© AP
The major part of Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) militants will leave Syria, including the city of Aleppo and its stronghold of Raqqa, and relocate to Libya until the end of the year, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) Director Leonid Reshetnikov told Sputnik on Friday.
"I think that within this year the majority of militants will leave for Libya. They will flee from Aleppo and Raqqa. They would have to leave for Libya, maybe some of them will stay in Iraq," Reshetnikov said in an interview.
Comment: This won't happen if the US gets its way: Man behind the curtain revealed - US State Department threatens to send Islamic terrorists into Russia
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups, including Daesh and Nusra Front, a Syrian division of al Qaeda that has changed its name to Jabhat Fatah al Sham, which are outlawed in many countries including Russia.
Friday, September 30, marks a year since Russia launched its aerial anti-terror campaign in Syria after an official request from the Syrian government that has been fighting numerous extremist groups and opposition factions since 2011.
In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the pullout of the bulk of the Russian contingent in Syria as the anti-terrorist campaign's objectives had broadly been completed. At the same time, Russia did not abandon its obligations to provide the Syrian government with weapons and military equipment, train military specialists. Hmeymim air base and a naval facility in the port of Tartus remain operational while Russia's S-400 and Pantsir air defense systems continue to be on duty in Syria to protect Russian servicemen in the war-torn country.
Reader Comments
REMEMBER the young girl running toward the camera, her face twisted in pain, running as if she could put out the flames of white sulfur napalm. Cronkite became the world's father figure for his emotion on camera then.
We were the bad guys in Vietnam.
Now the worm has turned. We are arranging Russia's downfall. The relentless condemnation of Russia in the press, the continual reminders of 5 years of war of which Russia has only 1 year of, the reminders of how the continually rearmed combatants use the citizens for protection, no aid conveys allowed thru, barrel bombs in use in Aleppo's communities.
I see the only way this will end; Russia being charged in world court with war crimes. I see Aleppo besieged with militarized viruses and bacterial warfare. Again Russia will be charged. I see the first trial run being Iran being openly sued in world court. I see the charges successful. World opinion is being wound up to back financial action against Iran by the World Court. United Nations will have a new President come Jan 2017 and suddenly the ineffectual UN will be voiced up and given a world stage to condemn violence against citizens using Aleppo. History will be reinvented as if Russia did not save Europe with the bodies of her young men in WWII. Nothing will stop it as this campaign has been orchestrated for the last 20 years if not more.
This is the only way capitalism can survive. Create the enemy. Media outsize it. Catalogue the multitude of sins. Pontificate on a rubble heap of collapsed towers. Focus the anger. Channel it into court action by demonstrating the virtue of suing countries for scandalous tinkering to save a few dollars. THEN take Russia to court. The judgement will be in billions breaking her forever. Sanction her under a world court that sees only Russia villainy. Whether she is driven to war first is almost irrelevant. The world will have justice at the end of a court decision. Capitalism is left intact, people are reassured of the court's power, the fairness of the law will be reaffirmed, all will be right with the world.
How sad that now it does seem that the rebels, well armed thanks to a hidden hand, will be motivated to move into Libya still fragmented from the US invasion that shattered a living, functioning economy. Many's the slip twixt the cup and the lip.