IS insurgency: US prepares to strike in Syria

Washington: US President Barack Obama has authorised military options including reconnaissance flights over Syria to collect information on Islamic State targets there as they continue occupation of large parts of Iraq and massacring civilians, said reports on Tuesday.

After Iraq, the IS militants have been focusing on Syria. 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. However, no decision has been made on military strikes on IS. Reports say that 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. 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", said the report.

Having launched a lightning offensive in Iraq in June, the Islamic State managed to capture a huge swath of territory and established a Caliphate across occupied areas of Iraq and Syria.