Syria extends major offensive to retake territory in west

“Then he returned home at the end of his assignment”, Kosari told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The pro-IS Aamaq media outlet said the group seized six villages and other strategic positions in Aleppo province after battling with armed opposition groups there. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the advance by the extremists was the most significant in months.

It was not clear whether Hamedani’s killing was related to that IS offensive.

The new developments come amid a wave of Russian airstrikes that have targeted insurgents fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, and a ground offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s central region.

In the nearby village of Kafr Nabuda, rebel forces shot down a low-flying military helicopter, but it was unclear whether the aircraft was Syrian or Russian, said observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman.

So the U.S. is not targeting the Islamic State’s financial lifeline – its black market oil infrastructure – but instead is teaming up with the same al-Qaeda affiliated groups that spawned IS in the first place, to undermine Assad.

One of the top Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani has been killed in Syria on October 8, IRGC’s official website reported.

The fighting is concentrated in an area adjacent to the heartland of Assad’s family and the Alawite minority – an offshoot of Shiite Islam – to which it belongs.

Besides keeping Mr. Assad afloat with billions of dollars in aid since the start of the Syrian conflict more than four years ago, Iran has funded and trained tens of thousands of local militiamen and overseen the arrival of thousands of foreign Shiite fighters into the country, led by Tehran’s main regional proxy the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that the Russian air force has attacked a total of 112 targets, destroying 19 command posts, 12 ammunition depots, 71 armored vehicles as well as factories and workshops producing various explosives, including devices used in auto bombs.

The group said the attacks constitute a “grave violation of worldwide humanitarian law and, as a result, a war crime”.

Russia’s support for Assad “will have consequences for Russia itself”, he said, adding: “I also expect that in coming days the Russians will begin to suffer casualties in Syria”.

In July, he received injuries to his face while reporting on clashes in Aleppo and was taken to Turkey for treatment. Aleppo’s suburbs are contested by these two sides, as well as by Islamic State, which dominates the northern and eastern outskirts of the city.

A collective called Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered said 22 blasts shook the city. USA and Russian officials agreed publicly to engage in communications to “deconflict” the airspace for their respective warplanes, but have only publicly acknowledged one such meeting, simply to establish that they should engage in a dialogue.

Meanwhile, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France had launched a second air strike overnight in Syria against an Islamic State training camp.