WORLD_ Britain joins fight against Islamic State as France, U.S. step up strikes

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

Britain joins fight against Islamic State as France, U.S. step up strikes

ARSHAD MOHAMMED and TOM PERRY
NEW YORK and BEIRUT — Reuters
Published Thursday, Sep. 25 2014, 10:34 PM EDT
Last updated Thursday, Sep. 25 2014, 10:39 PM EDT


French fighter jets struck Islamic State targets in Iraq on Thursday, and the United States hit them in Syria, as a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militants gained momentum with an announcement that Britain would join.

The French strikes were a prompt answer to the beheading of a French tourist in Algeria by militants, who said the killing was punishment for Paris’ decision last week to become the first European country to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

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In the United States, FBI director James Comey said Washington had identified the masked Islamic State militant in videos with a knife at the beheadings of Western hostages in recent weeks.

“I’m not going to tell you who I believe it is,” Mr. Comey told reporters. He said he knew the person’s nationality, but declined to give further details.

A European government source familiar with the investigation said the accent indicated the man was from London and likely from a community of immigrants. U.S. and European officials said the principal investigative work identifying the man was conducted by British government agencies.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, in New York to attend a United Nations meeting, said on Thursday he had credible intelligence that Islamic State networks in Iraq were plotting to attack U.S. and French subway trains.

Senior U.S. officials and French security services said they had no evidence of the specific threat cited by Mr. al-Abadi. But New York police commissioner William Bratton said the department boosted its presence on subways and city streets after the Iraqi warning.

City officials added there was no specific, credible threat, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said: “We are convinced New Yorkers are safe.”

A spokesman for Washington’s metro said there had been no credible threats made against the U.S. capital’s rail and bus system.

France had said earlier on Thursday it would boost security on transport and in public places.

England, the closest U.S. ally in the past decade’s wars, announced on Thursday that it too would join air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, after weeks of weighing its options. Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament, which is expected to give its approval on Friday.

While Arab countries have joined the coalition, Washington’s traditional Western allies had been slow to answer the call from U.S. President Barack Obama. But since Monday, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands have said they would send planes.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced this week that Canada had received a request from the United States to increase its contribution to the military mission in Iraq. The Conservative government would hold a vote in Parliament before launching any combat mission in Syria and Iraq, including air strikes, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said.

The Western allies have so far agreed to join air strikes only in Iraq, where the government has asked for help, and not in Syria, where strikes are being carried out without formal permission from President Bashar al-Assad. France said it has not ruled out extending strikes to Syria, too.

Overnight, U.S.-led air strikes in eastern Syria killed 14 Islamic State fighters, according to a monitoring group, while on the ground, Kurdish forces were reported to have pushed back an advance by the extremists toward the border town of Kobani.

A third night of air raids by the United States and Arab allies targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in three remote locations in eastern Syria to try to cut off a major source of revenue for the al-Qaeda offshoot.

The strikes also seem to be intended to hamper Islamic State’s ability to operate across the Syria-Iraq frontier.

Mr. Obama has vowed to keep up military pressure against the group, which advanced through Kurdish areas of northern Iraq this week despite the air strikes. Some 140,000 refugees have fled to Turkey over the past week, many telling of villages burnt and captives beheaded.

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More Related to this Story

* UN Security Council backs Obama’s fight against Islamic State

* Harper hasn’t ‘ruled out’ Islamic State fight

* Britain to join airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq


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