Bharat Rakshak

OLD FOES SHOULD UNITE TO FIGHT NEW ENEMIES
Saturday, 17 October 2015 | Hiranmay Karlekar | in Edit

Russia under Putin is not what it had been reduced to under Boris Yeltsin. It has the will and military strength to intervene decisively abroad. Instead of confronting, the US should join hands with it against the IS

The United States and its European allies, primarily Britain and France, which loudly condemn Russian military action in Syria, display a startling lack of understanding of history. The Soviet Union, whose dissolution on December 26, 1991, led to the rise of the Russian Federation, commonly called Russia, was a superpower which matched the other superpower, the United States, in strength and stature. Not all its actions were laudable; its interventions in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) were certainly not, nor was its exploitative hold over the East European countries that were members of the Warsaw Pact. But the hard fact was that it was a formidable power and nobody dreamt of messing with it. Yet this very country had become a passive witness to the global power game after its withdrawal from Afghanistan, completed on February 15, 1989, and even more so after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As an incompetent Russia, burdened with wrong policies under President Boris Yeltsin, grappled with the profound changes unleashed by perestroika and glasnost, processes of reform and openness that had gathered momentum under Mr Mikhail Gorbachev’s helmsmanship, the US had become the sole dominant global power with China close at its heals. It was, however, clear to those even with a rudimentary knowledge of Russia’s history and the dynamics of global power relations, that this situation could not continue, and the intense national pride of the Russians, which had fuelled the military triumphs against Napoleon and Hitler’s armies, would again propel the country to the centre-stage of international realpolitik.

That this would happen sooner than later was clear from the fact that despite its problems, Russia remained militarily formidable with its large Army, Air Force and Navy and a massive nuclear arsenal and delivery system with trans-continental reach. Most Russians knew this, which made them even more resentful of both their own internal situation and their country’s global marginalisation. It was this feeling, which Mr Vladimir Putin, currently President of Russia, fully shared, that contributed to his election as President, in 2000 after he was made acting President in 1999, following Yeltsin’s sudden resignation.

Mr Putin did not immediately launch a stridently assertive foreign policy. The reasons for this perhaps included his 16-year tenure with the KGB from which he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1991. Intelligence gathering, where one has to be circumspect, avoiding hasty moves and knee-jerk reactions, can make for a proneness to act after careful deliberation. Another reason was perhaps Russia’s own internal conditions which required dealing with a wide range of challenges on the economic front as well as coping with Chechen secessionism. The third was the need to combat a wider development of which the Chechen secessionism was a part-militant global Islamist fundamentalism.

It is the realisation of the seriousness of the threat, posed by the latter, underlined by the rebellion in Chechnya and repeated terror strikes by Chechen rebels, that has been perhaps the most important element in Russia’s security and foreign policies during the last decade and a half. It explains, among other things, Moscow’s accommodating attitude to permitting American overflights and railway transportation to Afghanistan through Russian territory. The office of the spokesman of the US Department of State provided an eloquent testimony to this when it stated in a media note on April 20, 2011, that the day recorded a significant milestone in cooperation with Moscow with the 1,000th supply mission transiting through Russian airspace. These overflights, the note added, resulted from a bilateral agreement in support of operations in Afghanistan announced during the July 2009 US-Russia summit. The agreement, in turn, “has been a major success of the ‘reset’ in US-Russia relations and has resulted in the transfer of over 1,50,000 personnel in support of international efforts in Afghanistan to date”.

Under a separate North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-Russia transit agreement, complementary to the Russo-American one, supplies were sent by rail through Russia and Central Asia to support the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. These despatches totalled 25,000 by April 20, 2011. That Russia did all this despite the critical American role in the 1980s in ensuring the Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan, is a tribute to the wisdom of its leaders. It stands in sharp contrast to the short-sightedness of the Reagan Administration, which backed fundamentalist Islamist Mujahideen in Afghanistan, to avenge American defeat in Vietnam, overlooking the fact that some of them were rabidly anti-American. The result — the rise of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda, and later the Taliban — is well-known.

