Hillary Clinton Blames Obama for Rise of Islamist Militants

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton distanced herself from President Barack Obama's foreign policy in an interview Sunday, saying that the Unites States "failed" in Syria as it did not intervene in the Syrian civil war earlier.

The potential 2016 Presidential candidate criticized Obama and said citizens of the US continue to lose faith in his handling of important international issues, Fox News reports. She blamed the Obama administration for the rise of the Islamist militants (ISIS) in Iraq as well as Syria, proving the "failure" of the current government's foreign policy.

According to AFP, Clinton emphasized on the faulty decision of the US to maintain a secondary position with regard to the insurgency against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad - opening the way for the most extreme rebel faction till date, the Islamic State, who have called for a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq, NDTV reports.

"The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad -- there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle -- the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled," Clinton told the Atlantic.

Clinton further said: "Great nations need organizing principles. And, 'don't do stupid stuff' is not an organizing principle."

Among others, Republican critics have also questioned Obama's little effort to support Syrians who had launched a protest against President Bashar al-Assad, The Guardian said. It's been three years since the civil war began in Syria. While Assad continued to stay in power, Islamic militants in the opposition continued to gain strength.