– Obama calls on Russia to focus on war against ISIS in Syria; international debate Assad
– French, Russia raids in Syria kill 33 ISIS militants; ISIS stiffens defenses in Raqqa
– Syria accused of attacks on medical facilities and personnel
– Turkey detains eight Europe-bound ISIS suspects ‘posing as refugees’
– Abadi orders an investigation into attacks on protesters 

Obama calls on Russia to focus on war against ISIS in Syria; international debate Assad

While France and Russia coordinate their military and security services against ISIS in Syria, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that Russia had to shift its focus from propping up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and concentrate on the war against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). Speaking just hours after President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible for blowing up a Russian airliner and intensified air strikes against militants in Syria, Obama said it was a fitting response. “If in fact he shifts his focus and the focus of his military to what is the principal threat – and that is ISIL (Islamic State) – that is something that we very much want to see,” Obama said. Also on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russia is not changing its plans in Syria as air strikes alone could not fully succeed in fighting ISIS; rather, it must be supported by land operations that are being conducted by the Syrian army. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that global powers should unite in the fight against terrorists without any preconditions on the fate of Assad. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo argued in favor of engaging with Assad to deal with the terror threat in Europe. [Reuters, WSJ, 11/18/2015]

French, Russia raids in Syria kill 33 ISIS militants; ISIS stiffens defenses in Raqqa
French and Russian air strikes in northern Syria have killed at least thirty-three ISIS fighters in the last 72 hours according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). France intensified strikes on Raqqa following last week’s attacks in Paris and Russia pounded Raqqa with long-range bombers and sea-launched missiles on Tuesday, after Moscow confirmed that a bomb attack brought down a Russian passenger jet over Egypt last month. SOHR head Abdel Rahman said, “The limited number of deaths can be explained by the fact that the jihadists had taken precautions.” Reports indicate that ISIS militants are stiffening their defenses for a possible assault on their de facto capital of Raqqa with fighters hiding in civilian neighborhoods and preventing anyone from fleeing. [AFP, BBC, AP, 11/18/2015]

Syria accused of attacks on medical facilities and personnel
A Physicians for Human Rights organization accused the Syrian government of flouting international law by killing health workers, bombing hospitals, and blocking lifesaving aid from entering opposition-held Aleppo in northern Syria. In a report released Wednesday, the group chronicled forty-five attacks on medical facilities in Aleppo since 2012, mostly by Syrian government forces. In related news, medical sources have reported that the birth rate in Syria has fallen by more than half since the start of the civil war. [NYT, AP, 11/18/2015]

Turkey detains eight Europe-bound ISIS suspects ‘posing as refugees’
Turkish police detained eight suspected members of ISIS, state media said Wednesday, adding they were planning to sneak into Europe posing as refugees. Counterterrorism police detained the suspects in Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after they flew in from the Moroccan city of Casablanca Tuesday. The police found a handwritten note on one of the suspects detailing a migration route from Istanbul to Germany via Greece, Serbia and Hungary, including smuggler boats across the Mediterranean Sea, and several overland journeys. The eight men told police that they were just tourists who had been planning to spend a few days in Istanbul and had booked rooms at a hotel, but no reservations were found under their names. In the United States, some US Republicans seek to freeze White House programs to resettle refugees, while President Barack Obama called this backlash against refugees a “potent recruitment tool for ISIL.”  [AFP, 11/18/2015]

Abadi orders an investigation into attacks on protesters
Prime Minister Haider Abadi has opened an investigation into reports that protesters were attacked by security forces on Monday. The Prime Minister said in a statement that Iraqis had the right to protest peacefully. The security forces broke up the protest near the Green Zone in central Baghdad and arrested and detained protesters for a brief period. Abadi has responded to ongoing Iraqi protests by attempting to pass reforms targeting corrupt officials within government and cutting ministers’ salaries. [Shafaq (Arabic), 11/17/2015]