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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    RUSSIA'S FIRST STRIKES IN SYRIA HIT U.S. ALLY, NOT ISLAMIC STATE

    Russia’s First Strikes in Syria Hit U.S. Ally, Not Islamic State

    Moscow says its enemy is ISIS, but the initial phase of its air war in Syria hit American-backed rebels battling Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad.





    Barack Obama’s administration said Wednesday that it doesn’t know whom Russia is bombing inside Syria. Rebel leaders on the ground there say they know precisely whom Moscow is targeting — and it isn’t the Islamic State.


    Instead, Russia’s first airstrikes in Syria — which dominated the final day of the United Nations General Assembly session — appear to have struck a rebel group that likely was vetted by the CIA, uses U.S.-made weapons, and has publicly backed the international coalition fighting the Islamic State. The group is also part of the ad hoc alliance of militias battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which means that the early phase of Moscow’s military intervention will strengthen Assad at least as much as it will weaken the Islamic State.


    Jamil al-Saleh, a defected Syrian army officer who is now the leader of the rebel group Tajammu al-Aaza,
    told AlSouria.net that the Russian airstrikes targeted his group’s base in al-Lataminah, a town in the western Syrian governorate of Hama. That area represents one of the farthest southern points of the rebel advance from the north and is therefore a crucial front line in the war. An alliance of Syrian rebel factions, including both the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front and groups considered by Washington to be more moderate, successfully drove Assad regime forces out of the northern governorate of Idlib and are now pushing south into Hama.


    Tajammu al-Aaza
    released a video of the airstrike and its aftermath before Saleh’s statement. Syrian security sources also confirmed that a Russian airstrike took place in al-Lataminah. The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, released a video of what it said was one of the strikes.


    U.S. officials were quick to criticize the strikes, which they said had hit targets that didn’t appear to be linked to the Islamic State.

    Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said at the Pentagon that the strikes were in areas “where there probably were not ISIL forces,” using an alternate acronym for the group. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, for his part,
    told reporters that it was “too early for me to say exactly what targets they were aiming at and what targets were actually hit.”


    The strikes come amid a flurry of diplomatic maneuvering at the United Nations, where Moscow and Washington have traded potshots about who is to blame for the rise of the Islamic State and who should take the lead in fighting the group.


    In public comments at the United Nations, Russian officials have said that the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State isn’t working and instead have called for working more closely with Assad and Iran to defeat the group.
    But rather than spurring cooperation over the shared threat posed by the Islamic State, Moscow’s moves threaten to usher in a new era of conflict with Washington by weakening groups devoted to the fight against Assad while bolstering Tehran’s influence in the region.


    Tajammu al-Aaza, for instance, has posted several videos of its fighters deploying U.S.-made anti-tank missiles against Syrian regime forces. One
    video shows fighters launching a missile at a Syrian army tank stationed at a checkpoint in the Hama countryside.


    Experts say those videos show that the group is clearly receiving American weaponry. According to
    N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of specialist technical intelligence consultancy Armament Research Services, or ARES, the video of the attack on the Syrian tank shows a U.S.-made AN/TSQ-136 missile guidance set, consistent with other U.S.-made TOW missile systems that ARES has documented being used in Syria.


    According to Jenzen-Jones, the missiles “offer a noteworthy increase in anti-armor capability when compared to the majority of systems which are employed by the Syrian Arab Army and various rebel groups.”


    U.S.-made military equipment, most prominently anti-tank missiles, have been
    distributed to rebels through an operations center, called the Military Operations Command (MOC), that’s organized by countries arming the anti-Assad opposition, which allows them to vet the groups receiving support. The operations center reportedly includes U.S. intelligence officers, which suggests that the United States authorized the distribution of weapons to Tajammu al-Aaza.

