PHOTO: Displaced civilians receive humanitarian aid in southern Aleppo Province, October 21, 2015 (Reuters)

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The Killing of Iran’s Commanders and Troops

The UN says at least 120,000 people have been displaced by the latest fighting in northwest Syria, including the regime-Russian offensives in Aleppo and Hama Provinces and Russian bombing of Idlib Province.

More than 9,000 migrants a day crossed into Greece last week, the highest number since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

“You are really seeing these huge front lines open up, and a significant amount of bombing comes with it,” said Sylvain Groulx, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Syria. “There is so much displacement. We are very worried.”

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said its estimate of the civilian flight is conservative, based on reports from people in the area. It added that the cutting by the Islamic State of a major road from Hama to Aleppo could affected about 700,000 people in regime-controlled areas of Aleppo city.

The report also cited the cost of at least five hospitals hit by the Russian airstrikes since September 30. A week later, Syrian forces, supported by Hezbollah and Iranian-led units, launched the first of six offensives across Hama, Homs, Latakia, and Aleppo Provinces.

While the offensives have made limited, if any, advances — and are now facing rebel and Islamic State counter-offensives in Hama and Aleppo Provinces — the Russian bombing has taken a high toll on civilians. Activists have said that at least 450 have been killed, including at least 59 in a single day in villages in northern Homs Province.

Many of the displaced are now near the Turkish border, unable to pay smugglers’ charges of up to $300 each to cross into Turkey.

US Shifts Position, Welcomes Iran in Multilateral Talks

In an abrupt shift of position, the US has welcomed Iran’s participation in multilateral talks in Vienna on Friday.

Only last Friday after talks with Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State John Kerry said “this is not the right moment” for Tehran’s involvement.

However, on Tuesday State Department spokesman John Kirby said the Islamic Republic would be among the countries who hope to agree on a “multilateral framework for a successful political transition in Syria which leads to a government not led by Bashar al-Assad”.

1st Identification of Russian Soldier Killed in Syria

Ruslan Leviev, who runs the site Live Journal, reports the killing of the first Russian soldier in Syria.

Drawing from accounts and mourning posts on social media, Leviev identifies the victim as 19-year-old Vadim Alexandrovitch, “”killed in Syria while on military duty”.

A friend of Alexandrovitch on the Russian social networking site vk.com said that he was killed on 24 October, along with nine other “Russian guys”.

The teenager was an aircraft mechanic, indicating that he was killed on the Russian base near Latakia in western Syria, possibly in a rebel mortar attack, or while off-duty in the city.

Another friend said officials came to Vadim’s parents from his military unit and confirmed his death — first they said he hanged himself, then that he was hanged and shot, and finally that he was found dead.

The Russian Defense Ministry told AFP on Tuesday that Alexandrovitch had “taken his life due to problems with his girlfriend”.

Turkey: We Hit Kurds Twice in Northern Syria for Violating “Red Line”

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has confirmed that the Turkish army twice attacked the Kurdish militia YPG in northern Syria, saying the Kurds had violated a “red line” by crossing to the western side of the Euphrates River:

We have said ‘The [Kurdish Democratic Party] PYD will not pass to the west of the Euphrates. We’ll hit them if they do.’ And we did hit them twice….It’s not possible to do anything in Syria despite Turkey.

Davutoğlu said the PYD and the Assad regime had agreed to conspire against Turkey in a meeting on May 28:

They should better know this: Afterwards, those in this region who will be on Turkey’s side will win while those who are against Turkey will lose. Everyone should make [their] own calculations accordingly.

Turkey has not laid all of its cards on the table yet. The picture will be different when it does so. Everyone should watch its steps.

Davutoğlu said Turkey had hit 458 positions of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, which Ankara claims is linked to the PYD, in three days while clearing the Turkish border from Islamic State havens.

“Turkey can never leave the fate of its 911-kilometer-long border to any country’s decision. We have made it clear to the US and to Russia,” Davutoğlu declared.

Obama Administration: We Will Step Up Airstrikes, Ground Raids on Islamic State

The Obama Administration has declared that it will step up air and ground attacks on the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

“We won’t hold back from supporting capable partners in opportunistic attacks against ISIL, or conducting such missions directly whether by strikes from the air or direct action on the ground,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The US has carried out occasional special operations raids inside Syria. Last week, it joined Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to free 70 detainees from an Islamic State prison, an operation in which an American commando was killed.

See Iraq Developing: US-Kurdish Operation Frees 69 at Islamic State Prison, American Soldier Killed

Carter did not explain if US forces would accompany Kurdish militia and some Free Syrian Army units on an offensive against the Islamic State’s center of Raqqa in northern Syria.

