U.S. rethinks strategy for battling Islamic State in Syria: Report

The United States is rethinking its strategy for battling the Islamic State in Syria, the New York Times reported on Monday, with the Pentagon looking into moving more fighters into safer zones, providing better intelligence and improving the skills of trained rebels. The options, which are classified, are circulating among top officials at the Department of Defense, the newspaper reported, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. They include enlarging the size of the groups of trained rebels sent back into Syria and shifting the location of the deployments to places where there is more local support, the Times reported.

We knew this mission was going to be difficult from the very beginning.

Capt. Chris Connolly, a spokesman for the American military task force training the Syrian rebels, to the New York Times

France will begin reconnaissance missions over Syria on Tuesday and could launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in the country, President François Hollande said on Monday. France until now had only taken part in airstrikes against IS in Iraq because it feared strikes against the group in Syria could strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad. “We have proof that attacks have been planned from Syria against several countries, notably France,” Hollande told a news conference. France was poised to join airstrikes on the Assad regime in Syria in 2013, before President Barack Obama unexpectedly backed off the plan.

Assad is responsible for the situation in Syria. He fired on his people, he bombed civilians. He used chemical weapons and refused to talk to opponents.

French President François Hollande

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