Obama wins Republicans backing for military strike on Syria

President Barack Obama has won backing from important political figures for carrying out a military strike on Syria.

Obama said a limited strike was needed to demean President Bashar al-Assad's capabilities in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack, the BBC reports.

Important Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor both supported a military action on the war-torn country.

Congress is expected to vote next week.

According to the report, Boehner said he was supporting Obama's call for action, and that only the United States had the capacity to stop Assad.

Boehner urged his colleagues in Congress to follow suit.

Cantor, the House of Representatives majority leader, said Assad's Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, is the epitome of a rogue state, and it has long posed a direct threat to American interests and to their partners, the report added.