The Syrian minister said the Arab Republic would issue a request for help in ground operations against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group if the need arises.
Advertisement
Russian Federation said on Saturday it would step up its air strikes in Syria, where a year-long air campaign by a US-led coalition of Western and Arab forces against ISIL has failed to push back the militants.
Islamic State made its biggest advance in months in Syria’s Aleppo after overrunning several areas in the northern governorate, the United Kingdom based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
France has conducted its second set of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Friday.
Le Drian also said “80 to 90 per cent” of Russian strikes in Syria were aimed at propping up President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s long-term ally.
He speaks to the camera directly, as do the four others, as part of the anti-radicalisation campaign.
Iranian state television is reporting that a senior commander in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Syria. Tehran has provided his government with military and political backing for years and has kept up its support since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. It said the attack is believed to have been carried out by Islamic State militants. Foreign forces should stop playing “war games” in Syria, where a new exodus of refugees could be triggered, while NATO’s solidarity with Turkey is “very important”, he said.
Advertisement
The IS terrorist group is also expanding in Libya, where the state is weak, Le Drian added.
