The US has begun surveillance flights over Syria, a move that could pave the way for airstrikes against Islamic State militant targets there.
President Barack Obama has authorised the missions in order to garner reliable intelligence in Syria.
The intelligence and surveillance flights include drones, which are unmanned, as well as manned aircraft. The AP news agency said the flights got under way early on Tuesday.
The US had already run some surveillance missions over Syria, but the current wave appears to focus on IS sites as possible targets.
The White House has said that Mr Obama has not approved military action inside Syria, but Pentagon officials have been drafting potential options for the president, including airstrikes.
Mr Obama has been wary of any military intervention in Syria Mr Obama has long resisted taking military action in Syria, even as the US began strikes against the Islamist group inside Iraq earlier this month.
He is wary of involvement in a country ravaged by a protracted civil war.
Mr Obama is also concerned launching airstrikes against the militants could unintentionally help embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime the US has denounced.
Syria said on Monday any US airstrikes without consent from Damascus would be considered an aggression.
But Mr Obama's resolve to go after IS, the militant group formerly known as ISIS and ISIL, appears to have strengthened in recent weeks.
He has cited the threat to American personnel in the country and a humanitarian crisis.
The US has also been shaken by the beheading of American journalist James Foley by an IS militant.
James Foley, 40, was remembered in a memorial service on Monday The group is also threatening to kill Steven Sotloff, another American journalist, and other US citizens held captive in Syria.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week IS would eventually need to be addressed on "both sides of what is essentially at this point a non-existent border" between Syria and Iraq.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest insisted on Monday the president has demonstrated his willingness to order military action when necessary to protect American citizens.
"That is true without regard to international boundaries," he said.
The US ran surveillance missions over Syria ahead of an attempted mission to rescue Mr Foley and other US hostages this summer.
That mission failed, possibly due to imprecise intelligence, as the hostages had already been transferred by the time the special forces launched the raid.
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