Morning Star.png Syrian Troops Drive Back Jihadists Village by Village James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 13 October 2015 Syrian troops continued to advance village by village yesterday in the offensive against Islamic State (Isis) and other terrorist forces. The Syrian Arab Army said it had liberated Kfar Naubudeh and surrounding villages in the west of Hama province. In its daily briefing, Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air forces in Syria had hit 53 Isis targets across the country in the previous 24 hours, adding that it they had destroyed a “significant part” of Isis supplies. The focus of Russian air strikes has shifted in recent days to terrorist arms dumps after the Syrian army advance was hampered by the sudden appearance of hundreds of US-made TOW anti-tank missiles. Speculation about the source of the missiles and large numbers of new Toyota Hilux pickup trucks — used by rebels to mount heavy weapons such as 23mm anti-aircraft guns — has implicated both Saudia Arabia and the US. On Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin met Saudi Defence Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two countries confirmed they had “similar goals” in Syria. Also on Sunday, US President Barack Obama tried to distance himself from his government’s disastrous $500 million (£325 million) programme to train and arm 20,000 “moderate” rebels to fight in Syria. In a TV interview, Mr Obama claimed he was “sceptical from the get-go” about the scheme that has seen most recruits defect or hand over their weapons to extremist factions. In a TV interview on Sunday, Mr Putin again ruled out sending Russian ground forces to fight in Syria. He said Russia’s primary aim was “stabilising the legitimate authority in the country and creating conditions to look for political compromise.” A meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg yesterday criticised Russia’s intervention, claiming it risked “prolonging the conflict,” a stance repeated by Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg at a summit of the imperialist alliance in Norway. Meanwhile Turkey suspended a post-cold-war agreement with Russia for mutual defence monitoring overflights of each other’s territory. Iraqi sources claimed that Isis propaganda chief Abu Omar al-Shishani was killed in an air strike there on Sunday. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5f7d-Syrian-troops-drive-back-jihadist s-village-by-village#.VhyC5vmqqko> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5f7d-Syrian-troops-drive-back-jihadists -village-by-village#.VhyC5vmqqko -- -- NEW!!!! SSN FORUM IS ON FACEBOOK!!!! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum Google Group. Visit the group home page at http://groups.google.com/group/sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum for more options, pages and files. To post to the group, send email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum@googlegroups.com or reply to this message. To unsubscribe, send email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sa-swaziland-solidarity-eom-forum+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
