While ISIS has “butchered Americans whom it captured in Syria”, Byman noted that the attacks on the West that the group calls for are usually carried out “by so-called ‘lone wolves, ‘ most of whom have little operational connection to the group’s core in Syria and Iraq”.
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One source said there was conflicting intelligence reporting as to where a bomb may have been placed on the plane. “We’re going to spend a lot of time just making sure our own investigators and own intelligence community find out what’s going on before we make any definitive pronouncements”.
“Which concerns me greatly, not just for Russian airlines, but frankly American-bound flights into the United States”.
Marco Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich said the likely attack should jerk the US into more aggressive military action against the terrorist group, which the USA has been fighting as part of an global bombing campaign over the skies of Iraq and Syria.
A few are wondering what changes may come if the attack is linked to ISIS. If another Islamist group has acquired the motivation and the capacity to attack civilian airliners, a future target could be US jets.
As you said, the greatest aviation, terrorist event since 9/11.
USA officials continued to stress that it’s still too early to conclude that for certain that ISIS bombed the jet, telling NBC News that mechanical failure remains a possibility.
“If confirmed, this attack would mark a major shift by the Islamic State and should force us to rethink the threat that the group poses to the world”.
Now, the White House might be forced into yet another exhaustive review of its goals and strategies in the region.
In the past, Putin has reacted to domestic political pressure by stoking nationalism and by acting decisively overseas, often in conflict with USA interests. So it’s very hard for the United States to predict exactly how he will react.
Russian Federation will continue implementing the state program assisting the relocation of compatriots to the motherland, Putin said, adding that more than 367,000 people, including 130,000 from Ukraine, have moved to Russian Federation under this program. While Moscow has said that it has been focusing largely on ISIS targets in Syria, the Pentagon has said most of the attacks have been on rebels fighting Assad.
“The Russians are a target because of their armed intervention in the Syrian civil war from a month ago, not because of their actions outside this theatre”, Burke said.
The current conflict in Syria brings with it an especially challenging set of realities for the U.S.to navigate.
He said ISIS have overtaken al-Qaeda as the “premier bomb maker” in the Middle East and blasted Western leaders whose “weakness” has emboldened the jihadis.
On Thursday, a Russian general said his military has dispatched “anti-aircraft rocket systems” to Syria because “we took into account every possible threat”.
Many Republican presidential candidates, though, favor sending more ground troops to Iraq and Syria, and even Hillary Clinton has proposed a no-fly zone over Syria.
Obama’s decision last week to dispatch Special Forces to Syria has already drawn derision from Republicans as being insufficient to counter the magnitude of the threat.
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So, this week’s announcement by the president that “dozens” of U.S. Special Forces troops would be deployed to Syria led to predictable claims that the Obama Administration had gone back on its promise to not place “boots on the ground” as part of its effort to end the conflict.
