After Russian Parliament gave the all go to using air power to combat in Syria, a Russian General told the U.S. to stay out of Syrian airspace.
“A Russian official in Baghdad this morning informed U.S. Embassy personnel that Russian military aircraft would begin flying anti-ISIL missions today over Syria,” said spokesman John Kirby. “He further requested that U.S. aircraft avoid Syrian airspace during these missions.”
Putin said the action was preemptive, warning that Moscow would be hunting down Islamic State militants before they target Russia.
Russian defense officials say that they were targeting the Islamic State group saying it has hit IS weapons, depots, ammunition, communications infrastructure, and fuel.
The head of the Western-backed Syrian political opposition said the Russian strikes had killed at least 36 civilians and targeted areas where Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked fighters were not present. Official reports of casualties have been mixed.
An unnamed U.S. official told Reuters that so far they did not appear to be targeting ISIS held territory but only hitting areas where Free Syrian Army and other anti-Assad groups are located.
Two terrorist attacks were carried out against Israel in the last 24 hours, resulting in a stern response from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
The first was a car attack against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. Three soldiers were standing along a road in the northern West Bank when the Palestinian driver drove straight into them. Two of the soldiers were seriously wounded with the third suffering slight injuries.
“We welcome the brave attack that was carried out against the Zionists,” a Hamas spokesperson said, according to the Hebrew-language Maariv website.
“We demand from our people in the West Bank to carry out more attacks, in order to teach the occupation a lesson,” the Hamas statement continued.
Then Friday two rockets were fired by Hamas toward Israel that landed in the Gaza Strip. The rockets never made it across the Israeli border and no reports of damage or injuries were reported by Hamas.
However, the Israeli Defense Forces struck against Hamas, continuing the policy that Israel will retaliate for any attempted attack upon them by the terrorist group.
“The IDF, by means of Israeli air force aircraft, attacked the Hamas terror organization’s infrastructure in the central Gaza Strip a short time ago,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced in a press release.
“The attack was executed in response to the rocket fire at Israeli territory earlier in the afternoon,” the military said. “Hamas is the party responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip.”
The IDF reported a direct hit against their target.
The Islamic extremists who have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria have posted a message online to America.
We will drown you in blood.
The Islamic State said Tuesday that it will attack Americans “in any place” because of the air strikes against their terrorist groups and that they would “drown” Americans in blood. The message, which was in English, was accompanied by photographs of victims of snipers in Iraq and an American who was beheaded during the Iraq War.
The U.S. airstrikes on the terrorist group has allowed Kurdish forces to make gains in the last week. On Monday the fighters were able to take back the country’s largest dam that provides power to most of Iraq.
The off-shoot group of Al-Qaeda, which was determine to be “too extreme” for the Al-Qaeda leadership, has so far focused on capturing land for their own Islamic state rather than launching western attacks. However, the airstrikes from the U.S. is the first direct assault on the terrorists by a major western power.
Five Islamic terrorists in the midst of preparing a rocket attack on Israel were killed by an airstrike near the Egypt/Israeli border.
Egyptian military officials say they do not know who carried out the airstrike and are investigating the incident. However, sources inside the military are telling the BBC that the strike came from Israeli aircraft. Continue reading →
