NATO Allies Form Coalition to Take on Islamic State

President Obama said on Friday that a coalition of nine NATO allies has agreed to join the United States in its fight against the Islamic State.

He was speaking at the concluding day of the NATO summit in Wales.

The group comprises of the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Turkey.

Obama said that the Syrian rebels fighting the militants and  Assad's government are short of manpower as well as weapons. However, the NATO coalition by continuous efforts will be able to drive back the militants, he added.

"I did not get any resistance or pushback to the basic notion that we have a critical role to play in rolling back this savage organization that is causing so much chaos in the region and is harming so many people and poses a long-term threat to the safety and security of NATO members," Obama said . "So there's great conviction that we have to act, as part of the international community, to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL, and that was extremely encouraging," he added, reports Associated Press.

Suggesting broader military operations, Obama also compared the action to be taken against the Islamic State to the manner in which US military defeated al Qaida at the Pakistan border with Afghanistan. The U.S. was able to achieve this by continued airstrikes using mostly CIA drones, he said.

Secretary of State John Kerry who is also attending the summit ruled out using ground troops against the Islamic State. He said that any ground level action against the Islamic state would be taken only by the Iraqi military, the Kurdish fighters or the moderate Syrian rebels, reports The New York Times.

Obama also said that it is very important that the Arab countries who have rejected the nihilism of the Islamic State join the US and its allies in the fight against the militant group.

The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, said  this week that his country was ready to join the fight against the Islamic State.

"No one has more at stake than the U.A.E. and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path," the ambassador said, according to The New York Times.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO has agreed to lend a helping hand to coordinate assistance to Iraq.  He also said that it is thinking about starting a mission to train Iraqi military in order to enhance their potential, reports AP.