France launches air strikes against Islamic State in Syria

“It is true that we do need equipment, training, intelligence, air force coverage”.

To be clear, none of these troops are engaged in ground combat against ISIS.

Russia, meanwhile, has rankled the west by strengthening its military presence in Syria in recent weeks.

The number does not include the ever-growing list of casualties from the various wars IS is waging against the Syrian and Iraqi central governments, the USA and its broad team of allies, and against rival rebel groups in the region.

In the same way that Putin has no wish to see the Chechen fighters back in Russian Federation, so too Chinese President Xi wants to prevent the Uighurs from returning home from the Syrian battlefields.

Western media say Russia is sending warplanes and tanks to Syria and building a military base in Latakia, but Russian officials deny this, saying Moscow is continuing to supply Syria with weapons in accordance with bilateral contracts.

“In the near future, the center will be tasked to create conditions for the establishment on its basis of a coordination committee to plan operations and to control units of the armed forces of Russian Federation, Syria, Iran and Iraq, first and foremost, for fighting ISIL”, the source said. When asked why Iraq hasn’t closed its airspace to Russian planes, al-Jaafari gave a vague answer.

“We acknowledge that the Iraqis have not made any significant forward movement recently”, Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said Friday, adding that the U.S.is urging Iraqi leaders to press ahead.

“Civil populations must be protected against all forms of violence, those coming from Daesh and other terrorist groups, but also against the deadly bombings of (Syrian) President Bashar al-Assad” the statement, cited by the Reuters news agency, said. And when the former Egyptian President Mubarak was rejected, we also rejected him.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 3,207 people have been put to death by the Islamic militants in Syria, while another 7,700 have been killed in Iraq.

“But now Syria is divided”, he said. So we stood neutral. The US approach has been attacked from both sides of the political aisle, characterized as mission creep by some and weak incrementalism by others. They have expertise. They have qualifications.