WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States escalated its fight against the Islamic State in Syria on Friday, pledging the first open deployment of military boots on the ground, even as U.S., Russian and other diplomats pressed a new peace effort that America hopes will hasten the departure of Bashar Assad.

Up to 50 special operations troops will be sent to assist Kurdish and Arab forces in northern Syria, American officials said. The move marks a significant departure for President Barack Obama, who for years has resisted putting ground forces in Syria even as he has gradually intensified the U.S. military response to what counterterrorism officials worry is a growing Islamic State threat in Syria and Iraq.

The troop announcement came as diplomats in Vienna representing 17 countries and the European Union agreed to launch a broad new peace attempt to gradually end Syria's long civil war — a declaration that avoided any determination on when President Assad might leave. It is not clear how many rebel groups would agree to a plan that doesn't result in Assad's immediate departure.

Any cease-fire agreement that may come as a result of the peace effort would not include the Islamic State, which controls large parts of northern Syria and has its capital there.

But the participation by Russia and Iran in the attempt could mark a new and promising phase in the diplomacy since those countries have staunchly backed Assad.

The White House has long said that Assad's ouster is essential to its ultimate goal of defeating the Islamic State because the Syrian president's brutal tactics against Sunni rebels have drawn Sunni radicals from all over the world into the militant group's ranks.

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The Syrian civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and uprooted more than 11 million, sparking a refugee crisis throughout Europe.

Despite killing as many as 12,000 militants, the U.S. bombing campaign has not significantly weakened the Islamic State's capacity to hold territory, and the group's ranks have been replenished by foreign fighters and others.

Military experts say ground troops are essential for the fight. A U.S. program to train Syrians was abandoned as a failure, and the new deployment essentially would replace that program.

Speaking to reporters flying with him on an overseas trip, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this would probably not be the last significant adjustment to the anti-IS military campaign in Syria and Iraq.

"We are going to continue to innovate, to build up what works," he said.

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White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady …

Friday's developments came as missiles slammed into a crowded suburb of the Syrian capital. The attack killed at least 40 people, activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees group said government forces fired more than 11 missiles at a market in the suburb of Douma.

In Washington, officials said the new U.S. forces will work from headquarters locations and won't move to the front lines or be used to call in airstrikes. However, the U.S. has conducted special operations raids into Syria before now and will continue to do more unilateral raids. It helped Iraqi forces rescue hostages last week, and Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler was killed, the first U.S. combat death in that country since 2011.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the new troops will not be on a "combat mission."

"There's no denying the serious risk they will be facing," Earnest said, but their mission will "not be to lead the charge to take the hill."

Russia and Syria are conducting airstrikes in the country, but Earnest said it was unlikely the U.S. troops would be at risk because Russia has not bombed in the area where they will be.

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On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers greeted the troop announcement with dismay.

It "marks a major shift in U.S. policy — a shift that is occurring without congressional debate (and) is unlikely to succeed in achieving our objective of defeating IS," said Sen. Brian Schatz.

On the other hand, Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the decision was "another insufficient step in the Obama administration's policy of gradual escalation."

One of the groups the U.S. troops will be working with is a Kurdish militia known as the YPG, which could pose a political problem for the United States.

The YPG was accused of war crimes in a recent report by Amnesty International, which documented allegations that the group forcibly displaced Arabs and Turkmen and burned down villages perceived as cooperating with its opponents. The group has denied the allegations and the State Department says it is looking into them.

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Carter declined to be specific about where the U.S. troops will operate in northern Syria but said they will be in territory controlled by Syrian Kurds.

"However, the Kurdish YPG and the Syrian Arab coalition essentially work together to counter ISIL," he said.

In Vienna on Friday, the U.S., Russia and more than a dozen other nations directed the U.N. to start a new diplomatic process between Syria's government and opposition groups with the goal of reaching a nationwide cease-fire and political transition — but without an explicit demand for Assad to quickly leave power.

American officials say the talks marked a significant new phase, one they hope is an endgame for Assad's reign.

At a joint news conference with Russia's top diplomat and the U.N. envoy to Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the countries — including fierce regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia — each pledged to support an independent and secular Syria, to maintain the country's institutions, to protect the rights of all Syrians and to strive to defeat the Islamic State.

Kerry said the U.N.-led process should lead to a new constitution for Syria and internationally supervised elections, as well as an end to violence between Assad's military and Sunni rebel groups so the world community can focus on the fight against the Islamic State.

But no agreement was reached on Assad.

"I did not say that Assad has to go or that Assad has to say," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said through an interpreter.

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Associated Press writers Ken Dilanian and Connie Cass in Washington, George Jahn in Vienna, Robert Burns in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.



U.S. to deploy forces to aid in Syria

The U.S. will send fewer than 50 special ops forces to serve as military advisers to fight the Islamic State.
Not a 'combat mission'

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group beheaded four Iraqi Kurdish fighters following a joint raid with American special forces against the jihadists, according to a video posted online.

The US-Kurdish operation last week, which freed some 70 people from an IS prison, deepened American involvement in the war against the jihadists and led to the first US combat fatality in Iraq since its 2011 withdrawal from the country.

The video sought to portray the operation as a failure, with speakers saying the attacking forces were unable to overcome numerically inferior jihadists and displaying used first aid supplies that were left behind.

It included images of areas said to have been hit by air strikes in the course of the operation, and ended with the execution of four men, said to be members of the Kurdish peshmerga security forces.

Four black-clad masked militants used knives to behead the men, who were dressed in orange jumpsuits and had their hands bound behind their backs.

