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ByLoriHinnant The Associated Press PARIS U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he won't shut the door on the possibility of working with Iran against a common en- emy in the Islamic State militant group, but the two nations won't coordinate on military action. Kerry also ruled out co- ordinating with the Syrian government, although he vaguely described ways to communicate to avoid mis- takes should the U.S. and its allies begin bombing the Sunni extremist group's safe haven there. He spoke to a small group of reporters Mon- day after international dip- lomats met in Paris, pledg- ing to fight the Islamic State group "by any means necessary." Neither Iran nor Syria, which together share most of Iraq's borders, were in- vited to the international conference, which opened as a pair of French recon- naissance jets took off over Iraqi skies. During the meeting, Iraq asked allies to thwart the extremists wherever they find sanctuary. "We are asking for air- borne operations to be con- tinued regularly against terrorist sites. We must not allow them to set up sanctuaries. We must pur- sue them wherever they are. We must cut off their financing. We must bring them to justice and we must stop the fighters in neighboring countries from joining them," Iraqi President Fouad Massoum said. With memories of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq still raw, the U.S. has so far been alone in car- rying out airstrikes and no country has offered ground troops, but Iraq on Monday won a declara- tion by the conference's 24 participant nations to help fight the militants "by any means necessary, includ- ing military assistance." An American official said Sunday several Arab coun- tries had offered to con- duct airstrikes, speaking on condition of anonym- ity to discuss the sensitive issue. A French diplomat, speaking only on condi- tion of anonymity after the conference because of pro- tocol, said Paris was await- ing a "formal request" from Baghdad about possible French airstrikes. The killing of Da- vid Haines, a British aid worker held hostage by the militants, added ur- gency to the calls for a co- herent strategy against the brutal and well-orga- nized Sunni group, which is a magnet for Muslim ex- tremists from all over the world. The group rakes in more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extor- tion, according to U.S. in- telligence officials and pri- vate experts. Massoum called for a coordinated military and humanitarian approach, as well as regular strikes against territory in the hands of the extremists and the elimination of their funding. Details of the mil- itary options have not been made public. After the conference ended, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met pri- vately with Massoum at the Iraqi Embassy in Paris, tell- ing him that the drive for an inclusive Iraq govern- ment had been key to Mon- day's pledges. Fighters with the Islamic State group, including many Iraqis, swept in from Syria and overwhelmed the Iraqi military in the Sunni- dominated Anbar province, capitalizing on long-stand- ing grievances against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. When the militants ar- rived in Mosul, Iraq's sec- ond-largest city, the U.S.- trained military crumbled and the militants seized tanks, missile launchers and ammunition, steam- rolling across northern Iraq. The CIA estimates the Sunni militant group has access to between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria. WAR ON TERROR US won't rule out help from Iran against IS BRENDANSMIALOWSKI;POOL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS French President Francois Hollande, le , watches U.S Secretary of State John Kerry, right, shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, back to the camera, at the international conference intended to come up with an international strategy against Islamic State extremists, in Paris on Monday. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A fighter from the militant group who refer to themselves as the Islamic State, distributes a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, to a driver in Mosul, Iraq, on June 22. By Sinan Salaheddin The Associated Press BAGHDAD The extremist- held Iraqi city of Mosul is set to usher in a new school year. But unlike years past, there will be no art or mu- sic. Classes about history, literature and Christianity have been "permanently an- nulled." The Islamic State group has declared patriotic songs blasphemous and ordered that certain pictures be torn out of textbooks. But instead of compli- ance, Iraq's second largest city has — at least so far — responded to the Sunni militants' demands with silence. Although the ex- tremists stipulated that the school year would be- gin Sept. 9, pupils have uniformly not shown up for class, according to res- idents who spoke anony- mously because of safety concerns. They said fami- lies were keeping their chil- dren home out of mixed feelings of fear, resistance and uncertainty. "What's important to us now is that the children continue receiving knowl- edge correctly, even if they lose a whole academic year and an official certifica- tion," a Mosul resident who identified himself as Abu Hassan told The Associated Press, giving only his nick- name for fear of reprisals. He and his wife have opted for home schooling, picking up the required readings at the local market. The fall of Mosul on June 10 was a turning point in Iraq's war against the ji- hadi group that calls it- self the Islamic State. The U.S.