NATO says won't send ground troops to fight IS - report

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg looks down during a NATO foreign ministers meeting at the Alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 2, 2015. REUTERS/Eric Vidal -

ZURICH (Reuters) - NATO has ruled out sending ground troops to fight against Islamic State militants in Syria, NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told a Swiss newspaper, stressing the need to bolster local forces in the conflict.

"That is not on the agenda of the coalition and the NATO allies," he told the Tages-Anzeiger paper when asked about dispatching ground forces to accompany air strikes.