WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — According to Obama, US intelligence couldn't have forseen that Daesh was capable to take over Iraqi Mosul.
"The ability of ISIL [the Islamic State] to not just mass inside of Syria, but then to initiate major land offensives that took Mosul, for example, that was not on my intelligence radar screen," the outgoing US president told CNN in an interview aired Wednesday.
The US-led coalition of more than 60 nations has been conducting airstrikes against Daesh in Syria and Iraq since 2014.
After ending a decade-long range of ground offensives, Obama was forced to return a number of US troops to the region in wake of unprecedented rise of extremists.
Obama noted that leaving the White House with such legacy haunts him.
