President Obama calls for friends and allies to take on the ISIS threat
U.S. air strikes are the most significant foreign military role so far
Germany, France and Italy pledge military aid to Iraq; Britain may send trainers
Syria also bombs ISIS forces, but Washington rejects any common fight
(CNN) —
A cancer with no place in the 21st Century. A poison opposed with “every breath in our body.”
Talk is tough against ISIS, the Sunni jihadists rampaging through Syria and northern Iraq, following the group’s release of a video showing the beheading American journalist James Foley.
But what is the international community actually doing? Here is a breakdown by country of steps taken or announced:
United States
More than two years after President Barack Obama brought home combat troops from a lengthy war in Iraq, a new mission creeps upward.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Wounded passengers are treated following a suicide bombing at the Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016. The attacks on the airport and a subway killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. ISIS claims its "fighters" launched the attacks in the Belgian capital.
PHOTO:
Ketevan Kardava/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrians gather at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the Homs, Syria, on February 21, 2016. Multiple attacks in Homs and southern Damascus kill at least 122 and injure scores, according to the state-run SANA news agency. ISIS claimed responsibility.
PHOTO:
STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian pro-government forces gather at the site of a deadly triple bombing Sunday, January 31, in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeynab. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement circulating online from supporters of the terrorist group.
PHOTO:
LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Yemenis check the scene of a car bomb attack Sunday, December 6, in Aden, Yemen. Aden Gov. Jaafar Saad and six bodyguards died in the attack, for which the terror group ISIS claimed responsibility.
PHOTO:
Wael Qubady/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Investigators check the scene of a mosque attack Friday, November 27, in northern Bangladesh's Bogra district. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack that left at least one person dead and three more wounded.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Wounded people are helped outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris following a series of coordinated attacks in the city on Friday, November 13. The militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
PHOTO:
YOAN VALAT/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Emergency personnel and civilians gather at the site of a twin suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, November 12. The bombings killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 more. ISIS appeared to claim responsibility in a statement posted on social media.
PHOTO:
Bilal Hussein/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises over the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on November 12. Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by a U.S.-led air campaign, retook the strategic town, which ISIS militants overran last year. ISIS wants to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
PHOTO:
Bram Janssen/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian government troops walk inside the Kweiras air base on Wednesday, November 11, after they broke a siege imposed by ISIS militants.
PHOTO:
SANA/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Members of the Egyptian military approach the wreckage of a Russian passenger plane Sunday, November 1, in Hassana, Egypt. The plane crashed the day before, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but the group's claim wasn't immediately verified.
PHOTO:
Maxim Grigoriev/Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An explosion rocks Kobani, Syria, during a reported car bomb attack by ISIS militants on Tuesday, October 20.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Shiite fighters, fighting alongside Iraqi government forces, fire a rocket at ISIS militants as they advance toward the center of Baiji, Iraq, on Monday, October 19.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises above a damaged building in Ramadi, Iraq, following a coalition airstrike against ISIS positions on Saturday, August 15.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi men look at damage following a bomb explosion that targeted a vegetable market in Baghdad on Thursday, August 13. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
In this image taken from social media, an ISIS fighter holds the group's flag after the militant group overran the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn on Thursday, August 6, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ISIS uses modern tools such as social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.
PHOTO:
From ISIS
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.
PHOTO:
From ISIS
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises as Iraqi security forces bomb ISIS positions in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi, Iraq, on August 6.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
The governor of the Asir region in Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz, left, visits a man who was wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a mosque in Abha, Saudi Arabia, on August 6. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed at least 13 people and injured nine others.
PHOTO:
Saudi Press Agency/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.
PHOTO:
Saudi Press Agency/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Mourners in Gaziantep, Turkey, grieve over a coffin Tuesday, July 21, during a funeral ceremony for the victims of a suspected ISIS suicide bomb attack. That bombing killed at least 31 people in Suruc, a Turkish town that borders Syria. Turkish authorities blamed ISIS for the attack.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Protesters in Istanbul carry anti-ISIS banners and flags to show support for victims of the Suruc suicide blast during a demonstration on Monday, July 20.
PHOTO:
YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People in Ashmoun, Egypt, carry the coffin for 1st Lt. Mohammed Ashraf, who was killed when the ISIS militant group attacked Egyptian military checkpoints on Wednesday, July 1. At least 17 soldiers were reportedly killed, and 30 were injured.
PHOTO:
Ashour Abosalm/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrians wait near the Turkish border during clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups in Kobani, Syria, on Thursday, June 25. The photo was taken in Sanliurfa, Turkey. ISIS militants disguised as Kurdish security forces infiltrated Kobani on Thursday and killed "many civilians," said a spokesman for the Kurds in Kobani.
