US Seeks 'Core Coalition' To Combat IS Threat

The US is forming a "core coalition" to battle Islamic State militants in Iraq, senior American officials have said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called for support as they held talks with officials from 10 nations on the sidelines of a Nato summit on a strategy to defeat IS.

"We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own," Mr Kerry said.

"Obviously I think that's a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground," he added.

Mr Kerry said he was aware that many nations would not want to do military strikes, but he said they could provide intelligence, equipment or weapons.

The talks were held with defence and foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark. 

"This group here this morning is the core coalition," Mr Hagel told them.

IS controls large areas of northern Iraq and Syria

"It is the core group that will form the larger and extended coalition that's going to be required to deal with this challenge."

Speaking after the meeting, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: "The clear message coming out of here is that we have to have a comprehensive response to the ISIL challenge. 

"It's not just about whether or not we should get involved in airstrikes. Everyone has a role to play and we should look at all elements, though it is clear we need regional support with a new and inclusive government of Iraq leading the efforts."

He reiterated that the UK had not made a decision on whether or not to take part in airstrikes.

The US has launched airstrikes in Iraq against the Sunni militants but is looking to expand its campaign after two videos showed the beheading of two American journalists held captive by the group, James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The coaltion was announced as an Iraqi airstrike reportedly killed a senior aide of IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

IS - which is also known as ISIS and ISIL - has gained control over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria. It controls the territory with a strict interpretation of Islamic law and has gone after religious minorities.

The US stressed the need for a comprehensive approach to the crisis in talks on Friday and acknowledged that action against IS in Iraq would have implications in Syria as well.

"We're convinced in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy ISIL. It may take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years," Mr Kerry said.

"But we're determined."

Washington is looking to have solid plans in place by the time the United Nations General Assembly meets in two weeks.

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Europe Agrees On Fresh Russian Sanctions

European leaders have agreed to hit Russia with a fresh round of sanctions - despite Moscow signing up to a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The sanctions include credit restrictions on Russia companies, export bans, travel bans and asset freezes on a new set of officials, according to a European Union diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two branches of the world's biggest oil producer - Gazprom Bank and Gazprom Neft - are targeted by the measures, said the diplomat.

Speaking at the end of a Nato summit in Wales on Friday, David Cameron said sanctions would continue despite both sides agreeing to the 12-point peace plan.

However, the Prime Minister said they could be lifted if a lasting peace was found.

The new restrictions, which will be imposed early next week, come as Britain agreed to supply 1,000 troops to a Nato rapid response force aimed at countering Russian aggression in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen revealed the plan for the Spearhead force after discussions with members in Newport.

Ukraine was a dominant topic on the final day of the Nato summit

"This decision sends a clear message: Nato protects all allies at all times," he said.

"And it sends a clear message to any potential aggressor: should you even think of attacking one ally, you will be facing the whole alliance."

Western leaders accuse Russia of sending thousands of troops into the east of Ukraine - prompting fears of future incursions into other Eastern European countries.

Mr Rasmussen said the Spearhead force would establish a command-and-control presence in the east of allied territories ready to deploy air, sea and special forces in the event of aggression.

He told Sky News Tonight: "We have decided to improve our ability to act swiftly. The force could be deployed within very few days if needed.

"The intention is to strengthen the defence of our allies."

Mr Rasmussen said alliance countries would contribute troops on a rotational basis to the high-readiness force.

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Ukraine Ceasefire Holds With Pro-Russian Rebels

Fighting is reported to have subsided in eastern Ukraine after the government agreed a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confirmed on his Twitter account that a peace plan had been signed, while pro-Russian rebels also announced the news on the social media site.

There were initial reports of shelling in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk moments after the deal came into force at 4pm UK time, but the area later fell quiet.

The deal was reached after talks between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels in the Belarussian capital, Minsk. Officials from Russia and the OSCE security watchdog also participated.

The deal saw an agreement on the release of prisoners on both sides, the delivery of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of heavy weapons. 

Nato leaders say they hope the truce will foster a lasting peace deal

Speaking at a Nato summit in Wales, Mr Poroshenko said Kiev was also ready to grant a significant decentralisation of power and economic freedom to the turbulent east.

It is hoped the deal will go some way towards ending the five-month conflict that, according to the UN, has killed more than 2,600 people.

"Human life is the highest value and we must do everything possible and impossible to end the bloodshed and the suffering," Mr Poroshenko said.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, said Russia was hopeful the ceasefire would be "thoroughly implemented" and that all sides would continue talks to reach a "full settlement of the Ukraine crisis."

The West has accused Russia of sending troops and tanks to participate in the conflict, something Moscow has consistently denied. 

A man repairs the damage to a building caused by shelling in Donetsk

Despite the deal European leaders agreed to hit Russia with a fresh round of sanctions, including credit restrictions on Russian companies and export bans.

Further Russian officials were issued travel bans and asset freezes.

Speaking after the summit, Prime Minister David Cameron indicated the sanctions might be lifted if the ceasefire leads to a more durable peace deal.

However US President Barack Obama admitted there was a degree of pessimism about the chances of lasting peace.

He said he was "hopeful, but based on past experience also sceptical that the separatists will follow through and the Russians will stop violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

David Cameron said sanctions would stand despite the truce

Sky's Katie Stallard, who is on eastern city limits of Mariupol, said soldiers from both sides remained in position and it was difficult to see the ceasefire holding "long term".

