Syria

In a first of its kind event, Russian television today showed what it says is the first footage of Russian special forces fighting on the ground in Syria. 

Elite Russian units in Syria take part in search and rescue operations, assassinations of key rebel figures and coordination of air strikes, according to footage broadcast on state-owned channel Rossiya 24 on Sunday. Groups of heavily armed soldiers were shown coordinating sniper attacks, using robotic tanks and inspecting rebel corpses.

Just as the Assad regime (with Russian support) is about to retake Aleppo in a critical offensive, one which would shift the momentum of the nearly 6-year-long Syrian proxy war entirely to the benefit of the country's ruling regime, something unexpected happened: one day after the US announced it would send another 200 ground troops to Syria, and two days after  Obama unexpectedly lifted a ban restricting the delivery of military aid to “foreign forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals,” Islamic State jihadists successfully recaptured the ancient desert city of Palmyra, after a much

With Assad on the verge of retaking Aleppo, and with it, regaining full control in the ongoing Syrian proxy war, we asked last week in "With Assad On Verge Of Historic Victory, Syrian Rebels Request A Ceasefire" how long before the US intervenes in an attempt to derail the sudden Syrian (and Russian) momentum.  We got the answer this morning, when US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday that the US is sending 200 additional military personnel to Syria to help drive Islamic State from its de facto capital of Raqqa.

The United States is sending 200 additional military personnel to Syria to help rebel groups drive ISIS from Raqqa, the US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced on Saturday. Speaking in Bahrain during talks on Middle East security, Ash Carter said Barack Obama had approved deployment of the extra troops, who would include special forces trainers, advisers and bomb disposal experts, last week.

The head of Britain’s MI6 spy agency has accused Russia of being the main contributor to an “unprecedented” terrorism threat that he says the UK is currently facing. In his first public speech since taking office in 2014, Secret Intelligence Service boss Alex Younger said that Moscow’s military efforts against ISIS terrorists in Syria were threatening the security of Britain.