ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of the Kurdistan Region Security Council Masrour Barzani said in a BBC interview Wednesday that the Islamic State group (ISIS) could be defeated within months if the international community takes serious steps to hit the group in both Iraq and Syria.

"It's very difficult to say that ISIS has weakened. They might be losing some ground here and there, but to terrorise of course they are using different methods," the BBC quoted Barzani as saying.

The world must engage in the fight against ISIS more actively and the recent deadly Paris attacks were "a wake-up call," which must unite the world against one common enemy, he said.

ISIS still rolls over parts of Iraq and Syria despite numerous airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

“They might try to do more of this if they are not stopped and they are not kept under pressure," Barzani said.

Unless Western countries send ground troops, they should consider sending arms support for the Peshmerga and other Kurdish forces in Syria, he added.

US President Barack Obama said Monday during the closing of the G20 held in Turkey that sending troops into Syria to fight ISIS would be a "mistake," but not allowing Syrian refugees into the United States would betray American values.

"Not because our military could not march into... Raqqa and temporarily clear out ISIL, but because we would see a repetition of what we've seen before," he said in a speech at the G-20 meeting.

"If you do not have local populations that are committed to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, then they resurface,” Obama added.

"Let's assume we send 50,000 troops into Syria. What happens when there is a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send more troops into there?" Obama asked.

Rudaw