US-Led Coalition Meets to Discuss ’ISIL’ Strategy

Local Editor

Commanders from the US-led coalition against the "ISIL" in Iraq and Syria will meet in Washington Tuesday to discuss halting the group's advance in Iraq and Syria, as airstrikes failed to stop militants from reaching the center of Kobane.

"ISIL" fighters claimed nearly half of the flashpoint town, on the border with Turkey, on Monday - despite more than three weeks of US-led airstrikes aimed at halting them.

That failure will be among the main points up for discussion at Tuesday's meeting in Washington of military chiefs from the 22 countries in the US-led coalition, as will Turkey's call for the establishment of a protective buffer zone.

Top brass, including national chiefs of staff, will also meet US President Barack Obama at Andrews Air Force Base outside the US capital, the White House said.

The generals will "discuss a common vision on the counter-ISIL campaign, challenges and the way ahead," said US Colonel Ed Thomas, spokesman for the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, using an alternative name for "ISIL".
Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United States will be represented.

It is the first time such high-ranking military officials from so many countries have come together since the coalition - which, on paper, now includes about 60 countries - was formed in September.

One of the ideas on the table is the creation of a buffer zone along the Turkey-Syria border, which coalition members disagree about and which Washington said will probably not dominate the agenda.

But US officials were tight-lipped about precisely what is expected to emerge, and said major strategy announcements were not likely.

A Kobane politician who is now a refugee said "ISIL" fighters had surrounded the town to the south, east and west, and warned of a "massacre" if they take the northern front bordering Turkey.

Fighting spread to less than a kilometer [half a mile] from the barbed wire frontier fence, with the terrorist militants carrying out three suicide car bomb attacks in the border zone.

With the extremists advancing on its doorstep, NATO member Turkey has come under intense pressure to take action as part of the coalition that has been carrying out air strikes in both Syria and Iraq.

Ankara, which has called for a buffer zone to guard its border and provide some protection to fleeing Kurds, denied allowing the United States to use its bases against "ISIL".

"We are holding intense negotiations with our allies. But there are not any new developments about Incirlik," a base in southern Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team