President Barack Obama addressed the nation Wednesday to lay out a plan to "take out" the Islamic State extremist group, saying "America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat."
The president said that the U.S. will not use combat troops, but that he is prepared to order airstrikes inside of Syria for the first time as part of larger counter-terrorism plan. Obama had already authorized airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq last month.
He called it "a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground."
“In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape and force women into marriage,” Obama said. “They threatened a religious minority with genocide. In acts of barbarism, they took the lives of two American journalists — Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff.”
“I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” he said. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”
[Via NBC News]
