Islamic State Closes In On Syrian City Of Aleppo

Instead of fighting IS in small units, the US-trained rebels would be attached to larger existing Kurdish and Arab forces.

The administration’s effort to enhance the moderate Syrian opposition through training and equipment came under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks after the White House acknowledged the program had only succeeded in graduating a handful of recruits, despite spending almost $500 million on the endeavor.

Russian warplanes struck 67 targets in intensified air raids in Syria since Thursday, the defense ministry in Moscow said today, reporting 300 Islamist militants killed and claiming the militants were “sustaining significant losses”.

The United States and its allies have been waging a year-long air campaign against Isil in Syria, while pushing to diplomatically edge Assad from power.

It’s the first public comment by a USA official on the cruise missile failures.

Earlier Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in what the State Department said was a bid to lay the groundwork for the president’s talks with Mr. Putin.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the new approach is aimed at improving U.S. support for partners on the ground in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the shift in approach had not yet been announced.

One official said the USA wasn’t able to detect any casualties or damage from the errant strikes, suggesting they may have fallen harmlessly in Iran.

The USA was training moderate rebels in order to defeat Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president who’s notorious for committing human rights violations. The USA side has proposed a number of safety measures, including using specific global radio frequencies for distress calls by military pilots flying in Syrian airspace.

Activists have reported more than 20 explosions in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa held by the Islamic State group.

The United States would also support members of the Syrian Arab Coalition, under that plan. Rostenko suggested in his letter that, “one day Yalta might get one more street named after the us leader who made an invaluable input into the improvement of relations between our two peoples”.

“But the Americans are still trying to play down the Russians” successful aerial operation in Syria in order to justify the “imitation’ war they have been waging against ISIL”, he noted.

The program expended near $50 million of the funds allotted by Congress in 2014.

Securing those areas would help consolidate Assad’s control over Syria’s main population centers in the west of the country, far from the Islamic State strongholds in the east.

Mr. Obama, who wanted to follow the complete pullout of all US forces from Iraq – which a few critics blame for the rise of Islamic State – with a similar pull-out of the last 10,000 USA troops from Afghanistan this year, is under pressure to leave them there to prop up the Afghan army in the wake of the Kunduz debacle.

The Russian justification calling said stepped-up these devices thumps on rebel opportunities in Syria murdered 300 anti-Assad rebels understanding that it reach 60 Islamic State directs over the past date.