The US military’s coordinated manhunt targeting senior Daesh (ISIL) leaders will not defeat the terrorist group and any damage would be temporary, according to a new report by an American research group.

Any military plan against Daesh “must aim to eliminate, not merely degrade, its leadership and potential leadership,” said the report compiled by the RAND Corp., released on Monday.

“The coalition has successfully targeted numerous senior leaders, but the organization’s focus on creating a deep bench of personnel means that attacking individual leaders will not destroy the group,” it noted. “Replacements will rise, and any damaging effect will be temporary.”

The report comes as the US military’s top brass has concluded that the fight against ISIL has reached a tactical stalemate, while the Takfiri terror organization continues to expand beyond Iraq and Syria through new foreign recruits.

The RAND study recommended that in order to deliver a more lasting damage to Daesh, the US-led coalition must take out its lower-level operatives and confiscate computer devices that might carry valuable information about the group’s personnel, organization and activities.

That, however, requires US special operations troops deployed on the ground—a risk US President Barack Obama has so far shown no indication he is willing to take.

The Obama administration’s strategy against ISIL has come under withering criticism, especially after a series of damning testimonies by senior military leaders.

A $500 million Pentagon program to “train and equip” a viable proxy force of “moderate” militants in Syria, by the recent admission of US Central Command leader Gen. Lloyd Austin, has produced only a handful of militants.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has also portrayed a gloomy picture of the fight.

“The fight against ISIL has reached a phase that I would call tactically stalemated,” he said recently in Istanbul, Turkey.

Critics say that the US invasion of Iraq and its support for militants fighting the Syrian government have given rise to the Takfiri terrorists in those countries.