Pope Francis has no comment yet on latest anti-Islamic State airstrikes

HOLY SEE, Vatican City, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Pope Francis has not yet commented on the commencement of U.S.-led airstrikes inside Syria, targeting the Islamic State terror group.

His silence is worth noting because it is a sharp contrast to his vocal opposition to U.S. airstrikes against the Syrian regime a year earlier.

Last September, Pope Francis publicly denounced U.S. President Barack Obama's attempts to rally international support for military intervention in Syria. Then, the U.S. target was the Syrian Bashar al-Assad regime. The anti-war pope tweeted last year: "With all my strength, I ask each party in the conflict not to close themselves in solely on their own interests. #prayforpeace."

A year later, the political landscape has changed and the most imminent threat in Syria seems not to be Assad, whose actions in the ongoing civil war have displaced half the Syrian population, but the rise of Islamic extremists inside the embattled country.

To date, the pontiff has weighed in on the rise of the Islamic State, persecution of Christians in Iraq, denounced the use of religion as a pretext for violence, and consoled the family of slain American journalist James Foley.

In August, Pope Francis wrote a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to IS attacks in Iraq.

"In renewing my urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, I encourage all the competent organs of the United Nations, in particular those responsible for security, peace, humanitarian law and assistance to refugees, to continue their efforts in accordance with the Preamble and relevant Articles of the United Nations Charter.

"... The tragic experiences of the Twentieth Century, and the most basic understanding of human dignity, compels the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities."

But so far, the Holy Father has not commented on the most recent airstrikes that seek "to stop and prevent further systematic violence" by the Islamic State.