Russia’s game plan not clear – it sends Pantsir-S missile system to Syria

The game plan of Russia remains in mystery because, while it has urged the US to engage in military co-operation, it is believed to be sending an advanced anti-aircraft missile system to Syria. This dispatch of the missile system has been confirmed by two Western officials. A Russian source has described the system as Pantsir-S missiles that are sent to the war-torn country where the US has been engaging in airstrikes on Islamic State.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 13 September 2015.

The anti-aircraft system would be under control and be operated by Russian troops, rather than Syrians. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has clarified that his country was sending equipment to help Syrian President Bashar al Assad fight Islamic State. He has added that Russian servicemen were in Syria primarily to help service that equipment and teach Syrian soldiers how to use it.
Russia is also staging naval exercises off Syria's coast. Russia is an ally of Syria and it already has a Mediterranean naval base at Tartus on the Syrian coast which it would try to defend. As per information with the United States, there are about 200 Russian naval infantry forces presently stationed in Latakia on the coast in government-held Syria. The majority of the forces were engaged in reviving the airfield for future use.
Incidentally, the Syrian civil war has left 250,000 people dead, has divided the nation and has turned half of Syria's 23 million people into refugees – most of them are seeking asylum in European countries.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Trained jihadists from Iraq and Syria returning to Europe to strike terror

Counter-terrorism sources in Spain have revealed that nearly 800 Islamist extremists had come back to Europe and their mission appears to be to launch attacks – they have been trained by extremists in Iraq and Syria.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 25 August 2015.

As indicated by officers of counter-terrorism squads, the fanatics had been recruited by the Islamic State or Al Qaeda-linked groups and were waiting for the order to strike on the Continent. Nearly half of the 700 Britons who have travelled to fight in the Middle East have already returned and, some of them are believed to be planning attacks in the UK.
The warning for Europe has come after it was revealed that the Moroccan gunman, who stormed a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris, was an 'Islamist returner' who had spent time in Syria. The youth had been instructed by a terrorist network to commit an atrocity. Unfortunately, the plan misfired as he was overpowered by six passengers, including three Americans and a British grandfather.
This Moroccan gunman had lived in Spain for seven years until 2014. He is being interrogated by anti-terror investigators, his version was that he only wanted to rob passengers. His story is that he had stumbled upon a weapons stash in a park in Belgium. He used to sleep rough and, once he got the weapons, he decided to use them to rob passengers.
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Nigerian Army takes back the town of Baga from Boko Haram.

#BokoHaram #LakeChad #terrorists #Nigeria #Baga Boko Haram militants had taken over the city of Baga on 3 January 2015 and it was reported officially that 150 people had died during the attack on Baga and nearby Doron Baga but locals put the toll at around 2,000.
Anyway, the Nigerian army has now retaken the north-eastern town of Baga and that mopping up operations had been started as reported in bbc.com dated 21 February 2015.
The Army has also claimed that it had killed many Boko Haram militants – there is no independent verification of this. As per the version of the Army, the militants had fled and some of them drowned in Lake Chad when they tried to escape the aerial bombardment. Moreover, the militants had laid nearly 1000 mines in Baga which had to be negotiated by the soldiers before entering.
Boko Haram now controls much of Nigeria's north-east and it has killed thousands of people indiscriminately in its drive to establish an Islamic state. More recently, it has conducted cross-border raids in neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger by attacking villages and military bases. All these three countries have joined forces with Nigeria to create a military coalition against the Islamist militants.

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Obama admits that there is no quick-fix solution to fight the IS militants

While speaking with military chiefs from more than 20 nations, President Barack Obama has admitted to setbacks in the war against the Islamic State with reference to the fierce fighting for control of a Syrian border town. Moreover, there appears to be fresh concerns over Turkey’s cooperation foxnews.com.

President Obama has made note of the negative developments in the fight against the Islamic State and has remarked that there would be days of progress as also “periods of setback” and that there are no “quick fixes.”
The relationship with Turkey is another problem because Turkey has gone in for airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders – this defies the pleas from the U.S. to instead focus on the Islamic State.

The U.S. has been wanting Turkey to take a more active role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group since the Islamic State group is an enemy that the Turkish government shares with the Kurds. But, Turkey’s stand is that it won't join the fight unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Drying up of oil money forces ISIS to seek truce with moderate rebels in Syria

As a result of drying up of precious oil money, the jihadists from the Islamic State have reportedly agreed for a ceasefire with Syrian rebels in a suburb of the capital Damascus dailymail.co.uk. This important dead was agreed between ISIS and moderate and Islamist rebels in Hajar al-Aswad, south of the city, as per reports of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It seems the ISIS are in dire straits since revenues from black-market oil sales have nosedived following flight of key engineers from the oil fields that had been captured by the terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
The terrorist group has seen revenues from its illegally-held oil fields halved after many workers abandoned the facilities. As per some estimates, the revenue had been nearly $3million per day in July from oil fields that they had seized during the conflict.
According to the deal arrived at, 'the two parties will respect a truce until a final solution is found and they promise not to attack each other because they consider the principal enemy to be the Nussayri regime.' Nussayri indicates the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.
Incidentally, the ISIS had captured oil fields at Sasan, Ajeel and Sadid in Iraq apart from in Omar in Syria while large refineries have also been captured at Fallujah, Aksas and Tikrit – many of the staff were persuaded to stay on with pay rises or 'at the barrel of a gun.'
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US and ten Arab countries join hands to defeat designs of the Islamic State

Concurring with the call given by US President Barack Obama to expand operations against jihadists in Iraq and Syria, Arab leaders rallied behind the US but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime and powerful ally Russia condemned it nzherald.co.nz. In fact, Damascus has warned that it would consider any action on its territory as an attack.
The ten states include heavyweight Saudi Arabia and they have "agreed to do their share in the comprehensive fight" against Islamic State – this has been confirmed by a statement after a meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Arab counterparts.
Iraq's new unity government and the Syrian opposition welcomed Obama's plan. However, National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar has commented that any sort of action without the consent of the Syrian government would be construed to be an attack on Syria.
President Obama has made his objective clear, namely to degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy. He has indicated that the US would not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. He has, accordingly, ordered the US military to expand its operations against IS, which has not just seized a swathe of Iraq and Syria but has also committed horrifying atrocities.
The countries who have come on board with the US are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
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