Ruling out any coordination with the Bashar al-Assad regime in the event of launching airstrikes against Islamic State strongholds inside Syrian territory, the United States has instead begun efforts to stich a broad coalition of allies in support of a potential military offensive.
Even while warning the ISIS that America has a long reach and that justice will be done for the beheading of American journalist James Foley, President Barack Obama publicly made the case for building an international coalition “to support Iraqis as they take the fight to these barbaric terrorists”.
At the same time, Obama, who has ordered surveillance flights to gather intelligence on ISIS locations in Syria before deciding whether to launch airstrikes, declared on Tuesday: “We’ll continue to take direct action where needed to protect our people and to defend our homeland.”
“America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Justice will be done,” Obama told veterans at a convention of the American legion in Charlotte, North Carolina. But he conceded, “Rooting out a cancer like ISIl won’t be easy and it won’t be quick.”
In the quest for a broad coalition of allies and Iraq’s neighbours against ISIS, the Obama administration is counting on Britain, Australia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, The New York Times reported citing US officials.
But Washington, in a clear rebuff to Syria, ruled out any coalition, cooperation or coordination with the Assad regime.
The US moves to firm up the right strategy to deal with the ISIS challenge came on a day when it came to the fore that the dreaded outfit is holding a third American hostage – a 26-year-old woman doing humanitarian aid in Syria. ABC News reported that the terror group is demanding a ransom of $6.6 million to free the woman, whose identity has not been revealed at the request of her family.
The woman is the third of at least four Americans who were known to have been kidnapped by the ISIS militants.
In the midst of the plight of these hostages, it also came to the fore on Tuesday that an American jihadi, Douglas McArthur McCain, fighting for ISIS died during a battle with a rival extremist group in the ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo.
Much to the embarrassment of the US authorities, it has been reported that there may be up to as many as 100 Americans in the bandwagon of ISIS and other militant groups in Syria.
“Dozens of Americans, perhaps up to 100,” are among those who have tried to join various militant groups there, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told CNN.
The 33-year-old McCain from Minnesota, who reportedly embraced Islam about a decade ago but retained his Christian name, is the second American militant to die in Syria. The first was 22-year-old Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha from Florida. He died in a suicide bombing conducted in coordination with the al-Nusra front.