Russian Embassy shelled in Syria

Russian jets carried out at least 30 air strikes on the town of Kafr Nabuda in Hama province in western Syria, and hundreds of shells hit the area as the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters seized part of it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday at the Russia Calling investment conference that Russia had proposed to organize a high-level meeting in Moscow, the Russian capital, or in Washington, the USA capital, to discuss Syrian issues.

U.S.-led air strikes on Islamic State militants, who control a third of Iraq, have failed to turn the tide in the conflict, which has sapped the OPEC oil producer’s finances and fueled sectarian bloodletting.

The Russians “know their targets, and they have a sophisticated capacity to understand the battlefield situation”, said Republican congressman Mike Pompeo, who is on the House of Representatives intelligence committee.

Hezbollah has redeployed all its fighters in Syria to take part in the battle in the northwest, according to sources familiar with political and military developments in Syria.

He said the rebels had thwarted an attack by pro-government forces on the town of al-Mansoura in the Plain, and that government forces had suffered losses.

Russia’s two-week-old air campaign has bolstered Assad and left the United States struggling to adjust its military support programme for Assad’s opponents.

Insurgents in Syria are deploying more men and weapons, including significant quantities of anti-tank missiles, to resist ground attacks by the Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russian air strikes, rebels and a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

An alliance of insurgents targeted by Russian air strikes said on Tuesday it was starting an operation to recapture Hama.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its warplanes have intensified their attacks, carrying out 88 sorties targeting 86 sites in Raqqa, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Aleppo provinces – a marked rise from the number reported in previous days.

That, he said, is far more realistic than trying to negotiate a successor government when President Bashar al-Assad clearly has no interest in stepping down and when there is no mechanism to enforce a peace at a time when the army is distrusted in the eyes of many Syrians. In the recording, he described U.S. President Barack Obama as “an idiot” and a failure.

But al-Adnani also acknowledged the death of a senior IS official, Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, who was killed in an August airstrike by the U.S.in Iraq.

Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, head of Syria’s Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front, urged jihadists in the Caucasus to target Russians because of Moscow’s air campaign.

“The war in Syria will make the Russians forget the horrors that they found in Afghanistan”, Jolani said.

“The recent Russian military attacks that go beyond Dae’sh and other UN-designated terrorist groups, as well as on the moderate opposition, are of deep concern, and must cease immediately”, the group said, referring to another name for ISIS. Obeid had replaced Hassan Hussein al-Haj, who was killed in Idlib last week.

The Observatory also said Hezbollah fighters arrived in the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain to reinforce a regime offensive there. The report did not elaborate. Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander, was killed Thursday near Aleppo.

Iran, another key ally of Assad, has sent military advisers to aid his forces but denies sending combat troops to Syria.