U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks after a briefing on US efforts against the Islamic State (ISIS), at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia July 6, 2015.
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
(VOVworld) - President Barack Obama pledged to increase US support for the moderate opposition in Syria's civil war on Monday and said the United States needed to do more at home to prevent attacks and combat Islamic State efforts to recruit followers. Obama, speaking during a visit to the Pentagon, stated that there were no current plans to send additional U.S. troops overseas and repeated that the fight against the militant group also known as ISIL would not be quick. Obama said more needed to be done to prevent Islamic State from gaining recruits within the United States.

IS militants have retaken the key Syrian city of Ain Issa from Kurdish forces. Both cities are strategically important, because they sit along a supply route on the main road between Raqqa, the city which IS considers to be its capital, and the Turkish border.

On Monday, a total of seven suicide car bombers attacked Iraqi security forces in the volatile western province of Anbar. Four suicide bombers also detonated their explosive-laden vehicles at Iraqi security forces positions and allied militias known as Hashd Shaabi, or popular mobilization, in the Haqlaniyah area, some 200 km northwest of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The blasts left at least 15 security members killed and s18 others wounded.