United Kingdom 'letting down allies says top military commander

General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said it "makes no sense" that RAF airstrikes in Iraq stop at the border, when Britain knows Isil has based its stronghold in Syria.

His comments come as John Woodcock, the chair of Labour's internal defence committee, says the "majority" of the Party's MPs remain "open minded" to possibility of British military intervention in Syria.

"I am asking MPs particularly to reflect on the fact that the streets of Britain at the moment are being kept safe by American, Australian and French aircraft striking at the heart of ISIL in north-east Syria from where ISIL is organised and directed", he said.

"The president started the battle August 8, 2014, unilaterally, since Congress was in recess..."

"I don't think it's enough", he said Saturday referring to the USA bombing campaign against ISIS during the third annual defense conference hosted by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. The rise of the Islamic State, an extremist group looking to impose Muslim law on vast swathes of Iraq and Syria, further escalated the conflict.

While testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last Wednesday, Anne Patterson, assistant secretary for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department, suggested that America's Arab allies have discussed sending their own ground forces into Syria.

Britain has talked tough about going after the Islamic State, but unlike France, its actions have not matched its talk.

In an interview with Sky News, General Sir Nicholas Houghton questioned the decision by United Kingdom lawmakers to vote down joining the worldwide anti-IS coalition, as the militant group "has a caliphate that extends across the Iraq-Syria border".

Canada is also contributing a refueling aircraft, which fuels Canadian as well as other coalition jets, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, 600 air force and other personnel in support of the mission and almost 70 Special Forces Regiment soldiers who accompany Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers near combat and along ISIL positions and lines.

Administration officials had sought to avoid the appearance of another American-dominated war, even as most leaders in the Persian Gulf seem more preoccupied with supporting rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

While a few Iraqi and Western experts have criticized the pace of the air campaign, Brown described two broad areas where he expected attacks against the Islamic State to increase in the coming days. "If they're not out and about, it's harder to strike, particularly for an adversary that may wrap themselves in the civilian population", he said.

Coalition strikes since July in Syria have been concentrated around al Hasakah, a town near the northeastern frontier on the route to Sinjar, Tal Afar and Mosul in northwestern Iraq. "Daesh presents itself as a target more". "We are focused on effects of our strikes", Army Colonel Steve Warren, a USA military spokesman in Baghdad, said in an email. "And as we identify opportunities to do more, you see us doing more and we need to do more, much more than air strikes". Kaine said on Meet the Press Daily.