Faced with a burgeoning refugee crisis in Europe sparked by global extremism, U.S. and European officials said Tuesday there is a growing consensus that the multinational military campaign against Islamic State must focus more on targeting the group’s nerve centers in Syria.

U.S. officials initially cast the 15-month-old fight against Islamic State as an “Iraq-first” strategy, intended to stop the extremist expansion there. But Washington and its key allies are now putting a deeper emphasis on Syria.

This comes as Europe is struggling with the unabated flow of refugees and migrants fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia where Islamic State forces are trying to extend their reach.

With thousands of people flowing into Europe every day, France and England are both poised to set aside long-standing reservations and join Washington in carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey, which is home to nearly 2 million Syrian refugees, is playing an increasingly central role by carrying out airstrikes in neighboring Syria and trying to choke off Islamic State’s lifelines on the shared border.

“The migrant crisis has refocused the attention of the international community to the crisis in Syria and Iraq,” Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a question-and-answer session on Facebook.