Allies to intensify campaign against Daesh group in Syria

A US-led coalition is poised to intensify the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, in response to a spiraling humanitarian crisis and lackluster results from a year-long bombing campaign.

Nations from Europe to Australasia are eyeing increased military support for "Operation Inherent Resolve," aimed at degrading and destroying the Islamic State jihadists, according to several well placed officials.

"The present situation is not acceptable," said one senior European diplomat. "I detect a growing feeling that we're not winning this at the moment and we need redouble our efforts collectively."

Western governments are under fierce pressure to tackle the roots of a humanitarian crisis that has seen 380,000 migrants and refugees -- including three-year-old Aylan Kurdi -- make the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean already this year.

The majority come from Syria. Four million Syrians have fled during four years of war, as Bashar al-Assad's government has bombarded rebels and civilians alike and the Islamic State has seized swaths of territory.

The Islamic State "is creating or contributing in a very large measure to the humanitarian crisis that we are dealing with," said the diplomat, "but it is also posing a very real and specific threat to our citizens and our security and to basic human rights."

"A number of Western governments are looking at a combination of the humanitarian crisis, the failure to resolve the situation in Syria and the continued activity... of ISIL (Islamic State) and concluding that we need to do more."

Until now Iraq has been the main theater for the coalition's $4 billion air campaign against Islamic State.

Two thirds of the 6,700 airstrikes carried out since August 2014 have taken place inside the country, despite the recent opening of Turkish air bases at Incirlik and Diyarbakir near the Syrian border.

John Allen -- President Barack Obama's special envoy for tackling the Islamic State -- has said better-positioned allies on the ground mean the war in Iraq has a "greater likelihood of success."

A mission to train and equip Syrian rebels has faltered badly, with many of the first deployment of 54 US-backed fighters captured, killed or forced into retreat.

- Pledges of support -

Officials are now hoping for a fresh show of resolve when coalition members meet on the margins of the United Nations general assembly later this month.

Short term goals include hitting the Islamic State along the frontline near Marea, a mission officials see as essential to maintaining the flow of humanitarian aid as well as arms and other supplies to rebels.

Jihadists have taken a string of villages near the town, which stands midway between rebel-held Aleppo and the Syrian border.

Intense fighting in the region has included the suspected use of mustard gas by the Islamic State group.

Ahead of the UN meeting, coalition countries have already begun to publicly pledge more support, and more is expected.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday announced his country would take part in coalition air strikes and admit in an extra 12,000 refugees.

Canberra already has six F/A-18 Hornets, a KC-30A tanker transport and an E-7A Wedgetail early warning and control aircraft deployed in the Middle East.

France has begun carrying out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights over Syria, paving the way for a more kinetic role.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, having lost a key vote authorizing military force in Syria, is expected within weeks to use his new parliamentary majority to call another.

Cameron also recently revealed that for the first time a British drone had killed three jihadists in Syria, including two British citizens suspected of recruiting for Islamic State.

Both France and Britain have carried out airstrikes in neighboring Iraq.

"Any additional force and any additional firepower to the coalition is looked at positively," said a US military official speaking on condition of anonymity.

But the exact scope of the new commitments, and their possible impact remain unclear.

"National commitments on paper include large caveats about when, where, and how countries will use air power," said Micah Zenko of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The measures are unlikely to include the use of ground troops, which the Obama administration has repeatedly ruled out.

"Many governments have said there needs to be boots on the ground, but they can't be ours they need to be the local guys," said the senior European official.

Meanwhile Russian military maneuvers in Syria have poured water on hopes that Moscow may be softening its support for Assad, a move that could help solve the broader conflict.

US officials say Russia has run two giant Antonov-124 Condor transport planes and a passenger flight into an airport in Latakia on Syria's Mediterranean coast.

Russia is also believed to have installed portable air traffic control equipment and enough modular housing units for "hundreds" of people.

US officials say the immediate military aim appears to be the creation of a forward air-operating hub, but diplomats say the strategic goal is less clear.

Source: AFP