War

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.

The United States and Russia have announced that a planned cessation of hostilities in Syria will come into effect at midnight on 27 February, according to an official joint statement.  Their statement said the truce did not include ISIS and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. The announcement follows multiple explosions on Sunday  in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs which claimed the lives of more than 1oo people.

President Obama is fully aware of the fragile coalition that exists between the U.S. and Russia which has enabled the Syrian regime to gain the upper hand. But he is also aware of the threat from Saudi Arabia and Turkey of wanting to intervene militarily on the ground in Syria, and takes the threat of invasion from NATO ally Turkey seriously. The Syrian war is reaching a climax and the battle lines are changing.

Submitted by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

During a sombre visit to Germany last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi urged the international community to help boost his country's crisis economy in the face of plummeting crude oil prices, underscoring a desperate situation in which Iraq has lost 85 percent of its oil revenues.

Iraqi oil revenues have fallen to just 15 percent of what they used to be, the embattled prime minister said, despite a boost in production ordered last year.

Israel and the U.S. have begun a large-scale military exercise as part of their biennial ballistic missile defence drills – Juniper Cobra.  The exercise is designed to prepare both militaries for an incoming missile attack. Timesofisrael.com reports: Over “1,700 U.S. Service members, civilians and contractors” will take part in the multi-day drill, the eighth such exercise since the Juniper Cobra program began in 2001. “This exercise is our nation’s premier exercise in the region, and EUCOM’s highest priority exercise for 2016,” said Maj.-Gen.