    “Tajammu al-Aaza is widely reputed to receive support from the MOC, and the fact that the group has documented its use of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles over a period of several months strongly suggests this is the case,” said Noah Bonsey, a senior analyst for the Middle East at the International Crisis Group. “They seem to have passed MOC vetting, which suggests the U.S. and other state backers view them as mainstream rather than extremist, and relatively reliable.”

    One reason the United States may have allowed arms to flow to Tajammu al-Aaza is
    because rather than being an ally of the Islamic State, it has actually endorsed the U.S.-led air campaign against the jihadist movement. The group signed a statement that referred to the Islamic State as a “threat to the Syrian revolution” and that called on the U.S.-led international coalition to expand its air campaign to strike the Assad regime.


    Earlier Wednesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that a Russian official had informed the United States that Russia would begin flying missions over Syria shortly before the strikes began. It’s not clear whether Moscow also told the United States that the first group it would bomb would be one that had received arms from Washington.

    http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/30/...islamic-state/

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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    'Russia kills US-backed Syrian rebels in second day of air strikes as Iran prepares for ground offensive' - live updates

    Russian jets bomb rebel positions in Syria including rural areas near the north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour, a day after launching air strikes. Follow latest developments here

    By Raziye Akkoc, and Roland Oliphant in Moscow
    7:28PM BST 01 Oct 2015

    • Iran and Hizbollah in Syria 'for ground operation'
    Russia launches more air strikes against rebels
    • Moscow denies yesterday's strikes killed civilians
    Russia launches airstrikes in Syria - as it happened
    Vladimir Putin’s catastrophic plan for Syria would deliver war without end


    Latest

    Here is our summary of events in Syria on Thursday, from Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor, Nabih Bulos in Beirut and Ruth Sherlock in Washington:

    Iran was on Thursday night moving up its ground forces in Syria in preparation for an attack to reclaim rebel-held territory under the cover of Russian air strikes, according to sources close to Damascus. Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia which has come to the Assad regime’s rescue in battle-fronts across the country in the past two years, is being prepared to capitalise on the strikes, a Syrian figure close to the regime told The Telegraph

    • Sources in Lebanon told Reuters that Iran, which is the main sponsor and tactical adviser to Hizbollah, was sending in hundreds of its own troops to reinforce them. Iran made no comment on the claims but Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said the move would be an "apt and powerful illustration" that Russia's military actions had worsened the conflict.

    • A Hizbollah-backed advance would fit the pattern of Russian air-strikes, which have predominantly targeted those rebels not aligned to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant who currently present the gravest threat on the ground to core regime territory.
    • The long-term aim would be to defeat or demoralise the non-Isil opposition, so that Isil became the regime’s only enemy. That would force the West to back President Bashar al-Assad against it. “They want to clean the country of non-Isil rebels, and then the US will work with them as Isil will be the only enemy," the Damascus source said.

    Smoke rises after airstrikes by military jets in Talbiseh, Homs province Photo: AP

    • The Russians continued their aerial bombardment on Thursday. Targets included Jisr al-Shughour and Jabal al-Zawiya, areas under the control of Jaish al-Fatah, the Army of Conquest, an alliance of Islamist groups which have won significant victories against the regime this year. They also included Isil targets in Raqqa and Deir Ezzour provinces, including a Syrian Air Force base which fell to Isil earlier this year after a long siege.
    • The Kremlin admitted on Thursday that targets included non-Isil targets - something it had previously denied - and that its aim was to shore the regime “in its weak spots”. The White House last night said the failure to discriminate between Isil and other rebel groups was a “grave miscalculation”.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...e-updates.html

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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Russian airstrikes in Syria 'OK' with Trump

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    http://www.alipac.us/f19/ww3-russia-...ng-its-323896/
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Russia says Islamic State not only airstrike target in Syria


    The Russian Defense Ministry released video showing what it says are the country's first airstrikes against targets in Syria on Sept. 30, 2015.