"No one has much faith in the ceasefire here," she said.

"There is scepticism about the timing. President Putin has come up with the peace plan right at the point European leaders were preparing to finalise tougher sanctions on Russia.

"What this also doesn't resolve is that we're hearing from the self-proclaimed prime minister of the Lugansk People's Republic, who is saying that this ceasefire doesn't address the status of their 'republic' and they do not abandon their plans to separate from Ukraine."

Meanwhile, Nato announced plans to create a "Spearhead" rapid response force to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine.

But Moscow said joint military exercises planned by Kiev and Nato in Ukraine - and announced along with the Spearhead force - could undermine peace moves.

Russia's foreign ministry said military exercises - planned for September 16-26 - would cause "increased tensions, threaten the tentative progress in the peace process in Ukraine and contribute to the aggravation of a split in the Ukraine society".

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Ukrainian City Braced As Shelling Intensifies

IS And Ukraine Crisis Make Nato Summit Crucial

Updated: 8:48am UK, Thursday 04 September 2014

By Faisal Islam, Political Editor

The last time a Nato summit was held in the UK, Margaret Thatcher was in the chair in London. It was 1990. The Cold War had been won.

A Europe "whole and free" was mentioned in the communique, alongside how "the Soviet Union has embarked on the long journey toward a free society".

Today, relations between Moscow and the West are at their lowest ebb since the Cold War.

And another Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, will chair a Nato summit, talking of a new threat that will require a generational ideological struggle "not unlike the Cold War" - against the self-declared Islamic State.

All of this speaks to a new world disorder. There's political chaos in Pakistan, Afghanistan is hardly stable, and the world has taken its eyes away from an extraordinary war in Libya.

At Celtic Manor in Wales, the talk will be about a new era of co-operation between Europe, the US and new partners.

Armoured personnel carriers, tanks and interactive defence displays will be parked on the fairways. There will be fly-pasts of Nato air assets. The Government rarely misses an opportunity to try and boost exports.

What both the PM and President Obama have referred to as "Russia's aggression" in Ukraine, and the threat from IS, will dominate the talks, even if the latter is only scheduled to be discussed at dinner on Friday night.

On Russia, the post-Cold War vision of a Europe whole and free is now being challenged by the actions of President Putin.

It seems a drastic step, but Nato may effectively alter the "founding act" of its relationship with Russia, essentially a promise not to build permanent bases in Eastern Europe.

The Baltic states and Poland would like this revisited. Germany, closer to Russia than the rest of Europe, is pushing back.

Officially, the founding act will stay. But expect new forward bases in Eastern Europe to allow rapid reaction to President Putin's "hybrid war" - the rapid use of deniable Russian military assets, known locally as "little green men".

President Poroshenko will meet with the "quint" (the US, UK, France, Germany and Italy) just before the summit. France has already paused the highly controversial sale of Mistral helicopter carriers. The export was due within weeks.

On IS, we are seeing the ramping of rhetoric to levels consistent with a more concerted military effort. President Obama said he wanted to destroy and degrade IS.

The summit will be about slow coalition building on the margins. Alongside 28 Nato leaders, including Turkey, there will be allies and partners such as Jordan.

The bigger agenda on a military coalition against IS requires an invitation from the central government in Baghdad, even to arm Kurdish forces.

The most important Nato summit in decades. It is a measure of the world's new instability that President Putin himself attended the last Nato summit in Chicago in 2012. And the main agenda here in Wales is dealing with chief summit guest from two years ago.

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IS Leader's Top Aide 'Killed In Iraq Airstrike'

ISIS Leader Is Jihad's 'Rising Star'

Updated: 8:49am UK, Thursday 12 June 2014

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controls large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq.

But despite his power - and a $10m (£5.9m) US reward for information leading to his capture - little is known about a man who for his own survival has shunned the spotlight.

Fighters from ISIS and its rivals have praised Baghdadi as a strategist driven by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state.

He has succeeded in exploiting turmoil in Syria and Iraq's weak central authority after the US military withdrawal to carve out his powerbase.

He has also proved ruthless in eliminating opponents to further his ambition of creating an Islamist state.

According to the US reward notice, which depicts a round-faced, brown-eyed man with closely cropped beard and short dark hair, Baghdadi was born in the Iraqi town of Samarra in 1971.

He is said to be the only prominent al Qaeda leader not to pledge allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri after Osama bin Laden's death three years ago.

He split with Zawahri after falling out with al Qaeda's Nusra Front in Syria, whose leader Abu Mohammad al Golani rejected an edict to merge his forces under Baghdadi's command.

While Baghdadi's supporters believe an Islamic state would revive the glories of Islam, they say Zawahiri feared that by drawing jihadi fighters together in one place it would make it easier for the West to defeat them.

His fighters counter that Baghdadi has plenty of hidden surprises for his enemies.

"He has capabilities that he keeps secret until the right time," one ISIS supporter said.

Ignoring Zawahiri's calls to leave Syria to the Nusra Front, Baghdadi expanded operations across northern and eastern Syria in 2012 and 2013, sometimes battling Bashar al Assad's forces but more often pushing out other rebel fighters.

