Syria in 2016 (April-June) [Archive] - Page 6

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 05:32 PM

Well, it seems the Daesh really out-played Gen Essam Zahreddine, CO of the 104th Brigade RGD and the regime's pocket in Dayr az-Zawr.

Through the entire day, Daesh was infiltrating various parts of regime's positions north of the city, inside the city, and south of it. They've captured even such places like al-Assad Hospital.

As usually, the regime hit back in force, supported by air strikes (supposedly: including those by Russians).

However, this afternoon the Daesh then launched a major attack from the south. At first fighting was then reported from al-Thardeh area in southern centre of the regime's pocket, and then the Daesh claimed (https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/731492918247227392) to have captured the oil field and hills south of Dayr az-Zawr, where it should have killed 25 regime troops.

Around 18.00hrs local time, Daesh claimed (https://twitter.com/sdj_q/status/731501875611209728) to have cut off the Base 137 by reaching the 'Panorama Camp', which is roughly between the Base 137 and Dayr az-Zawr City.

Seems, they have captured Tel Kroum and then linked-up with northern prong of attack from the Saiqa Base.

All of this indicates the dire situation of the regime's garrison even before this offensive began: it lacked troops to cover its entire perimeter, and when Daesh distracted it and drew forces away through multiple infiltration attacks, the selected 'Schwerpunkt' was poorly defended.

The regime pocket should now be split in two and the last fuel supply to the air base cut off. Worse yet: the Daesh is in a position to turn east, link up with its positions inside the city, and thus cut the pocket in three.

CrowBat.......it might seem harsh to say....one does have to be amazed at the IS fighting tactics time and time again....we saw the same style of tactics in Iraq...it all evolves out of a "swarm attack"....meaning multiple attacks from multiple directions designed to confuse exactly where the main attack intent lays.....they pulled off three major Iraqi prison breaks using this tactic and freed up to 1200 of their fighters...in the last years in Iraq after stating that they would do it in a named major offensive campaign.

In one attack on the 1st Cav in Baqubah in 2006 they hit the unit from three directions using two dump truck SVIEDS weighting in the tons of explosives each both coordinated with the attack elements....killing over 40 US and wounding over 60. When the trucks detonated it seemed like they were mini nuclear devices from the mushroom clouds that were formed after the explosion.

Stunning the Cav unit and then followed up this attack with a series of follow on attacks forcing the Army to reinforce the Cav BCT with a Styker unit....

BTW...they have still used that style of attack using SVIEDs as the lead elements and the explosives load always in the tons ranges and always self made improvised explosives in Syria..by 2010 Naqshbandi was producing alone in Iraq literally tens of tons of such explosives AND even was selling it to the Shia militias in exchange for advanced RPGs and EFP IEDs.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 05:40 PM

Assad army & allies launch a major attack on rebel-held Daraya #Damascus. So far lost a tank & at least 12 soldiers.

IslamicState claim cut off regime supply route from #DeirEzzor airport to #SAA brigade 137 base (SW of the city)

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 05:43 PM

Now that #PKK terrorist organisation got its hands on MANPADS most probably provided by Russia or/and Assad, let's see how Turkey responds.

So the US via Obama demanded that they not be given to the FSA..but Russia did not hold to they unspoken agreement between Obama and Putin as usual.

What happened to keep MANPADS from falling into the wrong hands to protect civilian aircraft?

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 05:48 PM

Fate of employees in "Assad Hospital" in #DeirEzzor still unclear after #IslamicState took it in morning

IslamicState claim cut off regime supply route from #DeirEzzor airport to #SAA brigade 137 base (SW of the city)

IslamicState took over Faculty of Arts in #DeirEzzor city
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.345060&lon=40.137112&z=17&m=b …
Pic from Panorama RB barrier south of #DeirEzzor city
-now under control of #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.301712&lon=40.073318&z=15&m=b …

Special operations carried out by Ahrar Al-Sham vs pro-Regime forces near #KhanTuman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGD4fxKLvbY …

FSA Southern Front rebels continue to clash with #Daesh affiliates in SW #Daraa
https://youtu.be/QCjOGVQqWmo

Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union show evidence of a t-72 tank destroyed and claim crew KIA #Daraya #Rif_Dimashq

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 05:55 PM

Raytheon Developing New TOW Launcher
http://defnews.ly/1TbpFkH
Optical digital guidance system..........suspecting based on field experiences flowing in from Syria...

Thus the TOW might in fact outlive the Javelin....

CrowBat

05-14-2016, 06:16 PM

CrowBat.......it might seem harsh to say...It's not harsh, and I do not see it as some sort of 'absolving' Daesh either. It's just so that Assadists remain as incompetent battlefield commanders as always - while the Daesh is meanwhile operating in style of the IRGC from mid-1980s, i.e. it's putting up a performance not even the IRGC can show, nowadays.

They've learned their lessons, they don't have as many troops to 'spend' any more, and thus they're infiltrating now. They appeared in about a dozen of places all arond Dayr az-Zawr today, causing confusion and impression of omni-presence: from what one gets to hear from there, it reminds strongly of various accounts of the Tet Offensive in Saigon, for example.

And yup; I've heard plenty of such stories from Iraq. Indeed, one can still hear many of similar stories from recent fighting too. No surprise, with all the terrain under their control, their workshops in Iraq are turning out SVIEDs and 'DIY-IFVs' or all sorts in incredible numbers.

But, and strangely enough, they've deployed 'only' two SVIEDs in Dayr today.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:01 PM

Actually worth reading the entire article......

Michael Weiss
✔ ‎@michaeldweiss Through the Looking Glass With Ben Rhodes
http://nyti.ms/1WvACkB

Michael Weiss 
‏@michaeldweiss
Covering himself in more glory: Ben Rhodes Told Us He’s ‘Not Proud of Our Syria Policy’
http://thebea.st/1X80aTQ

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:10 PM

The RPG-29 of Daraya returns!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8--oTJ6HE8 …
Apparently Ajnad al-Sham claims this shot killed today's T-72.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:16 PM

ISIS declares state of emergency in Raqqa – U.S. official
http://www.unian.info/world/1345387-isis-declares-state-of-emergency-in-raqqa-us-official.html …

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:21 PM

Russian Syria Naval Express......

Natya class minesweeper Valentin Pikul 770 on the Bosphorus southbound towards the Mediterranean.

Reference the previous posting of a Russian naval buoy tender carrying two boats under camouflage nets.

The features recognizable are helping us to say they are clearly not raptors. A side door and a high bridge.

Our first guess was Raptors, fast attack boats,
http://russianships.info/eng/warfareboats/project_03160.htm …
and we thought that was it. They a closer examination revealed more

They're clearly 2 different types or variants of fast assault boats for spec-ops or anti sabotage teams in harbors

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:41 PM

http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/is-a-deal-cooking?utm_content=buffer3a8a8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.VzZ9GcdM6LQ.twitter

May 13, 2016

Is a Deal Cooking?

By Frederic C. Hof

Senior officials of countries very closely allied to the United States are registering with a variety of contacts their concern that Secretary of State John Kerry is "rushing into a deal" that would accept the Russian interpretation of the Syrian transitional governing body mandated by the June 30, 2012 Geneva Final Communiqu. Moscow wants the transitional entity to be a national unity government: a prime minister and cabinet taking orders from President Bashar al-Assad. Washington would reportedly accept the national unity government approach provided Assad's constitutional powers and tenure were limited. If this is true, it is a snare and a delusion that would prolong and even deepen Syria's agony and the migration crisis accompanying it.

Early in the Syrian crisis there was interest in Washington and among the Arab Gulf States in an Ali Abdullah Salih solution for Syria. Salih, the longtime president of Yemen, had been sidelined but allowed to remain at large in the country and in the company of his own security forces. At the time, the Salih solution looked attractive: this was years before Mr. Salih's continued presence in Yemen would prove to be the country's undoing. Anyone proposing something roughly analogous now for Syria had better take a careful look at that being replicated.

No doubt the administration would point to the fact that Russia and Iran have secured Mr. Assad militarily. No doubt it counsels the Syrian opposition to mind the old adage about beggars not being choosers. The bluntness of the advice is no doubt cushioned with soothing verbiage about keeping expectations under control. No one now serving in the US government should worry about the expectations of any friend being out of control.

Still, it is true: Moscow and Tehran have dismissed plaintive Western pleas about there being no military solution in Syria by creating one. From Russia's perspective, Assad personifies the state it has rescued from American regime change machinations; all that is required now is for President Barack Obama to acknowledge that Assad is Syria's legitimate chief executive and a partner in the battle against the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh). As far as Iran is concerned, Assad alone can reliably subordinate Syria to Tehran's representative in Lebanon: Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah. Even if Moscow tires of Assad (presumably after securing Obama's acknowledgement), Tehran will not. Unless, that is, if Iran-Israel peace looms.

On one level, therefore, it seems perfectly rational for Washington to apply its notion of the diplomatic art of the possible to Syria: as John Kerry reportedly put it to a group of European interlocutors, to find a "creative role" for Assad. At least one senior American official has devoted quality time to the pursuit of an amended or new Syrian constitution. Is it possible the United States has confused Syria with Sweden?

Agreeing to keep Assad in office is to allow the assailant to hold forth in the intensive care unit while a barely conscious, bleeding patient struggles to breathe. Is this the limit of what the United States seeks? Perhaps it is. Indeed, if the most this administration is willing to do with respect to Syria is figuratively to try to apply lipstick to a pig, so be it. Perhaps Bashar al-Assad could suppress his laughter long enough to be sworn-in as Syria's constitutional equivalent of the Queen of England or the President of Israel. Yet if a supposed defanged and out-of-office Salih was a ticking time bomb for Yemen, an Assad clan and entourage rolling in money and armed to the teeth with its head still 'serving' would make an instant mockery of whatever has been reduced to writing in the form of a constitution or agreed Russian-American talking points for the press. Has regime behavior over the past five years established no factual baseline?

Perhaps the administration banks on the certainty that Moscow will remove Assad from the scene altogether after a few months of obliging him to serve tea to visiting volunteer firemen. That proposition needs testing right now. Let Russia compel the cessation of regime air and artillery attacks on civilian residential areas; let Moscow dictate to the so-called Syrian government that UN relief convoys will henceforth go where they want and when they want with no more than a perfunctory notification to Syrian functionaries. If Russia cannot or will not do this, how will it force its murderous client onto a train to Minsk or the slow boat to Caracas? Will Tehran not have a 'vote' on all of this in any event?

The administration John Kerry in particular deserves great credit for having suppressed violence and facilitated humanitarian aid to the extent it has. Yes, the cessation of hostilities has been far short of a real cessation, and yes, it might break down completely at any moment. Still, Kerry has given one and all a demonstration of what is achievable with no discernible leverage. Perhaps this will be as good as it gets until a new president is inaugurated: and it is far from nothing. One of the many things that would be worse than a labor-intensive effort to keep a lid on Syria would be an attempt to repackage and repurpose a mass murderer: especially so if it is attempted with allies in the dark. Forget the abysmal immorality of it. It simply will not work.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:51 PM

IS claims to kill more than 80 enemy soldiers and destroy 2 tanks and 2 BMPs 6 heavy guns in Deir Ezzor today

Another IS Assad resupply run was made today.......

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 07:53 PM

Assad TV famous reporter Shady Helwe injured or killed while covering clashes with rebls in #Aleppo according to pro-regime source

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 08:00 PM

Kurdish PKK shoot down #Turkish cobra helicopter w/ Russian MANPAD SA 18(Video)
http://bit.ly/1TMU8Tl

There have been numerous field reports that Russia has indeed supplies weapons to PKK and YPG a branch of PKK......

PKK's downing of a #Turkish helicopter by #Russian-made MANPADS (IGLA) is a game changer & could lead to further escalation in the region.

I've also always wondered about what happened to the large numbers of MANPADS that circulated in Donbas that were largely supplied by Russia with no control.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 08:07 PM

First Coastal Div. takes out a 14.5 mm gun with a #Fagot in Tell Hadad, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMWGbGG4jOQ …

First Coastal Div. shelled with Grad rockets #Kinsabba in Jebal Al-Akrad, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlS_c-B7Y8U …

Regime airdropped more supplies to Kafraya & Fua in #Idlib today as militias there target road between Binish & Toum with heavy artillery

One week after Russia's concert for 'civilisation' in Syria, they bombed a world heritage site..in Syria.

Aleppo: Syrian Rebels destroy Assad regime bulldozer in Khan Toum via TOW

Aleppo: 7 Iranian fighters killed in Karem al Turab neighbourhood

Daraya: Rebels managed to repel a huge Assad regime offensive today

Deir Ezzor: up to 20 Assad regime fighters killed & 6 ISIS in clashes around regime held hospital

Latakia: Syrian Rebels shell Assad held Jabal Atira & Jabal Zahiyah

Deir Ezzor: high casualties from both sides in ongoing clashes between Assad regime & ISIS, especially around Baghiliyah

Assad regime bombing Huber & Awaynat

Qamishli: carbomb but unknown who is behind it

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 08:56 PM

Iran is sending about 100 military advisers and instructors to #Syria and #Iraq from the University of Imam Hussein Murteza Safari.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdollahiyan said that Iran is increasing the number of its military personnel in Syria

Luckily for the 104th RG and SyAA they didn't capture any ATGMs... oh wait they got three PG-29Vs.

Armour losses in Deir ez-Zor becoming critical for the regime. Today saw the destruction of another two/three BMP-1s

Shura Council of Mujahideen of Derna calls local people of city for general mobilization and being ready for Jihad.

OUTLAW 09

05-14-2016, 08:57 PM

“They want the Islamic State to reach all of Iran’s borders and even within Iran itself. "
http://yalibnan.com/2016/05/12/hezbollah-chief-hassan-nasrallah-the-islamic-state-is-a-us-product/ …

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 04:55 AM

For hose that understand US internal politics...there might in fact be something to this following comment......

"I believe that [US Sen] Bob Menendez [D-NJ] was indicted solely on the crime of opposing the President on Iran" - US Sen Mark Kirk (R-IL)

FOLLOWED by this Kerry statement which makes one think JUST what did he give away in the Iran Deal that Rhodes spun for the Obama WH.....

Kerry’s peculiar message about Iran for European banks
http://on.wsj.com/1WtJ0Rs

HSBC basically just said that the US position on Iranian financial activities and sanctions makes no sense.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 05:13 AM

DeirEzzor: More photos of pro-#Assad forces, killed by #ISIS between Sham Gas Station and Panorama Driving School.

Big Aamaq claim: 4 Russian assault helicopters and 20 trucks with ammo explode in T4 airbase as a result of fire

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 06:26 AM

Lesson of Arab spring is that brute force (i.e. killing your citizens) + US/international acquiescence is usually enough to stay in power.

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Baffling that #Iran/#Hizballah (and Badreddine personally in most obits) get a pass for Unit 3800 that maimed and murdered 1,000 US soldiers

Hizballah has barely clashed with IS and isn't primarily focused on Jabhat al-Nusra, just for starters.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of #Iran's men in #Afghanistan, being reconciled to the US-backed government.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 06:27 AM

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/obamas-complex-foreign-policy-legacy-unpicked

Obama’s complex foreign policy legacy unpicked

Hussein Ibish

May 14, 2016 Updated: May 14, 2016 06:18 PM

The battle to define the policy legacy of any two-term American presidency usually emerges as the election for a successor begins in earnest. Ever the astute campaigner, Barack Obama initiated the current debate through a series of interviews to The Atlantic magazine, published as The Obama Doctrine. The conversation has just been significantly extended by a profile in The New York Times of White House communications guru Ben Rhodes.

Mr Obama was elected with a mandate to correct a Bush-era foreign policy characterised by excessive interventionism, overreach and even hubris. As former Obama CIA director and defence secretary Leon Panetta puts it, he was “the guy who’s going to bring these wars to an end".

Yet in Samuels’s account, Mr Obama is depicted as single-minded and inflexible in a manner surprisingly reminiscent of George W Bush. Bush-era recklessness has given way to a very different, but also profoundly dangerous, risk aversion.

It’s pointless to debate whether Mr Obama’s sins of omission have been as harmful as Mr Bush’s sins of commission. That’s totally subjective and can only be based on counterfactual scenarios. Moreover, it’s irrelevant, because even if Mr Obama’s worst errors prove less costly than the flabbergasting blunder of the Iraq war, they’re still highly damaging failures.

