US: Coalition defense ministers meet on IS group US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter meets with his counterparts from the coalition fighting the Islamic State group and NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. With jihadist attacks proliferating around the world, the United States has reassembled its coalition partners for meetings to review a two-year-old war that has so far failed to eliminate the Islamic State group. The militant group may have lost ground in Iraq and Syria, but in recent weeks it has claimed horrific attacks in Nice, Istanbul, Baghdad and Dhaka that have left hundreds dead and injured. IMAGES of the start of the meeting