U.S./Israeli Air Strikes Hit Syria, ISIS Escalates Violence in Iraq

The pattern of U.S./Israeli attacks on Syria allegedly aimed at Iran, and a series of ISIS attacks in Iraq, point to an increasingly precarious situation in both countries. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week referred to information that Russia has been receiving from various sources that America is in the process of making a decision never to leave Syria and even break the country up. At the same time, Iraq has seen an escalation of violence perpetrated by the Islamic State, particularly in the region along the frontier between the Kurdish administered region and that under the jurisdiction of the government in Baghdad. ISIS bragged last week that it had conducted 15 operations over Feb. 18-25 including several attacks on the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), including an attack on Feb. 2 which killed 5 PMF members and another on Feb. 4 which killed 11, the Kurdish news service Rudaw reported yesterday.