US dispatches surveillance jets over Syria: officials

The move could eventually lead to military airstrikes inside Syria, which Mr Obama has not yet approved.

KABUL // The US has begun surveillance flights over Syria in a move that could pave the way for airstrikes against Islamist militants.

The White House says Barack Obama has not approved military action inside Syria and additional intelligence on extremists from ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, would be necessary before he could do so.

Pentagon officials have been drafting potential options for the president, including airstrikes.

Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the US wanted more clarity on the militants in Syria, but would not comment on the surveillance flights.

“Clearly the picture we have of ISIS [ISIL] on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture,” said Gen Dempsey. “The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side, we have some insights into that but we certainly want to have more … as we craft a way forward.”

The US began launching strikes against ISIL inside Iraq on August 8, on the grounds of the threat to American personnel and a humanitarian crisis in the north. Pentagon officials have said the only way the threat from the militants can be fully eliminated is to go after the group inside Syria as well.

A White House official said there were no plans to coordinate with Damascus on targeting ISIL in Syria, despite Syrian insistence that any military action on its soil must be coordinated.

“There are no plans to coordinate with the Assad regime as we consider this terror threat,” said spokesman Josh Earnest.

Mr Obama has long resisted taking military action in Syria, which would plunge the US into an intractable civil war. However, the president’s calculus appears to have shifted since ISIL announced last week that it had murdered the American journalist James Foley, who was held hostage in Syria. The group is also threatening to kill other US citizens being held by the extremists in Syria.

Administration officials have said Mr Obama is concerned that action against ISIL in Syria could unintentionally help embattled Syrian president Bashar Al Assad. Damascus said on Monday any US airstrikes without consent from Syria would be considered an aggression.

ISIL is among the groups seeking Mr Al Assad’s removal, but is also fighting other anti-Assad forces backed by the West and countries from the Middle East.

Syrian war planes carried out a series of air raids yesterday on positions held by ISIL in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

“Syrian army forces targeted headquarters and warehouses storing weapons and ammunition belonging to the terrorist group … destroying them completely,” Syria’s state news agency Sana reported.

It said the army had also targeted groups of ISIL members, “killing large numbers of them”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said the Syrian army had carried out at least 12 strikes across the oil-rich province, which borders Iraq.

The Observatory director, Rami Abdul Rahman, said it was the first time since ISIL took control of most of Deir Ezzor that warplanes have carried out such “intensive and pinpoint raids” in the region.

* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse