Kerry: Coalition beating 'IS'

In Brussels, US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the successes of the 62-nation alliance against the "Islamic State" (IS). Speaking at NATO headquarters, Kerry said the coalition had finally begun to stop IS's advance across Iraq and Syria, but he warned that the US-led alliance, which has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes in less than four months, could take years to finally defeat the group. Germany has not joined the air campaign, but has sent weapons to fortify Iraqi and Kurdish fighters.

"It is much harder now than when we started for Daesh to assemble forces in strength, to travel in convoys and to launch concerted attacks," Kerry said Wednesday, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

IS, which has about 30,000 members, waged an intimidation campaign, using crucifixion, rape and beheadings, as well as military expertise, to gain significant territory as part of its quest to establish a caliphate in northern Iraq and Syria. It is believed that thousands of foreign fighters have flooded the two countries from Europe, the Americas, and across the Middle East and North Africa to join the group.

"Our commitment will most likely be measured in years," Kerry had told the meeting in the Belgian capital, adding that the partners would "engage in this campaign for as long as it takes to prevail."

'Know the land'

link:18108180:In a wide-ranging interview# with the magazine Paris Match, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkey, which denies the allegations, of continuing to provide direct support to IS, a group that, along with nonaligned rebel factions, has fought to topple his government. Assad also used the November 28 interview in Damascus, his first in months, to broadly criticize the coalition's tactics.

"You can't end terrorism with aerial strikes," the magazine quoted Assad as saying in comments released Wednesday. "Troops on the ground that know the land and can react are essential."

With his comments, Assad may have hoped to give the impression that his forces would prove most effective against IS, which entered the country during a nearly four-year civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people. Iraq - the native country of group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - had asked the United States for help fighting IS since 2011, when it was the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant" and had taken advantage of the country's relative instability following the US-led invasion of 2003. There were reports early Wednesday that Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but not a member of the coalition, had launched attacks on IS as well.

Syria's war has displaced millions, and strikes by Assad's forces have frequently killed civilians. Rights experts are predicting a further humanitarian emergency as the war enters its fourth winter.

mkg/lw (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)