War

The US-led coalition is competing with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in a race to reach and liberate Raqqa from ISIS. Should the SAA fail to liberate Raqqa from the terrorists then Syria could be permanently broken up, with the help of a U.S. led coalition that includes Kurdish, Turkish, Saudi and western agendas. Sputnik reports: Over the last few days, the 555th Brigade of the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division, backed by pro-government militias, has continued to gain ground in northeast Syria. It has moved toward the Al-Raqqa Governorate’s strategic Tabaqa Military Airport.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that relations between the West and Russia have deteriorated so badly that a new Cold War has been launched in 2016. “On an almost daily basis, we are being described the worst threat – be it to Nato as a whole, or to Europe, America or other countries,” Medvedev said. “Sometimes I wonder if this is 2016 or 1962,” he went on. BBC News reports: The Cold War was a period of ideological confrontation between the former Soviet Union and Western countries.

Russia have deployed a new cruise missile warship towards Syria on Saturday armed with Kalibr anti-ship missiles.  The Russian Defense Ministry’s head of Black Sea Fleet’s information department confirmed that the Zeleny Dol Buyan-M class corvette departed Russia’s permanent naval task force. “Today, the Zeleny Dol missile corvette and the Kovrovets minesweeper of the Black Sea Fleet left [the Crimean port of] Sevastopol to begin carrying out tasks as part of Russia’s permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean,” Vyacheslav Trukhachev said.

As Turkey continues to build up its military presence on the Syrian border, Saudi Arabia have announced their plans to launch a ground operation in Syria alongside the the United States. Russia have accused both countries of using Syria as an excuse to wage a coordinated attack against Russia.  The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the possibility of a large-scale war in the Middle East is almost inevitable now that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have entered the picture.

The United States has deployed additional Patriot missile systems in South Korea in response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. The military buildup comes after North Korea launched a space satellite last week, insisting that the launch was part of peaceful exploration of space and is a sovereign right of the country. RT reports: The Seoul HQ of the US Forces Korea (USFK) said Saturday that the deployment of additional assets is part of an emergency readiness exercise being carried out in cooperation with the South Korean military.