    Tribune wire reports Contact Reporter
    Putin denies Syria airstrikes have killed civilians

    As Russian warplanes carried out a second wave of airstrikes Thursday in Syria, Moscow defended its military involvement against Western criticism of its intentions, saying it sees "eye-to-eye" with the U.S.-led coalition campaign on its targets in the country.

    The claim of agreement with Washington came amid conflicting reports about Russia's intentions in Syria and whether it is targeting only Islamic State and al-Qaida-linked militants.


    The U.S. and its allies fear that Russia, which has backed the family of President Bashar Assad 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.


    Russian jets appeared to be primarily bombing central and northwestern Syria, strategic regions that are the gateway to Assad's strongholds in the capital of Damascus and the coast.


    Warplanes hit locations of a U.S.-backed rebel group, Tajamu Alezzah, in the central province of Hama, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It added that Tajamu Alezzah also was targeted a day earlier.

    Idlib province appeared to bear the brunt of the attacks, activists said. The province is controlled by a coalition of rebel groups that include the al-Qaida-linked Jabbat al-Nusra.


    In Syria's chaotic civil war and rapidly shifting battlefield terrain, however, it can be difficult to distinguish which groups holds what territory.


    U.S. warns Russia against striking non-Islamic State groups in Syria

    On Wednesday, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Russian warplanes "didn't hit Islamic State," and U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter had also said the Russians appeared to have targeted areas that did not include IS militants.

    Speaking Thursday at the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected suggestions that the airstrikes were to shore up support for Moscow's main ally in the Middle East.


    He insisted Russia was targeting the same militant groups as the U.S.-led coalition, which is conducting its own airstrikes in Syria: the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, the al-Qaida-linked Jabbat al-Nusra and other groups.


    "I would recall that we always were saying that we are going to fight ISIL and other terrorist groups," he said. "This is the same position which the Americans are taking. The representatives of the coalition command have always been saying that their targets are ISIL, al-Nusra and other terrorist groups. This is basically our position as well. We see eye-to-eye with the coalition on this one."




    Lavrov added: "If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, it's a terrorist, right?"

    Asked if he agreed with Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said: "Well, in concept."


    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged to reporters that, "Of course the goal is to help the Syrian army where it is weakest. Yes, that is right. The weak points are where the Syrian army is fighting against IS and other terrorist groups."


    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."


    Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, deputy chief of staff for intelligence and surveillance for the Air Force, said the Russians have been dropping "dumb bombs" — munitions that are not precision-guided. The use of such indiscriminate targeting could lead to the deaths of innocent civilians, he said, and create more terrorists than they kill.


    One of the airstrikes hit near a mosque in the city of Jisr al-Shughour, which fell in April to rebel groups including al-Nusra, the Observatory said. A video showed damage to the mosque and a man could be heard saying that one person was killed.


    The Pentagon began talks via video teleconference with Russian military officials on ways to avoid U.S. and Russian forces firing on each other in Syria.


    Otto said that even as the U.S. tries to ensure Russian airstrikes don't conflict with coalition operations in Syria, he does not believe there will be any real intelligence-sharing with Moscow.


    "I have a low level of trust in the Russians. It's trust but verify," he said. "It's easy, then, to exchange factual data where you're going to operate. I would not envision a relationship where I would share some of my intelligence with them."


    Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said its 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-24M and Su-25 jets flew 20 sorties since Wednesday, and he insisted civilian areas were not targeted. He later said Su-34s also had flown missions.


    Hundreds of Chechens and Central Asian fighters have joined the battles in Syria since the early days of the civil war, and many form the backbone of al-Nusra and Islamic State. Some of those Chechen extremists are part of the coalition that controls Idlib.


    Putin has said Russia would be fighting "gangs of international terrorists." The Syrian government uses the word "terrorists" to describe all rebel groups.


    The U.S. and Russia agree on the need to fight IS but not about what to do with Assad. The Syrian civil war, which grew out of an uprising against the longtime leader, has killed more than 250,000 people since March 2011 and sent millions fleeing elsewhere in the Middle East and Europe.


