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"When we speak about the initiative brought forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, we have to remember that it came after it was understood that the coalition led by Washington was not created to fight against ISIL but to fight with the help of ISIL and similar groups," Haddad told RIA Novosti.
The sources, speaking to Reuters on condition they not be identified, gave the most forthright account yet from the region of what the United States fears is a deepening Russian military role in Syria's civil war, though one of the Lebanese sources said the number of Russians involved so far was small. U.S. officials said Russia sent two tank landing ships and additional cargo aircraft to Syria in the past day or so and deployed a small number of naval infantry forces.
The U.S. officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intent of Russia's military moves in Syria was unclear. One suggested the focus may be on preparing an airfield near the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that Russia may want to use the airfield for air combat missions.
Election poster of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) are seen on a car at al-Qardahah town near Latakia city
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart for the second time in four days to express concern over reports of Russian military activities in Syria, warning that it could fan more violence. The White House said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Russia says the Syrian government must be incorporated into a shared global fight against Islamic State, the Islamist group that has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq. The United States and Assad's regional foes see him as part of the problem. "We would welcome constructive Russian contributions to the counter-ISIL effort, but we've been clear that it would be unconscionable for any party, including the Russians, to provide any support to the Assad regime," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
SYRIAN TROOPS PULLING BACK
Russia on Thursday urged the United States and its allies to engage the Syrian government as a "partner" in the fight against the Islamic State group amid concerns over an ongoing Russian military buildup there.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem denied reports on Thursday that Russian combat troops were fighting in Syria but said Syria would not hesitate to ask for Russia's help if needed.
Dmitry Peskov in comments to Russian news agencies on Friday said if such a request is made, it will be "discussed and considered," but he insisted the question is purely hypothetical at this stage.
News from The Associated Press
U.S. Ambassador John Tefft said in a statement on Wednesday that a state-controlled library recently terminated an agreement for embassy support of the center and warned of its intention to replace its American director and take full control of its activities.
Tefft deplored the "unfortunate move by the Russian government," adding that the center has "built deep and strong connections between the people and cultures of Russia and the United States."
The move comes almost a year after Russia cancelled the largest educational exchange program with the U.S. Bilateral ties have been badly hurt by the Ukraine crisis.
News from The Associated Press
US officials say Russia moved a small number of fighter jets to a base in Syria on Friday, hours after US defence secretary Ash Carter talked with Russia defence minister Sergei Shoigu in the first military contacts between the two countries in some time. "Clearly, the presence of aircraft with air-to-air combat capacity ... raises serious questions," Kerry said, responding to a question after meeting with British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond. Russia says its recent military buildup in Syria is designed to fight the Islamic State group. While ISIS lacks an air force, the Russian aircraft are capable of striking ground targets and providing close air support for ground forces, according to a US intelligence official who was not authorized to discuss military matters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Russia's military moves in Syria are its first major expeditionary force deployment outside the former Soviet Union since the war in Afghanistan, the official said. Kerry said the military-to-military talks with the Russians are designed to make sure there are no incidents between Russian and American forces. The discussions also amount to a tacit acceptance of the Russian buildup, after weeks of warnings from Washington against any Russian escalation in Syria.
In another apparent concession, Kerry stated explicitly that the US could accept a resolution to the Syrian war that allowed President Bashar Assad to remain in place for a time before departing, as the US long has wanted. "We're not being doctrinaire about the specific date or time - we're open," Kerry said, adding that Assad doesn't have to leave "on day one, or month one, or whatever". He later added that the US considered Assad a magnet for the foreign fighters who are filling the Islamic State group's ranks. "So there's a lack of logic," Kerry said, for the Russians to say "they are bringing in more equipment to shore up Assad at the same time they say they are going after" the militants.
Meantime, a Syrian rebel group claims it fired rockets at a coastal air base said to be used by Russian troops. In a video posted on Friday, members of the Islam Army warned the Russians that they will not enjoy peace in Syria. The fighters are then are seen loading and launching multiple rockets from a mountainous area. Kerry and Hammond said they also discussed the situations in Yemen, Libya and Ukraine. Kerry also urged restraint in response to days of clashes around the Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. "All of us join together in urging everybody to keep the calm," Kerry said.
Russian fighter jets in Syria raise serious questions, US says - The Times of India
The claim comes as Washington accuses Moscow of a military build-up in Syria, where Russia has backed President Bashar al-Assad's regime against an uprising of more than four years. "Russian forces are building a long runway capable of accommodating large aircraft near the Hmaymeen military airport in Latakia province," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The monitor, which relies on a network of civilian, military and medical sources inside Syria, said "the Russians are preventing Syrians, whether military or civilian, from entering the area where they are building the runway". "In recent weeks, military airplanes arrived in Hmaymeen carrying military equipment and hundreds of Russian military advisers and technicians," the group said.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said sources also reported that Russia was enlarging the Hamadiyeh airport in Tartus province, another regime stronghold that is south of Latakia. The airport is currently used by aircraft that spray crops with pesticide. Russia is a staunch ally of the regime in Damascus and maintains a naval facility in Tartus province. It has made no secret of its support for Assad's government, including continuing weapons supplies, but has rejected claims of a recent military build-up inside Syria.
