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Russia is deliberately targeting US-backed rebel forces in Syria. 150 CIA-backed Syrian rebels have been killed by Russian airstrikes. FOX News reported: Moscow is “deliberately targeting” U.S.-backed forces in Syria as part of a military campaign that has killed up to 150 U.S.-trained rebels, a U.S. official told Fox News. The claim comes as the U.S. and Russian militaries try to reach an agreement about flight safety in the skies over Syria. Officials from both countries are holding their third videoconference on the issue Wednesday, as U.S.-led coalition and Russian aircraft look to avoid collisions as they launch airstrikes into...

<p>The U.S. military airdropped 50 tons of ammunition to Syrian rebels fighting ISIS on Sunday — the latest maneuver in the United States' attempt to help turn the tide of a chaotic civil war.</p> <p>The airdrop, consisting of AK-47 rounds, hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, targeted rebels in ISIS-held territory in northern Syria, senior defense and military officials told NBC News.</p>

The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria. [...] [The Defense Secretary] Mr. Carter added, “I think you’ll be hearing from President Obama very shortly” on the program." [...] A senior Defense Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that a much smaller training center would be set up in Turkey instead, where a small group of “enablers”...

LONDON — The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria. Pentagon officials were expected to officially announce the end of the program on Friday, as Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter leaves London after meetings with his British counterpart, Michael Fallon, about the continuing wars in Syria and Iraq. “I wasn’t happy with the early efforts” of the program, Mr. Carter said...

This past weekend we called Obama's latest failed attempt to replace Syria's president (after a comparable attempt in 2013 also ended in failure) for what it is: "Make no mistake, this is shaping up to be the most spectacular US foreign policy debacle since Vietnam - and we don't think that's an exaggeration."

Sen. Ted Cruz appears on FOX News to talk about Russia exerting influence in the Middle East and what should our role be in fighting ISIS. SEN. TED CRUZ: You ask what should we be doing? We should stop engaging in the fiction in trying to find these moderate rebels and support them. We should stop the fiction of trying to bring together the Sunnis and the Shias to put down their arms and embrace like brothers. Instead, we should defend U.S. national security interests and do what works to defeat ISIS.

Why would they? And just think of the irony- Obama abandoned the (NATO member) Poles and Czechs to their own fate when he withdrew W's plans for missile-defense in central/eastern Europe... ostensibly to make nice with the Kremlin.  But NATO pledges of support 'within days'  mean little when you've already been turned to ash. Then they watched in horror as Putin shredded Ukraine and put more missiles in Kaliningrad, right in Europe's face. NOW the Russians -who we supposedly sold-out NATO members to befriend- are showing the entire world what a bunch of feckless, undependable, and downright dangerous 'friends' the United States can be... as...

U.S.-backed rebels in Syria appealed to the Obama administration on Friday for anti-aircraft missiles to defend their positions against relentless Russian airstrikes that have so far mostly targeted the moderate opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's rule, according to The Washington Post. We need one of two things. Either a clear policy from the United States to prevent Russia and the regime from bombing Syrians, or otherwise they should send us anti-aircraft missiles so that we can confront the Russian planes," said Hassan Haj Ali, the commander of Suqour al-Jabal, U.S.-backed group targeted by Russian strikes on Thursday, the report says....

BEIRUT — Russian warplanes have struck targets deep inside the Islamic State’s heartland province of Raqqa for the first time, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday. The strikes were carried out against an Islamic State training camp and a command post near the city of Raqqa, expanding the scope of a three-day old air campaign that had previously focused on attacking rebel groups opposed to the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday branded U.S. support for rebel forces in Syria as illegal and ineffective, saying U.S.-trained rebels were leaving to join Islamic State with weapons supplied by Washington. In an interview with U.S. networks recorded ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deserved international support as he was fighting terrorist organizations. Obama and Putin are scheduled to talk on Monday after Putin addresses the United Nations, although White House and Kremlin officials have disagreed on what the two leaders will discuss and even who initiated the meeting. "In...

