Obama tells Congress he has 'authority' to fight ISIL

U.S. President Barack Obama told leaders of Congress on Sept. 9 that he did not need for them to authorize his strategy to fight Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), ahead of a speech to Americans that may herald expanded operations against the group in Iraq and perhaps Syria.

Obama's White House speech at 9 p.m. ET on Sept. 9 (1 a.m. GMT on Sept. 10) will be his most significant effort to outline a strategy against a group whose savage methods have included the beheading of two American captives.

Obama met Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and Republican counterparts Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, to discuss the next phase of his campaign.

"The president told the leaders that he has the authority he needs to take action against ISIL in accordance with the mission he will lay out in his address tomorrow night," the White House said in a statement.

The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires that the president consult Congress before introducing U.S. armed forces into hostilities but allows them to remain for 60 days before he has to obtain Congress' approval for action.

Elected in 2008 on a promise to get U.S. troops out of Iraq, Obama has been limiting military operations to protecting minority Iraqi Yazidis and attacking ISIL positions near the Kurdish capital Arbil and around the Mosul and Haditha dams.

He has the option of ordering airstrikes on an expanded list of targets within Iraq and has been considering strikes in Syria as well, on condition that moderate rebels be in a position to hold territory cleared of ISIL fighters by the strikes.

Obama said in an interview with NBC broadcast on Sept. 7 that the United States would...