CNN) -- [Breaking news update 4:40 p.m. ET]
U.S. and coalition warplanes have resumed airstrikes in eastern Syria, targeting oil installations being used by the so-called Islamic State terror group, a U.S. official with knowledge of the operation told CNN on Wednesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama called for united action to confront violent extremism Wednesday, as he addressed the United Nations General Assembly after a second day of U.S. airstrikes in Syria.
Airstrikes were carried out overnight Tuesday into Wednesday against five more targets: four in Iraq and one in Syria, the U.S. Central Command said.
In Syria, a U.S. aircraft and coalition plane struck an ISIS staging area near the Iraqi border, northwest of Al Qa'im, damaging eight ISIS vehicles.
In Iraq, two airstrikes west of Baghdad destroyed two ISIS armed vehicles and a weapons cache. Two airstrikes southeast of the city of Irbil destroyed ISIS fighting positions.
The latest raids come on the heels of major airstrikes in Syria early Tuesday.
And as the President takes the world stage, U.S. law enforcement agencies are looking out for possible lone-wolf attack plots to retaliate for the bombings.
Why not strike the regime? (Assad)
While some Syrians celebrated the U.S. airstrikes on radical militants, others expressed frustration that President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which world leaders blame for thousands of civilian deaths, goes unscathed.
"I am just wondering why the U.S. didn't bomb the regime's brigades," Aleppo resident Foaad Hallak said.
"If the international community is willing to show their good intentions to Syrians, they have to bomb the regime and its militias and also ISIS, and also they have to supply FSA (the rebel Free Syrian Army) with anti-aircraft missiles."
Muhammad al-Dleby said he was frustrated that after three years and more than 100,000 deaths in Syria, the international community stepped in only because radical militants were "a threat to its interests."
"Assad is the biggest terrorist in Syria, and he did crimes that even ... extremists didn't do," he said.
Kerry: Strikes effective but will take time
So far, U.S. Central Command has conducted 198 airstrikes across Iraq against ISIS and, along with partner nations, another 20 airstrikes against the group across Syria.
Conceding that airstrikes haven't flushed out ISIS in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that U.S airpower may nonetheless have prevented the fall of Baghdad and Irbil to the militants.
"What we've done is we've stopped the onslaught," he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
"That was what we were able to achieve with air power. They were moving towards Irbil. They were moving towards Baghdad. Baghdad could well have fallen. Irbil could have fallen."
much more here http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/24/world/meast/us-airstrikes/index.html
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