U.S. military concerned by Russian Cold War-style bomber flights

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military is concerned by flights by long-range Russian bombers near U.S. airspace, a top U.S. commander said on Thursday, saying the Cold War-style activity was raising questions for Pentagon planners.

The remarks by Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, came after Russian Bear long-range bombers approached U.S. and Canadian airspace last week -- prompting both countries to scramble fighter jets to intercept them.

"Certainly the return of the long-range aircraft flights that we haven't seen in any significant number over the last decade or so is concerning. And it's something that we watch very carefully," Admiral Samuel Locklear, the head of the U.S. military's Pacific Command, told reporters.

The United States and Russia are increasingly at odds over Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting for control of parts of the former Soviet state. The conflict has dragged relations with the West to their lowest levels since the Cold war.

Locklear said the Russian incursions into the United States' air defense identification zone (ADIZ), an area beyond sovereign U.S. airspace, was "basically kind of Cold War activity with long-range bombers."

"These are things that we have to be concerned about as military people. We have to think about them and what that would mean to the security of the region and the security of our own homeland."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Iraqi PM says Islamic State plans subway attacks in U.S. and Paris

By Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraq has "credible" intelligence that Islamic State militants plan to attack subway systems in Paris and the United States, the prime minister said on Thursday, but U.S. and French officials said they had no evidence to back up his claims.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's comments were met with surprise by security, intelligence and transit officials in both countries. New York's leaders scrambled to ride the subway to reassure the public that the nation's largest city was safe.

Abadi said he received the information Thursday morning from militants captured in Iraq and concluded it was credible after requesting further details. The attacks, he said, were plotted from inside Iraq by "networks" of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.," Abadi told a small group of U.S. reporters while in New York for the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. "I asked for more credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes, it looks credible."

Some Iraqi officials in Baghdad questioned Abadi's comments. One high-level Iraqi government official told Reuters it appeared to be based on "ancient intelligence." Another called it "an old story." Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Abadi did not provide further details. A senior Iraqi official traveling with him later said Iraqi intelligence had uncovered "serious threats" and had shared this information with its allies' intelligence agencies.

"A full assessment of the veracity of the intelligence and how far the plans have gone into implementation is ongoing," the official said.

Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, said the United States had "not confirmed any specific threat."

"What we've consistently said to the Iraqis is if they have information that is relevant to terrorist activity or terrorist plotting, that they can and should share that through our intelligence and law enforcement channels," Rhodes told reporters traveling with Obama on Air Force One from New York.

"We would certainly take seriously any information they are learning," he said.

French security services also said they had no information confirming Abadi's statement, a French government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

STRONGER TRANSIT SECURITY

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and other local officials suggested they were unfazed, updating their public schedules on Thursday to add trips on the city's subway system to reassure millions of daily commuters.

"We are convinced New Yorkers are safe," de Blasio said at a press conference at a lower Manhattan subway station as he stood alongside New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and George Venizelos, assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The New York Police Department's intelligence bureau found no specific, credible threat, de Blasio said.

Bratton said in response to Abadi's comments that he sent more police to patrol subways and streets in the city which was already on high alert because of the U.N. meeting.

Joseph Sheehan, 44, from the city's Queens borough, learned about the threats from the web. "They were checking bags earlier at the Port Authority. Seems like they do that at times of heightened alerts," he said.

In Los Angeles, America's second most populous city, law enforcement officials said that while no specific threat had been made to the transit system, they were working with federal authorities to monitor the situation and urged residents to remain vigilant.

Officials in Chicago and Washington also said they knew of no threats to their transit systems.

The United States and France have both launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led campaign to "degrade and destroy" the radical Sunni militant group, which has seized a third of both Iraq and Syria.

Abadi disclosed the intelligence while making a case for Western and Arab countries to join that campaign. "We want to increase the number of willing countries who would support this," he said. "This is not military. This is intelligence. This is security. The terrorists have a massive international campaign. Don't underestimate it."

