Middle East: Syria: U.S. fires missiles at Syria in retaliation for suspected poison gas attack - by Bob Drogin and David S. Cloud

U.S. and allied warships and warplanes in the eastern Mediterranean launched a fiery barrage of missiles at multiple military targets in Syria to punish the Russian-backed government in Damascus for its alleged use of poison gas against civilians last weekend, President Trump announced.

Trump authorized the punitive attack against President Bashar Assad's government and sought to cripple its chemical and biological weapons facilities with what he called precision airstrikes. French and British forces joined the attack, Trump said in a televised address Friday night.

The Pentagon said about 120 missiles targeted a scientific center near Damascus that was used for research, development and production of chemical and biological agents; a chemical weapons storage facility west of Homs; and a separate chemical agent storage site and command post near Homs. Officials said no U.S., French or British casualties were reported.

"We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents," Trump said. Loud explosions and air raid sirens were reported in the Syrian capital as he spoke at 9 p.m. in Washington. It was before dawn Saturday in Damascus

Read more: U.S. fires missiles at Syria in retaliation for suspected poison gas attack

Syria: Russia’s Unguided Weapons in Syria Could Ricochet on Moscow

The Syrian air force has been bombing anti-government rebels—as well as innocent civilians—with crude barrel bombs that rarely hit their targets. But the arrival of the Russian air force isn’t bringing a big increase in accuracy. Their bombing technology is a generation behind American weapons, and that could end up pinning a target on the back of every Russian soldier in Syria as well as back home.

The U.S. has claimed that the Russian air strikes that began this week appear aimed at Syrian rebel forces fighting to topple President Bashar Assad instead of the Islamic State in Syria and Greater Iraq. But they may not be very effective. Video released by the Russians—and U.S. intelligence reports—indicate the bombs being dropped are unguided, and that at least some of them are going astray.

That could lead to big problems for the Russians, according to Lieut. General Bob Otto, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “Those aren’t precision weapons,” Otto said Thursday of the Russian bombs. “We can tell what’s hanging off the airplane” via intelligence imagery, he said. They’re “dumb” bombs, guided to their targets only by gravity and the plane’s position and velocity when they’re released. Such weapons are notoriously inaccurate.

Read more: Russia’s Unguided Weapons in Syria Could Ricochet on Moscow | TIME

Turkey - USA: Selling Out the Kurds - Stephan Richter and Bill Humphrey

U.S. policy on Iraq, Syria and the surrounding countries seems to have been left solely in the hands of amateurs in the White House. That is not a partisan statement, for it applies to both the current and previous occupants. The next occupant, regardless of party, seems likely to muck it up as well.

The latest foolhardy decision seems to have been a deal long sought by the United States to move the “strategy” against ISIS forward. It is worth recalling that the terrorist organization is de facto an American creation resulting from the completely ill advised Iraq policy under George W. Bush.

In the blinding desire to destroy ISIS, Mr. Obama and his team were so keen on getting rights to use Turkish air bases that they completely forgot about the dark side of Mr. Erdogan.

No sooner had the agreement on bases been reached than Turkey’s own aircraft began pounding Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq.

The government, which still lacks a governing mandate after no party won a majority in the recent elections, has officially put the anti-ISIS PKK fighters on the same threat level as ISIS. In reality, Kurdish fighters appear to be a much bigger target of the Turkish Air Force than the ISIS fighters.

The point of all this maneuvering is that Erdogan hopes to leverage wartime fervor into a favorable nationalist coalition or a new election with a better outcome for himself.

Read more: Selling Out the Kurds - The Globalist

Saudi Arabia: UN condemns Saudi attacks on Yemen

The United Nations condemned the Saudi-led coalition's airstrikes on Yemen's Sanaa airport on Monday, saying it hindered the travel of humanitarian aid workers.

The UN is preparing an airlift of workers from Djibouti to the Yemeni capital, but "no flights can take off or land while the runways are being repaired," said Johannes Van Der Kaauw, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

"I strongly urge the coalition to stop targeting Sanaa international airport and to preserve this important lifeline - and all other airports and seaports - so that humanitarians can reach all those affected by the armed conflict in Yemen," the statement continued.

While the bombers continued to pummel the airport in the capital, a further 150 airstrikes targeted the one in the southern city of Aden, as well as to the west in Hodeida. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia backs troops loyal to exiled President Abed Rabbo Monsour Hadi, who are locked in fierce fighting with the rebel Houthis.

Read more: UN condemns Saudi attacks on Yemen | News | DW.DE | 04.05.2015

Air strikes against Isis are not working, say Syrian Kurds - by Constanze Letsch

Isis fighters have pushed to within little more than a mile of the centre of the city of Kobani, undeterred by western air strikes which are proving ineffective, a leading Kurdish official in the city has said.

Fighting between the Islamist militants and Syrian Kurds continued unabated despite another volley of coalition air strikes in and around the Kobani enclave, Idris Nassan, Kobani’s “foreign affairs minister”, told the Guardian.

“There are fierce clashes between Isis and YPG [People’s Defence Corps] fighters, at the moment mainly to the south-east of the city. Isis now stands at two kilometres from the city centre,” Nassan told the Guardian by phone. “I can hear the bombs and shells here.”

According to Nassan, the situation was “under control for now”, but he underlined that air strikes had not deterred a further Isis advance.

“Air strikes alone are really not enough to defeat Isis in Kobani,” he stressed. “They are besieging the city on three sides, and fighter jets simply cannot hit each and every Isis fighter on the ground.”