The same kind of short-sightedness characterises Washington’s attitude to President Bashar al-Assad’s Government in Syria, which has never been more reactionary and authoritarian than the Saudi monarchy with which Americans have supped with relish for decades. Attempts to destabilise Mr Assad’s regime have only helped the rise of the Islamic State which will be the principal gainer if it falls, as elements like the Boko Haram and Al Shabaab have been the principal beneficiaries of the destruction of the Gaddafi regime. The question that Washington needs to ask is whether Syria and Libya — in fact the whole of the Middle East — are better off now than they were before the eruption of the so-called Arab Spring of 2011.

Mr Assad is doubtless an ally of Russia which had been helping him with arms and diplomatic support before its recent military intervention in his favour. Moscow knows what the consequences of his ouster will be. The West will do well to reach out to it and agree to settlement that secures the rights of moderate Syrian rebels without a regime change. Russia under Mr Putin is not what it had been reduced to under Yeltsin. Thanks to the military modernisation programme that he has personally supervised since the war with Georgia in 2008, it has both the will and the military strength to intervene decisively abroad. The performance of Sukhoi-34 strike aircraft and the Kalibr cruise missile with a range of over 900 miles — fired from a Caspian Sea-based strike force led by the missile cruiser Moskva — shows this, as do the speed and manner of the deployment of its troops and aircraft in Syria. Instead of confronting Moscow, Washington should ally with it in the war with the Islamic State. There is no reason why it should balk at the idea when Roosevelt could ally with Stalin against Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo.

atest tally so far

Short summary of Russian activity in Syria since Sept. 30
Sortie Su-34, Su-24, Su-25:

September 30 - 20 sorties, 8 targets.
October 1 - 18 sorties, 12 targets.
October 2 - 28 sorties, 19 targets.
October 3 - 20 sorties, 9 targets.
October 4 - 20 sorties, 10 targets.
October 5 - 25 sorties, 9 targets.
October 6 - 20 sorties, 12 targets.
October 7 - 26 caliber hit 11 targets. (no data on aviation)
October 8 - 22 sorties, 27 targets. (data only for a night, for all day is not found)
October 9 - 67 sorties, 60 targets.
October 10 - 64 sorties, 55 targets.
October 11 - 64 sorties, 63 targets.
October 12 - 55 sorties, 53 targets.
October 13 - 88 sorties, 86 targets.

http://syria.mil.ru/news/more.htm?id=12061051@egNews

As of the 16th:

Total since September 30th: 669 combat flights, 115 of them at night.

Singha wrote:all the newly clean shaven jihadis will probably make a beeline to germany and UK, with no documents and claim to be internally displaced syrian upright citizens and peace loving folks from aleppo and homs, so please give us food, shelter, papers and a job money

Medvedev denied all accusations against Russia suggesting its operation in Syria aims to support Assad.

"No, that is absolutely not true. The Syrian people should decide who will rule the country… At the moment we consider Assad to be legitimate president," Medvedev said.


The Russian prime minister added that what was going on in Syria now was the heaviest consequence of the past years.

"That is why, of course, we are not fighting for some specific leaders, we are protecting our national interests, on the one hand. The president [Vladimir Putin] once said that if we do not eliminate those terrorists they will come to Russia. And secondly, there is an official request from the Syrian legitimate government," Medvedev said.

It is not important for Russia who will head the Syrian government in the future as long as it is a legitimate and civilized power, not the Islamic State jihadist group, he added.

"It does not matter who will be the head [of the Syrian government]. We don’t want the Islamic State to head the Syrian Republic, right? But it must be a civilized, legitimate power."

Washington proposed to jointly fight against terrorists in Syria, but now refuses to share intelligence with Moscow, Dmitry Medvedev said.

"The Americans turned to us proposing to fight this evil [the Islamic State jihadist group] together. We said yes to them, we were ready to do this."

The prime minister added that Russia had obtained a mandate for carrying airstrikes on ISIL extremists in Syria following Syrian President Bashar Assad’s request for assistance. However, the United States declined cooperating with Moscow and Damascus on targets collected by Russian and Syrian intelligence services.

