Airstrikes hit jihadists at Iraqi border

France on a high security alert after Islamic State threatens revenge

The US-led coalition launched strikes against Islamic State militants besieging a Kurdish town in Syria, on Wednesday, as world leaders at the UN prepared for talks on battling the jihadists.

A Syrian government minister said the airstrikes against militants are going in the "right direction" because the government was being kept informed and they were not hitting civilians or Syrian military targets.

The overnight raids targeted Islamic State group fighters who have waged a fierce assault in the area, prompting more than 140,000 civilians to flee across the border into Turkey.

They followed the first strikes by Washington and its Arab allies on Tuesday against the Islamic State group in other parts of Syria in which at least 120 Islamic State and al-Qaida militants were said to have been killed.

Washington said those raids had partly targeted extremists plotting an "imminent attack" against the West.

Three men suspected of joining Islamist militants in Syria turned themselves in to French authorities on Wednesday, after a day of high confusion that exposed security shortcomings in France.

Officials wrongly claimed on Tuesday that the three French nationals - who include the brother-in-law of a gunman who killed seven people in France in 2012 - had already been arrested before admitting they were still at large.

Embarrassingly for the government, the case has come at a time when France is on high security alert after the Islamic State group threatened French targets. France has joined a US-led campaign of airstrikes, hitting Islamic State targets.

The US-led campaign - in which Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan also participated - was set to take center stage at the United Nations later on Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama, vowed at the United Nations on Wednesday to keep up the military pressure on Islamic State militants and urged those who have joined the extremist group in Iraq and Syria to "leave the battlefield while they can".

He was then due to chair a special UN Security Council meeting due to adopt a resolution on stemming foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria.

The US-drafted resolution calls on all countries to "prevent and suppress" recruitment and all forms of assistance to foreign fighters, and would make it illegal to collect funds or help organize their travel.

AP - AFP - Reuters

(China Daily 09/25/2014 page12)