Obama calls on nations to combat extremism

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 (Agencies): US President Barack Obama outlined a US approach to the Middle East for his last two years in office that tightly focuses on diminishing Islamic extremism and leans heavily on American military power, as he implored regional leaders to do more to combat what he called the single most pressing threat to global progress.

In his sixth address to the United Nations General Assembly Wednesday, Mr Obama made clear that fighting what he called "the cancer of violent extremism," embodied in groups such as Islamic State (IS), now dominates his foreign policy agenda. "The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force," Mr Obama said. "So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death."

The world is at a crossroads, Mr Obama said, and faces challenges that demand broad international coalitions. He cited Islamic State, the Sunni militant group also known as ISIS and ISIL; the West's confrontation with Russia over its incursion in Ukraine; and the rapid spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Mr Obama pointedly called on Muslim leaders to take steps to address the spread of extremism. "That means cutting off the funding that fuels this hate," he said. "It's time to end the hypocrisy of those who accumulate wealth through the global economy, and then siphon funds to those who teach children to tear it down."

The address was a stark contrast to Mr Obama's previous ones at the same forum. Last year he used the UN platform to articulate a sweeping vision for the Middle East that involved brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, ending the civil war in Syria and reaching an agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme.

This year, Mr Obama addressed the General Assembly on the second day of US-led airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State militants who have been fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which the US also opposes.

He said a nuclear deal with Iran is still possible, although negotiators have already extended the talks once and are nearing a November deadline, and he went uncharacteristically off-script to take a swipe at Israel over the collapse of peace talks. The failure of negotiations, Mr. Obama said, is "something worthy of reflection within Israel."

Meanwhile: US planes pounded Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria for a second day Wednesday, but the strikes did not halt the fighters' advance in a Kurdish area where fleeing refugees told of villages burnt and captives beheaded.

Syrian Kurds said Islamic State had responded to US 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 US foray into Syria two weeks after Obama pledged to hit the group on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

However, 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 IS fighters.

"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.