Free Republic

LLast week, apparently catching the world by surprise, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels launched a surprise offensive against government-controlled positions in northwestern Syria. Within 72 hours, incredibly, they had expelled Assad’s troops from large swathes of Aleppo. HTS’s triumph restored a rebel presence to Aleppo for the first time in eight years and paved the way for the unfreezing of the Syrian Civil War. Predictably, Russian fighter jets – supporting their ally, Assad – responded by bombing rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib. Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun militias also joined the fight on the dictator’s behalf. Regardless of what...

Russia's armed forces suffered a new blow today when its air defences shot down one of its own military helicopters near the war zone. The latest friendly fire nightmare resulted in the death of all four crew members, it was reported. The £19 million Ka-29 assault helicopter was on duty hunting for Ukrainian kamikaze sea drones near Black Sea resort Anapa this morning when it was hit by a Russian Pantsir medium-range surface-to-air missile in an incident of mistaken targeting. The Russians blamed the blunder on a malfunction of the 'friend or foe' identification system.