-trained Iraqi military, harassed for months by small-scale attacks, buckled almost instantly when mili- tants advanced on the city. Commanders disappeared. Pleas for more ammunition went unanswered. In some cases, soldiers stripped off their uniforms and ran. The city would come to represent the expanding power and influence of the extremist group, which was born in Iraq but spread to Syria, where it grew expo- nentially in the chaos of the country's civil war. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's re- clusive leader, made his first video appearance in Mosul in July to announce his vi- sion for a self-styled caliph- ate — an Islamic state — of which he would be the ca- liph, or leader. Part of the Islamic State group's core strategy is to establish administration over lands that it controls to project an image of it- self as a ruler and not just a fighting force. In parts of Syria under its control, the group now adminis- ters courts, fixes roads and even polices traffic. It re- cently imposed a curricu- lum in schools in its Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, scrap- ping subjects such as phi- losophy and chemistry, and fine-tuning the sciences to fit with its ideology. In Mosul, schools have been presented with a new set of rules, advertised in a two-page bulletin posted on mosques, in markets and on electricity poles. The statement, dated Sept. 5, cheered "good news of the establishment of the Islamic State Education Diwan by the caliph who seeks to eliminate igno- rance, to spread religious sciences and to fight the decayed curriculum." Islamic State group issues new curriculum in Iraq SCHOOLS By Robert Burns The Associated Press WASHINGTON Just miles from where former Guan- tanamo Bay terror suspects have resettled, American warplanes take off from Qatar's al-Udeid air base in the global war on ex- tremism. The contrast in images illustrates why tiny but rich Qatar is an intriguing player in what President Barack Obama says will be a long battle to stop and eventually destroy the Is- lamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Qatar plays an outsize role as a U.S. military part- ner. It gained public praise from Obama for brokering the controversial deal that freed Army Sgt. Bowe Berg- dahl from Taliban captivity in May in exchange for the release of five senior Tali- ban officials who had been imprisoned for years at the U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Qatar promised Obama it would keep the five under watch for one year, although they would then be free to leave. The Obama administra- tion also praised Qatar for its role in securing the re- lease of extremist hostage Peter Theo Curtis. But Qatar also has a rep- utation as a supporter of Islamist groups in disfa- vor in Washington. Some in Congress suspect Qa- tar of funneling money to Islamic State militants, though the State Depart- ment says the U.S. has no evidence of it. Qatari officials in Doha had no immediate com- ment for this story, but the government has unequivo- cally denied that it backs the Islamic State group. Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah said last month that his country "does not support extremist groups, including ISIS, in any way." Western analysts say Qa- tar is attempting a some- times awkward balanc- ing act between its desire for good relations with the United States and its ef- forts to maintain influence closer to home. "Qatar is always looking for the angle, and that's really the best way to ex- plain it," said Daniel Benja- min, a former State Depart- ment counterterrorism co- ordinator who now directs Dartmouth's Dickey Center for International Under- standing. "By having con- nections that are so broad, so wide ranging, it can put itself at the center of just about every issue." Qatar gives a home to Khaled Mashaal, exiled leader of Hamas, a Pales- tinian militant organiza- tion considered by the U.S. to be a terrorist group. But Qatar also has main- tained ties to Hamas' en- emy, Israel. And to Islamist groups including the Mus- lim Brotherhood for which other Gulf states like Saudi Arabia have little tolerance. "This is a small and wealthy country that is try- ing to maintain influence 360 degrees," said Michele Flournoy, a former under- secretary of defense for pol- icy and now chief executive officer of the Center for a New American Security. "They are hedging their bets and trying to make sure they have influence no matter who comes out on top" in the multifac- eted struggle for power in the Middle East, she added. 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