Russian bombs take toll in Syria as Islamic State under pressure

Reuters ^ | Jan 20, 2016 | Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

[TigerLikesRooster]

World | Wed Jan 20, 2016 6:18pm EST

Russian bombs take toll in Syria as Islamic State under pressure

BEIRUT | By Tom Perry and Suleiman Al-Khalidi

Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria are taking their toll on rebel forces, strengthening the hand of a defiant President Bashar al-Assad as the United Nations struggles to get peace talks off the ground.

Insurgents in the west are being hit harder, while in eastern and central parts of the country, Islamic State is also under military pressure and is cutting fighters' pay as its oil-smuggling operations are hit by plunging prices.

Rebel groups are reporting intensified air strikes and ground assaults in areas of western Syria that are of greatest importance to Assad. The government last week made one of its most significant gains since the start of the Russian intervention, capturing the town of Salma in Latakia province.

While recent gains do not appear to mark a tipping point in the conflict, with rebels fighting back and regaining positions in some places, insurgents describe high levels of attrition on the front lines of western Syria.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Supply line from Turkey is being cut. Existing supply and men are being depleted.

Of the 3,000 people killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since they began in September, nearly 900 were members of Islamic State, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war.

well, it appears that Russians are doing some real damage.

[Dagnabitt]

Meanwhile, US forces report destroying an ISIS garbage bin. A strike on an outhouse, however, was called off for fear of civilian casualties.

[Fai Mao]

Also the Iranian/Iraqi forces are beginning to cause the ISIS terrorist problems on the other side of the area they control as are the Kurds. So ISIS is getting squeezed hard

Cutting supply lines for selling oil also means that fewer new recruits can make it into the ISIS controlled areas.

[mac_truck]

Building a Kurdish free state takes time...

[Bobby_Taxpayer]

Can’t wait till the day Obama takes credit for Putin’s actions.

[BBell]

The Russian Hammer.

[Helvan]

Barry better call up his transsexual air force chief and drop a few bombs before the Russians wrap things up before he has a chance to take all the credit.

[PIF]

If he would ... but he cannot ... the USAF has no way of currently (or no way they care to reveal) countering Russia’s S400 systems. To fly in the S400’s operations area, Obie would have to ask Russian permission, seemingly a step to far for the Commander In Chief of Apology.