Syria in 2016 (January-March)

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.......the tones coming out of Turkey are getting sharper by the hour....

Al Arabiya English ✔ @AlArabiya_Eng
#Breaking Turkey's Erdogan: Russia must be held accountable for killings in Syria -Dogan
http://ara.tv/256qv

[OUTLAW 09]

.@TheStudyofWar shows how Russia/Iran have brought Assad w/in 5 miles of encircling Aleppo
http://read.bi/1Qic2fc
pic.twitter.com/8elLISg7Zv

CrowBat.......hear anything about this previously......????
This went 0 to Nazi real quick. Then again, what did I expect from a group called "European solidarity". Salma today
pic.twitter.com/jOg6kzaAWB

Syria: Russian warplane used illegal cluster bombs in last nights terror attack on Talbiseh
https://youtu.be/iTa1Z5wloqU
pic.twitter.com/dmFQegtTFg

Humor.........
Assad says #Syria will make a great #tourist destination after he's killed all the civilians
pic.twitter.com/golKYg6xMP

Grim days ahead for civilians in Aleppo: "The Assad regime has a clear devastation and depopulation strategy." http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/the-worst-is-yet-to-come-for-syrias-largest-city?utm_term=.doNWxWvyn#.mwM0z07Mk …

[OUTLAW 09]

Photos and names of 24 Iranians #IRGC who have been killed since 1 Feb in northern Aleppo, Syria.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Iranian non linear warfare are intertwined........

In Obama's world this is what one expects.

Khamenei adviser #Velayati after meeting #Putin: Only #Iran & #Russia are able to create New #World #Order of stability, peace and security

[OUTLAW 09]

bellingcat
‏@bellingcat How we identified the location Caesar's Assad torture victims photographs were taken
https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/case-studies/2015/03/18/3062/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.......the tones coming out of Turkey are getting sharper by the hour....

Al Arabiya English ✔ @AlArabiya_Eng
#Breaking Turkey's Erdogan: Russia must be held accountable for killings in Syria -Dogan
http://ara.tv/256qv

Saudi coalition spox Asiri: There are 20 Arab and Islamic countries that would unite their forces for training and preparation for the fight

Saudi Arabia is moving to hold military exercises in March in preparation for possible assault on IS-held locations in #Syria.

NOTICE that Turkey is in this mix....wonder if Putin, Assad and Khamenei have noticed...

Now comes the true sectarian fight...not the Iranian/Assad/Russia proxy fighting...

[CrowBat]

NOTICE in the video the AFG Shia mercenaries fighting in Alleppo recruited by IRGC are celebrating Khomeini NOT Assad/Putin.....
As pro-Assad forces celebrate their latest victories, countless refugees flee to Turkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_J8dCEC8w&feature=youtu.be …
Mind: as next, we'll hear all the possible stories about 'high effectiveness of Russian air power in Syria' etc.

Asking insurgent sources it turns out there's still none. Their casualties reported so far are actually 'minimal'. And, sure: it's too early to know all the details or talk about totals.

But, what is available indicates that it's not something like 'Russian precision' that would be murderous or something. It's the sheer number of bombs they're dropping.

It's like when Luftwaffe bombed Sedan on 13 May 1940, or USAF carpet-bombed the 21st Panzer Division and the 1st SS Panzer-Corps in Caen area with 600 bombers, in July 1944: casualties were minimal (all together, perhaps a battalion in total), but it was sheer shock that was decisively massive. French troops couldn't raise their heads for hours, and when they did, their nerves were 'finished'. They began running away. When the first run away, the rest saw them running away and began running away too. When officers began asking why are all the troops running away, troops began babbling about 100 German tanks, then 1000 German tanks, then 10,000 German tanks - although there was not a single German tank on the western side of Sedan until the next morning (military historians often talk about Sadan of 1940 as the biggest victories of both, the Luftwaffe and Panzerwaffe - but especially the latter, and especially because not one German tank was involved).... Similar in 1944: although really battle-hardened by then, entire German units were so bedazzled by US bombardment, all the artillery and cannons on tanks had to be re-synchronised etc.: it was really so that entire divisions were 'out of order for days' alone from the shock of massive bombardment, although they've lost minimally.

...plus, high-intensity carpet-bombing (even if 'by only' 4-6 bombs per single Sukhoi) is combined with SS-21-strikes: it seems that these are much more effective than air strikes.

On the ground... when I ask insurgent contacts, they complain about numbers, not about firepower or else. They say regime troops are neither better supplied or anything else, but there are so many of them.

So it seems the IRGC is rushing 'thousands' of Afghan Hazaras into assaults and doesn't care about their loses.

Hand on heart: who cares about 400-500 Afghan refugees from Iran killed somewhere between Rityan and Zahra the last four days?

Nobody cared about millions of Afghans that fled to Iran already from Soviets in the 1980s...

Sure, from time to time their IRGC officers are killed too: for Tehran, they're just a good PR-show, and a very cheap price for gains in return.

Cummulative effect is: constant bombardment is stressing nerves, massive quantitative superiority of the IRGC on the ground - even more so. Just for example: the 13th Division FSyA might have lost but 20 combatants the last four days; they are sure they've killed up to 500 in return (this is likely to be exaggerated, but even if not: we'll never know because the battlefield is not under their control any more). But all of this was in vain...

************

Another piece of news - especially important in regards of increasing Russo-Turkish tensions - can be seen on this video showing a VKS Su-35S at Hmemmem AB:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjHMaIOsDKc

Pay attention at inboard pylons - carrying AKU-170 launch rails and R-77 (aka RVV-AD, aka 'AA-12') ARH MRAAMs.

That is 'big news', sort of. The only question is: where and when has the VKS got any R-77s, then last they ever reported about them was about a contender to buy some, back in August last year...

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian, Iranian and Chinese non linear warfare requires from this US administration a clear and concisely stated strategic CUW strategy....there is simply none and none will be forth coming as this is the weakest FP President in 70 years abd he is racing to save his legacy ending in 12 months.

Kerry is a disaster......no when he basically dictates to the HNC they are to simply surrender to end the killing of Syrians who are actually being killed by Assad genocide, starvation and Russian bombs.......BUT when they point to the UNSC resolutions they are told "no preconditions".

Remember the Syrian opposition in 2011 stood up against a 50 year rule of a dictator family and demanded the rule of law, transparency and good governance.....AND for Obama and Kerry since when are these "pre conditions"???? In return they got genocide and starvation and what did they get from Obama ...absolutely nothing so what civil society in any nation state living under the same conditions is ever going to expect the US to do anything...other than "preach a faade" as that is what we are seeing out of this WH.....

BUT when the Russian FM Lavrov states the following THEN Kerry and Obama caves to the "pre conditions" NOTICE they say nothing.

SINCE when has US FP become the exact copy of the Russian FP???

Sad is not exactly the right word for this total failure of US global leadership.......having a 80 plus year old traveling to talk to Putin is a farce.

Kerry: "We're discussing new ideas to make ceasefire work"
Lavrov: "Close Turkish-Syrian border is a key condition to make ceasefire work"

[OUTLAW 09]

Putin's aggressive military actions in Syria has been done before in Georgia 2008 and in Chechnya

Feb.5, 2000 #Russia'n special troops massacred 82 civilians in #Chechnya's town #Aldy. #Memorial's graphic footage.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lndgEDrenQ …

[OUTLAW 09]

America's backwards Syria policy: "Simply nefarious."
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/05/obamas-disastrous-betrayal-of-the-syrian-rebels/?utm_content=buffer8b9c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer …

It is not only me complaining about the total failure of US FP......and I am a simple American sitting in Berlin watching a disaster unfold in both eastern Ukraine and Syria due to the lack of coherent, clear and concise US leadership other than "talk"...just "talk".

Any thirdgrader can "talk".....

[OUTLAW 09]

Nusra Vid showing some shia casualties in N-Aleppo
https://youtu.be/cGdUbcR-gt0

[OUTLAW 09]

The people in #Madaya are eating the grass again. The UN aid packages, have almost been consumed. What is left...
http://fb.me/3CbUO4ZmY

AND Assad is again blocking UN aid EVEN though his government stated it could be delivered....his tactics are the same for the last five years and one would think the Obama WH would "get it".

It is as if this President cannot jump over his own shadow....BUT WAIT he has no shadow.....thus he sees no need to act on anything.

[OUTLAW 09]

The West is asking Syrian civilians to dodge Assad, Putin and now US air strikes......WHILE Obama and Kerry sleep gently .....here is the daily reality of the killing fields of Syria.....just from early this morning....

While Putin is carrying out his two front non linear war...the Obama WH seems to think all you need to do is "talk" and "talk" and "talk".......BY "openly acknowledging" that there is an ongoing genocide, war crimes and starvation WHICH Kerry stated this week.... is in fact this WH "complicit" as is the UNSC in Assad's and Putin's war crimes/crimes against humanity...?

If so then why is there a need for the UNSC at all other than to "talk" and make each other "feel like they have done something....."?

3 martyrs and dozens wounded victims of #US_Coalition airstrikes on #alHoshrah village nearby #Manbij
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 6

US_Coalition warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting outskirts of #Omar Oil fields
#DeirEzzor #Syria FEB 6

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alZakat village
้้้้้็็็็
#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alLataminah
#Hama #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alSayak town
#Idlib #Syria FEB 6

Reports of big explosions in #ASSad Regime area of #Damascus
#Syria FEB 6 via @el_sarkis

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alHobait village
#Idlib #Syria FEB 6

Rebels targeted #SAA terrorists positions at #Khirbet_alGhazal village
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6

#SAA terrorists shelling with heavy artillery targeting #Sayeda village
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Kessen village
#HOMS #SYRIA FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Hirbnafsah town
#HAMA #SYRIA FEB 6

#SAA terrorists shelling Grad Rockets from their positions at #Azzan_Mount targeting #alRashideen
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 6

#SAA terrorists shelling Grad Rockets from their positions at #Azzan_Mount targeting #Khan_Touman
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Kurds_Mount & #Turkmen_Mount
#Latakia #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alMansoura village
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tel_Wasset village
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alQarqur village
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 6

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alZayrat village
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 6

[OUTLAW 09]

Rebels destroyed #SAA Tank exterminating 3 mercenaries belonging to #Tazzf_3rdDiv shiia militia at #Ratyan fronts
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 6

#Iran media announces the extermination of 3 #IRGC officers & dozens of it's terrorists in #Syria FEB 6

#Jaysh_alFateh Repel #SAA terrorists infiltration backed by #Russia occupation in #Sirmaniyah village, between #Idlib & #Hama #Syria FEB 6

SAA boy Mohamed Ahmed Shaaer, nephew of Interior Minister from #Latakia, killed in #Hama cs FEB 5 #Syria

Heavy clashes between Rebels & #SAA foreigners terrorists at #Bayanoun & #Hayan fronts
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 6

1000s civilians leaving their homes in #Meng village,escaping #Russia & #ASSad allies terrorists bombardment
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 6

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alTeh village
#Idlib cs #Syria FEB 6

Yesterday FEB 5; #SAA helicopters dropped not less than 30 barrel bombs over the besieged #Moadamiyah_alSham & #Darayya
#Damascus #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Naeem Abbas accused of the assassination of Major Gen. "Francois Hajj", admits to the military court the involvement of the #ASSad Regime in the assassination of Major General, because he constantly was at the "delimitation" of #Lebanon - #Syria border, he also revealed that #ASSad Regime & it's allies plan for the assassination of MP Walid Jumblatt. #Syria FEB 6

[OUTLAW 09]

Breaking
To not open its border,#Turkey builds new giant #refugee camp in #Azaz right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAaz2JPMUNM …

The camp os set up by @IHHen
Of course,this won't save the people from the approaching pro-#Assad sectarian militias & #Russian air strikes.

[OUTLAW 09]

When the #KSA offered to join the fight against #ISIS in #Syria, the #Islamic State-sorry:#Republic had to jump in:

IRGC Commander stated in Iran that the Saudi troops "would not be brave enough to fight in Syrian" and "they would be defeated if they fought in Syria".....

BUT he conveniently "forgot" to mention the IRGC is losing Commanders left and right and hundreds of Shia mercenaries have been killed in the last 100 days.

[OUTLAW 09]

Atman
8929 inhabitants in 2004
0 inhabitants after the "liberation by #Assad" in 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SNf8RToIBw …

BreakingFootage
D-30 artillery piece w/rebels turns up for the first time north of #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6alPJ-jxF-s …

VIDEO: Sham Legion fire rocket at pro government forces near al-Zahraa, #Syria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLTrxpIC1os …

[OUTLAW 09]

Will post the following from a well known and Moscow connected proRussian commenter......

Russian MoD says they proposed to set up a Syria consultation center in Amman to the US, but the idea was rejected
http://tass.ru/en/politics/854738 …

Russia says it is ready to include Kurdish forces in the Baghdad joint operations room. Should I say that Turkey will be pissed?

Interesting: Non-GCC OPEC members + GCC's Oman + Russia say they are ready to hold an emergency meeting on possible cuts in oil production

NOTE: what happened to that much heralded Russia KSA oil meeting that was to occur...right..was just another Russian rumor/lie to lift the price of oil.....

Russian correspondent in Syria suggests that military advisor could die as a result of a Turkish artillery attack
http://www.kp.ru/daily/26489.4/3357977/ …

NOTE: there have been three different Russian versions of the killing of this Russian General...was killed by a TOW strike...NOW blaming the "Turks"....

[OUTLAW 09]

سانا عاجل
‏@SanaAjel Al-Moallem:Security Council resolution no.2254,2 Vienna Communiques state that Syrian people alone have the right to determine their future

Last time I checked neither Russia and or Iran are "Syrian people".......

Reference the Russian info war media Russia Today......
Never short of lies: The #FSA - not "#Nusra" - held #Atman for years and defended until now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTn-CXIaZ7o …
pic.twitter.com/k9tdXYHPHy

[OUTLAW 09]

Reference the Russian second front of their non linear war...Syria.

There have been countless social media photos, videos and reports of Iraqi Shia militia fighting in Syria against the FSA AND not against IS either in Iraq and or Syria carrying US provided weapons, driving US tanks and HUMVEEs and YET not a single comment out of Congress and or this WH....about the Iraqi government's lack of control over US weapons being provided them to defend against IS inside Iraq....

Why is that?????

Meet the Iraqi army-trained, #US/#Russian-equipped professional Iraqi shia troops N of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25AmFW8CLx4 …
pic.twitter.com/PuUT9asj1Z

[OUTLAW 09]

Ask again what Putn wants in #Syria: Ban blames Russia for collapse of Syria talks:
http://on.ft.com/1nRZ2qi #FT

[OUTLAW 09]

Saudi coalition spox Asiri: There are 20 Arab and Islamic countries that would unite their forces for training and preparation for the fight

Saudi Arabia is moving to hold military exercises in March in preparation for possible assault on IS-held locations in #Syria.

NOTICE that Turkey is in this mix....wonder if Putin, Assad and Khamenei have noticed...

Now comes the true sectarian fight...not the Iranian/Assad/Russia proxy fighting...

Acc to CNN: many countries will be sending in troops to Saudis coalition, including Brunei, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, Jordan..etc

Interesting is it not that the Obama WH is now seeing the formation and possible deployment of a "Global Sunni Army" vs the Shia recruited and IRGC led Shia mercenary army fighting in basically what is a Sunni Arab nation state.

Obama had a number of chances over the last four years to reign this in and did absolutely nothing....

WHAT is extremely comical about this WH is that several weeks ago AFTER the WH stated their "Syrian strategy was a success"...."but it needed just a little more messaging for you and me to fully understand it was working".....Sec Def Carter critiqued the KSA openly for not supporting the IS fight.....unusual for a high profile political visit BTW.

NOW the Saudi's make this statement and can back it up with combat deployment in under four weeks and just where is the Obama WH......silent, has not made a single comment and running for the hills AS the KSA has stated to them you lead and we will follow BUT show us the color of your money.

Since nothing came from either Obama, Kerry or the SecDef you are now hearing the not so subtle warnings...we will march alone if necessary to protect Sunnis' and defeat IS with or without you...that threat is being levelled at both Iran and Putin....

We are rapidly approaching the brink of a 100 years war....and this time over religion again as well as regional hegemony.

Many it appears in the WH have forgotten the early comments coming out of the Russian Orthodox Church when Putin flew his AF into Syria...

His own ROC openly and publicly called for a "Holy War"...and those comments were not refuted by Putin....second lesson learned about Russian non linear warfare when Putin does not refute statements made in Moscow BY anyone...watch out.

Well we are almost there......for there is an old Arabic saying "Aleppo is the red line for the Sunni nation states"...and it has been crossed.

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage
Aftermath of a heavy Russian airstrike on a residential area in #Houla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNJJd254UNE …
pic.twitter.com/j3q2ymPhIK

Ratyan in #Aleppo
2216 inhabitants in 2004
0 inhabitants after the "liberation" by #Assad and #Putin in Feb. 2016
pic.twitter.com/NW5KckqwtI

Mayer in #Aleppo.
4772 inhabitants in 2004
0 inhabitants after the "liberation" by #Assad &#Putin in Feb. 2016.
pic.twitter.com/FIipVz5etg

[OUTLAW 09]

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alJanaiynah village
#DeirEzzor #Syria FEB 6

SAA & it's foreigners terrorists bombing #Hirbnafsah town
#HAMA #SYRIA FEB 6

ASSad Regime forcing children in the Schools of loyalists areas, to learn "Russian language".

SAA terrorists bombing #Dael town
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tafas town
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6

Heavy clashes between Rebels & #SAA terrorists at #alFadaiyah fronts in #alMarj area
#Damascus cs #Syria FEB 6

[OUTLAW 09]

Kurdish Nat'l Council: #Russia& #Assad's Intransigence are Behind #Geneva Suspension
http://ow.ly/Y0bzy

President of #Turkey #Erdogan Slams World’s Silence over #Russia’s Aggression on #Syria
http://ow.ly/XZBIx

Yet another bread bakery destroyed by Assad artillery/rocket fire in al-Hrak, #Daraa, #Syria yesterday

Almost 75% of requests to the Syrian govt to deliver aid have gone unanswered: UN
http://ow.ly/XYIdA

At least 8 more Iranians killed fighting in Syrian bringing 2-day total to 18

Five more Iranians reported killed fighting in Syria, about 1 every 2 hours over last 2 days

Appears the IRGC is getting nervous about the possibility of a combined Sunni army entering Syria led by KSA and Turkey...notice the IRC does not address Turkey.....


TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said Saudi Arabia doesn't have the guts to send its armed forces to Syria.

"They claim they will send troops (to Syria) but I don’t think they will dare do so. They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces," Jafari told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.

"This will be like a coup de grâce for them. Apparently, they see no other way but this, and if this is the case, then their fate is sealed," he added.

Jafari, said this is just cheap talks, but Iran welcomes the Saudi decision if they decide to walk on this path.

BTW he does not mention that it has been only with Russian air strikes that "helped"......when the RuAF was not in Syria IRGC and related Shia militias have been taking a beating.....at the hands of JaN, JaI and FSA...

SO if they are "winning" then why does the Shia morale have to be lifted?????
Iran has dispatched pro-regime pop singer Saeed Hadadian to Syria to lift troop morale
http://bit.ly/1QfjO9F

After the beating they have taken even with Russian air strikes their "morale" does need more than a "face lifting"....

[OUTLAW 09]

A French TV crew made it into Aleppo's citadel and old city. Shocking scenes of destruction. Difficult to watch.
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/revolte-en-syrie/document-france-2-syrie-au-coeur-de-la-vieille-ville-d-alep-ravagee-par-la-guerre_1284019.html …

With this UN Special envoy statement do not see the HNC returning anytime soon to Geneva.......
De Mistura tells @HalaGorani he won't blame Russia for Aleppo bombing: "We're blaming the fact tht this is an occasion that can't be missed"

[OUTLAW 09]

Kurdish Nat'l Council: #Russia& #Assad's Intransigence are Behind #Geneva Suspension
http://ow.ly/Y0bzy

President of #Turkey #Erdogan Slams World’s Silence over #Russia’s Aggression on #Syria
http://ow.ly/XZBIx

Yet another bread bakery destroyed by Assad artillery/rocket fire in al-Hrak, #Daraa, #Syria yesterday

Almost 75% of requests to the Syrian govt to deliver aid have gone unanswered: UN
http://ow.ly/XYIdA

At least 8 more Iranians killed fighting in Syrian bringing 2-day total to 18

Five more Iranians reported killed fighting in Syria, about 1 every 2 hours over last 2 days

Appears the IRGC is getting nervous about the possibility of a combined Sunni army entering Syria led by KSA and Turkey...notice the IRC does not address Turkey.....


BTW he does not mention that it has been only with Russian air strikes that "helped"......when the RuAF was not in Syria IRGC and related Shia militias have been taking a beating.....at the hands of JaN, JaI and FSA...

SO if they are "winning" then why does the Shia morale have to be lifted?????
Iran has dispatched pro-regime pop singer Saeed Hadadian to Syria to lift troop morale
http://bit.ly/1QfjO9F

After the beating they have taken even with Russian air strikes their "morale" does need more than a "face lifting"....

Appears that even the FARS news media cannot get the right Sunni description of IS into their anti KSA propaganda.....

From FARS:
Daesh or ISIL/ISIS is a Wahhabi group mentored by Saudi Arabia and has been blacklisted as a terrorist group everywhere in the world, including the United States and Russia, but Saudi Arabia.

IS has never been a Wahhabi group..appears the Shia have never heard of Takfiri........

FARs has a major problem in this sentence ...if IS is Wahhabi then why is the Wahhabi KSA an avowed enemy of IS.....and vice versa.....

[OUTLAW 09]

FARNEWs is just as about as bad at Iranian info warfare as the Russian media sites used by the Russian FM and Putin....

Today FARs released a short press release timed to the IRGC Commanders FARs released comments focusing on KSA....

They ran this headline just before his comments:

"KSA training a 150,000 man mercenary army to invade Syria......."

[OUTLAW 09]

bellingcat @bellingcat
Heat map showing geolocated Russian and Coalition airstrike videos in Syria and Iraq.
pic.twitter.com/8sJtFT1aM4

The Duma's foreign relations chairman says Russia is "serious" b/c it bombs Syria, annexed Crimea, & "leads" the UN. https://twitter.com/alexey_pushkov/status/695908038780260352 …

[davidbfpo]

Two quite different views, Steven Metz (USA) and Natalie Nougayrde (French), on what may happen now - assuming Aleppo falls to the coalition ostensibly led by Bashir Assad.

Steven starts with:
Whenever it seems that the war in Syria cant get more tragic and dangerous, it does. That conflict has already created the worst humanitarian disaster of a young century and empowered the barbaric self-declared Islamic State. And it could become worse.Link:http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/16966/the-syrian-war-s-three-nightmare-scenarios-becoming-harder-to-avoid

Natalie starts with:
If Aleppo falls, Syrias vicious war will take a whole new turn, one with far-reaching consequences not just for the region but for Europe too. The latest government assault on the besieged northern Syrian city, which has caused tens of thousands more people to flee in recent days, is also a defining moment for relations between the west and Russia, whose airforce is playing a key role. The defeat of anti-Assad rebels who have partially controlled the city since 2012 would leave nothing on the ground in Syria but Assads regime and Islamic State. And all hope of a negotiated settlement involving the Syrian opposition will vanish. This has been a longstanding Russian objective it was at the heart of Moscows decision to intervene militarily four months ago.Link:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/05/aleppo-europe-vladimir-putin-russian-military? (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/05/aleppo-europe-vladimir-putin-russian-military?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H&utm_term=155268&subid=5302783&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2)

[OUTLAW 09]

Three British SAS troops injured fighting up to 30 Isis militants
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/british-sas-troops-injured-fighting-isis-near-mosul-in-iraq-a6857896.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

The tone coming out of Turkey is definitely heating up....not to be overseen...wonder if the Obama WH is registering this increase in tone....those that understand the Turkish nationalism should call the WH and ask them to pay close attention.

The tension between Turkey and Russia is not to be over looked.....a clash of two head strong personalities that believe they represent their own civil societies


Erdogan: Putin and Assad collectively responsible for 400000 deaths; #Russia is creating a boutique state in #Syria
http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey-russia-erdogan/27534864.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Badly injured commander "Abu Homs" calls for rebel groups to unite against invaders n Aleppo
https://youtu.be/-3MJjHuFkDs pic.twitter.com/nRrRgzVIqe

Now Putin is fully supporting the Kurds after rumored Russian weapons shipments to them last month....
News
Russian airstrikes on the village of #Menagh,hours after #YPG told the #FSA to "hand it over to avoid this".
pic.twitter.com/qnA8GHEdL9

Footage
Russian Su-25 active over northern #Syria today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1beRkhqOaQs …#Latakia
pic.twitter.com/GT8RDPHk8d

Footage
MLRS fire on #Mayer before the capture by #Assad and his foreign masters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmeF7VE7aZw …
pic.twitter.com/w099ojixLc

The best article you'll read about Turkey and the Syrian civil war, highly recommended
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/02/04/tur

[OUTLAW 09]

A senior Turkish official said his country would never accept a settlement in #Syria that doesn’t take into account its own interests ~@WSJ

Rityan today. T-90, BTR-80, upclose with T-90 and it's happy driver :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l990x1NXRWU …

Fighting over Mayer in North Aleppo, more T-90 footage
https://www.facebook.com/Military.Media.Syria.Central/videos/512417398964812/ …

The guy is sort of saying the truth, +30 Iranians troops (Inc senior officers) returned to Tehran in coffins just last week.

[OUTLAW 09]

Literally the entire western MSM and Obama WH pundits have been totally wrong about Putin's intentions and actions in both eastern Ukraine and now Syria......

Do no think for a moment think that Turkey and KSA are actually bluffing....the reaction of the IRGC Commander and the FARs instant reporting on the alleged 150K Sunni invasion force and the somewhat over reaction of the Russians to the Turkish cancelled Russian requested Open Skies flight..is also starting to wear on Putin.....

Aggressive Russian air strikes on civilians is just as high today .....which will further fuel the Turks and Saudi's....

The Obama WH seems to fail to accept the simple fact that in the eyes of the Turks and KSA Iran now controls the capitals of FOUR Arab nation states....Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

If Saudis & Turks are bluffing or playing a political manoeuvre & fail to back it up with action, this will be worse than Obama's CW retreat

Why do I say this...for Turkey and KSA to not follow through insures the regional hegemony for Iran and the Shia taking control of a bulk of the Arab/Sunni ME world......so some amount of ground forces will actually go in....

Then Putin has a choice to make as he does not have the necessary Russian ground forces to react and his AF strength cannot match what Jordan and KSA can throw at them....make in fact explain the sudden Russian AD build out.....

Putin has actually wanted a clash with NATO and he might just get it.....

Right now Obama and Kerry have absolutely no creditability left with either Turkey and or KSA.... and the entire GCC.

[OUTLAW 09]

50 #Russia|n airstrikes destroy half the houses, a mosque & the only school in Kissin, #Homs, #Syria

More than 12 #Russia|n airstrikes targeted civilian areas with cluster munitions in Tafas, #Daraa last night
http://youtu.be/_5RT4vYGuCw

Important as most if not all bread bakeries in south rural #Idlib & north rural #Hama have been destroyed by #Russia|n airstrikes

Eilaf & Turkish IHH aid agency open new bakery to feed 3000 displaced families in rural #Idlib,
http://youtu.be/mgeyNO1Otyc

Yet another bread bakery destroyed by Assad artillery/rocket fire in al-Hrak, #Daraa, #Syria yesterday

After capturing Ziyara & Khurayba, YPG have captured al-Zinkah hill (Gire Miska) south of Nubl/Zahra area after clashes with rebels this AM

Reports that YPG are preparing to take Deir Jamal & Kafr Naya now as well. With Russian air cover anything is possible. #Aleppo #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Literally the entire western MSM and Obama WH pundits have been totally wrong about Putin's intentions and actions in both eastern Ukraine and now Syria......

