Syrian troops break siege of airbase outside Aleppo
There are military bases in various parts of Syria that have been surrounded and to some extent besieged for over a year. Syrian troops have broken the siege of the Kweires airbase near Aleppo. It is the first significant gain in the month-old offensive to retake the north. We shall see if the offensive can continue. This far it has not met with success, except in Russian and Iranian media.
Free Syrian Army continues to decline
The West once placed their hopes in the FSA, an umbrella organization of former Syrian soldiers and fairly secular other troops. It has not fared well in the last few years, losing fighters to other units that are better supplied and led.
ISIL massacre Shias in Afghanistan
ISIL’s forces in Afghanistan have decapitated a number of Hazaras in Ghazni province, leading to outrage. The Taliban are no less hostile to Shia. They massacred thousands of them in the nineties.