"[Washington] tells us that either strikes are not carried out on right targets or the targets are wrong. On our legitimate question to show us the targets, which should be hit, they say ‘No, we will not show anything.’ What kind of cooperation is this?" Medvedev said.

ldev wrote: I think all US Presidents realize within a very short while after assuming office that they cannot go against the agenda of the deep state. BO was/is just implementing the script written by the deep state. What nobody in the deep state anticipated was Putin jumping into Syria. They all thought his effort to undermine the deep state would be via his China alliance, this direct action business in the Middle East caught everybody with their pants down. Since the fall of the SU in 1990, the deep state has for the past 25 years got used to ruling the roost and become embedded globally via a "coalition of deep states'. So it's not just a question of State/Penta-gon/BO with egg on their face. It's that the agenda of the deep state is being thwarted by Putin. I think there will be no long term compromise here (even if there is a short term ceasefire/political settlement) because the Ayatollahs and Putin cannot be "bought" by the deep state and both sides know it. Hence the efforts at regime change in Iran and Russia.

habal wrote:record turnaround times for russian aircraft operating from Latakia base

The Russian Air Force crews are turning the planes around for reflight faster then U.S. Air Force crews operating under similar conditions with similar planes. Russians are using four different planes on the flight deck.


Their max turnaround for 24 planes flying 24 hours a day is about 96 missions per day. They did 88 the other day! Operating efficiency of about 96%. Unreal. How long can these Russian ground crews keep it up? I hear they ran out of vodka in Latakia.

http://russia-insider.com/en/military/w ... ve/ri10522
Russian Foreign Ministry Warns Suppliers of ManPADs will face consequences

http://sana.sy/en/?p=57997

"This should be taken as a serious warning."

Sanafi Al-Nasr, who was allegedly killed in an airstrike near the town of Dana, was Al-Qaeda’s senior strategist and an important power broker, the Iranian Fars news agency reports, citing jihadist sources close to the killed militant leader.

Al-Nusra released several photos showing a car hit by an air strike along with several bodies of the dead militants, although their identities were not verified. However, jihadists claimed on social media that Al-Nasr had been killed.

Terrorists of Jabhat al-Nusra perpetrated a massacre in Teirmaal village in Homs northern countryside on Thursday.

A military source told SANA that terrorists committed their crime at 7:00 am in synchronization of the army operations in the area, adding that the act aimed at accusing the Syrian Army and the Russian air force of targeting civilians.

“The Syrian Ministry of Defense stresses that the Syrian Army and the Russian air force do not target civilian-populated areas and holds Jabhat al-Nusra and its associates full responsibility for such crimes,” the source said.

The armed terrorist groups had perpetrated a number of crimes against civilians in several areas, the purpose of many of these acts were to accuse the Syrian Army of targeting civilians. Photos and videos footages of such acts have been used repeatedly to mislead local and international public opinions.

Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, a little more than a year ago, in July 2014 were the focus of attention in Europe and North America, accused, without a shred of forensic evidence, of shooting down an unarmed civilian Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine. The Russians were deemed out to restore the Soviet Union with their agreement to the popular referendum of Crimean citizens to annex into the Russian Federation and not Ukraine.

Western sanctions were being thrown at Russia by both Washington and the EU. People spoke of a new Cold War. Today the picture is changing, and profoundly. It is Washington that is on the defensive, exposed for the criminal actions it has been doing in Syria and across the Middle East, including creating the recent asylum crisis in Germany and large parts of the EU.

As a student of international politics and economics for most of my adult life, I must say the emotional restraint that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government have shown against tasteless ad hominem attacks, from people such as Hillary Clinton who likened Putin to Adolf Hitler, is remarkable. But more than restraint is required to bring our world from the brink or some might say, the onset of a World War III. Brilliant and directed action is essential. Here something extraordinary has taken place in the very few days since President Vladimir Putin’s September 28, UNGA speech in New York.

