Rice says U.S. airstrikes 'had an impact'

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Wednesday aerial attacks on Syria by U.S.-led forces "had an impact" on the Islamic State and Khorasan militant groups.

"We think the strikes had an impact, an important impact. Obviously this won't be the last of our efforts, but this was a first wave," she said in an interview on NBC's Today.

She added she "cannot quantify" the damage done by the airstrikes, but said "battle damage assessments" were continuing. She also reinforced President Barack Obama's repeated statement that no U.S. ground troops would be involved in Syria and Iraq, saying, "What none of us think is necessary is a large ground combat operation of the sort we had for many years in Iraq."

Rice also said there were no recognized IS plots against the United States at present.

"We do not have any indications, at the present, of active, concrete plotting by ISIL (IS) against the United States homeland, but we do know that they're dangerous ... and they could with time be a proximate threat to the homeland."