Obama Says U.S.-led Fight Against Islamic State ‘Intensifying’

Barack Obama declared that the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State was “intensifying” and pledged to increase U.S. support for the moderate opposition in Syria’s civil war.

The president spoke at the Pentagon on Monday, following a significant increase over the weekend in U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State targets, which were continuing yesterday.

At least 19 U.S.-led additional coalition airstrikes were carried out in Iraq and Syria over the past 36 hours, including on Hassakeh, Raqqa, Kobani and Aleppo.

The U.S. leader pointed to recent losses by the Islamic radicals as evidence that they could be defeated, but cautioned that the fight would take time.

Obama also said he was looking to increase the capacity of moderate rebels. “We continue to accelerate the delivery of critical equipment, including anti-tank weapons, to Iraqi security forces,” he said. “And I have made it clear to my team that we will do more to train and equip the moderate opposition in Syria.”

Kurdish Peshmerga forces allied with the U.S. reported they had killed 40 Islamic State fighters near the northern city of Kirkuk.

Obama added that there was no plan to put U.S. boots on the ground and stressed that the U.S. was not at war with Islam: “We’re fighting terrorists who distort Islam and whose victims are mostly Muslims.”

Islamic State Fighters Storm Ain Issa

Islamic State fighters took back the strategic town of Ain Issa from Kurdish forces as part of a wider offensive following heavy U.S.-led airstrikes against the radicals.

The Kurdish YPG militia captured Ain Issa, which sits just 50km from the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa and guards a major highway from Aleppo to the Iraqi city of Mosul, two weeks ago under the cover of U.S.-led airpower.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Islamists had recaptured Ain Issa and surrounding areas in “an important victory.” The counteroffensive comes after U.S.-led airstrikes at the weekend destroyed bridges over waterways in Raqqa.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Monday that the flurry of U.S.-led airstrikes around Raqqa was aimed at disrupting the ability of Islamic State fighters to parry advances by Kurdish forces, Reuters reported.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said the attack on Ain Issa was part of a coordinated Islamic State offensive on YPG positions that included the northeastern province of Hassakeh, the news agency said.

Nusra Suicide Bomber Kills 25 Soldiers

A Nusra Front suicide bomber killed at least 25 Syrian army soldiers and allied militia at an army outpost in a contested neighborhood in the divided northern city of Aleppo, observers said.

The attacker blew himself up inside a vehicle “in front of an orphanage used by the regime as a base in al-Zahra neighborhood,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman told AFP.

Dozens of others were injured in the attack.

Islamist-led groups have recently launched an offensive to take control of the remaining western parts of the city that are in government hands.

The army responded with heavy bombardment of rebel-held portions of the Jamiyat al-Zahra district, rebel websites reported, according to Reuters and other media.

Recommended Reads

• The Washington Post: In Syria, the Weakness of the Islamic State and U.S. Strategy on Display
• Project Syndicate: Syria’s Final Countdown
• Miami Herald: Kurdish Militia Proving to Be Reliable Partner against Islamic State in Syria
• Maktoob: ISIL and the Management of Savagery
• AlJazeera: Syrian Children Paint Life in Saddam’s Kurdistan Prison
• Daily Star: In Syria and Iraq, ISIS Courts Sunni Tribes with Carrot and Stick
• Today’s Zaman: Educating Syria’s Refugee Children