WASHINGTON, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - The United States' Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter Islamic State (IS or ISIL) John Allen arrived in Iraq on Thursday for meetings with regional leaders in order to discuss the fight against the Islamic State, according to the State Department.
Allen and the Deputy Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk will be traveling to Belgium, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey next. They plan to meet with "a wide range of government officials, regional partners, and multilateral institutions in support of international coalition efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL."
IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against the government in Syria since 2012 and advanced into portions of northern Iraq in June 2014. IS continues to wage war in an attempt to establish a caliphate in these areas.
Early in September, US President Barack Obama unveiled a strategy to defeat the IS insurgency by creating an international anti-IS coalition and conducting airstrikes against IS targets in Iraq and Syria. The US-led coalition is currently comprised of 62 countries, according to the State Department.
