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ByRobertBurns The Associated Press WASHINGTON At the heart of President Barack Obama's quandary over the Islamic State militants is their haven in Syria. The president may con- tinue helping Iraqi forces try to reverse the group's land grabs in northern Iraq by providing more arms and American military advisers and by using U.S. warplanes to support Iraqi ground op- erations. On Friday the Pen- tagon announced that U.S. warplanes made three more airstrikes against Islamic State targets near the Mo- sul Dam, including a ma- chine gun position that was firing on Iraqi forces. But what if the militants pull back, even partially, into Syria and regroup, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday pre- dicted they would, followed by a renewed offensive? "In a sense, you're just sort of back to where you were" before they swept into Iraq, said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who quit in Febru- ary in disillusionment over Obama's unwillingness to arm moderate Syrian reb- els. "I don't see how you can contain the Islamic State over the medium term if you don't address their base of operations in Syria," he said in an interview before an intensified round of U.S. airstrikes this week helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces re- capture a Tigris River dam near Mosul that had fallen under control of Islamic State militants. On the other hand, Obama has been leery of getting drawn into the Syr- ian civil war, which began in 2011. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the Islamic State militants can be contained only so long, and that at some point their Syrian sanctuary will have to be dealt with. "Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no," he told a Pentagon press confer- ence where Hagel called the group a dire threat that re- quires an international, not just an American, response. "That (sanctuary) will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essen- tially at this point a non- existent border," Dempsey added, referring to the mili- tants' dismantlement of any semblance of control of the border with Iraq. "And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeat- ing ISIS over time," he said, using an alternate acronym for the group. "ISIS will only truly be defeated when it's rejected by the 20 million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad." More immediately per- haps, Obama faces choices in Iraq, whose sectarian divisions and political dys- function created the open- ing that allowed Islamic State fighters to sweep across northern Iraq in June almost unopposed. They captured U.S.-sup- plied weapons that Iraqi forces left behind when they fled without a fight. Among his options: • Sending more troops to Baghdad to strengthen se- curity for the U.S. Embassy, as requested by the State Department. Officials said the number under consid- eration is fewer than 300. They would be in addition to the several hundred U.S. troops already in the capi- tal to help protect U.S. facil- ities and personnel. • Speeding up the arm- ing of Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The administration has been supplying Iraqi government forces with Hellfire missiles, small arms and ammunition, but critics say the pace has been too slow. The ad- ministration has been re- luctant to openly arm the Kurds, since their militia, known as the peshmerga, is a semi-autonomous force seen in Baghdad as a threat to central govern- ment authority. • Increasing the number and expanding the role of the dozens of U.S. military advisers who are in Bagh- dad and the Kurdish capital of Irbil to coordinate with Iraqi forces. They could be given more direct roles in assisting the Iraqis on the ground by embedding with Iraqi or Kurdish units in the field or scouting targets for U.S. airstrikes. • Committing U.S. ground troops in Iraq. Obama has said repeatedly he would not do this. "We're not the Iraqi military. We're not even the Iraqi air force," Obama said Monday. "I am the commander in chief of the United States armed forces, and Iraq is going to have to ultimately provide for its own security." • Extending the Iraq air campaign to Islamic State targets in Syria. Stretches of eastern Syria are a sanc- tuary for the group, also known by the acronyms ISIL or ISIS. The U.S. has warplanes available in the Middle East and Europe that could vastly increase the number and intensity of strikes in eastern Syria if Obama chose. WORLD Obama faces tough options on situations in Iraq, Syria JACQUELYNMARTIN—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks in Edgartown, Mass., on Wednesday. By Karin Laub The Associated Press GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP Gaza militants Friday gunned down 18 alleged spies for Israel in an appar- ent attempt to plug security breaches and deter others, a day after Israel killed three top Hamas military com- manders in an airstrike likely guided by collabora- tors. In one incident, masked gunmen lined up seven men, their heads covered by bags, along a wall out- side a Gaza City mosque and shot them to death in front of hundreds of peo- ple, witnesses said. A note pinned on the wall said they had leaked informa- tion about the location of tunnels, homes of fighters and rockets that were later struck by Israel. In Israel, a 4-year-old boy was killed when a mor- tar shell hit two cars in the parking lot of Nahal Oz, a small farming commu- nity near Gaza. Five Israe- lis were hurt, one seriously, in several rocket strikes, the military said. One rocket damaged a synagogue. The child's death was bound to