Alliance won't send ground troops: Nato

Nato has ruled out sending ground troops to fight against Islamic State militants in Syria, Nato General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told a Swiss newspaper, stressing the need to bolster local forces in the conflict.

"That is not on the agenda of the coalition and the Nato allies," he told the Tages-Anzeiger paper when asked about dispatching ground forces to accompany air strikes, reports Reuters.

"The United States has a limited number of special forces. In the foreground, however, is strengthening local forces. This is not easy, but it's the only option," he added.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said yesterday that most oil smuggled by the Islamic State group goes through Turkey, joining a chorus of countries linking it with the jihadists' financing.

During a meeting with Germany's visiting foreign minister, Abadi stressed the "importance of stopping oil smuggling by (IS) terrorist gangs, the majority of which is smuggled via Turkey," a statement from his office said.

Syria expressed outrage yesterday after a suspected US-led coalition strike for the first time killed regime troops, but the coalition denied its warplanes hit an army base.

In a letter to the United Nations Security Council and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Syria's foreign ministry condemned what it called a "flagrant aggression" that killed at least three soldiers late on Sunday.

It said three Syrian soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in strikes by four coalition planes on an army camp in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, reports AFP.

Meanwhile, flights to and from two northern Iraqi airports were suspended for 48 hours for the second time in roughly two weeks due to Russian strikes in Syria, officials said yesterday. The directors of the Arbil and Sulaimaniyah airports in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region both said that flights had been suspended due to danger posed by Russian cruise missiles heading to Syria.