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U.S. official hints ISIL airstrikes might cross into Syria

22 August 2014 11:50 (UTC +04:00)

Rhodes confirmed that there are other American hostages still being held by ISIL. As we wrote on Wednesday, U.S. special forces went into Syria earlier this summer on a mission to rescue American hostages held by ISIL including James Foley, who was executed earlier this week.

But then things got interesting. When asked about future American airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria, where they have "a major base," Rhodes outlined the renascent U.S. efforts in Iraq and then added:

"We don't rule anything out when it comes to the protection of Americans and the disruption of terrorist plotting against the United States. So we would not restrict ourselves by geographic boundaries when it comes to the core mission of U.S. foreign policy, which is the protection of our people."

Rhodes went onto to say that no decisions on additional actions had been made, but that they weren't being ruled out.