US raids have failed to weaken ISIL -Syria

The Syrian government has criticised US-led air
strikes in Syria for failing to weaken the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), as Damascus
called on Turkey to do more to stop the armed
group.
Syria’s foreign minister said in a interview on

Friday that he was willing to work with
any country to tackle ISIL but that unless Turkey
tightened its border controls, the group would
not be stopped.
“All the indications say that [ISIL] today, after
two months of coalition air strikes, is not
weaker,” Walid Muallem said in an interview with
Al Mayadeen TV.
“If the Security Council and Washington do not
force Turkey to control its borders then all of this
action will not eliminate [ISIL].”
Turkey, which has a porous 900km border with
Syria, has strongly denied accusations it allows
fighters cross into Syria to joing the war against
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of foreign fighters are believed to
have joined ISIL in its self-proclaimed caliphate,
after it seized large areas of eastern Syria and
western Iraq.
US-led coalition jets have carried out hundreds
of strikes against ISIL positions in Syria since
September, mainly near the besieged town of
Kobane, as it aims to roll back gains by the
group.
The Syrian civil war, which began three and a
half years ago as an uprising against Assad’s
regime has killed an estimated 200,000 people,
with the UN and rights groups repeatedly urging
Damascus to refrain from targeting civilian
areas.

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