However, the jihadist group is believed to have only a limited presence in Hama.The United Nations envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he hoped Russian Federation and the U.S. would agree to form the core of one or more “contact groups” of countries supporting talks on a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
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On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said advances have been made in working with Washington on fighting in Syria.
The US and Russian Federation must not allow the conflict in Syria to develop into a full-blown proxy war, China’s ruling Communist Party said Tuesday, chiding both Moscow and Washington for having an outdated Cold War mindset.
Seeking a common front in their criticism of Russia’s dramatic military intervention, European Union foreign ministers warned that air strikes created to support Assad could also deepen the 4-1/2-year civil war that has killed 250,000 people.
Moscow says it targets only banned terrorist groups in Syria, primarily Islamic State.
“Coalition forces conducted an airdrop Sunday in northern Syria to resupply local counter-ISIL ground forces as they conduct operations against ISIL”, said Colonel Patrick Ryder, spokesman for the U.S. military’s central command.
“If you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we’ve got a different definition of leadership”, Obama said.
The Arab groups in the new alliance are operating under the name “The Syrian Arab Coalition” – a grouping which U.S. officials have said would receive support under a new USA strategy aimed at fighting ISIS in Syria. They escaped from IS controlled territory in the east, where militants and rebels are fighting, to Idlib in the north which is now being pounded by Russian jets.
Abdel Rahman said the rebels were sending reinforcements to Kafr Nabuda to battle the regime, which was also shelling other parts of Hama and Latakia provinces.
“It is clear that the Russian military intervention in Syria has indeed introduced new dynamics into the situation and that means, that making forecast speculations are going to be for the moment hard”.
With air support from Russian Federation, Assad’s government is trying to retake land seized this year by insurgent groups that include the Nusra Front, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, and US-backed units calling themselves the Free Syrian Army.
The province lies at the intersection of the provinces of Hama, Latakia and Idlib, and has been a major target for Russian strikes.
The us military, however, declined to provide further details about the groups that received the supplies, their location, or the type of equipment in the airdrop.
But Putin said he’d be willing to join forces with the Americans in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
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In Baghdad, meanwhile, security services said on Monday that they were checking reports that ISIL chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi had been wounded in a strike on his convoy.
