Russian aircraft have reportedly bombed rebel factions near the border with Israel, prompting Fars News in Iran to declare “the Russian fighter jets’ attacks have an important message for Israel while Tel Aviv is trying to pretend that it has reached an agreement with Moscow on Syria’s Southern skies.” However, Israeli defense sources maintained that the agreement with Russia reached last month to de-conflict military activity in Syria remains intact. In related news, Russia admitted that one of the soldiers it recently deployed to Syria has died, although the Kremlin called the 19-year old soldier’s death a suicide while his family heavily disputed that possibility. Meanwhile, senior US Defense Department and military officials testified about US plans for Syria on Capitol Hill Tuesday as numbers released by the Pentagon shows a sharp decrease in the number of combat sorties flown by US aircraft over Syria. Read More