Mr Bush’s exit was haunted by the spectre of Iraq, which helped bring his Republican party crashing down to a historic defeat in 2008. Although its political fallout will be less dramatic, Mr Obama’s failure to act in Syria eventually may similarly define his foreign policy in largely negative terms.

Mr Obama is counting on the Iran nuclear deal to secure a historical legacy of at least relative success. But if the agreement doesn’t prevent the emergence of either a nuclear-armed Iran or a military confrontation, he will have lost the legacy gamble.

And a Syria policy that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions, one of the worst terrorist organisations in history empowered, and parts of the Middle East and even Europe destabilised, will be hard to frame as anything other than a devastating moral and political failure.

Samuels’s article illustrates the monomaniacal groupthink dominating elements in the present White House: “Iraq is his [Mr Rhodes’] one-word answer to any and all criticism."

Moreover, he presents Mr Rhodes, and by implication Mr Obama, as being fatalistically convinced – largely, and perhaps entirely, based on the American experience in Iraq – that there was nothing at all Washington could have done to improve the situation in Syria.

“I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there," Samuels quotes Mr Rhodes. “And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we’re there – nearly a decade in Iraq."

This echoes Mr Obama’s evidence-free assertions that Russia’s intervention in Syria is, by definition, a crippling failure and sign of weakness.

But of course, Syria isn’t Iraq. 2003 isn’t 2012. And these two realities are radically different in almost every respect. Only the most superficial and confused reading would conflate the challenges they posed to policymakers.

This is precisely the kind of amateurish error that would seem entirely convincing, and profoundly appeal, to those who just don’t know much about Iraq and Syria. Yet this excruciatingly facile analogy appears to have been definitive for the Obama administration.

An unnamed former senior Obama administration official told Samuels he thought the debate in 2012 about Syria was “honest and open" but has changed his mind. He says that, like Mr Bush, Mr Obama sticks with his existing beliefs no matter what the realities or “costs to our strategic interests" prove to be. Samuels insightfully notes both men “projected their own ideas of the good on to an indifferent world".

Mr Panetta says he used to believe Mr Obama was prepared to act militarily to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, but now thinks that’s “probably not" true. Instead, he suggests that Mr Obama is so attached to the idea of ending wars that he wouldn’t have actually launched such an action, or even authorised increased sanctions on Tehran (which Mr Obama did oppose).

He adds that this mentality also helps explain American reticence on Syria. He explains Mr Obama’s calculations thus: “If you ratchet up sanctions, it could cause a war. If you start opposing their interest in Syria, well, that could start a war, too."

Samuels’s article confirms some of the worst fears about how foreign policy is sometimes being poorly manufactured and cynically marketed by the current administration.

Mr Obama has correctly chided Donald Trump that the presidency is “not a reality show". Yet Mr Rhodes boasts about having “created an echo chamber". Unfortunately, behind such Machiavellian messaging lies not reassuringly sincere policy confidence, but a disturbingly absolutist certainty.

Ideologically-driven dogmatism isn’t restricted to past administrations. And no need of Trumpery – serious issues are already being addressed through openly contemptuous, reality TV-style manipulation rather than genuine persuasion. These attitudes and practices may, alas, prove inseparable from the rest of the Obama foreign policy legacy.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 11:43 AM

Assad's Forces Regain Assad Hospital in Deir Ezzor
Fierce clashes broke out this morning between ISIS and Assad's...
http://fb.me/7T6wHQzy9

IS retake Assad Hospital in #DeirEzzor at southern city entrance.

DeirEzzor: #ISIS recaptured the entire #Assad Hospital from pro-#Assad forces after lost it before. #ISIS used a massive VBIED.

Rebels securing further #Azaz pocket by seizing Ferziyah from #ISIS, N. #Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.597062&lon=37.145462&z=12&m …

Aleppo Pic from Fayruziyah village after rebels expelled #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.596614&lon=37.145333&z=15&m=b …

Pro-Assad Arab Nationalist Guard cmdr Hussein Eissa was reportedly killed attacking #Daraya in #Damascus yesterday

Assad regime waged a large-scale attack on #Daraya , breaking the cease-fire since yesterday.

Syria ~20 airstrikes on northern #Homs towns & villages
incl. 12 on Zara villages- captured by rebels some days ago

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 12:07 PM

Kerry meets Saudi king to discuss Syria before Vienna talks
http://reut.rs/22azoev

Not so subtle Saudi critique of Kerry's constant meetings with absolutely no results .......
Dr Jaber Alsiwat ‏@jsiwat
US Secretary of State @JohnKerry is in Jeddah for meetings with Saudi officials. Too many meetings with no tangible results.

Assad-forces try to regain Turdah Mountain south of #DeirEzzor from #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.241133&lon=40.120697&z=13&m=b …

Not related to Syria but to the combat capabilities of IS in general.........
ISIS repelled an #Peshmerga offensive north of #Mosul and captured many #EU weapons, including G36 assault rifles from #Germany.

Compelling, rare reporting from war-torn #Aleppo by @TomCoghlan via @thetimes #Syria
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/what-can-we-do-if-we-leave-they-will-steal-everything-hn0qz6nj0 …

Russian K9s in cages directly under the sun and without AC? good luck trying to use them to detect explosives

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 12:19 PM

Iranian/Iraqi Shia militia activities in Syria are no different than those they carry out in Iraq towards Sunni's.....

Iraq: #Iran|ian soldier burned #Sunni civilian and dragged his body with a car
#Baghdad #Mosul

Sham Front destroyed with a #TOW a bulldozer on the East side of #KhanTuman, S. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_8IZo3uYqU …

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 02:49 PM

Lots of cluster munitions (Most likely Uragan) used currently in assadi shelling on #Lattakia

First Hezbollah blames the Israeli's then JaS and now today the Israeli's...how about an internal killing by Hezbollah itself????

AKI (Ar) cites “Syrian military sources” who claim that the Badreddine hit was identical to the Kuntar hit. Adds: based on prelim info

Badreddine was killed with a SPICE guided missile. The sources said Badreddine was staying in a concealed location in a residential area

Assad barrel bombs on Kabanah in Jabal Akrad, rural #Latakia again today

ISIS kills Assad regime General Mohamed Jouria Abu Wa'el in Tadmur

Funerals today in Iran for 4 Iranians & Afghani's killed in Syria

ISIS alegedly slay doctors in regime held hospital in Deir Ezzor
http://www.alhayat.com/Edition/Print/15614219 …

Quneitra: dozens of Assad forces killed on outskirts of Maskara

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 03:01 PM

Buildings in Daraya catch fire after Assad forces fire surface-to surface missiles and other artillery at city

ISIS killed 125 pro-#Assad forces in #DeirEzzor since yesterday

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 03:03 PM

Not a single comment from the entire western leadership especially nothing from Kerry and Obama in the continuous Russian air strikes on a Syrian IDP camp....NOT even the so called UNSC......

BREAKING: Pro-regime Russian warplanes over Aleppo now. Eight attacks so far on Handarat IDP camp and area around the Canadian Hospital.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 03:07 PM

So the Obama Iran Deal was to support the development of Iranian moderates????

Khamenei visiting Afghan of #IRGC's Fatemiun: -You were injured where? -Nubl&Zahra(Aleppo) -So I must kiss you again

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 03:17 PM

Interesting comment as there has been no such video released as of yet by any of the groups including IS who is famous for such videos ...was one initially of two POWs being paraded by JaF fighters but then no more were received......

Amir Taheri
‏@AmirTaheri4
Iranians shocked by videos of captured #Iranian fighters near #Aleppo, bound by ropes and kicked like animals #Khamenei's promised "victory"

Such images can sicken a nation or drive it towards escalation in search of revenge - one to watch in Iran and ESPECIALLY who is driving this narrative..........

Ayatollah Kermani calls for withdrawal of Muslim money from US banks. But Imam Account, opened by Khomeini, still active in Bank of America.

Ayatollah Alam Al-Hoda:Thanks to wisdom of "Supreme Guide" Iran is only secure place in the world, even #Europe and #US are no longer safe.

Instead of making speeches #Gen.#Rezai should set to work to:1- Repatriate #Iranian corpses from #Syria, 2- Secure release of war prisoners.

Amir Taheri
‏@AmirTaheri4
One word describes the confusion that has struck the leadership in #Tehran after massive losses in #Syria: Cacophony! (Who's in charge?)

Amir Taheri ‏@AmirTaheri4 · May 13
Despite lobbying by #John #Kerry for #Islamic Republic, #HSBC chief Levy says no plans to trade with #Iran for fear of #US punitive action.

Dr Jaber Alsiwat ‏@jsiwat · May 13
@AmirTaheri4 I think it's not fear from US punitive actions. That's just an excuse. Bankers and business leaders don't trust the mullahs

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 03:29 PM

Evidently faced with humiliation in KhanTouman bluster is the only exit strategy General Rezia could think of #Allepo

Gen. #Rezai today: We'll liberate #Aleppo,though it won't be easy because it can be supplied by #Turks from north and by #Arabs from south.

Ah again those Arab and Turkish Kafirs

Amir Taheri
‏@AmirTaheri4
#Gen. Mohsen #Rezai today: We lost Khan-Touman (#Syria) to forces led by #Turkish & #Saudi generals.But we'll soon take it back, #Inshallah!

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 04:09 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/majid-rafizadeh/iran-breached-the-nuclear_b_9977768.html?

Iran Breaches the Nuclear Deal and UN Resolutions for Third Time
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh,Huffington Pos

Iranian leaders have breached both the resolutions and the nuclear agreement for the third time since the nuclear deal went into effect in January 2016. Iran has repeatedly test-fired, long-range ballistic missiles and laser-guided surface-to-surface missiles.

In October and November, just after the nuclear deal was reached, Iran tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads.

In March, Iran again test-fired two ballistic missiles.

More recently and for the third time, the Iranian government fired a test missile two weeks ago which was accurate to 25 feet, which is characterized as zero error, according to the Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, the Iranian military’s deputy chief of staff, and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.

The range of existing Iranian ballistic missiles has grown from 500 miles to over 2,000 kilometers (roughly 1,250 miles), which can easily reach Eastern Europe as well as countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Yemen.

Iranian leaders dismiss the notion that the Revolutionary Guard Corps military activities are breaching the nuclear agreement as well as several of the UN Security Council resolutions. World powers appear to acquiesce to Iran’s stance as well.

But, the United Nations Security Council resolution (Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231, 2015) is clear. The resolution “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

The second UN Security Council resolution 1929 indicates “Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities”.

In addition, the Joint Plan of Action Agreement (JCPOA) of the nuclear agreement between P5+1 and Iran is crystal clear in stating that Iran should not undertake any ballistic missiles activity “until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier.”

Global Powers’ reluctance

The five members of the UN Security Council have not reacted forcefully or taken appropriate measures to hold the Iranian government accountable for the violations. Generally speaking, China and Russia, which enjoy their strategic, geopolitical and economic alliance with Tehran and favor Iran’s counterbalance stance against the US and its allies, have used Iran’s line of argument for launching the ballistic missiles.

France, Britain and Germany, which are much to the left of the US, or sometimes follow in the footsteps of Washington’s policy towards Iran, have not taken these military maneuvers seriously.

Although according to a report obtained by AP, the launches are “destabilizing and provocative” and that the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile fired by Iran are “inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons”. The US has been trivializing the issue, failing to hold Iran accountable, and only playing with rhetoric.

For example, even though Iranian generals have admitted launching ballistic missiles, the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said this week “We’re still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly transpired.” This is an approach designed to dodge dealing with the real issue.

The US has stopped short of calling Iran’s actions as violations of UN Security Council resolutions. President Obama will continue to overlook Iran’s belligerent actions, including ballistic missile launches and the detention of US sailors by the Iranian forces, until he leaves office. He desires what he sees as his crowning foreign policy “achievement”, the nuclear agreement, to remain intact.

President Obama is concerned that holding Iran accountable for these violations might force the Iranian leaders to abandon the nuclear deal, thus causing its failure.

Furthermore, France, Britain and other European countries have less incentive to publicly hold Iran responsible, because of the increasing economic and trade ties with Tehran particularly in the energy sector (oil and gas).

For the Iranian government, advancing its ballistic missile program is a core pillar of its foreign policy after the nuclear program. Iran possesses the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the region. By launching ballistic missiles, Iran also seeks the opportunity to project its power in the region and reassert its hegemonic power.

Since Iran is certain that launching ballistic is not going to elicit robust reaction from the US and other members of the UN Security Council, the IRGC is more likely to continue its advancement and launching of ballistic missile activities more publicly

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 04:15 PM

Rebels have also regained control of Tal Hussein from #ISIS in north rural #Aleppo

ISIS recaptured On several locations In the vicinity of AlMazar Mount. 4 km Northwest of #Palmyra.
And the #SAA warplanes bombed the area

Aamaq: IS forces overrun the Christian cemetery in Deir Ezzor and kill 10 soldiers trapped there since yesterday

Map showing recent Rebels gains vs #ISIS in N. #Aleppo (Tell Hisn/Hussein also seized). Seems new approach underway.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 04:17 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 06:39 PM

Claims of it being an accident and an attack, yet two days after not a single pic?

Bayan Radio confirms: 4 Russian helicopters & 20 ammo trucks destroyed in a fire in T4 airbase due to IS shelling

Map.
The approximate situation in #DeirEzzor city, after a recent IS offensive.
HD -
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/af8a/34xbvowdbvu8vwdzg.jpg …

Assad-forces failed to regain Zara village in northern #Homs despite massive (#Russia'n) airstrikes
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.921338&lon=36.659575&z=14&m=b …
Assad forces retake Panorama RB in #DeirEzzor

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 07:18 PM

Syria #SAA General Zahreddine with HealthDirector at road to #Palmyra at southern outskirts of #DeirEzzor today

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 07:24 PM

http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/kurdish-tensions-undermine-the-war-against-isil

Kurdish tensions undermine the war against ISIL

Hassan Hassan

May 15, 2016 Updated: May 15, 2016 04:35 PM

Amnesty International has in seven months issued two major reports highlighting allegations of war crimes by rebel and Kurdish forces in northern Syria. The two reports are related to a secondary conflict brewing between Arabs and Kurds from Hasakah to Qamashli to Aleppo, which could easily spin out of control and add to the many conflicts that already plague the country.

The United States has an unintentional hand in this new conflict, and de-escalation hinges largely on whether Washington is willing to review its strategy in northern Syria, which sometimes privileges the appearance of success in the battle against ISIL over sustainable policies.

On Friday, Amnesty published a damning new report accusing rebel factions in Aleppo, organised under the Army of Conquest, of committing acts that may amount to war crimes. The rights group said it gathered strong evidence of indiscriminate attacks that killed at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, in the Kurdish-dominated Sheikh Maqsoud between February and April.

On October 13 last year, Amnesty issued a report, Forced Displacement and Demolitions in Northern Syria, accusing the Kurdish political party PYD, the Democratic Union Party, of carrying out a wave of forced displacement and home demolitions that it also said may amount to war crimes. The shelling of civilians by rebel forces cannot be justified, and perpetrators must be punished and restrained by their regional backers. The attacks on Sheikh Maqsoud were encouraged by some supporters of the opposition living abroad, after the PYD’s military wing, the YPG, attacked the rebels in February. Worse, such calls continue to be heard and more indiscriminate attacks can be expected.

Clashes between the rebels and the YPG are not new. Bad blood between the two sides goes back to 2012, when the rebels were attacked by the YPG as they carried out raids against government bases in northeastern Syria. Tensions between the rebels and the YPG destroyed any hope for cooperation between the two sides.

Additionally, Turkey, a key backer of the opposition in the north, vehemently opposes the dominance of the YPG, an offshoot of the terrorist-designated PKK, near its southern border. For Turkey, the YPG’s ambitions in northern Syria are a matter of national security, and Ankara is unlikely to compromise on what it views as a direct threat, even if it often bows to American pressure as the anti-ISIL fight continues.

But it does not have to be an either/or situation. A third track exists: thousands of Syrian Kurdish fighters have been stranded in northern Iraq since 2012, waiting for a green light from the US to be deployed inside Syria to fight alongside the YPG and the opposition. According to several sources, including high-level Kurdish leaders from northern Syria, the 5,000 fighters were funded and trained by Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), when hundreds of Kurdish youngsters started heading to northern Iraq after anti-regime Kurdish activists called on fellow Kurds to defect or refuse to join the army.

