|
Beheading
spurs
new
attacks
on
Islamic
militants
By LARA
JAKES
and RYAN
LUCAS
Associated
Press
WASHINGTON
- The
United
States
launched
a new
barrage
of
airstrikes
against
Islamic
State
extremists
Wednesday
and
weighed
sending
more
troops
to Iraq
as
President
Barack
Obama
vowed to
be
relentless
in
pursuit
of the
terrorist
group
that
beheaded
an
American
journalist
and is
holding
other
U.S.
citizens
hostage.
In brief
but
forceful
remarks,
Obama
said the
U.S.
would
"do what
we must
to
protect
our
people,"
but
stopped
short of
promising
to
follow
the
Islamic
State
into its
safe
haven in
Syria,
where
officials
said
Wednesday
that
James
Foley
was
killed.
However,
when
pressed,
the
State
Department
refused
to rule
out
future
U.S.
military
operations
in
Syria,
where
Obama
has long
resisted
intervening
in a
three-year
civil
war.
The
Islamic
State
called
Foley's
death a
revenge
killing
for U.S.
airstrikes
against
militants
in Iraq,
and said
other
hostages
would be
slain if
the
attacks
continued.
Undeterred,
the U.S.
conducted
14
additional
strikes
after a
video of
the
beheading
surfaced,
bringing
to 84
the
number
of
airstrikes
since
they
began on
Aug. 8.
Foley's
mother
said she
is
praying
for
other
hostages
being
held by
the
Sunni-dominated
terror
group,
and
described
her
son's
slaying
as "just
evil."
Obama
agreed.
"No just
God
would
stand
for what
they did
yesterday,
and for
what
they do
every
single
day,"
the
president
said.
The
Islamic
State
militants
have
promised
to
eliminate
all
people
they
consider
heretics
in their
quest to
create
an
extremist
state
across
much of
Iraq and
Syria.
"We will
be
vigilant
and we
will be
relentless,"
Obama
said,
urging
unity
among
Mideast
governments
in order
to
eviscerate
the
extremist
group's
growing
power.
He spoke
from
Martha's
Vineyard
in
Massachusetts,
where
his
family
is
vacationing.
Western
nations
also
agreed
to speed
help to
combat
the
militants
- most
notably
Germany,
which
bucked
public
opposition
by
announcing
it would
arm
Iraqi
Kurdish
fighters
to
battle
the
Islamic
State.
French
Foreign
Minister
Laurent
Fabius
said he
was
outraged
by the
beheading,
deeming
it
evidence
of a
"caliphate
of
barbarism."
Italy's
defense
minister
said the
country
hopes to
contribute
machine
guns,
ammunition
and
anti-tank
rockets.
Two U.S.
officials
said
additional
American
troops -
probably
less
than 300
- could
be
headed
to Iraq
to
provide
extra
security
around
Baghdad,
where
the U.S.
Embassy
is
located.
That
would
bring
the
total
number
of
American
forces
in Iraq
to well
over
1,000,
although
officials
said no
final
decision
had been
made.
The
officials
spoke on
condition
of
anonymity
because
they
were not
authorized
to
discuss
the
matter
by name.
In
capitals
across
the
Middle
East, by
contrast,
the news
of
Foley's
death
was met
with
silence,
even in
Syria
and Iraq
- the
two
countries
where
the
Islamic
State is
strongest.
On
social
media,
people
in the
region
condemned
Foley's
killing,
but
stressed
that the
Islamic
State
has been
committing
atrocities
against
Iraqis
and
Syrians
for
years.
For much
of the
past
year,
and
until
this
summer,
the
Obama
administration
was
deeply
divided
on how
much of
a threat
the
Islamic
State
posed to
Americans
or even
other
nations
beyond
Iraq and
Syria.
But
since
the
militants'
march
across
northern
Iraq in
June,
and as
its
ranks
swelled
almost
threefold
to an
estimated
15,000
fighters,
Obama
has
acknowledged
that the
Islamic
State
could
become a
direct
threat
to
Americans.
Foley's
death
proved
to the
West
what
many
people
in Syria
and Iraq
already
knew:
The
Islamic
State
"has
declared
war on
the
civilized
world,"
said Dr.
Najib
Ghadibian,
the
Syrian
National
Coalition's
special
representative
to the
U.S. The
group's
sweep
also has
served
as a
wake-up
call to
other
Mideast
governments,
said
Fawaz
Gerges,
director
of the
Middle
East
Center
at the
London
School
of
Economics.
"The
Saudis,
the
Kuwaitis,
the
Emiratis,
and even
the
Qataris,
are
getting
the
message
now,"
Gerges
said. "I
think in
the last
few
weeks we
have
seen a
kind of
new
awareness
on the
part of
regional
powers
that the
Islamic
State
does
present
a threat
to the
very
social
fabric
and the
foundation
of the
state
system."
He said
Foley's
death
could
help
intensify
efforts
on the
part of
Washington's
regional
allies
to make
a more
concerted
effort
to
address
the
threat.