WALPOLE — The School Committee took steps Thursday night to distance itself from a Confederate flag overlooking the high school athletic field, voting to permanently block the rebel emblem flying on private property with a public banner emblazoned with a big W and with a second banner printed with a disavowal of the divisive symbol. “Walpole is not a racist town and does not want to be perceived that way,” School Committee chairwoman Nancy Gallivan said before the unanimous vote.

President Barack Obama has authorized the use of air power to defend a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria should it come under attack from Syrian government forces or other groups, officials said, in a move that could increase the risk of the U.S. coming into direct conflict with the Assad regime. The decision ends a months’ long debate over the role the U.S. military should play in supporting its few allies on the battlefield and comes as the U.S. and Turkey discussed joint operations to clear a zone along the Turkish-Syrian border of Islamic State militants. Turkish officials wanted...

President Obama's $500 million plan to raise an army of Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State horde is falling far short of its target, attracting only a few dozen recruits to the cause. "As of July 3, we are currently training about 60 fighters," Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers Tuesday.

Sen. Harry Reid says Nevada higher education officials should look at changing the Confederate-themed mascot at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Reid told reporters in Washington D.C. on Tuesday that Nevada's Board of Regents should take a look at changing UNLV's current mascot and sports team name from the so-called "Running Rebels."

Yet another senior Iranian general has been killed fighting in Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Iranian news agencies revealed late on Friday. Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Maj. Gen. Hadi Kajbaf was killed in April around 60 miles south of Damascus, near the rebel-hold town Busr al-Harir, according to the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim as cited by Reuters. His body was shipped back to Iran last Friday. Another three Iranian soldiers were killed alongside the general, including a mid-ranking Shi'ite cleric, reported the state-run Fars News Agency. Kajbaf's rank was the highest in Iran's military, meaning he was among...

Amid reports of a renewed Saudi offensive against Iranian-allied rebels in Yemen, Iran's news agency reported on Friday that Saudi Arabia had stopped Iranian aid planes from landing in Yemen. Not unexpectedly, a top Iranian official responded with threats directed at Saudi Arabia. Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian warned on Sunday that the Saudi behavior and its siege of Yemen and preventing the dispatch of humanitarian aids "will not remain unanswered." "Saudi Arabia is not entitled to decide for others in the region," Abdollahian added. Iran's FARS News Agency stated that Saudi fighter jets...

Yemen's crisis is getting worse and then some. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have started bombing rebel positions inside Yemen. The Sunni Kingdom added that it would do "anything necessary" to deter the Iran-backed Shiite rebels who are taking over Yemen and trying to oust US-backed President Abd Rabbah Mansur Hadi. A Saudi source told Reuters that ground troops might be needed in Yemen to "restore order." Saudi Arabia is reportedly contributing as many as 150,000 troops and 100 warplanes to the campaign against the Houthis.

A ‘moderate rebel’ group in Syria that the U.S. helped create, called the Hazm Network, has fallen apart after recently being defeated by Jahbat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida linked terrorist group. The Hazm Network gave all their US weapons to al-Nusra and took off to join the Shamiah Front, another Muslim Brotherhood group in Syria that includes hardline Salafis.

<p>Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate on Saturday drove US-backed rebels out of a strategic northern military base in fierce fighting that left dozens dead, a monitor said.</p> <p>At least 29 fighters from the Western-armed Hazm movement were killed along with six Al-Nusra Front jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.</p>

U.S. Embassy Marines in Yemen handed over their M-9 pistols and M-4 carbines before evacuating the chaotic country with diplomatic personnel, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The Marines also left behind several vehicles at the airport in the capital city of Sanaa before departing on a civilian flight, said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. Warren said the Marines destroyed their machine guns and other crew-served weapons before leaving the Embassy for the airport. He also said that it was unclear who now had custody of the weapons and vehicles that were surrendered. A Marine spokesman could not immediately say...