KABUL: The United States has begun surveillance flights over Syria after President Barack Obama gave the approval, a move that could pave the way for air strikes against militants of the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS).

While the White House says Obama has not approved military action inside Syria, additional intelligence on the militants would likely be necessary before he could take that step. Pentagon officials have been drafting potential options for the president, including air strikes. One official said the administration has a need for reliable intelligence from Syria and called the surveillance flights an important avenue for obtaining data.

Two US officials said on Monday that Obama had approved the flights, while another said they had begun. Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Kabul on Tuesday that the US wants more clarity on the ISIS militants in Syria, but declined to comment on the surveillance flights.

“Clearly the picture we have of ISIS on the Iraqi side is a more refined picture,” said Gen Dempsey. “The existence and activities of ISIS on the Syrian side, we have ... some insights into that, but we certainly want to have more insights into that as we craft a way forward.”

The US began launching strikes against the IS inside Iraq earlier this month, with President Obama citing the threat to American personnel in the country and a humanitarian crisis in the north as his rationale.

Top Pentagon officials have said the only way the threat from the militants can be fully eliminated is to go after the group inside Syria as well.

The US president has long resisted taking military action in Syria, a step that would plunge the US into a country ravaged by an intractable civil war. However, the president’s calculus appears to have shifted since the IS announced last week that it had murdered American journalist James Foley, who was held hostage in Syria.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2014