"They’ve lost a lot of territory. We’re killing a lot of their fighters. We will retake Mosul, but it will take a long time and be very messy. I don’t see that happening in this administration," Clapper said in an interview with the Washington Post.
President Barack Obama wants the US-led coalition against Daesh to liberate the city of Mosul in Iraq before his term ends in roughly eight months, Najmaldin Karim told reporters.
US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that Iraqi forces are not expected to retake Mosul from the Islamic State before Obama’s presidency comes to a close.
"I think the President [Obama] wants to have Mosul liberated before he leaves office," Karim said.
Obama, he noted, would like to claim that he is "giving Iraq back" in no worse shape than when he inherited it upon taking office in 2009.
Mosul is unlike towns such as Ramadi, Karim added, given it is a city of almost two million people in which 80 percent of the population resides in urban areas, where most have primarily stayed.
Daesh is a designated terrorist group outlawed in a number of countries, including Russia and the United States.
