U.S. President Barack Obama meanwhile authorized additional supplies on Monday for the Kurdish and other Muslim opposition forces in Syria, according to CNN.
“President Obama was clear that we intend to continue our efforts to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL in Syria and to keep supporting the moderate Syrian opposition,” said a senior administration official who spoke with CNN.
Although both the Russians and the Americans claim to be targeting Da’esh forces, neither deny they are also supporting Syrian fighters – with Russia backing the government and the U.S. backing “moderate” Muslim opposition fighters.
There are problems on both sides.
The government forces have tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of their own citizens, and used chemical weapons against their own people as well.
The “moderate” rebel forces, meanwhile, have also been caught selling their American-made weapons to radical Islamist forces – including the Al Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group – in order to secure safe passage and in some cases, simply in order to remain alive. There is simply no way to know into whose hands those American weapons will fall next.
What is very likely, however, is that whichever “moderate” forces exist in Syria will not be in control of the country when the war ends. Up to half of the country’s total population have fled Syria to other lands simply to survive.