US Set to Aid Syria Rebels as Jihadists Advance

Baghdad: Washington was set on Thursday to approve plans to train and arm Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State group, as jihadist fighters gained ground in the north.

IS posted video of a captive British journalist, in the latest demonstration of a Western hostage seized by the jihadists in their advance through Syria and Iraq.

But unlike in previous grisly postings by IS in which they beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker, captive photojournalist John Cantlie was only shown speaking to camera in the style of a news report.

The US Senate was expected to back a plan, approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, to train and equip anti-jihadist rebels in Syria, a key part of President Barack Obama's strategy against IS.

Who exactly will benefit from the programme is unclear, as the rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad lack a clear command structure and range from secular nationalists to Al-Qaeda-backed extremists.

But Obama hailed the House approval as "an important step forward", and Senate leaders are confident it will pass Thursday for his signature.

Obama met military commanders on Wednesday and, in a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, insisted the jihadists will be defeated.

"Our reach is long. If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven. We will find you eventually," Obama said, also standing firm on his pledge that a US ground combat mission is not on the cards.

IS holds significant territory in Syria and seized large areas of Iraq in a lightning offensive in June, declaring a cross-border "caliphate" and imposing its brutal interpretation of Islamic law.

It has carried out widespread atrocities including crucifixions and reportedly selling women into slavery, and in recent weeks beheaded two US reporters and a British aid worker in chilling online videos.

New hostage video

The group posted a new video on YouTube showing Cantlie in an orange jumpsuit like those worn by the hostages in the previous postings, but with no immediate threat to execute him.

In the footage, Cantlie promises to reveal in a series of programmes the "truth" about the jihadist group.

Cantlie, who had contributed to British newspapers including The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph, as well as to Agence France-Presse, said he was captured after travelling to Syria in November 2012.

He had previously been detained along with a Dutch photographer by extremists in Syria in July 2012 but was reportedly released after nine days.

It was not clear when the video was shot, but in it Cantlie referred to recent events including IS taking control of large parts of Iraq in June.

In Syria, IS fighters were closing in on the country's third-largest Kurdish town of Ain al-Arab, or Kobane, on the Turkish border, cutting off its Kurdish militia defenders, a monitoring group said.

"IS fighters have seized at least 21 villages around Kobane," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman said. "The IS is using heavy weaponry, its artillery and tanks."

The town is one of three Kurdish majority districts where Kurdish nationalists have proclaimed self-rule and its capture would give the jihadists control of a large swathe of the Turkish border.

The exiled opposition National Coalition warned of "the danger of a massacre" in the area, where Kurdish militia have put up protracted resistance to the jihadists.

The US estimates that IS has 20,000 to 31,000 fighters, including many foreigners, and there are concerns that returning jihadists could carry out attacks in Western countries.

As fears grew over the international reach of IS, Australia said it had detained 15 people in connection with a plot to behead random civilians, in the country's largest ever counter-terrorism raids.

Prosecutors said the plan, coordinated with a senior IS militant with Australian citizenship, would have seen random people abducted to "gruesomely execute" them on camera.

'Limited' global threat

But analysts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) warned against overestimating the IS threat, saying that Al-Qaeda's global network was still the bigger danger worldwide.

"Despite its spectacular acts of violence, including against Westerners, (IS's) short- and medium-term objectives appear to be local and transnational rather than global," the London-based think-tank said.

Analyst Emile Hokayem told a news conference: "We shouldn't exaggerate its potency. It is a very serious security threat to the region -- as a global threat it's still limited."

Iran, a key Assad backer and powerful player in Iraq's internal politics, has criticised its exclusion from international talks on combating IS.

In an interview with NBC television before heading to the United Nations for next week's General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday slammed Washington for refusing to send troops.

"Are they afraid of their soldiers being killed in the fight they claim is against terrorism?" Rouhani asked in an interview with US network NBC.

"Is it really possible to fight terrorism without any hardship, without any sacrifice?"