“Some of the trained fighters returned to Syria to form cells that would serve as supporting forces to the 5,000 fighters when they are deployed inside Syria," one prominent Kurdish activist told us. “But there was confrontation with the PYD militias, which dug a trench between [Iraqi] Kurdistan and Malikiyah [in Syria] to prevent our entry."

The Kurdish source said the two rivals negotiated under the auspices of the KRG president, Massoud Barzani, and they reached two agreements, the Hewler (another name for Erbil) agreement in July 2012 and the Dohuk agreement last October.

“The two agreements stipulate that we form joint political and military forces," the source said. “When they returned to Syria, they would abandon the agreement. Now they reject our return categorically. We spoke to the Americans last May and they promised to do something."

The US fears that the return of fighters would create disruptive tensions between the Kurdish sides. Rivalry between the two is already felt inside Syria. A source inside Qamashli spoke of constant intimidation by the YPG against their rivals. Also, recent battles in Aleppo included clashes with fellow Kurds who fight on the rebel side.

The strength of the anti-PYD Kurdish fighters is that their leaders are part of the Kurdish National Council, which is part of the opposition’s National Coalition. Turkey views them as potential allies. The trick is for the US to exert serious effort to bring the two Kurdish rivals closer, which will help build a bridge with the Syrian opposition, and reassure its Nato ally to focus on the ISIL fight. Many of the YPG’s commanders have a clearly expansionist and exclusivist agenda, viewed suspiciously not only by Turkey and the Syrian opposition but by the Kurdish leadership in Iraq.

The US may not want to jeopardise its relationship with a force that has helped it win key tactical battles against ISIL in Syria. But the unconditional support for the YPG is irresponsible because it creates unnecessary conflicts and undermines the long-term war against extremists.

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
I & @syriacham on a critical issue: 5000 Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq the YPG doesn't want them in Syria

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 07:28 PM

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan

In 2 months an overwhelming number of '80s jihadists from diff groups died in Syria: Gamaa Islamiyah; AQ; ISIS; Hizbollah; Fighting Vanguard

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 07:37 PM

Five villages captured so far in N Aleppo by Northern Front Rebels.
Hopefully this ends the ping-pong with IS

3 White helmets volunteers were injured as their center in Bdama was targeted with rocket artillery carrying cluster munition.

Two other #ISIS attacks in #Baghdad in the #Rashidiya and #Youssefiya districts left a total of 3 people dead and another 16 injured

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 08:04 PM

Really worth reading this long article.......

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/the-passing-of-hizballahs-old-guard/

The Passing of Hizballah’s Old Guard

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on May 15, 2016

Mustafa Badreddine, the military commander of Hizballah, was announced killed in Syria on 13 May. This is the third major casualty of the founding generation: Imad Mughniyeh, Badreddine’s predecessor and also his cousin and brother-in-law (Mughniyeh married Saada, Badreddine’s sister), was killed in February 2008 in Damascus in an operation led by MOSSAD and supported by the CIA, and Hassan al-Laqqis, who had become one of the Party of God’s military officials in Syria, was gunned down outside his home in Beirut in December 2013. For all the speculation about “Ahrar al-Sunna Baalbek Brigade” and its links to Kataib Abdullah Azzam and al-Qaeda—or Saudi intelligence, as Hassan Nasrallah had it—the likeliest suspect was never in doubt. Hizballah has also lost other senior and propagandistically important men like Samir Kuntar, who was killed in an explosion in Damascus in December 2015. Again, however, there seemed little doubt—even from Hizballah—that Israel had done this.

Neither Israel nor Hizballah has an interest in an escalation, and they have already had one near-miss so rhetoric has been especially controlled this time. When Israel struck into Quneitra in January 2015 to curtail Iran’s efforts to open up a new front with Israel from Syria that would alter the regional balance of power, it killed six of Iran’s agents, among them was Imad’s son, Jihad Mughniyeh. Jihad appears to have been an incidental target: the main target(s) were likely Mohammad Issa (Abu Issa), a field commander of the Hizballah jihadists, and Abu Ali al-Tabtabai, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the Golan. Hizballah killed two Israeli soldiers on the border a few weeks later and it very nearly escalated into a full-scale war. Hizballah will ultimately need to blame somebody, and perhaps Israel will ultimately be blamed—which will mean there will be attacks on Israel. But for now the order is to cease speculation—which has of course meant that all kinds of rumours have spread.

The theories other than Israel on who killed Badreddine run from: intra-regime fighting, accidental explosion, revenge by one of the Shi’i Lebanese families whose sons have been killed by Hizballah’s intrusion into Syria, the Hariri family, the Gulf states, or Western intelligence. An enormous amount of effort has been extended to avoid the obvious conclusion. One Western intelligence official got himself quoted saying Badreddine “often clashed with … Hasan Nasrallah,” which is the inverse of the truth. In July 2015, Badreddine was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury as a global terrorist. Treasury assessed that Badreddine had led Hizballah’s forces since they began operations in Syria right at the outset of the uprising in 2011. Moreover, “Since September 2011, strategic coordination was handled between Assad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah on a weekly basis, with Badreddine accompanying Nasrallah during the meetings in Damascus. Since 2012, Badreddine coordinated Hizballah military activities in Syria. Badreddine led Hizballah ground offensives in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr in February 2013, and in May 2013 the Free Syrian Army (FSA) confirmed that Badreddine was leading Hizballah’s operations in al-Qusayr.”

There are (just) conceivable options other than Israel for who killed Badreddine, but they are few. One is that the Syrian rebellion has killed Badreddine. The rebels-killed-Badreddine story was taken on in various forms, including by the BBC, who revealed that: a) they thought the Islamic State was a “rebel” group despite it being foreign and a collaborator with, not a struggler against, the Assad regime before 2011; b) that Hizballah has clashed with IS in a major way; and that c) when writing about Hizballah, a jihadi organization that introduced suicide bombing to the modern Middle East, the BBC is prepared to accept at face-value Hizballah’s propaganda that it is opposing “jihadists” in Syria (the BBC only mentioned IS and Jabhat al-Nusra as possible “rebels” who had killed Badreddine). It is certainly possible that the rebellion got to Badreddine: one rebel group, Jaysh al-Sunna, claimed to have killed Badreddine several hours after he was announced dead, but the claim is strange—mentioning shelling on Khan Tuman—and has not been widely circulated. Even if the rebels killed Badreddine it does not rule out an Israeli role.

The notion of an “inside job” is potentially plausible—with Assad’s, Iran’s, and Russia’s intelligence services on the loose in regime-held Syria, anything is potentially plausible. But the evidence is lacking and the thesis advanced in support of this notion—that Hizballah was flagging and Assad has given them a martyr to ensure they stick with his cause—does not stack up: Iran’s casualties have been heavy but Iran is nowhere near breaking-point in Syria yet and Hizballah answers only to Iran. That, however, is where the coverage in the aftermath has been most dispiriting.

There had been a debate—in academia, the media, and in Lebanon—for years over what Hizballah is. One side maintained that the group was essentially Lebanese with Iran connections; the other side argued that Hizballah was an Iranian creation that happened to be based in Lebanon. With Hizballah obeying the Supreme Leader’s order to entangle itself in Syria, when every Lebanese faction had agreed collectively that preventing Lebanon from becoming embroiled in the Syrian carnage was in the nation’s interest, the matter had seemed settled. But it transpires that the “Lebanization” thesis and the ignorance about Hizballah’s past—the notion that it formed as a response to, rather than some time before, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982—is alive and well.

Badreddine first met Mughniyeh when the two trained together after joining FATAH’s Force 17, the praetorian division and hit squad of Yasser Arafat, set up in southern Lebanon after the PLO was expelled from Jordan for trying to overthrow the Hashemite monarchy in 1970-71. Recruited by Iran as it splintered the ultra-radicals from AMAL into the nascent Hizballah, Badreddine had, with Mughniyeh, not only coordinated the Marine barracks bombing on 23 October 1983—the largest non-nuclear explosion in history that massacred 305 people, 241 American and 58 French servicemen, plus six civilians—but watched it (p. 24) from a nearby building. Badreddine had made the explosives for the Marine barracks atrocity, mixing gas into the bombs to give them a wider impact, a tell-tale piece of bomb-making innovation that Badreddine used again two months later when a truck laden with gas cylinders blew up outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait on 12 December 1983. Badreddine’s bomb in Kuwait was faulty so the blast was smaller, killing five people—all of them Arabs—and injuring nearly 100. That same day the French Embassy, Kuwait International Airport, the living quarters for American workers at Kuwait’s largest oil field (Raytheon), and Kuwait’s main power station were all attacked. Badreddine was arrested in Kuwait and become one of the “Kuwait 17” or “Dawa 17″—the ostensible cause for which Mughniyeh would wage the campaign of terror in Lebanon in the 1980s, obscuring the direction being given to him from Tehran.

Continued......

Iran's lost a lot of the founders of its regional proxy network but it's revolutionary model dominates three states

Most dispiriting thing after Badreddine's demise is the replay of the argument that Hizballah is not an instrument of Iran's state power.

The story of Kuwait Airways Flight 221 in DEC 1984 is pretty instructive, with Iran pretending to storm the plane while helping #Hizballah.

OUTLAW 09

05-15-2016, 08:10 PM

Appears CIA/CENTCOM/Obama finally got their Kurdish proxy a little under control.........

YPG & rebels will finalize an agreement to end the conflict in northern Aleppo. YPG are to open supply routes & withdraw from certain areas

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
For 1st time, intensive behind-scenes efforts to facilitate FSA-YPG ceasefire may be about to succeed in N. #Aleppo.
Hopeful for success.

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Possibly the key thing in resolving issues between #FSA-branded rebels and the #PYD/#YPG is the fate of Tel Rifaat and Menagh.

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 06:55 AM

If true, it contradicts Russia's line that Moscow is protecting Christians in Syria. https://twitter.com/weddady/status/731966423107534849 …

UNCONFIRMED......late yesterday early this morning
Reports that fighter jet crashed near Khattab in northern #Hama

Report
26 civilians have been killed on another "#SyriaCeasefire" day on Sunday.
- LCC

Putin ignored by Assad.....UNSC literally useless....and the starvation still goes on and Obama and Kerry state humanitarian aid convoys are critical....but again just talk...not a single humanitarian aid convoy since 2012......

Assad promised to let in food to #Daraya.
Instead he bombs it to rubble ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgVIZlXIZDk …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 06:58 AM

Quotation marks for rebel / activist claim.
Video footage of Su-34 for visual evidence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZn19zoUbY …

Footage
"Russian" war planes continued air strikes in islamist-rebel taken #Zara,#Hama prov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eO3cIf_v4Q …

NewsMap
The moment, the #FSA recaptures #Faydiyah from #ISIS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lV2I9IxOD4 …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:00 AM

Fred Kagan and Paul Bucala: "Iran's Evolving Way of War"
http://bit.ly/1XdlCa7
v @criticalthreats

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
When #Obama admin says "there is no military solution to #Syria," what it really means is:
'We're unwilling to use military pressure.'
I think 99% people agree there's no military *solution* to #Syria.
Problem is, a political solution won't work without military *pressure.*

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Wrote about the non-PYD Kurdish militiamen prevented from entering #Syria last year.
http://bit.ly/24TzJUA

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
Following my FP article, @nytimes interviews 12 US/EU Intel officials on AQ's #Syria plans:
http://nyti.ms/1V4UFoI
According to Intel officials, 12+ senior AQ leaders are now in #Syria with orders to establish a new HQ & a possible future Emirate.

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 09:10 AM

FSA-led Syrian rebels after the recapture of Tilal al-Husein from #ISIS terrorists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSPWdRZYmYI …

Footage
Many #Russian air strikes, Orlan-10 overhead in southern #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhfOus_whSc …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 12:42 PM

Footage
Syrian rebels use 3 D-30 simultaneously vs. #ISIS positions in S-W #Daraa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCeSVtw9IDc …

Northern #Homs: #Syria|n rebels destroyed 1 tank, 1 BMP and killed many pro-#Assad forces(including the commander) north of #Zara village.

Pro Assad forces have now failed three times to retake Zara even with Russian CAS.....

Northern #Homs: #Assad regime offensive to recapture #Zara village failed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe6G8xQ-N_A&feature=youtu.be …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 12:44 PM

From April 19 Russia bans imports of Turkish pumpkins and courgettes.....🎃🙅
http://www.interfax.ru/russia/508501

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 12:47 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 12:52 PM

NOW true Iranian "moderates" show us their true intentions......

251 Iranian MPs to Nasrallah on #Badreddine: We appreciate his fight vs Israel and Takfiris; we are ready to give you any needed support

IRGC weekly Sobh-e Sadegh honors Hezbollah top commander #Badreddine, claims retaking #KhanTuman = retaking Syria

IRGC daily Javan: #Badreddine & Moughniyeh were able to carry out impossible operations, #Badreddine held top military & security position

IRGC's Soleimani met w/ #Badreddine family, visited #Badreddine grave in Beirut'as al-Dahiyeh 2 days after he was killed. Via @AlakhbarNews

Soleimani to #Badreddin family in Beirut: We lost a commander, a dear brother. All the Islamic nation will miss him. Via @AlakhbarNews

Video: IRGC Gen. Soleimani cries (2:04-2:19) as daughter of an Iranian soldier killed in Syria speaks

Yemen's Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi to Nasrallah on #Badreddine assassination: We both fight in same front http://fa.alalam.ir/news/1818665

Top Syrian Opposition official Asaad al-Zoubi to @AJArabic: Hezbollah itself is behind #Badreddine assassination

Lebanese site @janoubia_news affiliated w/ Hezbollah's Shiite opponents on #Badreddine assassination: Hezbollah lies

BUT there is more to this killing.......
BREAKING Hezbollah most senior commander Mustafa Badr ad-Din was killed in Damascus May 12

Hezbollah confirms Badr ad-Din was killed in Syria. Via @almanarnews

There were immediately three different "killing narratives".......

1st Iranian reaction 2 #Badreddine assassination: #IRGC-affiliated @farsnews cites @haaretzcom reports says Israel is probably not behind it

2nd Iranian reaction for #Badreddine assassination: Israel will pay for this

3rd Iranian reaction to #Badreddine assassination: Iran's @alalam_news implicitly blames Israel/KSA

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 01:05 PM

Jaish Al-Izza takes out with a #TOW a moving BMP in N. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe6G8xQ-N_A …

Regime backed by #RuAF airstrikes & many tanks trying 2 seize back Zara in S. #Hama. One of them taken out by Rebels

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 01:08 PM

Huge Iranian reinforcements arrived in Aleppo Intl Airport. Seems another attempt to storm #KhanTuman is only a matter of days. S. #Aleppo. Talk is of 500.

Sources in the regime forces in Aleppo, told Arab 21 that 100s of iranians have arrived to the town through the Nayrab airbas, following the historical huge losses south of the town.

These reinforcements come after Sulaimani declared that they will cooperate with the regime to reconquer the strategic lost areas, including Khan Toma in the southern countriside.

The sources added that 500 iranian militias have arrived to the Nayrab airbase at the east of Aleppo, on saturday morning, and were transported by Syria airways from Damascus int’l airport in consecutive batches.

This arrival have been under the supervision of Major Fadi Abbas who is responsible of the airbase, Palestinian Liwa Al Quds commander Mhammad Said that fights with the regime forces and with iranian military commanders. They will join Hezbollah forces in the southern countriside where a new battle will be launched within 2 days to regain Khan Toman.

Muhanna Jaffala, general commander of Abu Ammara told Arab 21 that they are aware of the iranian forces moves and he added that Khan Toman will be a new cemetery if they dare advancing towards the city

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 01:12 PM

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
For 1st time, intensive behind-scenes efforts to facilitate FSA-YPG ceasefire may be about to succeed in N. #Aleppo.
Hopeful for success.

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Possibly the key thing in resolving issues between #FSA-branded rebels and the #PYD/#YPG is the fate of Tel Rifaat and Menagh.

APPEARS that the efforts of CIA/CENTCOM/Obama/DoD did nothing to rein in YPG.......and that they are still working closely with Assad and Russian CAS.....

Reports that the Castello road, only route into Aleppo, has been cut due to intense YPG rocket & mortar shelling from Sheikh Maqsoud

SO was this initial reporting AN attempt at Obama WH "messaging" from the Asst National Security Advisor/novelist....Rhodes???????

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 01:16 PM

Footage
war planes strike around Tell al-Sakhr in #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myUBUP-PPj8 …

The use of Mahan Airlines as the troop resupply airlines (Iraqi Shia militia and Iranians).......in German and how they have landing rights for Munich.....

