Syrian Plane Shot Down as Attacks by Groups Intensify

The New York Times reports that Syria’s warring parties “have launched newly assertive attacks on several fronts in recent days, seeking to gain ground and psychological advantage ahead of an intensified United States campaign against extremist Islamic State militants that could include the first American airstrikes inside Syria.”

The paper says that on Tuesday, fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) said they had shot down a Syrian army plane over Raqqa, the Sunni militant group’s eastern stronghold, in what activists said was the first time ISIS had carried out such an attack on Assad’s military.

“Syrian-led insurgent groups have brought down numerous Syrian military planes and helicopters in the past, but such attacks have grown rare recently as rivals of the Islamic State struggle to maintain arms supplies,” it reports. “The downed plane crashed into a house, killing eight occupants.”

Dozens Killed in Strikes on Talbiseh

The BBC reports that nearly 50 people have been killed in a two-day government bombardment on the opposition-held town of Talibseh, in Homs province.

Six children and 12 rebel fighters were among the dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-backed monitoring group.

Meanwhile, the network also reports that “at least 34 children have died in another opposition-held area of Syria, reportedly after being given contaminated measles vaccinations. The main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, has launched an investigation and halted the vaccination program it was organizing in the northern province of Idlib.”

ISIS Spreading Out, Blending in Ahead of U.S. Attacks

Reuters reports that as the U.S. prepares airstrikes against ISIS in Syria, the group’s fighters have “gone underground” in the territory under their control.

In Raqqa, residents say ISIS “has been moving equipment every day since Obama signaled on Sept. 11 that air attacks on its forces could be expanded from Iraq to Syria,” the wire says.

“Islamic State activists who typically answer questions on the Internet have been offline since then … Facing U.S. air strikes in Iraq, ISIS fighters abandoned heavy weaponry that made them easy targets and tried to blend into civilian areas. In anticipation of similar raids in Syria, the group may already be doing the same.”