Embattled Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad left his war-torn country for the first time in years on Tuesday to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close ally propping up his regime, in Moscow.
Russia's increased military support for Bashar al-Assad, which in recent weeks has expanded to a campaign of airstrikes, has not significantly improved the dictator's strategic outlook in the Syrian civil war, the U.S. intelligence community believes.
A high-ranking Cuban general, who also serves as Havana's defense minister, recently visited Syria to help support Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war, in which the dictator's forces are fighting both rebel groups and the ISIS terror organization.
Russian security forces said on Monday that militants trained by the ISIS terror group had planned to strike Moscow's public transport system, but police forces successfully prevented the plot.
Militants from the Islamic terror group ISIS are encroaching on Aleppo, Syria's largest city, and have already taken control of large parts of homonymous province surrounding the highly symbolic locale.
Russian forces intervened in Syria's civil war for the first time on Wednesday as Moscow's fighter jets struck targets near the city of Homs, U.S. government sources said.
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad can continue to count on military support from Moscow, as Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted the aid was needed "to counter terrorist aggression."
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro promised on Monday that his country would offer asylum to up to 20,000 refugees fleeing from the civil war in Syria.
Violence flared up at the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday after a Hezbollah missile attack killed two soldiers, the. The Lebanese militants apparently launched the devices in retaliation for a deadly airstrike attributed to Israel, which had claimed the lives of six of their fighters in the occupied Golan Heights earlier this month.
The fate of two Japanese hostages held by the Islamist terror group ISIS was unclear on Friday after a deadline to pay ransom for their release had passed. The "Islamic State, which controls large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, had demanded $200 million to free them.
Syrian President Bashar Assad will remain in power for another seven-year term in the middle of a devastating 3-year-old secatarian war being that the controversial leader was re-elected in a landslide victory, officials annouced on Wednesday.
The U.N. announced Sunday that Syria missed its self-imposed deadline to eradicate chemical weapons, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced that he will run for a third term in office.
