NEWPORT, Wales -- President Barack Obama's administration said Friday that it had formed a new international coalition of nations willing to fight the marauding Islamic State group, and Obama sketched the outlines of a strategy he said could ultimately defeat the extremist group and others around the world.
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In his most expansive comments to date about how the United States and its allies can destroy the Sunni extremist group without putting U.S. or other foreign troops on the ground in either Iraq or Syria, the president laid the beginnings of a plan that replicates what the United States has done in Pakistan.
That plan, as described by Obama, would rely on U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State leaders and positions, while strengthening the capacity of moderate Syrian rebels to reclaim ground seized by the Islamic State. The group has declared a caliphate -- or state ruled by Islamic law -- in the lands it controls in Iraq and Syria, and it has slain or enslaved enemies captured in fighting.
"You initially push them back, you systematically degrade their capabilities, you narrow their scope of action, you slowly shrink the space, the territory that they may control, you take out their leadership," Obama said. "And over time, they are not able to conduct the same kinds of terrorist attacks as they once could."
He added that "we are going to degrade and ultimately defeat [the Islamic State], the same way that we have gone after al-Qaida."
He held up U.S. drone strikes against al-Qaida leaders in the tribal areas of Pakistan as an example of how the United States can go to war against militants while limiting the number of U.S. ground combat troops.
He made the comments at a news conference at the end of the NATO summit in Wales, during which U.S. officials also unveiled what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the "core coalition" to fight the Sunni militants.
In a hastily organized meeting on the outskirts of the NATO talks, diplomats and defense officials from the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark huddled to devise what they described as a two-pronged strategy: bolstering allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria, while bombing Sunni militants from the air.
"There is no containment policy for" the Islamic State, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the beginning of the meeting. "They're an ambitious, avowed, genocidal, territorial-grabbing, caliphate-desiring quasi state with an irregular army, and leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us."
But he and other officials made clear that at the moment, any ground combat troops would come from either Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraq, or moderate Syrian rebels opposed to the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria.
"Obviously I think that's a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground," Kerry said.
While they put forward political pledges, members such as France and Britain, which have discussed joining U.S. airstrikes, made no promises of warplanes, officials from both countries said.
"Clearly military commitment is required, and what I've said is nothing is ruled out," U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said. On further military action, he added: "We're not at that stage yet."
Meanwhile, Canada's leader said Friday that his country is sending 50 to 100 military advisers to Iraq as part of an effort to bolster Iraqi forces against the militants.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the team will join the U.S. in advising Iraq on how to enable security forces in the northern part of the country to be more effective against the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Harper said the mission is not without risk but will not be a combat mission. Canada's initial deployment will be for a period of up to 30 days and will be reassessed after that time. Harper said Obama made the request.
He said Canada will look at further steps to respond to the threat as allies come up with a plan.
Obama administration officials said privately that in addition to the countries that attended the meeting Friday, the United States is hoping to get intelligence about the Sunni militants from Jordan. Its leader, King Abdullah II, was at the Wales summit.
U.S. officials said they also expect Saudi Arabia to contribute funding for moderate Syrian rebel groups. In addition, Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, said in a statement this week that the majority-Sunni country stood ready to join the fight against the Islamic State.
Said Obama: "I think it is absolutely critical that we have Arab states and specifically Sunni-majority states that are rejecting the kind of extremist nihilism that we're seeing out of [the Islamic State], that say that is not what Islam is about and are prepared to join us actively in the fight."
The Islamic State group espouses a radical form of Sunni Islam and initially invaded Iraq to fight its Shiite government.
Administration officials said amassing support for moderate rebels in Syria also is critical. This summer, Obama set aside $500 million to train and support vetted members of the moderate rebels opposing Assad in Syria. Officials said they expect Congress to approve that request at the beginning of October.
But even if that money is approved, U.S. officials will still face obstacles in strengthening the Free Syrian Army, the moderates of choice for the United States.
"This is going to take months," one Pentagon official said Friday.
authorization for force
As Obama unveiled his plans Friday in Europe, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee was pushing legislation authorizing the president to use military force against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and wherever else it threatens U.S. interests.
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma is circulating a draft of a resolution granting the president the authority to "use all necessary and appropriate force in order to defend the national security of the United States against the threat posed by the organization called the Islamic State or 'IS,' formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, as well as any successor organization."
The measure, which has no end date, would allow Obama to deploy ground forces as well as continue with airstrikes against the militants.
Inhofe is seeking bipartisan support for his measure as Congress returns to Washington next week from its five-week break. The resolution also forces the president to submit a strategy to Congress within 60 days for how to defeat the Islamic State.
The Senate has a shortened session in September, and it is unclear whether lawmakers will act on any legislation responding to the militant threat. Some Republicans and Democrats contend that the president already has authority to act based on the 1973 War Powers Resolution.
In a letter Friday to Obama, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said the president can legally use military force against the militants.
"Just as the U.S. has conducted operations against terrorists elsewhere, there is no legal reason preventing you from targeting ISIL in Syria," Rubio wrote, using an acronym for the Islamic State's former name.
Other Republicans have said they are reluctant to give the president any blanket military authority absent a detailed strategy.
Iraq bloodshed
In Iraq, a series of attacks Friday killed 17 people, including four Shiite militiamen and a Sunni tribal chief, while a mass grave in the north was found to contain the bodies of 15 Shiite truck drivers killed by Sunni militants.
Police officials said the deadliest attack happened when a car bomb went off on a commercial street in Baghdad's mainly Shiite Zafaraniyah district, killing seven people and wounding 15 others. Several shops were damaged.
South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeted a Shiite militia convoy, killing four fighters and wounding seven in the area of Iskandariyah. Shiite militiamen have joined with Iraq's armed forces in their battle against the Islamic State.
Another bomb went off near an outdoor market in Baghdad's Shiite district of Obeidi, killing three shoppers and wounding 12, police said.
In northern Iraq, residents said Islamic State fighters killed Maiser al-Waqaa, a Sunni tribal chief, along with two brothers in the village of al-Houd, just south of Mosul.
The Islamic State captured Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, when it overran much of northern Iraq in June. It was unclear why the Sunni militants killed the tribal chief, who had run for parliament earlier this year, but they previously have kidnapped or killed those who oppose their rule.
Elsewhere in the north, a mass grave containing the remains of the Shiite truck drivers was found in the Suleiman Beg area. Families of the drivers said they were abducted about three months ago by Sunni militants who captured the town during their June offensive.
The grave was found after Iraqi security forces and Shiite militiamen drove out the Islamic State fighters earlier this week. Each of the drivers had been shot in the head.
Information for this article was contributed by Helene Cooper of New York Times; by Patrick Donahue, Gregory Viscusi, Thomas Penny and Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg News; and by Lolita C. Baldor, Ken Dilanian, Jan M. Olsen, John-Thor Dahlburg, Rob Gillies, Donna Cassata, Sameer N. Yacoub and Murtada Faraj of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/06/2014