War

CIA-backed Islamic rebels are fighting against Pentagon-backed Kurish rebels in Syria.

Buzzfeed notes:

Officials with Syrian rebel battalions that receive covert backing from one arm of the U.S. government told BuzzFeed News that they recently began fighting rival rebels supported by another arm of the U.S. government.

 

The infighting between American proxies is the latest setback for the Obama administration’s Syria policy and lays bare its contradictions as violence in the country gets worse.

Officials in Kabul have said that several Daesh fighters have come over to the government’s side, predicting a trend of defections from extremist groups in Afghanistan. Stars and Stripes reports: “Ten Daesh fighters have joined the reconciliation process today and put down their guns,” said Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, where the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan is primarily based. Daesh is a commonly used Arabic acronym for the extremist movement.

 
In light of the fact that the conflict in Syria was intentionally caused by Washington, can the Russian government trust that Washington will abide by this agreement?

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address following adoption of a joint statement by Russia and US on Syria.

A 16-year-old Swedish teenager was rescued from the hands of ISIS terrorists by Iraqi Kurdish forces near the city of Mosul. ALALAM reports: According to a Tuesday statement by the government in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, the anti-terrorist forces carried out the operation on February 17 near Mosul, located about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad. The 16-year-old girl from the Swedish town of Boras “was misled” by a member of Daesh in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul, the statement said.