Do no think for a moment think that Turkey and KSA are actually bluffing....the reaction of the IRGC Commander and the FARs instant reporting on the alleged 150K Sunni invasion force and the somewhat over reaction of the Russians to the Turkish cancelled Russian requested Open Skies flight..is also starting to wear on Putin.....

Aggressive Russian air strikes on civilians is just as high today .....which will further fuel the Turks and Saudi's....

The Obama WH seems to fail to accept the simple fact that in the eyes of the Turks and KSA Iran now controls the capitals of FOUR Arab nation states....Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.

If Saudis & Turks are bluffing or playing a political manoeuvre & fail to back it up with action, this will be worse than Obama's CW retreat

Why do I say this...for Turkey and KSA to not follow through insures the regional hegemony for Iran and the Shia taking control of a bulk of the Arab/Sunni ME world......so some amount of ground forces will actually go in....

Then Putin has a choice to make as he does not have the necessary Russian ground forces to react and his AF strength cannot match what Jordan and KSA can throw at them....make in fact explain the sudden Russian AD build out.....

Putin has actually wanted a clash with NATO and he might just get it.....

Right now Obama and Kerry have absolutely no creditability left with either Turkey and or KSA.... and the entire GCC.

One of the key reasons that the Turks and Saudi's are now moving....NOTICE not a single word from the western MSM and the Obama WH......

IRGC battalions from Kermanshah, Esfahan, Qom, Gilan, Fars, Khorasan, Khuzestan… at war with Syrian people
http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/ncri-statements/terrorism-fundamentalism/19871-dispatch-of-forces-by-khamenei-and-slaughter-in-aleppo-is-meant-to-conceal-regime-s-crises-on-verge-of-sham-elections …

[OUTLAW 09]

For those that do not believe we are seeing in Syria the extension of what Khomeini started in 1979 with what he called "revolutionary Islam" and being carried out by Khamenei

Iran backed Shia militias in #Nubul, north rural #Aleppo, #Syria
“Labayk Ya Khamenei”

Would highly recommend finding this on the net and downloading and thoroughly reading the very long analysis.....well worth the efforts in the end and it will place the current Khamenei mindset into a perspective that is not talked about by the Obama WH who is "hoping against hope" Iran will "moderate"...but it never will as long has the religious theocracy is in place and defended by the IRGC.....

ISLAM and REVOLUTION
Writings and Declarations of Imam Khomeini
Translated and Annotated by Hamid Algar
Mizan Press, Berkeley Contemporary Islamic Thought, Persian Series

[OUTLAW 09]

From #Tafas in S #Syria where the Russian cluster bomb attacks spread from town to town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5RT4vYGuCw …

SAA Slat armored T-72 and a T-72M1 in #Darayya.

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat...have you heard much about this move........

Syria Videos Since January 2016 Show that 12 Militant Groups Have All joined "The guards of the Levant movement"

[OUTLAW 09]

Not confirmed nor geo tagged and or dated......

NorthernAleppo Alleged Photo of Qassem Soleimani in #Nubbol #Nubl & #Zahra #Zahraa

#Syria #Aleppo #NothernAleppo Unconfirmed Reports say #SAA & #YPG #Kurds Set up Joint Check Point

RUSSIA still bombarding #Tafas town with it`s prohibited Cluster Bombs moments ago
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6

SCD collect #Russia Cluster Bombs in #Tafas aftermath it`s airstrikes
#Daraa #Syria FEB 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5RT4vYGuCw …

Breaking: #Russia will shoot down Turkish jets in #Syria, Deputy Defense Minister says -
http://www.pravdareport.com/news/world/05-02-2016/133256-russia_turkey_syria-0/#sthash.PLxU0C0V.dpuf …

This is a perfect case of Russia disinformation as the last sentence clearly indicates that the Turks have to adhere to the Russia/US flight safety
memorandum when flying in Syria.....

Russia airstrikes targeting the National Hospital of #Palmyra
#Homs #Syria FEB 6

Occasionally I still bump into Kremlin media articles from back in September debunking the "Russians in Syria" rumor http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/politics/07-09-2015/131855-russian_troops_syria-0/ …





[OUTLAW 09]

Does Kerry have any earthly idea what he is doing as the head of DoS....BUT at least it is better late than never.......social media has been saying this for the last three months and during that period Obama and Kerry were totally silent....

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry: You have to have a negotiation to arrive at the modalities of all parties complying & providing access & providing 4 a ceasefire.

Over 1000 air strikes in 72 hours and a major ground offensive later we get this statement......he seems to ignor all basic laws of soft and hard powers and diplomacy.

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry on bombardment of civilians in #Syria: This has to stop. But it’s not going to stop by walking away from the table or not engaging.

BUT THEN the US floods twitter with these......


.@JohnKerry: In some cases after the bombing has taken place, #Russian bombers come back & kill ppl who are pulling out the wounded. #Syria

.@JohnKerry: There is clear evidence that #Russia is using dumb bombs, & there are civilians being killed in large numbers as a consequence.

.@JohnKerry: All aerial & artillery bombardment of civilians should have ended, according 2 #UNSCR2254 that #Russia voted for, and it hasn’t

.@JohnKerry: UNSCR2254 called for immediate #HumanitarianAccess to all Syrians. Neither Asad regime nor its supporters have made that happen

.@JohnKerry: Neither #Russia nor Asad nor the supporters of Asad are at this moment in compliance w/ the #UNSCR2254.
http://goo.gl/6yOocW


THEN if all of these comments are correct..why has the US now called an emergency UNSC meeting to discuss Russian failures to implement the resolution???
BUT WAIT Russia has not fulfilled a single point in Minsk 2 so why would they "honor" any old UNSC resolution?????

Not sure how anyone in current administration can look themselves in the mirror after statements like this.

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria IR / Laser ATGM warning system ? spotted on ZSU-23-4 Shilka
pic.twitter.com/p3MhjUg0eA

Shooting at unexploded cluster munitions in Syria as an unconventional method of UXO removal
https://youtu.be/dBRuVVeTjPo

Ground truth today in #Syria| Yellow: #YPG| Black: #Daesh| Red: #SAA| Green: FSA + Islamist rebels @jenanmoussa
pic.twitter.com/4I73Ubmlxr

[OUTLAW 09]

Kind of encompasses the Obama WH ...........

"The fog of disorder is thickening...The guardians of order are overwhelmed & underperforming."—@Ischinger #MSC2016

Liz Sly ‏@LizSly
What the US calls "assertive diplomacy" to get a ceasefire in Syria is looking more & more like failed diplomacy https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-is-preparing-for-possible-air-drops-of-humanitarian-supplies-over-syria/2016/02/05/552e689c-cc14-11e5-ae11-57b6aeab993f_story.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Interview with #Ahrar Commander Regarding Military Developments
https://youtu.be/HASOGDJ3lks

[Dishonesty]

New longer video Su-35S
RT Ruptly 1:39
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpVEWipSx5k

Interesting mix combat load:
Wing tip 2xECM pod
Outer wing pylon 2xR-73 (Dogfighter IR seeker)
Central wing pylon 2xR-27T (Medium range IR seeker)
Inner wing pylon 2xR-77 "AMRAAMski" (Medium range Active RF seeker)

Attention video time 1:23 Take-off Su-35S (Red No.5) only 1 R-77-maybe flight hours limit.

[CrowBat]

CrowBat...have you heard much about this move........

Syria Videos Since January 2016 Show that 12 Militant Groups Have All joined "The guards of the Levant movement"

The group in question is result of that recent merger of Jabhat ash-Shamiya and Kataib Thuwar ash-Sham, which I've reported several days ago.

***********

That said... proportions of IRGC's deployment to Syria are now reaching (for me) 'mindblowing' proportions. Financing, recruiting, and training of quasi-NDF 'battalions' that then turned Hezbollah/Syria, or SSNP, BPM etc.... financing, recruiting, trianing and deploying 20,000 Iraqi Shi'a... 'all OK' - and 'nothing new' since August-September 2013.

But, I would never expect to see the IRGC deploying what appears to be up to 10.000 own troops and Basiji - i.e. IRANIAN - combatants into a de-facto military invasion of Syria.

And there's not a peeps from the West about this...

[OUTLAW 09]

This is strange...Iran is getting roughly 50-100B and has already gotten that amount......why the need for a Russian 5B loan?.....the costs of their Syrian adventure has been high but still.....

Iranians want Russia to give them $5 billion loan
http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2911071
pic.twitter.com/BoaqcokMC2

Closer view at the Buk-M2E inside a HAS in Mazze AB pic.twitter.com/JKAx3IwPEq

[OUTLAW 09]

Is this really Kerry's comments...notice the clinging to soft power at this stage in Syria it is very clear force on force will be the only thing that Putin understands......especially since Kerry has the Putin response model in front of him from eastern Ukraine....

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry: I said to Putin, "if all you’re trying to do is leave Asad in place, the war won't end & there will be more terrorists created.”

So what is it that Kerry is not seeing what the Brit MSM sees.......?????

"If there were any doubts about Russia’s objectives in Syria, events around Aleppo will surely have cleared them": http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/05/aleppo-europe-vladimir-putin-russian-military …

[OUTLAW 09]

For those SWJ readers...the tone coming out of Turkey the last three days is getting actually more pointed and sharper...turkey will cross the border as will KSA......that places Assad and Putin facing a potential two front conflict.

Putin with his continued heavy civilian air strikes and the moves on Aleppo will get what he wants....a conflict with a NATO member....

Clear resolve by Erdogan that Turkey might interfere in Syria to protect interests. Interesting point on 2003
pic.twitter.com/IpgU3JDktk

Erdogan says it was wrong for Turkish parliament to vote against allowing US troops to use Turkey in invasion of Iraq in 2003

He says that vote meant Turkey was not on the table on Iraq, and same can't be repeated in Syria

No doubt #Turkey will try to use the situation to push #US into backing a safezone again. #Obama too weak to decide. https://twitter.com/anshelpfeffer/status/696245211714842624 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Another night of cluster bomb attacks just north of Homs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_XBB_BUnY …

Humanitarian Relief @IHHen
IHH has started to distribute hot meals to 20,000 Syrians who have come to the Turkish border to save their lives.
pic.twitter.com/lW3lBJTktL

Humanitarian Relief @IHHen
More than 55 thousand Syrians are now living in IHH's camps on the Turkish-Syrian border.

[OUTLAW 09]

Interesting article .........in that Putin and Lavrov are constantly lying
Russian banks, lies and emojis - Very good by @mashagessen in @nytimes on #Russia and the tradition of public lying http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/op...ype=collection …


Минобороны России ✔ @mod_russia
Thoughtless actions of #NATO states have brought the Middle East region into the chaos, not the Rus #AerospaceForces
http://on.fb.me/1PI5OsK

Read the NYTs article and then reread the Russian MoD statement...part of the Obama and Kerry problem is that they do not understand the standard Russian lying concept...thus they think they can come to agreements with Putin....but Putin simply says yes and really means NO....

Even in the face of the utter truth backed by countless videos the MoD makes this statement?????

Social media has been pointing that out now for two years and yet the WH does not seem to "get it"....

[OUTLAW 09]

Jaysh al-Islam killed over 50 #Assad soldiers tried to advance around Brig 39 in #EastGhouta #Damascus @aboasssem92

Video: #RuAF airstrike during IV with Major Yasir Abdulrahim, Commander of #Aleppo Ops Room.
http://eldorar.com/node/94439

List of 36 Iranian Generals & Officers killed north #Aleppo in 2 days fighting for #Assad - @Arabi21News

[OUTLAW 09]

The group in question is result of that recent merger of Jabhat ash-Shamiya and Kataib Thuwar ash-Sham, which I've reported several days ago.

***********

That said... proportions of IRGC's deployment to Syria are now reaching (for me) 'mindblowing' proportions. Financing, recruiting, and training of quasi-NDF 'battalions' that then turned Hezbollah/Syria, or SSNP, BPM etc.... financing, recruiting, trianing and deploying 20,000 Iraqi Shi'a... 'all OK' - and 'nothing new' since August-September 2013.

But, I would never expect to see the IRGC deploying what appears to be up to 10.000 own troops and Basiji - i.e. IRANIAN - combatants into a de-facto military invasion of Syria.

And there's not a peeps from the West about this...

CrowBat...this might then be the reason that the Iranians have asked Russia for a 5B USD "loan"......after receiving between 50-100B already from the US....

[OUTLAW 09]

NOT a single peep out of the Obama WH on this development...NOR absolutely no comments coming from western MSM as well..

Basically an Iranian Shia invasion of Syria has occurred and an utter wall of silence from the West......and yet they wonder what Turkey and the Saudi's are up to.......

List of 36 Iranian Generals & Officers killed north #Aleppo in 2 days fighting for #Assad - @Arabi21News

Again the question is is Russia more of an existential threat overall to the US or is IS or in the case of Syria....Iran.....????

Right now the Russian non linear warfare geo political goals are matching exactly those of Iran and all the while Obama and Kerry do not have a clue....on how to respond other than with just words, and or simple comments as if they "words" can stop the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Assad AF and the RuAF..........

NOT a single call by either Obama and Kerry to take Russia in front of the UNSC for violating THREE UNSC resolutions.....THREE that even Russia signed off on......

[OUTLAW 09]

Would like to remind the Obama WH and especially Kerry about this 2014 article that almost fits the current Kerry/Assad/Iranian/Russian FP being driven by Kerry and denied at the same time by Kerry....

Words often come back to haunt..........

Here is Tony Badran @AcrossTheBay predicting almost word for word how Kerry would bring Iran into Syria.
Article dated Jan 31, 2014

Where is again US MSM on this issue...nowhere to be seen and or heard....

[OUTLAW 09]

Kerry's statements via the US Embassy are going to from meaning really nothing at all and or to totally being pathetic........

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry: We'll know in the next few days who is serious & who is not. That has always been the intention of the diplomatic process.

Word for word exactly what he used as the argument to force the HNC to Geneva AND here is the key ALMOST exactly what he is forcing the Ukraine to do in the US pressure on Ukraine to commit to unilateral appeasement moves ALL designed by Kerry and Obama to "save Putin's face"......

[OUTLAW 09]

Kerry's statements via the US Embassy are going to from meaning really nothing at all and or to totally being pathetic........

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry: We'll know in the next few days who is serious & who is not. That has always been the intention of the diplomatic process.

Word for word exactly what he used as the argument to force the HNC to Geneva AND here is the key ALMOST exactly what he is forcing the Ukraine to do in the US pressure on Ukraine to commit to unilateral appeasement moves ALL designed by Kerry and Obama to "save Putin's face"......

THIS is a clear and concise example of just how bad the Obama WH has gotten AND how bad they are getting caught in their own spun web of lies......

Obama and Kerry now have virtually no creditability in the entire ME and it is sinking fast in the eastern Ukraine.....where there has been major attacks over the last two months...YET Kerry stated after a visit to Putin...with "efforts and some good faith" we can lift the Russian sanctions..

John Kirby
‏@statedeptspox @Charles_Lister Story wrong. @JohnKerry didn't blame oppo for collapse of talks, doesn't have comms w/regime & hasn't wavered on Assad.

Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister John Kerry to #Syria aid workers in #London:

"Don’t blame me, go & blame your opposition"

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/opposition-blame-syrian-bombing-kerry-tells-aid-workers-1808021537#sthash.yNy5ejLl.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/VnexnHjxny …

No comms w/regime? So what's Nir Rosen doing btwn WH & Damascus? Drafting an ultimate frisbee team?

.@KyleWOrton will @statedeptspox go on record that former NSC staffer Steven Simon was not sent by WH to speak w/Assad regime?

[OUTLAW 09]

Kerry trolls as badly as does the Russian FM Lavrov.....both lie constantly and think the social media does not catch it...MSM does not notice anything anyway....

Department of State 
‏@StateDept The U.S. continues our leadership in responding to the crisis in #Syria. Read the latest:
https://goo.gl/an2idR .

There is no US leadership either in Syria and or eastern Ukraine outside of Tweets and press conferences....

[OUTLAW 09]

THIS is a clear and concise example of just how bad the Obama WH has gotten AND how bad they are getting caught in their own spun web of lies......

Obama and Kerry now have virtually no creditability in the entire ME and it is sinking fast in the eastern Ukraine.....where there has been major attacks over the last two months...YET Kerry stated after a visit to Putin...with "efforts and some good faith" we can lift the Russian sanctions..

John Kirby
‏@statedeptspox @Charles_Lister Story wrong. @JohnKerry didn't blame oppo for collapse of talks, doesn't have comms w/regime & hasn't wavered on Assad.

Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister John Kerry to #Syria aid workers in #London:

"Don’t blame me, go & blame your opposition"

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/opposition-blame-syrian-bombing-kerry-tells-aid-workers-1808021537#sthash.yNy5ejLl.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/VnexnHjxny …

No comms w/regime? So what's Nir Rosen doing btwn WH & Damascus? Drafting an ultimate frisbee team?

.@KyleWOrton will @statedeptspox go on record that former NSC staffer Steven Simon was not sent by WH to speak w/Assad regime?



NOT sure just how Kerry is going to "walk back this".......????

Feature: #Kerry --- "Go and Blame Your Opposition" for Russia's Bombing
http://eaworldview.com/2016/02/syria-feature-kerry-go-blame-opposition-russias-bombing/ … | .@EANewsFeed #PSRG

[OUTLAW 09]

A serious question has been raising it's ugly head on social media since the failure of the Geneva talks and the over 1000 Russian air strikes and the major ground offensive largely attacking the anti Assad opposition forces and the "alleged Kerry pressure on the HNC"...exactly as he has been doing on Ukraine.....

Is the US Obama and Kerry "successful Syrian strategy" ACTUALLY the same strategy being followed by Assad/Putin and Khamenei?????

The destruction of any anti Assad opposition and leaving basically IS in "peace".....

NOT sure just how Kerry is going to "walk back this".......????

Feature: #Kerry --- "Go and Blame Your Opposition" for Russia's Bombing
http://eaworldview.com/2016/02/syria-feature-kerry-go-blame-opposition-r... … | .@EANewsFeed #PSRG

[OUTLAW 09]

Jaysh al-Islam seems destroyed attacking armours then massacred the infantry around Brig 39 #EastGhouta @aboasssem92

First loud and clear message from Jaysh al-Islam new leader after Zahran Alloush killed by Russians.

Regime losses from offensive on Tal Kurdi & Tal Sawan from Brig 39 up to 50 so far + T72 tank & a BMP says JaI spokesman @islamalloush0

FSA Northern Division launching Grad rockets at Assad/pro-Assad militias around Nubul & Zahra in northern #Aleppo
Original link: http://youtu.be/LHWAUNH1uVM

Russian fighter jets reportedly crossed into Israeli airspace for the second time during bombing runs in southern #Syria.

[OUTLAW 09]

NOTICE virtually the entire western MSM did not carry anything on the facts mentioned below..why is that????

Not a single MSM article on just how is it that IS the avoed enemy that Russia went into Syria to utterly destroy is working hand in hand with the Russian military in full support to Assad.....not a single MSM article of this??

During the N #Aleppo offensive:
- not a single Russian bomb hit #ISIS
- not a single ISIS attack hit #Assad's front

[OUTLAW 09]

IEDs found with Jund al-Aqsa & ISIS cell caught by rebels in Saraqeb, #Idlib

JaI repelling a heavy regime push on Tal Kurdi & Tal Sawan in rural #Damascus. Regime bodies conveniently numbered.
50 plus Shia mercenaries were counted on the ground...

[OUTLAW 09]

Sometimes silence does one well....seems Kerry has not heard this saying...

Does he really believe anyone in the ME is listening to this farce of a comment.....there are no humanitarian discussions and or ceasefire talks even via back channel .....the last UN aid convoy was not allowed into the Sunni town by Hezbollah THAT was agreed to by Assad.....

The only solution Kerry has been pushing is the destruction of the anti Assad opposition the same strategy as that of Assad and Putin...thus the HNC and KSA walked.......simple as that...so why does he have a hard time stating he "failed at Geneva"...and blaming others???

BUT WAIT did not Obama "blame others" when he stated our Syrian strategy is working...they just do not understand it so we need more "messaging"......sounds to me like they are blaming us for not "getting it".....

Let's see there was the Obama CW red line, then there was that famous Obama statement...."we will judge Putin on his actions not his words" and then there were those comments by Kerry condemning starvation and the targeting of civilians by Assad/Putin .....BUT these are only words...has there been a single "ACTION"..to back up these "words"......

U.S. Embassy Syria 
‏@USEmbassySyria #SecKerry: #SyriaTalks have not failed. They've interrupted while modalities of #HumanitarianAccess & potential ceasefire are worked out.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia|n airstrikes with cluster munitions on Ghanto in #Homs last night:
1- http://youtu.be/Ou3LUS7movU
2- http://youtu.be/50_XBB_BUnY

First pictures from #Kafr_Hamra where Russian terrorists strike again while @SyriaCivilDef evacuates dead children.

[OUTLAW 09]

NOTICE Kerry mentioned this in his Tweets but then Russia does it again and again and again...AND NO reactions other than words which are really "cheap".

After a 1st airstrike kills a child north of #Aleppo, the jet hits rescuers once more.

Interesting Instagram pictures, from an Iraqi "journalist", taking part in the northern #Aleppo offensive.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Teir_Maela
#Homs #Syria FEB 7

Jaysh_alFateh & #SAA exchanged prisoners assisted by #Nada_alLasir foundation y'day FEB 6, 3 #JF for 4 #SAA
#Hama #Syria

Moment of #Russia ClusterBombs airstrikes on #alGhanto & #Talbiseh
#Homs #Syria FEB7
https://youtu.be/50_XBB_BUnY

65 MARTYRS
[14 Fighters 4 children 2 women 2Tortured]
20 Aleppo
10 Damascus
8 Hama
5 Latakia
3 Daraa
2 DeirEzzor
2 Idlib
1 Homs
#Syria FEB 6

Putin's UXO Cluster bombs are taken care of here:
https://youtu.be/dBRuVVeTjPo

Latakia: Syrian rebels in Jabal Al Akrad capture 2 points in Ruwaysah Al Rus

CORRECTION: so called Hezbollah "Journalist" killed in Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

Iranian revolutionary guard general Satar Ornek killed in Aleppo

Syrian Rebels repel pro Assad forces night attack on Marj Al Sultan

Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of at least 10 Hezbollah fighters in last 24 hours
http://www.all4syria.info/Archive/291085

News
The bodies of 2 #IRGC officers and 24 more Iranian soldiers, killed north of #Aleppo, arrived in #Iran.

From brigade 39 pro Assad forces heading in convoys of tanks & vehicles to capture Tel Kurdi & Tel Sowan

Clashes going on between Assad forces & Rebels in Al Marj

Syrian Rebels kill 2 sectarian Shia Iraqi militia generals in Aleppo
1- Majid Nan
2-Mahmoud Hashemi

[OUTLAW 09]

High numbers of Shia terrorists and IED specialists have made it into Europe/Germany....

Jabagh Baker & friends kill Bilal Mansour Ali on video:
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1000659290021678&id=984957314925209 …

Jabagh is now in #Germany. #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat...heard anything on this merger.....??


15 FSA brigades in Aleppo unite to form the Aleppo Army

[OUTLAW 09]

Saudis don't need to "send ground troops" just disobey Obama & send Rebels air defence weapons & war will be over in weeks

Interesting as these types of comments are coming faster and with more content....maybe Russia was right about the "invasion"...but heck they provoked it......

13 States will send ground troops to Turkey to enter Syrian territory
http://fb.me/2ZtALWkON

[OUTLAW 09]

Saudis don't need to "send ground troops" just disobey Obama & send Rebels air defence weapons & war will be over in weeks

Interesting as these types of comments are coming faster and with more content....maybe Russia was right about the "invasion"...but heck they provoked it......

13 States will send ground troops to Turkey to enter Syrian territory
http://fb.me/2ZtALWkON

Full story up on @AP now. #UAE prepared to send ground troops to #Syria
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/597bb0b48d084da181950b01b41897b4/uae-says-its-prepared-send-ground-forces-syria# …

[OUTLAW 09]

I doubt Pro #Assad Syrians wld dare attack Ghouta this way, they're probably shia Iraqis/Afghanis. Anyone can take a close look to identify?

Damaged Russian tanks in Syria...
First in, first damaged.
pic.twitter.com/BRUBARjZD0

Interesting piece of equipment on tank..captured from regime.....
They got it from Brigade82 in the south @oryxspioenkop
https://youtu.be/AbRBZpoC9e0
Also seen here......
SyAA ZSU-23 with an unknown optical sensor, early 2015.

[OUTLAW 09]

Really worth listening to this short video clip by an excellent author who understands Syria....mentions a number of things CrowBat has been saying on the Syrian thread.....about democratically elected Syrian local councils....we never hear anything about them in the western MSM

He also has some bitter comments about MSM Syria reporting or actually the misreporting out of Syria.......

Robin Yassin-Kassab, Author, Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War
https://youtu.be/-NTWU-St4Ds
excellent film featuring @Qunfuz1

NOTICE he uses the interesting term "transnational Shia jihadists"......

ABSOLUTELY no conversation concerning this development out of this WH and the western MSM .....just as dangerous as the Sunni variation.....in some ways far more dangerous as they have definitely not abandoned their Khomeini battle cry..."death to Americans...death to the US..."

[OUTLAW 09]

The vid is out. Watch #Assad troops get slaughtered outside Birg 39 in #EastGhouta #Damascus
https://youtu.be/8l3nybD0Uv8

[OUTLAW 09]

I ask an activist from #Aleppo how civilians view current situation in city. His answer says it all: @akhbar
pic.twitter.com/ANKIUqZ6c3

[CrowBat]

CrowBat...heard anything on this merger.....??


15 FSA brigades in Aleppo unite to form the Aleppo Army
Plenty of news today, so 'checking'...

BTW, here a typical scene of the last few days - but this time at least one that was well-documented with help of videos and photos:

- 'Regime' troops (unclear if Hezbollah/Lebanon, NDF, or 105th Brigade RGD) assaulted the Base 39, a military base in Eastern Ghouta, recently captured by IF and FSyA;

- Insurgents first stopped the AFVs, by knocking out two....

- ...and then literally 'slaughtered' the infantry with Dushkas and AK-47s...

- ...here are some still trying to advance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l3nybD0Uv8

- and here what's left of them....

Overall: about 50 KIA... and, at least according to insurgent-sources, such scenes happened quite often the last few days, not only in Eastern Ghouta, but especially north of Aleppo. But, why should regime, IRGC, or Russians care - if they have 'only victories' to report these days: they 're-load' another company and assault again...

EDIT.... images not showing; have to upload them...

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.businessinsider.de/assad-winning-syrian-war-us-west-2016-2?r=US&IR=T

The one line the West keeps repeating about Syria that is helping Assad win the war

Natasha Bertrand


In a Washington press conference shortly after peace talks over Syria's future fell apart earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry again called on Syria's government and its supporters to end its military campaign and pursue a political solution to the conflict instead.

Days earlier, Gareth Bayley, the UK's special representative for Syria, told reporters in Geneva that "there is no military solution" to the conflict.

As the diplomats called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, however, pro-regime forces were encircling Aleppo — Syria's largest city — aided by heavy Russian airstrikes that are estimated to have killed scores of civilians.

Some experts now say the line oft-repeated by Kerry and many of his western counterparts — that there is "no military solution" to the crisis in Syria — has actually allowed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies to pursue such a military solution with impunity.

