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U.S. NEWS A3
Monday 7 December 2015
Obama: Terror Threat Against US Has Entered ‘New Phase’
Continued from front they can’t identify ev- just twice, the last in 2010 the heated rhetoric from into American communi-
ery would-be shooter. He when he announced the Republican presidential ties, he said, is “a real prob-
He also called on Congress called it a matter of na- end of combat missions in candidates about Muslims. lem that Muslims most con-
to pass new authorization tional security to prevent Iraq. The president implored front without excuse.”
He repeated his long-
President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Sunday night, Dec. 6, 2015. standing opposition to an
American-led ground war
The president’s speech followed Wednesday’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and wounded 21. in the Middle East and
made no mention of the
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) more aggressive action
others have suggested, in-
for military actions under- potential killers from get- While Obama has spo- Americans to not turn cluding a enforcing a no-
way against IS in Iraq and ting guns. ken frequently about the against Muslims at home, fly zone and safe corridors
Syria and to approve leg- “What we can do, and Islamic State in recent saying the Islamic State in Syria.
islation to keep people on must do, is make it harder news conferences and was driven by a desire to The president’s critics —
the “no-fly list” from buying for them to kill,” he said. other events, the decision spark a war between the and increasingly, some
guns. In speaking from the Oval to speak in prime-time re- West and Islam. Still, he members of his own party
The president also reiter- Office, Obama turned to a flected concern among his called on Muslims in the — have questioned his
ated his call for tightening tool of the presidency that advisers that his message U.S. and around the world strategy.
gun laws, saying no matter he has used infrequently. isn’t breaking through. The to take up the cause of Hours before he spoke, Hill-
how effective law enforce- He’s made televised state- White House has been par- fighting extremism. ary Clinton — his former
ment and intelligence are, ments from the Oval Office ticularly concerned about The spread of radical Islam secretary of state and the
front-runner for the Demo-
cratic presidential nomina-
tion — said the U.S. is “not
winning” the fight against
IS.
Obama has insisted that
the Islamic State is con-
tained in Iraq and Syria.
However, the group has
set its sights elsewhere in
the world, launching at-
tacks in Lebanon and Tur-
key and downing a Russia
airliner over Egypt.
The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris
marked the group’s most
aggressive actions in Eu-
rope, a coordinated effort
that left 130 people dead
and wounded hundreds
more.
The FBI is investigating the
San Bernardino, California,
massacre as a terrorist at-
tack that would be the
deadliest by Islamic ex-
tremists on American soil
since Sept. 11, 2001.q