    Lavrov also said Russia did not plan to carry out airstrikes against IS militants in Iraq, which has seen large parts of its territory overrun by the extremists. "We are polite people, we don't come if not invited," Lavrov said.


    With U.S. and allied airstrikes daily, and now Russian warplanes in Syrian airspace, the war is taking on a dangerous new dimension.


    In Paris, Russian Ambassador Alexander Orlov said Russian officials warned the Americans "via confidential channels" of where they planned to strike. He also noted a coordination center was being set up in Baghdad that would include Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians and Russians — and any other country that wants to participate.


    Iran's Foreign Ministry said it fully supports Russian airstrikes against "terrorist groups" in Syria.


    The "Islamic Republic of Iran considers military action by Russia against armed terrorist groups to be a step toward fighting terrorism and toward resolving the current crisis" in Syria, said ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham in a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...001-story.html

    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 10-01-2015 at 06:15 PM.
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  5. #5
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Russia bombs US allies in Syria



    Jamie Walker
    Middle East Correspondent


    The White Helmets, a volunteer search and rescue group, in the ruins of Talbiseh after the Russian airstrike on September 30. Source: AP
    Russia last night launched its second straight day of airstrikes in Syria after calling for the world to unite against *terrorism, intensifying the “cold war” with the West over how to tackle a conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people and given rise to Islamic State.

    Russian aircraft last night hammered what it claimed were Islamic State positions in Idlib and Hama provinces but, like the first round of strikes on Wednesday, there were claims they had targeted rebels groups fighting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

    The Russian Defence Ministry said the strikes had destroyed 12 *Islamic State targets, including a command centre.However a Syrian source said last night’s airstrikes had targeted the Islamist Army of Conquest, after US officials said one of the Hama sites hit on Wednesday was *primarily held by rebel forces that receive funding, arms and training through the CIA and US allies.

    Army of Conquest has seized Idlib province and has *advanced west towards Latakia, the coastal heartland where Assad’s support among Syria’s Alawite minority is strongest. Hama is also sensitive because of its proximity to Latakia.

    On Wednesday Vladimir Putin ordered warplanes and helicopter gunships to attack Homs and Hama, triggering a row over whether this was to prop up Assad or in line with Moscow’s stated aim of driving back Islamic State.

    The Russian President insisted the intervention was a “preventive” blow against terrorism, but the raids were unleashed on areas held by rebels fighting the Assad *regime, which Russia supports diplomatically, and with a lightning military build-up in Syria.

    “The only right way to fight international terrorism — and it is gangs of international terrorists that are fighting in Syria and in neighbouring countries — is to act preventively … not wait for them to come to our house,” he said.

    The airstrikes went on only hours after Russia’s rubberstamp parliament on Wednesday night authorised Mr Putin to use military force in the Middle East.

    At the UN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was ready to “forge standing channels of communication to ensure a maximally effective fight” against Islamic State.

    He listed countries with a role to play in resolving the chaos, *including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and even China.

    “What we require are collective agreed approaches backed by (the) Security Council,” Mr Lavrov said.
    US Secretary of State John Kerry proposed “de-confliction” talks with Russia as early as today to avert dangerous overlaps of warplanes and to maximise the impact of the dual campaign.

    The Russian military action adds a volatile and unpredictable element to a sectarian war that risks being internationalised by *rivalry between Moscow and Washington and an open split over how to deal with Assad.

    The UN ambassador for Saudi Arabia, Abdallah al-Mouallimi, said the Russians had bombarded areas on Wednesday where Islamic State wasn’t present, leaving “many innocent victims.”

    The Foreign Minister of France, which began its own airstrikes in Syria a few days ago, told the Security Council that military co-operation with the Russians was conditional on “absolute clarity” about who the enemy was as well as the exit of Assad.

    Laurent Fabius said the collective way forward must include a “broadbased negotiation towards a political transition that doesn’t lead to maintaining in power Syria’s hangman”.

