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The Obama administration has threatened to destroy the Syrian government's air defenses if US warplanes flying missions to attack militants in Syria are targeted over the country's air space.

The public threat is an example of the difficult waters Mr. Obama is wading into with his plan to "destroy" the self-styled Islamic State, which is fighting to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The White House insists that its effort will neither help Mr. Assad nor involve his cooperation, more than three years into Syria's civil war.

Syrian war-planes and helicopters are already flying missions against IS and other rebel groups, and without coordination between Syrian and US forces, the risk of accidental engagements is high.

The Associated Press reports:

Officials said the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the administration's thinking on thematter.

... U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Assad and insist that a campaign against the Islamic State will not strengthen the Syrian dictator's hold on power.

The New York Times reports that House Republicans are planning to use a vote on authorizing training for Syrian rebels to push Obama for more clarity on his strategy for confronting IS. Some lawmakers are uneasy at the prospect that US-trained rebels may defect with their weapons to IS.

House leaders want to leave an imprint on the ISIS bill. The amendment, as redrafted by the House Armed Services Committee, will require the Obama administration, 15 days before the program begins, to report to Congress how the training and equipping of Syrian rebels fits with a broader strategy to defeat ISIS, how the military plans to vet participants and how officers plan to stop the kinds of attacks by pupils on U.S. forces that have plagued training efforts in Afghanistan.

The bill also mandates that every 90 days, the administration will update Congress on the programs performance, how many trainees might have gone over to ISIS and how trainees are using U.S. military equipment.

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Obama vows to strike Syrian regime if US jets attacking IS are targeted