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STORY: U.S. President Obama praised Congress for backing the Administration plan to arm Syrian rebels.
"I believe we are strongest as a nation when the President and Congress work together," he said after the Senate voted 78-22, in a rare bipartisan show of support for one of Obama's high-profile initiatives.
Obama sought the authorization to have some congressional buy-in for his plan to stop the violent Islamic State militants, whose takeover of large parts of Iraq and Syria is seen as a threat to U.S. national security.
Obama also said that France will join in strikes against Islamic State and that more than 40 countries have joined in the coalition against the militant group.