In the past, the United States had received threats that various militant groups were targeting transportation systems but there is no recent information about an imminent plan by Islamic State, one U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Abadi also said that Iraq did not want to see foreign "boots on the ground," but stressed the value of providing air cover, saying Iraq's air force did not have sufficient capability.

He said Australia was "very interested" in participating, though he did not provide details. He also voiced optimism about a planned British parliament vote on Friday on the matter, saying "they reckon it will be successful."

Earlier on Thursday, France said it would increase security on transport and in public places after a French tourist was killed in Algeria, and said it was ready to support all states that requested its help to fight terror.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Ian Simpson in Washington,; Frank McGurty, Steve Holland and Rodrigo Campos in New York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles,; Nicolas Bertin in Paris and Ned Parker in Baghdad; Editing by Jason Szep, Lisa Shumaker and Peter Cooney)

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French, U.S. planes strike Islamic State, Britain to join coalition

By Arshad Mohammed and Tom Perry

NEW YORK/BEIRUT (Reuters) - French fighter jets struck Islamic State targets in Iraq on Thursday, and the United States hit them in Syria, as a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militants gained momentum with an announcement that Britain would join.

The French strikes were a prompt answer to the beheading of a French tourist in Algeria by militants, who said the killing was punishment for Paris' decision last week to become the first European country to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign.

In the United States, FBI Director James Comey said Washington had identified the masked Islamic State militant in videos with a knife at the beheading of two American hostages in recent weeks. Those acts helped galvanize Washington's bombing campaign.

"I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is," Comey told reporters. He said he knew the person's nationality, but declined to give further details.

A European government source familiar with the investigation said the accent indicated the man was from London and likely from a community of immigrants. U.S. and European officials said the principal investigative work identifying the man was conducted by British government agencies.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, in New York to attend a U.N. meeting, said on Thursday he had credible intelligence that Islamic State networks in Iraq were plotting to attack U.S. and French subway trains.

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Boys inspect a vehicle which was damaged in what activists say was one of Tuesday's U.S. air str …

Senior U.S. officials and French security services said they had no evidence of the specific threat cited by Abadi. But New York Police Commissioner William Bratton said the department boosted its presence on subways and city streets after the Iraqi warning.

City officials added there was no specific, credible threat, and Mayor Bill de Blasio said: "We are convinced New Yorkers are safe."

Officials in Chicago and Washington, D.C., said they knew of no threats to their transit systems.

Some Iraqi officials in Baghdad questioned Abadi's comments. One high-level Iraqi government official told Reuters it appeared to be based on "ancient intelligence".

France said earlier on Thursday it would boost security on transport and in public places after the killing of French tourist Herve Gourdel by Islamic State sympathizers in Algeria.

Britain, the closest U.S. ally in the past decade's wars, announced on Thursday that it too would join air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, after weeks of weighing its options. Prime Minister David Cameron recalled parliament, which is expected to give its approval on Friday.

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An EA-6B Prowler attached to the Garudas of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 134 lands aboard the ai …

While Arab countries have joined the coalition, Washington's traditional Western allies had been slow to answer the call from U.S. President Barack Obama. But since Monday, Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands have said they would send planes.

The Western allies have so far agreed to join air strikes only in Iraq, where the government has asked for help, and not in Syria, where strikes are being carried out without formal permission from President Bashar al-Assad. France said on Thursday it did not rule out extending strikes to Syria, too.

Overnight, U.S.-led air strikes in eastern Syria killed 14 Islamic State fighters, according to a monitoring group, while on the ground, Kurdish forces were reported to have pushed back an advance by the Islamists toward the border town of Kobani.

The air raids follow growing alarm in Western and Arab capitals after Islamic State, a Sunni militant group, swept through a swath of Iraq in June, proclaimed a "caliphate" ruling over all Muslims, slaughtered prisoners and ordered Shi'ites and non-Muslims to convert or die.

'HARSHNESS, BRUTALITY, TORTURE AND MURDER'

More than 120 Islamic scholars from around the world, including many of the most senior figures in Sunni Islam, issued an open letter denouncing Islamic State. Challenging the group with theological arguments, they described its interpretation of the faith as "a great wrong and an offense to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world."

