Iranian speaker Ali Larijani said the US-led airstrikes alone would not be enough to destroy ISIL.

As he stressed that the US-led airstrikes alone would not be enough to destroy the Takfiri militants operating in Iraq and Syria within the ranks of ISIL, Iranian speaker Ali Larijani said that Washington should find another way to fight the terrorist group.

“I think it is very unlikely to destroy guerilla fighters by just dropping bombs on their heads,” Larijani told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“Terrorists cannot be destroyed by bombing them. You cannot solve terrorism by occupation. And in order to fight them effectively, you have to choose another method. And you know that we have good experience in that, because we have actually fought against them.”

“Part of it can be a ground operation,” Larijani said. “And the people who are going to be there on the ground should be skillful enough. And these people should not be like mercenaries; they need to have enough motivation to do that.”

“Iraqis and Syrians themselves are capable enough to carry out such operations themselves.”

America, he said, should concern itself more with making sure that financial and military support does not find its way to ISIL; several Gulf countries, such as Qatar and Bahrain, have been accused of funneling support to extremist groups.

“ISIL was not a group that was created on its own. We have to get to the root causes, and we have to know that big powers were responsible for its creation and also some countries of the region.”

“Fighting terrorism is not child's play. It can be very costly.”