“Assad has not been doing well for a long time, so that leads me to believe they (the Russians) saw something lately that made them think things were getting considerably worse, and they had to intervene”, said Eugene Rumer, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Program. The Charles de Gaulle did a two-month stint in the Gulf from February, from where strikes against IS in Iraq were carried out, before returning to its base in the French port of Toulon. Since beginning operations in Iraq, French fighter jets have carried out 1,285 aerial missions, resulting in 271 strikes and the destruction of 459 targets.
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The Iranian dimension to Syria’s civil conflict adds a further complication.
In their latest gains in Hama province, Ahrar al-Sham Islamist group fighters and other rebel forces took over the village of Atshan, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Iran, of course, is doing precisely the opposite-organizing thousands of Iraqi Shia militia groups to fight on Assad’s behalf, deploying additional Quds Force operatives to advise pro-Assad military units on the ground, and funneling plane-loads of ammunition and weapon to government forces.
The Russian government has repeatedly said it has no intention of participating in a ground offensive in Syria since it launched its campaign of air strikes on September 30.
Rebels told Reuters last week that new tactics and better organization had helped them to survive the offensives and start to fight back.
The FSA groups totally dismissed recent reports that their representatives are going to meet with the defense and foreign ministers of Russian Federation next week in UAE’s city of Abu Dhabi.
“Taking control of Morek means the beginning of retaking the [M5] highway”, said HMC spokesman Muhammad, “allowing rebels to begin operations pushing towards Hama city”.
Syrian government forces had captured Atshan in October, the Observatory said. He said fighting was continuing inside parts of the town.
The group did not confirm whether or not Russian troops were fighting alongside Syrian government troops. “The whole countryside of Hama is aflame…”
It was not immediately clear who may have carried out the attack.
“We have determined the facts, but we have not determined who was responsible”, the source said.
Syrians have given their blood and sacrificed their parents and children to be free from a tyrannical regime.
According to Lavrov, another meeting on the Syrian settlement in Vienna must focus on lists separating terrorists and patriotic oppositionists in the war-torn Arab country.
In a Thursday phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov underlined the Islamic Republic’s fundamental role in the diplomatic efforts to end over four years of violence in Syria, calling for Iran’s presence in the upcoming Vienna summit, IRNA reported.
Russian air force head Viktor Bondarev, speaking to the Russian publication Komsomolskaya Pravda, spun out a scenario in which Russian forces might need heavy duty anti-aircraft batteries.
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CIT published screenshots from a social media account belonging to Ayas Saryg-Ool, a soldier it said served in Russia’s 74th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, and from an account belonging to Vladimir Boldyrev, who it suggested was a Russian marine from the 810th Separate Marine Brigade.
