Obama Has 'No Strategy Yet' on Potential Syria Strikes
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - US President Barack Obama admitted that he still does not have a strategy to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria, as the militants boasted they had executed scores of Syrian troops – the latest in a string of atrocities.
Dampening hopes of imminent air strikes in Syria, Obama said he was still developing a comprehensive plan to defeat the ISIL, which has also overrun large swathes of Iraq, AFP reported.
The civil war in Syria has killed some 191,000 people since it erupted in March 2011. The UN said on Friday that the number of recorded registered refugees had reached a record 3 million.
But the conflict has taken on another dimension as the ISIL jihadists exploited the power vacuum to move in, unleashing a series of atrocities including the brutal execution of US journalist James Foley.
The chaotic situation on the ground was underlined by the seizing of 43 UN peacekeepers on the Golan Heights by rival rebels, led by al Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front.
They were part of a mission that has monitored an armistice between Syrian and Israeli troops on the strategic plateau for decades.
Obama's decision to begin US surveillance flights over Syria this week prompted speculation that he was on the brink of expanding the fight against the ISIL from Iraq into Syria and criticism from some lawmakers concerned that they had not been properly consulted over possible US actions.
"We don't have a strategy yet," Obama said ahead of a meeting with security chiefs.
The admission attracted criticism from Republican lawmakers and White House spokesman Josh Earnest later clarified that Obama was referring to military options, but had a comprehensive strategy for confronting the group through diplomatic means.
Obama said he was dispatching Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East to build support in the region against the ISIL jihadists.
The jihadists posted grisly video footage on the Internet of scores of bodies heaped in the desert they boasted were those of Syrian soldiers they captured and killed following the seizure of Tabqa airbase.
They have repeatedly posted gruesome videos, which have appalled international opinion but served as a propaganda tool to recruit volunteers.
