WoW ! U.S. sees Middle East help fighting IS, Britain cautious after beheading

Washington said countries in the Middle East had offered to join air strikes against Islamic State militants and Australia said it would send troops, but Britain held back even after the group beheaded a British hostage and threatened to kill another.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been touring the Middle East to try to secure backing for U.S. efforts to build a coalition to fight the Islamic State militants who have grabbed territory in Syria and Iraq.

The United States resumed air strikes in Iraq in August for the first time since the 2011 withdrawal of the last U.S. troops, fearful the militants would break the
country up and use it as a base for attacks on the West. The addition of Arab fighter jets would greatly strengthen the credibility of what is a risky and complicated campaign.

“We have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires,” Kerry said.

“And we also have a growing number of people who are prepared to do all the other things,” he said in remarks broadcast on Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”

Offers of Arab air participation have been made both to U.S. Central Command overseeing the American air
campaign and to the Iraqi government, a senior State Department official said.
The official said the offers were not limited to air strikes on Iraq. “Some have indicated for quite a while a willingness to do them elsewhere,” the official said.

“We have to sort through all of that because you can’t just go and bomb something.”

As of Saturday, U.S. fighter jets had conducted 160 air strikes on Islamic State positions in Iraq. The United States will present a legal case before expanding them into Syria, U.S. officials said, justifying them largely on the basis of defending Iraq from militants who have taken shelter in neighboring Syria during its three- year civil war.

Australia became the first country to
detail troop numbers and aircraft to fight the militants in Iraq. It said it would send a 600-strong force and eight fighter jets to the region but did not intend to operate in Syria.

Russia, at odds with the West over Ukraine, has said any air strikes in Syria would be an act of aggression without the consent of President Bashar al-Assad or an international mandate.

Britain has often been the first country to join U.S. military action overseas and is under pressure to get much tougher with IS after video footage of the killing
of Briton David Haines by the militants was released on Saturday. In footage consistent with the filmed executions of
two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, in the past month, they also threatened to kill another British hostage.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee in London, Prime Minister David Cameron called the killing of Haines, a 44 year-old Scottish aid worker, callous and brutal and hailed him as a “British hero.”

“We will hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes,” he said, calling IS “the embodiment of evil” and saying his
government was prepared “to take whatever steps are necessary” against the militants. SUNNI ‘ANVIL’

But he did not announce any air strikes, mindful of war-weary public opinion, parliament’s rejection last year of air strikes on Syria, and sensitivities surrounding Scotland’s independence referendum on Thursday.

U.S. allies are skeptical of how far Washington will commit to a conflict in which nearly every country in the region has a stake, set against the backdrop of
Islam’s 1,300-year-old rift between Sunnis and Shi’ites. Many fear there is not enough emphasis on ensuring the Iraqi government is strong and united enough to overcome sectarian divisions and run the country effectively after any intervention.

Britain and the United States have ruled out sending ground troops back into Iraq and Kerry did not say which countries had offered.

“We’re not looking to put troops on the ground,” he said.

“There are some who have offered to do so, but we are not looking for that at this moment anyway.”

On the CNN program “State of the Union,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was asked if the coalition would need ground troops beyond opposition forces in Syria and Kurdish and government forces in Iraq.

“Ultimately to destroy ISIL we do need to have a force, an anvil against which they will be pushed – ideally Sunni forces,” he said, using an acronym for Islamic
State.

‘EXTREMELY ENCOURAGED’
On Thursday, Kerry won the backing for a “coordinated military campaign” from 10 Arab countries – Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and six Gulf states including rich rivals Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“This is a strategy coming together as the coalition comes together and the countries declare what they are prepared to do,” Kerry said in the interview, taped on Saturday in Egypt.

“I’ve been extremely encouraged to hear from all of the people that I’ve been meeting with about their readiness and willingness to participate,” Kerry added.
France has offered to take part in air strikes in Iraq and is expected to give more details this week on what it is willing to do, although its financial resources and forces are already stretched with more than 5,000 soldiers in West Africa.

