US calls for coalition against Islamic State

The US is forming a “core coalition” against Islamic State militants in Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry said during the NATO summit in Wales. He invited nine other countries, including Poland, to participate. Kerry spoke to a gathering of foreign and defense ministers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark. “We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own,” he was quoted by Reuters as saying. “This group here this morning is the core coalition,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said at the same meeting. “It is the core group that will form the larger and extended coalition that's going to be required to deal with this challenge.”