Russian Federation says it is targeting ISIL positions.
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The Pentagon will revise its struggling training program for moderate Syrian rebels, ending the training of large groups, a Defense Department official said.
Citing the work with the Kurds along the Syrian-Turkish border, Carter told a news conference in London on Friday, “That’s exactly the kind of example that we would like to pursue with other groups in other parts of Syria going forward”.
By entering the Syria conflict, Russian Federation could now join the front rank of Islamist targets, with the financing, recruiting, and ideological power of global jihadist networks potentially channeled into organizing attacks on Russian Federation.
The Russian intervention has upended the strategy of the USA administration of President Barack Obama, which has led a separate bombing campaign against Islamic State for a year but failed to establish strong ties with fighters on the ground.
The United States military warned it would not accept a Russian offer to hold more talks until it first received a formal response to those proposals, something that on Friday the Pentagon said had arrived.
Russia’s Sukhoi Su-25, Su-24M and Su-34 attack aircraft, with the support of Su-30 jets, commenced precision airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. READ ALSO: United States to defend Syrian rebels with airpower, including from Assad “The opposition and their regional backers wanted the program, they just couldn’t accept ISIS as the priority and U.S. ambiguity on taking out Assad”, said Andrew J Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. It said troops also seized the nearby Um Hartein village.
The 0 million training program has been beset by a series of embarrassing setbacks.
Since the beginning of the air campaign, the Russian Aerospace Forces have destroyed over 300 militants, command centers, training camps and ammunition depots. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. More broadly, the program has suffered from a shortage of recruits willing to fight the Islamic State instead of the army of Assad, a problem Obama mentioned at a news conference last Friday. The official said the training was “to be suspended, with the option to restart if conditions dictate, opportunities arise”. “Like in the Iraq War, you can’t expect people to fight on your behalf unless you give them what they want. I think in the upcoming few days or weeks Iraq will be forced to ask Russian Federation to launch airstrikes and that depends on their success in Syria”, said Hakim al-Zamili, Reuters reported. As in the past, it described all targets as belonging to Islamic State, although most of the areas it said it had struck are not held by that group.
Yet the Islamic State continues to make gains. Why should Russian Federation be able to do any better than the US-led coalition?
According to Christine Warmouth, under secretary of defence for policy, the Obama administration would from now on provide equipment and weapons for existing Syrian rebel groups whose leaders have passed through “the same rigorous vetting process that we have used in the original programme”.
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‘Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook released a statement Friday saying that the US has continually reviewed the progress of the program to train and equip Syrian opposition forces.
