US Changing ISIS War Strategy: 'Jihadists in Syria can't be Defeated without Removing Assad'

US President Barack Obama is possibly seeking to change the strategy of the war against ISIS militants, after realising that it may not be completely possible to defeat the deadly jihadists group in Syria without removing President Bashar al-Assad.

Citing senior US officials and diplomats, CNN reported on Thursday that the Obama administration was reviewing the strategy after admitting that the country has previously miscalculated the success of the plan when they decided to confront ISIS first in Iraq before taking the war to Syria.

But to say that the mission could be accomplished without removing Assad from regime was a mistake; officials were cited as saying after the White House reportedly held four meetings in the past week.

The meetings were "driven to a large degree how our Syria strategy fits into our ISIS strategy," one official told the US broadcaster.

"The President has asked us to look again at how this fits together," the senior official said. "The long-running Syria problem is now compounded by the reality that to genuinely defeat ISIL, we need not only a defeat in Iraq but a defeat in Syria."

The United States refers to the jihadists with the acronym 'ISIL' instead of ISIS.

It can be noted that the US and many of its allies hold Assad responsible for the escalation of the ISIS control in the region.

This also comes at a day when US officials seem to be getting increasingly anxious with the fact that the country, in fact, does not have 'legal authority' for the current US mission against ISIS.

The point was made by Sen. Tim Kaine on Wednesday while speaking at the Wilson Center.

"We have been engaged in a war – that is not about imminent defense of the United States – without legal authority," the Virginia Democrat said according to another article by CNN.