Obama won't allow Islamic state

US President Barack Obama has said he will not allow Sunni Muslim jihadists to carve out a "caliphate", or Islamic state, straddling Syria and Iraq.

In an interview for the New York Times, Mr Obama said: "We're not going to let them [IS] create some caliphate through Syria and Iraq, but we can only do that if we know that we've got partners on the ground who are capable of filling the void."

"In recent days, terrorist forces neared the city (of Irbil)," he said. "Thursday night, I made it clear that if they attempted to advance further, our military would respond with targeted strikes. 

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