Iraq, with some Republicans calling for a more aggressive approach that would include more U.S. troops on the ground in the region.

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U.S. President Barack Obama holds a news conference with reporters at the end of the G20 summit at t …

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush called on Monday for more U.S. troops in leadership positions and as advisers to Iraqi and Kurdish units. He also sought a no-fly zone in Syria, a move Obama has resisted, in part because Islamic State has no air force.

Billionaire businessman Donald Trump, another Republican White House contender, supported sending as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in the region, while South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham spoke of creating a ground force of U.S., French and other NATO forces to fight Islamic State.

Obama pushed back against the Republicans and said some were only recommending what the administration had already done against Islamic State while others seemed to think if he were "just more bellicose ... that would make a difference."

"This is not a traditional military opponent. We can retake territory and as long as we keep our troops there we can hold it. But that does not solve the underlying problem of eliminating the dynamics that are producing these kinds of violent, extremist groups," Obama said.

A majority of Americans want the United States to intensify its assault on Islamic State following the Paris attacks, but most remain opposed to sending troops to Iraq or Syria, where the militant group is based, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Obama told reporters that U.S. intelligence agencies had been concerned about a potential attack on the West by Islamic State for more than a year, but he said none of the warnings they had received were specific enough to have prevented Friday's attacks in Paris.

Even so, the United States is streamlining the process by which it shares intelligence and operational military information with France.

Obama criticized as "shameful" the idea that Christian

refugees should be given preference by the United States in

decisions over admitting people fleeing violence in Syria.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Phil Stewart, Lisa Lambert and Erin McPike; Writing by Tim Ahmann and David Alexander; Editing by Alistair Bell)

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President Barack Obama (L) talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and U.S. security advisor Susan Rice (2nd L) prior to the opening session of the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders summit summit in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Turkey November 15, 2015. REUTERS/Cem Oksuz/Pool

By Dasha Afanasieva, Jan Strupczewski and Humeyra Pamuk

BELEK, Turkey (Reuters) - World leaders vowed tighter border controls, more intelligence sharing and a crackdown on terrorist financing after the Paris attacks, but there was little sign at a summit on Monday of a dramatic shift in strategy against Islamic State in Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at the end of the G20 meetings in Turkey, said the coordinated attacks in the French capital were a setback in the fight against the jihadists, but that putting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria to combat them "would be a mistake."

The attacks across Paris, which killed 129 people at a concert, restaurants and a soccer stadium on Friday, underlined the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIL) far beyond its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. They overshadowed the two-day summit, which took place just 500 km (310 miles) from Syria.

"ISIL is the face of evil," Obama told a news conference, describing the attacks as a "terrible and sickening" setback but adding that progress against the group was being made.

"Tragically, Paris is not alone. We've seen outrageous attacks by ISIL in Beirut, last month in Ankara, routinely in Iraq. Here at the G20, our nations have sent an unmistakable message, that we are united against this threat," he said.

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European Union leaders observe a minute of silence in memory of the victims of Paris attacks, at the …

Concerned about the "acute and growing flow of foreign terrorist fighters", G20 leaders agreed to step up border controls and aviation security, in a joint statement that marked a rare departure from their usual focus on the global economy.

They condemned the Paris attacks as "heinous" and said they remained committed to tackling terrorist financing.

"This is the first time the G20 has actually gone into this sort of detail ... There was a real sense of solidarity between everyone present," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

French warplanes pounded positions held by Islamic State in Syria on Sunday in what Fabius described as self-defense, while Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was accelerating efforts to find partners in the fight on the ground.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted Britain to also carry out air strikes in Syria but still needed to convince more lawmakers to back such action, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fight against terrorism could not be won by military force alone.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) meets with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) at the Grou …

U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State were complicated when Russia joined the conflict a month and a half ago, targeting what the West says are mainly foreign-backed fighters battling President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow's ally, rather than focusing on Islamic State.

Obama met Russian President Vladimir Putin in an informal meeting lasting around 30 minutes at the summit on Sunday, a discussion which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said had been constructive but not groundbreaking. Obama made no mention of their meeting at his news conference.

The dilemma for Obama remained how to rally the coalition against Islamic State without drawing the United States deeper into Syria's war, U.S. officials said.