"Moscow has used its 'co-convener' status of the Vienna peace process (which mandated the Geneva conference) as a cover to distract and occupy Washington and the West," Fred Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and former adviser on Syria under the Obama administration, wrote on Thursday.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif makes a pledge makes a pledge during the second makes a pledge during the second 'Thematic Pledging Session' at the donors Conference for Syria in London, Britain February 4, 2016. REUTERS/Matt Dunham/poolThomson Reuters
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif makes a pledge makes a pledge during the second 'Thematic Pledging Session' at the donors Conference for Syria in London


That, Hof continued, has allowed Russia to pursue its own "political-military objective: neutralizing the armed nationalist opposition to create for the West — for Washington in particular — the horror of a binary choice between Bashar the Barrel Bomber and Baghdadi the False Caliph."

He was referring to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the terrorist organization ISIS.

Analysts generally agree that any attempt to pursue a political solution while the Assad regime, Russia, and Iran pursue a military campaign is doomed for failure.

But the Obama administration has so far failed to put adequate pressure on the Syrian government to stop its aerial bombardments and sieges of rebel-held areas. Those, incidentally, were two of the opposition's conditions that, because they were not met, compelled them to walk away from negotiations last week.

"It will take Russian and Iranian pressure for the regime to negotiate in good faith with the opposition," Hof said in an email to Business Insider. "But Russia and Iran both want Assad to prevail militarily against the nationalist opposition."

He added: "The Assad regime, being borne aloft militarily at the moment by Iran and Russia, is not very interested. Kerry is trying hard to talk them out of this. But each is interested in forcing the West into a binary choice between Assad the Barrel Bomber and Baghdadi, the ISIS 'caliph.' And both are confident that the West – led by the US – will reconcile with their guy, Assad, if Baghdadi is the only alternative."

russianairstrikesyria feb1 2016ISW


Jeff White, a defense analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that while Russia, Iran, and Assad are not interested in a political solution, pretending that they are while pursuing military objectives on the ground has come to form the core of their war strategy.

"The regime and allies are in it to win, not to negotiate a 'transition,'" White said in an email to Business Insider last week. "Negotiations and fighting are related parts of their war strategy."

He added: "The war will keep going until the regime prevails, increasingly likely, or Assad's allies abandon him, unlikely for the foreseeable future."

Nubl and Zahraa SyriaGoogle Maps

It is especially unlikely, given the Assad regime's recent battlefield victories.

Government troops, accompanied by Iran-backed Shiite militias and Hezbollah forces, reached the cities of Nubl and Zahraa outside of Aleppo last week. As such, the regime "succeed[ed] in a few days in what it had failed to do for over three years" thanks to heavy Russian air support, according to an Atlantic Council analysis by Faysal Itani and Hossam Abouzahr.

The offensive, moreover, was a huge blow to Turkey — a staunch opponent of Assad — as it effectively cut off Ankara's supply line to the rebels it had been supporting in Aleppo.

A scathing op-ed published by The Financial Times days earlier seemed prescient following the successful government offensive.

"Mr. Putin is treating Geneva as a smokescreen behind which to keep up his offensive," the editorial board wrote. "Instead of bullying rebels to attend the talks, the US and its allies should back their demand that Russia and the regime cease bombing the Syrian people. Geneva will otherwise be the venue for a third failure to end this pitiless war."


#Footage
The #FSA sends reinforcements to #Aleppo ... into certain death.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US_xYkyN0tA …
pic.twitter.com/k4yOuxPpCc

[OUTLAW 09]

Did not Kerry make via the US Embassy comments to the effect that starvation was in face being used and that it had to end......??????

News
In #Douma, between 5 and 10 civilians starve because of the #Assad siege...
Every day!
Mostly babies!
pic.twitter.com/t2q1YWlbNj

Starvation is in fact a major violation of international humanitarian law that could in fact led to war crimes charges against Assad and Putin.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Did not Kerry make comments via the US Embassy that the Russians had to stop the deliberate bombing of civilians.......????

Graphic!
Same procedure as every day in #Talbiseh's clinic:
#Russia kills & kills & kills..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1gWu0-4kiI …

[OUTLAW 09]

FSA pounding Assad army & IRGC in Nubl/Zahra north #Aleppo w/ rocket launchers used for the 1st time in this battle
MSM is not fully understanding the complexity of the Syrian fighting....

Intrigued to see US-backed 13th Division deploying seemingly brand-new BM-21 Grad rockets w. MRL in north #Aleppo:

Victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Anadan..
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 7
https://youtu.be/Vdprbid1EbM

Massacre in #Anadan afternath #Russia airstrikes
several children martyrs and wounded #Aleppo #Syria FEB 7

Renewed #Russia|n airstrikes on Anadan in #Aleppo, #Syria
a little while ago, 5 civilians reported dead & more wounded

BREAKING
#Russia airstrikes destroyed the Hospital in #Latakia countryside #Syria FEB 7
https://youtu.be/ksx_JgrnhW8

FSA Division 13 firing 122mm Grad rockets from MRLS at regime positions in Nubul, Zahra & Ratyan in #Aleppo, #Syria http://youtu.be/wR4RaUeSDMg

4 Iranians #IRGC Col.Sattar Owrang, Abuzar Davoudi, Esmail Shojaei, Mostafa Qasempour killd in northern Aleppo,Syria

Reports that the regime Jorin military camp in rural #Hama is under heavy Grad rocket attack by rebels

2 children & a women were killed by #Russia|n airstrikes on Kafrhamra in north rural #Aleppo, #Syria today

[OUTLAW 09]

Latakia: dozens of pro Assad forces killed in Faruja in rebel ambush

Dozens of pro Assad forces killed in Atman

If you thought the reaction to #Turkey defending her airspace from Russia was hysterical, just wait until #Israel does ...

[OUTLAW 09]

A serious question has been raising it's ugly head on social media since the failure of the Geneva talks and the over 1000 Russian air strikes and the major ground offensive largely attacking the anti Assad opposition forces and the "alleged Kerry pressure on the HNC"...exactly as he has been doing on Ukraine.....

Is the US Obama and Kerry "successful Syrian strategy" ACTUALLY the same strategy being followed by Assad/Putin and Khamenei?????

The destruction of any anti Assad opposition and leaving basically IS in "peace".....

NOT sure just how Kerry is going to "walk back this".......????

Feature: #Kerry --- "Go and Blame Your Opposition" for Russia's Bombing
http://eaworldview.com/2016/02/syria-feature-kerry-go-blame-opposition-r... … | .@EANewsFeed #PSRG

Hope Obama and Kerry have taken notice of this ........

FM Muallem makes it official: Assad & ISIS negotiated a settlement in Hajar Aswad, Damascus (ceasefire, relocation) basically the Syrian regime is prepared to negotiate with ISIS but not with the Syrian opposition. That says a lot.

BUT WAIT did not Putin state at the UNGA he was going to destroy IS.......?????

[OUTLAW 09]

Appears Russia Today the mainline Russian info media outlet 100% owned by the Russian government is running wild again with lies.........

RT says U.S. + Russia run a joint air drill in Syria
http://bit.ly/20P1MCp

RT also says U.S. SOF are "human shields for terrorists," so …

[OUTLAW 09]

THIS is a clear and concise example of just how bad the Obama WH has gotten AND how bad they are getting caught in their own spun web of lies......

Obama and Kerry now have virtually no creditability in the entire ME and it is sinking fast in the eastern Ukraine.....where there has been major attacks over the last two months...YET Kerry stated after a visit to Putin...with "efforts and some good faith" we can lift the Russian sanctions..

John Kirby
‏@statedeptspox @Charles_Lister Story wrong. @JohnKerry didn't blame oppo for collapse of talks, doesn't have comms w/regime & hasn't wavered on Assad.

Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister John Kerry to #Syria aid workers in #London:

"Don’t blame me, go & blame your opposition"

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/opposition-blame-syrian-bombing-kerry-tells-aid-workers-1808021537#sthash.yNy5ejLl.uxfs&st_refDomain=t.co&st_refQuery=/VnexnHjxny …

No comms w/regime? So what's Nir Rosen doing btwn WH & Damascus? Drafting an ultimate frisbee team?

.@KyleWOrton will @statedeptspox go on record that former NSC staffer Steven Simon was not sent by WH to speak w/Assad regime?



Nir Rosen was virtually outsourced for the UN's "ceasefire" plan. WH really had no idea what he was up to?

Especially since the Obama WH is known for their micromanagement.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia|n airstrikes with cluster munitions on Ghanto in #Homs last night:
1- http://youtu.be/Ou3LUS7movU
2- http://youtu.be/50_XBB_BUnY

First pictures from #Kafr_Hamra where Russian terrorists strike again while @SyriaCivilDef evacuates dead children.

Russian war crimes....on the deliberate use of cluster munitions against civilians.....

CIT (en) @CITeam_en
The report by @CITeam_en on Russian claster bombs in Syria is available here:
https://citeam.org/sputnik-rt-and-russian-mod-expose-cluster-bombs-at-hmeimim-airbase/ …
pic.twitter.com/IkK9iGZoBb

Report from today on the submunitions found in Talbiseh, #Homs after several Russian cluster munition attacks
http://youtu.be/qGHZx4N49u8

Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Video from Talbiseh showing AO-2.5RTM cluster munitions, note the hooks on the bomb casing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGHZx4N49u8 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Jaysh al-Islam seems destroyed attacking armours then massacred the infantry around Brig 39 #EastGhouta @aboasssem92

First loud and clear message from Jaysh al-Islam new leader after Zahran Alloush killed by Russians.

Regime losses from offensive on Tal Kurdi & Tal Sawan from Brig 39 up to 50 so far + T72 tank & a BMP says JaI spokesman @islamalloush0

FSA Northern Division launching Grad rockets at Assad/pro-Assad militias around Nubul & Zahra in northern #Aleppo
Original link: http://youtu.be/LHWAUNH1uVM

Russian fighter jets reportedly crossed into Israeli airspace for the second time during bombing runs in southern #Syria.

Part 2 of #JaI ambush vid from #Ghouta..
MBT & BMP to Close for comfort:
https://youtu.be/uX91_ZfaocI
pic.twitter.com/eEnryxxVz9

[OUTLAW 09]

Kissinger's idea to cede a Russian sphere of influence to Putin is similar to his pitch to Bush 41 in Dec 88 w Reagan leaving. Amazing.

Ah.....via Kissinger Putin is attempting to achieve his much dreamed about "new Yalta".......

Henry Kissinger: "The momentum of global upheaval has outstripped the capacities of statesmanship."
http://bit.ly/20tvOik
So is now even Kissinger moving to the Putin view of a "new Yalta".............?

HOW much of this upheaval has in fact been created by the unilateral appeasement moves by Obama and Kerry as they retrench the US foreign policy......

[OUTLAW 09]

The #russiannavy to exercise in east Mediterranean Sea next week:
http://7fbtk.blogspot.com/2016/02/russian-navy-exercise-in-eastern.html …

Erdogan Signals Turkey Prepared to Join Syria War If Asked
http://bloom.bg/1Q1t0hw

Islam Army head Essam Boueidani's interview on #Syria with @RevolutionSyria
English:
http://thesyriannetwork.net/2016/02/05/10156685041815734 …

Aleppo Is the Center of the Syrian Chessboard
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-battle-of-aleppo-is-the-center-of-the-syrian-chessboard … by @FabriceBalanche for @WashInstitute

[OUTLAW 09]

Erdogan: US Should Choose Between Turkey, Kurdish Forces

By The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — Feb 7, 2016, 6:32 AM ET


Turkey's president has lashed out at the United States a week after a President Barack Obama's envoy visited a northern Syrian town that is under the control of Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara considers terrorists.

In comments published Sunday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington should choose between Turkey and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, as its partner.

That came after envoy Brett McGurk's visit to Kobani, where the PYD's military wing, aided by U.S.-led airstrikes, drove back Islamic State militants a year ago. Turkey considers PYD a terror group because of its affiliation with Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

Erdogan said: "How can we trust you? Is it me that is your partner or is it the terrorists in Kobani?"

[OUTLAW 09]

Erdogan: US Should Choose Between Turkey, Kurdish Forces

By The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — Feb 7, 2016, 6:32 AM ET

According to Russian TV footage, YPG and Assad forces is using the same military base in Syria's Qamishli

FSA and All Islamist forces must immediately reinforce Menagh Airbase,YPG is making steady progress towards the airbase

YPG has captured Tal Ajar from Rebel groups

[OUTLAW 09]

Iranian revolutionary guard Saeed Samanlo killed today in Syria

Assad won't advance north contrary to media claims. YPG is advancing, and ISIS has not made a move yet but they must be watched.

Some fighters from #Iraq's Badr Organization who were killed in breaking siege of Nubl and Zahara in Aleppo,

Iran-aligned Harakat al-Abdal extends condolences to Badr on loss of fighters in the #Syria-n battlefield

Two Republican Guard officers killed in the fighting in #Aleppo province
http://all4syria.info/Archive/290881

Badr Military Wing #Iraqi #Iraq Allies of #SAA #SyrianArabArmy #SyrianArmy Celebrate Victories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aGu-8TAS1s&feature=youtu.be …

Abu Tah'ha, senior Badr 8th brig. is also in Aleppo.

SSNP Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Allies of the #SyrianArmy #SAA Using #Russian AGS-17

What’s left of the Zeitouneh IDP camp in Jabal Turkman, rural #Latakia, #Syria after #Russia|n airstrikes Msg from Russia to Turkey: nothing is off limits...

51 Civilians Killed in #Syria on Saturday from Russian airstrikes
http://en.eldorar.com/node/1409



Iranian media reported February 5 that Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier-General Mohsen Ghajarian was killed in fighting in Syria, along with six Basij militia volunteers, Radio Free Europe reported.

The news agencies said the deaths occurred in the northern province of Aleppo, where the Assad regime, backed by Russian air strikes, has been staging a major offensive this week to encircle the city and cut off its supply route from Turkey.

Tehran has claimed it sends military advisers and volunteers to help the Assad forces, but denies sending its own troops, Humanitarian News reported.

Even so, Iranian media have reported the death of over 100 Iranian "volunteers" in Syria since October.

[OUTLAW 09]

This Shia militia warning is interesting with their use of the term Arab forces.....

Iran-backed militia warns against sending Arab forces to Syria, Iraq - Reuters
http://dlvr.it/KRZzjs

They themselves are not Arabs and are fighting in a 70% Sunni Arab nation state.....

World | Sun Feb 7, 2016 2:14pm EST
Related: World, Syria, Iraq

Iran-backed militia warns against sending Arab forces to Syria, Iraq

BAGHDAD


One of Iraq's most powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias on Sunday warned that Arab forces sent to Syria or Iraq would "open the gates of hell", in comments clearly aimed at Sunni Arab countries that have said they might join such an operation.

"The Arab kingdoms tried Daesh mercenaries to implement their malicious plans in Iraq and Syria, and they failed," a statement from Kataib Hezbollah said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

It called on "the sons of Saud and those rulers who stand behind them not to take a risk and to learn (their) lesson," referring to the Saudi ruling family.

Kataib Hezbollah, whose leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes heads the Baghdad-sanctioned coalition of mainly Shi'ite militias battling the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants of Islamic State alongside Iraq's regular forces, has sent fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad's troops in that country's five-year-old civil war.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said on Sunday it was ready to supply ground troops to help support and train an international military coalition against Islamic State in Syria provided such efforts were led by the United States.

Saudi Arabia, one of several Sunni Gulf Arab states, including the UAE, who are opposed to Islamic State, said last week it was ready to participate in any ground operations in Syria if the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants decided to start such operations.

Syria's foreign minister warned on Saturday that Damascus would resist any ground incursion into its territory and send the aggressors home in coffins.

[CrowBat]

Part 2 of #JaI ambush vid from #Ghouta..
MBT & BMP to Close for comfort:
https://youtu.be/uX91_ZfaocI
pic.twitter.com/eEnryxxVz9
Logical consequence of incompetence.

Namely, by all the thousands of troops, all the possible supplies, and that (incompetent, undertrained, aud underequipped) VKS in their back... nothing of this is making any of involved IRGC, Hezbollah, Russian, and regime commanders competent'.

Mind that majority of them have reached their positions for personal connections and loyalty - just not competence.

...and that their troops are getting 2-4 weeks of training on average...

...and that they're facing no 'rag tag insurgency of teachers, pharmacists, farmers' etc., but battle-hardened insurgents led by professional officers with four years of combat experience - and especially: officers finally free from stupid incompetence of Assadists and their allies.

As long as all of this doesn't change, the IRGC, its puppets and allies in Syria are going to continue experiencing such catastrophes, regardless how many victories are they claiming.

[davidbfpo]

I refer to the very mixed bag of twenty willing nations ready to act in Syria, against ISIS; notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Others named by CNN earlier were: Brunei, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan and Jordan.They areready to act IF the USA is in command, hardly a likely prospect.

This leaves aside several of the coalition are rather busy in the Yemen, so what forces can be released? Might the Saudis be renting their coalition?

[OUTLAW 09]

I refer to the very mixed bag of twenty willing nations ready to act in Syria, against ISIS; notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Others named by CNN earlier were: Brunei, Malaysia, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan and Jordan.They areready to act IF the USA is in command, hardly a likely prospect.

This leaves aside several of the coalition are rather busy in the Yemen, so what forces can be released? Might the Saudis be renting their coalition?

David..interesting points and I initially thought the same thing but then several things are in play.....

1. by telling open and publicly we are ready to come and inside 4 weeks they have basically called out Obama to either go with them or be in fact recognized as a lair and there is no coherent US FP for the ME

2. the Turks have in fact established logistics pads...which the Russians correctly recognized...why BECAUSE we the US Army and myself taught them that during AV12/13 so the Russian intel takes the not so subtle and not so hidden pads as reality of a possible attack

3. the invasion forces does not need to be more than say 2-4 full combat brigades with air support and artillery..as the Shia mercenary/IRGC and Hezbollah has not shown much of a fighting ability with the FSA when the RuAF is taken out of the picture

4. just the not so subtle threat has in fact throttled the RuAF..far fewer strikes yesterday mainly cluster strikes

5. even after the last major "Assad/Putin" wins they are not able to hold onto what they captured and the FSA regardless of the hits they have taken are shifting to massive ambushes and targeted TOW attacks

Iran has lost roughly now over 50 major and middle ranking commanders, and to include at least four Generals..major loses for Iran.

You can tell the Saudi move startled the Iranians, Putin and Assad due to the shrillness of the IRGC's response when the news broke.

IMHO the Saudi's will move but from the Turkish side.....then Putin has a calculation to make..war with NATO as then he cannot argue to the world he alone is attacking IS when Arab Sunni forces are in the country under the guise to attack IS.

The reason I say they will go..having laid down a red line on Aleppo KSA and Turkey cannot now back down as that would result in a massive loss of face and the regional hegemony would shift to the Shia and Iran.

BTW...there are indicators that Yemen is winding down as the goals that KSA set are being shortly fulfilled and that frees up the Saudi SF and elite combat units.....Saudi has a large SF group that it has signaled it will send into Syria. Pakistan is securing their northern border region/Iraqi border zone under the guise of a military exercise...thus that frees up troops as well.

Many forget that the fighting in Syria has been largely an infantry fight urban style which is actually causing the Shia forces their loses as they are totally unfamiliar with the towns, villages and cities they are fighting in..FSA knows it like the back side of their hands..therefore the massive ambush yesterday that was brutal.

[OUTLAW 09]

David....continuing the thoughts....

The KSA call out of the US FP is interesting....notice the shrillness from the Iranians, silence by the Russians, and THE US has not said a single word in response to the Saudi proposal...

WHY is the interesting question and the answer is really easy...the US all the while stating IS had to be defeated at some point by ground troops as the US military also stated we can only do so much by air strikes and drones...

Under Obama the US will and would never send ground troops into Syria ...even the discussion about sending in US SF has been all but killed by the Obama WH..WHY Obama does not want to go down in in his historical legacy as having sent in combat troops....simple as that he wants to be know as the single president who ended wars not starting them.

The Saudi's realize that and thus the call out to prove to the rest of the ME and GCC that Obama is basically all talk and absolutely no action.

This has been achieved with the absolute silence right now out of the Obama WH...NOT even the SecDef Carter has said anything after his recent "call out" of the KSA for not helping more with air strikes and troops.

So IMO Saudi is awaiting the non response by the US which is already there in order to then justify sending in their own troops and largely Turkish and UAE along with Sudanese troops......making the move Arabic in nature and full Sunni based.

BY saying to the western leaders ...you did nothing to help the refugees and assisted in no humanitarian aid and you did not stop the bombing and you certainly along with Russia are not attacking IS where it needs to be attacked ..on the ground..

Even Russia cannot say anything against that statement as they certainly have not been attacking IS directly.

I posted a short video interview with a well known ME specialist yesterday where he used an interesting term THAT has been completely missing in the IS debate......AND completely from the western MSM.....

"Transnational Shia jihadists"......in some aspects fully overlooked by the US and the entire West especially after the Obama "Iran Deal"....

This loops back to my pushing many commenters to revisit the Khomeini "revolutionary islam" and his geo political goal called the "Green Crescent".....which again some commenters here push back on.

The IS (Takfirist in nature) and the Salafists have largely reinterpreted the Koran's use of the "jihad"...BUT if we look intently at the Shia side there was not this push until Khomeini came to power in 1979.

If one reads through that 500 or so page pdf I referred to ...you can see just how he theorizes that development already starting in the 1940s.....

In some aspects the comment being attributed to Kissinger that I posted is actually telling...telling in the fact that the "upheaval" that he refers to is actually being caused by the Obama "retrenchment" out of the ME and also Europe as a whole....in the place of US military power Obama is attempting to implant US economic power thus the push on TTIP and the Far East trade agreements and the recent US/EU safe harbor data exchanges because he foresees the economic development of nations to be in the end far more important than military compeititon.

IMO in some aspects the demand for rule of law, transparency and good governance coupled with economic development is a valid end goal..but one needs a transition model for that and in this.... Obama is sadly lacking as is Kerry and the entire NSC..no strategy whatsoever on how to get there other than after 12 months I do not care if the flood comes.....

As he is "retrenching" Putin sensed this BTW and is attempting to reposition Russia back into that "open space" being created by the Obama pullback.

NOW I fully disagree with Kissinger's statement as he is pushing for the creation of a "new sphere of influence for Russia" which is basically the exact same model that Putin has been pushing called his "new Yalta".

Remember Kissinger is old guard European and US trained in his foreign policy thinking thus his thoughts are built around the concept of "power and the use of power in diplomacy"...in full contradiction to the Obama concept of "soft power in diplomacy" which has in the last eight years NOT worked anywhere.

[OUTLAW 09]

David....continuing the thoughts....

The KSA call out of the US FP is interesting....notice the shrillness from the Iranians, silence by the Russians, and THE US has not said a single word in response to the Saudi proposal...

WHY is the interesting question and the answer is really easy...the US all the while stating IS had to be defeated at some point by ground troops as the US military also stated we can only do so much by air strikes and drones...

Under Obama the US will and would never send ground troops into Syria ...even the discussion about sending in US SF has been all but killed by the Obama WH..WHY Obama does not want to go down in in his historical legacy as having sent in combat troops....simple as that he wants to be know as the single president who ended wars not starting them.

The Saudi's realize that and thus the call out to prove to the rest of the ME and GCC that Obama is basically all talk and absolutely no action.

This has been achieved with the absolute silence right now out of the Obama WH...NOT even the SecDef Carter has said anything after his recent "call out" of the KSA for not helping more with air strikes and troops.

So IMO Saudi is awaiting the non response by the US which is already there in order to then justify sending in their own troops and largely Turkish and UAE along with Sudanese troops......making the move Arabic in nature and full Sunni based.

BY saying to the western leaders ...you did nothing to help the refugees and assisted in no humanitarian aid and you did not stop the bombing and you certainly along with Russia are not attacking IS where it needs to be attacked ..on the ground..

Even Russia cannot say anything against that statement as they certainly have not been attacking IS directly.

I posted a short video interview with a well known ME specialist yesterday where he used an interesting term THAT has been completely missing in the IS debate......AND completely from the western MSM.....

"Transnational Shia jihadists"......in some aspects fully overlooked by the US and the entire West especially after the Obama "Iran Deal"....

This loops back to my pushing many commenters to revisit the Khomeini "revolutionary islam" and his geo political goal called the "Green Crescent".....which again some commenters here push back on.

The IS (Takfirist in nature) and the Salafists have largely reinterpreted the Koran's use of the "jihad"...BUT if we look intently at the Shia side there was not this push until Khomeini came to power in 1979.

If one reads through that 500 or so page pdf I referred to ...you can see just how he theorizes that development already starting in the 1940s.....

In some aspects the comment being attributed to Kissinger that I posted is actually telling...telling in the fact that the "upheaval" that he refers to is actually being caused by the Obama "retrenchment" out of the ME and also Europe as a whole....in the place of US military power Obama is attempting to implant US economic power thus the push on TTIP and the Far East trade agreements and the recent US/EU safe harbor data exchanges because he foresees the economic development of nations to be in the end far more important than military compeititon.

IMO in some aspects the demand for rule of law, transparency and good governance coupled with economic development is a valid end goal..but one needs a transition model for that and in this.... Obama is sadly lacking as is Kerry and the entire NSC..no strategy whatsoever on how to get there other than after 12 months I do not care if the flood comes.....

As he is "retrenching" Putin sensed this BTW and is attempting to reposition Russia back into that "open space" being created by the Obama pullback.

NOW I fully disagree with Kissinger's statement as he is pushing for the creation of a "new sphere of influence for Russia" which is basically the exact same model that Putin has been pushing called his "new Yalta".

Remember Kissinger is old guard European and US trained in his foreign policy thinking thus his thoughts are built around the concept of "power and the use of power in diplomacy"...in full contradiction to the Obama concept of "soft power in diplomacy" which has in the last eight years NOT worked anywhere.

ISIS invited Sham Front for talks, but the latter refused to send an emissary, end of story

Sham is KSA supported for those that complain the KSA and Qatar have been funding IS....think again.....

AND that famously debated en vogue term "non linear warfare" just keeps on moving with no pushback from the entire West...

#Russia having success in hybrid war against Germany
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2016/02/07/russia-having-success-in-hybrid-war-against-germany/ …
pic.twitter.com/cVQb6YSyDT

RMEMBER the sudden recent statement by the US IC...oh we need to check out the Putrin influence ie money gong into far right political groups in Europe.....not much has happened since that "comment".

[OUTLAW 09]

In #Aleppo, underground schools, great work by @KeshMalek, face bombardments and burnout
http://reut.rs/23R91fJ

[OUTLAW 09]

UNTIL Obama and Kerry physically undertake a serious attempt to stop the Putin deliberate use of targeting killing of civilians a la Chechnya this is just words, and more words and does not mean a single thing other than words.....

Just a US CYA attempt to not appear to be "complicit" in the Russian air strikes.

Kerry: Russian use of "dumb bombs" on Syrian civilians violates UN resolution 2254.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/02/252226.htm …
pic.twitter.com/nWmveKmPfm

NOTICE the US words vs the ground reality....
Citing indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilians, Aleppo doctors report horrible injuries.
http://bit.ly/1nRHAl7
pic.twitter.com/RA66Zsv1J6

Is Chechnya helping the IS with this announcement....?
Kadyrov says he has a network of secret agents within ISIS -- if true, I'm sure they're glad he's announcing it http://regnum.ru/news/polit/2073384.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Reports now of 10s of Russian airstrikes on Ghurnata, Teir Mala, al-Dar al-Kabira, Talbisah & Hubub al-Rih in #Homs yesterday.

[OUTLAW 09]

Erdogan: US Should Choose Between Turkey, Kurdish Forces

By The Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey — Feb 7, 2016, 6:32 AM ET

This is what I do not understand with the current Obama Syria strategy...the NSC/Kerry must fully understand the Turkish resistance to anything Kurdish especially when they takeover former Syrian Arab territory and then cleanse the area of Arabs....no different than what they have done inside Iraq down to Diyala and that so called "green line" the Peshmerge always violates.

Even the HWR and AI have criticized/documented these actions by the YPG......

AND the US fully supports the YPG which is in the eyes of Turkey just an extension of PKK just across the border in Syria that is all....

