Russia wants the UN Security Council to discuss Turkish military actions, our news desk reports:
Russia has asked the United Nations Security Council to hold closed-door discussions on Turkish military actions in Syria and Iraq, diplomats say.
The United States, president of the Security Council this month, will chair the discussions on December 8.
Diplomats expect a November 24 incident in which Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian border to come up. Relations between Russia and Turkey have plummeted since that incident.
Ankara has said the Russian plane violated Turkish airspace. Moscow says the aircraft was over Syria, where Russia is carrying out an air campaign to support government forces in a five-year-old civil war.
Separately, Iraq has accused Turkey of violating its sovereignty by deploying troops and tanks to a camp in northern Iraq last week.
It threatened to refer the case to the Security Council unless Turkey withdraws its forces.
It was not clear if Russia intended to raise the Iraqi complaints.
Turkey said on December 7 it would not withdraw the troops, which it says are part of a mission to train Iraqi forces to fight Islamic State militants. (Reuters, AP)
Washington says it was a Russian strike that killed Syrian troops, our news desk reports:
U.S. officials are asserting that Russian bombs, not U.S. air strikes, killed Syrian regime troops in eastern Syria.
Syria on December 7 accused the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS) group of targeting an army camp in Deir Al-Zor province, killing three soldiers and wounding 13.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also attributed the strikes to the coalition, but U.S. officials said the Russians were responsible.
"Russia conducted long-range bomber strikes" in the Deir al-Zor area on December 6, one official said. "We are not at war with the Assad regime and have no reason to target the Syrian Army."
The United States regularly accuses Russia of using less precise bombs than those used by the coalition.
The strikes were carried out by 12 TU-22M3 Backfire bombers from Russia's Mozdok military base in North Ossetia, officials said.
Spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the only strikes the coalition carried out in the area on December 6 were on an oil wellhead some 50 kilometers southeast of the army base. AP, Reuters, AFP)
The IS group's leader in Libya was killed in a November air strike, the Pentagon confirms.
After the U.S.-led coalition denied accusations by Damascus that its planes struck a Syrian army base on Sunday, the Syria Direct news website has published an interview with the pro-opposition Deir Ezzor 24 news site, which suspects the bombing was a "mistake" on the coalition's part.
Deir Ezzor 24 maintains a network of correspondents inside Syria's Deir Ezzor province. Its director, Ali Layli, told Syria Direct that his correspondents "observed three planes carrying out the bombing, which occured on the outskirts of the military base, hitting one of its barracks."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Russia is prepared to take part in talks in the Syrian crisis in New York in December -- but only if certain conditions are met, Russian news agencies are reporting.
"First, it must be ensured that we are able to fulfil the decision of the previous meeting regarding approving lists of terrorists and the delegation of the Syrian opposition. Second, the place and time must be suitable for all parties to the Vienna process without exceptions, because the gathering can only take place at full strength," Lavrov said.
Lavrov was referring to a decision taken in November by participants in talks on Syria in Vienna that Jordan would coordinate efforts to compile a common list of terrorist groups in Syria.
Lavrov added that the "Vienna group, as it formed over the past two meetings -- October 30 and November 14 -- is a balanced, efficient team of foreign players who are able to create balanced and fair conditions for intra-Syrian dialogue."
This just in from Lebanon's Daily Star regarding the accusations by Syria that the U.S.-led coalition hit a Syrian army camp in Deir Ezzor province, killing three.
The U.S,.-led coalition denied the claims this morning.
The Syrian authorities have released 35 detained opposition members in Homs, ahead of a cease fire deal that will mean the departure of thousands of rebels from the city.
Their release is part of a deal to evacuate rebels from the Homs neighborhood of Al-Waer, the only area of the city under opposition control.
Among those released was a 62-year-old woman, Dahouk Qudzi, who was held for two years and who says her son is also a detainee, according to Reuters.
African militant group Al-Mourabitoun has published a photo it says shows the two perpetrators of the November 20 attack on a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, in which 20 people were killed.
The two men in the photograph are dressed in military fatigues and are holding AK-47 rifles. They are standing in front of a pick-up truck bearing a black flag and that appears to be the emblem of a militant group, Reuters report.
A photo caption said that the men were "two knights from the knights of martyrdom...carried out an operation on the Radisson hotel, killing in it dozens of foreigners of various nationalities."
Al-Mourabitoun is a branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
The U.S.-led coalition against the IS group last month dropped the most bombs in its 16-month campaign in Iraq and Syria, according to new Air Force data, Bloomberg reports.
According to the data obtained by Bloomberg, the coalition used 3,271 munitions in November, almost double the 1,683 used in June.
Russian, Saudi FMs Talk Syria Ahead Of Tomorrow's Opposition Talks In Riyadh
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has discussed the situation in Syria in a telephone conversation with his Saudi counterpart, Adel al-Jubeir, the Russian Foreign Ministry has said.
The telephone call came ahead of a meeting of Syrian opposition groups hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh starting tomorrow and running through December 10.
"Lavrov called for ensuring that the meeting of Syrian opposition representatives had the most representative character," the Foreign Ministry said.
The the official Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday that "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent an invitation to all the moderate portions of the Syrian opposition of different types and trends, and from its ethnic, sectarian and political spectrum inside and outside Syria."
The IS group and Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate the Al-Nusra Front will not be at the conference.