France agreed Thursday to conduct airstrikes alongside the United States against the Islamic State in Iraq, as the US Congress approved plans to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels to go after the terrorist group.
President Francois Hollande said France would join the US-led air campaign in Iraq, ruling out any involvement in Syria where the militant group controls large territories.
"I have decided to respond to the request of Iraqi authorities to provide aerial support," said Hollande, who visited last week in Baghdad.
"We won't go any further. There won't be any ground troops, and we will only intervene in Iraq."
France, which refused to be part of the US-led war in Iraq in 2003, has said Baghdad's request for aid to fight Islamic State justifies intervention 11 years later.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said any intervention would be an act of aggression.
The US Senate approved a measure 78-22 to fund the government until December that included a request by President Barack Obama authorizing the arming and training of members of the moderate Syrian opposition.
"This is the last, best chance we have to put ISIL back in a box so that can't wreak havoc in the Middle East," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said.
Republican Senator Rand Paul, known for his anti-interventionist views, was among the legislation's most outspoken opponents. "We must now defend ourselves from these barbarous jihadists, but let's not compound the problem by arming feckless rebels in Syria who seem to be merely a pit stop for the arms that are inevitably scarfed up by ISIS," he said.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said it would cost 500 million dollars to train and equip 5,000 Syrian opposition fighters for a year at facilities in Saudi Arabia. At first, the US would provide small arms, vehicles and basic equipment, and more advanced weaponry would be provided as forces proved themselves, he told lawmakers.
"The goal is not to achieve numerical parity with ISIL but to ensure that moderate Syrian forces are superior fighters," Hagel said, noting that Islamic State should be pushed into a "three-front battle" against the Iraqi military, Kurdish forces and Syrian moderate rebels.
Many US lawmakers have called for a vote authorizing Obama to use force against Islamic State, and Senate leaders said they would consider a proposal after November congressional elections.
Obama welcomed both France's move and the vote in Congress as proof of unity in the fight against Islamic State: "As Americans, we do not give in to fear. And when you harm our citizens, when you threaten the United States, when you threaten our allies - it doesn't divide us, it unites us."
Meanwhile, Islamic State advanced on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria, sending thousands of civilians fleeing.
The jihadist group seized 21 villages around the town of Kobane in 24 hours, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Turkey's Dogan News Agency showed footage of dozens of people walking near a railway line along the Turkish-Syrian border and gathering under the gaze of Turkish troops. The report said 3,000 civilians were trying to cross the border.
The Syrian Kurdish militia in control of Kobane said its forces were resisting an assault by Islamic State fighters using heavy weapons, tanks and mortars.
Islamic State has made territorial gains in northern and eastern Syria over several months, in parallel with lightning offensives that saw the jihadists seize parts of neighbouring Iraq. The al-Qaeda splinter group has been accused of numerous abuses, massacres and beheadings.
On Thursday, Islamic State released a new video showing a man who identified himself as a British journalist, being held by the radical group after he had arrived in November 2012 in Syria. Wearing an orange uniform, he looked in good health as he apparently addressed the Western public.
"After two disastrous and hugely unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, why is it that our governments appear so keen to get involved in yet another unwinnable conflict?" he asked.
He said the video would be the first of many to "show the truth behind the systems and motivation of the Islamic State."
In Iraq, a series of suicide and rocket attacks killed at least 17 people and wounded 40 late Thursday north of Baghdad, news website al-Sumaria reported. The attacks targeted Kadhimiya and Qureiat districts, both mainly Shiite areas. The Iraqi National News Agency reported that the death toll could rise, with many of the wounded in critical condition.
Earlier, US warplanes targeted an Islamic State training camp near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least 25 insurgents, local residents said. The US is seeking to build a broad international coalition to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
