War

Russia has vowed that its forces will provide “the most active” air support for Syrian ground troops in and around the city of Aleppo to prevent terrorists from seizing it.

Jesse Walker comments on Trump’s latest position on the Libyan war:

As the noose continues to tighten against the Islamic State, now that a military campaign has been launched against its capital Raqqa, ISIS has reportedly taken its gruesome acts to new highs. Following reports that ISIS is now capitalizing on the sex trade by selling sex slaves on FaceBook to refill its rapidly dwindling coffers, the Kurdish ARA News agency reports that ISIS publicly executed 19 Kurdish women of the Yezidi minority, who were burned alive in iron cages.

British special forces are involved in frontline operations in Syria. According to the Times, elite UK soldiers had crossed into southern Syria to support the New Syrian Army (NSA) rebel group fighting ISIS close to the border with Jordan. RT reports: The New Syrian Army (NSA), comprised largely of defectors from the Syrian special forces, has been picked up for retraining by the Americans and the British. It now finds itself holed up in the al-Tanf village, in the southeast.

Syria has accused four countries of double standards for refusing to label Ahrar ash-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam as terrorist organisations while Aleppo comes under shelling from rebel groups. A letter sent to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon by the Syrian Foreign Ministry accuses US, France, Britain and Ukraine of helping terrorist groups in Syria.