The Syrian army is engaged in a "complicated" offensive to liberate the Syrian city of Palmyra from the Islamic State terrorists who overran the city last week. "We estimate that ISIL had over 1,800 militants in the attack. Less than 300 of them are locals but we are still on the outskirts of the city and once we regroup a substantial force things will begin to change," a Syrian army officer said at the Press TV's footage from the front line. On Sunday, the ISIS militants slaughtered 400 civilians, mostly women and children in the central Syrian city since it fell to the insurgents. The massacre came after the terrorists accused the victims of cooperating with the Syrian government and refusing to follow the orders of ISIS.
Comment: This is certainly one way to read Kerry and Nuland's visit to Sochi, and probably close to the truth. The peace overtures are just surface narrative designed to give Russians and others the impression that cooler heads are prevailing in Washington - when, in fact, the cooler heads - whoever they are - are either dupes of their own horrible thinking and manipulations, or, being maneuvered to seem tamed and docile by the rabid dogs of war, chaos and conquest who really run the show in the U.S. Or both.
See also: Surprised? US has launched a new assault against Russia