A French aircraft carrier has launched operations against the Islamic State jihadist group as the new Pentagon chief summoned top generals and diplomats to Kuwait to review the war effort.
US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter vowed the jihadists would suffer a "lasting defeat" as he convened the meeting of more than two dozen senior military officers, ambassadors and intelligence officials at the sprawling US Army base of Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.
Afterwards, the new Pentagon chief indicated he supported the current strategy and did not call for a major overhaul.
"I think we have the ingredients of the strategy," Carter told reporters, adding that it was "a combined political and military effort".
A defence official confirmed Carter did not favour a radical overhaul of the war strategy, even though some US allies and Washington MPs have demanded a more aggressive stance in Syria.
"What today reaffirmed for the secretary is that the strategy is sound. The strategy is working," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
However, the US-led coalition needs to counter the IS group's use of social media more effectively, the official said.
Carter said the jihadists' exploitation of "social media will be pressing us to be more creative in combating it".
Washington forged a coalition of Western and Arab nations to confront IS after the Sunni extremist group seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic "caliphate" last year.
The coalition has since carried out more than 2,500 air strikes against the jihadists, and France boosted its participation on Monday with the carrier Charles de Gaulle launching raids from the Gulf.
"This threat, jihadist terrorism, wants to reach our citizens, our interests, our values. France's response will be total firmness," Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on board, seven weeks after extremist attacks killed 17 people in Paris.
Rear Admiral Eric Chaperon, commander of the carrier group, said the aircraft carried out no strikes but familiarised themselves with the mission.
France, along with Australia, is a main contributor to the 32-member coalition effort aside from the United States, which is carrying out the bulk of strikes.
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