White-colored Home clues airstrikes in Syria possible

The U.S. could extend military strikes into Syria to target the Islamic State’s terrorist base — even as the radical group is being pounded by airstrikes in Iraq, Obama administration officials hinted yesterday.

“We’re not going to be restricted by borders,” said Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser, speaking on Martha’s Vineyard, where the president is vacationing.

The White House said the president has received no military options beyond those he authorized earlier this month for limited airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and military aid to Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The U.S. government has also avoided military involvement in Syria’s three-year civil war.

But faced with the Islamic terrorists, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL, making gains across the region and the beheading of Boston-based journalist James Foley this week, the administration appears to be looking to extend their assaults.

Obama’s top military adviser recently warned the extremists cannot be defeated without “addressing” the group’s Syrian sanctuary.

Many prominent Republicans and some Democrats have called on Obama to hit back harder at the militants.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a prospective 2016 presidential candidate, said in an interview yesterday the risk of “getting sucked into a new war” is outweighed, he said, by the risk of inaction. Attacking their supply lines, command and control centers and economic assets inside Syria “is at the crux of the decision” for Obama, Rubio said.

To weaken the group, Obama has stressed keeping up military assistance to Iraq and continuing efforts to create a new, inclusive government in Baghdad that can persuade Sunnis to leave the insurgency.

International security expert John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org said such a plan could take years to come to fruition. He said Obama is “satisfying the American honor with these airstrikes, but they’re not going to accomplish much.”

U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said late this week the Islamic State militants can only be contained so long without targeting Syria, saying: “Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.