Baghdadi's fighters now control the city of Raqqa - Syria's only provincial capital completely beyond Assad's control - and have imposed strict Islamic law.

In neighbouring Deir al-Zor province ISIS has waged a six-week offensive against rival rebels in which 600 fighters have been killed, seizing oilfields and towns on the northeast bank of the Euphrates, 60 miles (100 km) from the Iraqi border.

There is also video evidence of ISIS in the Syrian town of Azaz, with territory they controlled marked by graffiti on the walls and a flying flag.

Video also appeared on a social media website in January purported to show the northern Syrian town of Manbij after it was captured from rival insurgents by fighters from ISIS.

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Nato Leaders To Unveil Tough Russia Sanctions

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

Tough new measures designed to halt Russian aggression in Ukraine will be unveiled on the second and final day of the Nato summit in Wales.

The United States and European Union are due to announce a new round of co-ordinated economic sanctions against Russia, US and British government sources have reported.

These are set to include restrictions on some of the country's all-important energy firms and travel restrictions.

But it comes amid reports of further fighting to the east of the port of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, hours before Ukrainian, Russian and European envoys are expected to back a peace plan and a ceasefire.

Mayor of Mariupol, Yuri Khotlubey, told Ukraine's 112 TV channel: "Our artillery has come and is being deployed against the (pro-Russian) rebels."

Nato says thousands of Russian troops are in Ukraine

Sky News' Kate Stallard, who is on eastern city limits of Mariupol, said: "We are hearing heavy shelling, which sounds like it's closer to the city now.

"We can also see smoke rising to the north of the city and there are reports of further shelling to the north and to the west. It would seem that there is something of a push from at least two directions on to the city.

"This is happening several hours ahead of what would be a ceasefire, which in itself may be why this is happening. It's not unusual to see a concerted push in the run up to a ceasefire as both sides try to consolidate their ground."

A commander of a Ukrainian volunteer militia based in Mariupol told Reuters news agency: "We were under fire all night but we are still keeping the rebels at bay. They are facing us with tanks and artillery."

Western leaders accuse Russia of sending thousands of troops into the east of the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of the summit on Thursday, deputy White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Russia would pay a price for its actions.

Nato wants Iraq to request military training support

""The key point is that Russia must continue to face costs for its own escalation.

"If Russia escalates, we can escalate our pressure."

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned that Russia's incursion poses the most serious security threat to Europe since the Cold War, although Moscow has consistently denied direct military involvement.

Nato is also expected to finalise plans for a Rapid Reaction Force that can deploy to Eastern Europe on 48 hours notice.

This will include pre-positioning logistic and planning support in Baltic countries, and the provision vital equipment.

Nato insists this does not breach a 1997 agreement not to create permanent bases near the Russian border.

The announcements will come a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama and other senior Nato leaders met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Mr Poroshenko has announced plans to order a ceasefire, provided a peace plan is agreed during separate talks in Minsk, attended by representatives from Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian rebel forces. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also expressed hopes a truce will come into force later, two days after he unveiled his own seven-point peace plan.

Alongside Ukraine, Nato leaders will use the final day of the summit to discuss the threat posed by Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.

The alliance leaders met for a formal dinner at Cardiff Castle last night.

Mr Obama is trying to bring together a coalition of nations and it is becoming increasingly likely the UK will authorise airstrikes against IS in northern Iraq.

But for any operation to be effective, it needs the support and involvement of countries in the region.

Nato is encouraging Iraq to request training support for its military although it will not go further and involve itself in a combat mission.

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Sky Films Troops 'In Russian Gear' In Ukraine

Confusion Over Ukraine 'Permanent Ceasefire'

Updated: 3:38pm UK, Wednesday 03 September 2014

Vladimir Putin says a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels could be reached by Friday.

The Russian President's announcement comes after conflicting reports that a permanent ceasefire agreement had been reached by the two sides this morning.

Following witness reports of loud artillery explosions near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the country's President Petro Poroshenko modified his statement to remove the word "permanent".

It is unclear whether his actions were in response to reports of the explosion.

Reporting from Mariupol, Ukraine, Sky's Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard said: "It's extremely unclear at this stage what exactly this ceasefire is supposed to be.

"No one we have spoken to on the ground seems to know about it.

"The Ukrainian president issued a statement this morning claiming he agreed with Vladimir Putin to a permanent ceasefire in the region.

"He has since slightly modified that statement and removed the word 'permanent'.

"A spokesman for President Putin said no such agreement has been reached, nor can it, because Russia is not a party to the conflict."

Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was earlier quoted as saying the leaders' views "overlap to a considerable degree".

"The heads of state exchanged opinions about what needs to be done first in order to bring an end to the bloodletting in the southeast of the country as soon as possible," said Mr Peskov.

A statement from Kiev said an understanding had been achieved which would enable the "establishment of peace".

News of the development was greeted with an immediate rally on the financial markets - the main Russian stock exchange, the Micex, rising 4% and stocks in London with the FTSE 100 reached a 14-year high in morning trade.

Russia later announced it was to hold major military exercises in September of the forces responsible for its long-range nuclear capability. The drills will involve more than 4,000 servicemen and 400 technical units. 

Meanwhile, world leaders have begun arriving in the UK ahead of a two-day Nato summit in Wales where the Ukraine crisis will be top of the agenda. 

