US may strike IS in Syria too

The United States was said to be considering air strikes aimed at eliminating individual leaders of Islamic State (IS) after Washington branded the beheading of an American journalist a "terrorist attack".

Meanwhile, Iraq yesterday called for urgent global support for its fight against jihadists, as Shia neighbour Iran said it was helping Baghdad resist the militants but not with soldiers on the ground.

Iraq is struggling to regain ground after a lightning militant offensive led by the IS jihadist group seized second city Mosul in June and swept through the country's Sunni heartland, as security forces fled.

Militants have been bombarded since August 8 by US air strikes in northern Iraq, but have carried out attacks elsewhere, including a renewed assault on the Baiji oil refinery, the country's largest, which was repelled by security forces yesterday, a police officer and witnesses said.

Iraq "needs help and support from everybody... all the forces against terrorism," but not in the form of troops, as "there is no shortage of fighting men," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said at a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif in Baghdad.

Zarif, on a two-day visit to Baghdad, for his part said Iran is working with Iraq, and also called for a broad effort against IS.

As Washington on Saturday debated extending air strikes into Syria, senior British politicians urged Ankara to act to block recruits from the UK and other countries from entering Syria via Turkey, en route to joining Islamic State (formerly Isis). This weekend large numbers of IS jihadists were trying to secure greater control of the border area, pushing northwards in armoured trucks looted from abandoned Iraqi military bases.

The route has been used by most of the foreign fighters who have joined the cause, and is believed to have been taken by several hundred of those who have joined IS from the UK.

US officials said that there was now a "new context" for confronting IS – and cutting off its supply routes – following the beheading of US journalist James Foley. Washington has also ramped up its rhetoric following the grisly execution of Foley, calling it "a terrorist attack against our country."

The killing of Foley has stoked Western fears that territory seized by the militants in Syria and Iraq could become a launchpad for a new round of global terror attacks.

In a sign that Washington may widen the field of its air strikes, the White House said it was ready to "take action" against any threat to America in Iraq or Syria.

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said: "If we see plotting against Americans, if we see a threat to the US emanating from anywhere, we stand ready to take action against that threat. We have made it very clear time and again that if you come after Americans, we're going to come after you, wherever you are – and that's what's going to guide our planning in the days to come."

Islamic State declared itself a "caliphate" in late June and has since added large parts of northern Iraq to territory it already held in eastern Syria.

President Barack Obama authorised air raids in Iraq two weeks ago to help regional Kurdish and Iraqi forces fighting IS in the country's north. Its warplanes have already launched more than 90 air strikes against IS jihadists in Iraq since August 8.

If Washington widened its attacks to extremists in Syria, this would mark a turning point, ending its hands-off approach to the country's civil war.