BBC Online :US President Barack Obama is to hold a video conference with the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy to discuss combating Islamic State (IS).Obama told foreign military chiefs on Tuesday to expect a long campaign against the jihadist group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.He also expressed deep concern about the IS offensive on the town of Kobane, on Syria’s border with Turkey.The Ebola epidemic will also be discussed in the video conference. The World Health Organization (WHO) says 4,447 people have died after contracting the virus, most of them in West Africa. On Wednesday morning, the US authorities confirmed that a second health worker in the state of Texas had tested positive for Ebola. A third item on the video conference’s agenda will be efforts to encourage Russia to implement the Minsk ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.The US-led coalition against Islamic State has stepped up its air strikes on the group’s heavily-armed fighters surrounding the town of Kobane, where Kurdish militia have been holding out for almost a month. The jihadists are also said to be advancing on the Iraqi town of Amariya al-Falluja, one of the last still controlled by government forces in Anbar province and only 40km (25 miles) from the capital Baghdad.”Coalition air strikes will continue in both of these areas,” Obama told a meeting of senior military commanders from more than 20 Western and Arab countries at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Tuesday. Obama warned that they were facing a “long-term campaign”.”There are not quick fixes involved. We’re still at the early stages.””As with any military effort, there will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback,” he added. The battle for Kobane is regarded as a major test of whether the coalition’s air campaign can push back IS in Syria. US-led forces have been carrying out air strikes in support of Kurdish forces there for two weeks.On Tuesday, the US military said Tuesday’s raids had destroyed IS buildings and military vehicles.The situation on the ground remained “fluid, with IS attempting to gain territory and Kurdish militia continuing to hold out”, it added. Jihadist militants are believed to control about half of the predominantly Kurdish town, from which more than 160,000 people have fled.
