Russian Federation and Syria on the Offensive Against ISIS. Ground Operations Coordinated

The U.S. is abandoning its goal of training a new force of moderate Syrian rebels and will focus on equipping, arming and supporting established groups already fighting Islamic State inside Syria, officials said. However, it denied reports that a few of their strikes did not hit their intended target.

Islamic State militants seized a string of villages from rival insurgents north of Aleppo city Friday, in a surprise attack that came despite intensive Russian airstrikes that Moscow insists are targeting the extremist group, activists said.

Liwa al-Haqq is not connected to Islamic State, so it was not clear what the two field commanders were doing at the group’s base.

The Pentagon said it would shift its focus to providing weapons and other equipment to rebel groups whose leaders have passed a USA vetting process to ensure they are not linked to militant Islamist groups.

“What is certain right now is that this is a new turning point in the conflict and there is no turning back”, says the paper. Tehran has provided his government with military and political backing for years and has kept up its support since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.

Syria’s military, backed by Russian Federation, Iran and allied militias, has launched a major attack in Syria’s west to recapture land lost to non-IS rebels near the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a former commander in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, was killed Thursday night outside Aleppo during an attack by ISIS, Iran’s semiofficial FARS News Agency reported.

Under the new approach, the USA would provide small arms and ammunition, as well as communications gear and limited training of rebel leaders, to enable established rebel groups to co-ordinate United States air strikes in support of their ground operation, the officials said.

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

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday that “80 to 90 percent” of Russian strikes in Syria were aimed at propping up Assad, Moscow’s long-term ally.

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. It said the group opened its blitz with a surprise attack on the Infantry Academy, forcing rebels positioned there to withdraw after a number of their fighters were killed or captured. The missiles passed through Iraq and Iran on their way to their targets.

Russian General Staff deputy chief Lt. Gen. Igor Makushev said Russian warplanes conducted 67 sorties over the past day – a significant increase over previous days. Several senior Guard commanders have been killed in Syria.