WASHINGTON — In a major reversal, President Barack Obama moved Wednesday night to deepen the U.S. military role in the volatile Middle East, vowing to wage an unrelenting counterterror effort using airstrikes to target Islamic State fighters in both Iraq and Syria.
WASHINGTON — In a major reversal, President Barack Obama moved Wednesday night to deepen the U.S. military role in the volatile Middle East, vowing to wage an unrelenting counterterror effort using airstrikes to target Islamic State fighters in both Iraq and Syria.
Obama was to outline his strategy, which also includes training and arming Syrian rebels, in a high-stakes address to the nation. In excerpts released in advance by the White House, Obama said the objective is to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State group.
“This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said, using an alternative name for the group.
Until now, the U.S. launched airstrikes against the group only within the borders of Iraq, whose government invited the American military to take that step. But officials have said in recent days that the Islamic State, which also controls territory in Syria, must be viewed as one group, not two separate entities split by a border.
Ahead of Obama’s remarks, congressional leaders grappled with whether to support his request to arm the Syrian opposition and if so, how to get such a measure through the fractured legislature before the November elections.
Obama’s plans amount to a striking shift for a president who has steadfastly sought to wind down American military campaigns in the Middle East and avoid new wars. That stance has been notable in Syria, where Islamic State militants have taken advantage of the instability created by a three-year civil war and now operate freely in areas near and across the Iraqi border.
“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said. “It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”
Closer to home, U.S. officials fear that Westerners who have joined the militant group could return to their own countries and launch attacks. However, officials said Wednesday they were not aware of a credible threat of a potential attack in the United States by the Islamic State.
Earlier this summer, Iraq’s government asked the U.S. for help in confronting the militants, and Obama approved airstrikes within Iraq’s borders to protect U.S. personnel there and to help alleviate humanitarian crises. That air campaign has expanded significantly in recent days, with the military hitting targets in western Iraq, closer to the border of Syria.