Military Times: Obama calls on other nations to fight Islamic State

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President Obama on Thursday shunted aside speculation that he will soon expand the U.S. bombing campaign against Islamic extremists into Syria, saying the military mission for now will remain focused on Iraq.

“The options that I’m asking for from the Joint Chiefs focus primarily on making sure ISIL is not overrunning Iraq,” Obama said at the White House on Thursday afternoon, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as the Islamic State.

Obama said fighting ISIL in its stronghold inside Syria is a mission that the U.S. will expect partners — potentially including Muslim countries in the Middle East — to contribute to.

“In order for us to degrade ISIL over the long term, we are going to have to build a regional strategy. We are not going to do that alone. We are going to do that with partners,” Obama said, adding that Secretary of State John Kerry will soon travel to the Middle East to forge a coalition.

Obama’s comments came after widespread reporting that he has ordered manned and unmanned U.S. intelligence and surveillance aircraft to begin flying over Syria, a key step in developing new military options for targeting the ISIL militants beyond Iraq.

Last week, the chairman of the Joint Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said that confronting Islamic State militants will ultimately require targeting their forces on the Syrian side of border. Dempsey also suggested that may involve partner nations rather than direct U.S. military action.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby would not comment on any intelligence missions over Syria, but said “we’re not going to hold ourselves to geographic boundaries” in diffusing the threat posed by the Islamic State.

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