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A damaged site is seen in what activists say was a U.S. strike, in Kfredrian, Idlib province Septemb …

"You have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder," said the letter, signed by figures from across the Muslim world from Indonesia to Morocco.

A third night of air raids by the United States and Arab allies targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in three remote locations in eastern Syria to try to cut off a major source of revenue for the al Qaeda offshoot.

The strikes also seem to be intended to hamper Islamic State's ability to operate across the Syria-Iraq frontier.

Obama has vowed to keep up military pressure against the group, which advanced through Kurdish areas of northern Iraq this week despite the air strikes. Some 140,000 refugees have fled to Turkey over the past week, many telling of villages burnt and captives beheaded.

"The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death," Obama said at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday.

KURDS HALT ISLAMIC STATE ADVANCE

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Residents inspect damaged buildings in what activists say was a U.S. strike, in Kfredrian, Idlib pro …

One danger the U.S.-led campaign faces in Syria is the lack of strong allies on the ground. Washington remains hostile to the Assad government. It wants other Syrian opponents of Assad to step into the breach as Islamic State is pushed back, but such "moderate opposition" groups have had limited success.

One group that has fought hard against Islamic State on the ground in Syria has been the Kurds, who control an area in the north but complain they have been given no support from the West.

On Thursday, two Kurdish officials said Kurdish forces had pushed back the advance by Islamic State fighters toward the border town of Kobani in overnight clashes. Fighting near the town in recent days had prompted the fastest exodus of refugees of the entire three-year-old Syrian civil war.

Islamic State, which launched a fresh offensive to try to capture Kobani more than a week ago, concentrated its fighters south of the town for a push late on Wednesday, but Kurdish YPG forces repelled them, the Kurdish officials said.

Islamic State fighters also remain to the east and west of the town and fighting continues in the south.

Near Damascus, Assad's Syrian army overran rebels in a town on Thursday, strengthening the Syrian leader's grip on territory around the capital.

Assad's forces, backed by the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, have been gradually extending control over a corridor of territory from Damascus to the Mediterranean coast.

Many Syrian activists and rebels have criticized the United States for focusing on striking Islamic State and other militant groups while doing little to bring down Assad.

Iraq's prime minister told reporters that he conveyed to Syria a message from Washington that U.S. strikes would target Islamic State militants rather than Assad's government.

"What they emphasized is that their aim in Syria is not to destabilize Syria, is not to have a threat of Syrian sovereignty, is not to attack the regime in Syria, but rather to diminish the capabilities of Daesh (and other) terrorist organizations," Abadi said, referring to Islamic State.

Commenting on the fight in Iraq against Islamic State militants, Abadi said that in addition to seeking air cover, Iraqi forces were starting to run low on ammunition and needed a steady supply.

    While acknowledging U.S. air strikes on Islamic State forces in the north of the country, he said the United States had not helped in the south.

    "The onslaught of Daesh we have stopped and we are reversing it," he said. "It is slow, but we have managed with zero support - I can say - with zero support from the Americans or from anybody else," he said.

    "Yes, the Americans ... intervened when Arbil was endangered, but there was no intervention whatsoever in the south," he said. "And of course that was painful at the time."

(Additional reporting by John Irish, Julien Ponthus and Andrew Callus in Paris, Sylvia Westall in Beirut, Nicolas Bertin in Paris; Mark Hosenball, Ian Simpson and Julia Edwards in Washington, and Frank McGurty, Jonathan Allen, Scott Malone and Steve Holland in New York; Writing by Giles Elgood and Peter Graff; Editing by Will Waterman, Peter Cooney, Jonathan Oatis and Ken Wills)

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Militant in Syria beheading videos identified: FBI

By Julia Edwards and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A masked Islamic State militant seen wielding a knife in videos at the beheading of two Americans has been identified, FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday, but he declined to give the person's name or nationality.

The videos released in August and September of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff showed a masked Islamic State militant brandishing a knife and speaking English with a British accent.

