Obama heads to Pentagon for briefing on IS

6 July 2015, 5:05 pm

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US President Barack Obama is making a rare visit to the Pentagon to get an update from military leaders on the campaign against the Islamic State.

Obama’s meetings follow a wave of weekend airstrikes by the US-led coalition in eastern Syria. The coalition says it was one of the most sustained aerial operations carried out in Syria to date.

Obama has insisted he will not send US troops into combat to fight the Islamic State in Iraq or Syria. However, he has acknowledged that the US lacks a “complete strategy” for training Iraqi troops to carry out ground missions.

Efforts to train Syrian rebels are also sputtering. Fewer than 100 rebels are being trained by the US, far less than the goal of producing 5,400 fighters a year.

— AP