NEW YORK (Sputnik) – Americans increasingly support US-led efforts against Islamic State (ISIL) militants, with almost half of respondents to a new Pew Research Center survey saying they favor sending US ground forces to fight the radical militia in Iraq and Syria.
“The public has grown more supportive of the US fight against ISIS [ISIL], as about twice as many approve (63 percent) as disapprove (30 percent) of the military campaign against the Islamic militant group in Iraq and Syria,” research group said in a statement on Tuesday.
The researchers said that in October 2014, 57 percent of population approved and 33 percent disapproved of the US fight against the ISIL.
US President Barack Obama has promised to “degrade and destroy” ISIL with a US-led coalition launching airstrikes and backing up Kurdish, Iraqi and moderate Syrian ground forces. The president spoke out against deploying US ground troops, despite concerns from the US military.
ISIL, a Sunni militant group, controls a large Sunni-majority zone straddling the Iraq-Syria border. It has fought the Syrian government since 2012 and extended attacks to northern and western Iraq last year, declaring the creation of an Islamic caliphate on the captured territories.
