Russia launches new wave of air raids in Syria

Yet it’s not clear the hardliners who ousted Boehner and view McCarthy with suspicion would flock to Chaffetz instead.

Russian military spokesman Maj.-Gen.

Igor Konashenkov as saying in a statement that “a terrorist headquarters and an ammunition depot were destroyed near Idleb, as were a fortified three-level command center near Hama”.

Staffan de Mistura’s office said the United Nations team had made all necessary preparations to immediately implement the humanitarian provisions as part of the implementation of a ceasefire agreement.

Additional Russian airstrikes in Syria were reported on Thursday.

Russia’s foreign minister says his country has not been invited by Iraq to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State group and others. US President Barack Obama later warned that Russia’s aggressive military campaign in support of Assad was a “recipe for disaster”. Friday’s monthly jobs report from the government suggested that the USA economy, which has been outshining others around the world, may be weakening.

But he added “How can we ask the Syrian people to head to the ballot box while they are not safe in the streets?” The northeastern Raqqa province previously fell to the Islamic State group before.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says IS gunmen launched an offensive Friday on government-held neighborhoods in Deir el-Zour.

It said Russian raids on Khan Sheikhun in Idlib province had killed two Al-Nusra fighters, and that Latamina in Hama province had been hit as well. “The people of the Levant will stand up to you”.

Russian air strikes in Syria will last for three to four months and will intensify, a senior Russian lawmaker said Friday as President Vladimir Putin was due in Paris for talks.

The warning from members of the U.S.-led coalition came just ahead of a scheduled meeting between the French and Russian presidents.

The two countries are not officially “coordinating” their airstrikes but inform each other to avoid problems, the official said.

The meeting was previously scheduled to discuss Ukraine’s conflict but frenzied activity around Syria this week dominated the bilateral meeting.

Moscow said Friday its warplanes had “conducted 18 sorties on 12 positions held by the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria” since Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said those strikes had killed at least a dozen IS fighters. It had no word on casualties. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Observatory, told Reuters the warplanes were believed to be Russian.

Islamic State captured the town of Qaryatain from government control in August.

Syria-based activist Bebars al-Talawy said on Friday that the air raids were carried out by Russian warplanes, adding that there were no casualties.

The Russian defence ministry on Saturday confirmed that its latest airstrikes in Syria destroyed an Islamic State (IS) command centre.

Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko told Russian media that “Channels for communications between the Defense Ministry and many partners were opened today”.

Most of the Russian airstrikes appear to be focused on militias aligned with Jaysh al-Fateh, the Army of Conquest, which overran a large swath of northwest Syria this spring, ousting Assad forces from Idlib province.

Russian raids also hit “an IS command post” in Kafr Zeita in Hama province.