US 'squeezing' Daesh from all sides: Deputy state sec.

ISTANBUL

The U.S. has begun pressuring Iraq and Syria from different directions, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

Speaking at the seventh annual Atlantic Council's Energy and Economic Summit in Istanbul, Blinken talked about the coalition forces fighting against Daesh in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey's strategic importance.

"In both Iraq and Syria we are starting to squeeze Daesh, from the east, from the north, from the south, as we undermine the foundations of its self-declared caliphate," he said.

"In the last 14 months, the U.S. has brought together 65 countries, launched more 8,200 airstrikes, and deprived [Daesh of] 40 percent of the territory [it] once controlled in Iraq," he added.

Blinken also pointed out the efforts put into the Turkish-Syria border and other key locations.

"Over the last weekend, Kurdish forces secured a strategic victory by liberating Sinjar, cutting off Highway 47, the principal east-west line of communication, weapons transport, and illicit oil and fuel flows between Mosul and Raqqa," he said.

"In northern Syria, the coalition has secured 85 percent of the Turkish-Syrian border. We are enhancing our campaign and airstrikes with Turkey to help drive Daesh out of the remaining 15 percent, 70 miles that it still controls, thereby closing off its most vital supply line for foreign terrorist fighters," he added.

Blinken said the U.S. is also cutting off its financing as coalition forces has begun to damage the oil refineries controlled by Daesh and disrupted its use of critical resources such as oil and gas.

He also talked about refugees and the U.S. aid that has been made on the region.

"In the history of refugees, if you put all the refugees in the world together today, they would make up the 25th largest country in the world," he said, and stressed that the U.S. has provided over $4.5 billion in humanitarian assistance across the region since the beginning of the Syrian crisis.