Speaking in Estonia ahead of the summit, President Obama said that Nato would not accept what he called Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.

In a thinly-veiled warning to President Putin, the US President added that the Baltic states were bound by the Nato alliance.

"We have a solid duty to each other. Article Five is crystal clear; an attack on one is an attack on all," he said.

Mr Obama added the US was working to bolster the security of Nato allies and increase America's military presence in Europe.

"It would mean more US forces, including American boots on the ground continuously rotating through the Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine militaries."

Russia has repeatedly denied claims its soldiers were recently sent into eastern Ukraine to support Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels.

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Ukraine Troops In Call For Better Arms

By Yulia Bragina, Russia Producer, In Eastern Ukraine

On the highway between Donetsk and Mariupol in eastern Ukraine near the village of Volnovakha, there stood a military transporter with an old, self-propelled artillery gun and tired-looking men perched on it.

Having spent several hours trying to find the Ukrainian military, the Sky News team decided to pull over and speak to them.

They told us they got separated from the column when the engine of their transporter got overheated - again - as they were making their way from a mission near the town of Starobesheve.

Trench dug by Ukrainian soldiers outside Mariupol

The soldiers asked our team to tell the checkpoint on the outskirts of Mariupol that they had broken down because they had no other way of informing their commander.

"We are too close to the rebel-held territory here. If we don't get help quickly, we will not survive the night," said Artyom, 22.

The men told us they had earlier engaged with a Russian military convoy closer to the border.

A member of the Azov battalion stands guard at their base in Mariupol

"The APCs (armoured personnel carriers) that we were fighting against had a parachute painted in the front. That's a symbol of Russian paratroopers," said Artyom.

"They are not even hiding anymore. I have seen with my own eyes the Russian military convoy crossing from Russia into Ukraine on August 18, but no one believes us."

A few kilometres away we met another Ukrainian military vehicle on its way to the front line, and one of the officers agreed to talk to us anonymously.

Soldiers like Roman say there is a lack of basic equipment

Petro (not his real name) said he was 28, had a wife and three children and had been serving in the Ukrainian army for nine years.

He was angry with the policies of the government in Kiev which he regarded as too indecisive, and warned that if it continued the army would turn and march on the capital.

Petro criticised Western politicians for not supporting Ukraine with positive action. What they needed, he said, was modern equipment and arms, not words.

Roman shows off the sneakers supplied by a family member

"We have many patriots who want to defend their country, but people are just scared to fight with tanks and APCs that are 30 to 40 years old," he said.

His call was echoed by members of the volunteer Azov battalion on the outskirts of Mariupol like 27-year-old Roman.

Roman, a veteran of nine firefights, said the sneakers he was wearing had been sent to him by his brother who lives in Florida.

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PM: UK Will Not Pay For British IS Hostage

Nato Plans 'Spearhead' Force To Face Russia

Updated: 12:53pm UK, Tuesday 02 September 2014

Nato is set to create a high-readiness force and stockpile military equipment in Eastern Europe as a bulwark against potential Russian aggression, the alliance's chief has said.

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the proposed new force could be comprised of several thousand troops contributed to on a rotating basis by the 28 Nato countries.

Backed by air and naval assets, he said the unit would be a spearhead that could be deployed at very short notice to help Nato members defend themselves against any threat, including from Russia.

Nato leaders are to consider the plans at a summit this week in Wales that is likely to be dominated by how the US-led alliance should respond to the Russian-backed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine is not a member of Nato, but its UK ambassador told Sky News he backed the move and appealed for Ukraine's allies to step up sanctions and provide military help now.

Andrii Kuzmenko said: "What is important for Ukraine is to provide the means for our defence ... including armaments."

The move could provoke Russia, whose foreign minister warned on Monday that Ukrainian forces must pull back from areas where they can harm civilians.

Sergei Lavrov spoke amid reports that Ukrainian forces had been ordered to pull back from Luhansk airport in the face of an onslaught from Russian tanks - the latest claim of direct Russian involvement in the fighting.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said Russian units were moving into other towns in the region, including the largest city of the Donetsk region.

"The information that Russian troops are there has been confirmed," he said.

"We are fighting Russia and it is Russia which is deciding what will happen in Donbass," he told Ukraine's Inter channel, referring to the informal name of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Mr Lavrov again denied that Russian troops were in Ukraine and said he hoped talks taking place in the Belarussian capital Minsk would focus on agreeing an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

Speaking in the east Siberian city of Yakutsk on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Europe of ignoring the Ukrainian army "directly targeting its fire on residential areas".

He said he hoped "common sense will prevail" and that Russia and the West would not harm each other with further sanctions.

Speaking in the House of Commons, David Cameron said Russia appeared to be trying to force Ukraine "to give up its democratic choices at the barrel of a gun".

The PM said the presence of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil was "completely unjustified and unacceptable".

A rights group that works to expose Russian army abuses claims up to 15,000 soldiers have been sent to Ukraine by Moscow in the last two months, and several hundred may have died in combat.

Valentina Melnikova, head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, a prominent organisation representing the families of military servicemen, said that some 7,000-8,000 Russian troops are believed to be in Ukraine at present.

"Military commanders are conducting a secret special operation," said Ms Melnikova, who is a member of the defence ministry's public council.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian military spokesman said a rescue operation was continuing for two seamen missing in the Azov Sea after pro-Russian separatists attacked a Ukrainian navy vessel for the first time.

