U.S. President Obama is making a statement from the Pentagon to try to explain his strategy for stopping the IS group abroad and its sympathizers at home.
Some of Obama's main points:
-- Our strategy is moving forward and includes:
--- Hunting down and taking out these terrorists
--- Stopping IS recruiting and propaganda
--- Training Iraqi forces
--- Moving forward with political process
-- As we squeeze its heart we make it harder for IS to pump its terror into rest of world
-- Difficult fight, IS dug into civilian areas and uses civilians as human shields so we have to carry out strikes with precision
-- Nearly 9000 air strkes
--Last month we dropped more bombs than ever before
--We are also targeting and killing IS leaders including IS financial chief
-- IS leaders "cannot hide" and message to them is "you are next"
-- going after IS in Raqqa and in Libya
-- every day we destroy more of IS forces
-- In many places IS has lost its freedom of manuever
-- SInce summer IS has not had major succssful operation on the ground in Syria or Iraq
-- In recent weeks we are targeting sources of finance like oil fields
-- IS losing ground in Iraq including Sinjar, Baiji, etc
-- So far IS lost 40 percent of populated areas it once controlled in Iraq
-- Iraqi forces fighting to regain Ramadi
-- FIghters on ground face tough fight ahead and we are going to back them up
-- IS continues to lose ground in Syria
-- We are working with Turkey to seal border
-- IS lost thousands of square miles in Syria
-- More poeple are seeing IS as the thugs and thieves that they are
-- We recognize that progress needs to happen faster
-- Just as U.S. is doing more in this fight -- our allies Germany, UK, Australia are doing more
-- Secretary of State Kerry will be in Russia tomorrow to continue working on political process
Abu Mohammadal-Golani, the leader of Syrian's Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al Nusra Front, has lost support among Syrians after he gave an interview this weekend denouncing rebel factions participating in the Saudi sponsored Syrian opposition talks in Riyadh, Syria Direct reports.
Russia's Foreign Ministry says Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has spoken with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by telephone today to "synchronize chronometers" ahead of tomorrow's planned meeting and agree on a common agenda. The phone call was initiated by the United States, the Ministry adds.
The Ministry wrote in a statement on its website:
"The parties confirmed that, to convene a new meeting of the International Syria Support Group it is vital to ensure compliance with its November 14 decisions, which provide for the preparation of proposals for UN Special Representative Stefan de Mistura on the composition of the delegation of the Syrian opposition for talks with the Syrian government, and also agreement on a list of terrorist groups which must be fought against together."
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has welcomed the reported withdrawal of Turkish troops from Camp Bashiqa in northern Iraq and urged Turkey to continue trying to cooperate with Baghdad, the White House said.
Biden told Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that the troop withdrawal was an "important step to de-escalate recent tensions."
RFI journalist David Thomson points out that pro-IS accounts on Twitter had praised the reports of an attack on a French teacher in a Paris suburb by a man citing IS, saying that the attack had been under IS orders.
The only problem? The attack was made up and never happened, the Paris prosecutor is now saying.
Syrian forces have seized control of a military air base in a Damascus suburb, according to Hezbollah's Al Manar TV and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Marj al-Sultan air base is in the mostly rebel held Eastern Ghouta. Its capture after three years of rebel control is a significant advance for Syrian troops and Hezbollah militia who are operating under Russian air cover.
IS militants have launched counter attacks in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, which Iraqi government forces are trying to recapture, the BBC reports.
An Iraqi security source told the BBC that at least 25 soldiers and Sunni tribesmen were killed in a series of suicide car bombings.
With Russians wondering where to go on vacation now that they cannot visit Turkey or Egypt, a Russian tourist agency is offering an alternative -- "Assad Tours."
The customized tours will take Russian holidaymakers to the front lines of the ongoing civil war in Syria, according to Novaya Gazeta.
The tours would last 4-5 days and cost around $1,500 per person according to the tourist agency, Megapolis.
The IS group is gaining strength in Yemen, rivaling Al Qaeda, the New York Times reports.
IS has emerged as Yemen's "most disruptive and brutal force, carrying out attacks considered too extreme even by the country's branch of Al Qaeda," the Times says.
Like Islamic State affiliates in Egypt and Libya, the Yemeni group has shown signs it is more closely coordinating its activities with the headquarters in Syria, analysts said.
The head of Iran's Basij paramilitary militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, has said that the Basij has no intention of deploying forces to Syria, Iranian journalist Abas Aslani tweets.
Tehran denies having any military forces in Syria, but says it has offered "military advice" to Assad's forces in their fight against "terrorist groups".
But several fighters from Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been reported killed in Syria.
The Tehran Times reports today that an IRGC commander, Brigadier General Hossein Fadayee, also know as Zolfaqar, was killed in Syria "while providing military advice to the Syrian army."
In October, a senior IRGC general, Hossein Hamedani, was killed near Aleppo. Iran said he had been advising the Syrian army on its battle against IS.