Assad Wins Strategic Victories Ahead of Vienna Talks

Syrian state television broadcast the capture of a strategic town on Thursday near the Damascus–Aleppo highway, marking Bashar al-Assad’s second key victory in less than two days as global powers prepare to meet in Vienna to discuss political solutions in Syria.

Government troops, supported by fighters from Iran and Hezbollah, are now in “full control” of al-Hader, a town just 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Aleppo and a former stronghold for opposition forces, AFP reports.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, confirmed the government’s takeover of al-Hader, which had previously been controlled by al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, al-Nusra Front, and other allied Islamist factions.

“The town is the biggest headquarters for rebel forces in southern Aleppo, and capturing it would bring the army closer to the key Aleppo–Damascus highway,” Abdulrahman said. “Today’s advance is the most important strategic advance for Syrian regime forces since the Russians began their airstrikes.”

Government forces on Tuesday retook control of the Kweiris military base near Aleppo, breaking a siege imposed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants on the base since 2013.

U.S. to Cripple ISIS-Controlled Oil Fields in Syria

U.S. officials said this week that Washington and its allies have increased airstrikes targeting ISIS-controlled oil fields across eastern Syria, the New York Times reports.

Despite the coalition’s periodic strikes on ISIS oil refineries in Syria over the past year, the jihadist group’s engineers have apparently been able to quickly repair any damage, allowing one of the group’s main sources of revenue to continue unabated.

U.S. defense secretary Ashton B. Carter has called ISIS’s oil exports “a critical pillar of the financial infrastructure” of the group, generating nearly $40 million a month ($500 million a year) according to estimates by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The stated goal of the operation, set to take place over the next several weeks, is to destroy eight major oil fields – about two-thirds of the refineries controlled by the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

“We intend to shut it all down,” Col. Steven H. Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told the New York Times via email.

U.S.–Russia Tensions Rise Ahead of Meeting in Vienna

Russia has accused the U.S. of commandeering preparatory talks ahead of this weekend’s meeting in Vienna during which 20 nations will discuss political means to end the violence in Syria.

Although U.S. officials have denied the charge, saying Russia did not show up, the argument highlights rising tensions between two of the most powerful players at the table in Vienna, the Associated Press reports.

Although the U.S., Russia, Iran and more than a dozen other countries agreed during the first set of talks in Vienna on October 30 to begin a new round of peace efforts involving the Syrian government and opposition groups, major differences regarding the future role, if any, of Bashar al-Assad threaten to bring the talks to a standstill.

Recommended Reads

• The Daily Beast: Inside Iran’s Secret War in Syria
• Financial Times: Friend or Foe: Syria Summit Faces Tough Choices
• Reuters: The State of Play in the Syria Talks (Round 58692)
• Slate: Obama Has to Make Some Very Tough Calls on Syria, and Soon
• NPR: International Leaders Approach Diplomatic Puzzle in New Syria Talks

Top image: Syrian army personnel fire a cannon in Latakia province in Syria on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, about 12 miles from the border with Turkey. (Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP)