The US-led air campaign against the ISIL terrorist group is aimed at removing the government of President Bashar al-Assad and inflict suffering on the Syrian people , an anti-war activist in Chicago says.

“The US is bombing ISIL as a pretext for its true objective, the overthrow of the sovereign government of President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus,” said Joe Iosbaker, a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition.

The Obama administration’s policy in the Middle East has been to “impose unacceptable levels of suffering, this is actually Pentagon language, unacceptable levels of suffering of the peoples that defy the empire,” Iosbaker told Press TV on Monday.

“And no people have suffered more that the Syrians, where over 220,000 have died in the past four years,” he added.

Iosbaker said he opposes the so-called “safe zone” that Turkey and the United States have agreed on, calling it a “well-known tool in the imperialist arsenal.”

According to US and Turkish officials, Washington and Ankara have agreed on the outlines of a “safe zone” along the Syria-Turkey border which is expected to significantly increase the scope and pace of the US-led air war against ISIL in northern Syria.

Washington and Ankara agreed last week to work jointly in a declared attempt to tighten security along Turkey’s border with Syria, aimed at controlling the movement of ISIL militants in the region.

The White House said in a statement that US President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart had reached the agreement on Wednesday.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. The United States and its regional allies - especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - are supporting the militants operating inside the Arab country.