US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday called on lawmakers to back a new three-year legal authorization supporting American military action against Islamic State militants.
The US-led coalition has already carried out some 1,100 airstrikes in Syria and Iraq since September targeting IS extremists in a bid to defeat the group which has seized a swathe of territory and imposed harsh Islamic law.
Under the US constitution, Congress has the ultimate power whether to declare war.
And so far the administration of President Barack Obama has used the existing authorization for use of military force against Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their branches approved in the days after the September 11, 2001 attacks as the legal justification for going after IS.
Kerry insisted that the Obama administration had been empowered to target the Islamic State group under the existing law.
But he told the Senate Foreign Relations committee: “I think we all agree that this discussion must conclude with a bipartisan vote that makes clear that this is not one party´s fight against ISIL (IS), but rather that it reflects our unified determination to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.”
“Our coalition partners need to know it. The men and women of our armed forces need to know it. And ISIL´s cadres of killers, rapists, and bigots need to understand it.”
He asked the committee to help draw up a new authorization which “provides a clear signal of support for our ongoing military operations against ISIL,” referring to the group by another acronym.
