US and Arab allies launch strikes on fighters in Syria

[BEIRUT] The United States and its Arab allies bombed Syria for the first time on Tuesday, killing scores of Islamic State fighters and members of a separate Al Qaeda-linked group, opening a new front against militants by joining Syria's three-year-old civil war.

In a remarkable sign of shifting Middle East alliances, the attacks took place with no objection - and even signs of tacit approval - from President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government, which said W…