Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said America is deluding itself by saying the spread of ISIS has been slowed or halted by recent U.S.-led airstrikes.
In fact, he said, in a "60 Minutes" interview with Charlie Rose, ISIS is only spreading.
"Sometimes you could have local benefit, but in general, if you want to talk in terms of ISIS, actually ISIS has expanded since the beginning of the strikes," Assad told CBS. "Not like some – American – wants to sugar coat the situation as the – to say that it's getting better. As [if] ISIS is being defeated and so on. Actually, no, you have more recruits."
Assad said he's received estimates the terror group has been recruiting hundreds a months.
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"Some estimate," he said, Politico reported, "that they have 1,000 recruits every month in Syria. And Iraq – they are expanding into Libya and many other al-Qaida affiliate organizations have announced their allegiance to ISIS. So that's the situation."
Assad's account of ISIS conflicts with what U.S. officials have put forth in recent weeks.
Secretary of State John Kerry, for instance, said in late January the nearly 2,000 allied airstrikes have halted the group's forward motion, cut off its finances and killed about 1,000 – including half of the ISIS leadership.
His statement to the press then, as reported by the Associated Press: ISIS has been "definitively" halted in Iraq.
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