Author Topic: Russia Accuses U.S. of Working With Al-Qaeda Affiliate in Syria  (Read 347 times)

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Offline TomSea

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Russia Accuses U.S. of Working With Al-Qaeda Affiliate in Syria
« on: September 20, 2017, 07:32:09 pm »
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Russia Accuses U.S. of Working With Al-Qaeda Affiliate in Syria
By Damien Sharkov On 9/20/17 at 2:57 PM

Russia's military has accused U.S. intelligence of ordering militants affliated with Al-Qeada to attack government forces in order to divert their attention from a battle they are fighting against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). Bashar al-Assad's regime is battling ISIS in Deir Ezzor, once a stronghold of Islamist extremists.

Since officially entering the Syrian conflict to support Assad's faltering regime in late 2015, Russia has repeatedly said it is fighting "terrorism," though its broad definition of the term includes no explicit list of organization. Instead, the groups they consider "terrorists" are frequently groups supported by Western forces, and are determined via the judgment of Assad's forces, by the Kremlin's own admission.

The U.S. initially provided logistical support for moderate anti-Assad rebels; however, the fracturing of factions in the conflict means that in recent years U.S. equipment has ended up in the hands of disparate Islamist groups. The U.S. military's most direct participation in the conflict is airstrikes targeting ISIS. However, in November 2016 the White House ordered U.S. forces to also target Al-Nusra, an affiliate of Al-Qaeda.

Continued at: http://www.newsweek.com/russia-accuses-us-working-al-q-affiliate-syria-668414