Read more: Air strikes against Isis are not working, say Syrian Kurds | World news | The Guardian

Why Turkey is reluctant to join U.S-led coalition against ISIS

The launch of airstrikes in Syria by a U.S.-led coalition as part of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has placed Turkey in a delicate position of needing to thwart the militant group's growing threat while not wanting to raise its ire and face retribution.

"It`s obviously very careful on how it handles ISIS," said Didem Ackyel Collinsworth, the International Crisis Group's senior analyst for Turkey. "In terms of signing on to the coalition and taking part in airstrikes and so on, [it] would be very cautious about that."

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was considering expanding support for Western and Arab operations against the Islamic State group to include everything, "both military and political."

The remarks signalled a possible shift by Erdogan, who has so far not committed to a U.S.-led coalition to take on the militants.

"Nations like Turkey have their own clear, vested personal interest in confronting the threat that's posed by ISIL,"

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said recently, referring to the Islamic State by one of its many acronyms. "All of the mayhem and havoc that ISIL is wreaking in Iraq and in Syria is right on Turkey's doorstep. And it's certainly not in their interest for all that instability and violence to be occurring so close to their border."

Read more: Why Turkey is reluctant to join U.S-led coalition against ISIS - World - CBC News

Syria - ISIS: US officials believe Terrorist Muhsin al-Fadhli died in Syria airstrikes - by John Hall

Airstrikes in northern Syria killed the 'world's most wanted terrorist' before his band of Islamist militants were able to carry out deadly 'toothpaste tube bomb attacks' on the U.S. and Europe, American officials believe.

Muhsin al-Fadhl, 33, was identified as the leader of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Khorasan Group - a radical terror collective specializing in intercepting Western jihadists on their arrival in Syria, and training them to carry out deadly bomb attacks on targets in their home nations.

As well as an American and Arab coalition hitting targets relating to ISIS militants in Syria yesterday, the U.S. air force also independently struck Khorasan as intelligence suggested the group were nearing ‘the execution phase’ of a terror atrocity against a Western target that could have rivalled 9/11.

Details of the alleged death of al-Fadhl emerged this afternoon from a U.S. military official speaking on condition of anonymity.

Despite his relatively young age, the Kuwait-born militant was an Al Qaeda veteran; joining the terror group as a teenager and becoming so close to its leadership that he was among a select few with prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks in America, despite having only just turned 20 at the time.

News of Muhsin al-Fadhl's alleged death comes as a fresh wave of airstrikes hit ISIS-held territory close to Syria's border with Turkey overnight.

Read more: US officials believe Muhsin al-Fadhli died in Syria airstrikes | Daily Mail Online

Iraq: U.S. bombs two ISIS targets in Iraq - by July Page and Robert Burns

The New York Times reported Thursday that U.S. military forces bombed at least two targets in northern Iraq.

The White House earlier said it was weighing direct military strikes to stem an Islamic militant group’s gains in Iraq, as well as humanitarian relief for thousands of displaced religious minorities in the country’s north, according to U.S. defense officials and others familiar with the administration’s thinking.

President Barack Obama huddled with his national security team Thursday morning to discuss the crisis as the Islamic State group made further gains. Airstrikes in particular would mark a significant shift in the U.S. strategy in Iraq, where the military fully withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.

In recent days, the Islamic Group militants swept through villages in the north that are home to religious minorities including Christians and the Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion with ties to Zoroastrianism. Furthering their gains, the extremists seized Iraq’s largest dam Thursday, placing them in control of enormous power and water resources and access to the river that runs through the heart of Baghdad.

While the White House did not publicly outline the range of options under consideration, officials said the U.S. strongly condemns the extremists’ assault on minorities.

Read more: Report: U.S. bombs two militant targets in Iraq - The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram

Middle East::The perfect storm? Rocket Attack From Gaza Strip Kills 3 Israelis

Militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip killed three Israelis on Thursday in a rocket attack likely to deepen a bruising Israeli air, naval and artillery offensive, the most intense assault on the Palestinian territory in four years.

The casualties were the first in Israel since it launched its operation on Wednesday with the assassination of Hamas' top military commander, followed by an onslaught of airstrikes and shelling by tanks and naval gunboats. Eleven Palestinians, including two children and seven militants, have been killed and more than 100 wounded in Gaza since the Israeli operation began.

Few in the Palestinian territory's largest urban area, Gaza City, came out following the call for dawn prayers on Thursday, and the only vehicles plying the streets were ambulances and media cars.

About 400 angry mourners braved the streets, however, to bury Hamas mastermind Ahmed Jabari, whose body was draped in the green flag of the Islamic militant Hamas movement. Some fired guns in the air and chanted, "God is Great, the revenge is coming." When the body was brought into a mosque for funeral prayers, some tried to touch or kiss it. Others cried.

Note EU-Digest: Egypt has recalled its Ambassador to Israel following the assassination of Hamas' top military commander by an Israeli airstrike.

Read more: Rocket Attack From Gaza Strip Kills 3 Israelis - ABC News

France says Syria air strikes a possibility

French leader Francois Hollande has said military action in Syria is possible if the UN agrees, as EU countries expelled ambassadors.

He spoke on national TV on Tuesday (29 May) following UN confirmation that Syrian artillery and militia killed 108 people, including 49 children, in the village of Houla, in western Syria, on Friday.
"I heard Bernard Henry-Levy talk about a military intervention, which is not excluded provided it is carried out under the auspices of international law, namely via a [UN] Security Council resolution,"

Hollande said, referring to a French intellectual who also advocated air strikes on Libya last year.
Hollande's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, in an interview with the Le Monde newspaper the same day indicated that air strikes are the only option.

Read more: EUobserver.com / Foreign Affairs / France says Syria air strikes a possibility