Michael McCaul, a Republican who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, told the same CBS program that Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan told him “he is ready to put his troops into Syria to fight ISIS”.
Washington could also try to persuade Egypt to put troops in Syria,” McCaul said.

John Kerry will meet British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond during a conference on Iraq in Paris on Monday. The conference brings Iraqi authorities
together with about 30 countries and organizations to coordinate their response to Islamic State.

“It will also be the first time to really gauge what Russia thinks and is ready to do,” a French diplomat said.
The diplomat said Syria was a different case. “The situation is not the same either legally or militarily. We do not want to strengthen Assad, so we have to be sure that strikes there don’t do that,” the diplomat said. “We are ready to help Iraq’s government, which has asked for our help, but no Assad’s dictatorship.”

Source: Reuters

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WoW ! ISIS executes British aid worker David Haines; Cameron vows justice

British aid worker David Haines has been
executed by ISIS militants, according to a video posted Saturday to a website associated with the group, making him the third Western captive to be killed by the Islamist extremist group in recent
weeks.

The ISIS video post showing Haines’ beheading called his execution “a message to the allies of America.” It is produced very similarly to the videos that showed the executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the last of which included Haines and the threat that he’d be killed next.

The new video pictures a masked ISIS militant placing his hand on another captive, whom he identified as Alan Henning, a British citizen. In a tweet, British Prime Minister David Cameron
called “the murder of David Haines” an “act of pure evil.”
Cameron added, “We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.”

Haines offers brief scripted comments on
the video, as does the man who kills him.
Directing his remarks at Britain, the executioner — who sounds like the man
who killed Foley and Sotloff — says, “Your
evil alliance with America, which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha dam, will only accelerate your destruction and claim the role of the obedient lap dog.

“Cameron will only drag you and your
people into another bloody and unwinnable war.”

Retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona — an Air
Force veteran intelligence officer and CNN military analyst — surmised that if ISIS planned to dissuade Britain for teaming up with the United States, the group will be disappointed.

“ISIS has just guaranteed British cooperation with the Americans on all phases of what we’re going to be doing,” Francona said. “… I think this is now a Western fight; it’s not just a U.S. fight.”

News of the gruesome killing came the same day that the 44-year-old Haines’ family released a brief message to his captors through the British foreign
office. In it, the family says,

“We have sent messages to you to which we have not received a reply. We are asking those holding David to make contact with us.”

Haines’ face became known to the world in the ISIS video, released September 2, in which he looks forward and kneels as a masked ISIS militant stands behind him. The militant says in that video,

“We take this opportunity to warn those governments who’ve entered this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people
alone.”

British officials said after the video’s release that they had sent troops to try to rescue an unidentified British citizen “some time ago,” but failed. They released no other details. Mike Haines, in a statement early Sunday, through the British Foreign Office, noted that his
brother leaves behind two children and his wife Dragana.

He described his brother as “just another bloke” whose “childhood was centered around our family” and who was “brought up to know right from wrong.”
David Haines worked for the Royal Mail, then joined the Royal Air Force. He later worked with the United Nations in the Balkans, where “he helped whoever needed help, regardless of race, creed or religion,” according to his brother.

“During this time, David began to decide that humanitarian work was the field he wanted to work in,” Mike Haines said. “… David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles.”

After working for ScotRail, David Haines went on to get a job as a logistics and security manager for the Paris-based humanitarian Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development. He was abducted in March 2013 near a refugee
camp in Atmeh, Syria, where he was working to arrange for the delivery of humanitarian aid to people staying at the camp. He had previously worked on aid operations for victims of conflict in
the Balkans, African and other parts of the Middle East, according to an ACTED spokesman.

“His joy and anticipation for the work he (did) in Syria is, for myself and family, the most important element of this whole sad affair,” Mike Haines said. “He was and is loved by all his family and will
be missed terribly.”

The US president Obama said….

“The United States stands shoulder-to-shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve,” the President said. “We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world.”

Source : CNN

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