U.S., Arab strikes on militants in Syria 'only the beginning' - U.S. military

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and Arab strikes on militant targets in Syria overnight were 'only the beginning' of a coalition effort to weaken Islamic State and other extremists, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that a barrage of strikes across Syria overnight were 'very successful.' "I can tell you that last night's strikes were only the beginning," Kirby said. Lieutenant General William Mayville Jr., a senior Pentagon official, said the strikes hit training camps, headquarters, vehicles and other sites under the control of Islamic State, the extremist group that has seized a wide swath of both Iraq and Syria and prompted a reluctant Obama administration to launch military action in Syria more than three years after the country's civil war began. He said the strikes were the start "of a credible and sustainable persistent campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy" Islamic State. Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, took part in the second and third waves of attacks, Mayville said. He said the Arab countries' actions ranged from combat air patrols to strikes on targets, but added that the majority of strikes were carried out by the U.S. military. Mayville said the United States conducted strikes, at least in part using Tomahawk missiles, on factories and camps belonging to the Khorasan group, a lesser-known organisation which officials say was in the final stages of plotting 'major' attacks on Western targets. But he declined to confirm whether the group's leader had been killed. Kirby said the group was a 'network of seasoned al Qaeda veterans' that had sought shelter in Syria in order to manufacture explosives and recruit Western militants. (Reporting By Phil Stewart and Missy Ryan; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)