Smoke rises after what activists said were cluster bombs dropped by the Russian air force in Maaret al-Naaman town in Idlib province, Syria October 7, 2015.
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The Russian airstrikes strikes appear to have emboldened Syrian troops to launch the ground push after a series of setbacks in northwestern Syria in recent months.
“It is unlikely that there are Shiites (a Muslim minority group) in Donbass that will go to Syria to fight Sunnis for ideological reasons”, Felgenhauer said.
“Four warships launched 26 Calibre cruise missiles against 11 targets”, Shoigu said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The naval strikes on Wednesday were the first known operational use of state-of-the-art SSN-30A Kalibr cruise missiles, which were still being tested by the Russian navy this August.
On the other hand, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation criticized on Monday Russia’s military actions in Syria which, it said, “led to civilian casualties”. “That is it. We will keep the channel open because it is a matter of security and safety for our pilots”. But the USA and France say at least a few of the strikes appear to have hit Western-backed rebel factions fighting government troops, with the real goal of protecting Assad.
Brzezinski advised President Barack Obama to attempt to disarm the Russians if they keep attacking the CIA-trained militants in Syria.
An Islamic State operative denied there were any Russian hits on his group’s locations.
Like Moscow, Iran is a key backer of Assad. “According to the objective control data, all the targets have been destroyed, and no civilian facilities have been hit”, Shoigu said. Rebels have controlled areas on the highway since 2012.
A Syrian official says a ground offensive has been launched in central regions of the country amid intense shelling and Russian airstrikes.
“And the only way to accomplish that is for Mr. Assad to transition – because you cannot rehabilitate him in the eyes of Syrians”, he said.
He was fluent in Russian, had earned his master’s degree studying the people and their culture, and had spent considerable time in the country with his Russian counterparts getting to know their military doctrine.
“There is a serious discussion and inquiry into requesting the Russian air forces to conduct air strikes against Daesh positions in Iraq”.
“We benefit from this war and these (rival) coalitions, ‘ he said in a conversation via Skype, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk on the group’s behalf”. I believe that this work should be adjusted further and carried on in a systemic manner; no matter what, we will hardly be able to accomplish this mission without each other’s support.
Since September 2014, the coalition has been hitting Islamic State positions mostly in northern and eastern parts of Syria, as well as in Iraq. He could not provide details, including how many times this has happened.
Syrian rebels and their backers accuse Russian Federation of targeting a whole range of opposition forces, not only IS fighters. Turkey scrambled F-16s in response and also summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest.
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Russia’s deputy defense minister, Anatoly Antonov, was quoted by the Tass news agency on Tuesday as saying the Russian military agreed in principle with the proposals made by the United States on coordinating military flights.
