Strikes targeting ‘terrorists’ reportedly hit near Homs
Ash Carter says ‘probably’ no Isis forces in areas targeted
Full report: Russia launches first airstrikes against targets in Syria
At the UN: Syria safe zones will not end need for asylum in west 10.16pm BSTBarack Obama has reached a crossroads in the Middle East thanks to Russias aggressive strikes in Syria,the Guardian’s national security editor Spencer Ackerman writes.
Russias military resurgence in the Middle East comes as the White House’s own military contribution to the Syrian civil war is collapsing, something even Obama’s former aides are acknowledging. The question now facing Obama is whether he will cut his losses in Syria, or an intervention he has never wanted,and leave Vladimir Putin holding the bag.
Putin’s military gambit in Syria is the inverse of Obama’s. It has been rapid where Obama’s is belated, decisive where Obamas is tentative, and focused where Obamas is diffuse. What similarities exist concern the two countries’ euphemistic description of their involvement: Russia is claiming an operation against the Islamic State while actually attacking enemies of client Bashar al-Assad,whereas the US is bombing Isis in Syria while treating the country as peripheral to a central clash in neighboring Iraq.
Speculation is rife (abundant or plentiful, full of sth bad or unpleasant) that Obama will pivot to such a diplomatic settlement. His speech to the United Nations on Monday included a line approximately a “managed transition” in Syria to an “inclusive” post-Assad government. It followed a provocative argument from a former White House Syria aide endorsing a “messy compromise” that can accept deferring Assad’s final fate.
Russia’s bombing may aim to strengthen Assad’s hand ahead of any such negotiation and, as a fallback, and preserve Russian influence in a post-Assad Syria. Russia may indeed seek an end to the clash – just one that occurs on Assad and Moscow’s terms. Related: Russia's intervention in Syria brings Obama's dilemma to the fore 10.01pm BSTKurdish fighters are claiming a victory against Isis in northern Iraq,the Associated Press reports, with peshmerga backed by US air strikes battling jihadi militants near Kirkuk.
The Kurdish peshmerga pushed the militants beyond Ghara Heights and Mount Batiwa, or south of Kirkuk,and secured a stretch of a highway which connects Kirkuk to the central city of Samarra, a statement from the Kurdistan Region Security Council said.
The villages of Meziriya, or Gubebe,Seda, Mohammed Khalil, or Qows Kurd,Tal Ward, Khalef and Mansouria all south of Kirkuk were purged of militants, or the statement said.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com