This statement is just not a subtle warning BUT a major warning to Obama and yet they do not respond.....they let to let the YPG supported by the CIA continue to take "Arab towns and villages along their border"....

Does in fact Obama want a complete and thorough break with Turkey the single strongest NATO military currently inside all of NATO to include a strong AF????

BreakingNews
Pro-#Assad forces and the #YPG advance vs. Syrian rebels north of #Aleppo.
#Kiffin and #Ajar taken.

Reports now that YPG/Jaish al-Thuwar have taken Deir Jamal from rebels. Like I said, with Russian air support anything is possible

AND Russia has been providing arms to the Kurds and the Kurds have opened an political office in Moscow.......AND Putin wanted the Kurds at the Geneva meetings.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Latakia: Syrian Rebels regain control of 2 points in mountains http://en.eldorar.com/node/1416

Ghouta: Syrian Rebels destroy 1 Shilka & 1 bulldozer & kill dozens of Assad forces in Al Marj
http://fb.me/724MLAa5b

Six more Iranian revolutionary guards killed in Aleppo. We hope they all get killed in Syria.

Iranian revolutionary guard general Abdul Al Saleh killed in Aleppo today by Syrian Rebels

Deraa: 3 Assad forces killed in ambush

The SDF proves themselves the traitors that they are attacking the opposition in reef north Aleppo simultaneously as the regime capturing

US-backed Kurds coordinate with Russia, Assad to attack rebels
http://insufficientrespect.blogspot.fr/2016/02/us-bac

@Abduhark SDF affiliate Jaysh al-Thuwar is in Azaz already, seems more like SDF trys to secure villages before Shiite militants seize them

What a "nice" spin on kurds joining #Assad offensive. See 1939 #Poland & USSR invasion following Hitler-Stalin deal.

Syrian Rebellion Obs ‏@Syria_Rebel_Obs · Feb 2
#SRO - IMPORTANT - #SDF will have to confront the regime forces, including shia jihadis, to link #Afrin / #Kobane / #Cizre cantons

[OUTLAW 09]

"The humanitarian crisis..is a deliberate regime/Russian strategy to clear important areas of problematic residents" http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/05/obamas-disastrous-betrayal-of-the-syrian-rebels/ …

Chechnya concept all over again just as it was with Georgia 2008...nothing new here but new maybe for the US MSM.....

[OUTLAW 09]

author compiles evidence #Russia use cluster bombs in #Syria is sufficient to shun RU in UN
https://youtu.be/n9npNnM9zJ4 https://twitter.com/FightF88Freedom/status/696332378029977602 …

BUT US does not pull Russia into the UNSC for it's direct violations of three UNSC resolutions they themselves voted for.......

[OUTLAW 09]

AND did not Kerry via the US Embassy say something about the Russians using dumb bombs....all words, nothing but words....

Destruction aftermath Russia airstrike targeting alTareb, no casualties reported Al7amdulillah
#Aleppo #Syeia FEB 8

Smoke aftermath #Russia airstrikes on #Anadan, 8 airstrikes so far on the town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Jamae_Alormeen neighborhood at #Kafr_Naha town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Unconfirmed reports, #SAA foreigners mercenaries terrorists took control over #Bashoura village
#Latakia #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out 5 airstrikes so airstrikes so far, targeting #Khan_Aalsal
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alTareb
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tel_Masaybin
#Aleppo #Syeia FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Haraytan, casualties reported
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Bayanoun
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Destruction aftermath #Russia airstrikes targeting #Kessin village
#Homs cs #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Hayan town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Anadan
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Kafr_Hamra, casualties reported
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplane carried out airstrikes on #Teir_Maela, #Talbiseh, #alGhrnata, #alDar_alKabera,#alGhanto & #Haboub_alRiyh
#Homs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting nearby #Tel_Nafekhin area at #Hirbnafsah town
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 8

[OUTLAW 09]

As #Isis, #ASSad terrorist regime, are arresting youth between 15 and 45 years old, to forcibly join on the compulsory ranks of the dirty #SAA, since JAN 10, several young people have been arrested to join #SAA in several neighborhoods of #Joura and region under #SAA control. Shabihas chasing the youth other middle of the streets, shops, schools etc, a number of young men
also have been detained for reject to join #SAA, #ASSad brutal Regime started to impose siege in many neighborhoods of #Joura, where majority of people didn't accept to join #SAA, in its 4th consecutive days of siege in the area, civilians started to be without cleaned water and fuel to run the generators in the neighborhoods #Joura #DeirEzzor #Syria FEB 8

[OUTLAW 09]

Rebels advancing and regaining control over #Kafin village right now..
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

[OUTLAW 09]

A what did say via the US Embassy about Assads/Putin's use of starvation.....???

Cities and towns of #Daraa facing the worst humanitarian condition, there's no electricity, no water treatment, all means of communication stopped, many of trapped civilians are facing shortage of food & fuel, there's no more milk formula for baby's and children pharmacies with no long medications available, most of the hospitals of the towns are closed due #Russia & #SAA foreigners terrorists bombardment on the liberated areas, doctors are facing lack shortage of equipments, medicines for the wounded civilians victims of the bombardment, plus, more than 5.000 civilians escaped #Russia and #SAA foreigners terrorists bombardment, are trapped in the borders with #Jordan, with no allowance from #Jordan to enter the country The ethnicity cleanse agenda of #ASSad & his allies terrorists,is working on innocent people,all over the country #Daraa #Syria FEB 8

AND the US response is exactly what again outside of just words and words and words....nothing....

[OUTLAW 09]

Isis demanding the youth of #alShaiyatat village (eastern near #Abu_alKamal) to attend and admit themselves in the "training camps" of the area, who doesn't join the camp and pledge allegiance to #Isis, will face the fate of arrest, "severe punishment" and "death".
#DeirEzzor #Syria FEB 8

AND the Putin response to IS...nothing not even air strikes...

[OUTLAW 09]

AND did not Kerry via the US Embassy say something about the Russians using dumb bombs....all words, nothing but words....

Destruction aftermath Russia airstrike targeting alTareb, no casualties reported Al7amdulillah
#Aleppo #Syeia FEB 8

Smoke aftermath #Russia airstrikes on #Anadan, 8 airstrikes so far on the town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Jamae_Alormeen neighborhood at #Kafr_Naha town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Unconfirmed reports, #SAA foreigners mercenaries terrorists took control over #Bashoura village
#Latakia #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out 5 airstrikes so airstrikes so far, targeting #Khan_Aalsal
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alTareb
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Tel_Masaybin
#Aleppo #Syeia FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Haraytan, casualties reported
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Bayanoun
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Destruction aftermath #Russia airstrikes targeting #Kessin village
#Homs cs #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Hayan town
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Anadan
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Kafr_Hamra, casualties reported
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplane carried out airstrikes on #Teir_Maela, #Talbiseh, #alGhrnata, #alDar_alKabera,#alGhanto & #Haboub_alRiyh
#Homs #Syria FEB 8

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting nearby #Tel_Nafekhin area at #Hirbnafsah town
#Hama cs #Syria FEB 8

From the Syrian activist reporting these attacks....when asked about kind of app is he using for the multiple reports....

I'm on my mobile, typing like a "crazy" but let's going until battery died
in shaa Allah

[OUTLAW 09]

Syrian IDPs struggling in mud and snow and with absolutely no assistance from Kerry and his US Embassy statements.....

pic.twitter.com/foQEBM1YJX

Kerry has absolutely no further creditability in the ME nor for that matter in eastern Ukraine....

[OUTLAW 09]

Here's what Russia's Purple Heart medal for undeclared wars looks like (h/t @denmes):
https://citeam.org/russia-s-top-brass-linked-to-war-in-ukraine/ …
pic.twitter.com/3o0VcMXS9f

[OUTLAW 09]

NOW he outgoing leader of Chechnya has entered his realm of "alter state of reality" matching that of the Russia info war........

Kadyrov claims on state TV Chechen forces infiltrated ISIS from start & found NATO trainers http://www.rbc.ru/politics/08/02/2016/56b8628a9a794778cab42284 … pic.twitter.com/BjjDUFCtEA

Standard Russian info warfare...IS is the fault of NATO/US..."it ain't the fault of Russia"......

[OUTLAW 09]

http://mebriefing.com/?p=2150

Geneva: Kerry’s Worst Blunder


We have seen in history many instances when leaders were trying to reach success in their foreign policy without really examining closely all the potential scenarios of what they hope for in any particular case they deal with.

And in the case of Syria, one may ask Secretary Kerry: What if Assad improved considerably his positions and kept his tight grip on power in the post-talks Damascus and as a result of the tilt in the balance of power caused by Russia’s military intervention? In other words, what if the “peace” effort that the Secretary launched might have ended in giving Assad’s military offensive a victory and “defeating” the Syrian revolution under the cover of the diplomatic talks? How could that have brought stability to Syria and how would it have changed the dynamics in the Middle East?

Answers to these questions show that the US may have been engaged in an effort that could ultimately complicate the situation of tomorrow, for itself and its allies. Its current quest to accomplish “something”, regardless of the detailed nature of whatever it is seeking to reach, was half backed.

We understand that the Europeans exerted great pressure on Washington to reach a diplomatic solution after the refugee crisis. We also understand that global powers are aware of the threat of the proliferation of terrorism. But what if short term achievements on those accounts lead to exactly the opposite of what is hoped for?

The question emerges when is the whole host of potential scenarios for the post-Geneva Syria, if the diplomatic show would have continued, is put under the magnifying lens. These scenarios could be summarized as follows:

* A sudden collapse of the talks as what already happened:

This will lead to a return to the status quo ante with some changes. Of these changes, the US loss of yet additional leverage and ability to influence the concerned parties. In other words, a sudden collapse of talks will not be free of charge, or that what should have been incorporated in the endeavor from its start. It will entail more American losses in the scarce credibility left for America in the region.

Furthermore, the relatively moderate opposition groups which accepted to participate in the talks would lose grounds to the radicals of Al Qaeda and ISIL.

This later development will not be due only to domestic Syrian dynamics, it would also be a result of the loss in regional powers’ leverage on opposition groups. Regional powers were placing themselves in a risky place by listening to Secretary Kerry and betting on his deal with Lavrov. If the deal collapses, as it seems to already have, those powers were risking to pay a price in terms of influence, albeit much less than the US.

The propaganda machines of Al Qaeda and ISIL would target both camps, the US and the Sunni Arab Gulf States as the ones who pushed the opposition to accept the risky enterprise of negotiating under Assad barrel bombs and Russia’s daily massacres of civilians.

More radicalization of the opposition, and a higher immunity to external pressures within its leadership, would not be the only consequences of a general failure of the Geneva process. Such a failure would mean a protracted conflict in which Syria’s civilians will suffer even more. Problems like the refugees and famine would continue pressing the political authorities in the EU and the conscious of the world public. All these consequences should have been thought of before launching the talks in Geneva. Some firm steps should have been demanded from the two sides before gathering around the negotiation table in order to correctly asses their willingness to reach a balanced deal. But trying to fool the opposition into a trap under pressure to surrender completely to Putin-Assad-Khamenei plans was doomed to failure.

Furthermore, Syrian neighbors, under threat of a crisis that has all potentials to spill over, would give more priority to their national interests. We have seen how the Turkish-Russian crisis threatened a general conflict last November. We have seen Iraq’s fight against ISIL being deeply impacted by the Syrian situation. And we have seen Arab-Iranian enmity growing very rapidly into a general sectarian conflict. Even now, as this is written, tension between Turkey and Russia is mounting steadily.

When success is sought, one should think of limiting the consequences of failure. Sometimes, half-packed attempts to reach peace leads to more wars.

In other words, a failure of the Geneva process will not exactly return the conflict one step backward to its status of the pre-talks configurations. It will, in fact, take the conflict one step forward to a worst configuration.

* The Geneva process takes the “eternal” course of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process:

Secretary Kerry must have looked at prospects of failure at one point or another. The only imaginable way out of such a corner would have naturally appeared in a plan to avoid an official statement of failure by the Obama administration if it realizes that success is impossible. A saving face prolongation of a dead process would be politically safer than participating in its official burial ceremony. To preserve the process and hand it to the next administration, the Secretary of State would able to avoid the embarrassment.

But why even this self-serving calculus would be harmful?

A planned, and empty, continuation of the process will not, by any stretch of imagination, match the feverish tempo of the military operations on the ground. What should have been examined is the chances of the opposition accepting a role as a fig leaf to liquidate itself. This assumption is impossible. Therefore expecting that the opposition will carry on the talks in Geneva while Putin and Assad are killing its members and thousands others of civilians on daily bases should have been dismissed outright.

It was right all along to work hard for a political solution. But Mr. Kerry should have paid attention to two things: That the Russian intervention tilted the situation in favor of Assad-Iran which are both close allies of Moscow. And that the heavy investment of US diplomacy, granted by Mr. Kerry to Mr. Putin as a free lunch to help him achieve his objectives in the East Mediterranean, did not fit in anyway in the general context. It reduces the US strategic capital in the region for no clear gains. No one buys that Mr. Putin interfered in Syria to defeat ISIL. In fact, the only real effort done to really defeat ISIL, however modest it is, is still America’s.

Keeping a clinically dead process alive on a machine implies exerting pressures on the relevant parties and using political capital the US does not even have.

In all cases, a symbolic continuation of the process, even in appearance only, would have meant that the crisis will continue and its damaging impact will get accumulatively deeper. The only difference is that the US would have lined with Putin, Assad and Khamenei in the most official and public of ways.

* A victory to the Assad-Putin-Khamenei camp:

This trilateral alliance, Putin, Assad and Iran, is not wasting a minute, even while it was engaged in the talks in Geneva, in trying to achieve a military victory. Let us suppose that the Alliance did achieve a considerable progress on the ground. This assumption will not mean at all that their forces would be able to clear most of Syria from rebels. The ceiling of a “victory” in this case is to control most of what is described as “the meaningful” Syria-that is the western coast and its densely populated periphery.

As any similar military “solution” to similar crisis, this “victory” will never be sustainable. At best, it will be a replay of the US surge in Iraq in 2007.The opposition will continue its attacks, will find its way to the Syrian population in the Assad controlled areas (both Sunnis and Alawis) and the fight will carry on.

This assumes that the trilateral alliance has the will and the resources to carry on this war. Such a fight will be the alliance’s to lose, not the opposition’s which will have nothing more to lose. So the agony will continue with no good perspectives to the trilateral alliance.

* Success:

It is not clear until today on what exactly Mr. Putin established his gamble. The whole world knows that he does not have the muscles to carry on for long time. He did not study well enough the lessons of the US experience in Iraq during the last decade, neither the similarities between Maliki and Assad. He may have expected that Secretary Kerry will throw him a life buoy. It is not even clear for how long he can carry on his gamble which is based on the shaky assumption that the peace process may succeed (at best) or that he can get Assad and Tehran a mini state in the West of Syria (at least). But Putin showed over and over again that he is a compulsive gambler. He loves to gamble. And it may only take a big loss to throw him out of the table. Maliki could not build a separate state in the South of Iraq. Assad will not be able to build an Alawi state in the West of Syria.

In both cases, Russia will have to continue its exhausting military effort in Syria. If the Russian President does not understand the magnitude of what he has done by getting militarily involved, the others will be left with the only choice of making him lose. But his loss, in this particular case, is not helpful to anyone other than the worst forces in Syria. What to do?

The sound answer is to find a balanced solution to the crisis in the talks-that is in face of a reckless gambler who recklessly doubles down as a way of life. Secretary Kerry chose to give this gambler a leading position. The Secretary of State even accepted to jump in the reckless gambler’s boat and to share his bet.
Continued......

[OUTLAW 09]

Report from Russian-hit #Bayanoun, some days before the capture by Shiite militias (today)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxzxddBqvQU …
pic.twitter.com/SbWJPGAc8F

[OUTLAW 09]

http://mebriefing.com/?p=2150

Geneva: Kerry’s Worst Blunder

Russia now trying to "show force of empire" in Syria. To blackmail Europe "we will capture you in 2 days". Actually not

[OUTLAW 09]

For those military tacticians...there is an inherent similarity between the way the Russian military fought in their invasion of eastern Ukraine and now in Syria.....should actually be seriously looked at....

In eastern Ukraine the destruction was carried out by GRADs, and Russian artillery and 120mm mortars in Syria all via the RuAF..levels of destruction though are the same to the critical civilian infrastructure.

Liveuamap @Liveuamap
@alcebaid Territories captured during 4 month of intensive airstrikes (map II - #1,2,3) is same as Rovenky-Sverdlovsk+road to Illovaysk

[OUTLAW 09]

Somebody thinks the Saudi's and the Turks are indeed coming....

#Assad, #ISIL & #Kurds all wants their piece of northern #Aleppo rebels-corridor after Turks & Saudis announcement. https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/696657016274751488 …

Northern #Aleppo: #YPG captured #Deir_Jamal from #Syria|n rebels pic.twitter.com/FaOklVjTQJ

From a regime perspective, there is no difference between Shia militia and Kurdish advances on rebel land anymore. pic.twitter.com/3uooXRRrzU
BUT WAIT is not the US directly supporting SDF ie the Kurds......?????

Wait a minute...thought Putin had declared war on the IS Chechen members....
Chechen forces in Syria helping Russia pick bomb targets: state TV
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VH0UF …

OR is Russian finally admitting Russian troops fighting on the ground in Syria....??
AS there have been no major indicators of Chechen troops inside Syria outside of Russian GRU Bdes.....
Kadyrov tells of Chechen troops in Syria: a dream come true, or another aspirational effort to impress Kremlin? http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/1700083.html …

Kadyrov trained his spetsnaz at the ME NATO training bases, embedded them into ISIS in Syria for reconnaissance. https://twitter.com/CurrentTimeTv/status/696665043224567808 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Report from N #Aleppo town.
#Russia's war keeps targeting ALL people, not just rebels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YggfqXNPMYk …

Footage
Heavy Russian airstrikes on Al-Lataminah and the northern #Hama front again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdg1WGy2P3c …

News
Russian cluster bomb attacks on W & E Garyiah in #Daraa prov. before the #Assad push
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=232gB_2pPyQ …

99% confirmed: #YPG took #Deir_Jamal this morning.
Next target: The race for #Tall_Rifat with #Assad and #ISIS.

[OUTLAW 09]

Assad: We take #Azaz b/c terrorists hold it.
#ISIS: We take #Azaz b/c it's part of our caliphate.
#YPG: We take #Azaz b/c ppl asked us to.

BreakingReports
#Assad, #ISIS and #YPG now attacking rebel territories in northern #Aleppo simultaneously.

Activists also report, an #Assad chopper drops barrel bombs on Tannurah at the rebel-#YPG front.
#Aleppo #Syria

Anadan, Kafr Hamra and Maarath Al-Artik were hit so far.

News (not really)
The Russian air force conducts heavy cluster bomb raids on remaining civilians centres in #Aleppo prov. since the morning

Reference Iranian backed "transnational shia jihadists"

New Kata'ib Hezbollah video, presenting used #US arms and attacks on #US troops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CR0Tr9C-4g …
So this is the end result of what the Obama "Iran Deal" got the US.....???

Footage
Heavily armed Russian Su-24 over #Homs province yesterday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQXIyvyE9c …

Footage
Tell Mousbin , soth of #Bashkuy, still under rebel control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9frHxBeqn8 …
Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage
T-90A north of #Aleppo still carries @RuRailways heavy wight sign on its side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnHF98YGUYU …

[OUTLAW 09]

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Sheikh_Saed neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alHalk neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Ein_alTal neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alSukari neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

BREAKING
Massacre in #alSaleheen, aftermath #Russia airstrikes targeting the neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alSaleheen neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 8

[OUTLAW 09]

After the rather blunt Turkish statement yesterday .."the US must choose either Turkey or the Kurds"...the envoy better be carrying a command to cease their advance to close the Azaz corridor and stop capturing Arab towns and focus fully on attacking IS and not doing joint operations with Assad and Putin....

Otherwise the US has driven Turkey out of NATO...not a good move....

Exclusive#US envoy composed of 20 vehicles crossed #Syria-n border towards #Rmelan military base near #Qamishli.

[OUTLAW 09]

Obama and Kerry still do nothing but talk as they did in eastern Ukraine after day after day of Russian attacks in 2014/2015 until today......

Detainees in custody of Syrian government dying on a massive scale amounting to "extermination" of civilians under state policy -U.N. report

[OUTLAW 09]

Finally : Anna News report about Deir ez-Zor :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrjoPVWld4 …
pic.twitter.com/vh8hjvptxk

[OUTLAW 09]

Some of the IDs of the alleged 72 (?) Syrian gov fighters killed in Jaish al-Islam ambush yesterday.
https://twitter.com/Bani_Omaia/status/696744086318010369 …

IHS4Defense Security @IHS4DefRiskSec
Russian deployment of new Pantsyr to Syria confirmed: Russia has deployed the new version of the Pantsyr air d...
http://bit.ly/1T0c0gO

Cluster Bombs Used in Talbiseh, Homs, Match Type Seen at Russia’s Syrian Airbase
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2016/02/08/cluster-bombs-used-in-talbiseh-homs-match-type-seen-at-russias-syria-airbase/ …

Russian bombing in Jan 2016 killed ca 700 Syrian civilians; they killed 35k+ in just 6 weeks in Chechnya, 21 years ago exactly

[OUTLAW 09]

For social media open source analysts

First Draft @firstdraftnews
Check out the First Draft toolbox to get to grips with everything you need for verification
http://firstdraftnews.com/the-first-draft-toolbox-for-newsgathering-and-verification/ …
pic.twitter.com/QqEn6P4Tm3

[OUTLAW 09]

Stuff of nightmares in this UN report on Syrian regime jails.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A-HRC-31-CRP1_en.pdf …

[OUTLAW 09]

Can the dismal failures of both Obama and Kerry get any worse..yes they can and will......

Syria has been the bloody graveyard of American conviction: America’s Syrian Shame
http://nyti.ms/1UXEozf


The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Columnist

America’s Syrian Shame
Roger Cohen FEB. 8, 2016


The troubling thing is that the Putin policy on Syria has become hard to distinguish from the Obama policy.

Sure, the Obama administration still pays lip service to the notion that Assad is part of the problem and not the solution, and that if the Syrian leader may survive through some political transition period he cannot remain beyond that. But these are words. It is President Vladimir Putin and Russia who are “making the weather” in Syria absent any corresponding commitment or articulable policy from President Obama.
Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, is now virtually encircled by the Syrian Army. A war that has already produced a quarter of a million dead, more than 4.5 million refugees, some 6.5 million internally displaced, and the destabilization of Europe through a massive influx of terrorized people, is about to see further abominations as Aleppo agonizes.

Aleppo may prove to be the Sarajevo of Syria. It is already the Munich.

By which I mean that the city’s plight today, its exposure to Putin’s whims and a revived Assad’s pitiless designs, is a result of the fecklessness and purposelessness over almost five years of the Obama administration. The president and his aides have hidden at various times behind the notions that Syria is marginal to core American national interests; that they have thought through the downsides of intervention better than others; that the diverse actors on the ground are incomprehensible or untrustworthy; that there is no domestic or congressional support for taking action to stop the war or shape its outcome; that there is no legal basis for establishing “safe areas” or taking out Assad’s air power; that Afghanistan and Iraq are lessons in the futility of projecting American power in the 21st century; that Syria will prove Russia’s Afghanistan as it faces the ire of the Sunni world; and that the only imperative, whatever the scale of the suffering or the complete evisceration of American credibility, must be avoidance of another war in the Middle East.

Where such feeble evasions masquerading as strategy lead is to United States policy becoming Putin’s policy in Syria, to awkward acquiescence to Moscow’s end game, and to embarrassed shrugs encapsulating the wish that — perhaps, somehow, with a little luck — Putin may crush ISIS.

Obama’s Syrian agonizing, his constant what-ifs and recurrent “what then?” have also lead to the slaughter in Paris and San Bernardino. They have contributed to a potential unraveling of the core of the European Union as internal borders eliminated on a free continent are re-established as a response to an unrelenting refugee tide — to which the United States has responded by taking in around 2,500 Syrians since 2012, or about 0.06 percent of the total.

Syria is now the Obama administration’s shame, a debacle of such dimensions that it may overshadow the president’s domestic achievements.

Obama’s decision in 2013, at a time when ISIS scarcely existed, not to uphold the American “red line” on Assad’s use of chemical weapons was a pivotal moment in which he undermined America’s word, incurred the lasting fury of Sunni Gulf allies, shored up Assad by not subjecting him to serious one-off punitive strikes, and opened the way for Putin to determine Syria’s fate.

Putin policy is American policy because the United States has offered no serious alternative. As T.S. Eliot wrote after Munich in 1938, “We could not match conviction with conviction, we had no ideas with which we could either meet or oppose the ideas opposed to us.” Syria has been the bloody graveyard of American conviction.

It is too late, as well as pure illusion, to expect significant change in Obama’s Syria policy. Aleppo’s agony will be drawn-out. But the president should at least do everything
in his power, as suggested in a report prepared by Michael Ignatieff at the Harvard Kennedy School, to “surge” the number of Syrian refugees taken in this year to 65,000 from his proposed 10,000. As the report notes, “If we allow fear to dictate policy, terrorists win.”

Putin already has.

[OUTLAW 09]

Kind of sums up Iranian non linear warfare..so NATO needs a much larger "view of non linear warfare"......

This goes to the term.."transnational Shia jihadists" developed and deployed first by Khomeini......and now Khamenei
Khamenei.ir
‏@khamenei_ir Martyred defenders of shrines devoted their lives to defend country, nation, religion and the Islamic Revolution.

Notice the term "Islamic Revolution"...I take heat everytime I use that term here from some SWJ commenters.....but if one looks at the 50 odd years of articles and stratements made by Khomeini it is all there to read...and this WH never saw it coming?????

[OUTLAW 09]

Kind of sums up Iranian non linear warfare..so NATO needs a much larger "view of non linear warfare"......

This goes to the term.."transnational Shia jihadists" developed and deployed first by Khomeini......and now Khamenei
Khamenei.ir
‏@khamenei_ir Martyred defenders of shrines devoted their lives to defend country, nation, religion and the Islamic Revolution.

Notice the term "Islamic Revolution"...I take heat everytime I use that term here from some SWJ commenters.....but if one looks at the 50 odd years of articles and stratements made by Khomeini it is all there to read...and this WH never saw it coming?????

Today Iranian General Rezia died in Aleppo hundreds of miles away from any known Shia shrine in Syria

OR let's use the Khameinei "speak"......

@khamenei_ir “I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. 8:12

Obama seriously assumed there is some form of Iranian moderation?????

It is almost like the US and NATO do not want to address non linear warfare outside of Europe......

[OUTLAW 09]

Transnational Shia jihadists"........

September 2012: Hizbollah denies it's fighters r in Syria, let alone the dozens of yellow coffins

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Oct-11/191066-nasrallah-denies-hezbollah-members-fighting-with-syrian-regime.ashx …

[OUTLAW 09]

Despite being rained on by over 1200 Russian air strikes and a major transnational Shia jihadi merceanry army ground attack ...FSA is struggling to craw back territory and slowing is in fact starting to push back......

#FSA 1st Coastal Division | regained some points from regime in #Karojh village #Latakia:
https://youtu.be/wFstI3zB1uU
pic.twitter.com/SNxIOLGbvI

Assad and Putin might have made a tactical mistake in reading their own press releases and thinking they have badly damaged the FSA and other anti Assad groups.....this is far from being over.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Different #FSA groups may use "their" BM-21 from the same launcher w/diff. flags...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuOUhMatDYI …

News
The #FSA still receives fresh BM-21 missiles for their 1 remaining MLRS in N #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnelUnB_4AM …

Div. 13 Grad MRLS shelling shias N-Aleppo
https://youtu.be/FuOUhMatDYI

Footage
Deadly #FSA TOW attack on #Assad ATGM position in #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuAHPk6hcjU …

Footage, exclusively available to @BILD, shows who circles over #Aleppo city as it gets bombed: A #Russian Su-34 !!

