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U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon conduct a joint news conference at the Pentagon Dec. 11, 2015.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon conduct a joint news conference at the Pentagon Dec. 11, 2015. (Adrian Cadiz/U.S. Air Force)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will meet with his National Security Council at the Pentagon on Monday for an update on the campaign against the Islamic State group, the White House confirmed.

The National Security Council will update the president “on the campaign to degrade and destroy the terrorist group,” the White House announced Friday in a statement.

The council is comprised of the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of the treasury, the secretary of defense, the national security advisor, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of national intelligence. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency is invited to attend when appropriate.

“[Obama will] hear not only from us here in the Defense Department, his senior commanders in the field about the military dimensions of the campaign to defeat [the Islamic State group] but also "the other elements of domestic national security, including representatives from the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Friday during a joint news briefing with Michael Fallon, the British defense minister. "I expect him to hear both what we're doing" and to tell the military leaders assembled that "he wants us to continue to come to him with proposals for ways we can strengthen the campaign consistent with our overall strategic approach."

After the meeting, Obama is expected to make a statement from the Pentagon briefing room, the White House said.

The president recently approved sending an additional 100 special operators to conduct raids in Iraq and Syria to combat Islamic State militants. The Pentagon is considering additional measures to aid in ongoing ground battles such as sending Apache attack helicopters to Iraq to assist in the battle to retake Ramadi from the terror group.

The British parliament last week approved conducting airstrikes in Syria and were bombing Islamic State targets there the next day. But Fallon said Friday that Great Britain would not be sending ground forces into Syria or Iraq. He also said the Obama administration's plan to send commandos into Iraq isn't welcomed either.

"[Iraqi] Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made it very clear to me when I was last in Baghdad that they do not want to see British troops on the ground .... and with great respect, they don’t want to see American troops there,” Fallon said.

There are about 3,550 U.S. troops in Iraq now training Iraqi Security Forces, in roles that the Defense Department has been very careful to emphasize do not go outside the wire to conduct combat missions, but are focused on building the capabilities of Iraq's Army and security forces.

U.S. and coalition aircraft conduct daily missions over Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State.

copp.tara@stripes.com Twitter:@TaraCopp

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