8 September 2014
Ten NATO states form coalition to fight the Islamic State
On 5 September, at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Wales, President Obama announced that nine NATO allies have agreed to join the US in order to form a coalition to fight the Islamic State.
The New York Times reports that the core coalition represents the outcome of a hastily organised meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit talks. Diplomats as well as defense officials from the US, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark, devised a two-pronged strategy, aimed at: strengthening allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria to reclaim ground lost to IS, while bombing Sunni militants from the air.
According to The Guardian, at present, the hope is to expand the coalition beyond Western nations and include Sunni majority states, that seek to reject the kind of nihilism that the Islamic State projects.
Al Jazeera notes that, while laying out a strategy for Iraq, Obama hinted at a broader military campaign, likening it to the way US forces pushed back al-Qaeda along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, taking out the group’s leadership and shrinking the areas it controlled.
Source: The Guardian | US forms 'core coalition' to fight Isis militants in Iraq
Source: Al Jazeera | US announces coalition to fight Islamic State
Source: New York Times | Obama Enlists 9 Allies to Help in the Battle Against ISIS