US and Russia to join forces to tackle the twin threats of ISIS and Al-Qaida

A landmark agreement has been announced that will see the US and Russia join forces to tackle the twin threats of ISIS and Al-Qaida. Both countries announced a ceasefire after a day-long meeting between secretary of state John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland. If the ceasefire, which begins Monday, holds for a week, the two countries will then launch a military partnership to target Islamic extremists in the region.
The deal comes after months of diplomacy that included four meetings between Kerry and Lavrov since August 26 followed by a lengthy face-to-face meeting between Presidents Obama and Putin in China.
This has been reported in dailymail.,co.uk dated 10 September 2016.

At a joint news conference, John Kerry has indicated that the plan could reduce violence in Syria and lead to a long-sought-after political transition because, it would end more than five years of bloodshed that has claimed the lives of 500,000 people.
Of course, success of the deal would depend upon support from both Syria's Russian-backed government, led by President Bashar Assad, and US-supported anti-Assad rebels. The arrangement hinges on Moscow pressuring Assad's government to halt all offensive operations against Syria's armed opposition and civilian areas.
Simultaneously, it would be the responsibility of Washington to persuade 'moderate' rebels to break away from the Nusra Front which is al-Qaida's Syria affiliate, and other extremist groups. Moreover, both sides would have to withdraw from demilitarized zones to allow civilian traffic and humanitarian deliveries. The ceasefire and traffic must hold for a week before collaboration between the countries begins after which the US and Russia will then begin intelligence sharing and targeting coordination and Assad's forces will focus their attention on ISIS instead of Nusra.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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34 killed in rebel attack in Syria – the explosion sounded like an earthquake

#syria #Aleppo #alqaida #SOHM #assadregime It was a deadly al-Qaida-linked terror attack on a Syrian regime intelligence headquarters in Aleppo and it was so massive that it measured 2.3 on the Richter scale and was initially registered as an earthquake as reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 5 March 2015.
The death toll in the attack was at least 20 regime security force members and 14 rebels. The incident occurred west of Aleppo which is the largest city in Syria and the frontline in battles between the Assad regime, the Islamic State, Western-backed rebel groups and the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.
The attack is believed to be the work of al-Qaida affiliated Nusra front.
Their targets were apparently the air force intelligence offices. It seems the militants had used a tunnel to detonate bombs and the intensity of the resultant explosion was so huge that the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre labeled it as an earthquake. The intention could have been to storm the building and control it, but they failed. This is how Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, sees the attack.
The attack has been termed as the worst reported violence in Aleppo since the rebels rejected a UN plan to freeze fighting in the northern city. Fighting in Aleppo, the commercial hub of Syria, had erupted in mid-2012, and the city is divided in two parts – the rebels are on the eastern side and the regime in the west.

Another interesting blog - Citizen Journalist

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