CAIRO (AP) — The head of the Arab League urged its members Sunday to confront Islamic State extremists "militarily and politically," issuing an apparent call to arms as President Barack Obama prepares to go to lawmakers and the American public with his own plan to stop the militants.

Backing from the 22-country Arab League could provide crucial support across the Middle East for Obama's effort to assemble an international coalition against the Islamic State, the marauding group that has conquered a swath of Iraq and Syria and committed beheadings and mass killings to sow terror.

Already, NATO forces have agreed to take on the extremists.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said that what is needed from Arab countries is a "clear and firm decision for a comprehensive confrontation" with "cancerous and terrorist" groups. The Arab League includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Obama will meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday and then outline his plan to the war-weary American public Wednesday, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

"I just want the American people to understand the nature of the threat and how we're going to deal with it and to have confidence that we'll be able to deal with it," Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

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In new airstrikes Sunday, the U.S. targeted Islamic State fighters in Iraq's long-contested Anbar province for the first time, launching attacks with bomber and fighter aircraft.

The American military said the airstrikes destroyed, among other things, an Islamic Group command post and several vehicles, two of which were carrying anti-aircraft artillery.

It wasn't immediately clear what steps the Arab League would take in supporting the West's campaign against the Islamic State. And reaching a consensus on how to move could be complicated by Arab world rivalries and member countries' different spheres of influence.

An Arab diplomat speaking to Egypt's official MENA news agency said a resolution backing cooperation with the U.S. would go before members Sunday. He did not elaborate.

But a draft resolution obtained by The Associated Press offered only routine condemnation of terrorist groups operating in the region. It also called on member states to improve information-sharing and legal expertise in combating terrorism, and to prevent the paying of ransom to militants.

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FILE - In this Sunday, May 29, 2005 file photo, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Bickerstaff of Satelli …

Elaraby himself noted that the Arab League's member states have failed to help each other in the past when facing local armed groups, often because of disagreements and fear of being accused of meddling in one another's affairs.

He called the Islamic State a threat to the existence of Iraq and its neighbors. It is "one of the examples of the challenges that are violently shaking the Arab world, and one the Arab League, regrettably, has not been able to confront," he said.

A decades-old joint Arab defense agreement states that member countries can act alone or collectively to ward off attack and restore peace by all means, including force. Elaraby, a longtime Egyptian diplomat, said an agreement to activate that clause in the 1950 agreement is needed.

Before the Arab League meeting, Elaraby spoke by telephone to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the Islamic State insurgents.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the private diplomatic conversation, said Kerry updated Elaraby on efforts to combat the insurgents.

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"They discussed the need for the Arab League and its members to take a strong position in the coalition that is developing ... and the importance of decisive action" to stop the flow of foreign fighters, disrupt the Islamic State's financing and combat incitement, the official said.

Kerry said the military aspect is only one part of the effort, and more comprehensive coordination with Arab countries — combining law enforcement, intelligence, economic and diplomatic tools — is required, the official said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said it launched airstrikes around Haditha Dam in western Iraq. U.S. officials said the offensive was an effort to beat back the militants from the dam, which remained under Iraqi control.

The militants could have opened or damaged the dam, flooding wide areas as far as Baghdad's international airport, where hundreds of U.S. personnel are stationed, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, traveling in Georgia, said the Iraqi government had asked the U.S. to launch the airstrikes.

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Amid the fighting, the province's governor and the mayor of Haditha were wounded by a roadside bomb, said Faleh al-Issawi, a member of Anbar's provincial council. Gov. Gov. Ahmed al-Dulaimi later tweeted that he was not seriously hurt.

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Yacoub reported from Baghdad.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Moscow (AFP) - Russia will retaliate against a new round of Western sanctions over Ukraine and may block flights through its airspace, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published on Monday.

Medvedev also suggested that Western sanctions would not make the Kremlin change its course, adding that Russians -- like the Chinese -- would simply pull together in the face of new punitive measures.

The European Union is expected on Monday to consider new sanctions against Russia, in a further blow to the country's ailing economy already teetering on the brink of recession.

Brussels said it was ready to review the need for new sanctions if a truce agreed between Kremlin-backed rebels and Kiev forces holds in eastern Ukraine.

"I was hoping that our partners would be smarter. Alas ..." Medvedev, who served a four-year stint as president before ceding the Kremlin to his mentor Vladimir Putin in 2012, told the liberal business daily Vedomosti.

"If there are sanctions related to energy, further limits for our financial sector we will have to respond asymmetrically," he said, adding that Russia may target flights over Russia.

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Soldiers from the Ukrainian self-defence battalion "Azov" check vehicles at a checkpoint i …

"We proceed from the fact that we have friendly relations with our partners and that is why the sky over Russia is open for flights. But if they put limits on us we will have to respond."

Medvedev said that the ban could mean that "many airlines" would go bankrupt. "But that is a bad story. We just want our partners to realise it at some point," he said.

"Sanctions certainly don't help bring peace in Ukraine. They hit wide off the mark and an absolute majority of politicians realise that," he said. blaming forces who he said want to "use force" in international relations.

The Russian government first said in August it was considering banning the use of Russian airspace for European airlines, the so-called overflight rights needed to take the shortest route between Europe and Asia.

US airlines have not been allowed to use Siberian airspace for years and have been pushing the Russian government to review its policy.

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Pro-Russian fighters stand by a T-64 tank in Starobesheve, southeast of Donetsk, on August 31, 2014 …

Medvedev said that a spiral of sanctions could lead to a breach in international security.

"I hope that our Western partners don't want this and there are no mad people among those who make decisions."

Medvedev also drew parallels between Russia and China which was targeted by what he said were similar Western sanctions over the crackdown by Chinese authorities on student protesters in 1989.

"Now let's take a look. Did the development of the Chinese economy become worse? No," he said.

"Did China feel punished? No. They simply mobilised internal resources."

"To a certain degree these sanctions were beneficial to China."

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London (AFP) - The CIA tortured Al-Qaeda suspects "to the point of death" by drowning them in water-filled baths, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported on Monday, ahead of the publication of a US Senate report on interrogation techniques.

The paper quoted one security source as saying the torture of at least two suspects, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, went far beyond the waterboarding admitted by the Central Intelligence Agency.

"They weren't just pouring water over their heads or over a cloth," the paper quoted the source as saying, adding: "They were holding them under water until the point of death, with a doctor present to make sure they did not go too far."

A second source cited by the paper also spoke of the treatment meted out to Mohammed, who is in US military custody in Guantanamo Bay, as well as alleged USS Cole bomber Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, who is also being held at the detention camp on Cuba.

"They got medieval on his ass, and far more so than people realise," the source, said to be familiar with the still-classified accounts of the torture, was quoted as saying.

An upcoming report by the US Senate based on a review of classified CIA documents would "deeply shock" the public because of its graphic portrayal of the extreme interrogation techniques used by the CIA, a third source said.

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