    Welcoming Moscow’s new “focus” on the conflict, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said it was crucial the Russians demonstrated they had not targeted Syria’s moderate opposition.

    After meeting Mr Kerry, Mr Lavrov denied rebel factions had been deliberately hit. “The *rumours that the target of these airstrikes was not Islamic State *positions are unfounded,” he said.

    The State Department said the Russians had given notice of the assault on Wednesday, warning US and allied aircraft to clear the airspace over Homs and Hama.

    Mr Putin ordered the build-up after the US reached agreement with Turkey to use its bases to intensify air attacks on Islamic State in Syria, and to block key supply routes in the border zone between the two countries.

    Washington insists that Assad cannot hold power as part of any deal to end the four years of bloodshed in Syria — though President Barack Obama has shifted position to acknowledge the dictator could be involved in “a managed transition” to a new government.

    Mr Putin said on Wednesday the path to peace in Syria was through dialogue between the opposition and government, which Assad understood.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1227552921811
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  6. #6
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Russia bombs positions of Syrian rebels under the pretext of combatting ISIS

    October 1, 2015
    Syria


    File photo for the Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking to his air forces

    Read More




    ARA News
    DAMASCUS – Russia has conducted its first airstrikes “against the Islamic State’s (ISIS) terrorists in Syria”, Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

    “The airstrike targeted ISIS military equipment, communications centers, vehicles and ammunition,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

    However, Syrian activists in Homs reported that the Russian strikes bombed opposition-held areas of Rastan, Talbiseh and Zafaraniya in Homs province.


    “Wednesday’s strikes proved that Russia’s target in Syria is not ISIS but the anti-Assad rebel groups,” spokesman of the opposition-linked Shamia Front Saleh al-Zein told ARA News.


    “Russia presents itself as a fighter against terrorism, while it backed Assad for more than four years in killing innocent people across Syria,” he said.


    “Today, Russian warplanes are bombing the opposition-held areas in Homs and the international community is doing nothing about it,” al-Zein said.


    “Putin and his government have been involved in killing Syrian people since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, and today their forces are moving freely on the Syrian territory and they are striking our rebel forces under the pretext of fighting ISIS,” the Shamia spokesman told ARA News.


    In the meantime, a senior U.S. administration official said that the Russian airstrikes in Homs have “no strategic purpose” in terms of combating ISIS, “which shows they are not there to go after ISIL (ISIS)”.


    The official told the CNN that the U.S. had no intention of preventing the strikes but that Russian planes didn’t seem to be flying in areas where the U.S. was operating. “They are not stupid,” the official added.

    http://aranews.net/2015/10/russia-bo...mbatting-isis/

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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Pentagon weighs using force to protect US-backed Syria rebels targeted by Russia

    Published October 02, 2015 FoxNews.com



    NOW PLAYINGTrump says US does not win wars anymore, calls for a change
    Senior U.S. military leaders and defense officials are debating whether military force should be used to protect Washington-backed Syrian rebels who have come under attack by Russian airstrikes in recent days.

    The Associated Press reported early Friday that the question was part of a broader debate within the Pentagon about the the broader dilemma of how the administration should respond to what White House press secretary Josh Earnest described as Russia's "indiscriminate military operations against the Syrian opposition."


    Tensions between the U.S. and Russia are escalating over Russian airstrikes that are serving to strengthen Syrian President Bashar Assad by targeting the so-called "moderate" rebels rather than hitting Islamic State (ISIS) fighters it promised to attack.


    Turkey's Foreign Ministry says Ankara and its allies in the U.S.-led coalition are calling on Russia to immediately cease attacks on the Syrian opposition and to focus on fighting Islamic State militants.


    Meanwhile, a joint statement by the United States, France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Britain expressed concern over Russia's military actions, saying they will "only fuel more extremism and radicalization." The text of the statement was released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday, and confirmed by the French Foreign Ministry.


