A Christian Woman, Who Fled From The Violence In Mosul Two Days Ago, Holds Her Daughter As Her Baby Sleeps At A School In Arbil, In Iraq's Kurdistan Region
A Christian woman, who fled from the violence in Mosul two days ago, holds her daughter as her baby sleeps at a school in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region June 27, 2014. Reuters/Ahmed Jadallah

The Islamic State can only be defeated if there is a ground invasion, believes former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Blair said that the coalition force must be ready for a ground invasion in Iraq with special forces to counter IS. He said that Britain should be prepared to join the ground invasion as only air-strikes would not be enough to defeat the Middle-Eastern militant forces. Britain is still considering its options if it should join hands with the United States, France and Australia in launching aerial strikes against the Jihadists, The Guardian reported.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is scheduled to attend a UN Security Council meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in New York on Wednesday. Cameron may use this opportunity to clarify Britain's stand on the issue of getting actively involved in air-strikes. The British prime minister earlier ruled out supplying ground troops to Iraq. Now, the former prime minister urges that air-strikes alone may not be enough.

Blair published an elaborate essay on the "Faith Foundation" website that said that the Islamic State could not be defeated by air-strikes alone, even though the extremist group might be "contained by air power" to some extent. "Air power is a major component of this, to be sure, especially with the new weapons available to us. But - and this is the hard truth - air power alone will not suffice. They can be hemmed in, harried and to a degree contained by air power. But they can't be defeated by it," Blair wrote.

It was Blair who ordered UK's invasion of Iraq in 2003. However, he said that he was not asking the Western force to be involved in a lengthy mission. Blair wrote that he was not talking about occupation armies. He was rather talking about committing ground forces along with special forces if required. Blair also said that defeating only the Islamic State would diminish the "advocacy of violence." He said that the "politicised religious belief" was taught to millions on a daily basis. "You cannot uproot this extremism unless you go to where it originates and fight it." he said.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au