ARTIKEL @BILD+

@officialmahan fliegt Truppen für #Assad und Touristen nach #DUS und #MUC.

http://www.bild.de/bild-plus/politik/ausland/syrien-krise/iranische-mahan-air-skandal-terror-airline-landet-in-deutschland-45772956,var=a.bild.html …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:21 PM

SCD fire station in Hanao was targeted with artillery bombardment earlier today. No injures among volunteers

New evidence that 4 newest Ka-52 helicopters provided to the Syrians by Russia burned down at the Tiyas airbase
http://el-murid.livejournal.com/2797988.html

FSA footage of rebel executing two Kurds inside a house in Azaz. Rebel lets wounded woman bleed to death on floor.

Jaish al-Shamal has claimed the killing as retaliation for this parade of rebel corpses in #Afrin on 28 April:

Charles Lister ‎@Charles_Lister
There goes peace hopes…

Small FSA group Jaish al-Shamal video shows killing of female #YPG PR official “Shirin” & 1st assistant Ziyad Jafar

#Syria MAP UPDATE: the situation in Syria as of 16/05/2016, bigger at http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/6e7f/abdoky6xftx4eovzg.jpg …

Ukraine and the Republic of Turkey signed the Implementation plan of military cooperation
pic.twitter.com/OzcOzm957U
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/16-may-ukraine-and-the-republic-of-turkey-signed-the-implementation …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:24 PM

Not so sure Syrian Sunni Arab will appreciate this......tells one exactly what the Kurds overall want......

Isil capital Raqqa 'could join Kurdish state' once freed | via @telegraphnews http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/16/isil-capital-raqqa-could-join-kurdish-state-once-freed/ …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:29 PM

Assad army artillery attack villages in Turkmen Mountain at Syria-Turkey borders.

Rebels repel another Assad/IRGC attack in Akrad Mount and kills 15 soldiers

Step News Agency: Israeli Air Force attacked #IS positions in Ayn Thakar SW #Syria for the first time.

Hama: Assad regime suffers high losses in Al Zara after mounting huge offensive to recapture it
http://en.eldorar.com/node/2287

BreakingReport
Syrian rebels, led by the #FSA, recaptured #Baraghidah from #ISIS this afternoon.
Unconfirmed so far.

At some point I lost count on how many terror organizations drive around with Humvees now...

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:32 PM

Footage
Dozens of #Assad air force strikes on northern #Homs / southern #Hama border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPUB1Oe8-jw …

Footage
war planes strike around Tell al-Sakhr in #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myUBUP-PPj8 …

AhrarSham smashing assadi advance to Hadadah #Lattakia with 23mm technical.

Deraa: clashes between Assad regime & Rebels in Manshiya

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:38 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:46 PM

Aymenn J Al-Tamimi ‏@ajaltamimi
IMPORTANT: Shuhada' al-Yarmouk's Yarmouk News Agency denies claims of Israeli airstrike on Shuhada' al-Yarmouk in Ain Dhikr. #Syria

The regime's supporters had been reporting advances by the "Tiger Forces," led by Suhayl al-Hassan, in eastern Homs.

Not confirmed as of yet.....
Allegedly #IS has blown up the Shaer gas field. And there has been a 4.4 earthquake north of #Palmyra. Conceivably the same event.

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
#Assad-#IS gas plants: "This is…mafia-style negotiation. You kill…to influence the deal, but the deal doesn't end"
http://on.ft.com/1V6dhVw

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
#Syria's gas fields had been the site both of some of the closest collaboration and the most intense #Assad-#IS fighting. Not a paradox.

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:54 PM

Syria'n Army Major General Zahreddine posing in front of mutilated IS-fighters in #DeirEzzor. #Putin's butcher

Reports FSA seized Mazr'at Shahin village near Turkish border from #IS north Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.635435&lon=37.349052&z=14&m=b …

OUTLAW 09

05-16-2016, 07:59 PM

CrowBat

05-16-2016, 09:40 PM

Kyle W. Orton
‏@KyleWOrton
[B]#FSA-branded Northern Army (Jaysh al-Shamal) has put out a video of the assassination of two #YPG officials.
#FSA-#YPG peace accord: dead.
How 'surprising'...

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 06:40 AM

How 'surprising'...

CrowBat.....but wait was it not the Obama WH that put into MSM the rumor that they were trying to work a truce deal between YPG and FSA......??

So that was all it really was....Rhodes "messaging" hard at work.

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 06:43 AM

ProAssad/Russian info warfare hard at work.......

DEBKAfile’s: rebels received a shipment of MILAN ATGM provided by Turkey & funded by Saudi helped defeat Iranian/Hizbollah forces in Aleppo.

This claim is not supported by any video/proof on MILAN ATGM used in Aleppo battle until now.

Maybe have been actually a proIranian source as the messaging is looking for excuses on just why they were badly beaten.

Naturally, the Turks and Saudi's..........

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 06:47 AM

The #RuAF participated in the bombing raids of the #Hamas-#Homs border for the 3rd day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFIfCNJ0Ygw …

Footage
#Assad jets are raiding Khan ash-Shih S-W of #Damascus right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGS8bApkQjo …

Syrian rebels captured the #Harbinafsah train station barrer in #Hama province from pro-#Assad troops.

Footage
"8 people killed" in regime or Russian night time attack on #Aleppo city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhr2qv6nhJ8 …

Footage
"6 people killed" in #Assad regime artillery attack on mini bus in Khan ash-Shih, S-W of #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKDG-iZ8OpY …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 06:49 AM

This event is going to blow up in the face of the Obama WH.....since they did not foresee this evidently ever happening.......

Charles Lister ‎@Charles_Lister
As I’ve said repeatedly (incl. yesterday:
https://twitter.com/Charles_Lister/status/731969058111807488 …),
escalating YPG-opp'tn tensions could have huge, long-term consequences.

Killing claimed "in revenge for the martyrs of the battle of Ein Dguenh & in response to the abuse and representation bodies of our martyrs"

Appears that the "myth" being thrown out there by the Obama WH that they were attempting to get a truce into place between YPG and FSA and return two Arab Sunni towns to FSA was nothing more or less than "messaging again"...probably from their "messaging guru" Rhodes...

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 06:55 AM

Footage
Ahrar al-Sham destroys #Assad regime tank near #Zara with an ATGM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMi0K6NFQ8 …

Although from 2008..still quite interesting as Syria/Iran were deeply involved in Iraq even in 2008......
In-depth look at illicit arms caches in Iraq, 2008. LOTS of photos.
https://weaponsdocs.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/arms-cache-archive-iraq-october-2008/ …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 07:34 AM

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/obamas-complex-foreign-policy-legacy-unpicked

With the current Obama WH and their "messaging guru Rhodes" and how they handled the Iran Deal and Congress..........TRUTH or FICTION......???

The White House has encouraged Tehran to keep its potentially illicit missile tests secret, according to a top Iranian military official.

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace and Missile Force, made the stunning allegations in a speech picked up by the Middle East Media Research Institute, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

“At this time, the Americans are telling [us], ‘Don’t talk about missile affairs, and if you conduct a test maneuver, don’t mention it,’” Hajizadeh said.

Word of Iran testing long- range missiles cast doubt on that nation’s commitment to the nuke deal.

Remarkably, the nuclear accord is about as unpopular in Iran as it is in the US, with Iranians loyal to institutions like the Revolutionary Guard questioning why their leaders would cut deals with “Great Satan” America.

Probably the TRUTH as the Obama WH has been blocking in telling the extent of the Iranian missile violations of both the sanctions regime and in the face of UNSC violations.....to Congress as they are required to do.....

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 07:48 AM

BREAKINGNEWS
Dozens of casualties as #Assad/#Russian war planes strike civilians in #Rastan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYmRPz1huiQ …

War planes attack the town of #Rastan after Islamist rebels gained ground around #Harbinafsah.

Russia doing a great job in northern #Homs towns #Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYmRPz1huiQ …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vcogvwlN6A …

AND where are the comments from Obama and Kerry who is supposedly conferring before going again to Geneva for an "already dead talks process" for exactly what the Russians and Assad are currently doing...deliberate and targeted killing of civilians......

CrowBat

05-17-2016, 07:49 AM

CrowBat.....but wait was it not the Obama WH that put into MSM the rumor that they were trying to work a truce deal between YPG and FSA......??

So that was all it really was....Rhodes "messaging" hard at work.Can't really say.

As you pointed out (and that was only one part of the story), there are so many claims and counter-claims, and outrage is so massive, that I would be surprised if this was anything else but staged.

That said, there is some sort of 'FSyA-splinter group', sort of extremists who call themselves the '13th Battalion', and are activelly working on spoiling any kind of deals with the YPG in Afrin. Seems, they are actually anything else but FSyA.

It's like there are so many pressing so hard to spoil any kind of settlement between Israelis and Palestinians...

Of course, all the jumping to conclusions is working straight into their hands.

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 07:52 AM

How many times will the so called Obama "red line" on the use of CW by Assad be largely and completely and totally ignored.....???

BESIDES Russia verified that all Assad CW and production means were eliminated...so did they lie to protect Assad????

Israel claim #Syria's #Assad used Sarin gas again
(dropped on #IslamicState-fighters)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/17/assads-forces-have-used-sarin-nerve-gas-for-the-first-time-since/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 07:59 AM

Can't really say.

As you pointed out (and that was only one part of the story), there are so many claims and counter-claims, and outrage is so massive, that I would be surprised if this was anything else but staged.

That said, there is some sort of 'FSyA-splinter group', sort of extremists who call themselves the '13th Battalion', and are activelly working on spoiling any kind of deals with the YPG in Afrin. Seems, they are actually anything else but FSyA.

It's like there are so many pressing so hard to spoil any kind of settlement between Israelis and Palestinians...

Of course, all the jumping to conclusions is working straight into their hands.

But for me it is telling that there is silence out of the Obama WH...neither for nor against the event......IMO the release of the rumor of an attempt to gain a truce between YPG and FSA and the return of two towns was actual...and largely torpedoed by this act......based on the previous comments that the Turks and the US had settled on a safe zone along the border and to assist FSA in attacking IS in the creation of that zone....and now that is probably finished as well.

Also if you noticed the FSA ops center immediately released a statement that it condemned the act.....since then they have been quiet as well.....

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 08:25 AM

From yesterday............

Sukkari district in #Aleppo hit with Assad rocket, civilian casualties reported. #Syria

4 Assad rockets/missiles have hit #Daraya so far. #Damascus #Syria

Death toll of Assad rocket attack on Bidama in Jisr al-Shugour rises to 12, 10s wounded. #Idlib #Syria

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 10:15 AM

Syrian rebels fear assault on besieged Daraya as residents starve http://reut.rs/1Tkc6Au

Still not a single UNSC humanitarian aid delivery to be seen anywhere near Daraya....as demanded by UNSC Resolution 2254......

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 11:03 AM

ISIS reportedly used an anti-tank missile fired from #Syria to target a Turkish tank near Elbeyli in the Kilis province
Not confirmed......

Shooting reported in Hail's King Khaled Hospital in Saudi Arabia #KSA

Alleged picture (unverified) showing the paystub of one of the Iranian fighters killed in Khan Tuman
Awaiting Farsi translation of the pay stub.......

Extreme air strikes to recapture rebel-gained ground near Harbinafsah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYE3eSiDnms …

More of the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzMNL5JPUP4 …
#Hama #Homs #Syria

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 11:07 AM

One of the survivors of the overnight #Assad/#Russian air strikes on #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQF0RvTkD54 …

Syrian activists report dozens of Russian air strikes + YPG and Assad artillery on the last entrance to #Aleppo.
The west acts blind.

Can't wait to see #Steinmeier surprised as soon as the Castillo road is cut and Aleppo besieged.
#Assad's alliance works every day on this!!

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:33 PM

An #Egyptian airline flying the domestic connection between #Damascus-#Qamishli?!
Apparently...

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:36 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:40 PM

Families of Iranian fighters killed in #Syria are given... blankets... to honour their sacrifices
via @potkazar

Iranian journalist Hassan Shemshadi heavily criticises officials for giving cheap gifts to families of fighters killed in #Syria
Shemshadi: "Martyrs didn't lose their precious lives to be honoured and praised with a blanket"

From the rubric of......sure......???
Michael Wilner ‏@mawilner Vienna, Austria

"We don't support Assad," #Russia's Lavrov says. "We support the fight against terrorism... we don't protect someone personally."

BUT WAIT if Russia is against terrorism then why does it support both a genocidal dictator, a group of Kurdish terrorists the YPG which is an extension of PKK, and their favorite friend IS which they really have not attacked in over seven/eight months.......

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:43 PM

"Many have underestimated Russia's determination to prevent #Assad from falling" - admits ex-Obama aide
http://reut.rs/1OxSHvZ

European diplomats are seriously now questioning US/Russian bilateralism and the lack of Obama/Kerry leadership....who would know that the Europeans have been basically sidelined for the last FIVE years by Obama and Kerry.....??????

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:53 PM

PKK + MANPADS: @yahyabostan narrows down alleged source of surface-to-air missiles in this @DailySabah column:

MANPAD PKK used to down Turkish Cobra NOT from black mkt. Possible sources: Russia, Iran

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 01:57 PM

Badreddine reportedly killed as leaving meeting with high-ranking officials, including an Iranian. Shrapnel to head from artillery nearby

Badreddine played key role in decision-making. But with him gone, #Hezbollah command in #Syria expected to centralise under control of #Iran
For #Hezbollah (and #Iran), building new power structures in #Syria was always seen as a priority

Hezbollah is "now in every place in #Syria", says Shia cleric from Zahraa. "It is organized like a state; it is not just a party"

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:03 PM

Really worth reading the entire article about Hezbollah activities inside Syria as the main Iranian proxy......

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/15/a-hundred-tiny-hezbollahs-syria-iran-shiite-guerrilla-warfare/

Dispatch

A Hundred Tiny Hezbollahs

In Assad-controlled regions of Syria, the Lebanese group is making friends, influencing militias, and developing a new model of asymmetric warfare.

By James Harkin

May 15, 2016

SAYYIDA ZAYNAB, Syria — This southern Damascus suburb is awash with death. Every day brings news of a fresh martyr. No sooner do I exit the taxi than news comes from the mosque loudspeaker of another one: a young man from Fua, hundreds of miles away in the northern province of Idlib, who had been living here before he was killed in the fighting outside Damascus.

The historic mosque that gives the neighborhood its name houses, according to Shiite lore, the grave of the Prophet’s granddaughter, Zaynab. At its entrance, dozens of fighters are standing at attention, holding aloft a coffin. The coffin was initially draped in the Syrian flag, but when it entered the mosque, the flags were changed and replaced by Hezbollah’s distinctive green and yellow.

As the troops passed the mosque holding the coffin aloft in an honor guard parade, all of them turned in formation to face it and gave Hezbollah’s distinctive arm-out, palm-down salute, followed by the parade-ground shout, “We are ready to die for you, Zeinab!” Then they marched off.

Fua, a Shiite village, has been surrounded by Sunni Islamists for years now. The rebels accuse the town’s inhabitants not only of allying themselves with the Syrian government but of harboring Hezbollah. But to many of Fua’s residents, the Lebanese group represents not a dangerous invading force, but a vital source of military training and inspiration in their current plight.

Permission to visit Sayyida Zaynab is now effectively controlled by local officials working with Hezbollah rather than the Syrian regime. My trip came on the say-so of a local official called Sheikh Ayman. I met him and Louay Hussain — a balding, intense man with the demeanor of an enthusiastic press flack – in the sheikh’s first-floor office, over a breakfast of sweetmeats.

The martyred fighter from Fua was in the Syrian Army, according to Hussain, and he was killed in Ghouta — the equally impoverished, largely rebel-held agricultural belt outside Damascus — by the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front. “Nusra,” he complained, “break the truce every day.” He may have been in the army, Hussain went to, but “his loyalty was to Hezbollah, and the Shiites.” Then, correcting himself, he added that a “Shiite’s loyalty is to Syria and their beliefs.”

Sheikh Ayman — squat, hirsute, unsmiling — hails from Zahraa, another embattled Shiite village in Aleppo province. He shares Hussain’s pessimism about the faltering cessation of hostilities, which the United States and Russia have tried to keep in place. It’s impossible to deal with the armed Syrian rebels, he tells me, and impossible to really police a cease-fire. “There are lots of different groups; we can’t talk to them all,” he said.

