Obama pledges wider military campaign against Islamic State

WASHINGTON — United States President Barack Obama has authorised a major expansion of the military campaign against rampaging Sunni militants in the Middle East, including American air strikes in Syria and the deployment of 475 more military advisers to Iraq. But he sought to dispel fears that the US was embarking on a repeat of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a televised speech from the White House on Wednesday night, Mr Obama said the US was recruiting a global coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy the militants, known as the Islamic State. He warned that “eradicating a cancer” like the Islamic State was a long-term challenge that would put some US troops at risk.

“We will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” Mr Obama declared in a 14-minute address. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”

The President drew a distinction between the military action he was putting in motion and the two wars begun by his predecessor George W Bush. He likened this campaign to the selective air strikes the US has carried out for years against suspected terrorists in Yemen and Somalia.

After enduring criticism for saying two weeks ago that he did not have a strategy for dealing with the Islamic State in Syria, Mr Obama outlined a plan that would bolster US training and arming of moderate Syrian rebels to fight the militants. Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide bases for training.

Mr Obama called on Congress to authorise the plan to train and equip the Syrian opposition — something the CIA has been doing covertly and on a much smaller scale — explaining that America could not rely on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad “that terrorises its own people”. But he asserted his authority as commander-in-chief to expand the overall campaign, which would bring the number of US troops in Iraq to 1,600.

“These American forces will not have a combat mission; we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq,” Mr Obama pledged.

For all his efforts to reassure the public, his remarks were a stark acknowledgement of the threat posed by the militants, whose advance through Iraq and Syria and videotaped beheading of two Americans have reignited fears of radical Islamic terrorism.

There is no proof that the Islamic State is plotting an attack on the US, said Mr Obama. But he added: “If left unchecked, these terrorists could pose a growing threat” to Americans due to foreign fighters, including some from the US, who have gone to Syria and Iraq and may return to launch attacks.

Standing only steps from where he announced the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Mr Obama delivered a message that seemed worlds away from his confident assertions that the US had decimated Al Qaeda. America, he said, was locked in a long battle with a successor to Al Qaeda, “unique in its brutality”.

The President’s remarks on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will thrust the US into a civil war in Syria, which he has long sought to avoid, and will return a significant American military presence to Iraq, not quite three years after the last US troops withdrew.

Unlike Mr Bush, Mr Obama has sought to surround the US with partners. Earlier on Wednesday, he called King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to enlist his support for the plan to step up training of the Syrian rebels.

Mr Obama is acting as polls show rapidly shifting public opinion, with a big majority of Americans now favouring military action against the Islamic State, though they express misgivings about the President’s leadership.

Speaking briefly at yesterday’s Pentagon memorial service in remembrance of 9/11, Mr Obama said: “Thirteen years after small and hateful minds conspired to break us, America stands tall and America stands proud. Guided by the values that sustain us, we will only grow stronger.” AGENCIES