War on ISIS Heats Up Russia Vs USA
The war has entered an even more violent phase in the month since Russia began air strikes in support of Assad. Differences over his future remain the main obstacle in the way of diplomatic efforts.
While the United States and Russia back rival sides in the war between the government and rebels in western Syria, both are also waging separate campaigns against the Islamic State group that controls wide areas of the east and the north.
audi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir suggested repeatedly in the past week that support to the Syrian opposition would intensify in the face of Tehran and Moscow shoring up Assad.
At the rare regional talks on security in Manama, he said Riyadh was considering intensifying support to moderate Syrian rebels by providing them with “more lethal weapons”, but gave no further details.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in comments reported by Iranian state TV, criticised foreign powers that arm and fund Syrian opposition fighters.
“The solution to the Syrian question is elections, and for this it is necessary to stop military and financial aid to the opposition,” state media outlets quoted Khamenei as saying.
Islamic State, which is separately fighting both the Syrian army and rebels in western Syria, has launched several attacks on government-held areas since Damascus launched a new offensive against it east of Aleppo, backed by Russian air strikes.
In a fierce assault that began by detonating two suicide car bombs, Islamic State militants took the town of Maheen in the southwest of Homs province from government forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Some 50 fighters on the government side were killed or wounded, and clashes raged afterwards on the outskirts of a mostly Christian town nearby, Sadad, it said.
Islamic State issued a statement claiming the advance, which brought it within 20 km (13 miles) of the north-south highway linking Damascus to Syria’s other main cities Homs, Hama and Aleppo. Syrian state media made no mention of the attack.
The Observatory’s Rami Abdulrahman said the attack might have been a response to pressures the group is under elsewhere.
On the other side of Syria in the northeastern province of Hasaka, Islamic State is facing a new offensive launched by a recently formed U.S.-backed rebel alliance.
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