Obama sends more forces to Syria to build on gains over Islamic State

President Barack Obama announced on Monday the biggest expansion of U.S. ground troops in Syria since the civil war there began, saying he would dispatch 250 special forces soldiers to help local militia to build on successes against Islamic State.The new deployment increases U.S. forces in Syria six-fold to about 300. While the total U.S. ground force is still small by comparison to other American deployments, defense
experts said it could help shift the momentum in Syria by giving more Syrian fighters on the ground access to U.S. close air support.
Announcing the decision in Germany at the end of a six-day foreign tour, Obama said the move followed on victories over Islamic State that clawed back territory from the hard-line Sunni Islamist group.
"Given the success, I've approved the deployment of up to 250 additional U.S. personnel in Syria, including special forces to keep up this momentum," Obama said in a speech at a trade fair in the northern city of Hanover, the last stop on a trip that has taken him to Saudi Arabia and Britain.
"They're not going to be leading the fight on the ground, but they will be essential in providing the training and assisting local forces as they continue to drive ISIL back," he added, using an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

 The U.S. military has led an air campaign against Islamic State since 2014 in both Iraq and Syria, but the campaign's effectiveness in Syria has been limited by a lack of allies on the ground in a country where a complex, multi-sided civil war has raged for five years.
Russia launched its own air campaign in Syria last year, which has been more effective because it is closely coordinated with the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who is Moscow's ally but a foe of the United States.
CLOSE AIR SUPPORT
Washington's main allies on the ground have been a Kurdish force known as the YPG, who wrested control of much of the Turkish-Syrian border from Islamic State. The alliance is complex because U.S. ally Turkey is deeply hostile to the YPG.
“Presumably these are going to assist our Kurdish YPG friends to widen and deepen their offensive against IS in northeastern Syria,” Tim Ripley, defense analyst and writer for IHS Janes Defence Weekly magazine, said.
“You can provide more advisers to more units, to allow more units to receive close air support,” Ripley said, of the new U.S. deployment. “The more people you have, the more militia groups can have close air support that makes them more effective so they can advance in more areas.”


REUTERS

The students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, have dragged the university management led by Vice Chancellor Professor Rahmon Bello to the United Nations (UN), for suspending the activities of the University Of Lagos Students’ Union, ULSU.
The students’s Union had led a protest against the management over poor student’s welfare condition on campus. The students complained lack of power supply, water and infrastructure in their hostels.
Therefore, the management suspended the Student’s union over what it described as “violent protest”.
In reaction, the aggrieved students have now launched an online petition against the school management over its decision to suspend the students’ Union body
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