USA diplomats: Russian strikes hit Syrian rebels, civilians

After describing how the president’s withdrawal of American troops from Iraq in 2011 left a vacuum that the Islamic State (IS) was able to fill, Moulton said that the jihadist group is a major threat to American national security.

Syrian state media say government forces have recaptured the only road linking the northern city of Aleppo to central Syria.

Defeating Islamic State in Syria, under Obama’s strategy, rests on enabling local Syrian forces not only to beat back Islamic State fighters but to hold freed territory until a new central government, established in Damascus, can take over.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said intense battles are still raging in southern Aleppo.

State TV rolled live footage of the road being reopened.

Putin’s approval rating among Russians jumped to a record high of nearly 90 percent after he ordered air strikes against Islamic State and other militants in Syria to begin on September 30, limiting potential for a backlash against him over the air crash.

Republican hawks seem to lack an appreciation of just how effective even small numbers of Special Operations forces can be.

On Friday, the Obama administration, under pressure from lawmakers, announced that it will be putting up to 50 USA special operations troops in northern Syria to advise and assist rebel forces there.

Control of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war, is divided between the government and non-IS rebels.

“If you don’t adapt the way you execute and implement your strategy, then… unless you can see the future with ideal clarity, you’re setting yourself up for failure”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby, a retired admiral who served previously as a spokesman for the Defense Department. They’ll defend themselves and, undoubtedly, will have US firepower just a radio call away – from the likes of A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft deployed to Turkey.

The Syrian air force jet was downed in northwest Hama, near the town of Kafr Nabuda, where fighting has been raging between insurgents and government forces backed by air cover.

“The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria for taking the fight on the ground to ISIL in their own country”, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said last week, using another acronym for ISIS. “After the Russian airstrikes, you had more boys thinking of signing up, thinking they want to fight Russia or fight the United States”.

“We are ready, the United Nations is ready, to start immediately with this process in Geneva”, de Mistura said.

That contention is a hard sell following the death of an American commando last month in a raid to free hostages at an Islamic State facility near the Iraqi city of Hawija.

They will do “nothing to really change who controls what ground through greater Syria”, he said.

The Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that Moscow has many times asked the U.S.to present data on the so-called moderate Syrian opposition: “The USA blames us for working on these targets all the time, destroying their infrastructure and killing representatives of the opposition”.