A European government source familiar with the investigation said that the accent indicated that the man was from London and likely from a community of Asian immigrants. U.S. and European officials said the principal investigative work identifying the man was conducted by British government agencies.

"I believe that we have identified," Comey told a small group of reporters. "I'm not going to tell you who I believe it is."

Actual beheadings were not shown on the Foley and Sotloff videos. The videos imply that the masked militant was the person who carried out the killings. But the videos did not show him actually drawing blood from the victims but faded to black after he finished his speeches and then cut to pictures of the beheaded bodies.

Investigators said that because of the way the videos were edited, it is possible that someone other than the British-accented man carried out the murders.

A third video purporting to depict the murder of David Haines, a British aid worker, surfaced later and Islamic State militants also have threatened to kill a second British aid worker, Alan Henning.

John Cantlie, a British journalist held by the group, has appeared in two Islamic State videos criticizing U.S. airstrikes against the group and suggesting that the United States had become engaged in "Gulf War III."

The British ambassador to the United States, Sir Peter Westmacott, told CNN shortly after Foley's killing in August that Britain was working on identifying the suspect using voice-recognition technology. Westmacott said then that law enforcement was close to identifying the man.

British authorities had sought to keep a lid on news coverage of their investigation, hoping that might make it easier for authorities to capture militants implicated in the beheadings. Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to address the British parliament on Friday about his country's involvement in the fight against Islamic State.

FBI Director Comey told reporters about a dozen Americans were known to be fighting with militants in Syria, and some had already returned to the United States. Earlier, U.S. officials had said about 100 Americans had joined up.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Grant McCool)

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Iran blames 'errors' of outsiders for rise of Islamic State

By Parisa Hafezi and Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday blamed the rise of the Islamic State group and other militants on the mistakes of the West and said the solution to stopping them must come from the Middle East.

"The strategic blunders of the West in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus have turned these parts of the world into a haven for terrorists and extremists," he said in a speech to the 193-member United Nations General Assembly.

In a thinly veiled reference to the United States and Israel, Rouhani blamed the rise of violent extremists on outsiders. "Certain intelligence agencies have put blades in the hand of madmen, who now spare no one," he said.

The comments were among the strongest yet by predominantly Shi'ite Iran on the rise of the Sunni militant group, suggesting Washington and its allies were the problem, not the solution, and that Middle Eastern governments should deal with the threat.

"The right solution to this quandary comes from within the region and regionally provided solutions with international support and not from the outside the region," he said.

But Rouhani suggested the United States and Iran have a shared interest in confronting the threat after decades of enmity.

"The extremists of the world have found each other and have put out the call, 'extremists of the world unite.' But are we united against the extremists?" Rouhani asked.

The comments follow a back-and-forth between Tehran and Washington over what role Iran can play in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants who have seized swaths of Iraq and Syria. Iranian officials have even suggested Western powers should scale back their demands in nuclear talks with Tehran helping confront the militants.

While Washington has repeatedly ruled out military "coordination" with Iran against Islamic State, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last Friday during a U.N. Security Council session on Iraq that he believed Tehran could play a role.

The United States, backed by five Arab allies, this week carried out air strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria, expanding an air campaign against the group in Iraq.

Despite Iran's obvious interest in seeing the militants neutralized, Rouhani made clear his suspicions about the long-term impact of Western military intervention in the Middle East.

"All those who have played a role in founding and supporting these terror groups must acknowledge their errors," he said.

A day earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama used the U.N. podium to state his case for a more forceful, coordinated global response against Islamic State that would seek to dismantle what he called a "network of death."

IRAN OVERTURES TO U.S.

For Iran's clerical rulers, the crisis over Islamic State poses strategic and geopolitical challenges to Tehran's so-called dream of forming a so-called Shi'ite Crescent that extends from Iran to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, say analysts and diplomats.

Some Iranian officials see the crisis in Iraq as an opportunity for Iran, arguing that the hostility between Washington and Tehran has hurt both states and played into the hands of the militants.

