Obama pledges to “redouble efforts” to eliminate Daesh terrorist group
US president Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have vowed to intensify efforts to wipe out the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group even as they face criticism for backing terrorist networks in Syria.
After a meeting with Erdogan on Sunday in Antalya Turkey, Obama said the two leaders agreed to show solidarity with France in tracking down the perpetrators of the Paris attacks and to boost a campaign to "eliminate" Daesh.
“We will redouble our efforts with other members of the coalition to bring about a peaceful transition in Syria and to eliminate Daesh as a force that can create so much pain in suffering for people in Paris, in Ankara and other parts of the globe,” Obama said ahead of a summit of the Group of 20 (G20) major economies.
Obama also denounced the shooting and bombing assaults in Paris on Friday that killed 129 people and a double suicide bombing in the Turkish capital Ankara in October that killed 102 people.
“We stand in solidarity with them (French people) in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice,” Obama added. “The killing of innocent people based on a twisted ideology is an attack not just on France, not just on Turkey, but it is an attack on the civilized world.”
Erdogan promised that the G-20 summit would strengthen efforts to fight “collective terrorism activity around the world.”
“We will make strong emphasis on the importance of having a firm stance against international terrorism that has been going on around the world,” he said. “There will be a strong message coming out of his summit on this subject.”
The United States -- with assistance from its regional allies especially Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- has been arming and training militant units to combat the Syrian government and the Daesh group.
The United States has on several occasions airdropped weapons for anti-Damascus militants in Syria, which ended up in the hands of the ISIL terrorists.
On Saturday, US Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton slammed Turkey and some Persian Gulf Arab states for their unclear stance on the fight against the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.
Clinton said the Daesh terrorists cannot be contained so they must be defeated and called for global efforts to uproot terrorism.
A US-led coalition has been bombing purported Daesh targets in Syria and Iraq for over a year, but the air campaign has been largely ineffective.
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