On Friday, Russian cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea passed over northern Iraq on the way to targets in Syria. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not necessarily a new president. ISIS claimed responsibility for the incident, which cost 224 lives.
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The terrain-hugging Kalibr cruise missiles, which North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has codenamed Sizzler, fly at an altitude of 50 metres (164 feet) and are accurate to within three metres, the Russian Defence Ministry says. The warships of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla have also launched a series of cruise missile strikes against the ISIL assets in Syria. It’s unclear whether any of the terrorists in the Paris attacks exploited the refugee system to enter Europe, though Obama has insisted that’s not a legitimate security threat in the United States.
“Their principal goal appeared to be – if you follow the strikes that they took – to fortify the position of the Assad regime”.
Islamic State represents all the dynamics previously not seen from a non-state actor, including “tremendous abilities and power”, Hagel said.
Germany is part of the coalition, but is not among those conducting airstrikes.
Medvedev reportedly said that America ignored the rise of ISIS by focusing on ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad instead.
Diplomats from the USA, Russia, Iran and several other countries have agreed on plan for a political transition in Syria that would yield talks between the government of Assad and opposition forces by January 1.
Obama’s insistence that Americans not be terrorized carried echoes of the weeks and months after the September 11 attacks, which brought significant changes to US air travel, civil liberties law and views about Muslims in the U.S. Then, as in now, leaders asked Americans not to “let the terrorists win”.
Hollande has said he was also seeking a “union of all who can fight this terrorist army in a single coalition”. Hollande meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday before traveling to Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Sensing a softening on the part of France, Putin has ordered his Navy vessels in the Mediterranean to cooperate closely with the French aircraft carrier group which arrived off the Syrian coast on Sunday. While agreeing to increase intelligence sharing with the French since the Paris attacks, the US tempered expectations that is now ready to join forces with Russian Federation in the skies over Syria.
Speaking at a news conference in Malaysia at the end of a 10-day overseas trip, Obama said he expected the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate allegations that significant changes were made to reports from analysts at the U.S. Central Command.
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Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, a former ambassador to Canada, understands why Hollande is reaching out to Russian Federation. In Turkey and the Philippines last week, Obama pushed back on those proposals as un-American, drawing criticism from a few who said he failed to grasp Americans post-Paris fears.
