俄罗斯与西方国家就空袭叙利亚起冲突

AS IT IS 2015-10-08 Russia, Western Allies Clash Over Syria Bombing 俄罗斯与西方国家就空袭叙利亚起冲突

Russia’s defense¹ minister says four Russian warships² in the Caspian Sea launched rockets at Islamic State targets in Syria.

Russia has been bombing Syria for a week. But reports say Russia may now join the United States and Turkey on the air campaign.

American and other Western nations have said Russia has attacked Syrians who oppose the government of President Bashar al-Assad. They say Russia attacks the opposition³ to support Mr. Assad. They say the conflict in Syria will not end until Mr. Assad is ousted⁴.

Russia says it has attacked Islamic State fighters.

The Syrian Observatory⁵ for Human Rights reports on violence in Syria. It is based in Britain. It said Russian warplanes attacked the northern part of Hama and neighboring Idlib provinces on Wednesday. The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdurrahman, told VOA on Wednesday that there are no ISIS fighters in the areas that were bombed. 

Also Wednesday, a U.S.-trained rebel group told the Reuters news agency that Russian airstrikes had destroyed its main weapons storage area, in Aleppo. The group said Russian warplanes attacked its training camp in Idlib last week.

The Russian defense ministry⁶ said Russian and American defense experts would meet Wednesday to “coordinate⁷ actions in the fight against” Islamic State militants⁸ in Syria.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said representatives from the two countries met last week. He said Russia asked for the meeting.

Russian and Turkish officials have talked separately about working together to prevent clashes between Russian and Western warplanes over Syria.

U.S. Senator John McCain told Alhurra TV that he was very concerned about the recent entry into Turkish airspace by Russian warplanes. He has supported sending American troops to Iraq and Syria to fight Islamic State militants. He is a critic of President Barack Obama’s response to the conflict in Syria.

He said Russia is playing “a major role in the Middle East, and they’re achieving all of their objectives while we sit by and call it a quagmire⁹, or in the words of the Secretary of Defense, ‘unprofessional.’ ”

President Obama ordered American warplanes to strike Islamic State targets. They have struck more than 2,600 times in Syria and 4,600 times in Iraq.

The president has refused to send American troops into Iraq and Syria to attack the Islamic State terrorists. The policy of sending troops into battle on land is called “boots on the ground.”

Turkey said Russian warplanes have illegally entered its airspace twice. Russian officials said Russian planes entering Turkish airspace was a “mistake.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday that the entries by Russian warplanes into Turkish airspace do not look like a mistake. He said he would not “speculate on the motives,” but he said “this is a serious violation¹¹ of Turkish airspace, it should not happen again, and NATO has expressed strong solidarity¹² with Turkey.”

Words in This Story

coordinate – v. to make arrangements so that two or more people or groups of people can work together properly and well

achieve – v. to become successful; to reach a goal

objective – n. something you are trying to do or achieve; a goal or purpose

quagmire – n. a situation that is hard to deal with or get out of; a situation that is full of problems

speculate – v. to think about something and make guesses about it; to form ideas or theories about something usually when there are many things not known about it

motive¹⁰ – n. a reason for doing something

violation – n. the act of doing something that is not allowed by a law or rule

solidarity – n. a feeling of unity between people who have the same interests or goals

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 warships   

军舰，战舰( warship的名词复数 )； 舰只

参考例句：

• The enemy warships were disengaged from the battle after suffering heavy casualties. 在遭受惨重伤亡后，敌舰退出了海战。
• The government fitted out warships and sailors for them. 政府给他们配备了战舰和水手。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

5 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

7 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

8 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

9 quagmire   

n.沼地

参考例句：

• On their way was a quagmire which was difficult to get over.路上他俩遇到了—个泥坑,很难过得去。
• Rain had turned the grass into a quagmire.大雨使草地变得一片泥泞。

10 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

11 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

12 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。