U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo says ISIS strong in some areas: CBS

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talks to the media after his meeting with Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri at the State Department in Washington, US on August 15, 2019. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

WASHINGTON, August 20 (Reuters): U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged on Tuesday that Islamic State militants are gaining strength in some areas but said the militant group's capacity to conduct attacks has been diminished.

"It's complicated. There are certainly places where ISIS is more powerful today than they were three or four years ago," Pompeo said in an interview with CBS "This Morning." But he said the group's self-proclaimed caliphate is gone and its attack capability has been made much more difficult.

The group claimed responsibility for a wedding suicide attack that killed 63 people and wounded 182 on Saturday in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

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