Islamic State Group

The coalition had no immediate comment.

The report by Airwars, a project aimed at tracking the international airstrikes targeting the extremists, said it believed 57 specific strikes killed civilians and caused 48 suspected "friendly fire" deaths. It said the strikes have killed more than 15,000 Islamic State militants.

While Airwars noted the difficulty of verifying information in territory held by the IS group, which has kidnapped and killed journalists and activists, other groups have reported similar casualties from the U.S.-led airstrikes.

The Anti-Terrorist Committee said Sunday that the militants killed in combat in the province of Ingushetia west of Chechnya were involved in a series of attacks on police. It added that they had recently swore an oath of allegiance to IS.

The U.N. mission to Iraq said that at least 844 civilians were among the dead, while 488 members of Iraqi security forces and pro-government militias fighting the Islamic State group were killed.

It put the number of the wounded at 2,108. Baghdad was the worst affected province with 335 people killed.

This is summer camp in Iraq, set up by the country's largest paramilitary force after Iraq's top Shiite cleric issued an edict calling on students as young as middle-school age to use their summer vacations to prepare to fight the Sunni extremists.

These young fighters could have serious implications for the U.S.-led coalition, which provides billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Iraqi government. 

The move is expected to further embroil Turkey in Syria's civil war and set up a potential conflict with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

A U.S. official said the creation of an "Islamic State-free zone" would ensure greater security and stability in the Turkish-Syrian border region. However, the official said any joint military efforts with Turkey would not include the imposition of a no-fly zone. 

Assad's speech, while confident, comes as his battered country is host to the extremist Islamic State group, which is targeted in daily U.S.-led airstrikes. 

Turkey also has begun striking Islamic State fighters in Syria, as well as some Kurdish forces now leading a ground offensive against the extremists within the splintered country's borders.

The airstrikes that targeted the town of Manbej in Aleppo province were most likely carried out by Syrian army warplanes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said the death toll was likely to rise because many of the wounded suffered critical injuries.

Twitter and Facebook accounts affiliated with the Islamic State group said 26 people were killed and around 100 others wounded in the attacks.

The statement represents his most direct signal to date that he will seek to expand his country's role in supporting the United States and its allies.

In remarks made to NBC News' "Meet the Press," Cameron said Britain must do more fight the group, also known as ISIL. The remarks, which follow a commitment to meet NATO targets on military spending, make plain that Britain now sees the group as an explicit threat to national security.

The prosecutor's statement said the suspects, who were arrested Monday but have not yet been charged, told investigators they planned a late December or early January attack on the Mediterranean military post Fort Bear, where the 23-year-old Djebril A., a former Marine, once worked. 

The two others, identified as Ismael K., 17, and Antoine F., 19, said the plan was to decapitate the base chief — a plot that Djebril denied.

The three met online and communicated through an encrypted program.