Moscow’s intervention has cast doubt on Obama’s strategy there and raised questions about U.S. influence in the region.
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The announcement of Hamedani’s killing came as the Islamic State group has launched a surprise attack in the northern province of Aleppo, seizing a string of villages from rebels.
Wormuth said that for now, the us would be in contact with those rebel leaders and start providing them with equipment packages. The goal was to give the USA a serious foothold without requiring major commitments of troops.
A senior commander in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard was killed by Islamic State extremists on the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, Iranian state media reported on Friday.
Dmitry Peskov said in Friday’s conference call with reporters that the Russian air campaign which began September 30 hasn’t required any additional financial allocations on top of the current Defense Ministry’s budget.
The $500 million Congress provided past year for the program will be used more for equipping and arming select rebel groups inside Syria, with limited training activity.
It was likewise disclosed that US-trained rebels had given ammo and vehicles around to militants.
The leader of a second group turned over weapons to Nusra in exchange for personal protection after he and his men re-entered Syria following the training program.
Earlier, a trained unit handed over its United States provided equipments to the local al-Qaeda associate.
The White House and Defence Secretary Ash Carter scrambled to portray this as a way to re-focus the strategy to increase pressure on Islamic State. Russian Federation said that a radio intercept confirmed the deaths of 200 fighters, and two commanders, who Makushev said belonged to Islamic State. Graham has been a leading critic of the Syria policy of Obama, a Democrat.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the new approach is aimed at improving us support for partners on the ground in Syria.
“While it is somewhat encouraging to see the administration, at long last, acknowledge the facts on the ground, it remains clear we have lost valuable time and opportunities waiting to address this situation”, said Sen. “We’ve had a few significant challenges, so we’re going to pause the training we’ve been doing where we’ve recruited specific individual fighters, but there may be opportunity in the future where situations on the ground are more fruitful”.
He did not, however, clarify which Syrian opposition groups would likely receive supplies.
IS already controls large parts of eastern Syria and of Iraq.
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The administration said it has drawn on lessons learned from Syrian Kurdish forces that drove the Islamic State from Kobani, a town along the Syrian border with Turkey, with the help of coalition airstrikes. Over the past week, Russian Federation has directed parts of its air campaign against U.S.-funded groups and other moderate opposition in a concerted effort to weaken them, the officials say.
