The Islamic State remains ‘far from defeated,’ one of the nation’s top generals warned Tuesday, seeming to break with President Trump’s assertion that the terrorist group was ’99 percent’ beaten after four years of U.S.-led military action in Syria and Iraq.
Islamic State fighters trapped in Syria are putting up fierce resistance, using civilians as human shields, setting deadly booby traps, and hiding in underground tunnels, all the while frustrating efforts by U.S.-backed Syrian fighters to deal a final blow to the terrorist caliphate.
Christians are continuing to share the Gospel even in highly dangerous areas in the Middle East where the Islamic State terror group remains on the minds of the people.
The U.S. State Department recently published an unprecedented report detailing the financial resources Iran invests in destabilizing the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is attempting to establish a military presence on the border with Israel along the Golan Heights.
Russia provided the advanced S-300 air defense system to Syria’s military free of charge, transferring three battalions with eight launchers each to the Assad regime, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported Monday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet shortly for the first time since relations were badly strained following last month’s Syrian downing of a Russian intelligence plane.
An Israeli official played down on Wednesday the Russian upgrading of Syria’s air defenses, saying the newly supplied S-300 missile system could be defeated by Israel’s stealth fighters and possibly destroyed on the ground.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the Russian delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Syria was ‘a serious escalation.’
Russia said Tuesday it had completed delivering its S-300 advanced anti-aircraft system to Syria, weeks after it blamed Israel for the downing of one of its spy planes by a less-sophisticated Syrian air defense missile.
A senior Israeli official said that Russia’s decision to provide advanced anti-aircraft systems to Syria posed a serious challenge for the Jewish state, but added that Israel was working on ways to prevent the development from becoming a major threat to the country’s security.
Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem addressed the UN General Assembly on Saturday with a focus on what the regime intends to do about the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. He declared that Damascus aims to recapture the territory from Israel after Syrian regime forces have retaken areas opposite the Israeli border during a recent Russian-backed offensive.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Monday it launched ballistic missiles into eastern Syria targeting terrorists it blamed for a recent attack on a military parade.
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has said Israel will be sorry if it continues to attack Syria’s army and its allies.
Six months after US President Donald Trump said he wants US troops out of Syria, his top officials are hammering home what has become increasingly obvious: the US isn’t going anywhere.
The IDF will continue to strike at Iranian targets in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, one day after Russia announced plans to bolster that country’s defenses by transferring the advanced S-300 anti-missile system there within two weeks.
Both Jerusalem and Washington warned Russia on Monday evening against its declared intention to provide the Syrian military with advanced surface-to-air missiles within two weeks, saying the move would further destabilize the region and increase already high tensions.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday that Moscow will supply an S-300 anti-missile system to Syria within two weeks, following the downing of the Ilyushin IL-20 by the Syrian forces, who tried to repel an IAF attack.
Veteran Israeli analysts believe President Vladimir Putin is exploiting the downing of a Russian plane in order to change the rules of the game in Syria, and that the US has abandoned Israel on the issue of Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country.
The Israeli report into the downing a Russian plane off the coast of Syria during an Israeli airstrike on Monday runs some 40 pages in English and Russian and shows that Syrian anti-aircraft batteries fired dozens of barrages indiscriminately for 40 minutes after the initial Israeli attack.