US to Put Pressure on Assad as Fight Against IS Continues - Kerry

MUNICH (Sputnik) — The United States will continue to put pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad as the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group goes on, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

"As Daesh [Arab acronym for IS] retreats to Syria, we will continue our fight, and we will continue to put pressure on the Assad regime because there is no place for a brutal dictator," he said addressing the Munich Security Conference.

Since the beginning of the military standoff between the Syrian army and anti-government groups in 2011, Assad has repeatedly warned about the rise of the threat the Islamist extremists, including the Islamic State, represent to Syria and other Middle East countries.

After the civil war in the country erupted, the United States alongside its allies have been supporting the Syrian opposition groups, providing them with military and financial assistance.

The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting alongside the other rebel groups against the government forces in the Syrian civil war, before launching an offensive in Iraq in June 2014.

During his Munich Security Conference address, US Secretary of State John Kerry also stated that there can be no excuses for the violent extremism, addressing the advance of terrorist groups in the Middle East.

The turbulent situation in the Middle East is one of the central issues of the final day of the 51st Munich Security Conference.

"There are no grounds in history, religion, ideology, psychology, politics, economic advantage, disadvantage or personal ambition that justify the murder of children, rape of teenage girls or slaughter of unarmed civilians," Kerry said at the Munich Security Conference.

"These atrocities can never be rationalized. They can never be excused, they must be opposed with every fiber of our being and they must be stopped," he added.

The Islamic State is known for its brutal tactics, such as public crucifixions and beheadings of captured prisoners, including European journalists.

A US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes on IS targets since August in Iraq and since September in Syria without any formal permission from the Syrian government.

According to the latest estimates of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian military conflict has claimed lives of more than 210,000 people.