WASHINGTON
Sixty nations are contributing to the U.S.-led coalition efforts against ISIL, according to President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
"At this stage, some 60 nations are contributing to this coalition, including more than 20 coalition members who are represented here today, among them Iraq, Arab nations, Turkey, NATO allies and partners from around the world," Obama said.
He spoke during a press conference at Joint Base Andrews, Virginia, following a meeting with Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and more than 20 foreign chiefs of defense where they discusses coalition efforts against the terror group.
While ISIL militants are miles from the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and are about to take over the northern Syrian town of Kobani in spite of U.S. airstrikes, Obama said the coalition has so far recorded several successes, including stopping the terror group’s advance on Irbil and saving civilians from a massacre at Mt. Sinjar.
The coalition, which he called "the world against ISIL," is focused on the fighting that is taking place in Iraq’s Anbar province, and he mentioned his concerns about the situation in and around Kobani, noting that coalition air strikes will continue in both areas.
The fight against ISIL will be a long-term campaign and it’s still in the initial stages, Obama said.
"This is not simply a military campaign. This is not a classic army in which we defeat them on the battlefield and then they ultimately surrender," he said. "What we’re also fighting is an ideological strain of extremism that has taken root in too many parts of the region. We are dealing with sectarianism and political divisions that for too long have been a primary political, organizational rallying point in the region. We’re dealing with economic deprivation and lack of opportunity among too many young people in the region."
The president also touched on the Ebola outbreak, calling for the world to contribute to the fight against the virus that is spreading in West Africa and has killed more than 4,000 people there and was recently detected in the U.S.
The U.S. military has launched an operation that can start building the transport and supply lines to get workers, supplies, medicine, equipment into Liberia, Sierra Leone and to Guinea.
"There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up," he said. "Unless we contain this at the source, this is going to continue to pose a threat to individual countries at a time when there is no place that's more than a couple of air flights away, and the transmission of this disease obviously directly threatens all our populations."
In addition to the humanitarian crisis in West Africa there is also the secondary effects of Ebola such as destabilizing economies, he said.
Resources are being poured into the city of Dallas to examine what exactly happened that resulted in a nurse being infected there who was treating the first patient in the U.S. to be diagnosed with the virus.
"One case is too many, and we've got to keep on doing everything we can, particularly to protect our health care workers, because they're on the front lines in battling this disease," he said.
"We've also now instituted some additional screening measures, starting at John F, Kennedy airport (New York), that will then apply to a number of other airports where we know the bulk of travelers that may have come in contact with Ebola would be coming through," he added.
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