Russian and Iranian forces are now being aided by Iraqi militias to defeat American-backed rebels in Syria,
The Daily Beast reports.
Those Shia militias — the Badr Brigade, Kata''ib Hezbollah, and the League of the Righteous — once successfully battled the Islamic State (ISIS).
Citing two defense officials, The Daily Beast says those groups are backed by Russian fighter jets and Iranian troops. All of them are backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Arab Army.
One U.S. official told The Daily Beast the development is not as troubling as believed.
"On our list of problems, one Badr brigade in Syria is way down there," one official told the website.
But earlier this week, Brett McGurk, President Barack Obama's special envoy to the coalition fighting the group in Syria and Iraq, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Russian airstrikes in and around the city of Aleppo against opponents of the Syrian regime are benefiting ISIS.
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