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Military Action Not Enough to Defeat IS: Syrian Opposition Leader

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Using military force against the Islamic State (IS) is not enough to destroy the extremist organization, Hadi Bahra, leader of a Syrian opposition group, told CNN on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) - Using military force against the Islamic State (IS) is not enough to destroy the extremist organization, Hadi Bahra, leader of a Syrian opposition group, told CNN on Tuesday.

"They cannot eliminate terrorism by only military operations. It has to be much, much more than military operations . . . You have to have a social, political program. You have to provide a vision for the political life in all the Middle East," Bahra said on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Bahra called for help from "friends in the US" and "other friends in the free world" to help the Syrian opposition battle both the IS and President Bashar Assad. "We have been fighting [the Islamic State] and the Assad regime at the same time with very little help from the world," he said.

On September 10, US President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy to defeat the IS, an extremist group which has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. Obama's plan stipulated forming an international anti-IS coalition and conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Syria, while simultaneously continuing airstrikes in Iraq.

The United States also pledged to provide support, equipment and training to Kurdish and Iraqi forces, as well as Syria's moderate opposition, to respond to the IS threat.

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