President Barack Obama has named Brett McGurk as the new official in charge of the US led coalition against the Islamic State group. Retired Marine Gen. John Allen is stepping down after 13 months overseeing the effort as the president’s special envoy for the global coalition to counter IS. McGurk was Allen’s deputy.

Obama is expressing his “profound gratitude” to Allen for having put off retirement from government service and taken the assignment. Obama says he’s asked McGurk to work closely with the national security team to improve relations with Iraq, and with America’s partners in the region to help end the civil war in Syria, which has fueled the Islamic State group’s rise.

Did You Know?

• Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States.
• He’s bi-racial with a white mother and African father from Kenya.
• His full name is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.
• He was known as “O’Bomber” at high school for his skill at basketball.
• Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.
• He is left-handed – the sixth post-war president to be left-handed.
• He was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” in 2008. He was then awarded the Nobel Peace Prize although some critics said it was too soon since he had only been recently elected as president.