BreakingNews
14 civilians including women and children killed in #Russian air strike on #Aleppo's #Salhin quarter.
Footage

Another group of Syrian rebels drives into certain death / to the #Aleppo arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ZBBZrJ_Ik …

[OUTLAW 09]

Different #FSA groups may use "their" BM-21 from the same launcher w/diff. flags...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuOUhMatDYI …

News
The #FSA still receives fresh BM-21 missiles for their 1 remaining MLRS in N #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnelUnB_4AM …

Footage
Deadly #FSA TOW attack on #Assad ATGM position in #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuAHPk6hcjU …

Footage, exclusively available to @BILD, shows who circles over #Aleppo city as it gets bombed: A #Russian Su-34 !!

BreakingNews
14 civilians including women and children killed in #Russian air strike on #Aleppo's #Salhin quarter.
Footage

Another group of Syrian rebels drives into certain death / to the #Aleppo arena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1ZBBZrJ_Ik …

After the last three weeks of Russian attacks on the UAF and now their deliberate killing of civilians in Syria....Putin will be kissing his hope for from Kerry and Obama sanctions relieve goodbye and the EU will defintely not be lifting them.....

Al Arabiya English ‏@AlArabiya_Eng
#BREAKING #Germany's #Merkel: 'appalled and horrified' by suffering caused by #Russian bombing in #Syria

Germany condemned #Russia'n bombing on #Syria's #Aleppo
Merkel: Russia violate #UN resolution bc raids on civilians

Russia'n airstrikes on city center of #Aleppo in northern #Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61GMoYn188U …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.190815&lon=37.146900&z=16&m=b …

14 dead & dozen wounded after #Russia'n airstrikes on #Aleppo's Salheen district
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.184996&lon=37.165031&z=15&m=b …

[OUTLAW 09]

AFP news agency 
‏@AFP #BREAKING UN probe accuses Damascus of 'extermination' of detainees

And at the same time the UN signs a new health cooperation program with the Assad regime

AND the UN Special Envoy still has creditability in the eyes of the HNC....think not.....

NOT even sure the UN really knows what side they are supporting BUT neutrality is out the window for sure.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria regime preparing major Darayya assault
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566582-syria-regime-preparing-major-darayya-assault-report …

Russians using cluster munitions absolutely everywhere in #Syria, UXOs in eastern Gharaya in rural #Daraa, #Syria
http://youtu.be/DrMKTIeK808

[OUTLAW 09]

Under the watchful Western eyes, Syria unravels
http://ara.tv/cjr78 via @hisham_melhem

“Is Kerry saying that after 300,000 dead (mostly Syrians) over 4 million refugees and more than one third of Syrians displaced internally, he still does not know who is serious and who is not?”
Hisham Melhem

[OUTLAW 09]

Hisham Melhem


Once again tens of thousands of Syrians are being uprooted and forced to flee their ancestral lands around the ancient city of Aleppo by the incessant assaults waged against them by the government that claims to represent them in Damascus. The country roads leading to the Turkish borders are being traversed by haggard people carrying with them remnants of shattered lives, dragging little children shivering in February’s cold, wandering under the last skies of Syria, and wondering if they will ever return.

Syria’s northern skies have been given by the Assad regime to Russia’s prowling bombers which have been spewing deadly fires and cluster bombs indiscriminately against areas controlled by the opposition groups. The ground has been given to marauding fighters from neighboring Lebanon and Iraq and from as far away as Afghanistan and other Central Asian states, in what can only be called a new “Shiite Internationale”, to help a minority regime bereft of the manpower needed to retake and subdue the rebellious country.

Power of diplomacy

Those in the West, particularly in the United States, who may have allowed themselves to entertain the scandalous notion that things could not get worse in Syria, should be forced to see the blank and numb faces of people on the move who are already beyond pain and hope, to realize the folly of their wishful thinking. Syria’s new tragic chapter is unfolding under watchful but impotent Western eyes.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has a deep and almost mystical belief in the power of diplomacy to settle violent disputes, a belief based on the naïve assumption that his peers are as rational and as well-meaning like him, found himself doing what he does best with Russia; pleading for cooperation, and reminding Russians of their obligation to enforce the U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254 that they co-sponsored to provide a roadmap to a political agreement.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest was truly earnest when he borrowed one of Kerry’s retorts, reminding the Russians that their “military strategy inside of Syria undermines the goals of their political strategy”. If only those obtuse Russians would listen to us explaining to them how best to reconcile their seemingly contradictory goals. The naiveté of this political position is matched only by the immense self-deception the Obama administration shared with many Syria “hands” in academe claiming that there is no ‘military’ solution to the civil war in Syria.

The American Civil War, the country’s most wrenching and bloody existential threat was settled by the application of uncompromising violence advocated by President Abraham Lincoln, a visionary and a man of peace. But, beyond the fact that many a civil war was settled by force, and beyond the fact that President Obama even under the best favorable conditions for the use of (limited) military force against Syria in the summer of 2013, before he infamously balked, today we find Russia, Iran and the Assad regime bent of fighting, even when they claim to be negotiating.

‘Essential Syria’

The quick convening and suspension of the Geneva III “proximity talks” brought to the fore once again, the Obama administration’s eagerness to get the talks underway under the fog of ambiguity, obfuscation and contradictory interpretations of the terms of reference, with the hope that the “process” of indirect talks will lead to serious face to face negotiations.

The Russia/Iran/Assad axis from the beginning wanted to use the talks as a cover to continue its assaults on key targeted areas, to consolidate what the regime and its apologists call “essential Syria”, that is the area stretching from the South, then Damascus, and along a “corridor” along the full length of Syrian-Lebanese borders, all the way to Homs, Hama, the whole majority Alawite coastal region and ultimately Aleppo and maybe link up with Kurdish groups along the borders with Turkey.

Most of those Syrians remaining in the country live within this useful area, and those who live in the eastern and central parts of the country will be left mostly to the not so tender mercy of ISIS and other jihadi groups, who the regime hopes would engage in an Islamist fratricide under the bombs that are being dropped on them by the United States and its international coalition.

The Geneva fiasco

For five years the Obama administration has displayed a remarkable rigidity in its position on Syria. The United States will not alter its opposition to deploying even a limited fighting force in Syria - other than the occasional and temporary deployment of small numbers of Special Forces for reconnaissance and operations against ISIS targets and leaders - regardless of what happens on the ground. Not even Assad’s use of chemical weapons, or Russia’s military intervention, or even the growing Iranian and Hezbollah involvement in Syria.

It is clear by now that President Vladimir Putin, Ayatollah Khamenei and Bashar Assad have taken the measure of the American president and are convinced that he will not extract a price from them, directly or indirectly. Why would Secretary Kerry for one moment believe that any member of the infamous axis, particularly when they are doing relatively well militarily, will negotiate in good faith?

What would happen if the U.S. and its regional allies decided to provide lethal defensive weapons, say effective anti-aircraft missiles to deny Russia mastery of the skies of northern Syria? The TOW anti-tank missiles the U.S. provided earlier to small opposition groups were very effective against Assad’s tanks.

After the collapse of Geneva III, Secretary Kerry was quoted as saying that he had a “robust” conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov regarding Russia’s supposed commitment to a political resolution in Syria, then he added that talks are continuing in search of a ceasefire, and that the next few days would determine if “people are serious, or people are not serious”.

It is also astonishing that Kerry would accept to participate in such talks without the clear Russian/Syrian explicit acceptance of the terms of U.N. Security Council resolution 2254, including its humanitarian and ceasefire aspects. Negotiations among warring parties always reflect the realities on the battlefield. This was true throughout history and regardless of the cultures of the warring parties.

The axiom of conflicts is immortalized by the great Greek historian Thucydides in the famous Melian Dialogue in The History of the Peloponnesian War. The Melians, who were defeated by the powerful Athenians, were told that “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they are forced to accept”. This is precisely how the Putin/Assad/Khamenei gang sees the outcome of the conflict in Syria.

Pleading, beseeching, appealing and imploring them in this context is tantamount to capitulation. But since President Obama is unwilling to entertain any military option to extract a price from the Putin/Assad/Khamenei gang, Secretary Kerry will continue his quixotic diplomatic “tilting at windmills.”

The sacking of Aleppo

Tamerlane was the last conqueror to sack Aleppo in 1400. His hordes overran the city very quickly, but their deeds were violent and merciless. Those who have been laying siege to one of the most treasured cities in the Middle East and slowly sacking its historic neighborhoods in the last five years, are mostly local killers with some help from foreign hordes. Many of them are in the service of the ruler of Damascus.

We are witnessing and will continue to witness the sacking of a great city, and the deed will be recorded, and documented with the requisite drones giving us a bird’s-eye view, of those killed because they resisted, of the books, stones, woods, and glass that where once libraries, forts, museums, graceful streets and homes, churches and mosques and schools, the very stuff of one layer of civilization on top of another. The destruction so far is heartbreaking. Now the focus and fear is on a besieged population.

Now that Russia and Assad’s new foreign legionnaires have all but pummeled from the air and surrounded the famed city on the ground, we are seeing the depopulation of a city that has been inhabited for many millennia. The new hordes may use modern weaponry and communication gear and can produce slick videos to post on Youtube, but their tactics of “starve or surrender” are as decidedly medieval as the siege engine or the catapult.

A new river of refugees will run through the Syrian countryside to nearby Turkey first, but then will form new tributaries to other countries. An anxious Europe will watch with trepidation, and Lebanon and Jordan will get closer and closer to the day of reckoning when they could collapse under the weight of desperate and sullen refugees who see no hope or consolation.

The United States and the countries of the European Union and regional powers will provide more funds to those countries hosting the refugees, as they did during the recent London conference of the donor countries, but this support could only prolong the agony. Because the regional countries cannot by themselves contain the slow collapse of whole societies, Western involvement is imperative.

In the summer of 2013, when President Obama reneged on his commitment to militarily punish the Assad regime, the threat of ISIS was limited. Today the American president is contemplating the use of limited military force against ISIS positions and leaders in Libya, a stone’s throw away from southern Europe.
Continued

One of the most brutal assessments of the US WH FP....

[OUTLAW 09]

And now what does Obama and Kerry have to say about this Russian statement........


In the bitter quarrel with Turkey over the latest alleged violation of the Turkish airspace by the Russian Sukhoi SU-34 frontline bomber, Russia sees no role for NATO to play.

On the contrary, Turkish Prime-Minister Ahmet Davutoglu instructed his country’ s Foreign Ministry to demand from Russia to give the explanations over the alleged incident straight to the NATO secretary general, Russia’s RIA News agency reported.

Russia’s diplomats have been strongly denying the latest accusation by Turkey and her partners, the Russian Ministry for Defense called it the “unsubstantiated propaganda” made by “ignorant propagandists watching Hollywood blockbusters.”

“There were no violations of Turkish airspace by planes of the Russian air group in the Syrian Arab Republic,” shrugged off Turkey’ s claims the Ministry’ s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov last week. “[Even if there were], none of the [Turkish] radars are able to establish the type and the nationality of the aircraft – whether Russian or of the U.S.-led so-called anti-ISIS coalition.”

Turkey, U.S. and NATO insisted that the violation of Turkey’s airspace indeed took place on January, 29. The US State Department’s Assistant Secretary and Department Spokesperson John Kirby called it “not accusation” but a “simple fact.”

Not for the first time, the U.S. stood strongly by its ally Turkey. “We are aware of reports and can confirm that yesterday another Russian combat aircraft violated Turkish – and NATO – airspace,” the Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said in a written statement on the next day after the incident.

“On the 29th of January, another Russian combat airplane violated Turkish – and NATO – airspace,” the State Department’s John Kirby said, echoing word for word his colleague from the Pentagon.

Mr. Kirby declined the offer to provide any proof of the Turkey airspace violation by Russian bomber. “It’s not our responsibility to provide proof to the Russians for something they did wrong,” he said to the RT reporter.

For its part, NATO also strongly endorsed Turkey’s claim of Russian aircraft violating Turkish – and NATO – airspace. Organization’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg made a statement calling on Russia “to act responsibly and to fully respect ‘NATO airspace.'”

“Russia must take all necessary measures to ensure that such violations do not happen again,” Mr. Stoltenberg added. “[NATO] stands in solidarity” with Turkey, its member.

Russia’ s blunt reaction on this cognate NATO and U.S. statements sheds light on Russia’ s perspective on the “NATO airspace” question – probably with far-reaching implications around the world.

“It’ s strange to hear the reports that address us to go to the [NATO] alliance [to clear the situation over the alleged violation] because such a notion as ‘NATO airspace’ does not exist”, stated Andrei Kelin, head of the department of European cooperation of the Russian Foreign Ministry to RIA News agency.

“What does exist is the sovereign airspace of each country separately. [Just] last fall the Turkish representatives were saying that this [alleged violation of the Turkish airspace by the Russian jet-fighter that was shot down by Turkey] was not a NATO’s issue but the issue exclusively of the bilateral relations.” “I see no reason for this role [to negotiate the settlement of the current conflict]to be taken on by NATO,” he said addressing Mr. Stoltenberg’ s statement.

The Russian public holds 13th NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg in low regard for his clumsy and unprofessional response to the mass slaughter of children by Anders Breivik in 2011 in Norway when 77 people were killed and more than 150 wounded. At the time of Breivik’s terrorist attacks Mr. Stoltenberg served as Norway’ s Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the Russian media blames Turkey for the latter’s everyday violations of Greek sovereign airspace.

Since employing its cutting-edge S-400 air-defense systems in Syria, Russia has taken full control over Syrian airspace (and a big chunk of Turkish airspace, too), becoming a master-in-chief of the Syrian skies and longing for a chance to avenge herself for the Russian plane shot down by Turkey and the Russian pilot killed by pro-Turkey insurgents last November.

For now, when the Russia-backed Syrian army fights Assad’s enemies less than 20 miles from the Turkish border, Russia made it clear that when she has a chance, she is not going to allow Turkey to hide behind NATO. The dangerous escalation has a chance soon to make it known if there really is such a thing as “NATO airspace” after all.

[OUTLAW 09]

SAUDI ARABIA: Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir reaffirms Saudi Arabia's readiness to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS - Al Arabiya

BREAKINGREPORT
Saudi Arabia mobilises a 150.000 troops coalition to enter #Syria from #Turkey.
http://arabic.cnn.com/world/2016/02/

Reading the whole report, this force would not enter #Syria before April, meaning almost all of #Syria will be under pro-#Assad/#YPG then.

SDF/#YPG take more of #Aleppo -> #Turkey Highway
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=3

[OUTLAW 09]

Breaking on #Syrian social media now: #BasharAssad's mother's funeral in #Qurdaha hit by missiles. Several relatives injured or killed.

AhrarAlSham | "guided missile" strike on Assad militia on the #Zahraa front #Aleppo:
https://youtu.be/cgiLY4KrcCQ

Syria-n Coalition Warns of Imminent Massacre in #Darayya #Damascus, Holds #UNSC Responsible
http://ow.ly/Y5yq8

6 Iranians #IRGC Ali Jokar,Mohamad Masrur,Fakhr Taqavi,Sajjad Dehghan,Tofiqi,Hedayat Qolami killed in N Aleppo,Syria

Incredible work! @carolmalouf's much awaited interview with captured Lebanese Hizballah members taken in Rif Halab.
https://youtu.be/dw-fVbuerXM

Pro-regime selling this as #SAA in N. #Aleppo, but clearly Iraqi Shi'a militias

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat......anything on your end on this comment from a few minutes ago...??

Unconfirmed reports of many Turkish airforce jets spotted over Azaz in north #Aleppo corridor today - @kasimf
pic.twitter.com/1BMxzGrrjk

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian lies reaching the heights now of literally "outer space" in the face of a sheer volumne of social media confirmed videos......

Russian lies at their finest........

Russia's official rejected the UN head Ban Ki-moon statement on Russia bombing Syria - "You don't have proof"

https://twitter.com/altnik1/status/696731879400218625 …

[OUTLAW 09]

For those who wonder how an IRAM launch looks like in pictures.
pic.twitter.com/050XjJbPTw

Russian Mi-35Ms at Sh'eirat airbase, Syria.
https://twitter.com/syrianmilitary/status/696784398474203136 …

[OUTLAW 09]

The newest addition to Deir ez-Zor airbase is not an aircraft however, but rather this Chinese JY-27 radar.

Four Chinese radars ;-) (at least).

SyAAF MiG-21bis '1597' returning from a sortie over Deir ez-Zor. Aircraft looks old and worn, oh wait it is.

Da'ish targeted a 2S1 "Gvozdika" self propelled Howitzer with a KONKURS #ATGM west of Tal Maksur

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo. #YPG have taken control of Kafr Antun and have now surrounded #Minaq Airbase from south & west
pic.twitter.com/KTLTd0RGJ4

[OUTLAW 09]

Senior #ISIS commander "Bassam" arrested in Germany, was posing as a "refugee."
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/islamischer-staat-razzia-bei-mutmasslichem-is-kommandeur-in-rheinland-pfalz-a-1075957.html …
In German......

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Orthodox Church blesses use of military force and cluster ammunition in Syria and next day meeting The Pope in Cuba. Feel humiliated
Foreign Affairs
Russia is slowly taking control over control of the Black Sea, and NATO should be worried:
http://ow.ly/Y5sCn
pic.twitter.com/7oSGbI6LPv

"UN report: Syrian government actions amount to 'extermination' "
Is Assad & Russia still part of solution ?@bueti
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/08/un-report-syrian-government-actions-amount-to-extermination-crime-humanity …

[OUTLAW 09]

WOW.......nothing "new" about this "NEWS"..........

Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
Hizbollah prisoners say in battlefields the "Syrian Army" exists in name only, mostly Iraqi, Afghan & Lebanese https://twitter.com/PhillipSmyth/status/696749407203627009 …

We worry about IS as jihadi's but forget at the same time the Iranian transnational jihadi's......defending "Islamic revolution" as stated yesterday by Khamenei.......

[OUTLAW 09]

For US MSM this appears to be "new News"....for social media "old News" for the last five years....begs the question as to where "exactly has the NYTs been"...?????

New York Times World ✔ @nytimesworld
As tens of thousands flee Syria, a U.N. report accuses their government of “inhuman actions” against civilians.
http://nyti.ms/1XeXYbE

A wedding in the destruction of St George's Church in #Homs. Powerful image. 1st wedding since being destroyed #Syria
pic.twitter.com/DsN8cMTYJK

APPEARS Putin is getting a tad sensitive to the reporting from Syria and with the increased activist coverage that he is deliberately targeting civilians....
Russia stopped airstrikes on aid convoys crossing #Turkey border towards #Aleppo (bc presence of int. press?)
pic.twitter.com/hUfBt0VoIr

[OUTLAW 09]

Hisham Melhem



One of the most brutal assessments of the US WH FP....

Putin knew he had foreign policy green light when Obama decided to try and hang his hat on a legacy of bringing troops home

[OUTLAW 09]

Early phases of Russian non linear warfare being directed squarely at Germany now.....Putin knows the EU will follow whatever Merkel recommends reference the lifting of sanctions....and she has a strong voice in the EU over Syria...

"Putin’s continuing support to keep Assad in power has a direct correlation with Merkel’s weakening support at home" http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62692 …

Merkel 'Horrified' At Russia's Syria Campaign As HRW Reports Cluster-Bomb Use
- http://go.shr.lc/1nUwYlw

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria Heavy airstrikes on northern rural #Hama & #Aleppo by #Russia this morning

Syrian opposition insists Russia should end air strikes: Interfax
http://reut.rs/1RkJR4f
Putin actually agreed with the Syrian opposition when he signed onto the UNSC resolution 2254.....seems he signs and then ignores what he wants to all the while "claiming" he is adhering to "international law"....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia is now lashing out at the world for being accused of deliberating targeting and killing civilians with dumb bombs, cluster munitions and thermobaric weapons....ALONG with the utter destruction of critical civilian infrastructure and residential areas....

They got away with it in Chechnya and Georgia.......BUT even now the UN SecGen is calling out Putin and they do not like it one bit.....

Russian Foreign Ministry Accuses UN Secretary-General of Bias:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-foreign-ministry-accuses-un-secretary-general-of-bias/559064.html …


The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of an anti-Moscow bias in his assessment of its actions in Syria, according to remarks published on the ministry's website Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that “intentionally or unintentionally” Ban became involved in a “campaign unleashed in foreign [Western] media to distort Russia's role in settling the Syrian crisis, including the Russian Aerospace Force operation and the alleged civilian victims that supposedly resulted from it.”

“We have always believed and continue to believe that comments by the chief administrative official of the global organization [UN] should, in line with his status, preserve impartiality and objectivity,” Zakharova said. “In this case it clearly did not happen.”

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, known for her virulent anti-Western and pro-Kremlin rhetoric, was referring to Ban's interview with the Financial Times, published on Feb. 5.

Ban said Russia's air strikes in Syria a week earlier had caused the breakdown of peace talks in Geneva, and warned that an immediate ceasefire was needed for diplomatic efforts to have a chance of succeeding, the Financial Times reported.

Neither Russia nor Syria have been “faithful” in implementing a UN Security Council resolution, adopted unanimously in December 2015, that calls for a nationwide ceasefire and an end to the bombing of civilians, Ban said, FT reported.

Despite the increased cooperation Russia had shown since late last year, Moscow's involvement in the search for a diplomatic solution to the crisis was still “not enough,” Ban was quoted as saying.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed Ban’s comments last Friday, saying Russia's air strikes in Syria were “undermining” efforts to find a peaceful solution to the civil war, Agence France-Presse reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday accused Russia of indiscriminate bombings of civilians in Syria's Aleppo, Reuters reported.

“We are now, over the last few days, not only appalled but also shocked by the human suffering of tens of thousands of people through bombing attacks, and also bombing attacks originating from the Russian side,” she was quoted as saying during a visit to Turkish capital Ankara.

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan, whose country is a member of NATO, described his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as an “occupier” in Syria, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Erdogan's comments came after the recent suspension of a UN-hosted peace conference on Syria in Geneva — talks that were adjourned over the recent offensive of Moscow-backed Syrian government forces against rebels near Aleppo.

Russia claims its air strikes in Syria, which began on Sept. 30, 2015, are targeting terrorists. But Western governments accuse Moscow of seeking to bolster the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad by targeting his political opponents.


THIS kind of negates the Russian FM spokeswoman's many lies.......

BreakingNews
Around 25 Syrian towns are under intense #Russian shelling right now.
Jets, missiles & reportedly even Cruise Missiles used.

News
Multiple #Russian airstrikes on #Anadan,#KafrHamra & #Aleppo's #Rashideen, #Sukari, #Ameria & #Fardos quarters since the early morning

Nightly ballistic missile attacks on FreeSyrian towns by Hezbollah become a more and more regular appearance since several weeks.

Footage
Doctors search for wounds of little girl after night missile attack on #Talbiseh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYhrplHak_A …

Transnational Shia jihadi's hard at work and largely being ignored by Obama/Kerry due to the "Iran Deal" it seems....
Footage
Victory parade by foreign Shiite terrorist groups in #Zahraa town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW1ByqOE2uE …
#Aleppo #Syria

Footage
Russian airstrikes also targeted civilians in #AlAtarib since the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z9rv33YFKY …

Seems like #Putin
"Operation Empty Aleppo"
started.
They'll kill and chase out as many people as possible before they shut the city down.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia is now lashing out at the world for being accused of deliberating targeting and killing civilians with dumb bombs, cluster munitions and thermobaric weapons....ALONG with the utter destruction of critical civilian infrastructure and residential areas....

They got away with it in Chechnya and Georgia.......BUT even now the UN SecGen is calling out Putin and they do not like it one bit.....

Russian Foreign Ministry Accuses UN Secretary-General of Bias:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-foreign-ministry-accuses-un-secretary-general-of-bias/559064.html …

NOTICE the Russian FM spokeswoman totally fails to mention the Russian signature on the UNSC resolution 2254 that stipulates the stopping of any bombing by anyone of civilians and allowance of the flow of humanitarian aid...NEITHER done by Putin...YET she completely brushes over this simple fact of life....

AND we wonder why Russian has not implemented a single point written in Minsk 2 which they also signed.......

STALIN was once quoted at a UdSSR CP meeting in the early 30s..."we will sign any agreement that benefits the SU and then ignore them when it does not benefit the SU......".

MAYBE this is what is bugging the Russian FM spokesperson who is noted for her aggressive anti West remarks and proPutin remarks.....

As these are the reports being referred to by the UN SecGen Ban....

"War crimes" being the language used by @unhcr to describe the acts #Assad's regime committed against civilians.

[OUTLAW 09]

For those SWJ readers and for the Obama WH who still believe Turkey and the Saudi's are not serious about their comments to enter Syria....the indicators have been there for a week or so now coupled with the joint military exercise with Pakistan.....

Video recorded last Wednesday near #Qurayyat ~30km to #Jordan showing massive #Saudi army convoys mobilizing #Syria
facebook.com/100009574543230/videos/1537809923214811/ …

Video depicts the IFVs needed to support at least two armored brigades....possibly three.

The Saudi's are still ever so gently signaling to the US they are waiting for Obama to make a decision...suspect WHEN Obama does not respond which is what he normally does when a decision on the use of force is pending...the Saudi's will move saying "we went because you failed to led".....

SAUDI ARABIA: Foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir reaffirms Saudi Arabia's readiness to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight ISIS - Al Arabiya

NOTE: there has been a single comment indicating that the Saudi video might be a fake...commenter claimed the trucks were UAE and it was from an older exercise....no one has geo tagged the video nor checked to see if it have been photo shopped....no other comment like this has appeared on the net.

[OUTLAW 09]

TOW #ATGM vs. Shilka in Latakia
https://youtu.be/r6epEBO48mg

Nice hit by #Ahrar on an Assadist bunker line
https://youtu.be/cgiLY4KrcCQ

Assadi attempt on Ara in the vicinity of Salma advanced, up to & controlling 2 points, however immediately kicked back over. #Lattakia

AhrarSham attacks russian Hmeimeem with more grads. That's all it needs folks. #Lattakia

Anti Assad opposition troops while being hurt by the massive Russian bombardment seem to now be taking it in stride....
Airstrike and this mujahid commander does not move an inch:

http://www.raqqa-sl.com/en/?p=1669&utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

“ISIS” military lull before the storm

Posted by: Abu Mohammed in press, Raqqa news 08/02/2016 

Exclusive – RBSS


ISIS didn’t used to have a military recession like the one they’re having now in the light of the stopping of most of fighting fronts with the various armed factions and armed militias, when the front of Ein Essa is safe for the militia of popular protection units after it was one of the most ferocity fronts as in Dir Elzor in the east, where fighting stopped in almost completely since the last major operation launched by ISIS against the regime and its militias, leaving the north of Aleppo raged against the backdrop of clashes between factions of ISIS and the FSA in conjunction with the Russian aerial bombardment and the military progress of the regime forces towards the Nobil and Zahra.

Rally in Raqqa and fear of a repeat of Tel Abyad scenario

Raqqa city is witnessing a rise recently in the number of members of ISIS and his cars and pervasive barriers at the entrances and exits of the city as well as intensive patrols, which suggests that something is being planned.
According to our reporter in turn, that ISIS brought in reinforcements, including mortars and long-range missiles were also able to get information from different sources confirm the ISIS transferred a large number of confiscated cars to bombed cars is likely the possibility of processing an attack widely unknown destination until the moment

For his part, Munther a young man from the city said: “We can say for sure that what is happening is the lull before the storm, I do not know if ISIS will attack somebody or that the city will be attacked by the regime or militia of protection units, do not want to get rid of the criminals to another criminal like it comes as happened in Tel Abyad, I know that the Russian bombing will stop in case of regime control or protection units control of the city but all residents will be displaced and northern countryside is living example of that. “

Destination is Aleppo

Aleppo Lives today the most difficult days in the Syrian revolution as it is now in danger of collapse at any moment with the documenting of nearly 150 strike within one day added to the regime progress backed by Hezbollah militia and Iraqi militia and Russian mercenaries from the point of Nobil and Zahra, at a time ISIS are trying to pressure from the opposite side to put it in the jaws of the pliers.

