US, Russia hold talks on safe flight operations over Syria

In Hama, regime forces seized Atshan village from opposition fighters, including Islamists and al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

The irony, of course, being the U.S.-trained rebels reportedly had to pledge to fight only ISIS and not Assad.

It is now official: the program to arm and train Syrian moderates, the one that leapt from “fantasy” to policy priority between August and September of a year ago is now officially winding down.

In the latest air strikes Russia’s Defence Ministry said its planes hit the headquarters of the Liwa al-Haqq militant group in Syria killing 200 insurgents.

“The work we’ve done with the Kurds in northern Syria is an example of an effective approach”, Carter told a news conference in London without providing any details of the new program.

Washington will restart talks with Russian Federation over avoiding accidents in Syrian airspace, the Pentagon announced, as Islamic State group fighters advanced to the outskirts of Syria’s second city, Aleppo. The jihadists launched a surprise attack on non-ISIL rebel positions north of Aleppo on Thursday night, seizing at least three villages and a former army base that rebels had captured from troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad two years ago. Meanwhile, USA officials said that CIA-backed rebels in the area were under Russian bombardment with little prospect of rescue by their American sponsors.

“We have devised a number of different approaches to that going forward and taken them to President (Barack) Obama, and you will be hearing I think very shortly from him”, Carter said Friday. “They are bombing in locations that are not connected to the Islamic State”.

It emerged last month that only four or five of the fighters were in Syria.

The New York-based rights group said it could not determine whether Russian or Syrian forces were responsible for the apparent use of the munitions, which descend by parachute and are created to destroy armored vehicles but can also pose a major hazard to civilians. An official familiar with the program said Friday that the total is now close to $300 million. Now the Pentagon can coordinate with their leaders and allow the fighters to continue battling the Islamic State, the White House officials said.

Obama’s critics unfavorably compare his resolve in Syria – where a US-led coalition is bombing the Islamic State and putting political pressure on Assad – to Putin’s.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said talks between the two countries would resume after Moscow replied to America’s proposals aimed at ensuring Russian warplanes do not cross paths with drones and US-led coalition jets.

The Russian air war has provided cover for Assad’s ground troops, who have lost swathes of territory to jihadists and rebel groups since 2011.

“A senior Defense Department official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there would no longer be any more recruiting of so-called moderate Syrian rebels to go through training programs in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates”, the Times reports.