Military leaders from more than 20 countries will meet today to thrash out their next move against Islamic State.
The session is expected to focus on which, if any, coalition partners might commit to ground forces to stop the militant's advance in Iraq and Syria.US President Barack Obama will attend the meeting at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where leaders will also assess the work already done.Led by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, the meeting will include representatives from Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.The extent of Turkey's commitment to the fight against the extremists will "hang in the background" today, says the Washington Times.US defence officials said over the weekend that Turkey had given the US permission to launch air strikes against IS from air bases in its territory. However, Turkish officials have since leaked statements to several news organisations to say that no such agreement has been reached.Talks with Turkey are ongoing, and the country has agreed to join Saudi Arabia as a destination for training vetted Syrian opposition rebels. The Pentagon says it is in the "very early" stages of developing protocols for vetting 5,000 Free Syrian Army rebels ahead of training.Today's meeting comes as Obama faces criticism for his strategy so far in the fight against IS. Republican senator John McCain is among those complaining that IS is "winning and we're not".Anthony Cordesman, national security analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, also told Reuters: "This is a long campaign. It hasn't gone badly, but it certainly hasn't gone well."
The UN said yesterday that fighting in Iraq's western Anbar province had forced up to 180,000 people to flee as IS captured the city of Hit. Kurdish forces are still struggling to hold off the extremists' advance on the northern city of Kobane.
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