Washington: US President Barack Obama has authorised reconnaissance flights over Syria to collect information on IS targets there, as the Islamic State, earlier known as ISIS, continue their onslaught in Syria, occupying strategic points and massacring soldier, said reports today.
Having wreaked havoc in Iraq, the militants started advancing through Syria After US started targeted air strikes on ISIS spots in Iraq. A major blow to Assad regime came on Sunday when the ISIS captured a key military base, al-Tabqa air base and beheaded a number of the soldiers stationed there. Obama has decided to dispatch surveillance drones into Syrian airspace to collect intelligence on Islamic State targets, in what a Wall Street Journal reports as “laying groundwork for military strike”.
However, there has been no decision made on military strikes on IS targets in Syria.
"The Pentagon is preparing to conduct reconnaissance flights over Syria," WSJ quoted a senior US official as saying.
"There is no decision yet to do strikes, but in order to help make that decision, you want to get as much situational awareness as possible," he added.
Obama's authorisation of sending drones comes after Assad regime said in order to fight the terrorists, it was ready to get support from the US and others working under the UN, reported the CNN.
The remarkable comments were made by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who dropped a warning too, saying no unilateral strikes were allowed and that "any effort to fight terrorism should be done in coordination with Syrian government", added the report.
After Iraq, Syria is now facing the brunt of the ISIS terror as they continue advancing in northeastern region. Having launched a lightning offensive in Iraq in June, the Islamic State managed to capture a huge swathe of territory and established a Caliphate across occupied areas of Iraq and Syria.