UK and US Leaders “will not be cowed” by Islamic State

NEW YORK – The leaders of Britain and the US have called for tough action against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria at a meeting of NATO allies in Wales, saying their nations “will not be cowed by barbaric killers”.

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote a joint article in The Times on Thursday ahead of a summit in Wales about halting the IS – which is also known as ISIS and ISIL – and alleged Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“We will not waver in our determination to confront ISIL. If terrorists think we will weaken in the face of their threats they could not be more wrong. Countries like Britain and America will not be cowed by barbaric killers,” they wrote.

Western public opinion has been moved by the release of online videos showing an apparently British IS militiamen beheading the American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley as well as gruesome executions of captured Kurdish soldiers.

“Whether it is regional aggression going unchecked or the prospect that foreign fighters could return from Iraq and Syria to pose a threat in our countries, the problems we face today threaten the security of British and American people, and the wider world,” the leaders wrote.

Washington has launched more than 120 air strikes against IS targets since August in coordination with Iraqi and Kurdish forces, helping to dislodge the jihadists from some towns – but more decisive assistance is still being negotiated by Western leaders.

Attacking IS in Syria has proven controversial for the White House, amid fears that it would help Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of atrocities against civilians during a three-and-a-half year uprising against his rule.

Cameron says he has not ruled out UK airstrikes on IS, which is carving out a hard-line Sunni caliphate across the region, but he may struggle to convince a British parliament that rejected military action in Syria last year.

“I welcome the American military action to stop the advance of the terrorist organisation Islamic State, I welcome that other Allies have contributed in different ways,” said NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

“As regards NATO, we haven't received any request for a NATO engagement, I’m sure that if the Iraqi government were to forward a request for NATO assistance, that would be considered seriously by NATO Allies.”

While some analysts call for tougher Western attacks on IS, others blame the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and support for anti-Assad forces in Syria for creating the power vacuum that has been exploited by extremists.

“Why is there complete impunity for politicians in the West? The results in Iraq and Syria are exactly what Russia predicted when the West supported the destabilisation of Mr Assad,” Dmitry Babich, an analyst with Russian state media, told Rudaw.

“When this policy collapsed and the Islamic State took over a huge chunk of Iraq, no one bore responsibility for the catastrophic creation of a new Sunni caliphate. Not a single minister lost his job.”