But who does he represent? “I am not from Hezbollah officially, but I have the faith of Hezbollah,” he said.

Continued.......

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:16 PM

The Pantsyrs are Assyrian ruins. A New Russian Military Base Is Threatening Ancient Ruins In Syria
https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/a-new-russian-military-base-is-threatening-ancient-ruins-in?utm_term=.seA3VA8zz …

Russia appears to be building a military base in Syria on a designated World Heritage Site.....no wonder Russian "freed Palmyra"????

HAS the Obama WH and Kerry fully realized the extent of the network of Russian bases either built and or being built throughout all of Syria placed in strategic locations?????

Regardless if Assad is thrown out or not by Putin/Iran, or if FSA finally tosses out Assad and IS is totally defeated...the Russian bases will still remain as Putin has an unlimited time SOFA which allows him to do anything and whatever government comes in will have to accept being in bed with the Russian military for about the next 50 or so odd years.....

Appears that no one in the Obama WH has ever mentioned this single simple fact...the Russians basically with their unlimited SOFA "own' Syria.....

APPEARS the Russians "forgot" that the Islamic State....has a say in where they place their bases......

Clashes at #Palmyra entrance north of Al-Amiriyah
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.588987&lon=38.289971&z=15&m=b …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:24 PM

Clashes have been reported since this morning, as pro-regime forces including the al-Quds brigade resumed its offensive #Aleppo

Handarat, just north of the opposition supply line to #Aleppo - hence a strategic choke point - has been attacked multiple times

Nourredine al-Zinki releases a video of the clashes in Handarat, north of #Aleppo

ISIS released pictures of the destruction of a regime tank near the Panorama checkpoint in Deir ez-Zor #Syria

Rebels claim killed 60 #Assad-forces during battle in southern #Hama the past days

Many dead Regime soldiers after Rebels stormed & seized train station barrier near #Zara, S. #Hama.

Another #TOW hit by Jaish Al-Izza took out an entrenched T-72 in N. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEmV7siQ5tk …

After S. #Aleppo & #Ghab plain, S. #Hama is the 3rd region where Regime lost territory to Rebels since April, despite #RuAF support.

Regime positions seized by Rebels between Harbinafsah & Zara, incl. train station, S. #Hama.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.937813&lon=36.644136&z=17&m …

For second day in a row, Castello Highway, Aleppo's only supply line, has been cut off by Assad air strikes and YPG/PKK ground strikes.

Reports of heavy clashes as regime & co are trying to break into Handarat camp in #Aleppo again

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:29 PM

NOW we finally have the proof that Kerry and his boss Obama both work for Putin and his FM......this has been the standard Russian demands in Geneva and NOW the US makes it theirs as well.....

Orient News English
‏@OrientNewsEn
#BREAKING: #Kerry: We call parties dissociate themselves physically and politically from #ISIS and and al-Nusra

BUT WAIT...I do assume Kerry means both the rebels and the Assad regime as it and Russia are tied closely to Russia....BUT REALLY wait this should also apply to YPG who is also tied to IS and the Assad regime as well.

BUT WAIT...does this mean that all the FSA groups are to head to Turkey and turn over what they hold to Assad and Putin????

As the groups are so intertwined I am sure that it would take the entire US Army to draw separation lines between the various groups.....

BREAKING: Kerry: August 1 date for Syria talks 'target', not deadline- via @AFP

Wow...by August 1 the Russian AF and Assad will have practically bombed everything none controlled by Assad into dust and the starvation and continued genocide by both Russia and Assad will have killed hundreds if not thousands more...AND this is called US "diplomacy"??????

What a farce on the part of Obama and Kerry...just going through the motions until leaving office is all they are doing right now....

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:42 PM

E. #Homs: #ISIS launched another offensive on mountains NW of #Palmyra & is progressing further South, near Jazal. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.687993&lon=38.016815&z=11&m …

Faylaq Al-Sham shelling Nayrab Airport with Grad rockets, major hub for militias in #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dadDnrWNDh4 …

The last week was used to secure #Azaz pocket by reducing #ISIS salient on eastern flank.
https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/status/732478924773416962 …
YPG distance to Azaz is concerning...especially in light of their support to both Assad and IS in attacking FSA positions....

Regime tanks destruction going on in S. #Hama: another one taken out N. of Zara with an #ATGM hit.

After Regime failed counter-attack yesterday on Zara, Rebels made new gains by seizing 1 checkpoint 2km NW, S. #Hama http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.936749&lon=36.643524&z=13&m …

Rebels seized 5 villages from #ISIS in N. #Aleppo last week as Intl Coalition stepped up support by destroying 37 ISIS targets (+57%).

The tank completely cooked off on Zara front is due to #ATGM hit by Ahrar al-Sham, S. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMi0K6NFQ8 …

From yesterday....
Rebels shelling several Regime checkpoints in N. #Hama with heavy artillery (gvozdika, 122 mm cannon & T-55).

South #Hama : the attempts by loyalist forces to retake control of Zara village have so far failed. Over 20 soldiers KIA

Jaish Al-Izza destroyed a Regime position with Dushka with a #Fagot in Tel Malah, N. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFeDsI3-O9c …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:48 PM

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Hizballah's Mustafa Badreddine was not Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; he was much more dangerous.

http://english.aawsat.com/2016/05/article55350939/opinion-hezbollah-blow

Opinion: Hezbollah – What a Blow!

Tariq Alhomayed

Hezbollah has accused the Syrian opposition of killing its most prominent military commander in Lebanon and Syria Mustafa Badreddine by targeting one of the group’s centres in Damascus with artillery fire. Who will believe that? The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters that it has not “recorded the fall or launch of missiles from eastern Ghouta on Damascus International Airport since a week ago”.

Was Badr Al-Din killed by the group itself? The truth is, it is hard to believe both scenarios. It’s hard to believe the group’s statement that Syrian factions assassinated him, just as it is hard to believe that the group killed him. Mustafa’s murder is considered a painful blow to the group, and it is clear that his assassination was the result of a rigorous operation. It is interesting that the incident took place near Damascus airport which has already been targeted by Israel in order to attack the group.

Of course, Mustafa Badreddine was not Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi or Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. However, he was more dangerous; he has been one of the founders of terrorism in our region for decades. He was also one of the leading masterminds of bombings, a pioneer of assassinations before Al-Qaeda and an efficient military commander of Hezbollah even whilst Imad Mughniyah was around.

According to what an informed source told me, Mustafa was “responsible for Hassan Nasrallah’s security and protection, was trained by the group’s first assassinations expert and was interested in the safety of the area around Assad”. The source added that “before the assassination of Mustafa was one thing, and after his assassination was something else. His assassination means that it is possible that Naim Qassem or Hassan Nasrallah will be the next target”.

It is noteworthy that the confused Hezbollah has not hastened to accuse Israel despite the fact that some of its media outlets have done so. Some of the group’s officials asked some journalists not to talk about the Israeli role. The reason being that accusing Israel would mean that the group would have to respond in order to save face. However, the group is aware that the timing was not right and that there isn’t a serious Arab country that will defend it internationally, especially after its recent crimes in Syria, as was the case in 2006. In addition to this, the international community will not be keen on appeasement now.

Who assassinated Mustafa Badreddine, then? Assad’s regime? This is hard to believe because his assassination is considered a blow to morale that the group and its supporters cannot tolerate. Iran, then? Not likely as it had the ability to have him replaced by simply making a phone call and cannot afford the repercussions of the news of his death in terms of propaganda after its losses in Khan Touman!

Who, then? It seems that whoever killed Mustafa is a professional on the ground, has lots of clues to the game there, knows the most important cards, can move undisturbed and can do what he wants when he wants to serve his interests. Perhaps the assassination of Mustafa is a disciplinary slap in the face for Hezbollah which can only take the blow and shut up. However much the group or Hassan Nasrallah screams, their scream will have no meaning because a treacherous scream does not have an echo.

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:51 PM

Pro-#Assad media: Tiger Forces, Desert Hawks, NDF, Russian Marines pushed IS out of areas NW of Palmyra, but IS still holds Shaer gas field.

AND is currently counterattacking Palmyra and attempting to cut off the only supply road to Russian forces in Palmyra......

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:55 PM

Interesting development.....who killed him?????/
Al Qamishli, PYD intelligence chief killed
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/syria

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 02:59 PM

An interesting comment series.....

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton

Another belter. Where to even start with this? And it's just the first paragraph.
http://bit.ly/1XvAbq2

Then his response to the article........

Let's just run through a couple of the problems. How many reckon letting Assad and Putin set the terms on peace agreements is kosher?

Salafi-jihadism isn't "al-Qaeda lite"; it's al-Qaeda. And Jaysh al-Islam is a Salafist group, not a jihadist group.

The use of "fundamentalist" with respect to Islam is so imprecise as to be distinctly unhelpful.

JAI's founder, Zahran Alloush, was arrested for proselytization work, not for militancy. The group is rooted locally, with no global aims

One could go on but it seems pointless when the starting point is as confused as this.

It does indeed get worse. Minorities are not 40% of #Syria's population, and JAI has been at least as ferocious as the PYD/PKK v. IS.

AND remember Russia and Iran just attempted at the UNSC to get JaI placed onto the UNSC terrorist listing.....which failed badly...

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 03:34 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 03:40 PM

De Mistura says #Russia is willing to participate in air bridges and drops, delivering food and aid to over 110,000 besieged people.

AND the estimated "other 400,000" besieged and or hard to get to locations....they APPEAR to be "missing in action"......

Field comments....some good points for the Russians and UN to consider.......

Is Russia willing to stop using cluster bombs or put an end to airstrikes on schools, hospitals critical civilian infrastructure? Can we start with those?

Which besieged people? Pro-gvt forces, Free Syrian army, the Kurds or ISIS? Lots of options to choose from AND what about those "hard to get to locations"??????

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister @fordrs58:

“If the UN can drop aid into regime-held Deir ez Zour, why can’t it do so to regime-besieged #Darayya? where the Assad 4th Divison turned back an approved UN/Assad aid convoy taking children's medicine and food off the trucks....

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister .@fordrs58:
In some cases, #Syria refugees have even fled our #YPG ally & sought protection in #ISIS areas.

.@fordrs58 [rightly] advocates providing more assistance to #Syria’s armed opposition to get us back to summer 2015.

.@fordrs58: 'In order to get #Assad to negotiate, he needs to feel more pain - opposition forces need to do that.'

.@fordrs58: I do not believe the #YPG is an irreversible component of the US strategy against #ISIS in #Syria

.@fordrs58: Unless there’s a great deal more military pressure on #Assad, he’s not going to make concessions.

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 03:44 PM

Evidence!
#Russia is bombing the last access to #Aleppo, the Castello Road.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwxcnnirdss …

Plan to besiege #Aleppo at work: #RuAF & #YPG shelling Castillo road (last supply line) while militias attack #Handarat with RuAF aircover.

Report Rebels took Albel from #ISIS in N. #Aleppo. If confirmed, they are now 3 km away from IS stronghold #Sawran. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.594857&lon=37.190094&z=12&m …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 03:58 PM

Ironically, a war between Muslims in what's now the heart of the self-proclaimed Islamic State shaped Syria's border
http://bit.ly/1qqQoPE

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:10 PM

White House Snubs Congress and the American People, Refuses to Let Aide Testify After Controversial Iran Remarks

When a WH bunkers in like this after releasing the article that triggered this THEN in fact the article was true........the Obama WH basically spun a narrative to Congress and the US population that did not match their true intent on the Iran Deal......"messaging like this is no different than what Putin does with his own "info warfare"......

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:22 PM

FSA release 20 Assad soldiers & return 80 bodies is exchange of 12 fighters & 9 bodies in #Aleppo overseen by SARC

Aleppo: #Syria|n rebels have killed many pro-#Assad forces in #Handarat, but heavy fighting is ongoing.

Southern #Hama: Nonstop massive #Russia|n/#Assad airstrikes on villages in Southern #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El0rdK3CKJ8 …

Rebels coalition captured al-Bal village from #IS north Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.595960&lon=37.187476&z=15&m=b …

Report from northern #Aleppo highway- under attack by #Assad regime, #Russia'n airstrikes & kurdish shelling

Heavy clashes in #Damascus' #Daria suburb BUT WAIT UNSC nor Russia has provided any humanitarian aid since 2012.....

All out bombing #Russia & Regime on southern #Hama villages
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El0rdK3CKJ8 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.954337&lon=36.656141&z=14&m=b …

North #Aleppo : Rebel source tbc : #FSA captured al-Ball. Heavy fighting also in Kafr Ghan, Baraghidah vs #IS.

Rebels blow up technical (23mm gun) & killed several #Assad-forces in northern #Aleppo's Handarat

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:37 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:38 PM

6 Civilians killed including 2children & 1woman, 4 civilians injured in bombing of a service bus in Khan Al Shieh.

Assad terrorists kill 7 civilians targeting their bus in Damascus’ Khan al-Sheeh
http://www.orient-news.net/en/news_show/112380/Assad-terrorists-kill-7-civilians-in-Damascus-Khan-al-Sheeh …

Massacring of Syrian civilians since 2011 qualifies Iran for participation in the 'Intl Syria Support Group' #farce

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:44 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:51 PM

At least 6 civilians killed today inc 2 children & a women by Assad shelling targeting the Khan al-Sheeh refugee camp in rural #Damascus

Several children killed & others wounded in an Assad barrel bomb attack on al-Rashidin district west of #Aleppo today as well

Aleppo: 18 pro Assad forces killed in Handarat in calculated rebel IED attacks.

East Ghouta: Rumours that Assad regime captured Deir Assafir too. The rebel factions now finally agreed to stop fighting each other

East Ghouta: Assad regime capture Nola. Hopefully this well make some idiots on the opposition to wake up

Idlib: Rebels shelling Fua after Assad regime massacre & violation of ceasefire. Expect Assadists to start crying "war crimes"

Latakia: Rebels destroy Assad regime BMP in Tel Abu Ali

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 04:56 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 05:02 PM

Not everyone online is real: "We’ve caught bots disseminating lies, attacking people, and poisoning conversations" http://www.wired.com/2016/05/twitterbots-2/ …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 05:14 PM

NOW English
‏@NOW_eng
The illusion of humanitarian impartiality in #Syria
http://mme.cm/KABW00
by @HaidHaid22 via @NOW_eng

A copy of this should be sent to Kerry and de Mistura. Regime fights on all fronts.

This is #Daraya,#Kerry asked for humanitarian access to
It only gets BOMBS by #Assad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilAy4-c-wzo …

BREAKING
#Aleppo's last access is burning, the city is de facto cut-off and our politicians babble of a ceasefire.
It's #Russian planes,
https://twitter.com/JulianRoepcke/status/732579116562714630 …
+ #Assad/#YPG artillery&mortars, pounding the last road into the city.

Repeat: Hundreds of thousands of civilians are being cut-off from food and aid as we speak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PWwBpCJMDg …

Does this now include Aleppo?????
Kerry: agreed on air-drop humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian areas in case ground access not possible by June 1st

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 05:25 PM

Are the US-backed Kurds and the Turkish-backed anti-Assad rebels at war? These days it sure looks like it https://twitter.com/Interpreter_Mag/status/732599436786999296 …

OUTLAW 09

05-17-2016, 05:31 PM

Senate passes bill allowing Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia
http://reut.rs/202dZCw

BREAKING: White House says it is 'difficult to imagine' President Obama signing 9/11 Saudi Arabia damages legislation

Remember when and if this law is actually signed into law the Saudi's will dump 117B USDs in US Bonds onto the market.....whose that believe they will not should be more careful in their thinking......especially in light of the Saudi's belief concerning Obama's overall poor leadership in the ME......

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 05:38 AM

Kerry is getting more and more embarrassing as the fighting continues.......

Kerry says he "still has leverage" when it comes to Assad Tells Syrian Pres not to underestimate Obamas willingness to make decisions.

Obamas willingness to make decisions" is the best joke of the century!

Obama must have a long list of strong decisions he has made over the past 8 years

"Dangerous" for Assad to assume the Obama administration has no 'Plan B' if #SyriaTalks fail, Kerry says.

BUT WAIT.......
ONE full week ago this same Kerry and the Obama WH confirmed it...there was no "Plan B"........

Basically Kerry and the DoS with evidently Obama WH approval has reduced US FP to that of threats.....threats to Ukraine and multiple threats to the anti Assad forces If they do not do what Russia demands they do.

