Islamic State Group

The Anti-Terrorist Committee said Sunday that the militants killed in combat in the province of Ingushetia west of Chechnya were involved in a series of attacks on police. It added that they had recently swore an oath of allegiance to IS.

The U.N. mission to Iraq said that at least 844 civilians were among the dead, while 488 members of Iraqi security forces and pro-government militias fighting the Islamic State group were killed.

It put the number of the wounded at 2,108. Baghdad was the worst affected province with 335 people killed.

This is summer camp in Iraq, set up by the country's largest paramilitary force after Iraq's top Shiite cleric issued an edict calling on students as young as middle-school age to use their summer vacations to prepare to fight the Sunni extremists.

These young fighters could have serious implications for the U.S.-led coalition, which provides billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the Iraqi government. 

The move is expected to further embroil Turkey in Syria's civil war and set up a potential conflict with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.

A U.S. official said the creation of an "Islamic State-free zone" would ensure greater security and stability in the Turkish-Syrian border region. However, the official said any joint military efforts with Turkey would not include the imposition of a no-fly zone. 

Assad's speech, while confident, comes as his battered country is host to the extremist Islamic State group, which is targeted in daily U.S.-led airstrikes. 

Turkey also has begun striking Islamic State fighters in Syria, as well as some Kurdish forces now leading a ground offensive against the extremists within the splintered country's borders.