Reuters, Washington :
US President Barack Obama said on Monday progress needs to speed up against Islamic State militants, calling on allies to increase their military contributions to coalition efforts to destroy the group in Iraq and Syria.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, Obama said he was sending Defense Secretary Ash Carter to the Middle East to secure more military help from partner nations in the fight against the group.
“This continues to be a difficult fight,” Obama said. “We recognise that progress needs to keep coming faster.”
The president ticked off a list of accomplishments by the United States and its allies against the group: Islamic State had lost significant swaths of territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, and leaders were being targeted one by one.
“ISIL leaders cannot hide and our next message to them is simple: ‘you are next,'” he said, using an acronym for the group.
The coalition was also targeting Islamic State’s oil tanker trucks, wells and refineries.
“We are hitting ISIL harder than ever,” he said.
Obama, a Democrat, has come under criticism by Republicans for not doing enough to counter Islamic State, in particular since the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State, and the Dec. 2 shooting in San Bernardino, California. Authorities believe the couple who killed 14 people in that attack were inspired by Islamist militants.
The White House has sought to counter those critics by outlining progress made since Islamic State’s rapid rise in Iraq and Syria more than a year ago.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter urged Turkey on Tuesday to do more to help destroy Islamic State militants as he kicked off a tour of the Middle East that aims to drum up regional support for the military campaign.
Speaking during a visit to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, Carter said Ankara needed to better control its border with Syria, particularly a roughly 60-mile (98-km) stretch believed to be used by Islamic State for illicit trade and for shuttling foreign fighters back and forth.
“Turkey has an enormous role to play,” said Carter, on his first trip to Incirlik as defense secretary. “We appreciate what they’re doing. We want them to do more.”
That includes Turkish forces joining “in the air and the ground as appropriate,” Carter told reporters traveling with him. “The single most important contribution that their geography makes necessary is the control of their own border.”
Incirlik has grown more important in the U.S.-led campaign of air strikes against Islamic State, with 59 U.S., Turkish, Qatari and German aircraft now operating out of the base, up from about 15 from all coalition countries at the beginning of September, U.S. officials said.
Around 45 aircraft are from the United States and include both manned and unmanned. They conduct refueling, intelligence and strike missions, officials said.
On Monday, speaking after a meeting of the U.S. National Security Council at the Pentagon, President Barack Obama said Carter’s trip to the region aimed to secure greater military contributions from allies in the campaign against Islamic State.
