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The Russkis have been there for some time in trainging.
They may now be in the field advising.
If they bring in small tactical units, ISIS will get the shit kicked out of it.
ISIS is not the Israeli army.The Russkis have been there for some time in trainging.
They may now be in the field advising.
If they bring in small tactical units, ISIS will get the shit kicked out of it.
Russkies did not do the Egyptian army much good in 1967
The Kremlin has said its military had entered Syria to fight the Islamic State, but to date the Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower on insurgent groups aligned against President Bashar al-Assad, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and relatively secular groups like the Free Syrian Army. Rival insurgents say that the Islamic State, also called ISIS or Daesh, is taking advantage. “Daesh has exploited the Russian airstrikes and the preoccupation of the Free Syrian Army in its battles in Hama, and advanced in Aleppo,” one rebel commander with fighters in the region told Reuters.
The Islamic State advance is threatening a strategic area north of Aleppo on the way to crossing points into Turkey that was to be part of a proposed ISIS-free buffer zone under a plan the United States announced over the summer with Turkey; that plan now seems to have stalled. A prominent Iranian general was killed in Syria on Thursday night, Iranian officials and state news media reported on Friday, illustrating the level of Iran’s direct involvement on the government side in the Syrian civil war.
The general, Hussein Hamedani, a senior figure in the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in Aleppo Province, where he was advising the Syrian military, the reports said. The Iranian state news outlet Press TV, citing a statement by the Revolutionary Guards, reported that General Hamedani had been killed by Islamic State fighters, but did not say how. General Hamedani was a top commander during the Iran-Iraq war and led the crackdown against antigovernment protests that erupted after the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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The decision is a recognition of the repeated failures of a program begun early this year. Most recently, newly trained fighters were attacked by rival forces engaged in a largely separate fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. One U.S.-trained unit decided to hand over American-provided equipment to the local al-Qaeda affiliate. U.S. officials hope the revised plan will help Arab forces, allied with Syrian Kurdish fighters, replicate the success that the Kurds have had against the Islamic State in northeastern Syria and eventually isolate the group in Raqqa, its de facto Syrian capital. “What we’re really trying to do here is build on what has worked for us and learn from some of the things that have been a lot more challenging,” Christine E. Wormuth, undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters.
Ground level: On the scene of controversial Russian strikes in Syria
Russia continues its military operations in Syria.
Wormuth said the training program launched earlier this year has not been canceled but was put on “operational pause” and might be resumed in the future. The move marks an expansion of U.S. involvement in Syria’s protracted ground war and could expose the Obama administration to greater risks if weapons provided to a wider array of rebel units go astray, or if U.S.-backed fighters come under attack from forces loyal to Assad and his allies. For much of the past year, U.S. military officials struggled to get the Pentagon’s original training program up and running. Under the initial plan, the military vetted individual Syrians, took them out of the country and put them through a weeks-long training course in Turkey or Jordan.
But qualified candidates have been hard to find — especially given a U.S. requirement that they fight only the Islamic State and not the Assad regime — and even harder to track once they have returned to Syria. In total, fewer than 200 fighters have been trained. Under the new plan, leaders of groups already battling the Islamic State undergo vetting and receive a crash course in human rights and combat communications. Many of them have already received that training outside Syria, officials said. Eventually the Pentagon plans to provide ammunition and basic weapons to those leaders’ fighters and would carry out airstrikes on targets identified by those units. Most, if not all, of the rank and file would be neither vetted nor trained by the United States.
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Is Sarah Palin helping out by watching Russia from her back porch?
He told reporters Friday that even though the Russians have come in and Iran is sending in more people, "it's also not going to work because they are trying to support a regime that in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people is not legitimate." His comments came as the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement in principle to avoid each other's aircraft as both countries conduct air campaigns in Syria. Obama said that was the only issue the two countries agreed on since Russia began its contentious military campaign at the end of September. There has been "no meeting of the minds in terms of strategy," he said. Syrian troops on Friday morning began a military offensive in the province of Aleppo, the latest campaign to regain territory amid ongoing conflicts with both Islamic State (IS) militants and government opposition groups.