What he said…

What Putin said to the UN General Assembly must be noted to put what he and Russia did in the days immediately following into clear focus. First of all he made clear what the international law behind the UN Charter means and that Russia is scrupulously abiding by the Charter in actions in Syria. Russia, unlike the US, has been formally asked by the legitimate Syrian government to aid its war against terror.

To the UN delegates and heads of state Putin stated,

The decisions debated within the UN are either taken in the form of resolutions or not. As diplomats say, they either pass or they don’t. Any action taken by circumventing this procedure is illegitimate and constitutes a violation of the UN Charter and contemporary international law.

He continued,

We all know that after the end of the Cold War the world was left with one center of dominance, and those who found themselves at the top of the pyramid were tempted to think that, since they are so powerful and exceptional, they know best what needs to be done and thus they don’t need to reckon with the UN, which, instead of rubber-stamping the decisions they need, often stands in their way.”

Putin followed this with a clear message to Washington and NATO governments on the subject of national sovereignty, something anathema to many who embrace the Nirvana supposed to come from globalization, homogenization of all to one level: “What is the meaning of state sovereignty, the term which has been mentioned by our colleagues here?” Putin rhetorically asked. “It basically means freedom, every person and every state being free to choose their future. By the way, this brings us to the issue of the so-called legitimacy of state authorities. You shouldn’t play with words and manipulate them. In international law, international affairs, every term has to be clearly defined, transparent and interpreted the same way by one and all.

Putin added,

We are all different, and we should respect that. Nations shouldn’t be forced to all conform to the same development model that somebody has declared the only appropriate one. We should all remember the lessons of the past. For example, we remember examples from our Soviet past, when the Soviet Union exported social experiments, pushing for changes in other countries for ideological reasons, and this often led to tragic consequences and caused degradation instead of progress.

Those few words succinctly point to what is fundamentally wrong in the international order today. Nations, above all the one proclaiming herself Sole Superpower, Infallible Hegemon, the USA, have arrogantly moved after the collapse of the main adversary, the Soviet Union in 1990, to create what can only be called a global totalitarian empire, what G.H.W. Bush in his September 11, 1991 address to Congress called a New World Order. I believe with conviction that borders do matter, that respect for different cultures, different historical experiences is essential in a world of peace. That is as much true with nations as with individual human beings. We seem to have forgotten that simple notion amid all the wars of the past decades. Vladimir Putin reminds us.

Then the Russian president goes to the heart of the matter. He lays bare the true activities of the Obama Administration in Syria and the Middle East in arming and training “moderate” Islamist terrorists to attack Washington’s bête noire, Syria’s duly-elected and recently re-elected President, Bashar al Assad.

Putin states, “instead of learning from other people’s mistakes, some prefer to repeat them and continue to export revolutions, only now these are “democratic” revolutions. Just look at the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa…problems have been piling up for a long time in this region, and people there wanted change. But what was the actual outcome? Instead of bringing about reforms, aggressive intervention rashly destroyed government institutions and the local way of life. Instead of democracy and progress, there is now violence, poverty, social disasters and total disregard for human rights, including even the right to life.”

Then in a remark addressed to Washington and their NGO Color Revolutions known as the Arab Spring, Putin pointedly asks,“I’m urged to ask those who created this situation: do you at least realize now what you’ve done?“

Putin, without naming it, addresses the US and NATO role in creating ISIS, noting with precision the curious anomaly that the sophisticated new US Treasury unit to conduct financial sanctions against terrorist organizations, has utterly ignored the funding sources of ISIS, their oil sales facilitated by the Turkish President’s own family to name just one. The Russian President stated, “…the Islamic State itself did not come out of nowhere. It was initially developed as a weapon against undesirable secular regimes. Having established control over parts of Syria and Iraq, Islamic State now aggressively expands into other regions. It seeks dominance in the Muslim world and beyond…The situation is extremely dangerous. In these circumstances, it is hypocritical and irresponsible to make declarations about the threat of terrorism and at the same time turn a blind eye to the channels used to finance and support terrorists, including revenues from drug trafficking, the illegal oil trade and the arms trade.

