The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria cleared the way for Russian bombers to pass through Iraq on their way to Syria via an airbase in Iran. Col. Chris Garver, the coalition spokesman, told reporters via teleconference from Baghdad that the Russians notified the coalition about their planned movement through Iraqi airspace […]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane “looks like a planned provocation,” but that Russia is not going to war with Turkey. Lavrov said the incident will make Russia reconsider its relationship with Turkey. He canceled a planned trip to Turkey on Wednesday, but spoke with Turkey’s foreign […]
The Islamic State group has released a photo of what it claims is the bomb that took down a Russian jetliner over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula last month and says it targeted the plane because of Moscow’s aerial bombardment in Syria. The photo, appearing on the extremist group’s official online English-language magazine Dabiq, shows a yellow […]
GAZIANTEP, TURKEY—Thousands of Syrian villagers are fleeing homes in the countryside south of Aleppo in the face of a government ground assault backed by Russian airstrikes, one of four major offensives mounted since Russia’s military intervention in the long-running Syrian civil war. The three other offensives are focused mainly on rural areas in the provinces […]