Iran’s Top General in Syria Killed

“It’s back and forth”, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory.

Iranian Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani has been killed by Islamic State (ISIL) militants, according to a statement issued by the Iranian army to Sepah News. IS militants reached their closest position yet to Aleppo in northern Syria at dawn on Friday after hours of ferocious fighting with rival opponents of Assad, a monitoring group reported.

Hamedani was appointed as the Deputy Commander of the IRGC in 2005. Syria’s rebels are mostly Sunni. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

“The Russian military action in Syria over the past 10 days does not target Daesh, their main aim is (to ensure) the security of Bashar al-Assad”, said Le Drian. The Pentagon is set to announce its plans to abandon its training program to arm and train Syrian rebels.

Supported by the Russian air campaign, Syrian troops and allied militias have launched an offensive against rebels in the Ghab Plain and other parts of the northern province of Hama, where Abdulrahman said clashes continued late into Thursday night.

“Two Rafale jets dropped bombs on an IS training camp”.

Syrian state television said in a newsflash that attacks carried out by government forces in the area had killed and wounded a number of “terrorists”, a term it uses to describe all insurgents in Syria. Senior Iranian officials have been in the country for several years.

“NATO has already responded by increasing our capacity, our ability, our preparedness to deploy forces including to the south, including in Turkey”, the alliance’s chief said, adding that Russia’s air and cruise missile strikes were “reasons for concern”.

Last week, Moscow made a dramatic entry in the multi-front conflict in its Soviet-era ally Syria, saying it needed to stop Islamic State jihadists before they cross into Russian Federation, which has a large Muslim minority.