Troops loyal to the Assad regime in Syria claimed on Sunday that they had shot down an Israeli drone in the province of Kuneitra near the Israeli Golan Heights, capping a weekend of dramatic developments in the multi-faceted civil war in affecting several countries in the Levant region. Kurdish forces made some progress over the weekend in the battle in neighboring Iraq against the Islamic State (IS, formally ISIS) terror militia, opening a path through the siege around Mount Sinjar and threatening IS supply lines from northern Iraq into Syria. US-led airstrikes against IS positions in the area played a major role in the victories scored by the Kurdish forces, even as a Pentagon spokesman announced that an additional 1,300 US military personnel would soon be deployed to Iraq to join the fight there. Read More
