Obama to speak on Syria attacks

President Barack Obama will give his first public remarks on US strikes against Syria from the White House within hours, a US official said Tuesday.

The official said Obama would speak before leaving for the UN General Assembly in New York where the president will redouble efforts to build an anti-IS coalition and urge the world to tackle the scourge of foreign fighters.

The United States, supported by several Arab allies, launched strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria on Tuesday, opening a new front in the battle against the brutal jihadist group.

The Pentagon said that Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had joined Washington in carrying out the raids.

"Using a mix of fighter, bomber, remotely piloted aircraft and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles" the coalition conducted 14 strikes against IS targets in Syria, it said.

The operation "destroyed or damaged" multiple targets in the jihadists' northern stronghold of Raqa and near the border with Iraq, including IS fighter positions, training compounds, command centers and armed vehicles.

The first reaction to the strikes from President Bashar al-Assad's regime was muted, with Damascus saying it had been notified before the attacks and supported "any international effort" against the jihadists.

The US-led air assault in Syria marked a turning point in the war against the IS group, which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".