MOSCOW (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama reaffirmed on Thursday that the United States would not carry out an "Iraq-style invasion" during the fight against the Islamic State (also known by its Arab acronym Daesh).
"What I've been very clear about is that we are going to systematically squeeze and ultimately destroy ISIL and that requires us having a military component to that," Obama told CBS.
According to the president, these forces will provide "greater situational awareness on the ground, generate additional intelligence, work with local forces to develop smarter strategies, help direct where airstrikes are going to make the most difference."
Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the extremists in the Middle East cannot be defeated solely by airstrikes and the ground forces, mainly Syrian and Arab, need to be deployed for the efficient anti-terrorist efforts.
A US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against the ISIL, prohibited in Russia and many other countries, in Iraq and Syria since 2014 without the approval of the UN Security Council or the Syrian government. Russia launched its own air campaign against Daesh in Syria on September 30 at the request of President Bashar Assad.
In 2003, the US-led coalition invaded Iraq without a UN mandate, after falsely accusing Hussein of possessing weapons of mass destruction.
"We're going to continue to push hard and the good news is, coming out of Paris, we're seeing countries like Germany and Great Britain that had been hesitant about getting too actively involved in Syria, realizing that they have to be part of the solution here," Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS This Morning.
Both the United Kingdom and Germany are members of the US-led coalition.
On Wednesday, the UK parliament voted in favor of extending airstrikes against the IS, from Iraq to Syria. The United Kingdom has been conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq since September 2014.
On Tuesday, the German government approved operations by its troops against Daesh in Syria. The German parliament is set to vote on the matter on Friday.