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows a Syrian soldier walking in a road in the northwestern countryside of Hama
Country-wide assault
Russian officials also said their airstrikes allowed the Syrian army "to go into assault across the whole country," Interfax news agency reported. Both Syrian and Russian news sources claim Syrian government troops reclaimed several towns in multiple provinces, including Latakia, Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Homs. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are fighting alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters and Shi’ite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Aleppo operation, and across the country. Russia joined the Syrian military coalition in late September. Moscow's daily airstrikes rankled other foreign forces carrying out air offensives against IS militants and have become a repeated issue with Syria's northern neighbor, Turkey.
Institute for the Study of War, map of Russian airstrikes in Syria
Aircraft shot down
The Turkish military on Friday said it shot down an aircraft of unknown nationality that had intruded into its airspace near the Syrian border. In a statement, Turkey's military said the plane ignored three warnings before Turkish warplanes shot down the aircraft Friday. Turkish broadcaster NTV reported that the aircraft was a drone and was brought down about 3 km inside Turkish air space near the Syrian border. An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters the U.S. believes the drone was a Russian aircraft, however the Russian defense ministry said all its planes in Syria had safely returned to base and all its drones were operating "as planned" after Turkish officials announced the shootdown. "All our drones are either in mission areas or at the airbase... Whose this downed drone is, you either guess or find out yourselves," Russian Armed Forces Col. Gen. Andrei Kartapolov said Friday, according to Interfax news agency.
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Medvedev said that the United States and other states should be discussing political issues. One day earlier, Medvedev criticized the U.S. in another interview on Russian State Television for refusing to hold talks with Russia and Syria. He called the U.S. position “silly” and said that the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign effectiveness was “almost zero.” The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Saturday that the air force made 36 sorties in Syria, hitting 49 Islamic State targets in Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Damascus and Aleppo regions in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that military coalition forces carried out two air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria, and 19 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with the Iraqi government.
A video grab made on Oct. 12, 2015, shows an image taken from a footage made available on the Russian Defence Ministry's official website, purporting to show explosions after airstrikes carried out by Russian air force.
Obama: ground offensive will not work
Speaking to reporters Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said that a ground offensive in Syria is "not going to work." Even though the Russians have come in and Iran is sending in more people, "it's also not going to work because they are trying to support a regime that in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of the Syrian people is not legitimate," Obama said. His comments came as the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement in principle to avoid each other's aircraft as both countries conduct air campaigns in Syria. Obama said that was the only issue the two countries agreed on since Russia began its contentious military campaign at the end of September. There has been "no meeting of the minds in terms of strategy," he said.
Syrian troops launch Aleppo offensive
Syrian troops on Friday morning began a military offensive in the province of Aleppo, the latest campaign to regain territory amid ongoing conflicts with both Islamic State militants and government opposition groups. Russian officials also said their airstrikes allowed the Syrian army "to go into assault across the whole country," Interfax news agency reported. Both Syrian and Russian news sources claim Syrian government troops reclaimed several towns in multiple provinces, including Latakia, Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Homs. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are fighting alongside Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters and Shi’ite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Aleppo operation, and across the country. Russia joined the Syrian military coalition in late September. Moscow's daily airstrikes rankled other foreign forces carrying out air offensives against Islamic State militants and have become a repeated issue with Syria's northern neighbor, Turkey.
Turkey
Is Sarah Palin helping out by watching Russia from her back porch?
I feel so much better knowing Obama is monitoring the situation. And here I thought he wasnt doing anything.
Can we say his strategy against ISIS, which he rolled out nearly 2 years ago, is a failure yet?
Because you are known for sucking Putin's big uncut cock. That's why.For the life of me fellow conservatives and you know I know my shit why don't you understand me on the Ukraine or Crimea?
Is Sarah Palin helping out by watching Russia from her back porch?
