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imageWASHINGTON: Top US diplomat John Kerry leaves Tuesday on a mission to forge a coalition to defeat Islamic militants terrorizing Iraq and Syria, with over 40 nations set to join the fight.

With memories of past US military conflicts in the region no doubt weighing on his mind, the secretary of state will travel first to Amman, in Jordan and then onto Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the United States seeks to "degrade and destroy" the Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIL.

Kerry will hold bilateral meetings in both countries and "consult with key partners and allies on how to further support the security and stability of the Iraqi government, combat the threat posed by ISIL and confront Middle East security challenges," a State Department official said.

"The focus will be on multiple lines of effort, including military support to our Iraqi partners, stopping the flow of foreign fighters, countering ISIL financing and funding, addressing humanitarian crises and delegitimizing ISIL's ideology," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

President Barack Obama is dispatching Kerry on the eve of a speech Wednesday laying out his "game plan" on how to deal with the Islamic militants, who have beheaded two American journalists, posting shocking on-line videos of their murders.

But Obama has stressed he will not put US boots on the ground, after pulling the last US troops out of Iraq in 2011.

After weeks of US inaction, the president authorized air operations in early August on IS positions in northern Iraq.

The US military has carried out 148 strikes against the radical Islamists said by US officials to be about 10,000 strong -- who have captured swathes of territory straddling northern Iraq and southern Syria with lightening speed.

The IS aim is to set up a caliphate an Islamic form of government last seen under the Ottoman Empire extending from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq.

"We're now in kind of a phase here of going on the offense," Psaki said, agreeing IS had gained in strength over the past months thanks in part to "a safe haven in Syria," where the group has flourished in the chaos of the civil war.

More than 40 countries had already expressed willingness to support the coalition, she told reporters, declining to reveal all of them.

Among those countries which have publicly declared varying degrees of support are Australia, Canada and Britain, as well as France and the United Arab Emirates.

The 22-member Arab League agreed at a meeting on Sunday in Cairo to take the "necessary measures" to confront the militants.

Other countries such as Estonia, Denmark, Finland and Japan have pledged financial aid for humanitarian assistance to help civilians caught in the battle, according to US officials.

Individual countries would determine how they planned to take part, and not all of them would offer military support, Psaki cautioned.

But Kerry has already warned the fight against IS may not be quick, and may even have to be completed by the next White House administration which takes over in 2017.

"We're convinced that in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy ISIL. It may take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years. But we're determined it has to happen," he told a meeting which he chaired last week in Wales on the sidelines of a NATO summit.

The United States does not regard Iran as part of its coalition against the Islamic State, despite the support that Tehran is already providing to Iraq in its battle against the Sunni militants.

US officials have also ruled out working with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to defeat the militants, who are seeking to topple the Assad regime.

In a two-pronged approach, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was holding talks Monday in Turkey, which borders Syria and has provided vital shelter to hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.

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