It is not US fight alone, says Obama

70 IS militants & 50 Al-Qaeda-linked fighters killed

Washington: President Obama on Tuesday has hailed the support of Arab nations in air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants, saying: "This is not America's fight alone."'

He was speaking hours after the US and five Arab allies launched their first air strikes against IS in Syria. Activists say at least 70 IS militants and 50 other Al-Qaeda-linked fighters were killed in the strikes.

Syrian officials say they were given advance warning of the strikes, but the state department has denied this. President Obama confirmed Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar took part in the strikes. He said the US was "proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations". Pentagon said the raids had destroyed or damaged IS fighter positions, training compounds, command centres and armed vehicles in the jihadist stronghold of Raqa and near the border with Iraq. An anti-regime activist in Raqa, Abu Yusef, said that IS had redeployed its fighters in response.

At least 150 Indians with IS, says MK Narayanan
London: Indians numbering between 100 and 150 – mostly engineers – have left the country to fight with the Islamic State, former national security advisor MK Narayanan said in a talk on India’s security challenges and strategic imperatives here on Tuesday.

The figure – between 100 and 150 – is significant, since so far the scale of involvement of Indian youth in IS was estimated to be in single digit. There had been a ‘slow and steady stream’ of Indian youth going to fight with IS, he said. Narayanan, former director of Intelligence Bureau who recently stepped down as West Bengal governor, said he continued to be in touch with leaders of Muslim seminaries, but added that most of them were themselves out of touch with Muslim youth.

Why US raids on IS in Syria is bad news for India?
New Delhi: The US-led coalition’s air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria could push up oil prices, fan inflation and dash hopes of lower borrowing rates ahead of the festival season just when the Indian economy is showing signs of clawing out of its deepest slump in 25 years.

The unrest in oil-rich Middle East isn’t good news for millions of Indians who have been looking forward to lower fuel bills amid signs that petrol prices could come down further, as early as next week aided by plunging crude oil prices that touched $97 a barrel — the lowest in two years.This had triggered hopes that the creeping increase in monthly diesel bill may also end soon, as the government could anytime announce de-regulation of diesel prices on the back of declining global oil prices.

The crisis in Syria and Iraq, India’s second largest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, and a possible hardening of oil prices, however, could turn the clock back. For a start, it could mean that India will need to shell out more cash to import fuel, and this in turn raises the prices of transporting goods, leading to higher inflation. And high inflation means that the RBI will hesitate to cut interest rates, a step needed to boost economic growth. So, consumers need to keep paying large chunks of their income every month towards repaying housing loans, even as the cost of food and fuel rises.