US 'unlikely to fight IS on ground'

Washington will not send ground troops to fight the Islamic State extremist group before the US presidential election next year, a Chinese observer said on Monday.

Another Chinese academic said US President Barack Obama's failure to deliver any tangible initiatives to tackle IS stems from the "painful lessons" learned in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They were commenting after Obama made his third Oval Office address to the nation on Sunday but offered no major shift in the nation's anti-terror strategy.