Obama, foreign military chiefs plot anti-IS strategy
US, Russia agree to increase intelligence sharing on Islamic State as the anti-IS coalition faces a new challenge when Turkey launches airstrikes against Kurdish rebels instead of focusing on IS.
President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered Tuesday in a show of strength against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, as Washington and Moscow agreed to increase intelligence sharing on Islamic State militants.
"This is an operation that involves the world against ISIL," Obama declared, referring to the militant group by one of its many names.
The White House said representatives from Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States attended the closed meetings.
A US military official familiar with the talks told the Associated Press the chiefs of defense agreed to recommend to their governments that they continue to move forward together against the extremists, "to contribute capabilities best suited to each nation, and to take action to build on the successes already achieved by coalition efforts on the ground and in the air." The official requested anonymity for providing the information.
A US military official told Reuters after the talks that there was an acknowledgement that the Islamic State was making some gains on the ground, despite the air strikes. But there was also a sense that the coalition, working together, would ultimately prevail, the official said.
"In the short term, there are some gains that they have been able to make. In the long term, that momentum will be reversed," the official said, adding the coalition would adjust its tactics as Islamic State fighters increasingly blend into the population and become harder to target.
Alistair Baskey, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said the meetings were "part of ongoing efforts to build the coalition and integrate the capabilities of each country into the broader strategy."
Obama said the campaign was still in its early stages. "There will be days of progress and there are going to be some periods" of setbacks, he said, but added that "our coalition is united behind this long-term effort."
Obama told the military leaders that he was deeply concerned about the radical group's advances in Kobani and in western Iraq. But he did not hint any changes to what he saw as long-term strategy that would see ups and downs in the months ahead, even as pressure builds for the coalition to stop the Islamic State from taking control of more territory.
"This is going to be a long-term campaign," Obama told the defense chiefs.
He said at this point there was a focus on the fighting in Anbar, adding: "And we're deeply concerned about the situation in and around the Syrian town of Kobani, which underscores the threat that ISIL poses in both Iraq and Syria."
US troops had battled hard to secure Anbar against al Qaeda militants during the Iraq war but it is now at risk of being taken over by Islamic State militants.
"Coalition air strikes will continue in both of these areas," Obama said.
The US military announced that US and Saudi planes had carried out 21 air strikes in the last two days near Kobani, the most intense attack yet after days of air strikes. US Central Command said the strikes on the militants' staging areas, compounds and armed vehicles, were meant to hit supply lines and stop reinforcements. It said the situation was fluid but the Kurdish militia was "continuing to hold out."
One of the strikes targeted the Tel Shair hill that overlooks parts of the city, according to Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations committee.
Nassan said Kurdish fighters later captured the hill and brought down the black flag of the Islamic State group. The extremist group still controls more than a third of the predominantly Kurdish town.
While the White House has tried to point out progress in the campaign against the militants, the government is also preparing the American public for a military effort that could extend well beyond Obama's presidency. Officials acknowledged Tuesday that the airstrikes in Kobani may not be enough to prevent a militant takeover, given the lack of an effective fighting force on the ground.
"We certainly do not want the town to fall," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. "At the same time, our capacity to prevent that town from falling is limited by the fact that air strikes can only do so much."
US, Moscow to share intelligence on IS
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday the United States and Russia had agreed to "intensify intelligence cooperation with respect to ISIL and other counterterrorism challenges of the region." He said Moscow would also explore whether it could do more to help arm and train Iraq's embattled military.
However, Kerry stopped short of saying that Moscow would join the US-led international coalition against Islamic State. In recent years, as US-Russian relations have deteriorated, intelligence cooperation has suffered.
Moscow has made clear it suspects Washington's ulterior motive is the removal of its ally, Syria's President Bashar Assad, and has insisted that US air strikes there need Syrian government and United Nations approval. Washington rejects this.
Speaking in Paris after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Kerry said the two world powers, whose relations have hit a post-Cold War low over Russia's role in Ukraine, had a "major responsibility" to find ways to work together on global issues, despite their stark differences in a number of areas.
While leaving little doubt that mutual distrust remains, Kerry stressed that the search for common ground between the two countries against Islamic State, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in a brutal campaign.
"We both recognize the need to destroy and ultimately defeat ISIL, to degrade their efforts and ultimately to defeat them," Kerry told a news conference, using an alternative name for the group.
"No decent country by any definition could support the horrors that are perpetrated by ISIL, and no civilized country should shirk its responsibility to stand up and be part of the effort to stamp out this disease."
Turkey attacks Kurdish rebels
The alliance faced a fresh test as Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders on Tuesday, defying pleas from the US to instead focus on the IS.
The attacks marked Turkey's first major airstrikes against Kurdish rebels on its own soil since peace talks began two years ago, and occurred amid heightened concern over Islamic State advances on the Syrian town of Kobani. Kurds in Turkey accuse the government there of standing idly by while Syrian Kurds are being killed in the besieged border town.
The US has been pressing Turkey to take a more active role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group. Officials from Ankara were participating in Tuesday's meeting at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, where US officials said the coalition countries were to discuss their strategy.
Syrian Kurds have been begging the international community for heavy weapons to help bolster their defense of Kobani. They've also called for Turkey to open the border to allow members of the Kurdish militia in northwestern Syria - known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG - to travel through Turkish territory to reinforce the city.
So far, both requests have gone unfulfilled.
Turkey is wary of the Syrian Kurds and their YPG militia, which it believes is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in southeast Turkey that has waged a long and bloody insurgency against Ankara.
The PKK and Turkey agreed to a cease-fire last year, but the agreement has begun to unravel, and Turkish media reported Tuesday that the country's warplanes had struck suspected Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey a day earlier.
Asked about the report, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish forces took the "necessary measure" following intense "harassing fire" by the rebels on a military outpost.
"It is impossible for us to tolerate or to placate these (attacks)," Davutoglu said.
Kurds, who make up an estimated 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million people, have faced decades of discrimination, including restrictions on the use of their language. The PKK has fought Turkey for autonomy for Kurds in a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
The US has been pressing Turkey to focus its efforts on the fight against the Islamic State group, an enemy the Turkish government shares with the Kurds. Turkey has said it won't join the fight unless the US-led coalition also targets Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.
US officials have pointed to some signs of cooperation from Turkey, including commitments to help stem the flow of foreign fighters across the border into Syria. The White House said Tuesday that discussions are also continuing over whether Turkey will allow the US and other countries to use bases in the country to launch attacks against the Islamic State group.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
