Russian Federation air strikes on Syria: 300 ISIS militants killed at 60 targets

“I remain convinced that a lasting defeat of ISIL in Syria will depend in part on the success of local, motivated, and capable ground forces”, Mr. Carter said.

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.

The idea is to begin small and then build up the level of USA support for these established rebel groups, based on their performance.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Thursday deplored the fact that Russian warships fired the cruise missiles “without warning”.

The advance highlighted the rapidly shifting terrain in Syria, where Russian Federation and the United States are launching airstrikes and lending support to opposite sides in the country’s almost five-year civil war.

Mr. Obama, who wanted to follow the complete pullout of all US forces from Iraq – which a few critics blame for the rise of Islamic State – with a similar pull-out of the last 10,000 USA troops from Afghanistan this year, is under pressure to leave them there to prop up the Afghan army in the wake of the Kunduz debacle.

The United States, which opposes Russia’s backing of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has ruled out any military cooperation with Russian Federation in Syria.

The Observatory, which monitors Syria’s conflict through a network of sources in the country, said Hamedani was killed near Kweires air base, about 20 miles (35 km) east of Aleppo.

“They have initiated a joint ground offensive with the Syrian regime, shattering the facade that they’re there to fight ISIL [Daesh]”, Carter said, using another acronym for Daesh. On Friday, militants captured a string of villages near Aleppo in a lightning attack that brought them closer to the prized city in northern Syria. IS-affiliated accounts on Twitter also announced the militants had seized those villages.

The report Friday said that Gen. Hossein Hamedani was killed in the suburbs of Aleppo in Syria while “carrying out an advisory mission”, but didn’t provide any further details.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guard said Hamedani had played an “important role… reinforcing the front of Islamic resistance against the terrorists”.

Guard commanders repeatedly have said Iran only has high-level advisers in Syria, denying it has fighters there. The plain is a natural barrier between areas controlled by Sunni Muslims and the Alawite sect to which Assad and his loyalists belong. Iran is majority Shiite.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in Beirut says that Russian air strikes seem to be mostly hitting other Syrian opposition forces which pose more of a threat to the Moscow-backed Syrian government.

Leyla, who was from Aleppo, had trained as a computer technician. It has raised fears that Russian Federation, by hitting rebel groups that are fighting Isil as well as the regime, will inadvertently strengthen the hardline jihadists they say they want to crush.