Allies finalise plans to defeat IS

The United States gathered its allies in the coalition fighting the Islamic State group Wednesday and agreed on a plan to corner the jihadists in their final bastions.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters that an accelerated military effort would soon see the group pushed back to Raqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

And US officials said donor countries had pledged a total of $2 billion towards the cost of rebuilding Iraq and insulating its communities from extremism.

But Carter warned that isolating and taking out what he called the IS "parent tumor" would not eliminate its ability to spring or inspire attacks elsewhere.

And, as if on cue, IS propagandists released a video claiming last week's truck attack in Nice that left 84 dead, and threatening more against coalition states.

Defense ministers from the Western and Arab countries of the coalition said they have a military plan to liberate the cities with local Iraqi and Syrian forces.

"Today, we made the plans and commitments that will help us deliver ISIL the lasting defeat that it deserves," Carter told reporters at an air base outside Washington.

The Pentagon chief did not reveal details, but added: "Let me be clear: They culminate in the collapse of ISIL's control over the cities of Mosul and Raqa."

Britain's defense minister, Michael Fallon, said London would double to 500 the number of its troops assigned to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting the IS group.

Separately, US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with foreign ministers from the coalition countries to discuss the broader political and humanitarian plan.

The two days of meetings were called as jihadist attacks -- some of them inspired or ordered by the IS group -- are proliferating around the world.

The coalition, and in particular its US leadership, are keen to seize back the narrative and emphasize what they see as progress on the main battlefield.

In recent weeks, jihadists have claimed horrific attacks in Nice, Istanbul, Baghdad and Dhaka that have left hundreds dead and injured.

For two days, Kerry and Carter will meet with about 40 of their counterparts in Washington.

Washington maintains that since its peak in 2014, IS has lost nearly 50 percent of its Iraqi territory and between 20 and 30 percent of its Syrian strongholds.

The ant-IS coalition, which has conducted 14,000 strikes in two years in Syria and Iraq, is also facing criticism from its allies on the field.

The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition called for a suspension of the US-led air campaign against Islamic State in Syria while reports of dozens of civilian deaths from air strikes around the northern city of Manbij are investigated.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 56 civilians were killed in air strikes north of Manbij on Tuesday. SNC president Anas al-Abdah said the US-led air campaign is "proving to be a recruitment tool for terrorist organisations".

But the US-backed force fighting to drive IS out of Manbij yesterday said it was giving the jihadist group 48 hours to pull out of the surrounded northern Syrian city.

A statement from the Manbij Military Council said the Islamic State militants would be allowed to leave the city with light weapons, without a fight.

The council is allied to the US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance known as the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which has been fighting Islamic State in northern Syria with the support of air strikes from a US-led coalition.

Meanwhile, regime airstrikes and shelling s have killed at least 43 civilians, including 11 children, in several rebel-held areas across Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

In Libya, UN-backed government on Wednesday criticised the presence of French troops in the chaos-wracked country, as President Francois Hollande confirmed France has soldiers there after three died.

The presence of the troops in Libya was a "violation" of the nation's sovereignty, the government of national accord said on its Facebook page following Hollande's announcement that its soldiers had been in the country.