- Airstrikes slow ISIS' Kobani advance(CNN) - ISIS appears to have gained more ground in Iraq.
Islamic State fighters surrounded one of Iraq's largest air bases Tuesday, a police captain in Anbar province and other security sources told CNN. The militants are preparing to launch an attack on Ein Al-Assad military airbase, which is halfway between Hit and Haditha, said Anbar police Capt. Omar Mohamad Hanin.
Anbar has been largely overrun by ISIS, which has been waging war for months in order to establish a caliphate -- or a society run by strict Sharia law. It has also taken over large swaths of Syria, near the border with Turkey.
Coalition forces have been trying to battle back, but ISIS is getting into position in Iraq with rocket launchers and tanks in villages to the south and east of Ein Al-Assad, Hanin said.
President Barack Obama said he is focused on the fighting taking place in Anbar and vowed airstrikes will continue there and elsewhere.
"This is going to be a long-term campaign, there are no quick fixes involved," he said Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews, during a meeting of military leaders from 22 countries who are part of the coalition fighting ISIS.
"We're still in the early stages," the President said. "As with any military efforts there will be days of progress and there will be periods of setback, but our coalition is united behind this long-term effort."
Nearly 60 countries are now part of the effort to stop ISIS.
Two deadly car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday and one on Tuesday. The militants claimed they were behind the blasts. One targeted the police checkpoint in the Shiite neighborhood of Khadimiya.
Four people were killed and 12 others were injured when a car bomb being driven by a someone on a suicide mission exploded in an area called al-Utayfia. The target was a security checkpoint at one of the entrances to the predominately Shiite neighborhood, police officials told CNN
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