And what Putin is doing…

Russia in the last weeks has completely out-maneuvered the diabolical, and they are diabolical, agenda of the Obama Administration not only in Syria but also in the entire Middle East and now in the EU with unleashing the flood of refugees. He openly reached out to invite Obama in their New York September 30 meeting to cooperate together in defeating ISIS. Obama stubbornly insisted that first Assad must go, despite the fact that Christine Wormuth, the Pentagon Undersecretary responsible for the Syrian war, confirmed Russian statements about Assad’s essential role today in any defeat of ISIS. She told the US Senate that Assad’s military “still has considerable strength,” adding, “it’s still the most powerful military force on the ground. The assessment right now is the regime is not in imminent danger of falling.”

Now come the howls of protest from neo-con warhawks, like the ever-ready-for-war Senator John McCain, chairman of the NGO International Republican Institute of the democratic revolution exporting US-backed NGO, National Endowment for Democracy. Or we hear flaccid protests from President Obama. This is because Washington finds itself deeply exposed to the light of world scrutiny for backing terrorists in Syria against a duly-elected state leader and government. The US warhawks accuse Russia of hitting “the moderate opposition” or civilians.

Emperor’s New Clothes

Russia’s Putin is playing the role ever so elegantly, even gracefully, of the small boy in the Hans Christian Anderson classic fairy tale from 1837, The Emperor’s New Clothes. The boy stands with his mother amid thousands of other villagers in the crowd outside the vain Emperor’s palace balcony, where the disassociated king struts around the balcony naked, thinking he is wearing a magnificent new suit of clothes. The boy shouts, to the embarrassment of all servile citizens who pretend his clothes are magnificent, “Mother, look the Emperor has no clothes!”

What do I mean? In the first four days of precision bombing of select sites in Syria Russian advanced fighter jets firing Kh-29L air-to-surface laser-guided missiles that strike targets with a precision less than two meters, managed to destroy key ISIS command centers, munitions depots and vital infrastructure. According to the Russian Defense Ministry official reports, with photos, Su-34 bombers attacked an ISIS special training camp and munition depot near Al-Tabqa, Ar-Raqqah province,” a critical ISIS outpost captured in August, 2014 after bitter battles. “As a result of explosion of the munition depot, the terrorist training camp was completely destroyed,” the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman stated. Russian Su-25 jets have also attacked training camp of the Islamic State in the Syrian Idlib, destroying a workshop for explosive belt production.

Moscow states its air force has “engaged 3 munition, fuel and armament depots of the illegal armed groups. KAB-500 aviation bombs detonated the munition and armament,” and they used BETAB-500 concrete-piercing bombs to destroy four command posts of the ISIS armed groups. The facilities with terrorists are completely destroyed,” the Moscow spokesman added. Russia’s aviation conducted 20 flights and carried out 10 airstrikes against facilities of the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist group in the past 24 hours. Then Moscow announced they had also hit key outposts of other terror groups such as the Al Qaeda-franchise, Al Nusra Front.

These are the so-called “moderates” that McCain and the Washington warhawks are weeping over. Washington has been creating what it calls the “New” Syrian Forces (NSF), which they claim is composed of “moderate” terrorists, euphemistically referred to as “rebels.” Imagine how recruitment talks go: CIA recruiter, “Mohammed, are you a moderate Islamist? Why yes, my dear CIA trainer. Please take me, train me and arm me in the fight against the ruthless dictator Assad and against ISIS. I’m on your side. You can trust me…”

In late September it was reported that Major Anas Obaid a.k.a. Abu Zayd, on completing his CIA training in Turkey, defected from the train-and-equip program to join Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Qaeda in Syria) immediately on entering Syria. Incredibly, US officials admit that Washington does not track or exercise command-and-control of its Jihadist proxies once they enter Syria. Abu Zayd’s defection after being trained in advanced warfare techniques by the US, is typical. Other elements of the New Syrian Forces directly handed all their weapons to Nusra upon entering Syrian territory at the town of Atareb at the end of September.