Eight other seamen survived the attack and were being treated for wounds and burns after the vessel was hit by artillery from the shore.

Separatists in the region claimed responsibility for the attack on social media.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the events of the past few days showed Russia had launched a "direct and open aggression" against Ukraine.

Leading American senators have called for the US to send weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against what they called a "Russian invasion".

Democrat Robert Mendez, who runs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN: "We should provide the Ukrainians with the type of defensive weapons that will impose a cost upon Putin for further aggression."

The call was echoed by former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who told CBS's Face The Nation that Mr Putin was "an old KGB colonel that wants to restore the Russian empire".

Earlier, the European Union gave Russia a week to scale back its intervention in Ukraine, warning of further sanctions.

China opposes additional sanctions against Russia and has urged world leaders to find a political solution to the crisis.

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Nato Summit: Ukraine Crisis To Top The Agenda

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

World leaders will begin arriving in the UK today ahead of the start of a two-day Nato summit in Wales tomorrow.

Some 61 heads of state are expected to gather at The Celtic Manor Resort outside Newport, with the ongoing conflict in Ukraine set to top the agenda of discussions.

Leaders will be joined by officials from the European Union, the UN, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

A further 5,000 delegates are expected to gather to discuss the future of the Nato alliance.

Speaking at Downing Street ahead of the summit, David Cameron has condemned the ongoing violence in Ukraine, describing it as "disgraceful".

He told an audience of international delegates in London on Tuesday night: "What's happening in the Ukraine right now is disgraceful and completely unacceptable.

Mr Cameron has described the violence in Ukraine as "disgraceful"

"Members of Nato want and deserve real reassurance that our Article V commitments are rock solid."

He said he wanted the upcoming conference to demonstrate a "very clear, unified and strong message" about the importance of Nato globally.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has also warned that Nato must show it still has the political will to fight back in the event of a Russian attack on any member states.

Western nations have repeatedly accused Russia of intervening militarily in the conflict in Ukraine. The claims have been denied by Moscow.

Mr Hammond said: "For Nato to maintain its credibility in the future, we have to demonstrate that we maintain the political will to act to defend ourselves and our interests.

"We have to be clear that we have not lost the appetite to intervene when our interests or our obligations require us to do so.

Mr Obama will travel to Wales after a visit to the Baltic states today

"If we lack, or are perceived to lack, the political will to respond - and to do so quickly - the credibility of that commitment to collective defence will be undermined, and the very fabric of this, most successful of alliances, will unravel.

"So we have to be clear with Russia, in particular, that while we support a political resolution to the situation in eastern Ukraine, there is a red line around Nato member states themselves that cannot be crossed."

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says the alliance is set to create a high-readiness force in Eastern Europe as a bulwark against potential Russian aggression.

Mr Rasmussen said the unit would be a spearhead that could be deployed at very short notice to help Nato members defend themselves against any threat.

The murder of another US journalist by Islamic State militants will also feature in bilateral discussions between Western allies at the summit.

US President Barack Obama will head to Wales after a visit to the Baltic States.

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Sotloff Family Grieving After Hostage 'Killed'

The family of US hostage Steven Sotloff have seen a video which purportedly shows him being beheaded by an Islamic State fighter, and are grieving privately.

Barak Barfi, a family spokesman, also said authorities have not established its authenticity.

He said: "The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time."

Mr Sotloff, 31, was a freelance journalist for Time and Foreign Policy magazines who went missing in Syria.

He was apparently killed by IS in revenge for US airstrikes on the Islamist militant group in Iraq.

Mr Sotloff has reportedly been killed by Islamic State

His reported death comes two weeks after the release of a video showing the killing of fellow US citizen James Foley and Mr Sotloff being threatened with death.

That led to Mr Sotloff's mother Shirley pleading for her son's life.

A friend of both hostages, Matthew Van Dyke, told Sky News it was time for the US to consider paying ransoms to secure the release of hostages.

IS had reportedly demanded £80m for Mr Foley's release.

But the US - unlike several European countries that have given millions to the terror group to spare their citizens - refused to pay.

Mr Van Dyke told Sky News he hoped the apparent killing was a "wake-up call to Americans", adding: "This is a serious threat".

Shirley Sotloff had pleaded for her son's life

He went on: "They are executing Americans and videotaping it and we need to do something about that. The US administration needs to get serious about the problem."

Mr Van Dyke said there were more Americans being held by IS and "we need to bring them home".

He said authorities should "re-examine the policy of paying ransoms for prisoner exchanges to at least get these people home and then take on IS and kill them before they get to spend the money."

Mr Van Dyke said the news of Mr Sotloff's reported death was "horrible", adding: "I've lost two friends in two weeks."

He said Mr Sotloff was a "brilliant journalist, hard working and dedicated".

"He knew the dangers but he knew the story needed to be told."

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IS Beheading: British Hostage Will Be Next

Sotloff: Driven Reporter And Mideast Expert

Updated: 9:31am UK, Wednesday 03 September 2014

Steven Sotloff, the US journalist who was purportedly beheaded by Islamic State militants, was passionate about the Middle East and had long worked in the area.

Friends and colleagues describe the 31-year-old Mr Sotloff as an honest and courageous journalist who sought to understand the culture of the places he reported from and tell the stories of the people affected by conflict.

