US President Barack Obama admitted Sunday that the United States underestimated the threat posed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group

US President Barack Obama admitted Sunday that the United States underestimated the threat posed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant terrorist group, as US-led coalition warplanes pounded the oil sites that fund the terrorist group in Syria.
  
Speaking to CBS News, Obama said that former Al-Qaeda fighters driven from Iraq by US and local forces had been able to gather in Syria to form the newly dangerous ISIL.
  
"I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria," Obama said, referring to his director of national intelligence.
  
Asked whether Washington had also overestimated the ability or will of Iraq's US-trained military to fight the terrorists on its own, Obama said: "That's true. That's absolutely true."