Jordan
and
Saudi
Arabia,
both of
whom
share a
border
with
Iraq,
have
dispatched
troops
to the
frontier
in a bid
to
prevent
any
attempt
by the
extremists
to
attack.
Iran, an
ally of
the
Shiite-led
government
in
Baghdad,
has sent
military
advisers
to help
organize
Shiite
militias
in Iraq
and
defend
holy
sites.
Authorities
from the
Gulf to
Egypt,
as well
as their
peoples,
have
looked
on with
growing
concern
as the
Islamic
State
group
has
brutally
expanded
the
territory
under
its
control,
punctuating
its rise
by
declaring
a
caliphate
in lands
straddling
the
Syria-Iraq
border.
Foley, a
40-year-old
journalist
from
Rochester,
New
Hampshire,
was no
stranger
to war
zone
reporting.
He went
missing
in
northern
Syria in
November
2012
while
freelancing
for
Agence
France-Presse
and the
Boston-based
media
company
GlobalPost.
The car
he was
riding
in was
stopped
by four
militants
in a
contested
battle
zone
that
both
Sunni
rebel
fighters
and
government
forces
were
trying
to
control.
He had
not been
heard
from
since.
He was
one of
at least
four
Americans
still
being
held in
Syria -
three of
whom
officials
said
were
kidnapped
by the
Islamic
State.
The
fourth,
freelance
journalist
Austin
Tice,
disappeared
in Syria
in
August
2012 and
is
believed
to be in
the
custody
of
government
forces
in
Syria.
The
Islamic
State
video of
Foley's
beheading
also
showed
another
of the
missing
American
journalists,
Steven
Sotloff,
and
warned
he would
be the
next
killed
if U.S.
airstrikes
continued.
U.S.
officials
believe
the
video
was made
days
before
its
Tuesday
release,
perhaps
last
weekend,
and have
grown
increasingly
worried
about
Sotloff's
fate.
Over the
last
week, as
threats
against
the
hostages
became
more
dire,
their
families
and the
White
House
asked
The
Associated
Press to
not
disclose
that
they
were
being
held by
the
Islamic
State,
out of
hope the
extremists
could
somehow
be
swayed
to spare
the
Americans'
lives.
The
Associated
Press is
continuing
to
withhold
the name
of the
other
American
being
held by
the
Islamic
State.
The New
York-based
Committee
to
Protect
Journalists
says
that
more
than 80
journalists
have
been
abducted
in
Syria,
and
estimates
that
around
20 are
currently
missing
there.
It has
not
released
their
nationalities.
In its
annual
report
in
November,
the
committee
described
the
widespread
seizure
of
journalists
as
unprecedented
and
largely
unreported
by news
organizations
in the
hope
that
keeping
the
kidnappings
out of
public
view may
help in
the
captives'
release.
Obama
avoided
specific
mention
of the
other
American
hostages
in
Syria,
and was
vague on
whether
the U.S.
would
significantly
ramp up
its
assault
on the
Islamic
State
beyond
the
airstrikes
and
small
potential
increase
in
troops
in Iraq.
A third
senior
U.S.
official
said the
administration
was well
aware of
the
risks to
the
hostages
once the
strikes
began,
and
would
now
consider
as
aggressive
a policy
as
possible
to
obliterate
the
militants.
At the
State
Department,
spokeswoman
Marie
Harf did
not rule
out
military
operations
in Syria
to bring
those
responsible
to
justice,
saying
the U.S.
"reserves
the
right to
hold
people
accountable
when
they
harm
Americans.
What
that
looks
like
going
forward,
those
conversations
will be
happening."
U.S.
lawmakers,
however,
said
they
doubted
the
White
House
would
expand
its
attacks
to
strike
within
Syria -
something
the
Obama
administration
has long
resisted.
"The
mission
already
crept a
bit,"
said
Rep.
Adam
Schiff,
a
California
Democrat
and
House
Intelligence
Committee
member.
"The
administration
would be
wise to
not get
sucked
in.
That's
going to
be very
hard."
Schiff
said
some
isolationists
in
Congress
would
try to
use
Foley's
death as
justification
for
disengagement,
while
others
would
hold it
out as
reason
for
deeper
military
intervention
in the
region.
But he
said he
didn't
see the
administration
fundamentally
altering
its
strategy
against
the
Islamic
State,
and
certainly
not
launching
attacks
in
Syria.
Sen.
Marco
Rubio,
R-Fla.,
lamented
that
Obama
has been
"unwilling
to do
what is
necessary
to
confront"
the
Islamic
State.
"A
piecemeal
approach
will not
eliminate
the
growing
threat
to the
United
States
and our
allies,"
Rubio
said. He
called
for
greater
U.S.
intervention
in Iraq
and
Syria,
targeting
the
militants'
leaders
and
networks.
Otherwise,
he
warned,
"James
Foley
will not
be the
only
American
to die
at their
hands." |