Iran's closest regional ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, blames Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States and other Western powers for the rise of Islamic State. Western officials say that the Gulf states and Turkey bear some measure of responsibility.

But Western governments say Assad himself is largely to blame, because for years he allowed the group to flourish on the margins of a civil war that in 3 -1/2 years has cost 190,000 lives and forced 10 million people from their homes.

Despite his dismissive remarks toward the West, Iran has quietly made overtures to the United States and its allies on combating Islamic State. Several Iranian officials told Reuters last week that Iran would like the West to make concessions in nuclear talks with Tehran as a reward for fighting the group.

In Thursday's speech, Rouhani said securing a long-term nuclear accord that would end sanctions against Tehran in exchange for curbing its atomic program would be the "beginning of multilateral collaboration aimed at promoting security, peace and development in our region and beyond."

"HOPEFUL" OF NUCLEAR DEAL

Rouhani's much-anticipated speech was in contrast to last year when he appeared at the General Assembly as Iran's new "moderate" president, making a splash by telling the world Tehran posed no threat and offering immediate talks on removing any "reasonable concerns" over his country's nuclear program.

Fast-forward a year: Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers have not collapsed but they are at an impasse.

On the current round of talks in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Rouhani said the negotiations have taken place "with seriousness and optimism on both sides."

The meetings between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China are expected to continue until Friday. Diplomats say a breakthrough is unlikely, even though a Nov. 24 deadline for a deal is only two months away.

Rouhani said Iran is committed to maintaining its uranium enrichment program, the biggest sticking point in the negotiations, and warned that delaying a deal would have economic costs for everyone. He said he was hopeful there would be an agreement in the "short amount of time left."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met alone with Rouhani for nearly an hour. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Steinmeier said, "We have never been so close to a deal as now. But the truth is that the final phase of the talks that lay before us is probably the most difficult."

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Jonathan Allen; Writing by Jason Szep and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis)

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Islamist fighters advance in Syria despite U.S. strikes

By Kinda Makieh and Jonny Hogg

DAMASCUS/MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) - U.S. and coalition planes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria again on Wednesday, but the strikes did not halt the fighters' advance in a Kurdish area where fleeing refugees told of villages burnt and captives beheaded.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking at the United Nations, asked the world to join together to fight the militants and vowed to keep up military pressure against them.

"The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force, so the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death," Obama said in 40-minute speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted Britain to join U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State militant group after the Iraqi government requested London's help. He recalled parliament to secure its approval for military action.

Cameron said in an address at the United Nations that a comprehensive strategy was needed to combat Islamic State.

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An EA-6B Prowler attached to the Garudas of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 134 lands aboard the ai …

"Our strategy must work in tandem with Arab states, always in support of local people, in line with our legal obligations and as part of a plan that involves our aid, our diplomacy and, yes, our military," Cameron said. "We need to act and we need to act now."

A third night of U.S.-led air strikes late on Wednesday targeted Islamic State-controlled oil refineries in eastern Syria as the United States and its partners moved to choke off a crucial source of revenue for the militant group, U.S. officials said.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined in the strikes by piloted and drone aircraft targeting facilities around al Mayadin, al Hasakah, and Abu Kamal, the U.S. military said.

The military said the targeted refineries, which are prefabricated and constructed off-site so they can be transported and made operational quickly, were capable of producing millions in revenue and provided fuel for Islamic State operations.

The United States on Wednesday also designated two dozen individuals and groups as foreign terrorists or terrorist facilitators, enabling it to freeze assets and block financial transactions as part of its offensive against Islamic State.

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A F/A-18F Super Hornet attached to the Fighting Black Lions of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 213 lan …

Syrian Kurds said Islamic State had responded to U.S. attacks by intensifying its assault near the Turkish border in northern Syria, where 140,000 civilians have fled in recent days in the fastest exodus of the three-year civil war.

