"All bases are covered" in a multi-national coalition effort against the Islamic State, top US diplomat John Kerry says, as Washington harnesses diplomatic and public support to smash the militants.
Secretary of State Kerry told CBS's Face the Nation, in an interview aired Sunday, that there were allies willing to join the United States in air strikes on the IS, which has overrun large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria in a brutal and lightning campaign.
"Some" had offered to put troops on the ground to defeat IS, Kerry said, adding: "But we are not looking for that at this moment anyway."
Kerry was speaking in Cairo on Saturday, before news of the latest IS beheading of a Western hostage, Briton David Haines, and ahead of a likely Congress vote this week on President Barack Obama's plan to train and equip Syrian rebels.
Obama has announced expanded US air strikes in Iraq against IS and said he envisaged new action against the group in Syria.
Obama plans to train "moderate" Syrian rebels to take on IS and to reconstitute the Iraqi army, parts of which fled an IS blitzkrieg across northern and western Iraq.
Kerry, who is touring the Middle East drumming up support for the US-led coalition, told CBS that allies in the Middle East and beyond were ready to help in the battle against the IS, which has executed two American reporters in videos which sparked revulsion and condemnation.
"Every single aspect of the president's (Obama) strategy, and what is needed to be done in order to accomplish our goal, has been offered by one country or multiple countries, and all bases are covered," Kerry told CBS.
Opposition forces would do the fighting on the ground in Syria, augmented by US and allied air support, he said, adding that Washington would not coordinate air attacks on the militants with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad but would ensure their forces do not come into conflict.
"We will certainly want to deconflict and make certain that they're (Syria) not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously," Kerry said in the interview.
"But we're not going to coordinate, it's not a cooperative effort."
Polls show US public sentiment swinging sharply behind US action since the IS posted a videotape showing the beheading of US hostage James Foley last month. But they also show the American public still appears doubtful that the president's strategy will work.
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