Russia has had an active role in the latest Syrian conflict since 2011, training Assad's troops with counter terrorism advisors and special forces. Russia has also had several armored vehicles and ships stationed at a medium-sized naval base that they have leased since 1971 in the southern city of Tartus . The build up in Latakia marks a major escalation. The Russians are growing their footprint in Syria by establishing a forward air-operating base. They moved rapidly and impressively, resurfaced portions of the air base, and are currently building new barracks to house up to 1,500 soldiers and helicopter landing pads, as pictured below, at the Bassel Al-Assad International Airport.

Putin still denies that any Russian troops are engaging in direct combat, but recently there have been videos posted on social media that show Russian troops fighting alongside Assad's army. There has been a claim by a Syrian militant group that they have already attacked the Russian airbase with rocket artillery “We declare that we are targeting the Bassel airport that has been turned into a Russian base,” said a masked fighter in a video.

A newly surfaced video shows Russian troops fighting alongside Assad’s Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in Latakia, Syria. A T-55 tank fires at a supposed rebel hilltop position with visible impact.

During a congressional hearing to examine whether or not CENTCOM doctored intelligence reports to make the war on ISIL look more successful than it was, some truths were revealed. There are U.S. Special Operation units in Syria fighting ISIL alongside the Kurds. It was revealed that after months of training moderate rebels to battle Assad's army and ISIL, only a handful remain alive after hundreds of millions of dollars were spent on the program. It was an absolute failure and a half hearted one at that.

U.S. Special Forces coordinating with villagers in Iraq, 14 miles from the Syrian border.

It has become apparent that whenever the U.S. and its coalition members take down a middle eastern strongman, the region goes into further disarray and actually produces havens for a cancer like ISIL to freely set up bases of operations, as evident in Libya, where ISIL now acts without contention. Subsequently, the U.S. has only bombed ISIL targets in Syria and not Assad's assets. It might be a sign the administration is finally learning. As Secretary John Kerry told reporters just today “We’re prepared to negotiate. Is Assad prepared to negotiate, really negotiate? Is Russia prepared to bring him to the table and actually find the solution to this violence?”