Obama says rooting out Islamic State will not be easy

CHARLOTTE N.C. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama vowed to punish the Islamic State killers of American journalist James Foley on Tuesday but said rooting out the militant group in Iraq and Syria will not be fast or easy.

As Obama spoke, the United States was moving ahead with surveillance flights over Syria to identify targets for a potential presidential order to launch air strikes against Islamic State targets in what would be a direct U.S. military intervention into a country embroiled in a three-year civil war.

“America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Justice will be done,” Obama told veterans gathered at a convention of the American Legion in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Obama, who ordered air strikes against the militant group in Iraq and is considering them for Syria, said he would do whatever is necessary to go after those who harm Americans.

“Rooting out a cancer like ISIL won’t be easy and it won’t be quick,” he said. ISIL is the acronym the United States uses for Islamic State.

Launching air strikes into Syria would add an unpredictable element to a civil war that Obama has taken great pains to stay out of a year after stepping back from attacking the government of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad for using chemical weapons on his own people.

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White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no plan to coordinate with the Syrian government on how to counter the threat from Islamic State. Syria has appealed for coordination.

“As a matter of U.S. policy we have not recognized the Assad regime as the leader of Syria. There are no plans to change that policy and there are no plans to coordinate with the Assad regime as we consider this terror threat,” he said.

Obama was provoked into action by the release of a graphic video last week showing the beheading of Foley by Islamic State fighters.

A decision by Obama to launch air strikes in Syria did not appear to be imminent.

Earnest said the crisis in the region caused by Islamic State’s rapid war advances could not be solved by U.S. military power alone and would require the involvement of other countries.

“Resolving the situation in Iraq related to ISIL is not something that can be done only using American military might,” he said. “It will require the involvement of other governments in the region that have blatantly obvious interests in the outcome.”

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that Islamic State would eventually need to be addressed on “both sides of what is essentially at this point a non-existent border” between Syria and Iraq.

Dempsey’s spokesman confirmed on Monday that options against Islamic State were under review and stressed the need to form “a coalition of capable regional and European partners.”

He said Dempsey was working with U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for American forces in the Middle East, to prepare options to address Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria “with a variety of military tools including air strikes.”

Obama is due to meet with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday to discuss a range of issues, including Iraq. Earnest declined to say whether a presidential decision would be announced after the meeting.

“I wouldn’t prejudge at this point when the president would act or even at this point if he will act,” Earnest said.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton, Phil Stewart and David Alexander, Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Sandra Maler)

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