Residents inspect buildings damaged in what activists say was a US strike in Kfredrian of Syria. Photo: Reuters The United States, backed by its Arab allies, continued air strikes against the Islamic State group yesterday, hitting targets in Iraq and Syria and destroying several vehicles and a weapons dump. As coalition warplanes returned from another night of raids, US President Barack Obama appe
aled to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to join his coalition against the Islamic State militants. But even as he spoke, an IS-linked group in Algeria, which had demanded France halt its participation in the strikes, posted video footage of the murder of a Frenchman abducted earlier. "The United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death," Obama told the UNGA. "Today I ask the world to join in this effort." "We will use our military might in a campaign of air strikes to roll back ISIL," he declared, using the acronym for the former Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now renamed the Islamic State. "The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force," Obama said in his address to the 193-nation assembly. An F/A-18F Super Hornet lands aboard aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush in the Gulf after it struck IS targets. Photo: Reuters Overnight, US-led air raids targeted IS fighters threatening the Kurdish regional capital in Iraq and damaged eight militant vehicles operating in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border. Advertisement Washington and its Arab allies killed scores of IS fighters in the opening 24 hours of air strikes, the first direct US foray into Syria two weeks after Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. US aircraft have carried out 198 air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq since August 8 and 20 in Syria since Monday. After addressing the UNGA, Obama was to chair a special UN Security Council meeting during which a resolution will be adopted on stemming the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria. The US-drafted resolution calls on countries to "prevent and suppress" recruitment and assistance to foreign fighters, and would make it illegal to collect funds or organise their travel. "Those who joined ISIL should leave the battlefield while they can," Obama warned in his address. The resolution falls under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which means it could be enforced by economic sanctions or military action. Meanwhile, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron edges the UK closer to military action against the IS, as Britain's parliament is expected to be recalled on Friday so that MPs can discuss its position on a military response, reports British daily The Independent. Speaking in New York, where he is attending the UNGA, Cameron said this was "a fight you cannot opt out of”. While at the UN, he is likely to receive a formal request from Iraq's new inclusive administration, led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, for help in launching air strikes against the militant group. Military involvement would be limited to Iraq, with the UK making it clear it will not co-operate with Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. Britain has already armed the Kurdish fighters who have sought to repel Isis' assault in northern Iraq, while also supplying Baghdad with weaponry, ammunition and surveillance support. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, the Al-Nusra Front, yesterday said that it is evacuating its bases and positions in the northeastern province of Idlib. The evacuations came a day after US air strikes hit a group of al-Qaeda fighters in Aleppo province, on the border with Idlib. Washington said the strikes targeted a cell within Al-Nusra called Khorasan that was planning attacks against Western interests. The strikes killed at least 50 militants, as well as eight civilians, according to news reports. Activists and experts have cast doubt on the distinction between Khorasan and Al-Nusra, saying the two are one and the same, and both represent al-Qaeda in Syria.
No comments:
Post a Comment