The Syrian Army says its air defenses have shot down one Israeli warplane and hit a second after four planes breached Syrian airspace and attacked government troops near Palmyra Friday morning. The Israeli military has denied the claims. Syrian military officials and observers told Sputnik that the incident sends an important message to Israel. [...]

Conflicting reports on an alleged airstrike on an Aleppo mosque won’t change the Pentagon’s attitude towards the various shady “activist” groups they cite as “reliable” sources when it suits them, says retired US AF Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski. [...]

The Syrian people, who have demonstrated remarkable courage and perseverance in the face of formidable challenges that would have crushed a lesser people, are forced to observe yet another bloodstained milestone they neither want nor deserve. [...]

The number of civilian casualties from airstrikes by the US-led coalition in the Iraqi city of Mosul exceeds the numbers reported by the media during the operation to retake Aleppo by Syrian and Russian forces, the London-based Airwars monitoring group has said. [...]

On Monday, US President Donald Trump gave the CIA the green light to conduct drone strikes against suspected militants, according to the Wall Street Journal. This new authority is a shift from a policy under former President Barack Obama that limited the CIA’s ability to engage in paramilitary activity, and may very well strain relations between the agency and the Pentagon.   [...]

The Syrian troops in Daesh-besieged Deir ez-Zor have significantly improved their positions thanks to Russian airstrikes, the Russian General Staff said. Russian Aerospace Forces' Tu-22M3 aircraft have carried out 36 sorties, during which they destroyed 34 terrorist facilities near the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Russian General Staff Main Operational [...]

Russian jets have not carried out any airstrikes on the Syrian city of Idlib, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has said, accusing the Western media of spreading false stories. “The warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces have not conducted a single airstrike against the city of Idlib yesterday, or last week, or even since the beginning of 2017,” the ministry’s spokesman, Major Gener [...]

The White House has released a redacted copy of the so-called drone strike “playbook”, which outlines US policies on unmanned aerial vehicles, just three years after President Obama promised to make the covert program more transparent. [...]

Given what has happened to the Arab World with US attention, the rest of Asia must shudder at the prospect of what could happen to it with President Obama’s new doctrine: "Pivot to Asia." A recent Obama interview, conducted by noted American-Israeli journalist Jeffrey Goldberg entitled, "The Obama Doctrine: The US President Talks Through His Hardest Decisions About America’s Role in the Wo [...]

I don’t know Aleksandr Prochorenko. I know nothing of his background or what his dreams and hopes were for the future. But I do know that he’s a hero who will never be forgotten, and that the cause for which he sacrificed his life is a righteous one. [...]

A recent survey carried out in the United States and European countries shows that an overwhelming majority of US citizens do not believe that Europe is is playing an important role in the fight against Daesh terror group. /* */ [...]

The Russian task force in Syria has demonstrated remarkable efficiency and professionalism, according to a German magazine citing confidential NATO analysis. The limited Russian contingent operating in Syria is outperforming the more widespread groupings of the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition, according to Germany’s FOCUS media outlet who came by the classified NATO document, which was pr [...]

Russia’s military have stopped all airstrikes on those areas and armed groups which joined the ceasefire in Syria, the General Staff has said at a briefing. "Russia has fully stopped carrying out airstrikes in the green zone - those areas and armed units that have sent us requests for a ceasefire," the chief of the main operations department of the Russian General Staff, Sergey Rudskoy, has t [...]

Talking to journalists gathered at the Pentagon, the US command has blamed “brutal dictatorship” for the human suffering in Syria, claiming that the Russian op has only caused further “tremendous damage” – yet again offering no proof to back the assertions. “Let’s be clear: the human suffering on the ground [in Syria] is the result of the Assad regime’s brutal dictatorship,”  [...]

Russia’s Defense Ministry has slammed NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, labeling as ‘nonsense’ his comments that the Russian air operation in Syria is causing tensions and undermining the peace process in the country. The NATO Secretary General made the controversial statement on Friday when he arrived at the EU defense ministers meeting in Amsterdam. [...]

Russia’s new-generation Su-35 fighter jets will be on round-the-clock duty at the Latakia base in Syria, ready to take off at a minute's notice to provide cover for aerial operations in the area, a spokesman for the Russian forces in Syria said.   [...]

A long profile on Hillary Clinton in the Washington Post earlier this week highlights the 2011 Libyan intervention as a key indicator of her approach to foreign policy. Clinton claims that the Libyan bombing campaign was an example of “smart power at its best.” If she actually believes that, it raises serious questions about her judgment, as well as about her ability to analyze foreign policy [...]

As the United States begins to warn of the growing threat of Daesh in Libya, political analyst Hafsa Kara speaks to Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear about Washington’s role in destabilizing the North African nation – and the personal involvement of Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. [...]

One of the charms of the future is its powerful element of unpredictability, its ability to ambush us in lovely ways or bite us unexpectedly in the ass. Most of the futures I imagined as a boy have, for instance, come up deeply short, or else I would now be flying my individual jet pack through the spired cityscape of New York and vacationing on the moon. [...]