European allies expressed full support, in a meeting with Obama, for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria in parallel with a planned political transition drawn up by foreign ministers in Vienna on Saturday and meant to lead to elections in Syria within two years, a White House official said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the possibility of a military ground operation in Syria had not been discussed at the summit.

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Members of the Group of 20 (G20) applaud after posing for the traditional family photo during the G2 …

MIGRATION A GLOBAL CONCERN

Syria's war has also spawned Europe's largest migration flows since World War Two, and global leaders pledged to work to resolve a crisis that has seen millions of people displaced.

In a diplomatic coup for host Turkey and Europe, the G20 recognized the crisis as a "global concern" with major political and economic consequences, despite opposition from Russia, China and some others who saw it primarily as a European problem.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned against conflating the migration crisis with the threat from global terrorism, saying to do so would be to shirk a humanitarian responsibility.

"Terrorism has no religion, ethnicity, nationality or region," he said, adding that Turkey would pursue its battle against Kurdish militants, Islamic State, radical leftists, and other threats with equal determination.

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Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a …

Turkey has come under pressure from Western allies to ramp up its fight against Islamic State and tighten control of its 900 km (560-mile) border with Syria, which the jihadists have used to bring in supplies and foreign fighters. It is also under pressure from Europe to stem the flow of refugees.

But the NATO member has long complained about a lack of robust intelligence sharing and urged the West to provide more information about potential suspects before they travel.

A senior Turkish official said Ankara had twice notified France about one of the Paris attackers but had only received a request for more information after the attacks.

Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris, is the only attacker to have formally been named by police in France. He was identified by the print from one of his fingers that was severed when his suicide vest exploded.

Populist leaders around Europe rushed to demand an end to an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa in the hours after the Paris attacks.

"I was surprised how determined the leaders were not to confuse refugees with terrorists," one senior EU official said, noting the statement had already been in the works after twin suicide bombings in October in host Turkey's capital Ankara.

"What happened in Paris only strengthened the language."

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Kylie MacLellan, Lidia Kelly, David Dolan, Gernot Heller, Orhan Coskun and Asli Kandemir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

KABC – Los Angeles
France falls silent as police hunt fugitive, name mastermind

By Chine Labbé and Crispian Balmer

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande called on the United States and Russia to join a global coalition to destroy Islamic State in the wake of the attacks across Paris, and announced a wave of measures to combat terror in France.

"France is at war," Hollande told a joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles, promising to increase funds for national security and strengthen anti-terror laws in response to the suicide bombings and shootings that killed 129.

"We're not engaged in a war of civilisations, because these assassins do not represent any. We are in a war against jihadist terrorism which is threatening the whole world," he told a packed, sombre chamber.

Parliamentarians gave Hollande a standing ovation before spontaneously singing the "Marseillaise" national anthem in a show of political unity following the worst atrocity France has seen since World War Two.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for Friday's coordinated attacks, saying they were in retaliation for France's involvement in U.S.-backed air strikes in Iraq and Syria.

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Soldiers patrol in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, November 16, 2015, as securit …

Hollande pledged that French fighter jets would intensify their assaults and said he would meet U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the coming days to urge them to pool their resources.

"We must combine our forces to achieve a result that is already too late in coming," the president said.

The U.S.-led coalition has been bombing Islamic State for more than a year. Russia joined the conflict in September, but Western officials say it has mainly hit foreign-backed fighters battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, not Islamic State.

Speaking in Turkey at the same time as Hollande, Obama called Friday's attacks a "terrible and sickening setback", but maintained that the U.S.-led coalition was making progress.

"Even as we grieve with our French friends ... we can't lose sight that there has been progress," Obama said at a Group of 20 summit, ruling out sending in ground troops.

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A man waves a French flag as several hundred people gather to observe a minute of silence in Lyon, F …

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris late on Monday to pay respects to those killed in the attacks and stress Washington's support for the toughened French stance. He is due to meet Hollande on Tuesday morning.

Much of France came to a standstill at midday for a minute's silence to remember the dead, many of whom were young people killed as they enjoyed a night out. Metro trains stopped, pedestrians paused on pavements and office workers stood at their desks.