His work appeared in Time, Foreign Affairs and World Affairs magazines.

"Steven was very ethical, very driven, an exceptional journalist and an exceptional person," said Matthew Van Dyke, an activist and film-maker who met Mr Sotloff in Libya in 2012.

"He was also a cautious journalist, he did everything the right way," he told Sky News.

Mr Sotloff vanished in Syria in August 2013. His capture was kept secret for months at the request of his family, who said they are now grieving privately.

He then appeared in a video that showed the beheading of fellow US journalist James Foley last month.

A Miami native, Mr Sotloff attended University of Central Florida, where he took an interest in journalism. He did not graduate from the university.

He covered the Arab Spring uprisings and several Middle East hotspots, including Yemen, Egypt and Libya. He learnt Arabic.

"He lived in the region for a time, he really got to know the people, the culture," said Mr Van Dyke.

"This was a region that was important to him, he wasn't somebody who jumped from conflict to conflict all over the world, he was a regional specialist and he knew what he was doing."

In his Facebook and Twitter profiles Mr Sotloff called himself a "stand-up philosopher from Miami" and often spoke of his love for the Miami Heat.

In June 12, he tweeted: "Is it bad that I want to focus on #syria, but all I can think of is a #HEATFinals  repeat".

A statement by World Affairs released on August 20 described Mr Sotloff as "an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly. He is certainly courageous".

The Executive Director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Mr Sotloff, like Mr Foley, had gone to Syria "to tell a story".

"Journalists know that covering war is inherently dangerous and that they could get killed in crossfire," Joel Simon said.

"But being butchered in front of camera simply for being a reporter is pure barbarism."

The group said that at least 70 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict in Syria, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey.

More than 80 journalists have been kidnapped in Syria, it said.

Some Western journalists are believed to be in the hands of IS.

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Nato Plans 'Spearhead' Force To Face Russia

Nato is set to create a "high-readiness" force and stockpile military equipment in Eastern Europe as a bulwark against potential Russian aggression, the alliance's chief has said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the proposed new force could be comprised of several thousand troops contributed to on a rotating basis by the 28 Nato countries.

Backed by air and naval assets, he said the unit would be a "spearhead" that could be deployed at very short notice to help Nato members defend themselves against any threat, including from Russia.

Nato leaders are to consider the plans at a summit this week in Wales that is likely to be dominated by how the US-led alliance should respond to the Russian-backed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.

Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen explained plans for a 'spearhead' force

Ukraine is not a member of Nato, but its UK ambassador told Sky News he backed the move and appealed for Ukraine's allies to step up sanctions and provide military help now.

Andrii Kuzmenko said: "What is important for Ukraine is to provide the means for our defence ... including armaments."

The move could provoke Russia, whose foreign minister warned on Monday that Ukrainian forces must pull back from areas where they can harm civilians.

Some of the fiercest fighting is going on near Mariupol and Donetsk

Sergei Lavrov spoke amid reports that Ukrainian forces had been ordered to pull back from Luhansk airport in the face of an onslaught from Russian tanks - the latest claim of direct Russian involvement in the fighting.

Ukraine's Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said Russian units were moving into other towns in the region, including the largest city of the Donetsk region.

Sergei Lavrov warned Ukraine to pull troops back from areas in the east

"The information that Russian troops are there has been confirmed," he said.

"We are fighting Russia and it is Russia which is deciding what will happen in Donbass," he told Ukraine's Inter channel, referring to the informal name of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Mr Lavrov again denied that Russian troops were in Ukraine and said he hoped talks taking place on Monday in the Belarussian capital Minsk today will focus on agreeing an immediate, unconditional ceasefire.

Speaking in the east Siberian city of Yakutsk on Monday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin accused Europe of ignoring the Ukrainian army "directly targeting its fire on residential areas".

He said he hoped "common sense will prevail" and that Russia and the West would not harm each other with further sanctions.

In western Ukraine, Vladimir Putin's face has been used for target practice

Speaking in the House of Commons, David Cameron said Russia appears to be trying to force Ukraine "to give up its democratic choices at the barrel of a gun".

The PM said the presence of Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil is "completely unjustified and unacceptable".

A rights group that works to expose Russian army abuses has claimed that up to 15,000 soldiers have been sent to Ukraine by Moscow in the last two months, and several hundred may have died in combat.

Valentina Melnikova, head of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, a prominent organisation representing the families of military servicemen, said that some 7,000-8,000 Russian troops are believed to be in Ukraine at present.

John McCain has backed calls for the US to send arms to Ukraine

"Military commanders are conducting a secret special operation," said Melnikova, who is a member of the defence ministry's public council.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian military spokesman said a rescue operation was continuing for two seamen missing in the Azov Sea after pro-Russian separatists attacked a Ukrainian navy vessel for the first time.

Eight other seamen survived the attack and were being treated for wounds and burns after the vessel was hit by artillery from the shore.

Separatists in the region claimed responsibility for the attack on social media.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said the events of the past few days have shown that Russia has launched "a direct and open aggression" against Ukraine.

Leading American senators have called for the US to send weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against what they called "a Russian invasion".

Democrat Robert Mendez, who runs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN: "We should provide the Ukrainians with the type of defensive weapons that will impose a cost upon Putin for further aggression."

