JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Key Arab allies promised Thursday to "do their share" to fight Islamic State militants, but NATO member Turkey refused to join in, signaling the struggle the U.S. faces in trying to get front-line nations to put aside their regional animosities and work together to defeat a common enemy.

The Arab states' endorsement of a broad strategy to stop the flow of fighters and funding to the insurgents, and possibly to join military action, came as the CIA doubled its assessment of how many fighters the extremist group can muster.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress lined up Thursday behind President Barack Obama's call to combat the militants, a day after he laid out a long-term campaign that would include expanding airstrikes against the fighters in Iraq, launching strikes against them in Syria for the first time and bolstering the Iraqi military and moderate Syrian rebels to allow them to reclaim territory from the militants.

The 10 Mideast allies announced their backing for a strategy to "destroy" the group "wherever it is, including in both Iraq and Syria," following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the Red Sea coastal city of Jiddah.

Kerry's visit, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was aimed at pinning down how much support regional allies are willing to give to the U.S. plan to beat back the Islamic State group, which has seized large chunks of Iraq and Syria. Nearly 40 nations have agreed to contribute to what Kerry said would be a worldwide fight to defeat the militants.

In remarks to reporters after the meeting, Kerry noted the "particularly poignant day" for the discussions.

"The devastating consequences of extremist hate remain fresh in the minds of all Americans, and to so many of our friends and allies around the world," Kerry said of the terror attacks on the U.S. 13 years ago. "Those consequences are felt every day here in the Middle East."

Greater regional support is seen as critical to combatting the spread of the Islamic State group, which has proved so ruthless that even al-Qaida severed ties with it earlier this year. New intelligence assessments estimate the extremists can muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria, up from a previous figure of 10,000, the CIA said Thursday.

CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said the new total reflects stronger recruitment by the extremists since June, following battlefield successes and the group's declaration of an Islamic state, or caliphate, on territory under its control.

Kerry Meets Saudi Foreign MinisterPlay video

Thursday's meeting in Jiddah ended with Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon pledging to stand against terrorism. They promised steps including stopping fighters and funding, repudiating the Islamic State group's ideology, providing humanitarian aid and "as appropriate, joining in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign."

They also agreed to boost support for the new Iraqi government as it tries to unite its citizens in the fight against the militants. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said coalition members agreed to share responsibilities for fighting the Islamic State group, as well as to "be serious and continuous in our action to eliminate and wipe out all these terrorist organizations."

Turkey attended the meeting but did not sign the final communique.

The NATO ally had been asked to secure its borders to prevent oil smuggling out of Iraq and Syria and keep foreign fighters from heading in. But Ankara has been reluctant to take a prominent role in the coalition, in part out of concern for the 49 Turkish citizens who were kidnapped from the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul when it was overrun by Islamic State fighters in June.

U.S. officials played down Turkey's absence from the communique, noting that the Turkish government is still extremely concerned about the fate of its diplomats. A senior State Department official predicted the U.S. will continue to work with Turkey to repel the insurgent threat, and said Ankara is in a difficult position as it tries to protect the hostages. The official was not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Squabbling among Washington's allies in the region has complicated efforts to present a united front to beat back the militants.

Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Egypt are at odds with Qatar and Turkey because of the latter two countries' support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups in the region.

Egypt's foreign minister, Sameh Shukri, emphasized that rift in his opening remarks, saying regional chaos is the result of a number of factors, including the tolerance of some in the region and the West for "so-called political Islam" — a clear dig at supporters of the Brotherhood.

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FILE - This undated file image posted on a militant website on Jan. 14, 2014, which has been verifie …

American officials have voiced concerns too about the willingness of Kuwait and Qatar to crack down on private fundraising for extremist groups.

Some Gulf states could in theory take an active role in helping with airstrikes, as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar did in the U.S.-led aerial campaign over Libya in 2011 that helped lead to the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi. Gulf nations could also assist with arms, training, intelligence and logistics.

Salman Shaikh, the director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, said Thursday's meeting in Jiddah was important because it signaled a U.S. reengagement in the region — something many Mideast allies feel has been lacking under the Obama administration.

"How the U.S. can play this role will be absolutely crucial," he said. "It has to act as a keen leader for its friends and allies, but also act as a referee between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran, particularly when it comes to the issue of Iraq and the issue of Syria."

In Congress, Republicans and Democrats coalesced behind Obama's call for authority to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels opposed to Islamic State militants.

"We ought to give the president what he's asking for," House Speaker John Boehner said, although he swiftly added that many Republicans believe the Democratic commander in chief's strategy is too tepid to crush militants who have overrun parts of Iraq and Syria and beheaded two American journalists.

