US, allies agree to intensify fight against Islamic State

According to the monitoring group, IS released a statement saying: “Because of the exceptional circumstances that the Islamic State is passing through, a decision was taken to cut the salaries of the mujahedeen in half”. Carter and Le Drian co-hosted the meeting with ministers from France, Australia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. He then said USA and French special forces work well together. He has spent much of his time giving speeches lately at doing just that – painting an increasingly rosy picture of victories in Iraq and Syria and describing a constrained Islamic State that is losing momentum.

“Every nation must come prepared to discuss further contributions to the fight”.

The US defense chief said there are close ties with the French minister.

“To truly understand – do they need more weapons?”

Despite assertions from the Obama administration that the U.S.is “not in a combat role” in Iraq and Syria, some officials appear mixed as to whether special forces are on the front lines in the war against the Islamic State.

“It is a keyhole through which one gets a lot of insight, and thereby allows us more effectively to bring the huge weight of coalition military power to bear on the battlefield in an effective way”, he added.

“We’re still concerned about [Iran’s] malign influence in the region, freedom of navigation, ballistic missiles and other issues”, such as protecting USA longtime Gulf region friends and allies such as Israel, Carter said.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg TV, Carter called the anti-IS alliance a “so-called” coalition, highlighting frustrations the Pentagon has with some partners – particularly Sunni Arab nations – not doing enough.

And calling Islamic extremism a disease, Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of a coalition of 34 largely Muslim nations to fight terrorism.

The official was not authorized to talk about the discussions publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Le Drian said the group’s finances were “beginning to dry up”.

“That means no shelter to bandits, no double standards, no contacts whatsoever with any terrorist organizations, no attempts to use them for some selfish goals, no criminal, bloody business with terrorists”.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s meeting Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said it was important to strike “at the head of the snake”.

“We are now seeing Daesh being hit in its own heartland”.

“You will now see, I hope, more attacks on the oil wells, on the supply roots, on the logistics, the arms dumps and on the command and control and on the leadership of this evil organisation”.

The military plan expects coalition members to make contributions which span airstrikes, specialoperations forces, advice, assistance, equipment and training for local forces, cyber tools, intelligence, mobility and logistics.

Iraqi security forces, which waged a long battle to retake Ramadi, need increased training on niche capabilities, including how to counter improvised explosive devices.

The current American-led support mission has trained about three Iraqi brigades during the past year, and US officials expect two brigades from the Kurdish peshmerga forces to join the fight. The new rules were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. This war takes place in Syria, Iraq, Libya….