Up to 400,000 may have been killed in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Iraq also continues to be in chaos because of the war against ISIS there. Please pray for an end to the awful war going on in these countries and that all parties to the conflict within the region and outside of it will come together to make peace. Pray especially that Russia and the USA will come to agreement about securing a cease-fire. Pray for those in the war zones, especially families and their children that they will be protected from being used as fighters and suicide bombers.

Russia-U.S. officials to meet over Syria deal. 

Militarytimes.com reports the U.S. and Russia will try to reach a deal that stops the Syrian civil war and forge a new counterterrorism partnership… Officials hope to secure a cease-fire between Syria’s government and rebels and a new U.S.-Russian agreement could allow for sharing intelligence and coordinating military operations to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates.   The Geneva meeting comes as fierce fighting continues in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and as Russian bombers continue to operate from an Iranian air base. 

U.S.-Russia still don’t agree on Syria.  Defense News reports the U.S. and Russia have yet to finalize an agreement on coordinated efforts in Syria, said the Pentagon spokesman.  “Contrary to recent claims, we have not finalized plans with Russia on potential coordinated efforts.  Serious issues must first be resolved before we can implement the steps discussed in Moscow last month,” the spokesman said.

ISIS turns more to children to kill. 

The Washington Post reports there is growing evidence ISIS is turning to children to kill.  The Post begins its report with the apprehension of a young boy in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk found to be wearing a suicide belt.  That apprehension was broadcast Monday on Kurdish television stations showing the dramatic moments as security officials stripped the boy of his explosives-laden belt, the latest in a series of alarming reports about the use of children as suicide bombers.  Most notably late Saturday in southeastern Turkey at least 50 people were killed when a child suicide bomber blew up himself and others at a wedding.  Earlier this year in March a suicide bomber no older than 16 struck at a youth soccer match in the Iraqi village of Asriya, killing 43 people.  Evidently as the numbers of ISIS fighters diminish the extremist group turns more to what it calls “cubs of the caliphate,” as ISIS labels its child fighters, to fill the gap.  “This is a product of ISIS’s investment in children,” said Hassan Hassan, the co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, and resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.  “The second generation of ISIS is already happening.  When they need them, they can call on them.”

Robert Maginnis