In U.N. speech, Obama appeals for broad coalition against Islamic State

U.S. President Barack Obama addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama made his case to the United Nations on Wednesday for a more forceful, coordinated global response against Islamic militants in the Middle East that would seek to dismantle their "network of death."

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Obama used graphic language to condemn the methods of the Islamic State group that has taken over swaths of Iraq and Syria, saying it had used rape as a weapon of war, gunned down children, dumped bodies in mass graves, and beheaded their victims.