The United States President Barack Obama says, the so-called Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria is weakening but still poses a threat. He said that, as the jihadist group lost ground, there were signs it was shifting to attacks abroad.

"The possibility of a lone actor or a small cell that kills people is real," the US President said. The comments came when he was giving an update to reporters after a Pentagon meeting.

Mr Obama said IS was "not invincible". "In fact, they are inevitably going to be defeated," he said. Mr Obama also said that IS "has not had a major successful offensive operation in Syria or Iraq in a full year".

"Isil can't defeat the United States of America or our Nato partners," he said, using an alternative acronym for IS.

"Those kinds of strategies can end up backfiring because in order for us to ultimately win this fight we cannot frame this as a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam," he said.

"That plays exactly into the hands of Isil and the perverse interpretations of Islam that they are putting forward."

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Nandini