DoS Kirby was at it again yesterday with threats against FSA to disengage from JaN and "move out of the way"........DOES the US DoS even understand the ground fighting and Syrian resistance reality?

APPEARS not.......

US threatens Syrian opposition with Russia if they don't do what they're told.

SINCE when is the US FP the exact SAME FP as of that of Putin????

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 05:47 AM

WHILE Kerry keeps talking about this so called US non existent "PLAN B"....the US ME allies led by KSA are ready to implement their own "PLAN A".......

Kerry and Obama need to truly wake up and smell the coffee as this is the second Saudi clear warning in two weeks that they are going to move into Syria and the US seems to not want to believe them...if I were Kerry and would not want to make a bet they are not going to move....AS Assad and Putin close in on Aleppo......that is the trigger...they will move as will the Turks from the opposite direction.

SYRIA: Saudi Arabia says time may be coming for "Plan B" on #Syria - Reuters
http://in.reuters.com/article/mideast-crisis-syria-saudi-idINKCN0Y81WO …

Even the Turkish tone is getting sharper towards Russia.....and still Kerry and Obama do not smell the coffee brewing around them.

"I am ready to resign if you have any evidence that #Turkey helps #ISIS " #Turkish FM Cavusoglu tells #Russian FM #Lavrov at Vienna meeting

#Cavusoglu to #Lavrov : But if you cannot prove your claims, I invite you to #Antalya [FM's hometown] as a guest for the rest of your life

Basically the Turkish FM called out Russia publicly as blatantly lying......NOTICE the Russian FM did not respond.....

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 05:53 AM

APPEARS Assad and Putin have lost again......

Seems #IS regained Panorama barrier the southern gate of #DeirEzzor city

FSA expelled #IslamicState from Al-Bel in northern #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaczQn9fLJ8 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.593686&lon=37.190008&z=14&m=b …

FSA claim expelled #Assad-forces from Handarat in northern #Aleppo

Rebel "Zanki movement" claim killed today 18 #Assad-forces from al-Quds Brigade in northern #Aleppo's Handarat with IEDs

Map by opposition news agency shows, rebels are losing the southern half of #EastGhouta.
http://stepagency-sy.net/archives/89070

Footage
The #FSA says it once again recaptured pro-regime militia-taken points in #Handarat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZlzSBHIdwo …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 07:19 AM

Russian Defense Ministry denies setting up military base in Palmyra
http://www.unian.info/world/1348356-russian-defense-ministry-denies-setting-up-military-base-in-palmyra.html …

BUT WAIT ...they never addressed released photos nor denied they were fakes did they in this statement....

One thing learned about Russian statements since their 2014 "non invasion of eastern Ukraine".....take the opposite of what they say as the "truth".....

First Draft ‎@firstdraftnews
Know your enemy: Watch @CraigSilverman discuss the sources types and solutions to fake news
https://firstdraftnews.com/watch-craig-silverman-discuss-fake-news-sources-types-and-solutions/ …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 07:49 AM

Jaish Al-Tahrir took out a fortified position + 14.5 mm gun w/ #Fagot in #Handarat, #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CaupLU2Zw …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 07:51 AM

Basically Kerry and the DoS with evidently Obama WH approval has reduced US FP to that of threats.....threats to Ukraine and multiple threats to the anti Assad forces If they do not do what Russia demands they do.

DoS Kirby was at it again yesterday with threats against FSA to disengage from JaN and "move out of the way"........DOES the US DoS even understand the ground fighting and Syrian resistance reality?

APPEARS not.......

US threatens Syrian opposition with Russia if they don't do what they're told.

SINCE when is the US FP the exact SAME FP as of that of Putin????

BUT then Kerry, Obama and Kirby know this...right????

Syria 'exterminating detainees'
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35521801 …

Remember is a nation state fully aware via evidence that genocide and or war crimes are being committed daily...then they are just a complicit as those carrying out the genocide and or war crimes.....for not standing up and attempting to end them.

AND the US is not complicit.....?????

We asked @rhodes44, how many more Syrians have to die? Why can't we protect them? He said protecting civilians wouldn't end war.

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 07:59 AM

KhanTuman new video: Konkurs vs bull., target RPG & evidence of Iraqis KIA (HarakatNujaba).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01WTXf0--sA …

Assad and Putin are literally burning through their ground troops in attempts t produce some kind of "victory" that can be turned into info warfare proving that they are "winning".....

Regime again trying to advance from Kansaba Ard al-Wata in Jabal Akrad under Russian airstrikes & intense artillery & rocket fire #Latakia

JaI accuses Faylaq of coordinating with Fustat army (Fajr al-Ummah & Nusra) to overrun JaI in Ghouta

Faylaq accuses JaI of advancing into Madyarah, JaI categorically denies, in reality no one advanced in Madyarah #Gouta

Faylaq denies any coalition or coordination with Jaish al-Fustat in Ghouta

Nulah in East Ghouta completely fell to regime, not long before the entire southern area falls too if JaI & Faylaq keep this up

INSTEAD of fighting with each other...now they get back to the business of fighting Assad, Putin and IS as they should be doing.....

East Ghouta: rebel sources claim to have recaptured all ground lost to Assad today even after 15 airstrikes
http://eldorar.com/node/98311

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 08:07 AM

Syrian Rebels & Assad regime prisoner swap secures release of 12 prisoners for Rebels in exchange for 11 dead
http://bit.ly/1OE0f01

Turkish authorities arrest ISIS leaders who were previously in Deir Ezzor

Assad regime "religious" figure who made up fatwas to justifying killing opposition killed today in Latakia

Aleppo: Syrian Rebels successfully blow up ISIS VBIED in Sheikh Rih before it could reach its target

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 08:08 AM

The Turks are being as clear and as concise as they can be with Obama, Kerry and Kirby...BUT are the really listening??????

Erdogan: if we don't receive help fighting ISIS in Kilis we will resolve it ourselves however we see fit

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 08:28 AM

NO SHAME?
05.13.16 9:29 PM ET

Activists Claim: Ben Rhodes Told Us He’s ‘Not Proud of Our Syria Policy’

The Deputy National Security Advisor, already in hot water over a controversial New York Times profile, may have just turned up the heat with his alleged comments about Syria.

Senior White House official Ben Rhodes told Syrian-American activists at a gathering on Wednesday that he was “not proud” of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, according to three people who participated in the interchange.

But Rhodes waved off any suggestion that the United States should be responsible for a conflict that has left millions displaced and hundreds of thousands dead, those attendees said.

“We aren’t proud of our Syria policy—but we don’t have any good options... nothing we could have done would have made things better,” Rhodes said, according to three individuals present: Ibrahim Al-Assil, a fellow at the Middle East Institute; Kenan Rahmani, a policy adviser with the Coalition for
a Democratic Syria, and a third individual, who requested to stay anonymous.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council disputed the activists' characterization of the conversation. Rhodes “in no way indicted or distanced himself from our Syria policy,” Price said.

The three activists, as well as a fourth activist, the Syrian American Council’s Omar Hossino, were present for various parts of the conversation with Rhodes. Hossino told The Daily Beast that he began to weep as he told Rhodes about the cost in human life that had taken place as a result of the war, and excused himself from the ia, and a third individual, who requested to stay anonymous.

The three activists, as well as a fourth activist, the Syrian American Council’s Omar Hossino, were present for various parts of the conversation with Rhodes. Hossino told The Daily Beast that he began to weep as he told Rhodes about the cost in human life that had taken place as a result of the war, and excused himself from the conversation.

“We’re not the ones killing Syrians. [President Bashar al-]Assad is the one killing people,” Rhodes said, according to three of the individuals present.

It was, as one advocate said, a poor explanation. “It would be as if the Bush administration argued that ‘a hurricane destroyed New Orleans, so it’s not our responsibility,’” Al-Assil told The Daily Beast.

Rhodes has been the talk of media and political circles this week after he bragged in the New York Times Magazine that he created an “echo chamber” in Washington, D.C. to sell the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives.

Wednesday night’s message from Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, may add to the controversy. If nothing else, the message from the celebrated crafter of narratives was contradictory. While he seemed sheepish about the administration’s policy—almost apologetic—his statements indicate that if that if he had to do the entire process over he would change little about the administration’s response to the crisis.

Rhodes did not respond to a request for comment. But National Security Council spokesman Ned Price defended his colleague Friday in a statement to The Daily Beast: "We will not rebut point by point a secondhand account of an impromptu conversation that took place two days ago following an award ceremony honoring Ben. Ben has repeatedly made the point that the United States will continue to do everything we can, in concert with our international partners, to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people, who have been brutalized at the hands of the Assad regime and, in other regions, ISIL.”

Price added that Rhodes "also explained, as he has done publicly many times before, why we have not pursued additional military action against Assad, including a no-fly zone; we see no military solution to the civil war. We all acknowledge the tremendous suffering of the Syrian people, and no one should be satisfied with the status quo."

Following the publication of this article, Price sent The Daily Beast another statement, saying that Rhodes “in no way indicted or distanced himself from our Syria policy. He has consistently explained U.S. policy toward the conflict, which is what he did in this case (as evidenced by the other quotes). What is true is that he lamented the level of suffering the Syrian people have endured. “

The Obama administration has previously hit back hard against criticism that it should have done more to end the conflict. Lawmakers who suggested that the administration should have moved more aggressively to arm Syrian rebels were told by President Obama himself that such criticism was “horse####,” for example.

Continued.....

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/13/ben-rhodes-told-activists-he-s-not-proud-of-our-syria-policy.html

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 10:20 AM

Dozens of airstrikes on northern outskirts of #Aleppo
(Handarat, Casello highway, Kindi hospital area)

Clashes btw #Assad-forces & kurdish #YPG in #Hasaka & #Qamishli towns in NE #Syria

Clashes erupted between NDF/Police & Asayish at Issam al-Beghdi Hospital - Palestine street in #Hasakah city

Eastern #Homs: #ISIS advancing northwest of #Palmyra at #Jazal village & Oil Field.

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 11:09 AM

Report: Families of Iranian casualties in #khantuman criticize Iran's regime, say "we didn't know our sons were sent to Syria"

Khamenei:US is the Great Satan,unfortunately some Islamic governments rely upon it instead of Quran, their fellow nation & the Islamic Ummah

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 11:21 AM

CrowBat....now that we know it was an assassination of Mustafa Badreddine
by Saudi supported "takfirists" which I guess means JaF who apparently has some really really really long super long range artillery totally new for the ME.....WHO do you think killed him....????

So is IRGC "militarily escalating" now against the Saudi's or is this just a "verbal escalation" for home front consumption????

Report: In his Beirut visit Soleimani ordered Hezbollah to suspend operations vs Israel & to target KSA instead

EXCLUSIVE:
Iran orders Hezbollah to target Saudi Arabia New head of military wing appointed directly by Revolutionary Guard in significant shift in relationship between Tehran and Lebanese movement

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-iran-orders-hezbollah-target-saudi-arabia-903428016#sthash.rqjbC4Q1.dpuf

The military wing of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah has been instructed by Iran to suspend operations against Israel and to target Saudi Arabia instead, Middle East Eye can reveal.

The instruction comes in the wake of widespread anger at the apparent assassination of Mustafa Badreddine, its military commander in Syria and head of the movement's military wing, which Hezbollah blamed on “takfiri” forces supported by Riyadh.

According to well informed sources in Lebanon, the order was conveyed in person by Qasim Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) who came to Beirut to give his condolescences.

Soleimani also named Badreddine’s successor and his two deputies, which is believed to be an unprecedented move in the relationship between Iran and the Lebanese movement. Previous appointments have been an internal matter for Hezbollah in consultation with Iran, MEE understands.

Badreddine’s replacement is Fuad Shukr, whose nom de guerre is al-Hajj Mohsen, the sources told MEE.

Aged 55 and from the village al-Nabi Sheeth in the Bekaa Valley, Shukr comes from the core group which started Hezbollah along with Imad Mughniyeh, Badreddine, and Mustafa Sahadah.

Whereas his predecessors came from the intelligence and security wing of the organisation, Shukr came to prominence as a military man, responsible for operations against Israel, including the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

A graduate of the Imam Hussein University in Tehran, Shukr is regarded as well trained. Soleimani not only named the new head of Hezbollah’s military wing, but his two deputies as well, sources told MEE. They are Ibrahim Aqil, also know as al-Hajj Tahsin, but whose current pseudonym is al-Hajj Abdul Khader, and Talal Hamiah.

Shukr's appointment comes despite earlier reports in the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat suggesting that Badreddine’s nephew Mustafa Mughniyeh would be named as his successor.

MEE understands these reports to be incorrect.

Iran’s order to Hezbollah, and the fact that they have gone to such lengths as to appoint a successor, confirms the significance to Iran of Badreddine’s death, the exact circumstances of which are still a matter of speculation. His death near Damascus airport was initially blamed on an Israeli covert operation, but this was contradicted by a Hezbollah statement.

It read: ”Investigations have showed that the explosion, which targeted one of our bases near Damascus International Airport, and which led to the martyrdom of commander Mustafa Badreddine, was the result of artillery bombardment carried out by takfiri [Sunni militant] groups in the area."

The nearest opposition artillery positions however were 20 kilometres away and there are doubts that their shells could achieve pinpoint accuracy from that distance.

Hezbollah slogans at Badreddine’s funeral left little doubt that they held Saudi Arabia responsible for their military commander’s death.

Ever since Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations after the storming of their embassy in Tehran following the execution of the Shia leader Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, relations between the rival regional powers have plummeted.

The latest sign of this was the failure to agree on arrangements for Iranian pilgrims to travel to this year’s Hajj.

The failure of four days of talks between the two sides last month has led to statements of mutual recrimination which will mean that Iranian pilgrims will almost certainly miss this year’s ceremonies.

Iran said that its citizens would not participate in the Hajj and blamed Saudi Arabia for the problem. Last year’s Hajj was marred by the death of at least 769 pilgrims, many of them Iranian, in a stampede at Mina on the outskirts of Mecca.

According to MEE sources the instruction Iran gave was to initiate actions against Saudi Arabia before the beginning of the Hajj in September. Shukr's task is to co-ordinate military actions with an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, and a shia group in Bahrain Saraya al-Mukhtar.

Hezbollah operatives have been used in the past in the Gulf. A member of the al-Dawa militant group, Badreddine was arrested along with 17 others after the truck bombings of the US and French embassies in Kuwait City in 1983. In 1985 Badreddine was also reportedly involved in a failed assassination attempt of the Kuwaiti emir.

Amed Ibrahim al-Mughassil, a Saudi Shia member of Saudi Hezbollah who allegedly masterminded the attack on the US military barracks in Khobar in 1996, was captured last year after a 20-year manhunt. Saudi Hezbollah, also called Hezbollah el-Hajaz, is close to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the IRGC.

BUT WAIT...the "truth" seems to be now coming out in bits and pieces as it would be an embarrassment for him to have been killed as well in the Khan Touman fighting.......

Senior @AJArabic journalist @kasimf: #Hezbollah afraid to admit #Badreddine was killed in #Khantuman, falsely accused #ISIS

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 11:31 AM

CrowBat...just what the heck is Iran up to....????

In addition: IRGC Spokesman Ramezan Sharif says huge amount of Iranians demand to join Syria & Iraq battles

Iran Has More Volunteers for the Syrian War Than It Knows What to Do With

TEHRAN — When 59-year-old Asghar Abyari learned that his son Abbas would soon head off to war in Syria in late December 2015, he was furious. But not for the reason one might expect.

Since November, Asghar and Abbas, 24, both members of Iran’s voluntary Basij militia, had been undergoing military training in hopes of joining Tehran’s advisory mission to support Syria. The mission began deploying in 2012 to advise Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in their fight against the growing insurgency. By the time the Abyari men began training in 2015, Syria’s horrific civil war had stretched into its fifth year, forcing Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani to expand the mission to include volunteers from all six branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including the Basij. Suleimani still maintained command of the mission, but now officers from each branch were assembling units composed of assorted IRGC volunteers to serve under his command.

From the advisory mission’s inception, Suleimani had decreed that only one man per family would be allowed to join the deployments — a decision meant to minimize each household’s potential sacrifices. But to Asghar, it was yet another impediment. By early December, his training group had been whittled down to 500 men from its initial roster of 1,000. Less than half of those who remained would be selected to join the unit that would deploy near the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in late December.

