USA holds second round of talks with Russian Federation over Syria

The Observatory also said Syrian government forces backed by militia had captured the village of Atshan from insurgent fighters in Hama province after Russian airstrikes in surrounding areas.

Defense officials from the United States and Russian Federation held a 90-minute video conference call on Saturday to discuss safe flight operations over Syria, according to the Pentagon, which is concerned that dueling bombing campaigns could lead to accidental clashes without the proper precautions.

The Russian military pressed on with its air campaign in Syria yesterday, bombing more than rebel 60 targets as U.S. officials admitted it could do nothing to protect its proxies on the ground.

In Moscow, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had hit 55 IS targets in the past 24 hours.

Media captionWho’s fighting whom in Syria?

HRW said there was also evidence the munitions had been used in Hama and Idlib provinces.

In the biggest deployment of Iranian forces yet, sources told Reuters last week that hundreds of troops had arrived since late September to take part in a major ground offensive planned in west and northwest Syria.

“Monitoring by US military and intelligence assets has concluded that at least four missiles crashed as they flew over Iran”.The Russian Defense Ministry said it fired missiles from ships in the Caspian Sea for a second day and had hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centers and training camps.

On the other hand, rebels say that Hama, Idlib and Latakia have no ISIS presence, accusing Russian Federation of targeting moderate and Islamist opposition fighters instead of the radical group. “The war against Daesh and defeating its dangers is possible if the opposing parties against Daesh, among them Russians, work together properly”, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said at an event in Abu Dhabi, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym.

The IS offensive has brought the jihadists closer than ever to Aleppo, threatening to further complicate the situation in Syria’s one-time commercial capital, long divided between government and rebel control. The area is held by a rebel alliance that excludes Islamic State fighters.

The Observatory said Russian warplanes on Saturday bombed a headquarters of the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham rebel group in Saraqeb, in Idlib province.

Also Friday, Washington acknowledged it had made a decision to “pause” a controversial programme to train and equip Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. It has been pushing for an agreement with Russian Federation on safety precautions in order to make sure no collisions or other incidents would happen between the two countries in the crowded skies over Syria. Ankara says its air space has been repeatedly violated by Russian jets.