US not alone in fight against IS - Obama

Written By Unknown on Selasa, 23 September 2014 | 22.40

US President Barack Obama has vowed to continue the fight against Islamic State fighters following the first US-led airstrikes targeting the militant group in Syria.

He also pledged to build even more international support for the effort.

"Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against America and do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people," Mr Obama said.

He said the strength of the coalition, now at more than 40 countries, including five Arab states that took part in this today's air campaign, shows the fight against such militants is not the US's alone.

"America is proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security," he said.

"The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this not America's fight alone."

Mr Obama also said he would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and "friends and allies" at the United Nations to continue building support for the coalition.

"The overall effort will take time. There will be challenges ahead but we're going to do what's necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group," Mr Obama said.

He added that the campaign is in line with the strategy he outlined earlier this month to combat the Islamic State group.

The air campaign opens a new front against militants by joining Syria's three-year-old civil war.

Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates participated in or supported the strikes against Islamic State targets.

US officials have said persistent strikes will continue, although the pace and timing will vary. More details were expected when the Pentagon briefs reporters later today.

IS has vowed revenge in the wake of the strikes.

Reports say that up to 120 Islamic militants have been killed in the airstrikes in Syria.

The dead included more than 70 members of IS group in the north and east of Syria, as well as 50 al-Qaeda militants, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Eight civilians, among them three children, were killed in US strikes in the west of northern Aleppo province, the observatory said.

The group said at least 300 people were injured in the strikes, about 100 of whom were in serious condition.

Assad supports 'international effort'

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said it backed any international effort against "terrorism".

"Syria will continue to resolutely fight the war it has been prosecuting for years against ... terrorism," he was quoted as saying.

"It supports any international effort to fight against terrorism."

The targets included Raqqa city, the headquarters of the IS group, an extremist Sunni Muslim force that has seized large expanses of territory in Iraq and Syria and proclaimed a caliphate erasing borders in the heart of the Middle East.

Syrian state television said the US informed Syria's UN representative yesterday that IS targets would be hit in Raqqa, which is 400km northeast of Damascus.

US officials and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group that tracks violence in the Syrian war, said buildings used by the militants, their weapons supplies and checkpoints were targeted in the attacks on Raqqa.

Areas along the Iraq-Syria border were also hit.

"There are tens of wounded and dead," Rami Abdulrahman, head of the observatory, told Reuters.

The group gathers information from a network of activists on the ground.

The addition of Arab allies was seen as crucial for the credibility of the US-led campaign.

US allies in the Middle East are skeptical of how far it will commit to a conflict in which nearly every country in the region has a stake.

Israel shoots down Syrian fighter jet

Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet over the Golan Heights, the army said, indicating that it had crossed the ceasefire line into the Israeli-occupied sector.

It was the most serious incident to take place on the strategic plateau since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. 

"A warplane that penetrated Israeli territory was successfully shot down a short while ago by the air defence systems along the Syrian border," the Israeli military said, without giving further details.

Army radio said it was apparently a MiG-21 fighter jet, which was shot down by a surface-to-air Patriot missile, with the wreckage landing on the Syrian-controlled side of the plateau.

The downing came just three weeks after Israel shot down a drone over the Golan as heavy fighting raged on the Syrian side, most of which has been seized by rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. 

Meanwhile, Minister for Defence Simon Coveney will be reporting to Cabinet today on developments regarding the next deployment of troops to the Golan Heights.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Coveney said he would be making a recommendation to Cabinet and subsequently making a statement in the Dáil this evening.

He said the Government had made it very clear to the United Nations that it needed to see a structural change to the mission there.


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