Aircraft
Move of Russian Aircraft Carrier Adds Tension In Middle East
Airstrikes by Western forces help Iraq fight ISIS, but Syria becomes ever more complicated
The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov led a Russian naval task force toward Syria via the North Sea. (Norwegian MoD)
The aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov led a Russian naval task force toward Syria via the North Sea. (Norwegian MoD)

Two years after a U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes over Iraq and Syria, the long, bloody and costly effort to suppress ISIS continues. Success in Iraq is now more evident, as indigenous ground forces close on the second-largest city, Mosul. But the situation on the ground in Syria remains chaotic, amidst ceasefire failures and competing forces that oppose the Assad regime. The United Nations and the Western countries participating in Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) have condemned recent airstrikes on an aid convoy and Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo by the Syrian air force or by Russian warplanes already based in Syria and Iran as indiscriminate and even as war crimes. Russia has denied responsibility for the aid convoy attack, and says that it monitors—but does not control—Syrian air force activity.