Nations gather in Rome to plot fight against Islamic State

Nations gather in Rome to plot fight against Islamic State

PanARMENIAN.Net - Nearly two dozen nations gather on Tuesday, February 2 to plot their fight against the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq and how to choke off its rise in Libya, Reuters reports.

The meeting takes place as talks have begun in Geneva to try to end the five-year Syrian civil war, which has killed at least 250,000 people, driven more than 10 million from their homes and drawn in the United States and Russia on opposite sides.

Twenty-three nations from the wider Global Coalition to Counter ISIL will review their efforts to regain Syrian and Iraqi territory from the jihadist group and to discuss ways to curb its wider influence, notably in Libya, officials said.

While Washington has long said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has lost the legitimacy to lead, it has made clear that its first priority is to try to rein in militants from the Islamic State group, which is also known as ISIL.

U.S. officials said the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 budget will call for more than $7 billion to fight Islamic State, up roughly a third from the previous year's request to Congress.

Tuesday's meeting will cover stabilizing areas such as the Iraqi city of Tikrit, which has been wrested from the group, as well as broader efforts to undercut its finances, stem the flow of foreign fighters and counter its messaging, officials said.

The potential spread of Islamic State to Libya, where rival factions are struggling to form a united government nearly five years after a Western coalition helped topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi, will feature prominently, a senior U.S. official said.

Despite the focus on Libya, Syria and Iraq remain the main theaters of action against Islamic State.

Syrian government troops and allied fighters captured hilly countryside near Aleppo on Monday, putting a key supply route used by opposition forces into firing range, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

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