(Reuters) Jonathan Landay - Moscow's military force in Syria has grown to 4,000, but this and more than a month of Russian air strikes have not led to pro-government forces making significant territorial gains, U.S. security officials and independent experts said. Yet Washington has had little success as well in affecting the conflict after targeting Islamic State in more than a year of air strikes. A U.S. defense official said Russian aircraft are now operating out of four bases, but multiple rocket launcher crews and long-range artillery batteries are deployed outside the facilities. "They have a lot of people outside the wire," he said. Government ground offensives have failed to make significant advances, experts said. A key factor appears to be significant losses by pro-government forces of tanks and other armored vehicles to U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missiles that Saudi Arabia has been supplying to the anti-Assad rebels.
2015-11-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive