All times local in Syria.
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Seeking to underline the dangers of the Russian operation, USA officials said four Russian cruise missiles fired from a warship in the Caspian Sea had crashed in Iran which drew a swift denial from Russia.
Carter is speaking at a press conference in London with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon.
Securing those areas would help consolidate Assad’s control over Syria’s main population centres in the west of the country, far from the Islamic State strongholds in the east. “All our cruise missiles hit their target”, ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. According to initial reports released by the Iranian state television, Hamedani was shot dead on the outskirts of Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the 20 explosions killed 14 IS fighters and wounded more than 20.
“Why didn’t America attack Daesh fighters during their attack?” asked Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Observatory.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday that “80 to 90 per cent” of Russian strikes in Syria were aimed at propping up Assad.
Islamic State are now within 2 km (1 mile) of government-held territory on Aleppo’s northern edge, the closest they have been to the city. It said the militants seized the villages of Tal Qrah, Tal Sousin and Kfar Qares north of Aleppo city. Islamic State militants seized several villages from rival insurgents north of Aleppo city Friday, in a surprise attack that came despite intensive Russian airstrikes that Moscow insists are targeting the extremist group, activists said.
Khamenei, who issued the ban on October 7 in a speech to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, is engaged in an all-out effort to keep American cultural influence from reaching young people in Iran who are exhausted of Islamic edicts and isolationism.
Hamedani, a veteran of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, was made deputy chief commander of the elite forces in 2005.
The Brigadier General was providing military advice to the Syrian army in the country, Iran’s Press TV reported.
Assad is from the Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
In the biggest deployment of Iranian forces yet, sources told Reuters last week that hundreds of troops had arrived since late September to take part in a major ground offensive planned in west and northwest Syria.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Friday Washington would stop recruiting new fighters for its train-and-equip programme and would instead “provide equipment packages and weapons to a select group of vetted leaders and their units” already on the ground.
The official accused the coalition fores of moving too slowly, thereby missing opportunities to roll back the Islamic State in Iraqi cities. His wife of one year is expecting their first child, Anadolu said.
He did not elaborate on the purported attack plots.
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Abdurrahman said he was killed on the edge of the Kweiras military airbase, which the IS group has besieged for months.