U.S. officials said retired Marine Gen. John Allen is to coordinate the broad international effort. Allen, who has been serving as a security adviser to Kerry, is expected to work with the nearly 40 nations around the world who have agreed to join the fight and help them coordinate what each will contribute, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the appointment ahead of an announcement.

Allen has vast experience coordinating international allies on the warfront. As deputy commander in Iraq's Anbar province from 2006 to 2008, he worked with Arab partners on organizing the Sunni uprising against al-Qaida, and also served as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013.

The U.S. already has launched more than 150 airstrikes against militants in Iraq over the past month, and has sent military advisers and millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, including an additional $48 million announced Wednesday.

The Mideast diplomatic push comes ahead of a conference set for Monday in Paris on how to stabilize Iraq. That meeting will include officials from the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China, and could also include other nations, possibly even Iran.

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Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Dubai and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and Adam Schreck at https://www.twitter.com/adamschreck

U.S. wins Arab support for fight against IS

Ten Arab states pledge their backing for President Obama's campaign to defeat Islamic State militants.
Key ally refuses to join in

Washington (AFP) - Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria now have about 20,000 to 31,500 fighters on the ground, the Central Intelligence Agency said, much higher than a previous estimate of 10,000.

Among those in Syria are 15,000 foreign fighters including 2,000 Westerners, some of whom have joined IS, a US intelligence official told AFP.

The figures were revealed one day after President Barack Obama vowed to expand an offensive against IS extremists, a plan which foresees new air strikes against IS in Syria, expanded attacks in Iraq and new support for Iraqi government forces.

"CIA assesses the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS) can muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria, based on a new review of all-source intelligence reports from May to August," CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said in a statement.

"This new total reflects an increase in members because of stronger recruitment since June following battlefield successes and the declaration of a caliphate, greater battlefield activity, and additional intelligence," he said.

Senior US officials have voiced concern at the presence of foreign fighters among the Sunni extremists who hold Western passports, potentially enabling them to return from the battlefield prepared to carry out terror attacks in Europe or the United States.

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A flag of the Islamic State on the other side of a bridge at the frontline of fighting between Kurdi …

IS militants have seized large swathes of territory in Iraq in recent months, displaying brutal tactics and releasing videos of the grisly executions of two American reporters.

The White House has insisted that President Barack Obama is authorized to strike IS in Iraq and Syria under a law passed by Congress after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

However Obama learned Thursday that he may have a wait on his hands before Congress signs off on his plan to train and equip Syrian rebels, a key plank in his strategy to destroy Islamic State radicals.

Also on Thursday the Pentagon announced that US combat aircraft will soon start flying out of a base in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq as part of a "more aggressive" air campaign against IS jihadists.

The use of Arbil air base reflects the broadening US offensive, though attack helicopters already have been flying out of bases in Iraq.

The announcement came on the 13th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2001 -- a day that fell, in a trace of bitter irony, only hours after Obama's remarks steeling Americans for a battle against Muslim fanaticism in the Middle East.

Islamabad (AFP) - The Taliban gunmen who tried to kill Pakistani schoolgirl campaigner Malala Yousafzai in the country's restive northwest two years ago have been arrested, the army said on Friday.

Militants boarded the teenage activist's school bus and shot her in the head in October 2012 for her outspoken views on girls' education, in an attack that also wounded two of her friends.

Malala survived and went on to earn international plaudits for her courageous and determined fight for all children to have the right to go to school.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed the attack almost immediately but no arrests have been announced until now.

The detention of the 10 suspects involved the army, police and intelligence agencies and was part of the Pakistani military's ongoing offensive against the TTP and other extremist outfits.

"The group involved in the attack on Malala Yousafzai has been arrested," Major General Asim Bajwa told a news conference.

Bringing the men to trial will likely be a long process -- in Pakistan's sclerotic legal system, cases grind through the courts for years making little progress.

Bajwa said the group had a hitlist of 22 targets in addition to Malala, all ordered by the TTP's current leader Maulana Fazlullah.

All its members were from Malakand, close to Mingora, the main town of Swat where Malala was attacked, he said. The leader Zafar Iqbal ran a furniture shop.

A spokesman for the TTP's new hardline Jamat-ul-Ahrar faction Ehsanullah Ehsan denied the military's claims.

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Malala Yousafzai, 16-year-old Pakistani campaigner for the education of women, speaks during a news …

"Three people were involved in that attack, one of them is martyred and two are alive," Ehsan said in a statement.

He denied the attack was ordered by Fazlullah -- who is no longer recognised as TTP chief by Jamat-ul-Ahrar -- saying it was planned by local militants.

On Twitter he denied the arrests, saying the two surviving attackers were free.

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After narrowly surviving the murder bid -- one bullet grazed her brain and passed through her neck before lodging in her shoulder -- Malala was taken to Britain with her family for treatment, where she now lives.