ISIS, as usual, trying to exploit the Russian military pressure on the city to subjugate and the opening of new crossings over control of parts of the border with Turkey and in particular with the strangle of it since losing Tel Abyad crossing and stop the flow of fighters, says Abu Mohammed, a bus driver, “I passed in front of several cars of ISIS loaded with fighters and dragging behind mortars I asked them to win their favor in order to avoid harassment where are going guys , to Dir Elzor ? One of them answered me, to Aleppo to fight the FSA there. “


NOTE: Russia and Assad keep saying their are destroying IS BUT notice it appears that the IS military planning goes hand in hand with Putin's air strikes...BOTH strictly targeting FSA.....

And the US response to this...cut back weapon shipments to FSA??????

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia airstrikes targeting Naima town
Daraa Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting #Efis village
Idlib cs Syria FEB 9

1 martyr and 10 wounded victims of Russia airstrikes targeting Kafr_Hamra
Aleppo Syria FEB

Syria 230.000+ #refugees gathered now at border to #Turkey in Atmeh & Khirbat al Jawz N-#Idlib & Azaz N-#Aleppo

Russia airstrikes targeting Umm_Sharshou village
Homs Syria FEB 9

SAA dropped pamphlets over #Talbiseh area, ask "armed men" to surrender themselves & their weapons
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Anadan moments ago..
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Zako Deiri, now Jaish Al-Thuwar leader, arrested by FSA for betraying the brothers & allowing YPG enter Deir Jamal.

Russia airstrikes targeting Maart_Alartiq neighborhood
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Alaamareiyah neighborhood
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting alSukari and alFirdaous neighborhoods, massacre reported..
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

SAA helicopter dropping right now pamphlets over north Homs
SYRIA FEB 9

Average of 450 people victims of Assad SAA bombardment and airstrikes, killed per week in Syria.. "numbers"..

LCC in #Syria summary: At least 478 people were killed in the past 7 days. Mon:50 Sun:33 Sat:51 Fri:67 Thu:136 Wed:76 Tue:65.

Russia airstrikes targeting hirbnafsah
Hama cs Syria FEB

SAA helicopter dropping barrel bombs on Ghurnata
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Teir_Maela
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Kafr_Hamra
Aleppo Syria FEB

Factions from #Haraytan region, united under one name & operation room, new offensive in the outskirts of the city
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 9

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting Hayan, Bayanoun and Anadan already moments ago
Aleppo cs Syria FEB 9

Not less than 20 #SAA foreigners mercenaries terrorists exterminated by Rebels ambush at #Kurds_Mount fronts
#Latakia #Syria FEB 9

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia airstrikes targeting Naima town
Daraa Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting #Efis village
Idlib cs Syria FEB 9

1 martyr and 10 wounded victims of Russia airstrikes targeting Kafr_Hamra
Aleppo Syria FEB

Syria 230.000+ #refugees gathered now at border to #Turkey in Atmeh & Khirbat al Jawz N-#Idlib & Azaz N-#Aleppo

Russia airstrikes targeting Umm_Sharshou village
Homs Syria FEB 9

SAA dropped pamphlets over #Talbiseh area, ask "armed men" to surrender themselves & their weapons
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Anadan moments ago..
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Zako Deiri, now Jaish Al-Thuwar leader, arrested by FSA for betraying the brothers & allowing YPG enter Deir Jamal.

Russia airstrikes targeting Maart_Alartiq neighborhood
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Alaamareiyah neighborhood
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting alSukari and alFirdaous neighborhoods, massacre reported..
Aleppo Syria FEB 9

SAA helicopter dropping right now pamphlets over north Homs
SYRIA FEB 9

Average of 450 people victims of Assad SAA bombardment and airstrikes, killed per week in Syria.. "numbers"..

LCC in #Syria summary: At least 478 people were killed in the past 7 days. Mon:50 Sun:33 Sat:51 Fri:67 Thu:136 Wed:76 Tue:65.

Russia airstrikes targeting hirbnafsah
Hama cs Syria FEB

SAA helicopter dropping barrel bombs on Ghurnata
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Teir_Maela
Homs Syria FEB 9

Russia airstrikes targeting Kafr_Hamra
Aleppo Syria FEB

Factions from #Haraytan region, united under one name & operation room, new offensive in the outskirts of the city
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 9

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting Hayan, Bayanoun and Anadan already moments ago
Aleppo cs Syria FEB 9

Not less than 20 #SAA foreigners mercenaries terrorists exterminated by Rebels ambush at #Kurds_Mount fronts
#Latakia #Syria FEB 9

The Syrian activist that posts these comments just commented....battery at 4% and dying.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia/Syria: Daily attacks using internationally banned cluster munitions - @hrw report

https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/02/08/russia/syria-daily-cluster-munition-attacks …

The report focuses on 14 documented cluster bomb attacks by Russia & Syrian regime.

[OUTLAW 09]

BreakingNews
Around 25 Syrian towns are under intense #Russian shelling right now.
Jets, missiles & reportedly even Cruise Missiles used.

Footage
Russian airstrikes also targeted civilians in #AlAtarib since the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z9rv33YFKY …

Seems like #Putin
"Operation Empty Aleppo"
started.
They'll kill and chase out as many people as possible before they shut the city down.

[OUTLAW 09]

YPG captured Kafr Antun near Menagh air base.
2 #FSA groups joined their #SDF (Jaysh al-Thuwar) umbrella.

News
Opposition sources report, there is NO "agreement" between #FSA and #YPG, but Kurds "broke the ceasefire and advance w/Russian cover".

NeverForget
The entire "#FSA are terrorists" story is a MYTH, invented by pro-Assadis !!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60DO0o2U2Y …

[OUTLAW 09]

Wide-ranging interview w/ @PhillipSmyth on #Iran's push for regional dominance, outreach in Africa, and U.S. policy.
https://goo.gl/nEJPyV

Podcast is worth listening to as it has a great overview of Iranian goals......THEN after listening to the podcast worth reading this article as a tie in...

Satellites Show Mystery Construction at Iran’s Top-Secret Military Site
http://thebea.st/1L9WUip via @thedailybeast

THEN look at the massive amount of "transnational Shia jihadi's" fighting in Syria and the ask the simple question...what did the US get in exchange for the Obama "Iranian Deal"...nothing really as Khamenei yesterday indicated...the Shia jihadis are fighting/dying in Syria for the "islamic revolution".....QUOTE/UNQUOTE

[OUTLAW 09]

This is a critical interview on the activities of Hezbollah in Syria..needs though to be translated into English....Arabic only...

Full interview of Hezbollah fighters imprisoned by JAN. Hezbollah prevented tv broadcasting of it but it's online
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=dw-fVbuerXM …

Hezbollah tried hard to get MTV to not show the video on TV and was successful but the interviewer took it to social media side and released it.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Turkey is set to turn up the pressure on US to enforce a safe zone near Bab al Salam. RTE & Davutoglu already signalling course of action

Turkey gathers armed #Syria rebel groups in Ankara, including Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar ash-Sham, Army of Mujahedeen, FSA & others.

The 13th Division & Riyad Hijab, the leader of a coalition of Syrian opposition groups, were among attendance.
http://www.aljazeera.com.tr/haber/suriyeli-muhaliflerden-birlik-adimi …

BREAKING: Turkey's PM says country won't close borders to Syrian refugees, and anticipates the arrival of 70,000 refugees soon.

[OUTLAW 09]

Interesting question for the Obama WH and especially Kerry since his dismal failure in Geneva where he found out talking does not get you a cup of coffee..

Russia's role in impending fall of #Aleppo should remind us that wars are about clear political objectives. What is our strategy?

BUT WAIT did not the US MSM WaPo carry recently an article coming from the WH that their Syrian strategy was working..it was we the general public/western leaders did not get it and the WH just needed more "messaging"....to be done in order to be even more "successful"....

[OUTLAW 09]

For US MSM this appears to be "new News"....for social media "old News" for the last five years....begs the question as to where "exactly has the NYTs been"...?????

New York Times World ✔ @nytimesworld
As tens of thousands flee Syria, a U.N. report accuses their government of “inhuman actions” against civilians.
http://nyti.ms/1XeXYbE

A wedding in the destruction of St George's Church in #Homs. Powerful image. 1st wedding since being destroyed #Syria
pic.twitter.com/DsN8cMTYJK

APPEARS Putin is getting a tad sensitive to the reporting from Syria and with the increased activist coverage that he is deliberately targeting civilians....
Russia stopped airstrikes on aid convoys crossing #Turkey border towards #Aleppo (bc presence of int. press?)
pic.twitter.com/hUfBt0VoIr

How Assad’s Prisoners Die: Genital mutilation, eyes burnt with cigarettes, and hangings from the wrists. #Syria http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/08/how-assads-prisoners-die-syria-torture/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

APPEARS that now the Chechnya leader "talked to much"...as many commenters actually noted...when he stated there were Chechen SF in Syria....
NOW trying to walk back that comment today.......

Chechnya now says Kadyrov never said what he said to Rossiya 1. Chechen spetznaz in Syria now 'self-organised groups of young people'.

So in Chechen "speak" "a self organized group of young men" ie a "young" Chechen Boy Scout Troop went on "vacation" to the Syrian beaches and ended up somehow with AH74s fighting IS....MAYBE it was an "self organized action vacation" that is so in fashion these days in both Russia and Chechnya.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian FM "spins" everything it gets in it's hands......IT was Kerry that pressured the HNC to attend and it was Kerry that declared "stopping the bombing and delivery of humanitarian aid.... both stated in UNSC resolution 2254..... "were pre conditions".....and the HNC was to drop their demands.....

SO this begs the question......??? Does the Russian FM consider Kerry to be working for them or not...????

MFA Russia ✔ @mfa_russia
#Kinshchak: Moscow's anti-terrorism campaign in Syria made opposition enter into dialogue w/Damascus
http://sptnkne.ws/aA9a

IF one follows this Russian FM propaganda "logic" to the end...then after over 2000 air strikes and a major transnational Shia jihadi ground offensive.....the HNC would be clamoring to get to Geneva...BUT WAIT they are meeting in Turkey and are fighting back....

[OUTLAW 09]

Ketaeb Sayyid al-Shuhada Iraq militia apparently has an Abrams tank (via @LongWarJournal)
pic.twitter.com/ctJbLcfiDm

They are fighting in Syria as part of the "transnational Shia jihadi"......

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria #Russia'n airstrikes on #Druze villages in Mount Al Summaq /northern #Idlib

Regime shelling Ayn al Hawr at #Idlib - #Latakia highway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNNSjssbnQE …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.774563&lon=36.177464&z=15&m=b …

Syria Heavy airstrikes on northern rural #Hama & #Aleppo by #Russia this morning

Direct and deliberate Russian air strikes on civilian refugees.....
Russian air strikes on a refugee gathering near Saraqeb in Idlib countryside
Wounded and killed including children in this attack...numbers not in yet...

Concerning Israeli air strikes last night......in response to Russian overflights???

Some reports are claiming that the Israeli airstrikes also targeted the regime’s officer housing in al-Ruhayba east of Qutayfah. #Syria

Reports Israeli airstrikes targeted regime ammo depots in Qutayfah; multiple explosions reported near brigade 155.
Might be a response to Hezbollah starting to fire a steady rain of TBMs on the anti Assad forces and Israel does not want them to get much more practice.....

Latakia: latest on Jabal Akrad, looks like Rebels holding out well so far
http://en.eldorar.com/node/1426

[OUTLAW 09]

Transnational Shia jihadi's are fighting in Syria...AND why the Obama Iran Deal....

“Moderate Rouhani”: If IRGC was not in #Iraq& #Syria,we had no security& couldn't do #IranDeal.

Not to mention that ever important Iranian land corridor to Hezbollah.......

[OUTLAW 09]

Exklusives @BILD-Interview mit #FSA-Komm. Abu Shaqerah, der 200 Soldaten bei #Aleppo fhrt.
http://www.bild.de/bild-plus/politik/ausland/syrien/aleppo-kommandeur-abu-shaqerah-44483436.bild.html
pic.twitter.com/8mOodrkSBJ

Our favorite Russian travelling Spetsnaz.........
Korneev. This picture is geotagged (VK) to the middle of Raqqa, it's obviously not in Raqqa. Uploaded this morning.
pic.twitter.com/GdAab5zSy9

Russian X78 BTR-82A in Syria (I believe in Homs somewhere, but may be mistaken)

T-90 in Turkman mount, pictured with a Bakr commander. AFAIK, not seen in this location before. via @Abduhark

Subbed (English) ANNA news report
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtBQJevGniA

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for a Turkish analyst's assessment of a possible Turkish intervention:http://warontherocks.com/2016/02/prospects-for-a-turkish-incursion-into-syria

He concludes:
In sum, Turkey seems to be caught between geostrategic necessities of launching a limited incursion and the twin risks of an uncontrollable escalation with Russia and the domestic terrorist threat. In the absence of robust support by its NATO allies, Ankara’s decision will depend on the volatile political-military calculus in Syria and the trajectory of the ongoing northern offensive.....Yet an over-cautious approach could end with the complete exclusion of Turkey from the Syrian chessboard. Ankara is stuck at the crossroads as it considers how to make its most critical political-military calculation in Syria yet.

[OUTLAW 09]

Hat tip to WoTR for a Turkish analyst's assessment of a possible Turkish intervention:http://warontherocks.com/2016/02/prospects-for-a-turkish-incursion-into-syria

He concludes:

David.....two developments are occurring that have received little to no notice...all major anti Assad forces including the Qatar and Saudi supported groups plus the HNC are currently today in Turkey and no info has leaked out on exactly what they are discussing.

Turkey PM: "sooner or later, Russian forces will leave it in the same manner as they previously left Afghanistan".
http://en.trend.az/world/turkey/2492047.html …

So is this the first limited hint that MANPADs are going into Aleppo?.....as that would rapidly tip the balance and restrict the RuAF air strikes which is creating the massive refugee flows....and what tipped the scales in AFG....where RuAF dominated

There has been some comments coming out of the anti Assad side since the RuAF arrived that several of the groups had been vetted for MANPADs and a way for their control had been figured out...but Obama simply would not release them.

[OUTLAW 09]

Iranian Kaviran jeeps near Aleppo, specifically made to carry MRLs, 107mm Fajr-1s in this case.

Another Syrian 302mm Khaibar-1, secretly operated in Lebanon by Syria's 158th Missile Regiment during the 2006 war.

German Mercedez-Benz truck + Soviet 130mm M-46 field gun + Syria = This good looking beast.

SAA, 9P140 / BM-27 Uragan (Late 2015).

More than 1000 Kurdish fighters from across the canton are heading towards Menagh/Azaz fronts this morning.

IS claim responsibility for car bomb attack in #Barzeh #Damascus city, killing 10 ppl, & wounding 30+

[OUTLAW 09]

Early phases of Russian non linear warfare being directed squarely at Germany now.....Putin knows the EU will follow whatever Merkel recommends reference the lifting of sanctions....and she has a strong voice in the EU over Syria...

"Putin’s continuing support to keep Assad in power has a direct correlation with Merkel’s weakening support at home" http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62692 …

Merkel 'Horrified' At Russia's Syria Campaign As HRW Reports Cluster-Bomb Use
- http://go.shr.lc/1nUwYlw

No casualties due to Russian airstrikes in Syria", says Kremlin. For reality, check @SyriaCivilDef's TL. http://m.ria.ru/syria/20160209/1371810463.html …

Russia's #Putin rejects #Germany's #Merkel's criticism of air raids on
#Aleppo #Syria ""No credible evidence""
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q06dgMdWCw …

Humanitarian Relief ‏@IHHen
Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing attacks in #Aleppo need food and shelter urgently.
http://online.ihh.org.tr/en/syria

Graphic: Many killed and injured in Russian air strikes targeted Ferdous neighborhood of #Aleppo - @Ahmad_primo

UN Relief Chief Calls on #Assad Regime to Halt Attacks Displacing 30,000 Civils in #Syria
http://ow.ly/3z3a2z

Russia & #Assad Carry out Daily Cluster Bomb Attacks on #Syria
http://ow.ly/3z38sL

[OUTLAW 09]

Soooo this happened: a body-building competition in honour of Qasem Soleimani in his home province of Kerman. #Iran
pic.twitter.com/ALtRqolVJa

Still absolutely no video of Soleimani in order to geo tag and confirm he is still alive after his SUV was hit with a TOW.....only photos and they are usually older ones...certainly none in Syria where he was all over the front lines until he was hit and now utter video silence....

[OUTLAW 09]

#YPG captured the whole #Minaq airbase from the #Syria|n rebels moments ago#Azaz
pic.twitter.com/GV4XmeEpAD

Does the US truly want to push Turkey into making an armed invasion in order to stop the Kurds who supposedly are under US control and influence and who were just visited by a US Special envoy tow days ago but not reported in US MSM......

YPG claims that 1000 Kurdish fighters from #Afrin are heading towards #Azaz "frontline" to capture it from rebels
https://twitter.com/DrPartizan_/status/697069323496615937 …

YPG forces in #Afrin mobilise.
Not to attack/defend against the Shiite militias,but only to attack #Azaz
pic.twitter.com/vLc9IDtaAv

[OUTLAW 09]

My latest paper on shifts in jihadism in cyberspace & #IslamicState' #SocialMedia strategy:
http://jtr.st-andrews.ac.uk/article/10.15664/jtr.1183/ …
pic.twitter.com/Mly5UDA9JX

[OUTLAW 09]

Anshel Pfeffer @AnshelPfeffer

A few points on the #Syria situation after 3 days on the Syria-Turkey border

Most rebels now are locals fighting for their own villages/towns against alien outsiders - ISIS and Iran-backed Iraqi/Afghan Shia militias

Assad still has Syrian supporters but nearly all those fighting for him against the rebels are foreigners (Russia, Iran, foreign Shias)

There is no question by now that Russian airpower saved Assad's hind and may have doomed the rebels. As one rebel supporter said...

"the only red-line the U.S. haven't crossed in Syria, is the red-line against giving rebels anti-aircraft missiles to defend themselves"

JUST as the US would not provide TOWs to the UAF which is under massive Russian attacks tonight in Donbas.

WHY..somehow this so called Obama WH fully and truly believes one cannot win via a military solution.....

BUT WAIT just what is Putin banking on...a military solution and what do we hear from Obama and Kerry nothing but silence and a few comments from the US Embassy in their names....

[OUTLAW 09]

Ah..the Obama answer to the Saudi's attacking IS offer comes via DIA, nice......not a word out of this WH....

WHICH means the US absolutely has not a single plan and or idea on how to attack IS other than via air......OR just pure disinformation at work.....

Syria DIA Stewart: "I do NOT assess that #Saudi G. forces wld have the capacity to take this fight on (in Syria)".
http://www.c-span.org/video/?404436-1/james-clapper-testimony-global-threats&start=5844 …

DIA Gen. Stewart looks unsurprisingly amused. To put it in perspective, KSA is the biggest arms importer, top 5 military expenditure.

So who is he trying to fool???

[OUTLAW 09]

SAA T-55AM with slat armour
pic.twitter.com/V2kRkdhHOJ

[OUTLAW 09]

No casualties due to Russian airstrikes in Syria", says Kremlin. For reality, check @SyriaCivilDef's TL. http://m.ria.ru/syria/20160209/1371810463.html …


4 ppl were killed & 12 wounded - 7 of them children - in #Russia's attacks N of #Aleppo today
Here are their names:
pic.twitter.com/vAkEKSJojL

At least 15 killed & 10s wounded in #Russia|n airstrikes on an IDP camp in Afes, rural #Idlib, #Syria today
Moment #Russia airstrikes targeted the #IDP of #Efis village
#Idlib cs #Syria FEB 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRorj8F8gEA …

MSF International 
‏@MSF BREAKING: Airstrikes have hit an MSF-supported hospital in Dara’a, southern Syria, killing 3 people & wounding at least 6 including a nurse

Probably the local hospital in Saida, #Daraa hit several hours ago by Russian airstrikes; now out of service

[OUTLAW 09]

US cannot be is serious about this or typical Russian disinformation......
Russia's Lavrov: U.S. considering Russian proposal on #Syria: RIA
1- Close northern borders with Turkey
2- Assad/Iran regime stay in power
3- FSA fight Nusra and ISIL under Assad

Joint Kurdish & Assad militias assault on #Aleppo corridor continue. #YPG capture new positions near Menagh airbase.

Rebels will not be able to hold the attacks from 3 directions YPG/ISIL/Assad on their positions in north #Aleppo corridor for long.

FSA Victory by blowing Assad militia minibus near al-Masoura in Ghab plain.
https://youtu.be/fvnU5pzt_xQ

SAA Terrorists dropping 4 explosive cylinders at once over #Darayya
#Damascus #Syria FEB 9

Faylaq al-Sham take out regime 23 mm gun near Zahra north #Aleppo.
https://youtu.be/zwHGpMyuDZs

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria #Confirmed:TR intelligence informed defected officers to be ready to go into Syria within specific formations

[OUTLAW 09]

#SAA helicopters dropped Weapons and AID supplies on #Kefraya & #Fouah
#Idlib #Syria FEB 9

#US_Coalition warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #alShameteiyah village
#DeirEzzor #Syria FEB 9

#RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Kafr_Kalbin village
#aleppo cs #Syria FEB 9

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Kafr_Khashir village, entire family under rubble
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 9

Ammo truck hit by #TOW #ATGM.
Btw, why aim at cabin instead of the rear where the ammo is?
https://youtu.be/beybHuissVo

14,5mm gun taken out by #TOW #ATGM in #Nubul corridor.
https://youtu.be/OapitoSQ6vU

Ambushes like this are cost efficient and slowly degrade enemy.
https://youtu.be/NFuNGYYMBhU

4 Martyrs victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Dael
#Daraa #Syria FEB 9

SCD rescue operation aftermath #Russia airstrikes on #Alaamareiyah neighborhood, 5 martyrs
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 9

RUSSIA warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Syria - #Turkey border, #putin provoking #Erdogan. Via @HadiAlabdallah

SCD rescued 6 martyrs under rubble including 2 children, victims of #Russia airstrikes on #Talmenes #Syria FEB 9

SCD Rescue op. aftermath #Russia airstrikes targeting Refugee Camp of #Efis village, 6 martyrs
#Idlib #Syria FEB 9

Martyrs & destruction aftermath #Russia airstrikes on #alFatirah town..
#Idlib #Syria FEB 9
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8WRcjLFM4c …

Russian Su-24Ms joining the fray. (Unguided) bombs all seem to miss however.
pic.twitter.com/PbdvfkJJkH

[OUTLAW 09]

A long article but it must be read to the end in order to fully understand the total failure of the Obama and Kerry Syrian FP......

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-hearst/exodus-and-betrayal-how-a_b_9194624.html

Exodus and Betrayal. How a Syrian Nakba Was Created

02/09/2016 11:25 am ET

David Hearst

Editor, Middle East Eye


John Kerry, the US Secretary of State reportedly came close to revealing his true thoughts when he was accosted by two Syrian aid workers at a reception in London after the collapse of the Geneva talks last week.

The Syrians accused him of doing nothing to protect civilians from the onslaught they were facing in Aleppo. One of the aid workers, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her organization, told Middle East Eye that Kerry replied : 'Don't blame me - go and blame your opposition." The aid worker said Kerry blamed the government offensive on the opposition walking out of the talks.

Kerry got flustered in the encounter: "What do you want me to do? Go to war with Russia? Is that what you want?" the aid worker said Kerry told her. Kerry then anticipated three months of bombing during which time " the opposition will be decimated."

Kerry's off-mike encounter deviated significantly from the official line. This was that Russia and Iran had offered Washington a ceasefire. Kerry's remarks differed also from the State Department's mantra that the brutality of Assad against the Syrian people had helped foster the growth of the Islamic State group. Apparently now, Syrians who resisted Assad's brutality were responsible for the barrel bombs being dropped on them.

After multiple avowals that Assad's army was on the point of collapse and after the ill-fated CIA training programmes, Syrian rebels are being sold down the river by the country that urged them to rise up five years ago.

The Deraa protests started peacefully. To that, all witnesses attest. Four factors turned those protests into an armed uprising: the brutality of the regime's response, Assad's decision to release jihadis from Sednaya Prison, an act which "islamised" the opposition, the Libyan intervention, and the intervention of foreign powers - Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The scenes today on the Turkish border are direct consequence of Obama's "intervention-lite" in Syria - a drip feed of weapons - but only 16 bullets per fighter per month. The Free Syrian Army has reportedly stopped receiving weapons for four months. Barack Obama boasted he was leading from behind in the Libyan intervention. That has changed in Syria. He is wringing his hands from behind.

There can be little doubt that Kerry's policy is twisting in the wind as a result of the Russian intervention. That much was evident from Kerry's meeting with Riyad Hijab general coordinator of the High Negotiations Committee, the body formed in Riyadh in response to American pleas for unity.

Kerry told Hijab that talks must begin before the bombardment stopped, that there was no timetable for Assad's departure; that the objective of the talks would be nothing less than a national unity government; and that the failure of the opposition going to Geneva would mean US cutting off aid to the opposition. Michael Ratney, US Special Envoy to Syria, attempted over to smooth things over by claiming there had been a misunderstanding caused by bad translation. But Hijab understood Kerry all too clearly.

Kerry's Damascene conversion took place in four stages. The first was Assad's chemical attack on opposition positions in Ghouta, in Eastern Damascus, which paved the way for Russian mediation which persuaded Assad to give up his stockpile of chemical weapons. This gave Russia a good argument to use with Kerry who refused at the time to recognise Assad's authority: If Assad was legitimate enough to negotiate with over the surrender of his chemical stockpile, he surely had to remain as head of a transitional government. Either way he had to be recognised as the de facto head of state. This is the logic Kerry has now accepted.

The second was Mosul, a city held by four divisions of the Iraqi army trained by the US to the tune of $25 billion which was captured by 350 ISIS fighters. The third was the Russian intervention on October 30 and the final nail in the coffin of Kerry's Syria policy was the attacks in Paris in November. Gradually Kerry began to see Assad as the lesser of two evils. Kerry bought into Sergei Lavrov's line that Russia had saved Damascus from falling into the hands of IS.

Kerry has come dangerously close to seeing the Syrian conflict as a binary fight between two forms of ruthless dictatorship - Assad and the Islamic State group . This is exactly how Assad himself, Russia, Iran and Arab autocracies in Egypt and the Emirates and Jordan, frame the conflict. And it is one of the main reasons why the Islamic State group is growing from strength to strength.

To see the civil war through this prism, you have to persuade yourself that the opposition to Assad consists exclusively of Salafi Jihadi extremists, supported by the Wahabi doctrines of Saudi Arabia and the imperial conceit of Erdogan's Sultanate in Turkey. You have to persuade yourself that the Syrian rebels, like IS, want to impose a brutal theocracy on a secular state.

You have,in short, to airbrush out of this landscape the faces and views of the majority Sunni population. You have to turn a deaf ear to the testimony of 4.6m refugees registered with the UNHCR. Nor are they the last. Another exodus is on its way in Aleppo. There are 150,000 civilians in rebel held eastern Aleppo and up to 250,000 others in the area. 70,000 have crossed into Turkey as a result of the Russian bombing and government advances and 31,000 are waiting at the border. The Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday that 600,000 could be heading towards Turkey.