It was not clear when the beheadings took place.

IS has seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a cross-border "caliphate", imposing its brutal interpretation of Islam and committing widespread atrocities.

A US-led coalition launched air strikes against the jihadists in August 2014, supporting Iraqi forces, including Kurdish fighters, in attempts to retake lost ground.

Jerusalem (AFP) - A 13-year-old Palestinian appeared in court Friday, charged with attempted murder over the stabbing and serious injury of two Israeli schoolboys in occupied east Jerusalem, the Israeli justice ministry said.

The incident, on October 12, involved not only Ahmed Manasra, but his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, who was shot dead after the second attack.

The two had left school and talked "about the situation at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, that of the residents of Gaza, about the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and decided to become martyrs... and to stab Jews", a ministry statement said.

They allegedly went home, got knives, headed to the Jewish settlement of Pisgat Zeev and stabbed a young ultra-Orthodox Jew twice before he managed to escape.

They then accosted a 12-year-old who was on his bicycle, stabbing him four times, before running away.

Ahmed was hit by a car as they fled, and Hassan shot dead by Israeli security forces when he allegedly threatened them with a knife.

Israel, Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories have been gripped by a surge of violence, with nine Israelis killed in a spate of knifings and shootings this month.

Sixty-three Palestinians and one Israeli Arab have also been killed.

Tensions soared over the status of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to change the rules that allow Muslims to pray there, but not non-Muslims.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied those claims.

As the case against more than 100 bikers allegedly involved in a deadly gunfight in Waco, Texas, moves forward, a series of videos, apparently leaked from the case file, are giving a terrifying new look at the violent brawl that had both suspected gang members and innocent bystanders ducking for cover.

On May 17, members of as many as five rival biker gangs gathered at the Twin Peaks Restaurant to discuss their differences, Waco police said at the time.

A fistfight that erupted quickly, escalating to include knives and firearms, then spilled into the parking lot in the Central Texas Market Place, where gang members began firing at each other. Nine suspected gang members were killed and 18 people were hospitalized mostly for gunshot and stab wounds, police said.

In one video, the gunfire erupts just off camera. Some bikers can be seen grabbing guns while others hit the floor and crawl to safety. One surveillance camera catches a biker firing a shot toward the parking lot as he runs inside the restaurant.

The videos also show terrified Twin Peaks restaurant workers running for cover. Minutes later, the video shows a parade of bikers surrendering with their hands up.

Officers were already at the scene when the shooting started, authorities said at the time, and responded within 30 to 45 seconds. Some officers returned fire at the bikers. No officers were injured, police said. Police said that once the restaurant was cleared, they found hundreds of weapons -- from guns to batons and knives -- hidden in sacks of flour, bags of tortilla chips and tucked beneath benches.

The videos, which were obtained by CNN, appear to be part of the evidence against the more than 170 bikers arrested that day. Waco police said today that they had not released the surveillance video.

The grand jury in Waco is currently hearing all the cases against the bikers. Police and prosecutors said they worried that the video leak could affect the outcome.

Leaked video captures deadly Waco biker shootout

Emergency services work outside a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania October 31, 2015. REUTERS/Inquam Photos

By Radu-Sorin Marinas

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A fire in a Bucharest nightclub killed 27 people and injured 184 during a rock concert that featured fireworks late on Friday, Romanian government officials and witnesses said.

In one of the capital's worst disasters in decades, about 400 people, mostly young adults, stampeded for the only available exit as the club in the basement of a Communist-era sport-shoe factory filled with smoke.

Several witnesses said there were fireworks inside the club. Colectiv Club's Facebook page said the show would feature pyrotechnic effects.

Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat said 17 of the 27 dead had yet to be identified and that 146 people remained in hospital.

"Unfortunately, the death toll may change taking into account the severity of their injuries," he said after an emergency meeting early on Saturday.

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People walk outside a nightclub following an explosion in Bucharest, Romania October 31, 2015. REUT …

A pillar covered with foam panels and the club's ceiling went up in flames and then there was an explosion and heavy smoke, the witnesses said. Many people admitted to hospitals had suffered burn and smoke inhalation injuries or were trampled.

TV footage showed police officers and paramedics trying to resuscitate young people lying on the pavement while sirens wailed with more ambulances deployed to the scene.

"There was a stampede of people running out of the (Colectiv) club," a man who escaped without shoes told Reuters.

A young woman who was released from the hospital after minor injuries described the club bursting into flames.

"In five seconds the whole ceiling was all on fire. In the next three, we rushed to a single door," she told television station Antena 3.

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Emergency services work outside a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania October 31, 2015. REUTERS/Inquam P …

Deputy Prime Minister Gabriel Oprea said a criminal investigation into the causes of the incident was already under way, and the health minister launched a public appeal for blood donations.

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement: "I want to assure you of all support from rescuing forces and ask you to trust they put all efforts to limit the impact of this catastrophe."

The government said it would declare three days of national mourning later on Saturday.

Some of the deadliest nightclub disasters in the world were started by fireworks.

In the southern Brazilian college town of Santa Maria in 2013, a musician lit an outdoor flare inside the Kiss nightclub and started a fire that killed at least 241 people, investigators said.

Fireworks were also blamed for nightclub fires in Russia’s Perm that killed 156 people in 2009 and in Argentina’s Buenos Aires in 2004 that killed 194.

(Reporting by Radu Marinas; Additional reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Susan Thomas)

Explosion in Bucharest nightclub kills 27