The U.S. to Offer Russia Military Pact for Syria

The U.S. is bringing a military proposal to Russia that would see the two nations work together against ISIS and al-Qaida in Syria, according to a leaked U.S. proposal.

The Washington Post obtained the eight-page leaked document that shows the U.S. proposing that Washington and Moscow “work together to defeat” the two extremist groups, according to the Associated Press. The proposal calls for joint bombing operations and a joint command-and-control headquarters.

The document leak comes just as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is travelling to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kerry declined to comment on the proposal, but said he and Putin would be discussing the document.

“I’m going to Moscow, meeting with President [Vladimir] Putin tonight,” Kerry told reporters in Paris. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it and I’ll give you all a sense of where we are.”

ISIS Claims it Downed a Syrian Plane, Announces Death of Top Commander

ISIS claimed on Thursday that it had shot down a Syrian government plane and killed its pilot, according to the Associated Press.

The militant group’s media wing released video footage of the plane allegedly being shot down over the eastern Deir Ezzor province and showed what it claimed was the body of the pilot. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported on Thursday that ISIS had downed a government plane near the Deir Ezzor military airport.

ISIS made a second announcement on Thursday, declaring the death of its top military commander Abu Omar al-Shishani. The group’s militants made the announcement in their de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa and promised to avenge their leader’s death.

According to the militants, Shishani died from injuries sustained by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Mosul, Iraq. The military commander was already injured from a coalition airstrike in March in the northern Syrian province of Hassakeh, where 11 other militants were killed in the attack on an ISIS convoy.

The U.S. said it was working to confirm Shishani’s death, according to CNN.

The Battle for Aleppo Continues Despite Cease-Fire

Airstrikes continue to hit Aleppo despite a nationwide cease-fire that remains in effect until 1 a.m. local time on Friday.

At least 20 airstrikes targeted Aleppo city on Thursday, including several barrel bomb attacks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least three civilians were killed in the aerial bombardments and a number of others were injured.

The battle for Aleppo escalated quickly over the last week, when forces allied with the Syrian government blocked off Castello Road, the only supply route into the city’s eastern opposition-held areas.

Some 300,000 civilians are still in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, without access to much-needed humanitarian supplies, as fighting has made it impossible for aid convoys to reach the city, the United Nations said earlier this week.

Recommended Reads:

• Agence France Presse: In Syria’s Tartus, Displaced Work Fields of Farmers at War
• New York Times: Why the U.S. Military Can’t Fix Syria
• OpenDemocracy: The Persistence of Elite Control in Syria
• The Wall Street Journal: Syria’s Aleppo Running Out of Food, Medicine After Regime Forces Advance
• NBC News: Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad Speaks to NBC News