Why do they flee? Whom are they fleeing? Are they forced out by Jihadis imposing Sharia Law ? Are fleeing the warm embrace of a liberal, secular multi-confessional republic, as Assad likes to present himself as leading? If the Syrian army is a disciplined force, as its apologists maintain, why are hundreds of thousands of civilians so terrified of being liberated by it?

I spent a week in the refugee camps on Jordan's northern border asking these questions, going from tent to tent in search of answers. The following is a representative sample of the replies I got.

Meteb was a civil servant, the head of the transportation department in Baba Amr. Homs became the epicentre of anti-government protests, after protests in Deraa had been quelled by a large scale military operation. A Free Syrian Army brigade formed by defecting Syrian Army officers ambushed government forces around Baba Amr in October 2011 and defended the neighbourhood .When an Arab peace mission failed - the Syrian army hid their tanks under fake sand dunes to conceal their presence from the monitors , witnesses claimed - the army launched an offensive in February 2012.

"For six months there were no arms whatsoever. People only started using arms when they witnessed the brutality of the regime. The police would undress the women, force them to strip and put them on the tanks for people to watch." Meteb said.

Continued....a long read......

[OUTLAW 09]

Third 9M113 Konkurs shot. Gunner has the choice between a T-55 and a BMP-1, goes for the T-55.
pic.twitter.com/ZilIl90e9Y

Turkey ratchets up the rhetoric towards the US.....
Turkey has summoned U.S. envoy to protest Washington not dubbing Kurdish PYD a "terrorist" organization

Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Another TOW video from rebel forces fighting around Aleppo, looks like they've had a new supply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6fP95DY0Ks …

[OUTLAW 09]

Yikes......has the Obama WH and Kerry seen the white ghost of the Shia 12th imam......?

Kerry: Syria plan B is “to lead a coalition against #ISIL and to support the opposition against Assad.”
http://wpo.st/8CPA1

Sorry he and Obama both seemed to have had been sleeping walking and missed the imam......

“What we’re doing is testing [Russian and Iranian] seriousness,” he said. “And if they’re not serious, then there has to be consideration of a Plan B. . . . You can’t just sit there.”

BUT WAIT is this not the same exact comments just recycled for the Us press that he told the anti Assad opposition and their HNC just before Geneva.....???

WAIT...it was.....

[OUTLAW 09]

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."

-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Sun Tzu had it right......we absolutely refuse to fully understand what is driving IS and the environment around that development inside Iraq/Syria just as we refuse to fully understand the current opposition in Syria which as a civil society decided they were tired of a 50 year or so dictatorship following the impulse released by a speech by our own President held in the ME of all places.

Then the West/ie the US gets involved in a "discussion" as to what is and or is not a "moderate islamist" instead of listening to that civil society that made the "decision"......and then does nothing to assist them in that transition after that said civil society has paid dearly for their own decisions...ie over 300K killed, over hundreds of thousands injured, tortured and or simply "disappeared forever" and over 12M refugees and IDPs.

THEN we see a US DoS Sec "preaching" to this civil society what is and or is not a "pre condition" which were actually the same as pushed by Kerry and the UNSC....and yet we wonder why the ME thinks the US train has run of the tracks.....?

How many times in the last ten years do we see the term "transnational Shia jihadists" discussed as all we know is AQ/IS, or do we even know how Shariati's Shia Marxism was used by Khomeini to anchor his thinking on "revolutionary islam" or how much do we meaning those that never served in Iraq fully understand that the Iraqi Hezbollah (KH) was fully funded and supported by IRGC which used Iranian smuggled in EFPs like rain on US forces or how many in the US fully understand the creation by and the training of the IRGC by Amal veterans from Lebanon ..or even what was behind "Black September 1970"...the list goes on...and on......

I am not so sure we "even know ourselves lately" thus if we do not know "ourselves and our enemies equally"...yet we wonder/debate why the US FP alone just in the ME is a disaster....not even thinking about eastern Ukraine...where we "know even less"....and it is a disaster....

This WH cannot even get the discussion on non linear warfare "right"......

[OUTLAW 09]

Tal Rifaat, N Aleppo under sustained RuAf bombardment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Gt-RbgiOw …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bN7rXeJeoo …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1VwWBSeE_o …

FSA Jaysh al-Mujahdeen send reinforcements to #Aleppo fronts.

Vid: #FSA killed several shia militants near Khan Tuman south #Aleppo
https://youtu.be/NFuNGYYMBhU

Impressive #JaI combat vid from #Ghouta last yrs offensive
Hurry before it is deleted!
https://youtu.be/YImhH2NKVQI

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-era-of-us-abdication-on-syria-must-end/2016/02/09/55226716-ce96-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html?tid=ss_tw

Opinions

Enough is enough — U.S. abdication on Syria must come to an end

By Michael Ignatieff and Leon Wieseltier February 9 at 9:09 AM

Michael Ignatieff is the Edward R. Murrow professor of practice at the Harvard Kennedy School. Leon Wieseltier is the Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy at the Brookings Institution.


As Russian planes decimate Aleppo, and hundreds of thousands of civilians in Syria’s largest city prepare for encirclement, blockade and siege — and for the starvation and the barbarity that will inevitably follow — it is time to proclaim the moral bankruptcy of American and Western policy in Syria.

Actually, it is past time. The moral bankruptcy has been long in the making: five years of empty declarations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go, of halfhearted arming of rebel groups, of allowing the red line on chemical weapons to be crossed and of failing adequately to share Europe’s refugee burden as it buckles under the strain of the consequences of Western inaction. In the meantime, a quarter-million Syrians have died, 7 million have been displaced and nearly 5 million are refugees. Two million of the refugees are children.

This downward path leads to the truly incredible possibility that as the Syrian dictator and his ruthless backers close in on Aleppo, the government of the United States, in the name of the struggle against the Islamic State, will simply stand by while Russia, Assad and Iran destroy their opponents at whatever human cost.

It is time for those who care about the moral standing of the United States to say that this policy is shameful. If the United States and its NATO allies allow their inglorious new partners to encircle and starve the people of Aleppo, they will be complicit in crimes of war. The ruins of our own integrity will be found amid the ruins of Aleppo. Indiscriminate bombardment of civilians is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. So is the use of siege and blockade to starve civilians. We need not wait for proof of Assad’s and Vladimir Putin’s intentions as they tighten the noose. “Barrel bombs” have been falling on bread lines and hospitals in the city (and elsewhere in Syria) for some time. Starvation is a long-standing and amply documented instrument in Assad’s tool kit of horrors.

Aleppo is an emergency, requiring emergency measures. Are we no longer capable of emergency action? It is also an opportunity, perhaps the last one, to save Syria. Aleppo is the new Sarajevo, the new Srebrenica, and its fate should be to the Syrian conflict what the fate of Sarajevo and Srebrenica were to the Bosnian conflict: the occasion for the United States to bestir itself, and for the West to say with one voice, “Enough.” It was after Srebrenica and Sarajevo — and after the air campaign with which the West finally responded to the atrocities — that the United States undertook the statecraft that led to the Dayton accords and ended the war in Bosnia.


I would argue that Bosnia is drifting politically/economically currently and that basically the Dayton Accords to a degree largely failed....at least it stopped the killing.....

[OUTLAW 09]

The Syrian activist that I keep an eye on his commenting ios currently at 15% and his cell battery is dying so he pushing everything out as it takes a long while to recharge it with limited power in the area where he is working from...and today he is pushing a lot in Arabic.....and Russian...will pick up his bombing reports later today.

Massacres here.. Massacres there.. In Syria, massacres everywhere..

SyriasChildren are slaughtered in #Syira as usual with NO emergency meeting called at the UNSC ?! WTHeck!

Have you asked yourself, why all these people CHOOSE to sleep on the Turkish border but not to #ASSad Regime area?..that's all folks!

[OUTLAW 09]

The Syrian activist that I keep an eye on his commenting is currently at 11% and his cell battery is dying so he pushing everything out as it takes a long while to recharge it with limited power in the area where he is working from...and today he is pushing a lot in Arabic.....and Russian of all things as he seems to have Russian followers...will pick up his bombing reports later today.

Massacres here.. Massacres there.. In Syria, massacres everywhere..

SyriasChildren are slaughtered in #Syira as usual with NO emergency meeting called at the UNSC ?! WTHeck!

Have you asked yourself, why all these people CHOOSE to sleep on the Turkish border but not to #ASSad Regime area?..that's all folks!

Liz Sly ‏@LizSly
A 1-year old Syrian girl died of cold & malnutrition at a Turkish bus station after her parents walked out of Syria http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/syrian-baby-dies-after-family-journeys-to-turkey-on-foot.aspx?pageID=238&nID=94897&NewsCatID=341 …

[OUTLAW 09]

After checking the source again, I deleted the #Menagh report.
Looks like almost encircled,but "evidence pictures" were old & fr. DeirJamal.

Why would you destroy civilian homes in Talmenes?
One answer:To spread #terror!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDGjZtNcPLI …
7dead,20inj

Footage
Russian Orla-10 drone over #Ibtta in #Daraa province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAY6XJ-BgFg …

Footage
S-W #Aleppo area Karam Altarab after intense Russian airstrikes & Assad arty fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vjbaF53q2k …

[OUTLAW 09]

FIVE months into the conflict, #Russian media still pretends they fight #ISIS in #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwjw58EATLE …

Footage
Another village north of #Aleppo, another massacre, caused by #Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54tgy8fxrXA …

Marea - the first front against #ISIS - was severely attacked by #Russian war planes today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fpa06p6jrs …

On a single day, #Russia deliberately targeted 2 hospitals in #Syria.
What else would qualify as #terrorism?!

You search for most deadly terrorists in #Syria?
Look up into the sky!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Gt-RbgiOw …

BREAKING
Brutal #Russian air strikes prep #YPG or Shiite militias offensive on #TallRifat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfrG4Uif1Nc …

Fighting kills at least 500 in Aleppo province since Syrian army offensive began: monitor
http://reut.rs/20odphL

[OUTLAW 09]

Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
All Russian bombs are guided, like everyone killed by Russian bombs are terrorists.
https://twitter.com/RolandOliphant/status/697359216256946177 …

Roland Oliphant @RolandOliphant
Zakharova utterly rejects the outrageous suggestion Russia could possibly be using unguided munitions in Syria.

RUS paper: Myths about refugees prevent the final victory of Assad (main claim: refugees don't exist)
http://www.ng.ru/armies/2016-02-10/1_asad.html … v @kkronvall

BREAKING: #Turkey claims: 34 people including 10 Women & 20 children detained w/ 15kg of explosives, 4 suicide vests at the #Syria|n border

Today......
According to the @syriahr, #Russia started its day with bomb attacks on a #school and a #mosque in #Hayyan.#Aleppo #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

There are two key cornerstones to Russian non linear warfare...
1.cyber warfare
2. information warfare ie "weaponization of information"

Russian cyber warriors take on again social media...
#Putin's #cyber militia #Cyberberkut hack website of brilliant investigation team @bellingcat. Seems Bellingcat is hitting a nerve!

Kremlin's pet hackers target @CITeam_en & @bellingcat because they don't want you read this
https://citeam.org/russia-s-top-brass-linked-to-war-in-ukraine/ …
pic.twitter.com/npBW2b1IRF

[OUTLAW 09]

“What do you want me to do, go to war with Russia?” As if only US choices are WW3 or standing back from fire http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/world/middleeast/syrian-opposition-groups-sense-us-support-fading.html?ref=world …

The Moscow Times ✔ @MoscowTimes
U.S. National Intelligence Director Says #Russia Is Paranoid, Aggressive
http://tmt-go.ru/559181

[OUTLAW 09]

Appears Turkey has found a legal way to agitate Russia as NATO has left open that it's member nations could in fact arm Ukraine individually...

Dzhemilev: Turkey is considering arming Ukraine
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/10-february-dzhemilev-turkey-is-considering-arming-ukraine …
pic.twitter.com/32JU0a9lnL via @HromadskeTV

Any SWJ commenter willing to take a chance and defend this Russian FM propaganda statement......or for that matter any western MSM....
SyrianRefugees are running from terrorists, not #RussiaVsISIL airstrikes - @mfa_russia
http://sptnkne.ws/aAZw

Russia is still stating today they are not killing civilians and are not using dumb bombs nor cluster munition on civilians...really.....

"I don't think we've killed anybody": Moscow's ambassador on civilians killed by Russian bombs in Syria
https://youtu.be/AqMRGH_UsIc

Russian FM briefing: Zakharova utterly rejects the outrageous suggestion Russia could possibly be using unguided munitions in Syria.
BUT WAIT she forgot all those Russian MoD videos depicting those iron dumb bombs being dropped

[OUTLAW 09]

Will #Iran allow #SAA to take part in the #Aleppo battle? Probably not. Too risky.
http://reut.rs/1V1edrn

[OUTLAW 09]

Putin is actually at war WITH US.
Great read by @Judy_Dempsey
http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=62692 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Humor.......
UN Res 2254 on Syria bans indiscriminate air dropped cluster weapons & shelling. We're complying by using them.
pic.twitter.com/cOF6bCF3RJ

Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
Footage shows a mosque bombed in Hayyan, Syria, are these Russia's guided bombs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFZTRMQKIz4 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia sets for deploying in Syria large landing ship seized from Ukraine in annexed Crimea - media
http://www.unian.info/world/1259954-russia-sets-for-deploying-in-syria-large-landing-ship-seized-from-ukraine-in-annexed-crimea-media.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Yikes......has the Obama WH and Kerry seen the white ghost of the Shia 12th imam......?

Kerry: Syria plan B is “to lead a coalition against #ISIL and to support the opposition against Assad.”
http://wpo.st/8CPA1

Sorry he and Obama both seemed to have had been sleeping walking and missed the imam......

“What we’re doing is testing [Russian and Iranian] seriousness,” he said. “And if they’re not serious, then there has to be consideration of a Plan B. . . . You can’t just sit there.”

BUT WAIT is this not the same exact comments just recycled for the Us press that he told the anti Assad opposition and their HNC just before Geneva.....???

WAIT...it was.....

Kerry and Obama just keep on getting "strung on by Putin".....

"In a letter sent to Obama admin this week, Russia proposed to stop bombing on March 1," three weeks from now. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/syria-already-a-catastrophe-seems-on-the-verge-of-an-uncontrollable-disaster/2016/02/09/c7fc3e90-cf5b-11e5-b2bc-988409ee911b_story.html …

After the constant lies by Putin and his FM concerning their fulfilling Minsk 2 and only entering Syria to destroy IS....the WH now wants to "trust them"...

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria Da'ish targeting/hitting two T-72 MBT with 9M113 Konkurs #ATGM in the area of Tal Maksur, West of #Kweirs AFB

Russia Defence Ministry pic shows a Russian bomber dropping free-fall bombs in #Syria:@mfa_russia is intoxicated?
pic.twitter.com/0AnWZVHhlS

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
#Russia strikes (Sept 30 '15-Jan 30 ’16):
- Killed 3578, inc. 1,380 civilians (38.6%)
- Hit 15 schools
- Hit 3 IDP camps
- Hit 16 hospitals

Syrians in south Turkey clinics describe impact of Russian airstrikes:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/12149534/UN-urges-Turkey-to-open-its-border-to-refugees-as-Ankara-claims-thousands-let-in-already.html … (pic: @sam7tarling)

Regime under heavy Russian air cover is still trying to break into Hirbnafseh, #Hama; heavy clashes continue since the early AM.

[OUTLAW 09]

Latakia: pro Assad forces repelled from Ara & Kafarta in Jabal Akrad & Rebels still in control

CIA Director testifies: the Syrian Government hit opposition in 2014-2015 with chlorine gas
http://bit.ly/1TQ8CWq

Syrian Rebels recapture Mount Al Tamourah in north Aleppo

Hama: Syrian Rebels ambushed bus carrying pro Assad forces in Al-Mansura front all either dead or captured

Aleppo: Syrian Rebels recaptured Al Alagamiyah & Al Shil'aa after heavy clashes with YPG & treacherous so called "Jaish Thuwar"

[OUTLAW 09]

Breaking: 5 #Iran|ian vehicles carrying "Fajr-1" rockets has been seen around #Aleppo, #Syria.

Russia Parachuted Cluster Bombs, killed 7civilians including 5Children
#Douma #Syria FEB 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mlTihkyc3U …

Intense clashes take place at the perimeter of Menagh as YPG attempts to take the airbase

Before Assad went genocidal Syria had a high level of education for the ME...
In war-torn Daraya, rebels nurture a 15,000 book library to keep hopes of revolution alive.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/borzoudaragahi/these-rebels-have-amassed-a-library-from-syrias-ruins?utm_term=.rwOMbbYYQW#.fv75YYJJl7 …

TOW geolocation: Rebels still able to strike #Zahraa. Launch of 3.8 km from Bayanoun to SE suburb of Zahraa #Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat....this is referencing your comments on this particular ambush.....

FSA claimed 50 KIAs in a major recent ambush of Shia fighters....

But proAssad commenters indicate that it was potentially ......

Acc to Assad soldiers: our estimates were wrong, 3 days ago, the rebels ambush got 180 SAA between killed/captured

SAA soldiers who survived the JAI ambush in E Ghouta want the officers in Court according to 'Lost heroes' page

Almost 180 killed and missing ? Wow, most rebel soldiers placed a maximum of 50 killed, even that being a stretch.

[OUTLAW 09]

This is a strange article being carried by the 100% owned Russian propaganda outlet Russia Today......the shrillness about a possible move into Syria is IMO starting to grate of the Russian leadership and they are attempting to build Russian civil society support if in fact the Turks and Saudi's do cross over....as the possible Russian response would be to send more combat troops...and the Russian public in polling shows absolutely no interest in sending troops to Syria.....

TURKEY: PM Davutoglu pledges to defend their 'Aleppo brothers' in Syria just as they defended Turkish cities in WW1

https://www.rt.com/news/331968-turkey-syria-intervention-aleppo/ …


Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu pledged to return a “historical debt” to Turkey’s “Aleppo brothers” who helped defend the country in the early 20th century, just days after Russia warned of Ankara’s intentions to invade Syria as the rebels there falter.

“We will return our historic debt. At one time, our brothers from Aleppo defended our cities of Sanliurfa, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, now we will defend the heroic Aleppo. All of Turkey stands behind its defenders,” Davutoglu said at the meeting of the Party of Justice and Development parliamentary faction, which he heads.

Davutoglu was apparently referring to World War One and subsequent events in the Turkish War of Independence, seemingly glorifying the defense and retaking of Turkish cities from the Allied forces. Yet, he failed to mention that the Turks had been drawn into the war by Ottoman imperial ambitions. Turkey had entered the conflict by shelling the Russian port of Odessa from the sea. It then suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Russian troops in the war’s southern theater, before the Ottoman Empire was occupied and divided by the Allies. At the time, the three cities Davutoglu named saw thousands of Armenians and other minorities slaughtered by Turkish nationalists as part of the Armenian Genocide, which Ankara denies to this day.

Alarmingly, the statement comes less than a week after Russia’s Defense Ministry warned that Turkey was preparing a military invasion of Syria and is trying to conceal illegal activity on its Syrian border.

“We have significant evidence to suspect Turkey is in the midst of intense preparations for a military invasion into Syria’s sovereign territory,” Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters in Moscow.

Konashenkov also stated that Turkey had canceled an agreed upon Russian observation flight that had been scheduled over its territory because of its illicit activities. “So if someone in Ankara thinks that the cancelation of the flight by the Russian observers will enable hiding something, then they’re unprofessional.”

Moreover, Konashenkov pointed out that Turkey has already been supplying terrorists in the Syrian cities of Idlib and Aleppo with manpower and weaponry.

The spokesman showed the media a photo of the Reyhanli checkpoint, saying that “through this very border crossing – mainly at nighttime – the militants, who seized the city of Aleppo and Idlib in northwestern Syria, are being supplied with arms and fighters from Turkish territory.”

The alarming new developments come as jihadi forces fighting President Bashar Assad’s army in northern Syria are suffering losses and retreating to the Turkish border.

Moscow had provided the international community earlier with video evidence that Turkish artillery had fired on populated Syrian areas in the north of Latakia Province.

Meanwhile, Turkey has denied any plans to invade Syria. “Turkey doesn’t have any plans or intentions to begin a military campaign or ground operations on Syrian territory,” Reuters cited a senior Turkish government official as saying.

This is not the first time alleged plans by Turkey to invade Syria have been reported. In 2014, Turkey shut off access to YouTube after an explosive leak of audiotapes revealed that its ministers had been discussing how to stage a provocation that could justify a military intervention in Syria.

[OUTLAW 09]

Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
All Russian bombs are guided, like everyone killed by Russian bombs are terrorists.
https://twitter.com/RolandOliphant/status/697359216256946177 …

Roland Oliphant @RolandOliphant
Zakharova utterly rejects the outrageous suggestion Russia could possibly be using unguided munitions in Syria.

RUS paper: Myths about refugees prevent the final victory of Assad (main claim: refugees don't exist)
http://www.ng.ru/armies/2016-02-10/1_asad.html … v @kkronvall

Today......
According to the @syriahr, #Russia started its day with bomb attacks on a #school and a #mosque in #Hayyan.#Aleppo #Syria

BreakingNews
During the #GenevaTalks, #Putin and #Assad killed 1,380 civilians and injured 5,789
- UK Special Rep. for Syria @garethbayley

[OUTLAW 09]

SOHR confirms Rebels shelled Qardaha (Assad hometown) yesterday with Grad rockets and killed 13 people.
http://www.syriahr.com/en/?p=44002

Was reported to have happened during the funeral of Assad's mother....killing several relatives....

Free Syrian Army's @alsham2136 firing on regime foreign Shia militia in AlGhab Plain #Idlib countryside

FSA #Southern_Front is braced&fearless in #Daraa ready for the regimes cowardly militia operation under the cover of #Russia strikes

Free Syrian Army's @alsham2136 hitting regime Shia militia gangs in northern #Aleppo countryside

[OUTLAW 09]

Interview with Hezbollah prisoners captured in Syria in English ...interview was done first in Arabic and then released on youtube because Hezbollah complained to MTV....

Well worth reading....and watching...

The Syrian Observer ‏@observesyria
Lebanese journalist interviews Hizballah 'prisoners' held by Nusra Front in #Syria
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/blog/2016/2/9/lebanese-journalist-interviews-hizballah-prisoners-held-by-nusra-front …

Hezbollah captives in #Syria condemn the organization’s involvement in Syria
http://ow.ly/Y9z3q

[OUTLAW 09]

Orient News English ‏@OrientNewsEn
#Obama stands by silently as #Russia continues its onslaught in #Syria
http://ow.ly/Y9zRG

TOW Analysis. Rebels on the offensive: 4 #TOW past 48hrs pounded #Zahraa SW fortifications & barriers. N. #Aleppo.

[OUTLAW 09]

Orient News English ‏@OrientNewsEn
#Obama stands by silently as #Russia continues its onslaught in #Syria
http://ow.ly/Y9zRG

An extraordinary new crisis is beginning to unfold in Syria, a country that already has suffered through some of the worst war crimes, humanitarian depredations and refu¬gee flows in recent history.

Russia, Iran and the Assad government are conducting a major offensive aimed at recapturing the city of Aleppo and the opposition-held territory that connects it to the border with Turkey. They have cut one supply route to the city and are close to severing another, trapping opposition forces along with hundreds of thousands of civilians. Tens of thousands have fled to the border, where Turkey is denying them entry, The Washington Post reported.

This campaign is being waged in open defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in December, which required the Assad government to provide humanitarian access to areas under siege and demanded an end to the shelling and bombing of civilian areas.

Russia, which voted for the resolution, is indiscriminately bombing civilian targets in the Aleppo area, using banned cluster munitions, according to Human Rights Watch. Iranian commanders are on the ground, directing attacks by Shiite fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the face of this onslaught, which promises to destroy any chance of an acceptable end to the Syrian war, the Obama administration has been a study in passivity and moral confusion. President Obama is silent. Secretary of State John F. Kerry has been reduced to reading the text of Resolution 2254 aloud, as if that would somehow compel a change in Russian behavior. Mr. Kerry on Tuesday faulted Moscow for “making it much more difficult to be able to come to the table” for the peace talks he has been trying to broker, which were stillborn last week in Geneva.

[OUTLAW 09]

Noticed the Russian FM spokeswoman forgot to mention the RFuAF flying CAS for the YPG.....attacking the FSA....

5 RuAF airstrikes reported on rebels positions in Menagh airbase in support of YPG assault.
https://www.facebook.com/HalabTodayTV/videos/1309323299085105/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

An extraordinary new crisis is beginning to unfold in Syria, a country that already has suffered through some of the worst war crimes, humanitarian depredations and refu¬gee flows in recent history.

Russia, Iran and the Assad government are conducting a major offensive aimed at recapturing the city of Aleppo and the opposition-held territory that connects it to the border with Turkey. They have cut one supply route to the city and are close to severing another, trapping opposition forces along with hundreds of thousands of civilians. Tens of thousands have fled to the border, where Turkey is denying them entry, The Washington Post reported.

This campaign is being waged in open defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in December, which required the Assad government to provide humanitarian access to areas under siege and demanded an end to the shelling and bombing of civilian areas.

Russia, which voted for the resolution, is indiscriminately bombing civilian targets in the Aleppo area, using banned cluster munitions, according to Human Rights Watch. Iranian commanders are on the ground, directing attacks by Shiite fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the face of this onslaught, which promises to destroy any chance of an acceptable end to the Syrian war, the Obama administration has been a study in passivity and moral confusion. President Obama is silent. Secretary of State John F. Kerry has been reduced to reading the text of Resolution 2254 aloud, as if that would somehow compel a change in Russian behavior. Mr. Kerry on Tuesday faulted Moscow for “making it much more difficult to be able to come to the table” for the peace talks he has been trying to broker, which were stillborn last week in Geneva.


Other Western officials said Kerry overestimated his ability to bring Moscow around. They said he appeared to believe that since he had achieved what some saw as unachievable by getting a nuclear deal with Iran, he could do the same with Syria.

They noted that the two cases were different. With Iran, Russia wanted a political agreement whereas in Syria it is pushing for a military victory by the Syrian government.

"The Russians are playing cat and mouse with Kerry," a senior European diplomat said.

[OUTLAW 09]

Appears the Obama WH is no longer understanding the real world outside DC.....

The cheap, brutally effective medieval tactic shaping the Syrian civil war
http://reut.rs/20VquBc
pic.twitter.com/XI4Hew7tc1

Social media has now for over fours years told them daily and yet they still did not care......

[OUTLAW 09]

152 mm, 2A65 artillery battery near Palmyra.
pic.twitter.com/iB2LQC5AGj

Syrian Kurdish Authorities Open Mission In Moscow, Former DNR Leader Boroday Turns Up
http://www.interpretermag.com/us-allies-slam-obamas-syria-policy-fear-russia-and-iran-taking-advantage-of-lack-of-resolve/#12424 …

Russia's state-owned RIA Novosti news agency reports that representatives of the PYD-led Syrian Kurdish authorities, who control a swathe of northern Syria, have established an office in Moscow today.

According to the report, the "government of Western Kurdistan" will operate in Russia with the status of a non-governmental organisation.

Senam Muhammed the Syrian Kurdish special representative in Europe and the United States, said:

"For the Kurdish people, and for the people of Western Kurdistan, this event is historic. This has been made possible thanks to the dedicated struggle of the Kurds in Syria. We hope that the representative office will become the voice of our region."

Rodi Ahman, the head of the delegation in Russia, said Kurdish representatives would set up meetings with Russian officials, politicians and public figures to work on a solution to the Syrian crisis.

One of those public figures spotted today was Aleksandr Boroday, former editor of the ultra-nationalist Zavtra newspaper and a key figure in the Ukraine war.

Boroday, a Russian, was involved in the takeover of administrative buildings in Donetsk and declared himself the 'prime minister' of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic in May, 2014.

He announced his resignation in August that year and was replaced by Aleksandr Zakharchenko.

The choice by the Syrian Kurdish leadership to open their first office in Moscow will only further fuel fears that Russia has co-opted Kurdish forces that still receive extensive US backing.

Kurdish YPG (co-founded by the PYD) fighters have recently broken a truce with rebel groups in the Aleppo region and have enabled pro-regime forces to cut the city off from supply routes to the north and the Turkish border.

Of course courting the PYD not only helps the Kremlin on a tactical level through collaboration in Aleppo, but also plays against Turkey, which considers the organisation to be a terrorist group and has recently stepped up a long-running war with the PYD's parent organisation, the PKK.

[OUTLAW 09]

Di Mistura floated the idea of a federation in Syria to several opposition members including Cairo Summit members.

For the HNC...if Assad remains in power in any form......this is a non starter.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Ajnad al-Sham targeting shia militias in Nubl/Zahra north #Aleppo with artillery.
https://youtu.be/jsza-JHJG9U

Crazy vid found on a dead Hizbollah fighter's mobile. 5mins of Hizbollah mocking Assad soldiers, "we cnt find them!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-rDj6InLJI …

An hour long brand new video by the Army of Islam on the biggest battle near the capital
https://youtu.be/YImhH2NKVQI

[davidbfpo]

A first-hand report by Peter Oborne, a UK journalist of note and ex-daily Telegraph. Yes the visit is facilitated by the official Syrian regime:http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/journey-aleppo-how-war-ripped-syrias-biggest-city-apart-1376989223

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2016/0209/Why-the-West-is-standing-by-amid-Russia-s-campaign-in-Syria

Why the West is standing by amid Russia's campaign in Syria

As someone who has followed the CSM political analysis work on just about any topic since the 70s they are always close to the truth.

This is the core part of this article and it goes to the heart of the overall Obama and Kerry failures in confronting Putin who is forcing himself back into superpower status and who wants a "new Yalta" largely supported by the failures of Obama and Kerry to confront him on just about anything...especially the Russian breaking of the INF.

If one looks at the Obama mantra first in eastern Ukraine and now in Syria it is eerily the same thing...

"the conflict cannot be militarily won and it has to have a political solution"

ALL the while Putin and his MoD are actively and actually pushing a "military solution"...

We see that with the TOW arguments in Ukraine where Obama and Kerry basically declared them "an offensive weapon which turned the truth upside-down and they often stated.....if we supply them then Putin will escalate".....AND Putin escalated at every twist and turn and the US did what nothing except demand the Ukraine accept the political points in Minsk 2 without the Russians even fulfilling reciprocally even the simple point of POW exchanges which was to occur two weeks after a ceasefire. If one thinks about it since the Russians have not exchanged prisoners...in their minds there is thus no "ceasefire" BUT WAIT Obama and the West says there is one and it is working...their talk is being balanced against the reality of an average of over 50 attacks a day for the last two months.

In Syria we see the exact same Obama and Kerry argument for the last four years....."there is no military solution it has to have a political solution"...AND who places the entire game on a military win...Putin AND what does Obama and Kerry do.....cut off the flow of weapons to the anti Assad forces and virtually demands they surrender in Geneva in order to get a "ceasefire".

BTW the same "ceasefire" in eastern Ukraine has never been fulfilled by Russia so why would they honor one in Syria???

Never answered by the WH when that question is placed to them...BUT WAIT US MSM never asks that question does it?


“Russia has very clear intentions and is using military means to accomplish them,” says Heather Conley, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. “At the same time our aims are not so clear, and we are using soft means to try to accomplish those unclear goals.”

The Obama administration has been caught off guard by the ferocity of Russia’s recent escalation in Syria, some say. But that surprise, they add, has only reinforced a determination not to end up in a conflict with Russia in a region that the US, under President Obama, is trying to play down.

“The administration does not like what the Russians are doing, but they’ve been set off balance by this recent escalation and they don’t seem to feel there is anything they can do about it,” says Andrew Tabler, a Syria specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Given Mr. Obama’s desire to stay out of Middle East crises as much as possible, he adds, “The US is not about to do anything that would involve going up against Russia and risk a confrontation in Syria.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin “has a plan” for rescuing Mr. Assad and reinvigorating Russia’s role in the Middle East, Mr. Tabler says, “and I don’t think they [the administration] care enough to do something about it.”

[OUTLAW 09]

A first-hand report by Peter Oborne, a UK journalist of note and ex-daily Telegraph. Yes the visit is facilitated by the official Syrian regime:http://www.middleeasteye.net/essays/journey-aleppo-how-war-ripped-syrias-biggest-city-apart-1376989223

Part of the western MSM problem is ..there is not a single voice of the anti Assad opposition ever interviewed.....interesting is it not as they are not hard to find in Jordan, Turkey or even in KSA.

Even the recent MTV interview of Hezbollah POWs made youtube because Hezbollah pressured MTV to not release it, but has yet to be quoted in MSM nor is there any serious western MSM reporting on "transnational Shia jihadists" who are fighting in ever larger numbers in Syria and who are just as dangerous as the Sunni variety.

Lastly the role of Hezbollah both Lebanese and Iraqi (KH) ...we hear very little about in MSM when in fact they have killed/wounded almost as many US/French military as was killed in 9/11. Especially the role of Iran in their training, funding and weapon supplies to include 15K missiles from Iran and their firing of Russian TBMs in Syria on almost a daily basis now.

BTW the bulk of the SAA fighters in and around Aleppo are right now Hezbollah and Iraqi Shia militia that was not noted in the article as the question was apparently not asked.

NOTICE MSM never seems to ask .."why is it that IS occupies large amounts of territory in Iraq BUT over 30 odd Iraqi Shia militia's are in Syrian fighting largely FSA...and not IS".

Why is that?

[OUTLAW 09]

TURKEY: PM Davutoglu pledges to defend their 'Aleppo brothers' in Syria just as they defended Turkish cities in WW1
https://www.rt.com/news/331968-turke...ention-aleppo/ …

[Azor]

When the Atlantic Council becomes frustrated with Obama's inaction, you know there's a problem. See here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r_YZdq4Jgj0

[OUTLAW 09]

This might be provocative but right now all of the turmoil in the ME and the unilateral appeasement to Iran AND Syria was in fact signaled in the Obama 2009 speech in Cario.

It is well worth going back in and reading the 6K or so words of the speech and then understand it from the views of an "Islamist".....

Recent comment from a former UK Ambassador to Egypt....

More generally, this speech moved U.S. policy back from President Bush’s ill-fated ‘freedom agenda’ into a new version of an old bad habit. For decades too long Western capitals nodded deferentially at dreary national socialistic and other autocratic regimes across the Middle East, caught between a racist view that ‘Arabs can’t run a modern open society’ and a fear of anything which might threaten ‘stability.’

It boiled down to a well delivered speech full of clever emollient phrases that ultimately sent a message of appeasement to militant Islamist tendencies: Under my restrained leadership the United States will respect and accept conservative forms of Islam.

That in turn left ‘the West’ responding fitfully and uncertainly to the Arab Spring events.

Words matter regardless of who says them......so is this speech the core drive in the "Iran Deal" and the abject hands off on Syria which he signaled he wanted to improve relations with....in 2009??

This would in fact explain why Obama for four years stated "Assad must go" and then together with Putin "Assad must stay"...because Putin actually is doing what Obama spoke about in Cairo??

[OUTLAW 09]

SYRIA: New report says up to 470,000 people have died in the conflict over the last 5 years.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/11/report-on-syria-conflict-finds-115-of-population-killed-or-injured?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other …

WHAT the heck is this ...........
Why are Russian engineers working at an ISIS-controlled gas plant in Syria? - @ForeignPolicy http://atfp.co/1o2Nu3n

Kurds and Russians.....
Maybe they're one of the many Assad's militias after all

Pro #Assad media celebrate the capture of Menagh airbase in Aleppo by YPG and call the Kurdish militia NDF forces.

Rebels completely regain control of the town of Qaruja & it’s surrounding hills from regime militias in Jabal al-Turkman, #Latakia

[OUTLAW 09]

The perfect example of just how screwed up the current Obama FP for Syria is.....the US is in fact supporting the Kurds in taking even more Syrian Arab territory in their drive to build a Kurdistan and that includes all Syrian territory bordering Turkey which resulted in the Turks calling out the US...choose Turkey or the YPG....also taking Aleppo the second largest city in Syria.

While the US calls YPG "SDF" and supports it, the Turks consider it to be just the Syrian version of PPK and there is some truth to that. HWR/AI have in the past months openly accused the Kurds of "ethnic cleansing" of Arab towns and villages as well as destroying a number of Arab villages.

YPG has now opened an Moscow political field office and the Russians are also supplying weapons to them and have demanded the Kurds be included in Geneva talks.

THEN this yesterday...

One big dire cluster in #Aleppo, Syrian rebels fighting for absolute survival against YPG, Iranian militias, ISIS & Russian airstrikes

So again just what is the "official policy of the US"...thought we were fighting "terrorists" and PKK is on that list BUT WAIT we are supporting YPG just a political offshoot of PKK?????

[OUTLAW 09]

The perfect example of just how screwed up the current Obama FP for Syria is.....the US is in fact supporting the Kurds in taking even more Syrian Arab territory in their drive to build a Kurdistan and that includes all Syrian territory bordering Turkey which resulted in the Turks calling out the US...choose Turkey or the YPG....also taking Aleppo the second largest city in Syria.

While the US calls YPG "SDF" and supports it, the Turks consider it to be just the Syrian version of PPK and there is some truth to that. HWR/AI have in the past months openly accused the Kurds of "ethnic cleansing" of Arab towns and villages as well as destroying a number of Arab villages.

YPG has now opened an Moscow political field office and the Russians are also supplying weapons to them and have demanded the Kurds be included in Geneva talks.

THEN this yesterday...

One big dire cluster in #Aleppo, Syrian rebels fighting for absolute survival against YPG, Iranian militias, ISIS & Russian airstrikes

So again just what is the "official policy of the US"...thought we were fighting "terrorists" and PKK is on that list BUT WAIT we are supporting YPG just a political offshoot of PKK?????

So when will Obama finally and fully admit his Syrian FP is being driven and implemented by Iran and Russia??

America is now trying to pretend there are no links between the PKK and PYD:
http://m.bianet.org/bianet/siyaset/172012-turkiye-ile-abd-den-karsilikli-pyd-aciklamalari …

Hezbollah expels most residents of Qara, located btw Damascus & Homs, looted homes, & burns thousands of trees. http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/arab-and-world/syria/2016/02/10/%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AD%D8%B2%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%AC%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%B8%D9%85-%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%88%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%82-%D8%B2%D8%B1%D8%B9%D9%87%D8%A7.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia|n airstrikes haven’t stopped, Tal Rifa’at, Menagh & Ayn Daqna in northern #Aleppo hit a little while ago

+17000 #Russia|n airstrikes & +1500 civilians killed the Russians say they don’t think they’ve killed anyone. Not one human being.

Even the Armenian society was hit by #Russia|n airstrikes in Kafrnaha, #Aleppo yesterday

Footage
#YPG tanks and #Russian airstrikes capture #Menagh air base and village.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FplKnrYpR00 …

Shiite militias capture #KafrNaya, Kurdish #YPG troops #Menagh.
Both supported by #Russian air strikes.

Hezbollah fighters talking about the dumb Iraqi Shia fighters who were shooting at them by mistake

Hezbollah fighters "manar (Hezbollah tv) are liars, we liberated it, not the Syrian army"

The #UnitedStates bombed 1 hospital in 2015 & its president apologised for it.
#Russia bombs 1 hospital per day and rejects it EVER did so.

Rojava Peshmerga wants to enter Syria to fight Assad, but the YPG won't let them.



[OUTLAW 09]

UW is always about winning the hearts and minds...but when this WH basically abandons the "hearts and minds" because they failed to either formulate a clear, concise and coherent CUW strategy or they simply passed US FP to the Russian and Iranians...this below does not lend itself to actively influencing the "hearts and minds" towards the US in the coming years....this dismal failure by Obama will impact the US in the ME for the next 20 or so years.....

Report on #Syria finds 11.5% of population killed or injured, 470,000 deaths, 45% of population is displaced

We are actually seeing a similar dismal failure of the US in eastern Ukraine.

Pity the EU when the next wave of Putin generated Syrian refugees hits it....but in the Russian view all is fair game in non linear warfare....

[OUTLAW 09]

I had posted here a comment that all the major anti Assad Forces including JaI and al Sham attended a meeting in Turkey....

In a meeting in Turkey 2 days ago , Turkish-Saudi Arabian-Qatari officials gave the opposition groups 2 choices :

Agree to fight under one banner ( Like the Army of Conquest in Idlib ) and get all the weapons and equipment they need

If they don't unite, The opposition backers will drop support and North Aleppo will fall. If true, Ahrar & JN must answer

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria #Aleppo YPG/SDF captured Menagh AB from Ahrar & allies. ANHA video shows interesting details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l06ur7OQTMw …

Female Kurdish fighter driving T-72 MBT w/ slate armor, US provided M2 used against rebels, RuAF air support.

[OUTLAW 09]

"Transnational Shia jihadists" on the move into Syria will certainly not be "winning the hearts and minds" of the Sunni's in what is more and more a true sectarian Sunni Shia War..........


Those that have fought in Iraq will "recognize" some old "friends"....Remember Khamenei stated at a recent funeral for IRGC personnel....they died defending the "Islamic Revolution"....BUT Syria is Arab and 70% Sunni..

Syria Exclusive pic of an #IRIAF C-130 in Damascus IA transporting IRGC & Badr fighters to Aleppo front. Nov 2015
https://twitter.com/green_lemonnn

IRIAF C-130s in Syria had their Iranian flag on the tail removed but still have a full serials.

@SMantoux & i covered recent Badr deployment in Syria in this piece (French).
http://historicoblog3.blogspot.be/2016/02/mourir

Recent Badr deployment in Syria is the most important ever. Currently, Badr has 3 main brigades in Aleppo, the 10th, 4th & 3th brig.

Badr 10th Brig. has 2 Reg., the 4th Brig. has 3 Reg/specialized unit . Weren't able to ID the specific Reg. of the 3th Brig.

Not easy to give an estimation on # of Badr fighters recently deployed but 1000-1500 (foot soldiers& specialized) is a safe bet (for me)

[OUTLAW 09]

Erdogan accuses #US of creating 'pool of blood' with policy on #Syria Kurds - AFP

[OUTLAW 09]

Better duck...the Sunni Shia sectarian war is about to begin and the Saudi's have been attempting to warn the US as has Turkey BUT the Obama WH has not wanted to listen.

This Saudi journalist should be intently listened to as he is speaking for the Saudi Royal Family...

Was released on 6 Feb but not picked up by MSM until today.......

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/02/10/World-peace-versus-Saudi-national-security.html

World peace versus Saudi national security

Wednesday, 10 February 2016


In the event of victory for Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen, Yemeni politicians - including the Houthis, should they wish - would return to dialogue to build a country that is not governed by a dictator or a single political or sectarian faction. However, a Russian-Iranian victory in Syria will maintain an oppressive sectarian regime that caused the ongoing revolution, and will threaten global security.

The situation is as dangerous as the Cuban missile crisis or the 1958 Middle East crisis, imperiling a region that is important for the global economy. So why can Washington not see that Russia’s thwarting of negotiations in Geneva, and the continuation of its fierce war in Syria, constitute a threat to world peace?

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry cannot be that naïve to believe he can convince the Syrian opposition to partner with President Bashar al-Assad to fight terrorism. What is wrong with the Americans? Why do they not listen to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir when he says his country will militarily support the opposition if negotiations fail?

“Saudi Arabia’s responsibility is to protect its national security, given that a Russian-Iranian victory in Syria will have negative repercussions on Saudi internal affairs.”

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has made similar statements about his country’s support for the Syrian opposition, raising speculation in Turkish media about whether Ankara will be part of the Islamic military alliance announced by Riyadh last month. It is widely known that both countries reject a Russian-Iranian victory in Syria. The time has come for Washington to understand that the Saudis and Turks are not bluffing.

U.S. inaction

Americans would consider Turkish intervention in northern Syria, or Saudi shipment of surface-to-air missiles to the rebels, as a threat to world peace. This is how they should have viewed Russian and Iranian interference in Syria. Washington must take an immediate firm stance against this.

Saudi Arabia’s responsibility is to protect its national security, given that a Russian-Iranian victory in Syria will have negative repercussions on Saudi internal affairs. Luckily, Turkey - another major regional power - shares the same concern because a Russian-Iranian victory would lead to their permanent presence south of its borders, allowing for the expansion of a Kurdish state or zone of influence.

Why is this so unclear to Washington? Is it because of its withdrawal policy that President Barack Obama will be proud of when he writes his memoirs and describes how he protected his country from the sectarian wars of the Middle East? Riyadh must not take U.S. cooperation for granted. There are opponents waiting for any loophole to allow them to turn the table on us. Yemen and Syria represent the same battle, for us and them.

What is happening in Syria threatens world peace. It is leading to the rise of far-right parties in Europe. In Jordan, the refugee issue is no longer just humanitarian but also political, a source of concern to King Abdullah and his government. He used the term “boiling” to refer to the state of his country when dealing with the flood of refugees.

His government said the longer the conflict rages, the less likely it is that Syrian refugees will return home. It expects some of them to settle in Jordan, which suffers from a weak economy, while the rest will not leave for many years. Regardless of who wins the war, and even if it ends tomorrow, they have no place to go back to.

These painful details should be told to Washington, which must take part in and keep pace with Saudi political and military activity in the region. The United States is an important player because it can face Russia. We should remind the Americans that the Syrian crisis has crossed regional, European and Asian borders.

This article first appeared in Al Hayat on Feb 6, 2016.

______________________________
Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist, columnist, author, and general manager of the upcoming Al Arab News Channel. He previously served as a media aide to Prince Turki al Faisal while he was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Khashoggi has written for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers, including Asharq al-Awsat, al-Majalla and al-Hayat, and was editor-in-chief of the Saudi-based al-Watan. He was a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and other Middle Eastern countries. He is also a political commentator for Saudi-based and international news channels. Twitter: @JKhashoggi


This was the Turkish comment that the US and Russia should have been watching...US was silent and Russia laughed them off on their RT propaganda news....

TURKEY: PM Davutoglu pledges to defend their 'Aleppo brothers' in Syria just as they defended Turkish cities in WW1
https://www.rt.com/news/331968-turke...ention-aleppo/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Bayanoun
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 11

Iran media announced the extermination of it's mercenary terrorist Colonel Saadat Khairkhawah,one of the #IRGC leaders
#Aleppo FEB10

even under war and siege Zamalka in the Ghouta has just held elections for its local council
https://syriafreedomforever.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/%D8%B2%D9%85%D9%84%D9%83%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A8-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%8B%D8%A7-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%8B%D8%A7-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%8B%D8%A7-zamalka-election-of-a-new/ …

Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Anadan AGAIN
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 11

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Syrian Express on the move again.......

Rainy morning #SyriaExpress : #ВМФ Ropucha class LST #Бф BF Alexander Otrakovsky transits northbound Bosphorus

ВМФ LST #Бф BF Alexander Otrakovsky completes first #Syria deployment of 2016, returns from #Tartus in 10 days

Other ships that passed southbound on Feb 1st are not coming soon. Ropucha's maintain their the pace. #FLOT #ВМФ

ВМФ Бф BF Minsk 127 transits the Bosphorus en route to #Tartus #Syria

ВМФ #ЧФ ropucha class LST Azov 151 is en route to #Tartus #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Turkish statements against the US and the UNSC are getting a tad sharper lately and when viewed in context of the Saudi article now make sense as they reinforce that the article stated.


Turkey's prime minister has lashed out at the United Nations after it demanded the country open its borders to tens of thousands of more Syrian refugees, accusing it of failing to stop the Russian bombings that have triggered the exodus.

Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday he considered the U.N. Security Council "two-faced" for telling Turkey to open its borders while not moving "a finger to solve the Syria crisis" or to stop the Russian bombardments.

He also said the Syrian and Russian military operations were an attempt to drive out people who don't support the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

By taking in the refugees that have fled the city of Aleppo, he said Turkey would be indirectly contributing to what he termed as an "ethnic cleansing."

___

4:30 p.m.

Turkey's president has ratcheted up his criticism of the United States for not recognizing Syrian Kurdish forces as "terrorists," saying Washington's lack of knowledge of the groups operating in the region has led to bloodshed.

Turkey considers the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which is affiliated with Turkey's own Kurdish rebels as a terror group. The PYD however, is a key force in U.S. efforts to root out the Islamic State group in Syria.

On Wednesday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his position that the PYD was no different to Turkey's Kurdish rebels, which the U.S. does consider to be a terror organization, or to IS.

Erdogan said: "You failed to know (these groups). That's why the region is drenched in blood."

Turkey summoned the U.S. ambassador on Tuesday over the issue.


WHAT is extremely interesting is that when these Turkish comments were made they made no sense to the MSM and the MSM usually made negative comments towards them especially in the US media....ALL the while the Saudi article was sitting there since 6 Feb and not a single western MSM picked up on it......AND still has not .....now the Turkish comments take on a clear and concise context in relationship to the Saudi article.....

Both fully view what the Russians, Iranians and Assad are doing as direct national security threats to their nation states...that wording should be causing an immediate meeting of the US NSC but silence......

[OUTLAW 09]

Think Obama and Kerry are a tad overwhelmed right now........

Perpetrators of chemical weapon attacks in #Syria must be held to account - @OPCW chief
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/syria-chemical-weapons-attacks-by-ahmet-uzumcu-2016-02 …

Brings back is red line in full force again....just when he thought he had to do nothing....

[OUTLAW 09]

Tip for social media open source analysis...

spotting where imagery has been removed - the gaps, is a way of finding out what's hidden
https://exposingtheinvisible.org/films/the-role-of-the-visual/ …
pic.twitter.com/mwxDibrPq9

[OUTLAW 09]

MORE of the standard Ukrainian Russian refrain...it ain't us".....
Russia Claims That US A-10s, Not Russian Jets Bombed Aleppo Yesterday
http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-claims-that-us-a-10s-not-russian-jets-bombed-aleppo-yesterday/ …
pic.twitter.com/S2k1o6tqza


The Russian Ministry of Defence has accused the US Air Force of carrying out air strikes on the rebel-held city of Aleppo and attempting to pass the blame onto Russia.

The state-owned RT channel reports that Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the MOD, said today that two US A-10 attack jets had flown to Aleppo from Turkey and bombed nine targets in the city.


“Yesterday, at 13:55 Moscow time (10:55 GMT), two American A-10 assault aircraft entered Syrian airspace from Turkey, flew right to the city of Aleppo and bombed targets there.”

Konashenkov said that a Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Steven Warren, had yesterday claimed that Russian jets had bombed hospitals in Aleppo so as to pre-emptively deflect blame away from the US.

According to Konashenkov, there were no Russian air strikes on the city of Aleppo yesterday.

“I’m going to be honest with you: we did not have enough time to clarify what exactly those nine objects bombed out by US planes in Aleppo yesterday were. We will look more carefully.

NOTE:: When the Russian MoD states "I am going to be honest with you"....literally run.....

[...]
What they do first is make unfounded accusations against us – to deflect blame away from themselves. If it goes on like this, we’re going to make two media briefings: one for ourselves, another for those coalition guys.”
First of all, it's important to point out that Colonel Warren did not say that Russian jets had bombed two hospitals on Wednesday, instead he refers to "the destruction of two hospitals in Aleppo by Russian and regime attacks." No specific date for the destruction of those hospitals was given. Furthermore there is extensive evidence of the bombing of Syrian hospitals by Russian or regime forces, with multiple claims from medical groups and activists.

The blame shifting claimed by Konashenkov is therefore a total fabrication.

Moving on the claim that US A-10s flew from Turkish airspace into the Aleppo province and bombed the city in the midst of a massive Russian air campaign in the area, we extremely sceptical.

Unless the Russian MOD could provide hard evidence of such a claim, it should be treated as false. Considering the extensive Russian air defence coverage of the area, with S-400 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) deployed and within range, and the high tensions between Russia and Turkey, it seems extremely unlikely that two non-stealthy attack jets would make it all the way to Aleppo and back without coming under fire. Furthermore, we would expect Russian jet fighters, which have been flying combat air patrol and escort missions in this area since Turkish F-16s downed a Russian Su-24 bomber in November last year, to have intercepted any flight crossing the frontier.

Russian jets were yesterday reported widely to have conducted multiple air strikes to the north and west of Aleppo, if not on the city itself, so the A-10s would have had to fly right through airspace in which numerous Russian jets were conducting combat operations.


AND the Russian lying just keeps on keeping on........

Daily #RussianLies: ...
There is no #ISIS presence in #Idlib province.
Nowhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEg-xaHM2GM …
pic.twitter.com/0EGBiC7hjS

[OUTLAW 09]

Is the US actively providing CAS to the SDF/YPG when they are fighting known anti Assad forces ie FSA???????

Local activists say it actually might be the USAF ~20 airstrikes that helped YPG militia take Menage airbase north #Aleppo not the Russians.

Rebels retake #Qaroja village in Turkman Mount #Latakia countryside and kill several Assad soldiers.

[OUTLAW 09]

Better duck...the Sunni Shia sectarian war is about to begin and the Saudi's have been attempting to warn the US as has Turkey BUT the Obama WH has not wanted to listen.

This Saudi journalist should be intently listened to as he is speaking for the Saudi Royal Family...

Was released on 6 Feb but not picked up by MSM until today.......

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/02/10/World-peace-versus-Saudi-national-security.html

World peace versus Saudi national security

Wednesday, 10 February 2016



This was the Turkish comment that the US and Russia should have been watching...US was silent and Russia laughed them off on their RT propaganda news....

TURKEY: PM Davutoglu pledges to defend their 'Aleppo brothers' in Syria just as they defended Turkish cities in WW1
https://www.rt.com/news/331968-turke...ention-aleppo/ …

The Saudi's and the Turks definitely know their "near enemies"...we are not far from a coming sectarian war that could have been avoided with US leadership...BUT WAIT there was none....

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

ichael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss

Saudi’s decision to send troops in Syria ‘final’
http://ara.tv/66k5d via @AlArabiya_Eng



By Staff writer, Al Arabiya English

Thursday, 11 February 2016

Saudi’s decision to send troops to Syria in an attempt to bolster and toughen efforts against militants is “final,” the spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition force in Yemen announced on Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Assiri, said that Riyadh is “ready” and will fight with its U.S.-led coalition allies to defeat ISIS militants in Syria, however, he said Washington is more suitable to answer questions on further details about any future ground operations.

“We are representing Saudi’s [decision] only” in sending troops, he said.

He also sent a message to Iran, saying that if Tehran is serious in fighting ISIS, then it must stop supporting “terrorism” in Syria or Yemen.

Riyadh has long accused Tehran of supporting the Houthi militia in Yemen against the internationally-recognized government there. Iran is also a key ally to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The military spokesman also said that the Islamic Military Alliance will take effect within two months.

Thirty-five Muslim countries released a joint statement announcing the formation of the alliance against terrorism in December last year.

The alliance’s joint command center is located in the Saudi capital Riyadh.


The video I posted yesterday purporting to being the transport of Saudi armored IFVs near the Jordanian border was initially claimed to be an older video and denied by a single Saudi account...but quietly and gently removed from the net....apparently not an old video and definitely Saudi IFV movements and definitely a not so subtle signal to both Russia and Iran....

[OUTLAW 09]

ArmsControlWonk on possible #Iran rocket launch next week.
http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1201046/coming-simorgh-launch/ … h/t @DaveSchmerler @KY_nerd pic.twitter.com/kyI1xYF9xY


Russian cyber warfare hard at work although for the wrong reasons.....
Mark Galeotti @MarkGaleotti
#Russia #hackers make unlimited ATM withdrawals using a clever bank hack @Techworm_in
http://www.techworm.net/2016/02/russian-hackers-make-unlimited-atm-withdrawals-using-clever-bank-hack.html …