Sunday Times 2
US urges global ‘coalition’ to fight IS jihadists
View(s):DAMASCUS, Aug 30 (AFP) -US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for a global coalition to combat Islamic State fighters’ “genocidal agenda” after President Barack Obama admitted he had no strategy to tackle the group.
Kerry’s call followed a decision by Britain to raise its terror alert level over fears of possible jihadist attacks.
The number of refugees who have fled Syria, where rebels have been battling the regime as well as jihadists, has now exceeded three million people, the United Nations said.
Writing in the New York Times, a week before a NATO summit in Wales, Kerry urged “a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations.” He said he and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel would meet with European counterparts on the sidelines of the summit to enlist assistance, and then travel on to the Middle East to build support “among the countries that are most directly threatened.” US President Obama has acknowledged that Washington has no strategy as yet to tackle the Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in large swathes of territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.
But Kerry said in his op-ed on Friday that the United States would be putting forward an action plan at a summit meeting of the UN Security Council in September, when Washington will hold the group’s rotating presidency.
“What’s needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force,” Kerry said.
US bombing IS in Iraq
The Islamic State (IS) has prompted widespread concern as it advances in both Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of people, including in gruesome beheadings and mass executions.
Iraqi Shiite volunteers who have joined government forces to fight Sunni jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) take part in a training session near the southern port city of Basra (AFP)
The United States began carrying out air strikes against the group in Iraq earlier this month, but has yet to decide if it will expand that military action into Syria.
There, the government of embattled President Bashar al-Assad has said it is willing to cooperate on tackling jihadists, but that any military action on its soil must be coordinated.
That is a tough sell for Washington, which has long backed the rebels seeking Assad’s overthrow and accuses his regime of serious rights abuses, including the use of chemical weapons.
The threat posed by IS, which has attracted hundreds of Western volunteers to its ranks, prompted Britain to raise its terror alert level on Friday.
3 million Syrian refugees
The threat posed by IS is just the latest fallout from Syria’s conflict, which began in March 2011 as a peaceful uprising against Assad.
The violence there has now driven three million Syrians to flee abroad, creating the “biggest humanitarian emergency of our era,” UN refugee agency chief Antonio Guterres said Friday as the new milestone figure was announced.
The war has also killed more than 190,000 people according to the UN, and seen jihadist groups like IS and Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front gain new ground and prominence.
Al-Nusra is holding at least 44 UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, after seizing the Syrian side of the Quneitra border crossing with the Israeli-occuped Golan.
| Fiji says captured peacekeepers moved from UN territory
SUVA, Fiji, Aug 30 (AFP) -Fiji military officials confirmed today they no longer know the whereabouts of 44 peacekeepers captured by Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights. “Their whereabouts at this stage, unfortunately, I cannot confirm,” Brigadier Mosese Tikoitoga told reporters after speaking to the head of the UN team negotiating for their release. “They confirmed that our men are safe and they are all well. (But) they have been moved to a location out of the bombardment range of any security forces or the Syrian security forces. “It is out of the UN territory. But again it’s the word of the group. We’ve got no verification what so ever, no communication but we’re only relaying the message that was delivered to us by the negotiators.” The Fijians were captured on Wednesday when armed Syrian rebels linked to the Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, stormed a Golan Heights crossing. Another group of 72 Philippine peacekeepers refused to surrender and remain locked down in two camps on the Syrian side of the border. The UN has revised an earlier figure from 43 to 44 Fijians captured and from 75 to 72 Filipinos after checking leave records with the mission. |