Updated 07:16 p.m. Moscow Time
UNITED NATIONS, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - There can be no negotiations with such brand of evil as the Islamic State, only the language of force, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
"ISIL must be degraded and ultimately destroyed," Obama said in an address to the UN General Assembly. "Innocent children have been gunned down, religious minorities starved to death, innocent human beings beheaded. No grievance justifies these actions."
"No God condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force," the president said.
Obama said Washington did not "act alone" in the effort to contain the IS threat.
"We will support Iraqis and Syrians fighting to reclaim their communities. We will use our military might in a campaign of air strikes to roll back ISIL. We will train and equip forces fighting against these terrorists on the ground," Obama pledged.
In his speech before the UN General Assembly, the American president called on the world to join in the fight against the Islamic State, while also urging "those who have joined ISIL" to "leave the battlefield while they can."
The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
The United States unveiled earlier this month its strategy to defeat the jihadi group establishing a multinational coalition. The president also authorized US airstrikes against IS positions in Syria, while continuing its operation in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the US-led coalition performed the first series of airstrikes targeting Islamic State positions in Syria.
