Syria in order to gain intelligence on the activities of Islamic
State.
Correspondents say the move could mark the first step towards US air
strikes inside Syria, where the jihadist group controls vast swathes
of territory.
The US is already carrying out strikes against IS in neighbouring Iraq.
On Monday, the Syrian government said it would work with the
international community in the fight against IS.
Western governments have so far rejected suggestions that they
collaborate with President Bashar al-Assad in an attempt to counter
the growing regional threat posed by IS.
They have repeatedly called on Assad to step down since the beginning
of the three-and-a-half year uprising against his rule, in which more
than 191,000 people are believed to have been killed.
On Monday evening, US officials said Obama had approved over the
weekend reconnaissance flights by unmanned and manned aircraft,
including drones and possibly U2 spy planes.
One official later told the Associated Press that they had already begun.
The US military has been carrying out aerial surveillance of IS - an
al-Qaeda breakaway formerly known as Isis - in Iraq for months and
launched air strikes on August 8.
The president cited the threat to US diplomats and military personnel
and the humanitarian crisis in the north, where hundreds of thousands
of people have fled their homes since June as IS fighters and allied
Sunni rebels have taken control of dozens of cities, towns and
villages.
Obama has long resisted taking military action in Syria, but Pentagon
officials are said to have advised him that the only way the threat
from IS can be fully eliminated is to go after the group there.
A spokesman for Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of
Staff, said the Pentagon was "preparing options to address Isis both
in Iraq and Syria with a variety of military tools including air
strikes".
The options reportedly include targeting IS leaders in and around
their stronghold of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, as well as in
the east near the Iraqi border.
Last week, IS published a video showing it killing the American
journalist James Foley, who was abducted in Syria in 2012. The group
threatened to kill other US citizens it was holding in retaliation for
US air strikes.
It later emerged that US special forces had attempted to rescue the
hostages earlier in July, but that they were not at the location in
Syria where the military thought they were being held.
One Obama administration official told the New York Times that the US
did not intend to collaborate with the Assad government or inform him
in advance of any operation.
No comments:
Post a Comment