Pentagon says Russia’s Syria airstrikes stabilize Assad government

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia’s campaign of airstrikes against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has stabilized Assad’s government, America’s top general said Wednesday, January 20, according to the New York Times.

That has probably given Assad a stronger hand to play next week, when negotiations toward a political solution to the conflict will begin in Geneva, American officials said.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Russia’s entry into the crowded battlefield had not changed how the American military was proceeding in Syria. He said the American-led coalition battling the Islamic State there and in Iraq had made significant gains, retaking an important dam on the Euphrates River and a large stretch of territory north of Raqqa, Syria, where the militant group has its stronghold.

While “there’s still freedom of movement between Mosul and Raqqa, current operations are designed to cut them,” General Dunford told reporters traveling with him to a meeting of the chiefs of staff of the militaries of NATO countries.

But the general also tacitly acknowledged that reaching a political solution in Syria may be an uphill battle because of Russia’s strengthening of the Assad government.

“It hasn’t changed the game for us,” the general said, adding that the Syrian government was “in a worse place before, and the regime is in a better place now.”

Because of the Russian airstrikes, General Dunford said, Assad has “regained some small amounts of ground” and has managed to consolidate control in some areas where his forces had previously been under siege from opposition groups, including some backed by the United States.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that so far, Russian airstrikes had killed 893 Islamic State fighters, but that they had also killed more than 1,000 civilians.