Washington and its Arab allies killed scores of Islamic State fighters in the opening 24 hours of air strikes, the first direct U.S. foray into Syria two weeks after Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

But the intensifying advance on the northern town of Kobani showed the difficulty Washington faces in defeating Islamist fighters in Syria, where it lacks strong military allies on the ground.

"Those air strikes are not important. We need soldiers on the ground," said Hamed, a refugee who fled into Turkey from the Islamic State advance.

Mazlum Bergaden, a teacher from Kobani who crossed the border on Wednesday with his family, said two of his brothers had been taken captive by Islamic State fighters.

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A damaged site is seen in what activists say was a U.S. strike, in Kfredrian, Idlib province Septemb …

"The situation is very bad. After they kill people, they are burning the villages. ... When they capture any village, they behead one person to make everyone else afraid," he said. "They are trying to eradicate our culture, purge our nation."

FRENCH HOSTAGE KILLED

Islamist militants in Algeria boasted in a video they had beheaded a French hostage captured on Sunday to punish Paris for joining air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq. French President Francois Hollande confirmed the execution.

"My determination is total and this aggression only strengthens it," Hollande said. "The military air strikes will continue as long as necessary."

The United States said it was still assessing whether Mohsin al-Fadhli, a senior figure in the al Qaeda-linked group Khorasan, had been killed in a U.S. strike in Syria.

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A Turkish soldier watches the Turkish-Syrian border near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa …

A U.S. official earlier said Fadhli, an associate of al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, was thought to have been killed in the first day of strikes on Syria. The Pentagon said any confirmation could take time.

Washington describes Khorasan as a separate group from Islamic State, made up of al Qaeda veterans planning attacks on the West from a base in Syria.

As Obama tried in meetings in New York to widen his coalition, Belgium said it was likely to contribute warplanes in the coming days, and the Netherlands said it would deploy six F-16s to support U.S.-led strikes.

The initial days of U.S. strikes suggest one aim is to hamper Islamic State's ability to operate across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier. On Wednesday U.S.-led forces hit at least 13 targets in and around Albu Kamal, one of the main border crossings between Iraq and Syria, after striking 22 targets there on Tuesday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a body which monitors the conflict in Syria.

The U.S. military confirmed it had struck inside Syria northwest of al Qaim, the Iraqi town at the Albu Kamal border crossing. It also struck inside Iraq west of Baghdad and near the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil on Wednesday.

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Residents inspect damaged buildings in what activists say was a U.S. strike, in Kfredrian, Idlib pro …

An Islamist fighter in the Albu Kamal area reached by phone said there had been at least nine strikes on Wednesday by "crusader forces." Targets included an industrial area.

Perched on the main Euphrates valley highway, Albu Kamal controls the route from Islamic State's de facto capital, Raqqa, in Syria to the front lines in western Iraq and down the Euphrates to the western and southern outskirts of Baghdad.

Islamic State's ability to move fighters and weapons between Syria and Iraq has provided an important tactical advantage for the group in both countries: fighters sweeping in from Syria helped capture much of northern Iraq in June, and weapons they seized and sent back to Syria helped them in battle there.

France, which has confined its air strikes to Iraq, said it would stay the course despite the killing of hostage Herve Gourdel, 55, a mountain guide captured on vacation in Algeria on Sunday by a group claiming loyalty to Islamic State.

In a video released by the Caliphate Soldiers group entitled "a message of blood to the French government", gunmen paraded Gourdel's severed head after making him kneel, pushing him on his side and holding him down.

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A Kurdish Syrian refugee covers her face as she waits for transport during a sand storm on the Turki …

DAMASCUS: CAMPAIGN GOES 'IN RIGHT DIRECTION'

The campaign has blurred the traditional lines of Middle East alliances, pitting a U.S. coalition comprising countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against fighters that form the most powerful opposition to Assad on the ground.

The attacks have so far encountered no objection, and even signs of approval, from Assad's Syrian government. Syrian state TV led its news broadcast with Wednesday's air strikes on the border with Iraq, saying "the USA and its partners" had launched raids against "the terrorist organisation Islamic State."

