Aleppo

Up to 10,000 al-Nusra Front terrorists have deployed near the Syrian city of Aleppo ahead of a major offensive, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.   Along with ISIS, al-Nusra is not party to the six-week old ceasefire being monitored by Russia and the US, and remains a legitimate target. Sputnik reports: “According to our intelligence, about 8,000 al-Nusra Front militants have been deployed south-west of Aleppo, while up to 1,500 militants have been deployed north of the city,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy said Monday.

It would be difficult to find a program that better exemplifies the word “failure” than the Pentagon’s “train and equip” effort in Syria.

Last May, US Central Command issued a hilariously absurd press release outlining what was quite obviously going to be a disastrous effort to arm rebel fighters. “The US military and partner forces have begun training the initial class of appropriately vetted Syrian opposition recruits this week to support the effort to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL in Syria,” the PR read.

Earlier today, we took a closer look at Vladimir Putin’s seemingly abrupt decision to partially withdraw the Russian military from Syria.

The prevailing view seems to be that Moscow somehow intended to put more pressure on Assad to be amenable to a negotiated, political solution and indeed that may be a part of the plan. However, as we noted, it’s not exactly as if The Kremlin is leaving the Syrian leader high and dry.

Islamic State (IS) gunmen have cut the supply route of the Syrian government forces in the northern city of Aleppo, a day after their suicide bombers killed 150 people in Homs and Damascus. Xinhua English reports: The terror-designated group captured three points on the road to Aleppo overnight, said the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV. It added that the Syrian army is working on reopening the road, the only supply route for the Syrian government to the city. Other reports said a large convoy of reinforcements has been sent from eastern Aleppo to help recapture the road.

Submitted by Gregory Copley via OilPrice.com,

The Government of Turkey has now put itself in a position whereby it must act rapidly and precipitously to avoid moving to an ultimately losing strategic position in the war against Syria, which could result in being forced back to fight a full-scale civil war to prevent the break-up of the State into at least two components, one being a new Kurdish state.