    The Pentagon on Thursday had its first conversation with Russian officials in an effort to avoid any unintended U.S.-Russian confrontations as the airstrikes continue in the skies over Syria.

    During the video call, Elissa Slotkin, who represented the U.S. side, expressed America's concerns that Russia is targeting areas where there are few if any ISIS forces operating. Slotkin is the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...s-targeted-by/

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    Russia Builds Up Ground Forces in Syria Alongside Airstrikes

    U.S. calls rapid deployment ‘impressive’; Moscow launches first naval bombardment


    An image released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday shows a Russian warship firing a rocket in the Caspian Sea. PHOTO: MINISTRY OF DEFENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION/REUTERS


    By JULIAN E. BARNES in Brussels,
    GORDON LUBOLD in Rome and
    JAMES MARSON in Moscow
    Updated Oct. 7, 2015 12:52 p.m. ET 134 COMMENTS

    Russia has built up a battalion-sized ground force inside Syria with rocket artillery and its most advanced tanks—a force capable of more than just protecting its military bases in the country, the U.S. said while ruling out any kind of strategic collaboration in the region with Moscow.

    Russia stepped up its attack on opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with its first naval bombardment Wednesday, while leaving the door open to political efforts to resolve the 4˝-year conflict.


    The U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,Douglas Lute, said Russia’s forces inside Syria also included air defense systems and attack helicopters. Mr. Lute, a retired three-star general, called the rapid military deployment by Moscow “quite impressive.”


    “We will see what they intend to do. Some of the capabilities brought to that Russian base in Latakia [Syria] suggest more than simply base protection,” he said at a news conference ahead of Thursday’s gathering of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.


    He also said Russia has built up its naval forces, positioning some 10 ships in the Mediterranean. But Mr. Lute said it is Russian airstrikes that pose the greatest danger, because of the threat of a clash between the U.S.-led coalition and Russian planes.


    Before arriving in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. is prepared to work with Russia to ensure the skies over Syria stay safe. But he said the U.S. hasn’t had a formal response from Moscow on that matter. He dismissed the idea of any collaboration on the ground.


    “We are not prepared to cooperate in strategy which, as we explained, is flawed, tragically flawed, on the Russians’ part,” Mr. Carter said at an appearance with Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti in Rome.


    “What we will do is to continue basic technical discussions on professional safety procedures for our pilots flying over Syria, that’s it,” Mr. Carter said.

    ENLARGE
    Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia on Wednesday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS


    Russia’s volley of 26 medium-range cruise missiles was launched from four warships in the Caspian Sea nearly 1,000 miles away. It came as Mr. Assad’s army launched an offensive operation pushing north from the town of Hama, according to Russian state television.

    “The intensity of strikes is growing,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.

    He said all 11 targets had been destroyed and no civilian buildings were damaged.


    Russia has struck some 112 targets since it began airstrikes against opponents of Mr. Assad on Sept. 30, Mr. Shoigu said. Russian officials say they are targeting Islamic State and other groups its labels terrorists, but Western officials and analysts say most strikes appear aimed at other opponents of Mr. Assad to bolster his position.

    Mr. Putin said Russian forces should continue to “synchronize with the actions of the Syrian army on the ground” to support their offensive operations. At the same time, Mr. Putin said the conflict in Syria required a political solution.

    “Such type of conflicts should conclude with a resolution of political questions,” he said.


    Mr. Putin expressed support for the idea of trying to combine the efforts of Mr. Assad’s forces and the “healthy opposition” groups against Islamic State, which he said had been proposed by French President François Hollande on Friday.


    A French government spokeswoman denied Mr. Hollande had supported any such proposal.


    Mr. Putin repeated Russian skepticism about the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, saying Russia didn’t know where it was and who led it. But combining efforts against “terrorist organizations…would create a good basis for a subsequent political resolution in Syria,” Mr. Putin said.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-a...ips-1444219973

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