These latest “moderate” defections to join Al Qaeda’s Al-Nusra Front affiliate in Syria come less than two weeks after Gen. Lloyd Austin III, head of the US “war against ISIS,” during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Syria, admitted that the US military program that intended produce 5,400 trained fighters a year has so far only resulted in “four or five” who still remain on the ground and active in combat. The rest have all joined ISIS or Al Nusra Front of Al Qaeda, the US-backed “moderate opposition” to ISIL.

What the successful Russian precision airstrikes have done is expose in all its ugly nakedness the Emperor’s New Clothes. For more than one year, the Obama Administration claims it has committed the most awesome airpower on the planet allegedly to destroy ISIS, which has been described as a “ragtag band of militants running around the desert in basketball shoes.”

Curiously, until last week, ISIS has only expanded its web of power in Syria and Iraq under US bombings. Now, within 72 hours, the Russian military, launching only 60 bombing runs in 72 hours, hitting more than 50 ISIS targets, has brought the ISIS combatants into what the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman described as a state of “panic” where more than 600 have deserted. And, according to Moscow, the fight is only beginning, expected, they say to last three to four months.

The Obama Administration has been training terrorists of Al Qaeda/Al Nusra, allegedly to fight ISIS, much like the disgraced General David Petraeus did in Iraq and Afghanistan along with Obama’s special ISIS coordinator, the just-resigned General John Allen. The US-trained “moderate” terrorists were being readied, it’s now clear to all the world, in reality, to battle Assad and open the way for a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Syria and a real plunge into darkness for the world if that were to succeed.

Now, with the truth in the open, exposed by the remarkable successes of a handful of Russian fighter jets in four days against ISIS, accomplishing more than the US “anti-ISIS coalition” in more than one year, it is clear to the world Washington has been playing a dirty double game.

Now that the hypocritical Obama Administration mask has been blown off with the precision hit of a Russian laser-guided Kh-29L missile. As German and other EU governments have admitted, much to the strong objection of Washington, Putin has demonstrated that Russia is the essential part of any peaceful resolution of the Syria war. That in turn has a huge bearing on the current asylum-seeker crisis in Germany and other parts of the EU. It also has a huge bearing on prospects for world peace. The Norwegian Parliament’s Nobel Peace Prize Committee, rather than consider John Kerry, might consider Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister, Sergey Shoygu, for the prize.

gandharva wrote:

Singha wrote:Trumpji looks like a saner option vs hillary to me. he probably will focus on domestic politics than stir the pot all over the world.

The KAB-250 is a follow-on to the larger KAB-500 PGM, which made its combat debut in September in Syria. There are two versions of the 250-kilogram KAB: a laser-guided version and a satellite-guided version.

Based on the “drop-and-forget” principle, the KAB-250 guided aerial bomb incorporates the latest advances in science and technology, including the experience of its KAB-500 predecessor.

The inertial guidance system directs the bomb towards the target area. Two to three kilometers from the target the bomb’s onboard computer commands the thermal homing head to acquire the designated target.

The KAB-250’s thermal homing head then compares the acquired image with the reference picture laid down in its memory before discharge, and corrects the trajectory so that the radius of the deviation does not exceed three meters.

The KAB-250 has a fragmentation warhead designed to destroy lightly vulnerable materiel, thin-skinned vehicles, and other enemy installations. The bomb can be dropped individually or in salvoes.

The KAB-250 is 10.5 feet long, weighs a total of 565 pounds, with a 365 pound warhead and a 200-pound explosive.

It has a complex, compact tail design and is fitted with four long-chord, short-span wings to increase its glide range. It falls from an aircraft at a rate of 655-1,150 feet per second.

The KAB-250 can be used in all weather conditions and time of day, with different trajectories and speeds of several Mach number. The aerodynamic wings and close to neutral alignment munition provide high maneuverability and greater range.

Moscow. On October 16th. Interfax-AVN - Russia supplied Iraq with the Su-30, and they have strikes at militant positions "Islamic state", according to Iraqi media, quoting the press center of the Iraqi army Media War Cell (MWC).