Asghar and Abbas were driven by a holy conviction to defend sacred religious sites, like the shrine of Hujr bin Adi al-Kindi, a companion of the Prophet Mohammed, which Sunni rebels desecrated in April 2013. “These people have no moral borders or humanity,” Asghar told me. “We knew then that they would attack other shrines and holy sites that are respected by Muslims and Christians. We felt that if we didn’t defend these places, nobody would be safe, and they would make a government that would spread this cancer to the entire world.”

Continued......

Well worth continued reading of the article....

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 11:33 AM

Aleppo: #Syria|n rebels destroyed #Assad position & 23 mm gun in #Handarat with TOW missile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNpU8bHitig …

Hasakah: Heavy fighting between #YPG and pro-#Assad forcs since hours in #Hasakah City. Several people were killed.

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 11:46 AM

Is Putin's brutal hidden #war fueling Chechen terrorism? Pictures the world wasn't supposed to see #Chechnya #Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHVKSW6NKPk …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 02:33 PM

Hasakah: #ISIS killed & wounded many #YPG militias near #Anad village southwest of #Shaddadih.

Syria Several dead residents & militia members during clashes btw #Assad-forces & kurdish militia in #Hasaka city

Ahrar al-Sham wins uphill battle vs pro-#Assad forces in #Latakia
Shortly after they shell it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeYGs9H2xQE …

A dozen residents killed by airstrikes on #Rastan in northern #Homs

Assad air attacks on #Rastan village #Homs killed 13 people 8 of them under 15 years old.

Extremely graphic footage.
14 civilians massacred by #Assad's jets in #Rastan.
13 of them of the same family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77CbjMTNojU …

Rebels stormed Kafr Ghan & Baraghideh & fended off #ISIS counter-attack by destroying 2 SVBIEDs w/ #ATGM. N. #Aleppo http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.632060&lon=37.198334&z=12&m …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 03:02 PM

Footage
Large rocket on its way to bomb #Daraya west of #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTAY8Yo--5U …

Footage
Russian jet on its way to bomb the last entrance to #Aleppo.
Filmed over Idlib.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvbo9m7uB8Q …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 03:06 PM

Imposing Costs by Other Means: Strategic Irregular Warfare Options to Counter Russian Aggression

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/imposing-costs-by-other-means-strategic-irregular-warfare-options-to-counter-russian-aggres#comment-52889

by Steve Ferenzi

This is the perfect example of why this para in the article is so important....especially the second/third sentences of the para.....

When introduced prior to or very early in a conflict, minimal resource expenditures may have outsized positive effects on strategic outcomes; however, informational ambiguity and the twin dangers of escalation and unintended consequences create political hesitation that prevents implementation of the necessary actions at the earliest stages. By the time policy-makers realize that the situation has degenerated into a real problem impacting US national interests (think Syria today) and decide to act, the opportunity to implement a decisive or even an efficacious low-visibility/low-cost solution has long since passed. Such solutions can still be implemented but are highly unlikely to deliver the desired results.

This is the US supported....CIA/CENTCOM/Obama WH/DoD option that the Obama WH played and it is now fighting against a nominally US supported proxy FSA and YPG the US proxy is receiving Assad and Putin CAS as well is part and parcel of the US named terrorist group PKK....can a WH policy get even more convoluted?????

AND it is the FSA that is attacking IS daily while the US proxy YPG was suppose to be attacking IS BUT got sidetracked in building a Kurdish state and started attacking Sunni Arabs NOT IS and or Assad.....

BreakingNews
Syria's @SyriaCivilDef demand the YPG to stop supporting Russia and Assad in cutting off Aleppo.

Handara right now.
Assad,Russia & the YPG do everything to close the ring road. Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jghUgH_3YsA …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 03:22 PM

Footage
The city of #Rastan in besieged #Homs province.
Heavy #Assad bombing raids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg3JnRod5qU …

Extremely graphic footage.
14 civilians massacred by #Assad's jets in #Rastan.
13 of them of the same family.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77CbjMTNojU …

BREAKING
While #Steinmeier, #Kerry and co. look away, #Assad keeps slaughtering the Syrian people.
#RASTAN NOW !!

Footage
"Russian" cluster bomb attacks on the southern #Hama front throughout the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIsrH6IfVQI …

Also S-W & E of #Damascus,the #Assad regime pushes on its offensive
No reaction by the west.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0bjqY1oJuc …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 04:57 PM

The Russian deliberate mass killings of Syrian civilians is actually for "advertising".....

TASS Verified account 
‏@tassagency_en
Official: Operation in Syria was "good advertising" of Russian military equipment
http://tass.ru/en/defense/876546 …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 05:03 PM

Twitter since the invasion of eastern Ukraine has often been a strong supporter of proRussian trolls and now proAssad trolls as well....not ever reported in US MSM.....

Twitter picks Russia over the U.S.
http://on.wsj.com/1OuNX4R

The core question remains......just how much Russian oligarch black money was and still is being invested into Twitter and Facebook.....

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 05:29 PM

Seriously ...
#FSA uses 60.000$ TOW vs. running #ISIS guys near #AlBel.
One killed imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86-lSNNVpQQ …

US military confirms Russia has built an operating base near Palmyra.
RT's take 19 hours ago:
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/732658228299857920 …

No new military base in #Palmyra’ – Russian Defense Ministry refutes AP report
http://on.rt.com/7cxo

So apparently you can fire a mortar round using an RPG launcher, who knew?
https://www.funker530.com/russian-fires-mortar-round-rpg-launcher/ …

Revolutionists are fighting fierce battle against #ISIS in Kafra village in Northern Countryside of #Syria's #Aleppo

Reports Turkish army artillery pounding #IS held Kafra village in support of FSA ground forces trying to storm it
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.565978&lon=37.163143&z=14&m=b …

Intense fighting/shelling in Kafrah between Rebels & #ISIS for the control of the location, N. #Aleppo.

N. #Aleppo update: fierce clashes in Kafrah between Rebels & #ISIS, last main ISIS location before #Sawran.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.566874&lon=37.165718&z=13&m …

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 06:07 PM

IHS: Russian military operation in Syria cost $700 mil since sep 2105. Russia so far lost 2 helicopters & a Su-24Ms.
PLUS 4 burnt KA52s.......

Rebels grad-ing al-Nayrab airbase east #Aleppo where 100s of iranian militias arrive weekly.
https://youtu.be/D3wXNTKeYrg

Nayrab Airport in E. #Aleppo turned into Mil. Airbase, heavily defended from N & W sides. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.181186&lon=37.223654&z=15&m …

The 2 major Regime military bases in #Aleppo: Assad Military Academy in the South-West. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.181983&lon=37.095680&z=15&m …

Again, pro-Regime forces trying to storm #Handarat after huge airstrikes on area & Castello road, N. #Aleppo.

Most of those killed on the regime side in W Al Ghota are foreign militias : palestinians in Khan Sheih and Irakis in Daraya; #Syria

Second Coastal Division shelling Regime with Grad rockets in Jebal Al-Akrad, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UevD3krO2sg …

Sudden peak suggests #ISIS created 4.4 Richter earthquake when blew up Shaer fields (E. Homs), equiv. to 60 tons TNT

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 06:22 PM

Syrian Rebels kill 7 Assad regime soldiers including an officer
http://bit.ly/206s8Ph

Sniper fires at people while waiting to get bread in Al Waer in Homs, 7 Civilians were injured including 2 children.

Assad regime drop 14 barrel bombs on Palestinians refugee camps in Khan Sheikh. Any condemnation?

59 civilians killed yesterday by Assad/Russian airstrikes in Syria.

East Ghouta: Rebels recapture "wide parts" of Bazina town

Intense fighting today at Handarat camp in northern #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJlmqvryIrA&feature=youtu.be …

Report from the #Handarat frontline today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJlmqvryIrA&feature=youtu.be …

Clashes continue in #Handarat outskirts #Aleppo.
https://youtu.be/IJlmqvryIrA

OUTLAW 09

05-18-2016, 06:51 PM

Sooo, it seems also #Ukrainian airline "Dart Airlines Ukraine" flies for #Assad between Damascus and Baghdad.

First Coastal Div. blew up w/ a #TOW a truck carrying ammo & troops in Kinsabba, N. #Latakia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ldQ73fAaQ …

Latakia: #FSA shelling pro-#Assad forces in #Kinsabba village with tanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdmihwA-YIA …

FSA 16th Brig swap YPG & Jaysh al-Thuwar fighters with civilians in Shk Maqsoud #Aleppo.
https://youtu.be/Sp51q2RsX2k

CrowBat

05-18-2016, 08:21 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:24 AM

An Iranian cleric was killed in Khan Tuman area, near #Aleppo in northern #Syria.
http://www.alaraby.co.uk/politics/2016/5/18/%D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AA%D9%84-%D8%B1%D8%AC%D9%84-%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9#sthash.nhRUnN T6.dpuf …

Iranian aircraft are regularly turning off their transponders when approaching Syria to cover their air movements during Iranian troop reinforcement movements.....

Our Iranian "ghost" just disappeared 50 km before reaching Syria.
As u can see from opposing traffic: Coverage good.

FlightAlerts
I just spotted an Iranian GHOST over #Iraq
Jet IDed as Saha Air 747-200
Saha Air is dead since 2012..

Footage
The town of #Handarat N-E of #Aleppo.
#Assad and the #RuAF destroyed 90% of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lguwcq0rvmQ …

BUT WAIT the German FM stated yesterday that "things are calming down in Aleppo"...BUT he says the same thing after say 80 Russian attacks on UAF positions in one night.....

News
Russian war planes used parachute ammunition vs. #Handarat and the #Castillo highway today.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:29 AM

Also yesterday, some civilians tried to flee #Aleppo.
It ended fatally on the #Castillo road.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 06:11 AM

Russian Syrian Express on the move again.......

FLOT BSF's Ropucha Cls landing ships northbound on the Bosphorus, returning from Tartous

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 09:41 AM

CrowBat.....something for you.....

Almaz-Antey claims S-300V4 can shoot down targets at range of 400km.
http://vpk-news.ru/news/30718

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 09:47 AM

Rebels lost Jazer, Yahmul, Skh Rih, Fayrazia & Bal to #IS N. Aleppo & about to lose Zibden, Dair al-Asafir, Bzina & Bala to #Assad in #Ghota

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 09:51 AM

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:00 AM

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
In #Yemen, the #Iran-backed Houthis are carrying out a "chilling campaign to quash dissent," acc @amnesty

Iranian "revolutionary Islam" hard at work just as in Syria. Lebanon and Iraq....

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:17 AM

I am not sure one should "cry" or simply "sigh" about the abject failures of Obama....this is what one get's when there is absolutely no national level strategic strategies for anything....beyond one's own legacy.....

This was announced by the every so efficient assistant national defense advisor for strategic communication's office.....

In Exec Order, Pres Obama reaffirms Atrocities Prevention Board to alert US to "mass atrocities and genocide" before it's "too late."

Responses below from the field was sudden and brutal....

Before it's "too late?" A joke re: what we've ignored in Syria? Or doesn't Syria qualify as "mass atrocities and genocide?"

In FIVES years he did not read a single newspaper article about Syria and or Iraq nor asked his UNSC Ambassador about genocide?

R U kidding? Or is it only the atrocities and genocides committed against countries with low oil production that matter.

He really should just go ahead and Executive Order a new Pres and Admin, best solution possible.

Are there a new "redlines" in the Exec Order?

Maybe they should have read the Intel reports about Isis, Syria and Iraq... they could have prevented some atrocities and genocide.

BUT WAIT....this Exec Board is for "future" atrocities and genocide events......

SO the Obama WH is starting from a clear slate and is "forgetting the Assad war crimes, use of starvation, destruction of hospitals, the killing of 500,000, imprisoning over 200,000, having 8M IDPs and 5M refugees"....with now the support of Putin.

That way he can argue he "knew nothing about it"......

BUT WAIT was that not the same arguments used by many Germans referencing their own concentration camp involvement??

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:28 AM

Now SWJ commenters seriously convince me the Obama WH actually knows what it is doing?....his intel briefings should have covered this thoroughly but apparently they did not.

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/the-assad-regimes-war-against-syrias-people/

The Assad Regime’s War Against Syria’s People

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton)
on February 8, 2016

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report earlier today documenting the Assad regime’s “systematic and widespread attack against [the Syrian] civilian population.” The report is meticulously compiled from reams of internal documents and the evidence of 621 witnesses who have been in Assad’s prisons, covering the period March 10, 2011, to November 30, 2015. Two-hundred of these witnesses personally saw somebody murdered. The report is focussed on the mass-murder of prisoners and the evidence leads to the conclusions that the Assad regime has committed extermination, murder, rape, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity, as well as a raft of at least six separate counts of war crimes.

OHCHR starts with the very earliest days of the uprising, when it was still a street protest movement, at which point the Assad regime began mass-arrests of civilians “perceived to be either supporting the opposition or insufficiently loyal”. Many of the civilians taken into custody were murdered, and “families were first informed about the death or whereabouts of their relatives from released fellow prisoners.” Most of the victims were males over fifteen, but women and children—one as young as seven-years-old and the infamous case of thirteen-year-old Hamza al-Khatib—were also tortured and murdered.

In early 2011, as the regime arrested civilians and liquidated peaceful activists like Ibrahim Qashoush and Ghiath Matar, it was releasing jihadists from its prisons, with the deliberate intention—as defectors have testified—of framing the uprising in sectarian terms and frightening a strategic majority of the population (and the international community) with the spectre of an Islamist/terrorist takeover.

“Caesar,” a photographer at a regime mortuary before he defected with thousands of images showing at least 11,000 people done to death in regime prisons, has reported on the systematic way the regime records the cause of death as “heart attack” or “respiratory problems”. OHCHR provides further testimony on this:

In no documented cases did the family receive further proof of death or documentation indicating that investigative measures had been taken by the authorities to verify the cause of death, or to establish or absolve responsibility of State agents or others for the fate of the victim, as required by international human rights law.

But OHCHR notes that the real importance of these “centralised, systemic procedures,” including the issuing of death certificates, is the proof it provides that the most senior levels of the Assad regime were at a minimum aware of what was happening, and thus at least complicit after the fact since they took no steps to stop or even punish the murderers. The various branches of the Military Police corps of the Syrian Arab Army, especially at its headquarters in al-Qaboun, Damascus, the staff at Tishreen military hospital who issued the death certificates, and the judicial institutions that registered these patently fraudulent documents were all involved in a systematic campaign of torture and murder against Syria’s civilians.

In addition to the systematized slaughter of prisoners, there was the random cruelty and killing:

Interrogators and guards employed gruesome methods of torture to kill detainees. In 2014, a detainee held in a centre under the control of the 4th Division of the Syrian army had his genitals mutilated during torture. Bleeding severely and left without treatment, he died three days later. A detainee of a Military Security branch in Homs witnessed an elderly man being severely beaten, and then hung by his wrists from the ceiling. The guards burned his eyes with a cigarette, and pierced his body with a heated, sharp metal object. After hanging in the same position for three hours, the man died.

And the conditions of the prisons—even for those who had not had wounds requiring medical attention inflicted upon them by torture—were arranged with a “calculated awareness that such conditions would cause mass deaths of detainees in the ordinary course of events”:

[Prisoners] perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions inflicted on the prison population, including severe over-crowding, lack of food, and unclean drinking water. Prisoners were given inadequate or no medical care, and died in large numbers from preventable conditions such as diarrhoea or other contagious infections spread in the unhygienic and overcrowded cells

The report also documents arbitrary imprisonment and murder by Jabhat an-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, and the Islamic State, but notes that neither group has done anything that comes close to what the regime has done in terms of scale.

The “high frequency” of the killings in regime prisons, committed “over a long period of time and in multiple locations, with significant logistical support involving vast State resources,” makes it impossible that the regime’s leaders were uninvolved what was—and still is—happening.

The “near-total secrecy” of these crimes has meant that they are “largely lost to the international public and political discourse surrounding the violence of the conflict,” OHCHR notes. But many Syrians do know about this system—either by having had relatives pass through it, be lost to it, or collaborate in it. While the Syrian opposition in Geneva has been portrayed as intransigent for its adamancy that Assad is unsuitable to lead a political transition, this is a large part of the reason: they understand, as the outside world has chosen not to, that every day the Assad regime and its organs of State power remain in place hundreds of thousands of innocent people are trapped in its prisons, subject to inhumane treatment, and helpless to prevent their murder at any moment.

