US Admits Inability to Defeat ISIL in 2016

The United States won't be able to defeat the terrorist group Daesh in 2016, a White House official said, instead hoping that it would become something like al-Qaeda.

Despite US President Barack Obama's rhetoric, the United States won't be able to defeat ISIL (Daesh) in 2016, a White House official said in a briefing on Saturday.

Obama has made a series of statements over the past several months, where he's said that the US has been hitting the group "harder than ever." Even despite a shooting spree in San Bernardino, California by two people who had pledged allegiance to the group, Obama said that Daesh is not a threat to the United States.

"Daesh will continue to exist. You are not going to eradicate Daesh in the next years," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said in a briefing, cited by CBS News.

Rhodes added that the US intends to "make it harder" for the group to function. He said that Daesh would continue to exist, "Just as al Qaeda continues to exist, although significantly degraded."

Al-Qaeda, which staged terrorist attacks against such targets as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, continued to attack targets around the world, although internal security measures have downgraded its ability to launch large attacks. The US' international campaign against the group culminated with the killing of its leader, Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Al-Qaeda, a decentralized organization, continues to operate around the world. Its West African affiliate al-Shabaab staged an attack in Kenya in 2015 which left 148 people dead. The al-Nusra Front faction of the Syrian rebels is part of the group and continues to operate using tactics such as suicide bombings.