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Russian President Vladimir Putin Meets Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Kremlin

Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Russian President Vladimir Putin Meets Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Kremlin

Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Syrian President Bashar Assad, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin met President Bashar Assad of Syria in the Kremlin, video distributed by the Kremlin press service on Thursday showed.
“I am very interested in your opinion on how the situation in the region as a whole is developing,” Putin said to Assad. “Unfortunately, there is a tendency towards escalation, we can see that. This also applies directly to Syria.”
The Kremlin said Putin and Assad's meeting took place Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
Putin and Assad last met in March 2023 in the Kremlin on the anniversary of Syria’s 12-year uprising-turned-civil war. At that meeting, Putin emphasized the Russian military’s role in stabilizing the country.
Russia has waged a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, teaming up with Iran to allow Assad’s government to fight armed opposition groups and reclaim control over most of the country. While Russia now concentrates the bulk of its military resources in Ukraine, it has maintained a military foothold in Syria and keeps troops at its bases there.
“Considering all the events that are taking place in the world as a whole and in the Eurasian region today, our meeting today seems very important," Assad told Putin via a Russian translator.

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Iraqi Forces Kill ISIS ‘Deputy Ruler’ of Kirkuk

A joint force of the Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces searches for ISIS members in the Nineveh province. (AFP)
A joint force of the Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces searches for ISIS members in the Nineveh province. (AFP)
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Iraqi Forces Kill ISIS ‘Deputy Ruler’ of Kirkuk

A joint force of the Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces searches for ISIS members in the Nineveh province. (AFP)
A joint force of the Iraqi army and Popular Mobilization Forces searches for ISIS members in the Nineveh province. (AFP)

Iraqi forces launched a military operation to eliminate remaining ISIS cells in the Zaghitoun Valley, located between the Kirkuk and Saladin governorates.

The Joint Operations Command said in a statement that airstrikes killed ISIS’ deputy ruler of Kirkuk Maher Hamad Salbi (Abu Obaida) and six of his associates in the Hamrin mountains.

The statement added that Iraqi F-16 jets targeted a key hideout of the militants, who had attempted to attack the forces carrying out the mission.

A special forces unit, with technical support from the Joint Operations Command’s Targeting Cell, reached the site with assistance from Kirkuk Operations Command's engineering efforts.

“A security force arrived at the scene and found an M16 rifle, a thermal scope, two hand grenades, a suicide belt, four ammunition magazines, six mobile phones, a flash drive, a solar panel, and bedding,” the statement added.

The team returned safely after completing the mission.

The statement said security forces surrounded a complex of caves and hideouts in the Hamrin mountains for five days, using precise intelligence to successfully eliminate the remaining ISIS members.

An official source stated that “security forces from the Kirkuk Operations Command launched a large-scale military operation on Friday morning in the Zaghitoun Valley, west of Kirkuk, near Saladin.”

The operation aims to remove ISIS cells in the valley, which has been used by the group as a hideout and occasionally sees terrorist activity. The operation includes destroying ISIS hideouts and cutting off escape routes.

Although the Iraqi government declared ISIS defeated in 2017, the group remains active in remote areas, still posing a security threat. The UN estimates the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria at between 1,500 and 3,000.