Obama Suggests 'Targeted and Precise' Airstrikes Against #ISIS Jihadists

No boots on the ground but the U.S. "will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action, if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it."

Transcript of the president's press conference at CNN, "Transcript: Obama's remarks on U.S. response to Iraq crisis."

And a report at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama to send up to 300 advisors to 'train, advise and support' Iraq."

Major Garrett, below, reports for CBS Evening News.

And at the Washington Post, "White House beginning to consider conflicts in Syria and Iraq as single challenge":

The Obama administration has begun to consider the conflicts in Syria and Iraq as a single challenge, with an al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency threatening both countries’ governments and the region’s broader stability, according to senior administration officials.

At a National Security Council meeting earlier this week, President Obama and his senior advisers reviewed the consequences of possible airstrikes in Iraq, a bolder push to train Syria’s moderate rebel factions and various political initiatives to break down the sectarian divisions that have stirred Iraq’s Sunni Muslims against the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Senior administration officials familiar with the discussions say what is clear to the president and his advisers is that any long-term plan to slow the progress of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, as the insurgency is known, will have far-reaching consequences on both sides of the increasingly inconsequential desert border that once divided the two countries.

Although spreading faster in Iraq, the advance of ISIS could also force the administration to reconsider its calculations in Syria, where Obama has taken a cautious approach, declining to arm moderate rebel factions or conduct airstrikes on government airstrips, as some advisers have recommended.

“The key to both Syria and Iraq is going to be a combination of what happens inside the country, working with moderate Syrian opposition, working with an Iraqi government that is inclusive, and us laying down a more effective counterterrorism platform that gets all the countries in the region pulling in the same direction,” Obama said at a news conference Thursday. “Rather than try to play whack-a-mole wherever these terrorist organizations may pop up, what we have to do is to be able to build effective partnerships.”

More.