PHOTO:
Halil Fidan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Residents examine a damaged mosque after an Iraqi Air Force bombing in the ISIS-seized city of Falluja, Iraq, on Sunday, May 31. At least six were killed and nine others wounded during the bombing.
PHOTO:
Sami Jawad/Xinhua/SIPA
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.
PHOTO:
EPA/STR/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Saturday, April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.
PHOTO:
Stringer/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18.
PHOTO:
Stringer/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
PHOTO:
Ali Mohammed/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.
PHOTO:
Ali Mukarrem Garip/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
PHOTO:
SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8. ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts.
PHOTO:
Feriq Ferec/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.
PHOTO:
Ahmed Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.
PHOTO:
Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria.
PHOTO:
LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.
PHOTO:
Nasser Nasser/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
PHOTO:
Rauf Maltas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
PHOTO:
Toru Hanai/Reuters/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
PHOTO:
Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
PHOTO:
Jake Simkin/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.
PHOTO:
ULAS YUNUS TOSUN/EPA/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
PHOTO:
HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
PHOTO:
Lefteris Pitarakis/ap
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
PHOTO:
Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.
PHOTO:
Hadi Mizban/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
PHOTO:
MURAD SEZER/Reuters/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
PHOTO:
AHMED JADALLAH/Reuters/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9.
PHOTO:
JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
PHOTO:
Warzer Jaff/CNN
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
PHOTO:
Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
PHOTO:
Mustafa Kerim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
PHOTO:
Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty mages
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.
PHOTO:
ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
PHOTO:
STRINGER/IRAQ/reuters/LANDOV
First came dozens of military advisers – the buzz term for military involvement from the Vietnam War – sent by Obama in June to work with Iraqi and Kurdish forces in response to the lightning sweep by ISIS fighters from Syria across northern Iraq.
Then on August 8, the President escalated U.S. involvement with limited air strikes against ISIS to protect American personnel in Iraq as well as minority communities threatened with extermination.
U.S. Central Command has conducted 90 airstrikes, including six after Obama pledged Wednesday to continue hitting ISIS despite the group’s threat to kill another American captive.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that Washington also was providing weapons and other military aid to Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting ISIS, though Kurdish officials complain they need more heavy weaponry.
Obama called on friends and allies to band together against the militants he accused of indiscriminate killings, abductions and rapes, saying the group had “no place in the 21st Century.”
Next month, Obama will hold a leaders meeting on the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters as part of the U.N. General Assembly.
Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his August vacation after the beheading video showed a hooded man with a British accent threatening the United States and killing Foley.
With estimates of about 500 Britons having traveled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS, Cameron said his government would take away passports and prosecute those who take part in such extremism and violence.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called ISIS a cancer and a poison, declaring in a BBC interview that “we are opposed to them with every breath in our body.”
While saying Britain might send military trainers – akin to U.S. advisers – to work with Iraqi government forces, Hammond made clear no combat troops would take part in fighting against ISIS.
France
President Francois Hollande has announced military aid for Kurdish fighters, and he called for an international meeting next month on combating ISIS. It wasn’t immediately clear how Hollande’s proposed meeting would differ from the one Obama will host in New York.
“We can no longer keep to the traditional debate of intervention or non-intervention,” Hollande said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde. “We have to come up with a global strategy to fight this group.”
The German government also will provide weapons and other military supplies to Kurdish forces after previously limiting its help to non-lethal aid. Like France, Germany has no plans to send military personnel.
Italy
Italian officials said the government was looking at sending light weapons such as guns and ammunition to Kurdish forces.
Syria
The ISIS sweep through northern Iraq got a lot of help from Syria, where the extremists have fought the opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
Now, ISIS fighters are taking over swathes of Syrian territory once held by al-Assad’s forces, causing the government to launch air strikes on the militants.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf rejected any contention that the fight against ISIS could unite Washington and Damascus against a common enemy, noting the Obama administration still wants al-Assad out of power.
“I don’t want to in any way put us on the same page as the Syrian regime,” she said Wednesday, accusing the Syrian regime of permitting ISIS to grow to what it is today. “While on the right hand, the Syrian regime might be bombing them, on the left hand, everything they’ve done has allowed this group to flourish.”
On Thursday, Hagel refused to rule out the possibility of U.S. air strikes against ISIS in Syria as well as Iraq.
The Middle East region
On another front, the United States is working with governments in the region, including Turkey, Qatar and Jordan, to cut funding for ISIS from private citizens, Harf said.
