Pamela Engel

One day after launching a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, Russia announced that it was considering going into Iraq.

A foreign ministry representative said Thursday that Russia would consider any request from Iraq to conduct anti-ISIS airstrikes in the country, and Iraqi President Haider al-Abadi told Western news outlets that Russian airstrikes were "a possibility" and that Iraq would "welcome it."

"Our message to the Russians — I met with Putin — please join this fight against Daesh," Abadi told PBS NewsHour, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Daesh, as well as the Islamic State, is another name for the ISIS militant group.

Pamela Engel

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has given an explanation for how the government is deciding where it conducts airstrikes in Syria.

Dmitry Peskov said Russia was targeting ISIS and "other groups," telling reporters: "These organizations are well known and the targets are chosen in coordination with the armed forces of Syria."

The "armed forces of Syria" fight on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who the US has said must step aside if the militant group ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) is to be defeated.

And as the Associated Press notes, the Assad regime considers all of the president’s opponents to be terrorists.

Experts have said Russia’s prime concern is propping up the Assad regime against nationalist rebels and maintaining its influence in the region rather than stomping out extremists.

Russia started bombing targets on Wednesday, avoiding ISIS strongholds and instead going after areas held by other rebels who are fighting the Assad regime. Airstrikes hit areas near Homs and Hama.

By: Julian Pecquet, Congressional Correspondent for Al-Monitor
Al-Monitor

Tiny Lebanon is seeing its fortunes surge on Capitol Hill as fear of the Islamic State (IS) supplants any lingering concerns about Hezbollah.

Congress over the past year has approved more than $1 billion in proposed arms sales for the Lebanese armed forces, including attack aircraft and helicopters. And lawmakers on Sept. 29 cemented Beirut’s status as a key ally with the release of a compromise annual defense bill that puts Lebanon on equal footing with longtime partner Jordan.

30 September 2015 – Holding up a photograph at the podium of the General Assembly of three-year old Aylan lying face down on a Turkish beach – the Syrian boy who drowned at the beginning of the month along with his mother and brother – the President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon reiterated his country’s call to all powers in the world to “end the ongoing massacres.”

“The whole world contemplated with horror his 3-year-old body washed ashore to his eternal rest,” Prime Minister Tammam Salam told world leaders. “His tragedy sums up the prevailing fundamental human rights in our region.”

He said the picture describes the story of “tormented people, drifting in the seas to nowhere, jam packed on the sidewalks in cities and train stations, waiting for a permission, a visa or simply a meal.”

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM),

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Inquisitr reported Todenhöfer, a former MP with Angela Merkel’s CDU party, spent 10 harrowing days on the ISIS frontline. He "dodged bullets" while being chauffeured by the notorious video executioner "Jihadi John," also known as Mohammed Emwazi.

"The terrorists plan on killing several hundred million people," he wrote. "The west is drastically underestimating the power of ISIS." Todenhöfer was reportedly only allowed to get close to ISIS because of his reputation as an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This project was opposed by my family for seven months. My son ultimately accompanied me – against my will. He meant to protect me. And he filmed there."

AP, By ZEINA KARAM and DAN PERRY

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria has already been shattered by more than four years of civil war, and with no solution in sight, some players on the ground and observers outside have concluded its fate will be to break up along sectarian or regional lines — in a best-case scenario, tenuously held together by a less centralized state.

A true partition would risk yet more mayhem, including ethnic or sectarian cleansing and battle over every bend in the border. But so spectacular is Syria’s disaster that many wonder whether its disparate groups can share a unifying national sentiment again.

Reuters

Lebanese security forces arrested 40 Palestinians on Wednesday as they tried to leave by boat from the northern city of Tripoli for a journey toward Europe, the National News Agency said.

The group, which included men and women, was aiming to reach Germany and had come from the large, long-established Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon’s south, NNA said. The boat’s owner was also detained.

There was no immediate comment from Lebanese justice authorities, but it is an offense to enter Tripoli’s port area without a security clearance or ferry ticket.

By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief Gulf News, Manama: Lebanon’s cabinet has distanced itself from statements by Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah, that Bahrain condemned as blatant interference in its domestic affairs. Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, stressed on “Lebanon’s commitment to better bilateral relations with Bahrain, and all states in the Gulf Cooperation Council”, […]

Associated Press, BEIRUT –  A special U.N.-backed tribunal on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has fined the manager of a local TV station for not removing information about identities of confidential witnesses in the long-running probe. The Netherlands-based court ruled in August that Al-Jadeed TV’s deputy director, Karma Khayat, was guilty […]