Obama warns of IS ability to inspire lone-wolf attacks

U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Thursday the extremist group Islamic State (IS) continued to act behind lone-wolf attacks across the world.

"On the ground in Syria and Iraq, ISIL continues to lose territory. Tragically, however, we have also seen that ISIL still has the ability to direct and inspire attacks," said Obama at a press conference at Pentagon, referring to another acronym of the extremist group.

"In fact, the decline of ISIL in Syria and Iraq appears to be causing it to shift to tactics that we've seen before, an even greater emphasis on encouraging high profile terrorist attacks, including in the United States," said Obama.

According to Obama, unlike al-Qaeda, which had a much more centralized operation and tried to plan very elaborate attacks, the IS opted to inspire lone-wolf attackers whose less complicated attacks were harder to detect and prevent.

"What ISIL has figured out is that if they can convince a handful of people, or even one person to carry out an attack on a subway or at a parade ... and kill scores of people as opposed to thousands of people, it still creates the kinds of fear and concern that elevates their profile," said Obama. Enditem