According to the MWC, "fighter type" dry "destroyed three militant hideouts in the province of Salaheddin and their convoy, which was heading to the city of Mosul."

The message is accompanied by a photograph of the Su-30 with Iraqi identification marks.
Information that the Iraqi Air Force received the Su-30, were first performed.

Representatives of the Russian competent bodies avoid comments on the nomenclature of Russian supplies to Iraq under the military-technical cooperation (MTC).

Iraqi Ministry of Defense shows regularly supplied from the Russian military equipment and armament on its website.

It was reported that due to the difficult situation in Iraq Moscow urgently put Baghdad-aircraft Su-25, Mi-28NE helicopters and Mi-35 heavy flamethrower system TOS-1A "sun", anti-aircraft missile and gun complexes "Pantsir- C1 "portable anti-aircraft missile systems" horseman ", artillery systems and ammunition, armored vehicles BRM-3M Demining" Wild Boar ".

As previously stated the Assistant President Vladimir Kozhin, Russia will continue military-technical cooperation with Iraq. "Basically it is - small arms, it is - armored vehicles, it's - aviation technology," - he said. The volume of deliveries, according to Vladimir Kozhin - hundreds of millions of dollars.

Russian attack jets have hit 51 Islamic State targets in Syria in the past 24 hours, including four command posts, six arms depots, a mortar battery, two underground bunkers, 32 field camps and six outposts.
The strikes took place in the Latakia, Aleppo, Hama and Damascus provinces.

The damage the Russian SU-34 jets caused to the underground bunkers was especially significant, Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

A small missile factory was among the objects destroyed. However, these underground bases and conduits are believed to be widespread across Syria, so more work needs to be done, Konashenkov says.

In Idlib and Hama, field commanders with Al-Nusra Front are resorting to separating families at gunpoint in order to get their hands on ever younger child soldiers.

Fighting between different jihadist groups over territory control and funds are also on the rise, the Defense Ministry report states. Intercepted radio communications suggest that IS has targeted Al-Nusra Front with three car bombings in the past week.

A string of suspected arson attacks have hit three facilities intended to house asylum seekers in Sweden this week alone. The country is preparing to receive almost double the amount of refugees this year than the previous record, set in 1992.
An old school building in Onsala in the affluent area of Kungsbacka, some 30 km south of Gothenburg, caught fire on Saturday night. Twenty firefighters responded to the emergency call.

“Half the building has been damaged by fire,” said Mikael Lindgren, the lead operator of the emergency services in Greater Gothenburg, as cited by The Local.

The officials did not immediately identify the cause of the fire, saying a technical examination of the site was necessary.

The incident happened just a day after a school in Smaland, which was to be used to accommodate refugees, was destroyed by a fire.

Late on Tuesday, a building in Arlov Skane, where children seeking asylum in Sweden were meant to be hosted, was badly damaged by a blaze. The incident happened a day before its scheduled opening.

There have been 14 suspected arson attacks on refugee centers in Sweden since the start of the year.

Sweden, a country with one of the most generous welfare systems in Europe, has already received more refugees this year that any year in the past, surpassing a record set in 1992 when 84,016 people asked for asylum following fighting in the Balkans.

Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Friday that the number may rise higher than 150,000 by the end of the year.

Syria will fall apart if its government and rebels keep fighting instead of seeking a negotiated peace, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

He said the situation in Syria was deteriorating by the day after almost two years of conflict in which 70,000 people have died, but there was now a slim chance for peace talks.

"This is a very small window {yeah, small, tiny, minute, and really cute window...going.. going.. gone} of opportunity which we strongly support and encourage them to use that. The opportunity may soon close," Ban said at a news conference in Geneva.

Syria's government has shown increased willingness to hold talks with the opposition to end a war that has driven nearly 1 million Syrians to flee their country.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Monday the government would even speak to armed rebels. On Thursday it extended passport terms for Syrian nationals abroad, meeting a condition set by the opposition for talks.

"There's not much political space... I cannot give you any guarantee or a deadline or any future meetings," he said.