BREAKING NEWS

US says it, allies to do more to combat Islamic State

STUTTGART, Germany - US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday that Washington and its allies had agreed to do more in their campaign to defeat Islamic State, but that more risks lay ahead.
He made the comment following talks in Germany with defense ministers and representatives from 11 other nations participating in the alliance.
He said the United States greatly regretted the death of a Navy SEAL in an attack by the jihadist group in northern Iraq on Tuesday. He named the man as Petty Officer First Class Charles Keating.
"These risks will continue... but allowing ISIL safe haven would carry greater risk for us all," he added, using an acronym for Islamic State.
"...We also agreed that all of our friends and allies across the counter-ISIL coalition can and must do more as well, both to confront ISIL in Iraq and Syria and its metastases elsewhere."
The talks included ministers from France, Britain and Germany and were planned well in advance of Tuesday's attack, in which Islamic State fighters blasted through Kurdish defenses and overran a town.
The elite serviceman was the third American to be killed in direct combat since the US-led coalition launched a campaign in 2014 to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State, and is a measure of its deepening involvement in the conflict.