“Faced with a burgeoning refugee crisis in Europe sparked by global extremism, U.S. and European officials said Tuesday there is a growing consensus that the multinational military campaign against Islamic State must focus more on targeting the group’s nerve centers in Syria,” The Wall Street Journal reports.  

“U.S. officials initially cast the 15-month-old fight against Islamic State as an “Iraq-first” strategy, intended to stop the extremist expansion there. But Washington and its key allies are now putting a deeper emphasis on Syria… With thousands of people flowing into Europe every day, France and England are both poised to set aside long-standing reservations and join Washington in carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria.”  

“The U.S. has stepped up its focus on Syria by working with Turkey to clamp down on a 60-mile stretch of the Turkey-Syria border that, according to American officials, is Islamic State’s most important supply route for arms, weapons and fighters.”