U.S. officials say they informed both Assad and his main ally Iran in advance of their intention to strike but did not coordinate with them.

Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have joined in the strikes. All are ruled by Sunni Muslims and are staunch opponents of Assad, a member of a Shi'ite-derived sect, and his main regional ally, Shi'ite Iran.

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Kurdish Syrian refugees wait for transport during a sand storm on the Turkish-Syrian border near the …

But some of Assad's opponents fear the Syrian leader could exploit the U.S. military campaign to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of Western countries, and that strikes against Islamic State could solidify his grip on power.

ISLAMIC STATE ADVANCES ON KURDS

Even as Islamic State outposts elsewhere have been struck, the fighters have accelerated their campaign to capture Kobani, a Kurdish city on the border with Turkey. Nearly 140,000 Syrian Kurds have fled into Turkey since last week, the fastest exodus of the entire three-year civil war.

An Islamic State source, speaking to Reuters via online messaging, said the group had taken several villages to the west of Kobani. Footage posted on YouTube appeared to show Islamic State fighters using weapons including artillery as they battled Kurdish forces near Kobani. The Islamists were shown raising the group's black flag after tearing down a Kurdish one.

A Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the advance had been rapid three days ago but was slowed by the U.S.-led air strikes.

But Ocalan Iso, deputy leader of Kurdish forces defending Kobani, said more militants and tanks had arrived in the area since the coalition began air strikes on the group.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Steve Holland, Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations, Phil Stewart and David Alexander in Washington, Patrick Markey in Tunis, Tom Perry, Sylvia Westall, Mariam Karouny, Laila Bassam, Alexander Dziadosz in Beirut, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Anthony Deutsch in The Hague; Writing by Peter Graff and Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by David Stamp, Chizu Nomiyama and Ken Wills)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
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Australia to reintroduce temporary visas for refugees

By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia will reintroduce a controversial temporary visa system to deal with a huge backlog of asylum seekers, its immigration minister said on Thursday, despite criticism the stopgap process leaves refugees in limbo.

Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott won an election last September after campaigning on tough immigration policies, which have been criticized internationally but which polls show remain popular with voters.

Australia uses offshore detention centers in Papua New Guinea and the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru to process would-be refugees who arrive on boats, but some 30,000 who arrived before the policy was set are awaiting processing in Australian detention centers.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said that the Temporary Protection Visas (TPV), which were introduced under former Prime Minister John Howard and abolished in 2008, would address those people without providing inducements to people smugglers.

"TPVs will provide refugees with stability and a chance to get on with their lives, while at the same time guaranteeing that people smugglers do not have a 'permanent protection visa product' to sell to those who are thinking of traveling illegally to Australia," he told reporters.

The opposition Labor Party said it opposed temporary protection visas as leaving asylum seekers in limbo without a pathway to citizenship, but would study the proposed legislation.

Morrison said a deal had been reached with mining magnate Clive Palmer, whose Palmer United Party virtually controls the balance of power in the Senate, which nearly ensures its passage through Parliament.

About 16,000 asylum seekers came to Australia on 220 boats in the first seven months of 2013, but the government says there has been just one "illegal" boat arrival since December. Hundreds of asylum seekers have drowned when rickety boats, mostly from Indonesia, have sunk en route in recent years.

Under the legislation, Palmer said that refugees would be allowed into Australia for an initial period of five years, during which time they would be allowed to work, provided they go to a remote area in need of laborers.

"There are many areas and many communities in our country that can't get labor," Palmer told reporters in Brisbane.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Australia
• asylum seekers

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Qatar, a partner in U.S. airstrikes, says Syrian regime main problem

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Qatar, which provided support for U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria this week, urged the international community to confront the Syrian regime, highlighting pressure by some of Washington's Gulf Arab allies to widen its campaign against Islamic State.

Qatar is among five Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Bahrain that joined in or supported U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria beginning late on Monday. U.S. officials said Qatar's role consisted mostly of logistical support.

"The war of genocide being waged and the deliberate displacement carried out by the regime remain the major crime," Qatar's ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The world should work to end "the systematic destruction of Syria" by the Syrian government, he said.

