In a frank TV interview, he said that al-Qaeda had been beaten in Iraq by US forces working with Sunni tribes. 

 

But they took advantage of the power vacuum in neighbouring Syria to emerge as Isis, later called Islamic State.

 

Meanwhile, there has been fierce fighting to the west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

 

The BBC's Lyse Doucet in the city says Islamist militants² were held off at Ameriyat al-Fallujah by government troops with the help of air strikes by the US-led coalition³.

 

However, the insurgents⁴ have not retreated and some are less than 10km (six miles) from the city, she adds.

 

In an interview with the CBS TV programme 60 Minutes, Mr Obama said Syria had become a "ground zero" for militants who had been able to take advantage of the chaos⁵ there. 

 

He reiterated⁶ that only part of the solution to defeating them would be military and that a political solution was also necessary.

 

"During the chaos of the Syrian civil war, where essentially⁷ you have huge swathes of the country completely ungoverned, they were able to reconstitute themselves and take advantage of that chaos and attract foreign fighters... who believed in their jihadist nonsense," he said.

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