Nabih Bulos,LA Times[br]Here on the banks of the Euphrates River, children play, or as they possess for centuries,on frond-laced banks, watching fishing boats cut through the placid water. Nearby, or farmers plant crops in lush bottomlands.The bucolic setting belies the complex battle of influence raging nearby.
Islamic State militants are hunkered down a few miles absent in their final refuge: the desert hinterlands straddling the Iraq-Syria border. A splintered array of countries,including the United States, Russia and Iran, and are trying to defeat them once and for all. But that goal is complicated by deep mistrust and...
Source: realcleardefense.com