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ByAdamSchreck The Associated Press AL-UDEID AIR BASE, QATAR American refueling planes rumble into the air from this desert air base around the clock to top up coalition aircraft bombing Islamic State militants, whether they're Arab fighters fly- ing out of regional bases or French warplanes cata- pulted off an aircraft car- rier in the Persian Gulf. The al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the regional nerve center for the air war against the militants who have taken over nearly a third of Iraq and Syria. That makes it the main hub for coordinating warplanes from the U.S. and 11 other nations in the coalition car- rying out bombing raids. While the U.S. is doing the heavy lifting in the air- strikes, American officials say the allies' contributions are vital. "This is dangerous stuff. This is not political theater," said Lt. Col. David Haworth, chief of the current opera- tions division for the Com- bined Air Operation Center. "I don't think what we are doing today would be even remotely possible without the coalition partners," he told The Associated Press, making a rare media visit to the base. "To say that we want to or we are capable of going it alone I think would be a terrible mistake." The low-rise Combined Air Operation Center, packed with rows of com- puter terminals with big- screen monitors overhead, brings together officers from across the coalition to help share information and plan missions. Intelligence gathered by coalition members helps give commanders a deeper understanding of how the Islamic State group op- erates on the ground, Haworth said. For exam- ple, at times its fighters mass together like a tradi- tional army unit, while in other situations they behave more like insurgent guerril- las. All information will be key in preparations for an eventual offensive by Iraqi troops and Kurdish fighters to retake the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the biggest city under the extremists' control. The coalition will no doubt be backing the as- sault, though officials here would not discuss plans for future operations. "If they (the militants) want to try and reinforce, whether it's Mosul or some other location, we want to make sure we're ready," Haworth said. "If they want to flee, we'll want to make sure that we have that con- tingency covered as well." American planes in gen- eral hit more of what the military refers to as "dy- namic" targets — ones that are not pre-planned — and a mobile insurgency like the Islamic State group makes for a lot of dynamic targets. The Air Force estimates that half of all strikes in the battle stem from close air support for Iraqi ground forces. Another 30 percent involve hitting Islamic State militants traveling between Iraq and Syria. Many coalition members, meanwhile, might drop multiple bombs on a single preset target, such as a mil- itant-held compound or mo- bile oil refinery. Since the bombing cam- paign began, American warplanes have handled 80 percent of the 2,780 air- strikes carried out as of Tuesday in Iraq and Syria, according to the most re- cent figures provided by the U.S. military. Primarily Western al- lies including Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan and the Netherlands oper- ate over Iraq, and have han- dled about three of every 10 airstrikes there. The share of American strikes is even greater in Syria. There, Arab coalition members have conducted just 93 airstrikes, compared with 1,137 by American air- craft. The countries operat- ing alongside the U.S. over Syria include Bahrain, Jor- dan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. By the military's defini- tion, an airstrike refers to a particular target, regard- less of how many planes are involved in hitting it and how much ordnance is fired at it. By another measure — strike sorties — three out of five times that a warplane takes off on a strike mis- sion in the campaign, it's an American plane. Or by yet another measure, other coalition members have dropped a fifth of the mu- nitions used so far in the campaign. Part of the reason for the large American role in Syria comes down to the monthslong battle for Kobani, where relent- less pounding from the air helped Kurdish fighters fi- nally fend off the Islamic State group's offensive try- ing to take the town, on the border with Turkey. Longer-range Ameri- can aircraft like the swept- wing B-1 bombers that op- erate out of al-Udeid were particularly well suited for that fight. They are able to spend hours over the battle- field loaded with up to 24 tons of bombs that can be used in multiple airstrikes. "We brought a lot of loi- ter time, a lot of weapons" over Kobani, said Lt. Col. Joe Kramer, 34th Expedi- tionary Bomb Squadron commander. The number in Syria was also affected by the Emir- ates' decision to sit out the fight for several weeks af- ter Jordanian fighter pi- lot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh went down behind enemy lines in December. He was eventually killed by the mil- itants. COALITION USairpowerdoesheavyli ing ADAMSCHRECK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Members of a U.S. Air Force munitions team assemble guided bombs to support the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. By Lolita C. Baldor The Associated Press WASHINGTON About 100 would-be militants have left small Carib- bean countries to go fight with Islamic extremists in Syria, the top U.S. general in South America said Thursday. Marine Gen. John Kelly told the Senate Armed Ser- vices Committee that if the recruits return to their home nations, they could come up through cross- border drug or other crim- inal networks into the U.S. So far, however, he said he has seen no indications of a direct threat or scheme to attack the U.S. Kelly, who heads the U.S. Southern Command, said Iran and Islamic ex- tremist groups are doing a "fair amount" of recruit- ing in the region, and said some people have become radicalized through the In- ternet and others through radical mosques. He listed Jamaica, Trinidad, Suri- name and Venezuela as countries where officials believe recruits have de- parted for Syria. The amount of move- ment across the border and the sophistication of the networks overwhelm "our ability to stop every- thing," Kelly told reporters during a Pentagon briefing later in the day. Kelly said the small Ca- ribbean nations are con- cerned about the extrem- ists returning home to conduct terror operations, because they don't have any real ability to deal with the problem. And, once back in their coun- try, he said, the recruits can travel freely between countries and potentially get across the border into America. "Everyone is concerned, of course, if they come home," said Kelly, adding that while in Syria the re- cruits would "get good at killing and pick up some real job skills in terms of explosives and beheadings and things like that." The concern about rad- icalized citizens traveling to Syria to fight has been growing, both in the U.S. and across Europe. Most recently, three British schoolgirls went to Syria to join the Islamic State group, shocking families and friends and under- scoring the difficulties in identifying recruits and would-be militants. In other comments, Kelly said his ability to use surveillance aircraft to locate and track drug smugglers on the water would be cut in half if Congress fails to reverse automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration. He said he'd likely lost the ability to use Navy P-3 aircraft and would be unable to hire private sur- veillance planes he usu- ally uses for intelligence gathering. Kelly was also asked about a judge's ruling pro- hibiting female guards from jobs that require them to touch a Muslim detainee. The government is arguing that the ban vi- olates the military's gen- der-neutral policy. Kelly, on Thursday, said the ban sounds like gender dis- crimination to him but said he has no choice but to follow the order. 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