But US officials this week said two tank-landing ships had arrived recently at the Tartus base, and that at least four transport flights had landed an airport in Latakia. They also reported the arrival of dozens of Russian naval infantry and the installation of temporary housing sufficient for "hundreds of people" at Latakia airport, along with portable air traffic control equipment. On Friday, Cypriot officials said Russia had issued an alert for Cyprus to divert aircraft next week because it is planning military exercises off the Syrian coast.
And on Saturday, Syrian state media reported the arrival of two Russian planes at the airport in Latakia, saying they were carrying humanitarian aid. Syrian state media sporadically reported the arrival of Russian humanitarian aid, but the flights were the first mentioned by official news organisations since the claims of a military build-up. More than 240,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.
Russia building airstrip in Syria's Latakia, report says - The Times of India
Unconfirmed reports on Twitter said Russian warplanes had carried out first airstrikes, near an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL)-besieged Syrian Air Force base at Rasm al-Abboud (aka Quweires or Kweres), east of Aleppo. Other reports, citing “security sources” in Damascus, said Russian-supplied drones had been used in Syrian regime operations against jihadists. When Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about claims airstrikes had begun, he scoffed at the notion the news would break on Twitter and declined to comment, Russian state media reported. The U.S. has watched with unease a buildup of Russian military assets in Syria over recent weeks, including the deployment of more than two dozen fighter planes at an airbase near the Assad coastal stronghold of Latakia.
Although a U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS inside Syria since September 22 of last year, Russian involvement could be a game-changer, since a key aim of Russian intervention – unlike that of the U.S. – is propping up the Assad regime. Putin is reportedly hoping to meet with President Obama on the sidelines of United Nations meetings in New York next week, when the Russian is expected to push for his ally in Damascus to be brought into the international campaign against ISIS, in a bid to end the drawn-out and costly civil war. That would fly in the face of the administration’s stance that President Bashar al-Assad’s conduct is fueling terrorism – and that he has no role in a future Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper that the brutality of the Moscow-supported regime was feeding a growth in extremism.
Sukhoi SU-27 “Flanker” jets, like the one in this file photo, are among more than two dozen Russian warplanes reportedly now stationed in Syria.
Kerry said he had told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that Russian military support for Assad “could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows, and risk confrontation with the counter-ISIL coalition operating in Syria.” Meanwhile Bloomberg cited officials in Moscow as saying that if the U.S. does not agree to coordinate with Russia, the Assad regime and Iran – Assad’s main ally – against ISIS, then Russia was ready to act alone.
Last Friday Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke by phone to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, about “what the Russians intentions are” in Syria, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said Tuesday. He said Carter would welcome a “constructive” Russian role against ISIS, but it would have to be coordinated. Furthermore, “anything that the Russians do that would be seen as supporting, further enhancing the capabilities of the Syrian government would be counterproductive,” Cook said.
Russian Airstrikes in Syria Could Begin Soon
It was the 15th straight day that a Russian transport aircraft flew in troops and equipment to the Hmeimim base in Latakia Province on the Mediterranean coast, the source said on condition of anonymity. “For the past two weeks and again today a Russian cargo plane has landed every morning at Hmeimim,” the source said, adding that they all had fighter escorts.
US satellites have recorded increased activity by Russian forces at the base inside the Bassel al-Assad civil and military airport. Washington and NATO say that recent spottings of helicopters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, tanks and soldiers prove that Russia is building an airbase.
If such a buildup is officially verified — and more importantly deployed — it would be the Russia’s first military engagement in a distant theater of war since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. One senior Syrian official said Russia’s military involvement was a “turning point” in more than four years of devastating civil war.
Russian build-up at Syrian air base continues: source - Taipei Times
The Islamic State group is making inroads in Afghanistan, winning over a growing number of sympathizers and recruiting followers in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces, a UN report said on Friday. The extremist group, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq, has been trying to establish itself in Afghanistan, challenging the Taliban on their own turf.
Afghan security forces told UN sanctions monitors that about 10 percent of the Taliban insurgency are Islamic State sympathizers, according to the report by the UN’s al-Qaeda monitoring team. “The number of groups and individuals who are openly declaring either loyalty to or sympathy with ISIL continues to grow in a number of provinces in Afghanistan,” the report said, using one of the many acronyms the group is known under. Afghan government sources said “sightings of the groups with some form of ISIL branding” or sympathy were reported in 25 provinces in the war-torn country, it added.
The Islamic State-backed groups “regularly engage” Afghan military forces, but fighting with other parts of the insurgency are rare, except in Nangarhar province, where they are battling the Taliban for control of the drug trade. Among the prominent Islamic State fighters, the report singled out Abdul Rauf Khadem, a former Taliban adviser to Mullah Omar, who visited Iraq in October last year and has since formed his own group in Helmand and Farah provinces. Khadem has allegedly been recruiting followers by paying out large sums of money. Foreign fighters from Pakistan and Uzbekistan, some of whom have close ties to al-Qaeda, have taken up the group’s banner after fleeing their country and have “rebranded themselves” in recent months, the report said.
