Hillary Clinton yesterday sought to polish her image as a strong leader with a command of major global challenges - the IS jihadist group first among them — while discrediting Republican rival Donald Trump as unfit for the White House.

With just 61 days before America chooses a new commander in chief, the Democrat delivered a withering takedown of the brash billionaire at a rare impromptu press conference, assailing his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin as "scary" and insisting Trump has no real plan to defeat the Islamic State group.

Seeking to strike a commanding tone, Clinton called for the United States to track down and kill IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as it did Osama bin Laden.

“We should make it a top priority to hunt down the leader of ISIS," Clinton told reporters on a tarmac in White Plains, New York.

■ Getting al-Baghdadi will require efforts at the top levels, but it will send a resounding message

that nobody directs or inspires attacks against the U nited States and gets away with it."

Clinton, 68, and Trump, 70, have clashed repeatedly over foreign policy, but their battle rose to a new level Wednesday night when the two were separately grilled over their national

security credentials at a New York forum.

Instead of laying out a Middle East strategy, Trump "bizarrely" praised Putin and suggested the strongman is a better leader than US President Barack Obama, she said.

" Even I was shocked by this," Clinton said later

at a rally in Charlotte, in the battleground state of North Carolina.

"That is not just unpatriotic, it's not just insulting to the office and to the man who holds the office. It is scary, it is dangerous."

With the campaign now in the final twomonth stretch, Clinton was wasting no opportunity to harangue her rival over his missteps, particularly over how he has "trash-talked" America's generals.

The New York real estate mogul's campaign swiftly shot back, with Trump spokesman Jason Miller calling Clinton's remarks "the desperate attacks of a flailing campaign sinking in the polls."

Trump has gained on Clinton over the past 10 days, but the former secretary of state still maintains an advantage of 2.8 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics poll average. Clinton is also holding leads in battleground states.

Clinton's address to reporters marked the first podium press conference in nine months for Clinton, who broke a long media drought by speaking to journalists at length on her campaign plane this week.