On heels of NATO, ‘core coalition’ against Islamic State takes shape

The U.S. is forming a “core coalition” to battle Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, top American officials have said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called for support as they held talks with officials from 10 nations on the sidelines of a Nato summit on a strategy to defeat IS. Kerry said he was aware that many nations would not want to carry out military strikes and pledged there would be ‘no boots on the ground’, but he said they could provide intelligence, equipment or weapons. The talks were held with defence and foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.

It is the core group that will form the larger and extended coalition that’s going to be required to deal with this challenge.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

The U.S. hopes to build a plan with its allies by the time the U.N. General Assembly meets in about two weeks. The U.S. has launched airstrikes in Iraq against the Sunni militants but is looking to expand its campaign after two videos showed the beheading of two American journalists held captive by the group, James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Meanwhile, an Iraqi airstrike has reportedly killed a senior aide of IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

We have the technology, we have the know-how, What we need is obviously the willpower to make sure that we are steady and stay at this.

John Kerry

World core coalition