US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday called for “a world coalition” to defeat the Islamic State (Isis) militant group which has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria and was cited by the British prime minister, David Cameron, when he raised the UK’s terror threat level to “severe” on Friday.

In an op-ed for the New York Times that was released online on Friday night and in print on Saturday, Kerry wrote: “In a polarised region and a complicated world, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria presents a unifying threat to a broad array of countries, including the United States. What’s needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force.”

Kerry’s call was foreshadowed this week by briefings to the press about moves by the US to seek such a global effort.

Also on Saturday, during a reception for foreign ministers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said terrorism, which he called “an evil force that must be fought with wisdom and speed”, would “after a month … arrive in Europe and a month after that in America”.



The US carried out further air strikes on Isis targets in Iraq on Friday; recent debate has centered around the possibility that such strikes could be extended into Syria, leading to the beginning of reconnaissance flights. US military operations in Iraq began on 16 June and air strikes on 8 August; such operations have so far cost half a billion dollars at a rate of $7.5m a day.

In his New York Times op-ed, Kerry wrote: “Airstrikes alone won’t defeat this enemy.”

He added that he and defense secretary Chuck Hagel would use next week’s Nato summit at Celtic Manor in Wales to meet European ministers and to seek to “enlist the broadest possible assistance”, adding: “Following the meeting, Mr Hagel and I plan to travel to the Middle East to develop more support for the coalition among the countries that are most directly threatened.”

Kerry said only “some” countries would be asked to provide direct or indirect military aid against Isis, and that others would provide humanitarian assistance or “help restore not just shattered economies but broken trust among neighbours”.

Later on Saturday, the White House said President Barack Obama had spoken by telephone with the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, about the situation in Iraq.

“Both leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring alliance unity on measures to strengthen Nato’s readiness and responsiveness to the full range of current and future threats,” the White House said in a statement.

Obama has repeatedly stated that no US troops will be sent back to Iraq, but special-forces teams have operated in the country, including participating in a humanitarian effort to relieve Yazidi refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar. Obama’s rationale to cover the strikes, of which there have now been more than 100 in a country in which US combat operations officially ended four years ago on Sunday, is that they protect US personnel on the ground, including in the embassy in Baghdad.



Republicans in Congress have led calls for a more aggressive strategy against Isis, beyond the strikes which the Obama administration has confined to the north of Iraq, around the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Irbil and the Mosul dam. Last weekend Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House of Representatives homeland security committee, called Isis “the worst threat to the US since 9/11” and said: “We need to expand air strikes so you can ultimately defeat and eliminate Isis.

“Don’t kid yourself for a second that they aren’t intent on hitting our homeland, I think the threat is very real.”

Such criticism intensified after Obama told White House reporters on Thursday: “We don’t have a strategy yet.”



In the New York Times, Kerry echoed concerns raised by Cameron when he wrote: “In addition to its beheadings, crucifixions and other acts of sheer evil, which have killed thousands of innocents in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, including Sunni Muslims whose faith it purports to represent, Isis … poses a threat well beyond the region.

“Its leaders have repeatedly threatened the United States, and in May an Isis-associated terrorist shot and killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels. (A fourth victim died 13 days later.) Isis’ cadre of foreign fighters are a rising threat not just in the region, but anywhere they could manage to travel undetected – including to America.”

Kerry also cited the recent beheading of an American journalist, James Foley, which he said “shocked the conscience of the world”. Foley’s killer is believed to have spoken with a British accent – last Sunday the British ambassador to the US, Sir Peter Westmacott, said UK security services were close to identifying him.

Isis militants continue to hold another US journalist, Steven Sotloff.

Kerry wrote: “There is evidence that these extremists, if left unchecked, will not be satisfied at stopping with Syria and Iraq.”