Up to 70 Islamic State fighters have come from Iraq and Syria and now form the core of the extremists’ branch in Afghanistan, according to the report. Afghan security authorities do not consider the growing emergence of the Islamic State as an “immediate increased threat,” but they are keeping an eye on the situation as a “potential new threat,” it added. The UN monitoring team said the group had improved its propaganda in English in a sign of increased competition with the Taliban.
The Taliban, who have themselves often been accused of savagery during their 14-year insurgency, are seeking to appear as a bulwark against the Islamic State’s brutality and as a legitimate group waging an Islamic war. Earlier this month, the Taliban condemned a “horrific” video that apparently showed Islamic State fighters blowing up bound and blindfolded Afghan prisoners with explosives.
Islamic State recruiting in Afghanistan - Taipei Times
Why should have we asked you about ISIS in the 80s?Anyone who is surprised that ISIS is winning recruits from southeast asia (that means Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and----to realistic even Afghanistan)----is stupid. You should have asked me-----way back in the 1980s
Why should have we asked you about ISIS in the 80s?Anyone who is surprised that ISIS is winning recruits from southeast asia (that means Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and----to realistic even Afghanistan)----is stupid. You should have asked me-----way back in the 1980s
ISIS gets recruits from everywhere.Why should have we asked you about ISIS in the 80s?Anyone who is surprised that ISIS is winning recruits from southeast asia (that means Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and----to realistic even Afghanistan)----is stupid. You should have asked me-----way back in the 1980s
the doppleganger of isis in the 1980s was TALIBAN in Afghanistan. In the 1980s
I worked very very closely with scores of people from south-east asia . The muslims
among them idolized the Taliban and loved to talk about relatives or school mates who had joined up in the NOBLE ENDEAVOR -------Taliban began to develope a
negative reputatlon-----at which point I was informed "you don't understand the
GOOD they are doing" (that was not a reference to repelling the Russians)
As concerns grew about a conflict that has now drawn in warplanes from the world's two most powerful militaries, Russian President Vladimir Putin denied reports that civilians were killed in any Russian airstrikes. "We are ready for such information attacks," he said in a live broadcast from the Kremlin. "The first reports of civilian casualties came even before our jets took off." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country and the U.S.-coalition "see eye-to-eye" on the targets of the fight in Syria and that the first military contact between Russia and the U.S. would take place "very, very soon." He added that "we believe that our position is absolutely in line with international law."
In this image made from video provided by Hadi Al-Abdallah smoke rises after airstrikes in Kafr Nabel of the Idlib province, western Syria
Russian jets appeared to be primarily bombing central and northwestern Syria, strategic regions that are the gateway to Assad's strongholds in the capital Damascus and the coast. The United States and allies fear that Russia, which has backed the Assad family since the current leader's father was in power, is using the air campaign as a pretext to go after anti-Assad rebels that include CIA-backed groups. U.S. Sen. John McCain said Thursday that some Russian airstrikes in Syria were aimed at CIA-backed groups fighting the Assad regime, echoing claims from activists.
McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN he "can absolutely confirm to you that they were strikes against our Free Syrian Army, or groups that have been armed and trained by the CIA, because we have communications with people there." However, he later said the claim was based on published reports Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian aircraft damaged or destroyed 12 targets in Syria belonging to the Islamic State group including a command center and two ammunition depots. Officials acknowledged, however, that other unidentified groups were being targeted as well. Konashenkov said Russian Su-25M and Su-25 jets flew 20 sorties between Wednesday and Thursday morning. He insisted that civilian areas were not targeted.
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The one clear message that emerged from a day of mixed signals from the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House was that the U.S. would continue with its own air operations over Syria despite the Russian sorties. "We have not altered operations to accommodate new players on the battlefield" said Army Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve which is directing U.S. and coalition efforts in Syria and Iraq.
In this image made from video provided by Homs Media Centre smoke rises after airstrikes by military jets in Talbiseh of the Homs province, western Syria
In a video conference to the Pentagon from Baghdad, Warren said that the U.S. had flown several sorties over Syria Wednesday and Thursday and had conducted at least one airstrike against ISIS, destroying two excavators. At a testy Pentagon news conference later, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook backed up Warren's message that U.S. air operations over Syria would continue. He also echoed Warren in saying that the airstrikes conducted Wednesday and Thursday by Russian Sukhoi warplanes were not aimed at ISIS but appeared to be designed to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Cook deflected questions on whether the U.S. and the coalition would live up to the commitment made by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and others to protect Syrian rebels trained and equipped by the U.S. from potential attack by the Russians. Cook said repeatedly that he would not be drawn into "hypotheticals" about the U.S.-trained group or other groups fighting against Assad and generally supported by the U.S., such as the Free Syrian Army.
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