President Barack Obama Tuesday hailed the American-led coalition that conducted airstrikes against the ISIS in Syria on Monday night, declaring, ?We?re going to do what is necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group.?
Speaking from the White House just before leaving to attend the UN General Assembly, Obama emphasized the extensive operation had included Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
?America is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security,? Obama said. ?The strength of this coalition makes clear to the world that this is not just America?s fight alone.?
The president said American planes had also struck targets of another militant group, Khorasan, declaring that there would be ?no safe haven? for the al Qaeda-linked group, which officials say has been plotting attacks against Americans.
Obama said he would meet with leaders from several countries in an effort to ?cut off ISIS?s financing, to counter its hateful ideology, and to stop the flow of fighters into the region?.
The participation of five Arab countries in the operation will bolster the president?s argument that this campaign does not pit the US against the Sunni Muslim world, but rather a broad coalition of Sunni Muslim countries against a Sunni extremist group.
Benjamin J Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said the US had informed the Syrian government in advance of the airstrikes in recent days, though he emphasized there was no coordination with the government of President Bashar al-Assad and no advance warning on the timing or targets of specific strikes.
The latest campaign opened with multiple strikes before dawn that focused on the ISIS?s de facto capital, Raqqa, and on its bases in the surrounding countryside. Other strikes hit in the provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, whose oil wells the ISIS have exploited to finance its operations.
The extent of the damage caused by the strikes remained unclear. Centcom said the wave of fighter planes, bombers, drones and cruise missiles struck 14 targets linked to the Islamic State.
?All aircraft safely exited the strike areas,? the statement said.
Almost 50 cruise missiles were launched from two American vessels in the Red Sea and the north of the Persian Gulf, it said, adding that four other attacks were launched on militant targets in Iraq in the same period, bringing the total there to 194.
The intensity and scale of the strikes were greater than those in Iraq. The air campaign also marks the biggest direct military intervention in Syria since the crisis began more than three years ago.