Abstract:
In August 2014 the United States of America (hereinafter the US)
built a coalition of partner countries to target the terrorist group ‘Islamic
State in Iraq and the Levant’ (hereinafter ISIS) in the Middle East.1
On 10 September 2014 US President Barack Obama announced that
the coalition would target ISIS in Syria and Iraq and designated ISIS
the ‘greatest’ threat.2 He also reasoned, if the ISIS terrorists were ‘left
unchecked’, they ‘could pose a growing threat beyond that region,
including being a threat to the United States’.3 The US highlighted that
the coalition would be fighting ISIS ‘in accordance with the inherent right
of individual and collective self-defence, as reflected in article 51’ of the
United Nations Charter (hereinafter the Charter).
