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WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tangled on Tuesday with Secretary of State John Kerry over the administration's military action against Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

Paul, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Congress should have acted to declare war when the U.S. first carried out air strikes against the terrorist group in late September.

"The Constitution is quite clear that this responsibility lies with Congress," Paul said at a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "For four or five months we've been derelict in our duty."

And, he added, "I think this president has been derelict."

The foreign relations panel is expected to vote Thursday on a draft "authorization for the use of military force," more limited than a declaration of war, authored by the committee's chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Paul and, it appears, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., are likely to propose an amendment that would be a declaration of war that limits military action to a year and bars the use of U.S. ground troops in most cases.

"Every day we've been on offense without Congress, we believe, is an unauthorized war," Kaine said. "I don't think we can wait until January or February."

Kerry, appearing before the lawmakers to discuss that authorization, urged lawmakers not to tie President Barack Obama's hands in prosecuting the fight in Syria and Iraq.

"It would be a mistake to ask for a declaration of war," said Kerry, a former chairman of the foreign relations panel. "A declaration of war has only been used against states."

"We are not going to war in the way we went to war in Iraq; we are not going to war in the way we went to war in Afghanistan," the secretary argued.

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Paul, Kerry spar over Islamic State, war powers