The United States has said its military campaign will not target the Syrian government and instead will focus on the Islamic State, which has seized a third of both Iraq and Syria and seeks to establish a caliphate in the Middle East.

Appearing to echo concerns that the Syrian government could benefit from the U.S.-led airstrikes, the emir said, "we cannot succeed in the war on terrorism if the people were not satisfied that it is their war and not a war to stabilize a regime that is oppressing them."

Although the Gulf states are all opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Qatar has long faced criticism, including from neighboring Gulf Arab states, for using its vast oil and gas wealth to back Islamists across the region including groups inside Syria.

Qatar assured the West on Wednesday it was not aiding Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

A source close to the Qatar government told Reuters Tuesday's U.S.-led airstrikes would not solve anything. He said it was unfair to target only Islamic State when Assad "has been left to kill his people for years."

(Writing by Jason Szep; Editing by Howard Goller)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Syria
• United Arab Emirates
• Qatar

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Warplane attacks Libya's Benghazi port after threats by ex-general

By Ayman al-Warfalli

BENGHAZI Libya (Reuters) - A war plane attacked a port in Benghazi on Wednesday in a strike claimed by forces loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar, bringing their battle against Islamists to the heart of the eastern Libyan city.

A Reuters reporter near the port, which is not an oil installation, saw a warplane open fire several times, although it was unclear whether any harbor facilities were hit.

The port is the main gateway for wheat and fuel imports into eastern Libya, a country struggling with anarchy three years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

Saqer al-Jouroushi, head of Haftar's air defense unit, has said an umbrella group of Islamist fighters, Majlis al-Shura, was using the port to bring in supplies and weapons.

"We warned the port manager that we will not allow ships to dock to supply Majlis al-Shura with weapons," said Jouroushi, whose unit controls several planes from Libya's air force.

He said the plane had deliberately missed the quay and had been issuing a final warning, but added that it would hit next time if another ship tried to offload weapons. Clashes in Benghazi have so far been mainly limited to the suburbs.

"We are in a state of war and Ansar al-Sharia and its allies are using the port to ship in arms against out troops," he said, referring to an Islamist group blamed by Washington for an attack on the U.S. consulate in the city in 2012, during which the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed.

Three years after Gaddafi died during an uprising against his rule, Libya is divided. The government and elected parliament have relocated to Tobruk in the far east since losing control of the capital, Tripoli, where a rival government has been created by forces from the western city of Misrata.

Haftar has emerged as a renegade commander fighting Islamists and has recently entered into a frail alliance with the government in Tobruk.

Libya depends on foreign imports of food and consumer goods as the desert country does not have any large industry outside the key oil sector. However, shippers have become more reluctant to deal with Libya, some traders have said, and the attack on Benghazi port is only likely to heighten their concerns.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Crispian Balmer)

• Unrest, Conflicts & War
• Politics & Government
• Khalifa Haftar
• Muammar Gaddafi
• eastern Libya

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Obama at U.N. pledges steps to more open government

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U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters  …

By Steve Holland

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pledged on Wednesday that the United States would provide easier access to federal spending information, part of a global effort to create more open governments.

Governments that are responsive, transparent and accountable lead to prosperity and opportunity and discourage corruption, Obama said at a meeting of the Open Government Partnership, a group of 64 nations meeting at the United Nations General Assembly.

The U.S. government will launch an improved USAspending.gov website next year that will provide better access to see how taxpayer money is spent, he said.

The government also will improve accessibility to federal financial data, boost digital services at federal agencies and strengthen patient privacy in the health care system, he said.

"Open and honest collaboration with citizens and civil society over the long term, no matter how uncomfortable it is, makes countries stronger and it makes countries more successful," he said.

The Open Government Partnership was launched three years ago to implement open government reforms around the world.

"No country has all the answers. No country has perfect practices," Obama said.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Howard Goller and Grant McCool)

• Politics & Government
• Government
• Barack Obama
• Open Government Partnership

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