Arab League chief to members: Confront Islamic State group

Associated Press

CAIRO

The head of the Arab League urged its members Sunday to confront Islamic State extremists “militarily and politically,” issuing an apparent call to arms as President Barack Obama prepares to go to lawmakers and the American public with his own plan to stop the militants.

Backing from the 22-country Arab League could provide crucial support across the Middle East for Obama’s effort to assemble an international coalition against the Islamic State, the marauding group that has conquered a swath of Iraq and Syria and committed beheadings and mass killings to sow terror.

Already, NATO forces have agreed to take on the extremists.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said that what is needed from Arab countries is a “clear and firm decision for a comprehensive confrontation” with “cancerous and terrorist” groups. The Arab League includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Obama will meet with congressional leaders Tuesday and then outline his plan to the war-weary American public Wednesday, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In new airstrikes Sunday, the U.S. targeted Islamic State fighters in Iraq’s long-contested Anbar province for the first time, launching attacks with bomber and fighter aircraft.

The American military said the airstrikes destroyed, among other things, an Islamic Group command post and several vehicles, two of which were carrying anti-aircraft artillery.

It wasn’t immediately clear what steps the Arab League would take in supporting the West’s campaign against the Islamic State. And reaching a consensus on how to move could be complicated by Arab world rivalries and member countries’ different spheres of influence.

An Arab diplomat speaking to Egypt’s official MENA news agency said a resolution backing cooperation with the U.S. would go before members Sunday. He did not elaborate.

But a draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press offered only routine condemnation of terrorist groups operating in the region. It also called on member states to improve information-sharing and legal expertise in combating terrorism, and to prevent the paying of ransom to militants.

Elaraby himself noted that the Arab League’s member states have failed to help each other in the past when facing local armed groups, often because of disagreements and fear of being accused of meddling in one another’s affairs.

He called the Islamic State a threat to the existence of Iraq and its neighbors. It is “one of the examples of the challenges that are violently shaking the Arab world, and one the Arab League, regrettably, has not been able to confront,” he said.