Pentagon to ‘refocus’ Syria rebel training programme

Those enablers will be opposition leaders who can collect intelligence about the location of Islamic State fighters and call in US airstrikes in coordination with existing fighters.

“Why didn’t America attack ISIL fighters during their attack?” asked Rami Abdurrahman, director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Daesh fought northern Aleppo’s Syrian rebels in one of the group’s largest advances in months.

The jihadists are now just over 10 kilometres (six miles) from the northern edges of Aleppo city and three kilometres (two miles) from pro-regime forces in the Sheikh Najjar industrial zone.

There was no sign, however, Russian Federation was preparing to draw back, as Syria’s chief-of-staff said Moscow’s support had enabled the regime forces to mount a wide-ranging ground offensive against the rebels.

Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed by extremists with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the outskirts of Aleppo on Thursday evening, Iran’s Press TV reported. The Syrian army has launched an offensive this week in central and northwestern Syria aided by Russian airstrikes.

Russian Federation is accused of deliberately violating Turkish airspace this past weekend, and on Wednesday it launched 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea at Syrian targets.

The number of deaths of Iranian soldiers in Syria has increased in recent weeks, as well as their elaborate and conspicuous funerals in Iran.

From rebel forces, Assad remains under siege few of them are backed by the United States, along with ISIS militants, who have carved out a territory in Iraq and Syria.

Hamedani is one of the most senior Guard commanders to be killed in Syria, and the second to be killed this year.

David Cameron and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon are to hold talks with key western allies amid growing tension with Russian Federation over President Vladimir Putin’s military intervention in Syria.

Russian Federation says its airstrikes, carried out at the invitation of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, are legal and conducted to fight terrorism.

Russian officials are accusing Islamic State fighters of hiding among the civilian population, and they say Russian warplanes have canceled attacks whenever there was a possibility of hurting non-combatants. The USA has had success working, for example, with Syrian Kurds and Sunni Arab rebel groups in northern Syria.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said, however, today in London that the United States had indications that Russian cruise missiles did malfunction.

Assad hails from Syria’s Alawite religious minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Moscow is mounting air strikes and missile attacks that it says are aimed both at supporting its longtime ally Assad and combating Islamic State.