Nor did Carter explain how the changed US approach would deal with the issue of the Assad regime and Russian intervention to prop up Damascus.

Last week President Obama and the Pentagon ruled out American support of a protected area for Syrian civilians, even without the presence of rebels.

See Syria Letter: “We Must Have a No-Fly Zone” — 25 Civil Society Activists inside the Country

The Defense Secretary merely that the US hopes to better equip Arab forces battling the Islamic State — not the regime — and to further bolster Jordan.

“If done in concert as we intend, all these actions on the ground and from the air should help shrink IS territory into a smaller and smaller area and create new opportunities for targeting IS — ultimately denying this evil movement any safe haven in its supposed heartland,” Carter said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pressed both Carter and Marine General Joseph Dunford, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on whether the US has a military strategy to replace Assad.

Carter said the US approach to removing Assad has been mostly a political effort, while Dunford said, “I think the balance of forces right now are in Assad’s advantage.”

“If I’m Assad this is a good day for me because the American government has just said, without saying it, that they are not going to fight to replace me,” Graham replied:

You have turned Syria over to Russia and Iran….This is a sad day for America and the region will pay hell for this. The Arabs are not going to accept this. The people of Syria are not going to accept this.

Video: Free Syrian Army Outside Key Town of Morek in Rebel’s Hama Counter-Offensive

Free Syrian Army fighters outside the key town of Morek in the rebel counter-offensive, began last week, in northern Hama Province:

Morek, captured by the regime last year after an eight-month offensive, is on the Hama-to-Aleppo highway.

The rebel counter-offensive is threatening not only to push back the regime’s two-front offensive in Hama Province but to seize the initiative and put pressure on Syrian forces in Hama city and in Aleppo Province.

Opposition Denies Free Syrian Army Representatives Went to Russia

The externally-based opposition Syrian National Coalition has denied a Russian claim that a delegation from the Free Syrian Army visited Moscow for talks.

The Coalition “categorically denied” any meeting took place, citing “Russian misleading propaganda that aims at diverting attention from failures of the Russian aggression on the Syrian people” and “losses inflicted on Iranian occupiers and affiliated sectarian militias”.

The head of the FSA’s 13th Division, Ahmed al-Seoud, confirmed, “This talk is not correct.”

A spokesman for Alwiyat Seif al-Sham, an FSA group operating in southern Syria, added:

Nothing of this sort happened on our part as FSA. It is impossible for us to accept going to Moscow, and to have dialogue with it. We don’t want their help.

We contacted our friends in other areas and nobody went.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov claimed on Monday, “They are here all the time. They are various people, who come and go. But everybody says that they are representatives of Free Syrian Army.”

Having said at the outset of their intervention that the FSA was a “phantom”, the Russians are now asserting that they are willing to discuss the Army as part of the fight against “terrorists” in Syria.

Bogdanov repeated, “Fighting terrorists on the ground should participate in a broad anti-terror front. It is the Syrian army and Kurdish self-defense detachments, the Free Syrian Army, and other patriotic opposition armed groups.”

Rebels Claim Defeat of New Regime Push in East Ghouta near Damascus

The rebel faction Jaish al-Islam claims that it has repelled the latest regime attack in East Ghouta near Damascus.

Jaish al-Islam said it killed 24 regime troops and destroyed four tanks in the fighting in the mountains of the al-Marj area overlooking opposition-held towns.

The rebel faction, which has withstood months of bombardment and ground attacks, launched its own offensive last month, taking some territory near Harasta and Adra and occupying part of the highway leading north from Damascus.

Putin and King Salman Discuss Crisis

The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, discussing the October 23 meeting of Russian, US, Saudi, and Turkish Foreign Ministers in Vienna and subsequent contacts.

See Syria Daily, Oct 24: No Agreement at Russia-US-Turkey-Saudi Meeting Over Assad

The Russians asserted that King Salman had made the call and “gave a high assessment of Russia’s role in promoting the peace process”.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also spoke with US Secretary of State Kerry about “steps that could be taken to encourage efforts aiming at launching the political process in Syria with participation of the main countries of the region,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Human Rights Watch: Russian Airstrikes May “Violate Laws of War”

A report by Human Rights Watch on Russia’s bombing since September 30 says the campaign may violate the laws of war.

HRW investigated airstrikes in northern Homs Province on October 15, citing the testimony of residents that 59 civilians — including 33 children — were killed.

One of the bombs killed 46 members of an extended family when it hit a house in the village of Ghanto. The victims were related to a local Free Syrian Army commander, who was away at the frontline. The second air strike, on the neighboring town of Ter Ma’aleh, killed at least 13 civilians near a bakery, as well as a local FSA commander.