The TTP have said they will try again to kill her if she ever returns to Pakistan.

Her courageous recovery has made her a global figure -- she won the EU's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize last year and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

An address she gave to the United Nations General Assembly in July last year, in which she vowed she would never be silenced, earned her a standing ovation.

Malala first rose to prominence in 2009, aged just 11, with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling life under Taliban rule in Swat, the beautiful valley in northwestern Pakistan where she lived.

She had become well-known in Pakistan as a young campaigner for girls' right to attend school after the Taliban took control of Swat in 2007, speaking out against the militants' ban on female education and their bombing of local schools.

Under the Islamist militants' bloody rule, opponents were murdered, people were publicly flogged for supposed breaches of sharia law, women were banned from going to markets -- and girls were stopped from going to school.

In her autobiography published last year, Malala described receiving death threats in the months before the attack.

"At night I would wait until everyone was asleep," she writes. "Then I'd check every single door and window."

Now living in Britain's second city Birmingham, where she was flown for specialist treatment after the shooting, Malala also spoke in the book of her homesickness and her struggle to adjust to life in England.

The book also revealed she is a fan of Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber and the "Twilight" series of vampire romance novels.

But it is for her education campaigning that the 17-year-old is best known.

Accepting the Sakharov prize last year, she urged politicians to cut military spending and invest instead in education to create "a country with a talented, educated and skillful people".

Despite her global profile -- hailed by the likes of Angelina Jolie and former British prime minister Gordon Brown -- Malala is viewed with suspicion by some in her homeland, who see her as a Western puppet.

Two powerful solar storms arriving at Earth today have captured the public's attention for their potential to spark amazing auroras, but scientists say there's another reason to watch. The solar double whammy is actually somewhat rare.

The particles from the two flares could interact as they head toward Earth, and researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center said they are monitoring the situation.

The sun unleashed a medium-sized flare on Monday (Sept. 8) followed by a second, larger flare, called an Earth-directed X-class flare, on Wednesday (Sept. 10). Both are from the same active sunspot region (Active Region 2158) and are directed at Earth, said Thomas Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center, during a news conference yesterday (Sept. 11).

Solar flares are powerful eruptions of radiation. Large flares can produce coronal mass ejections (CMEs), waves of solar plasma and charged particles that can travel millions of miles an hour through space. Last night, as expected, the first of the CMEs made its appearance and is expected to cause geomagnetic storming, reaching moderate levels, this morning, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. [Sun Storm: See Images of the Amazing Solar Flares]

The magnitude of the new CMEs, however, isn't that unusual, Berger said. Typically, the sun launches between 100 and 200 CMEs of this size during a solar cycle, a time encompassing about 11 Earth years, he said.

"The unique thing about this event is that we've had two in close succession, and the CMEs could possibly be interacting on their way to Earth, at the Earth's orbit or beyond perhaps — we don't know that yet," Berger said.

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A three wavelength composite view of the X1.6-class solar flare peaking around 17:45 UT on Sept. 10, …

In past solar cycles, it was not unusual to have two solar eruptions aimed at Earth at the same time. William Murtagh, a program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center, told Live Science in an email.

"But we have seen very few such occurrences during this cycle," Murtagh said. "It is generally recognized that a worst-case scenario geomagnetic storm would involve two or more CMEs in succession, prolonging a geomagnetic [storm] over several days."

What's more, the second CME is moving at a faster speed and catching up to the first one.

"Currently our models show that it is not going to catch up to and interact with that CME, the first CME, when it's at the Earth's orbit," Berger said. But, he added, "the models are not exact and the inputs are not exact. So we're keeping a close watch on whether this storm is stronger than might be expected because of this possibility of interaction."

The two CMEs may lead to geomagnetic storms hitting Earth and could cause problems with radio and GPS signals, Berger said.

"It's fairly rare for two CMEs of this magnitude to come in close succession like this," he said. "Because of this we cannot rule out higher storm levels," particularly in polar regions where interactions with the Earth's magnetic field are strongest.

The International Space Station will measure the CMEs as they pass by, giving scientists on Earth a 30- to 45-minute head start to prepare for the CMEs. But, on the upside, the solar event is expected to produce an array of beautiful northern lights, visible to people living in the northern United States, said William Murtagh, a program coordinator at the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Whatever the CMEs' effects, the Space Weather Prediction Center said it would be following them closely.

"We're keeping a close eye on these events," Berger said.

The geomagnetic storming from these events is expected to continue through Sunday (Sept. 14), according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.

Editor's Note: If you have an amazing aurora or general science photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Jeanna Bryner at LSphotos@livescience.com.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel and Google+. Follow Live Science@livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.