It is time to go after the Islamic State, U.S. President Barack Obama will tell a war-weary nation tonight in his prime-time speech.

Excerpts released by the White House in advance show that the Obama administration is preparing to order airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), stepping up the military campaign that a growing number of U.S. politicians have begun to support.

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Ahead of the speech, White House officials indicated that a sustained air campaign in Syria may last until the president leaves office in 2016.

Following consultations from U.S. allies abroad and the installation of a new Iraqi government, President Obama will announce that the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State will ultimately destroy the extremist group through a comprehensive international counter-terrorism strategy, according to the brief excerpts released 90 minutes before the speech.

The president, however, cautioned that he would not commit U.S. combat troops on the ground, distinguishing his military campaign from those begun by his predecessors in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground," the president said in his speech.

The president has been harshly criticized last month for his administration's lack of a decisive plan to combat the Islamic State's growing terror threat. Tonight's speech, according to the Boston Globe, will seek to demonstrate a comprehensive strategy that will involve international coalitions to counter the militants' immediate threat and to defeat them in the long run.

A senior White House official told CNN that Obama's prime-time address will announce the specific actions the international anti-coalition against ISIS will implement.

U.S. diplomatic efforts have been enlisting international support for the coalition since its formation at the close of the NATO Summit held in Wales the previous week.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is presently in the Middle East, selling to the Gulf Leaders the idea of a US-led campaign against the caliphate-establishing Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been in Turkey, the only coalition member near the ISIS-controlled territories, to discuss the country's role in fighting ISIS.

TagsObama's speech, ISIS, anti-ISIS coalition, airstrikes in Syria and Iraq