The call was echoed by former Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who told CBS's Face the Nation that Mr Putin was "an old KGB colonel that wants to restore the Russian empire".

Earlier, the European Union gave Russia a week to scale back its intervention in Ukraine, warning of further sanctions.

China said it opposes additional sanctions against Russia and has urged world leaders to find a political solution to the crisis.

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Chinese War On Terror May Breed Extremists

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Xinjiang Province, China

Sky News has obtained rare access to China's Xinjiang Province to investigate reports Muslims are being targeted and oppressed by the government.

China's leaders say foreign Islamist extremists, perhaps with links to IS and al Qaeda, are infiltrating its population, responsible for growing unrest in the region.

Since December, a series of bloody bomb and knife attacks have killed more than a hundred people across China.

There are reports of authorities targeting and oppressing Muslims

Urumqi, a city on the old Silk Road with a population of three million, is the provincial capital and a place on edge right now.

Soldiers stand guard outside the city's great mosque. Armoured police vehicles are parked in the shadows.

Oil and gas rich, the far-western province of Xinjiang is home to the Uighur people, China's Muslim minority. The province was once almost all theirs.

These days, they share it with the Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group; the people who would be globally recognisable as Chinese.

Xinjiang is home to the Uighur people, China's Muslim minority

In recent years, relations between the Uighurs and the Han have become increasingly difficult.

Ancient Uighur homes have been destroyed. Uighur culture has been diluted and their freedom to practise Islam has been restricted.

In May, two 4x4 vehicles drove up a busy market street in a Han Chinese district of Urumqi. It was early morning and Gongyuan Street was crowded with shoppers.

Explosives were thrown from the vehicles as they passed up the street. Forty-three died and more than 90 were injured.

Today, the same street is almost deserted. We meet Mr Sun, a retired Han Chinese teacher.

He saw it all happen and we ask him who did it. "Minorities," he says. He leans forward and whispers: "Muslims."

The Uighur heartland lies under 200 miles from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Our taxi driver, also Han Chinese, goes further. Echoing the government line, he says the attack was the work of religious fanatics infiltrating the south.

"From Kashgar," he says. "It's only those who are uncultured who cause problems.

"People who were not educated, who live in the south. They are brainwashed by terrorists."

The Chinese government says it is facing an unprecedented threat from Islamist extremism.

They say foreign extremists are infiltrating the Uighur population and radicalising them.

Ancient Uighur homes have been destroyed... ...and replaced by tower blocks

However, Uighurs in exile, human rights organisations and the US government doubt that Islamist extremism is to blame.

They believe the Communist Party is blaming external forces as a way of dealing with internal unrest.

The tactics used to counter the violence are exacerbating the problem, they say.

Kashgar is further west from Urumqi; closer to Baghdad than it is to Beijing.

It is the Uighur heartland and lies just under 200 miles from the Afghan and Pakistani borders.

10 million Uighurs live in China's far-western Xinjiang Province

At the city's centre, the Id Kah mosque is the country's largest. In July, the Imam was murdered here; stabbed and clubbed to death.

"He deserved to die," a Uighur shopkeeper tells me quietly. He does not want to be identified. All Uighurs fear government reprisals if caught talking to foreigners.

The shopkeeper tells me that the Imam was a stooge of the Chinese government and condoning a series of restrictions for Uighurs in the region.

The restrictions are spelt out on a sign in a neighbouring street. With pictures, it states that beards are banned for young men and veils are banned for women.

Other policies include preventing Muslims from fasting at Ramadan.

"You understand what this sign means?" a young Uighur man says. "There's no freedom for us here."

The message was the same from the other Uighurs we spoke to. If you pressure and restrict people, they will fight back.

There are signs all around that this Chinese "war on terror" is intensifying. As it does, the resentment will only increase.

If religious extremists are among the Uighur population, and we saw no evidence of it, their efforts to recruit and to rally will only be made easier.

For the Chinese government, Islamist extremism could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Rare Visit To Town At Centre Of Massacre Claims

Avoiding The Chinese Authorities

Updated: 1:55am UK, Tuesday 02 September 2014

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Xinjiang Province, China

Reporting anything sensitive in China requires planning, a bit of stealth and some luck thrown in too.

China's far western province of Xinjiang is one of those areas (like Tibet and Tiananmen Square) where the country's Communist government is particularly sensitive.

Foreign journalists are not banned from visiting Xinjiang, it's just that we can't report freely when we get there.

The Chinese government is obsessed with controlling the message. Its state-run media is the perfect tool, loyally conveying the government-endorsed line.

And so the idea of foreign journalists wandering around in a region which China considers to be the frontline in its "war on terror" is not something they are willing to allow.

They do not want scrutiny of the tactics they deploy to deal with those they believe to be Islamist extremists.

The team at Sky's bureau in Beijing had tried for months to get permission for a fully sanctioned trip to the region.

The Chinese government has pumped huge investment into the resource-rich province. They claim to have transformed the lives of millions - both indigenous Uighur Muslims and the Han Chinese who have moved here over the past few decades.

We wanted to see that investment: the new high-speed rail line, the new hospitals, schools, universities.

We also wanted to examine the suggestions that the Chinese government is eroding the culture and religion of the Uighurs, perhaps fuelling unrest.

