US AIRCRAFT continued to bomb suspected Islamic State (Isis) positions in Syria today after President Barack Obama admitted to a “contradiction” in his policy on the Middle Eastern country.

Suspicions that the arbitrary bombing campaign would simply increase chaos and bloodshed grew after the president told CBS’s 60 Minutes show: “We are not going to stabilise Syria under the rule of [President Bashar] Assad.”

But bombing Isis and the Khorasan Group — an Islamist cell linked to Syria’s al-Qaida affiliate the Nusra Brigades — was necessary because “those folks could kill Americans,” Mr Obama told his listeners.

Since Isis and the Nusra Brigades constitute the main forces fighting to overthrow the secular Assad government, it was not clear what outcome the US president had in mind for his blitz on northern Syria.

He confirmed that US intelligence had “underestimated what had been taking place in Syria” and been taken aback by the sudden increase in Isis power, but did not acknowledge the extent to which the terror group had been strengthened by Western and Gulf states’ support for the anti-Assad uprising.

His confused approach was seized on by warmongering Republicans.

Failed presidential candidate John McCain argued that an indefinite military occupation of Iraq would have stopped the rise of Isis — though extremist Islamist groups only began to gain influence in the country after the US-British invasion of 2003.

And House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner hinted that there may be “no choice” but to renew a ground invasion of Iraq and Syria.

Bombers from the Washington-led coalition attacking isis launched raids across four northern provinces of Syria yesterday, blowing up a grain silo and the country’s largest gas plant.

Isis “facilities” were reportedly hit in Aleppo, Raqqa, Hassakeh and Deir el-Zour.

Human Rights Watch has warned that air strikes are already causing civilian casualties. It confirmed on Sunday that two women and five children died in an apparent US missile strike on September 23.