Leaders of Isis ‘cannot hide’, says a defiant Obama

Flanked by four of his senior generals at the Pentagon, the US President, Barack Obama, defended his strategy on defeating Isis last night, saying the US was leading the effort to “squeeze its heart” and stymie its ability to “pump its terror to the rest of the world”.

Anxious to deflect criticism that the US has been stumbling in its response to the Isis threat and is equally ill-prepared to prevent any new terror attacks at home, where the horror of San Bernardino is still strongly felt, Mr Obama insisted that the US and its allies were hitting the group “harder than ever”. After ticking off a roster of Isis figures killed recently by coalition strikes, including Mohammed Emwazi, the London-raised Isis executioner known as Jihadi John, Mr Obama said there was more of the same to come. The leaders of Isis, he declared, “cannot hide and our message to them is simple: you are next”.

Mr Obama noted a new intensity of air strikes in part thanks to the participation of Britain, which is now hitting targets in Syria as well as in Iraq, and also France, Italy and Australia. “Coalition aircraft, our fighters, bombers and drones, have been increasing the pace of air strikes, nearly 9,000 as of today,” he said.

The President’s visit to the Pentagon came as he tries to push back against the perception that he has been slow to respond to Isis. Once again, he offered nothingnewin terms of overall strategy, but said he was dispatching the US Secretary of Defence, Ashton Carter, to the region on a mission to rally more countries there to contribute to the campaign against Isis. He is expected to stop first in Iraq, where efforts to retake the city of Ramadi have been delayed.

US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a former prisoner of the Taliban charged with desertion by the USArmy, was sent to trial by general courtmartial yesterday.

Bergdahl, 29, was charged earlier this year with desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy, after leaving his post while serving in Afghanistan in 2009. He was later captured and held for five years, before being swapped in 2014 for five Taliban leaders.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

She will still almost certainly top the presidential poll in the first round