Our trip was initially given a tentative green light. But then, a week before we were due to travel, they U-turned: the trip was off.

No explanation was given. We decided to come anyway.

Colleagues of mine from other media organisations have been here recently. Most have been detained and some have had their images and video deleted.

So it's necessary to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Flights are booked at the last minute, different hotels night to night, check in late, check out early. We use small tourist-style cameras.

I'll admit, it's easy to get overly paranoid. Do the authorities really care that much about what we're doing? It turns out they do.

In Kashgar we tried to check into one hotel but were turned away. The staff noticed our journalist visas in our passports.

"You can't stay here," the receptionist said. "You must stay in the hotel down the road: it's the hotel for journalists."

After a few days of moving every day, complacency set in: we stayed two nights in the same place. It was a mistake.

On the second day, we had a call. "This is reception. The Kashgar police are downstairs to see you. Please come down."

We had a chat with two men. What were we reporting on? Did we have permission?

We showed them the paperwork for our original pitch for the rejected trip. It seemed to work.

The police took photos of us and then left, but not before admitting that they'd been trying to track us down for three days.

A constant worry is the prospect of having our footage deleted or destroyed. In 2012, a German TV crew was on an assignment in another part of China.

They left their hotel room for dinner. When they returned, the reporter's tablet computer and smartphone had been dunked in water. They were still wet and their contents destroyed.

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Kerry Calls For Coalition Against IS Jihadists

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for a global coalition to combat Islamic State extremists and their "genocidal agenda".

His comments came as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned the West would be the jihadist group's next target unless there was urgent action to halt its advances through Iraq and Syria.

The UK Government has raised Britain's terror threat level from substantial to severe because of the threat from militant groups in the Middle East.

Writing in the New York Times ahead of this week's NATO summit in Wales, Mr Kerry pressed for "a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations".

Mr Kerry said the US would present an action plan to the UN in September

He said he and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel would meet European counterparts on the sidelines of the summit to enlist assistance, and then travel to the Middle East to build support "among the countries that are most directly threatened".

US President Barack Obama has acknowledged Washington has no strategy yet to tackle the Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in large swathes of territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.

But Mr Kerry said the US would be putting forward an action plan at a summit meeting of the UN Security Council in September, when Washington will hold the group's presidency.

"What's needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force," Mr Kerry said.

The UK has raised its terror threat level because of the extremist threat

The Islamic State (IS) has sparked growing alarm in the West at its rapid and brutal advance in both Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of people, including in gruesome beheadings and mass executions.

The US began carrying out airstrikes against the group in Iraq earlier this month, but has yet to decide if it will expand that military action into Syria.

The cost of American military operations have cost about $560m (£337m) since mid-June, according to the Pentagon - an average of £7.5m (£4.5m) a day.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has said he is willing to co-operate in tackling jihadists, but that any military action on its territory must be co-ordinated.

This causes a dilemma for Washington, which has long backed the rebels seeking President Assad's overthrow, and accuses his regime of rights violations including the use of chemical weapons.

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Hundreds Hurt In Violent Pakistan Clashes

At least 300 people have been wounded in clashes between police and protesters in Pakistani capital Islamabad.

The violence comes amid an ongoing two-week political stand-off over claims Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's 2013 election win was the result of vote rigging,

Starting late on Saturday and continuing into early Sunday, the disorder erupted after around 25,000 people marched from parliament to the PM's house.

An AFP reporter at the scene said those on the march, which was led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and populist cleric Tahir ul Qadri, attempted to remove barricades around the house with cranes.

Smoke from tear gas canisters filled the air

Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak said officers exercised restraint but that protesters were armed with axes, wire cutters and hammers.

"They had a crane and drove it until the entrance of the presidency," he said.

"We are using only tear gas and firing rubber bullets where needed."               

Railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said protesters tried to uproot the entry gate to the prime minister's home.                

Those injured included protesters and police officers

The demonstrators had been camped outside parliament house since August 15 demanding Mr Sharif step down.

The crisis took on a new dimension earlier in the week after the government asked the army to mediate, raising fears the military would use the situation to enact a "soft coup" and increase its dominance over civilian authorities.

Speaking as fighting broke out on Saturday, defence minister Khawaja Asif said: "There are 1,600 to 2,000 trained terrorists. They have 200 women who are trained in the use of firearms and they have come with the intention of occupying state buildings.

"These are buildings that are symbols of the state. Their attempts are being resisted. And we will resist these with full force."

Protesters were carrying batons, iron rods and sling-shots. The injured were taken to Islamabad's two main hospitals, with the number of casualties expected to rise as clashes continue.

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Child Killed As Paris Building Collapses In Blast

A four-storey building has collapsed in an explosion in Paris, killing at least one child and leaving a dozen people unaccounted for.

Emergency services at the scene

A further 11 people were injured in the blast which rocked the residential complex in Rosny-sous-Bois, an eastern suburb of the French capital, on Sunday morning.

Images of the blast showed it had ripped through virtually half of an adjacent apartment block, leaving what was left of the destroyed flats exposed.

Emergency services were called to the scene and French rescuers and firefighters are searching through the rubble for survivors and other possible victims.

A fire service spokesman said seven adults and five children were still missing.

"The search is ongoing for other possible victims in the rubble, and an alert for the mobilisation of significant medical resources has been made," he said.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known.

More follows...

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