raise pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from an increas- ingly impatient public to put an end to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza — something Israel's military has been unable to do after 46 days of fighting with Hamas. Netanyahu's office said he expressed his condo- lences and vowed that Hamas would pay a "heavy price." By early evening, Gaza militants had fired at least 117 rockets and mortar shells at Israel, while Israel carried out at least 35 air- strikes in Gaza, the mili- tary said. In a new warning from Israel's military, automated phone messages told Gaza residents that "Hamas has decided to go to war again" and that people must "get away immediately from ar- eas where Hamas conducts terror activities." At about the same time, an airstrike hit a house in Gaza City, and a huge or- ange ball of fire from the explosion rose into Gaza's night sky. At least 45 people were wounded, health officials said. Since Israel-Hamas fighting began July 8, at least 2,092 Palestinians have been killed, said Gaza health official Ashraf al- Kidra. According to U.N. figures, at least 478 Pales- tinian children and minors were among the dead, in- cluding 320 who were 12 or younger. On the Israeli side, the boy's killing Friday raised the death toll to 68, includ- ing 64 soldiers, three civil- ians and a Thai worker. Friday's escalation came three days after Israel- Hamas truce talks col- lapsed in Cairo. At the talks, Hamas had rejected an Egyptian pro- posal under which Israel would gradually ease its border blockade of Gaza in exchange for a period of extended quiet. Hamas said Israel offered nothing specific, and says it will only halt fire if Israel and Egypt agree to open Ga- za's borders to trade and travel. The border blockade was imposed in 2007, af- ter the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza. Israel has said it cannot lift the closure unless Hamas stops trying to smuggle or manufacture weapons and agrees to disarm, a demand the Islamic mili- tants have rejected. MIDDLE EAST Hamas kills 18 suspected informers to deter leaks as air campaign ramps up NASSER ISHTAYEH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Palestinian protester runs away from Israeli soldiers during clashes, following a protest against the Israeli military action in Gaza, in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday. By Bashir Adigun The Associated Press ABUJA, NIGERIA Two alarming new cases of Eb- ola have emerged in Nige- ria, widening the circle of people sickened beyond the immediate group of care- givers who treated a dying airline passenger in one of Africa's largest cities. The outbreak also con- tinues to spread elsewhere in West Africa, with 142 more cases recorded, bring- ing the new total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday. Most of the new cases are in Liberia, where the gov- ernment was delivering do- nated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak. New treatment centers in Liberia are being over- whelmed by patients that were not previously iden- tified. One center with 20 beds opened its doors to 70 possibly infected peo- ple, likely coming from "shadow-zones" where people fearing authorities won't let doctors enter, the U.N health agency said. "This phenomenon strongly suggests the exis- tence of an invisible case- load of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system," the agency said. This has "never before been seen in an Eb- ola outbreak." The two new cases in Nigeria were infected by their spouses, both med- ical workers who had di- rect contact with Liberian- American Patrick Sawyer, who flew into Nigeria from Liberia and Togo and in- fected 11 others before he died in July. The male and female caregivers also then died of Ebola, Health Minis- ter Onyebuchi Chukwu said Friday. Nigerian officials ini- tially claimed the risk of ex- posure to others was min- imal because Sawyer was whisked into isolation af- ter arriving at the airport. Lagos state health com- missioner Jide Idris later acknowledged that Sawyer was not immediately quar- antined. The two new cases were quarantined two days ago while being tested, Chukwu said. They had previously been under surveillance, meaning they were con- tacted daily to see if they developed any symptoms, but their movements were not restricted. Once they showed signs of the disease, they were brought in. Authorities are now try- ing to identify and monitor everyone they have been in contact with. In all, 213 people are now under surveillance in Nigeria, including six peo- ple, all "secondary con- tacts" like the caregivers' spouses, being monitored in the state of Enugu, more than 310 miles east of La- gos. A mobile laboratory ca- pable of diagnosing the dis- ease has been moved there, Chukwu said. Nigeria's total of con- firmed infections is now 16. Five of them have died and five have recovered; the rest are being treated in isola- tion in Lagos, the commer- cial capital where Sawyer's flight landed. DISEASE Ebola death toll grows in Nigeria, Liberia ABBAS DULLEH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A man, right, working for a humanitarian group, throws water in a small bag to West Point residents behind the fence of a holding area, as they wait for a second consignment of food from the Liberian Government to be handed out, at the West Point area, near the central city area of Monrovia, Liberia, on Friday. N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 PHONE: (530)527-2151 FAX: (530) 527-5774 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. 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