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Small-Group Coalition to Convene in Paris, Discuss Plan for Countering Islamic State

Islamic State militants
Islamic State militants in a commandeered Iraqi military vehicle in Fallujah / AP
June 1, 2015

Global coalition partners in the campaign against the Islamic State terror group will meet Tuesday in Paris for the first time since their inaugural meeting in September 2014.

Since President Obama’s public address on IS last September, members of the intelligence committee as well as coalition forces have been prying into the significant international network to learn critical information about IS and its activities in the Anbar Province.

The small-group coalition will meet in Paris on Tuesday joined by Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi, and 23 other ministers and their representatives.

Following the fall of Ramadi to IS in May, the coalition sought to narrow its efforts in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey given the information collected on the terror group over the past eight months.

The broad overview of these goals are multi-pronged: To cut down on foreign fighter flows into IS hub countries, to cut down IS attempts to finance itself and access global financing markets for its own gain, to focus on humanitarian network in the Anbar region, and to combat IS in its social networking campaign.

Along with diplomatic approaches to combatting IS abroad, the United States remains heavily involved with training local coalition forces in Iraq.

The 4,000 troops being trained now will be crucial in efforts to regain control of the city of Ramadi. These troops were not involved in the criticized retreat from the city last month, according to a US State Department source.

While the small-group aims to address key operational plans for combatting IS in Iraq, a second, smaller group will convene early Tuesday to specifically address the increasing flow of foreign combatants into Syria across its Turkish border.

In March, the International Business Times highlighted the use of Turkey as an epicenter of pass-through travelers hoping to gain access to the IS terror network in neighboring Syria. The initial figure that the Turkish Interior Ministry estimated at 10,000 potential terrorists having crossed the border has grown since the initial report.

US Secretary of Defense John Kerry said he plans to remotely participate in the coalition after breaking his leg in a cycling incident that caused him to cut his European visit short.

The Secretary led the previous coalition meeting in September 2014.