Russian Missiles Hit Iran After Missing Syrian Targets

Obama has blamed the program’s lack of success partly on the failure to find opposition forces who would agree to fight the Islamic State instead of the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has been fighting a 4-year-old civil war.

He reaffirmed that Russia’s goal is to “fight the Islamic State and other extremist terrorist groups, efforts that are ultimately aimed at preserving Syria as a single state”. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll. All times local in Syria.

He has also ruled out any broader co-operation or co-ordination with Russian Federation as long as Moscow continues to strike targets other than the IS militants in Syria.

It calls for actions to “create a better military balance of power on the ground”, including the creation of “no-fly zones” as well as “robust support” for various anti-regime forces and an effort to “solidify our relationship with Turkey”, a principal sponsor of the Islamist militias inside Syria. The Observatory said Russian jets bombed areas near the site. His wife of one year is expecting their first child, Anadolu said.

“Losing Turkey would be a serious loss for Russian Federation”, Erdogan said. “That’s exactly the kind of example that we would like to pursue with other groups in other parts of Syria going forward”, Carter said. “Yes they are participating”.

The report Friday said that Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed in the suburbs of Aleppo in Syria while “carrying out an advisory mission”, but didn’t provide any further details.

The British-based Observatory said it was the biggest advance by Islamic State since it launched an offensive against rival rebels in Aleppo near the Turkish border in late August.

Syrian rebels battled the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in northern Aleppo province on Saturday, October 10, a day after the jihadist force advanced to the outskirts of the city of the same name, a monitor said.

The Pentagon expressed alarm this week after Russian Federation failed to quickly answer proposals made during initial talks, even as it launched cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea and repeatedly violated Turkish air space.

Information for this article was contributed by Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor of The Associated Press and by Michael D. Shear, Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirms the USA has indications that four Russian cruise missiles crashed in Iran rather than Syria, suggesting there were malfunctions.

The $500 million Congress provided past year for the program will be used more for equipping and arming select rebel groups inside Syria, with limited training activity.

Russian jets began striking Syrian opposition targets inside Syria on September 30.

France’s Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French warplanes bombed a training camp in Raqqa.

Despite the Internet, TV news remains paramount in Russian Federation with an estimated 90 percent of the population using it to follow current affairs.

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

Russian aircraft have stepped up their airstrikes on ISIS positions near Palmyra, the ancient Roman city ISIS recently captured. “Also a number of heavy regime vehicles have been destroyed in the Ghab region”. “The clashes also killed 11 (rebel) fighters,” he said in a statement, and the numbers were expected to rise as more casualties were confirmed.

Senior Iranian officials have been in Syria for several years as military advisers.

Russian Federation says the air strikes it began last week are directed against IS, as well as al Qaida’s Syrian affiliates.