But in a sign of life slowly returning to normal, schools and museums re-opened after a 48-hour shutdown, as did the Eiffel Tower, which lit up the night sky in the red, white and blue colours of the French flag following two days of darkness.

ISLAMIC STATE THREATS

Investigators have identified a Belgian national living in Syria as the possible mastermind behind the attacks, which targeted bars, restaurants, a concert hall and soccer stadium.

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Belgian special forces police climb high on an apartment block during a raid, in search of suspected …

"Friday's act of war was decided upon and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium and carried out on our territory with the complicity of French citizens," said Hollande.

Prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants - four Frenchmen and a foreigner fingerprinted in Greece last month. His role in the carnage has fuelled speculation that Islamic State took advantage of a recent wave of refugees fleeing Syria to slip militants into Europe.

Police believe one attacker is on the run, and suspect at least four people helped organise the mayhem.

"We know that more attacks are being prepared, not just against France but also against other European countries," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told RTL Radio. "We are going to live with this terrorist threat for a long time."

Islamic State warned in a video on Monday that any country hitting it would suffer the same fate as Paris, promising specifically to target Washington.

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Nepalese people light candles for the victims of Paris terror attacks in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nov. 15, …

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters police had arrested nearly two dozen people and seized arms, including a rocket launcher and automatic weapons, in 168 raids overnight.

"Let this be clear to everyone, this is just the beginning, these actions are going to continue," he said.

Hollande said he would create 5,000 jobs in the security forces, boost prison service staff by 2,500 and avoid cuts to defence spending before 2019. He acknowledged this would break EU budget rules, but said national security was more important.

He also said he would ask parliament to extend for three months a state of emergency he declared on Friday, which gives security forces sweeping powers to search and detain suspects.

MANHUNT

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A policeman patrols after gunfire in the Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris, France. (A …

A source close to the investigation said Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, currently in Syria, was suspected of having ordered the Paris operation. "He appears to be the brains behind several planned attacks in Europe," the source told Reuters.

RTL Radio said Abaaoud was a 27-year-old from the Brussels district of Molenbeek, home to many Muslim immigrants and a focal point for Islamist radicalism in recent years.

Police in Brussels have detained two suspects and are hunting Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Frenchman based in Belgium. One of his brother's died in the Paris assault, while a third brother was arrested at the weekend but later released.

Police in France named two of the French attackers as Ismael Omar Mostefai, 29, from Chartres, southwest of Paris, and Samy Amimour, 28, from the Paris suburb of Drancy.

France believes Mostefai, a petty criminal who never served time in jail, visited Syria in 2013-2014. His radicalisation underlined the trouble police face trying to capture an elusive enemy raised in its own cities.

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Handout picture shows Belgian-born Abdeslam Salah seen on a call for witnesses notice released by th …

"He was a normal man," said Christophe, his neighbour in Chartres. "Nothing made you think he would turn violent."

Latest official figures estimate that 520 French nationals are in the Syrian and Iraqi war zones, including 116 women. Some 137 have died in the fighting, 250 have returned home and around 700 have plans to travel to join the jihadist factions.

The man stopped in Greece in October was carrying a Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad Al Mohammad. Police said they were still checking to see if the document was authentic, but said the dead man's fingerprints matched those on record in Greece.

Greek officials said the passport holder had crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands last month and then registered for asylum in Serbia before heading north, following a route taken by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers this year.

His role in the mission has re-ignited a fierce debate in Europe about how to tackle a continuing influx of refugees, with anti-immigrant parties calling for borders to be closed against the flood of newcomers fleeing the Middle East.

Meanwhile climate change activists met in Paris on Monday and reaffirmed their determination to hold a demonstration in the city on Nov. 29, the day before a U.N. summit aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.

Organisers of the march expressed sympathy for the victims of Friday's attacks, but said the goals of the climate movement were synonymous with opposition to violence and terror. However, the green groups require permission to assemble from French authorities, who have signalled concerns about being able to guarantee safety. The two sides will meet on Tuesday for talks.

(Additional reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, John Irish, Leigh Thomas, Ingrid Melander, Marine Pennetier, Geert De Clercq, Claire Watson and Laurence Frost in Paris, and Bruce Wallace in Los Angeles; Yves Herman, Robert-Jan Bartunek, Philip Blenkinsop and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Pravin Char)