The report had one major omission: the role of Russia and Iran in enabling these crimes. Iran especially, which runs the sectarian and foreign militias that are all that remain of Assad’s State, is deeply implicated in everything that happens as part of Assad’s war-making policy, and Russia now provides the air cover, as well as the political protection, for the perpetuation of these crimes. Any legal proceedings would have to include consideration of who in Tehran and Moscow should join senior Assad regime officials in the dock.

Contrary to the recurring theme in Syria commentary, Assad was never a partner in defeating IS and likeminded groups, sharing with them the same strategic priority of eliminating the nationalist opposition. Frederic Hof once wrote that “those who counsel cooperation with Assad should think things through very, very carefully with their own reputations in mind.” If this report helps people find their moral bearings and to finally understand that the only path to peace in Syria is the removal of the dictator and his retainers, so much the better.

Critical:
It is definitely to late for the Obama WH to learn from it's mistakes......are they just as complicit under international law.....yes they are or we have had one heck of a serious intelligence failure in the WH.........

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:38 AM

Has Assad with the knowledge of Putin restarted his CW production WHICH Putin stated to the world had been eliminated for good......???

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Notice Ignatius doesn't cite Haaretz but his own talks with the Israelis to say #Assad used chemical weapons of mass destruction in April.

Still a lot of gaps in the story of #Assad using sarin in late April:
- exact date
- actual location (beyond "NE Damascus)
- casualties

Given the importance if #Assad has restarted using WMD, the lack of follow-up is a bit strange. Lots have an interest in not noticing, tho.

BUT WAIT it was used supposedly against IS so that did not count as a CW attack.....it was an attack on "terrorists".....

Israeli official: #Assad used sarin (which we took off him in 2013) north-east of Damascus at the end of April.
http://bit.ly/1WCsSgK

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:45 AM

Several small groups in northern Syria reportedly to unite as "Jaish al-Usra" to act as reserve for Jaish al-Fateh
http://syrian-mirror.net/ar/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85/%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%A2%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B4%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%B4-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A/ …

There is a small Jihadi-Salafist group in Aleppo led by Feyzulla Margoshvili (Salaheddin Shishani), a Chechen.

Feyzulla Margoshvili (Salaheddin Shishani) led JMA after Batirashvili left, was deposed 06/15 and formed Imarat Kavkaz v Shame

Feyzulla Margoshvili (Salaheddin Shishani) was then deposed again in 12/15 from Imarat Kavkaz v Shame and formed Jaysh al-Usra.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 10:52 AM

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-iran-twisting-reality-get-what-it-wants-16114

How Iran Is Twisting Reality to Get What It Wants

For years Iran has been a formidable challenge in the nuclear realm—a fact that has not changed since the deal. When Iran finally began to negotiate seriously over its nuclear program in 2013, it was only in order to lift the biting sanctions; indeed, nothing had changed in terms of its military nuclear ambitions, and Iran continues to advance its program where it can (for example its long range missile program, and R&D on advanced centrifuge models). All the while, Iran profusely denies ever having pursued a military option, despite the definitive IAEA report released in December 2015 that deems otherwise.

In the post-deal period, Iran continues to try to squeeze more concessions from the West—to ensure improvement of its economic situation beyond what was agreed to in the nuclear deal, in return for the minimal nuclear concessions that it made. In this effort, Iran recruits the power of the word: the steadfast and stubborn narratives that Iranian leaders promulgate with rhetorical acumen. Iran forever paints a slanted picture of reality that glosses over its aggressive regional behavior, gross human rights violations, and missile and nuclear advances, presenting itself as a virtuous and stellar international player that faces a relentless Western bully.

After months of negotiations with the P5+1, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has perfected the art, and become a master of this game. The most recent examples appear in his op-ed in the Washington Post, and interview with Robin Wright in the New Yorker. In the April 20 op-ed, Zarif notes the “artificial crisis over my country’s peaceful nuclear program,” depicts Iran as the only state seeking to eradicate “militant extremism” and complains that everyone mistakenly focuses on Iran’s “indigenous defensive capabilities” while ignoring massive military buildups in other regional states. When he refers to Iran’s “stable, safe and healthy environment for our citizens and for those visiting,” one can only imagine what the many Iranians who have been incarcerated, tortured and executed for their religious beliefs or sexual orientation would say in response. And as far as its military nuclear program, no matter what evidence is produced, Iran deems everything a lie and fabrication.

In addition to the false narrative that Iran churns out at every turn, another one of its well-known rhetorical tactics is to turn the tables. Whatever the West says about Iran, Iran hurls back at the West, employing a rather crude form of mirror imaging. So, for example, in the April 25 New Yorker interview, Zarif claimed that Iran had upheld its end of the nuclear deal, but that the United States had not, quoting a Farsi saying: “First, prove your brotherhood, and then ask for inheritance.” Every question posed about Iran’s problematic behavior was answered with an example of someone else’s bad behavior. Even when asked about the Holocaust cartoon contest to take place in Tehran, Zarif swiftly retorted: “Why does the United States have the Ku Klux Klan?” A former spokesman for Iran’s nuclear negotiating team (now at Princeton University), Seyed Hossein Mousavian, presented a particularly sharp mirror image in a recent op-ed entitled “U.S. Torpedoing the Nuclear Deal Will Reaffirm Iran’s Distrust.” In his view: “For Iran, the JCPOA was a criterion for judging whether it could trust the West to cooperate on other issues. If the United States faithfully abides by its commitments under the deal, then the view of Iranian leaders toward broader negotiations would be positively affected.” So the burden of proof is on the United States; America, not Iran, must prove its trustworthiness.

Against this backdrop, current Iranian accusations that the United States is not providing Iran with the economic boost it was counting on come as no surprise. In attempting to squeeze more concessions, Iran adamantly claims that it has upheld its end of the bargain meticulously, while accusing the United States of bad-faith behavior and of shirking its commitments. These accusations were predictable from the start, because the tactic has been employed so many times before. It is what Iran has claimed for years vis-à-vis its NPT commitments, even after its work on a military nuclear program was confirmed by the IAEA, and it is the exact pattern that Iran followed in the early stage of negotiations with the EU-3, from 2003–05.

Iran is already seeing favorable results in the U.S. approach. After Iran accused the United States that by continuing to demonize Iran—in Khamenei’s words, promoting “Iranophobia”—the latter is effectively torpedoing economic deals between Iran and European companies, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Zarif to try to smooth over the differences. The administration announced that it would not stand in the way of foreign entities doing business with Iran; moreover, it announced its intent to buy thirty-two tons of Iran’s excess heavy water to the tune of $8.6 million, making good on its show of goodwill. While justifying this decision as a worthwhile deal for the United States, the administration ignored the implicit message to Iran that it is fine to produce heavy water in excess of the JCPOA limit. Generally speaking, while President Obama has noted that it is may be Iran’s problematic behavior that is scaring off foreign investors, the United States has nevertheless refrained from pushing back with determination against Iran’s false narratives. The administration’s response to Iran’s missile tests that violated UN Security Council resolutions was delayed and relatively mute, failing to highlight Iran’s ongoing support for terror.

Iran’s success in the long and drawn-out negotiation with the international community from 2003 to 2015 was due to its ability to manipulate the weaknesses in the NPT long enough, so that when it was finally forced to negotiate seriously, it already had an advanced nuclear program. One of the factors that helped Iran along the way was its ability to plant serious seeds of doubt as to whether it was working on a military program—enough to fuel the divisions among the P5 over how to handle the crisis. By the time more serious negotiations began, the program was quite advanced, and the only realistic option for dealing with Iran was to negotiate a deal.

Iran’s leverage in the talks themselves emanated primarily from the other side’s demonstrated eagerness to strike such a deal. But its ability to manipulate narratives helped. This was clear when the IAEA report on Iran’s past military work was finally produced, and the P5+1 caved to Iran’s demand to simply close the file, while inadvertently strengthening Iran’s narrative of having done no wrong in the nuclear realm.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 11:17 AM

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 11:24 AM

Clashes between rebels & regime forces/militias trying to advance into Bat'ha & Kafrnasj in rural #Daraa since last night

Reports 2 coalition airstrikes targeted #ISIS held #Jarablus in #Aleppo today

Nearly 20 regime airstrikes on Marj area in Eastern Ghouta since early AM today #Damascus #Syria

Explosions in #Daraya due to Assad heavy artillery shelling & rocket fire #Damascus

Aleppo Castello road cut off for 3rd day in a row with more than 12 barrel bombs dropped by Assad helicopters today + YPG shelling #Syria

3 attempts by Assad & allies to take Handarat camp & each one ended in failure

Latakia: dozens of deaths for Assad regime in another failed offensive against Syrian Rebels
http://bit.ly/207QF6w

Deraa: Assad regime shelling Al Hara

Daraya: bodies of more than 30 Assad regime fighters arrived to Mezzeh Military hospital along with at least 80 wounded fighters

Shortest Iranian story. 12 came to Syria by bus & the same 12 left in boxes.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 11:30 AM

Terror in the town!
Many people killed, injured by the regime air strikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unW1NVVj6N8 …

Breaking
Heavy #Assad offensives /air strikes continue all around #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVdd0QNno28 …
#KhanAlsheh

Footage
An #Assad air force Su-24 bombing the suburbs of #Damascus today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiZBJqwDbio&feature=youtu.be …

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 11:32 AM

Reference the crash of an Egyptian Airlines flight this morning....

BreakingReport
#MS804 crash "almost certainly" caused by "an attack".
@BILD @BILD_Politik

Fr. Senior French official: "Almost certainly attack" Loss was total and sudden...any ac problems would have allowed the crew to respond and the Airbus is a safe and proven ac when ac emergencies do occur with it.......was flying today on a routine relative short haul flight in good weather.

Assumptions therefore can only be an onboard IED and or a SAM.....but since neither Assad and or Putin want to shot down another commercial airliner assumption is an onboard device.

Further developments........
Video circulating taken by Greeks indicating a burning ball of flames dropping out of the sky...would indicate entire ac on fire or engines on fire as it has two....... strange that the pilots gave absolutely no warning and if on fire there would have been enough emergency power to transmit an emergency warning...cabin safety locked doors are standard in Europe........

THEN this 15 minutes ago.......
Greek DefMin: #MS804 made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar. Evasive maneuver?

If fight on plane: Why no emergency call? If evasive maneuver: Why reports of explosion – midair collision with another plane or missile?
Another AC or SAM or AA launched missile would have been detected as this area is a heavily monitored by everyone located in that area to include the US/NATO....

Also possible: Bomb was placed at #MS804 in Cairo airport earlier and was not detected in CDG. Maybe Paris was the intended target.

Still no debris located at all with French, Greek, US and Egyptian AF all searching....

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 01:15 PM

Reference crashed Egyptian Air flight....

EgyptAir aircraft debris found south of Greek island of Karpathos - Greek state TV.
http://reut.rs/1NA4No9

Two parties so far seem eager to call #MS804 a terrorist attack: Russia and Donald Trump

Egyptair Flight MS804: Explosive device ‘most likely’ cause of crash, say experts.
http://nwk.ee/A1w2j

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 01:31 PM

All we get from the Obama WH assistant national defense specialist for strategic communications is......

Kerry talks and talks and telephones and telephones and travels on the taxpayers dime to five star hotels to talk and talk some more...but has he honestly achieved anything outside of more talking?????

Russian FM is playing him like a violin and Kerry seems to enjoy it as it is "progress"........

MFA Russia
✔ ‎@mfa_russia #Lavrov & @JohnKerry dicussed Syrian settlement and Israeli-Palestinian conflict
http://bit.ly/1RaOhp7

ALL the while Assad and Russian AFs just keep on killing civilians......

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 01:44 PM

Footage
The #Assad air force hit and killed several civilians incl. children in Rastan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxt_aTC0mGQ …

Footage
Air strike in rural #Idlib province today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV-02bVLe6g …

ANOTHER AIR STRIKE on a hospital and no it was not done by the JaN non existent AF that Russia claims it does exist.......

BreakingNews
The #Assad air force attacked the #hospital of #KhanAlsheh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiDAwPADOsA …

German AfD anti Muslim demonstration in Erfurt....."today the mosque today tomorrow the religious war".....AfD supported by Putin's info war trolls....

No joke ...
Russian state TV @Ruptly:
German right-wing party @AfD_Bund protest in #Erfurt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtvAVSgbnq0 …

Footage
Rebels fire DIY missiles at Iranian forces near #Handarat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5xx-GUNnQQ …

Also in #EastGhouta, Assads air force continued to hit towns and villages.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELiK66QhPmk …

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 01:59 PM

Aleppo: Rebels claim to have killed Iranian fighters & possibly an Iranian general in attack on Handarat

Ghouta: Syrian rebel sniper kill regime fighter

Syrian cats are a tough breed after five years of being bombed... only the fittest have survived.......

This cat didn't make out out of Syria like those taken by refugees to Europe ....... but it was lucky to survive an Assad barrel bomb. Photo is of a cat staring at SCD rescuers working to free humans from barrel bombed house debris and itself is buried to a degree but alive and well...

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 02:05 PM

Kerry wants a parliamentary system in #Syria, Lavrov wants strong presidential authority
http://www.alhayat.com/m/story/15673534 … writes @ibrahimhamidi (Ar.)

And Syrians want....? Oh who cares about Syrians... it's only their country

Both the US and Russia are seemingly forgetful in asking Syrians what they want after five long years of war crimes, genocide, starvation, torture and being occupied by an Iranian shia mercenary army...and dealing with IS along the way.....

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 02:09 PM

Kerry says if Assad doesn't honor the ceasefire, he risks not being part of the ceasefire. .

Field comment......

Wow. That makes so little sense

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 02:13 PM

BTW.....a pretty harsh view of Kerry by a proassad/proPutin supporter published by a Russian info warfare site...well worth reading this piece of info warfare from the Russians.....

An American Opportunist: John Kerrу
Mr Kerry is pretty much a life-long, ambitious, and dishonest failure

http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/american-original-john-kerru/ri14326

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 02:16 PM

Further developments........
Video circulating taken by Greeks indicating a burning ball of flames dropping out of the sky...would indicate entire ac on fire or engines on fire as it has two....... strange that the pilots gave absolutely no warning and if on fire there would have been enough emergency power to transmit an emergency warning...cabin safety locked doors are standard in Europe........

THEN this 15 minutes ago.......
Greek DefMin: #MS804 made abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude just before vanishing from radar. Evasive maneuver?

If fight on plane: Why no emergency call? If evasive maneuver: Why reports of explosion – midair collision with another plane or missile?
Another AC or SAM or AA launched missile would have been detected as this area is a heavily monitored by everyone located in that area to include the US/NATO....

Also possible: Bomb was placed at #MS804 in Cairo airport earlier and was not detected in CDG. Maybe Paris was the intended target.

Still no debris located at all with French, Greek, US and Egyptian AF all searching....

Michael Weiss
✔ ‎@michaeldweiss "IS Amaq Agency claims responsibility for downing flight MS 804 with bomb placed on board"

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:05 PM

Russian Syrian Express on the move again.......

FLOT BSF's Ropucha Cls landing ships northbound on the Bosphorus, returning from Tartous

ВМФ #ЧФ BSF Tsezar Kunikov transits southbound Bosphorus en route to #Tartus #Syria for its 5th deployment in 2016

Ropucha 158 Ceasar Kournikov and her exteremely cautions captain. Note the guards laying low on the bow.

Kunikov's capt. has alwys been too cautious for his own good. No other Ru ship's this tense.
https://twitter.com/alperboler/status/672831478552797184 …

Russian soldier standing atop Kunikov today with a manpad on his sholder while crossing the bosphorus. Why? Anyone?

WHY is this CPT and this ship so nervous when crossing through ..........

ALSO
Russian Navy's Ropucha Class Landing Ships Minsk & Otrakovsky transiting northbound this morning.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:40 PM

No drop in Russian military strength in Syria: US: AFP. More on the non-draw down.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-drop-russian-military-strength-syria-us-211155359.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report …

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:44 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/there...ng-2016-5?IR=T

There was just a sign that Putin's grip on power is slipping

Brian Whitmore, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

At first glance, the massive shoot-out at Moscow's Khovanskoye Cemetery this past weekend seemed pretty retro.

What, after all, reminds us more of the 1990s than rival Russian gangs staging a deadly brawl in a turf war over control of the lucrative burial business? What is more reminiscent of the gratuitous violence and lawlessness of the first post-Soviet decade than a shooting gallery amid the tombstones?

"The wild Russian '90s, replete with murders, racketeering, and criminal-fueled chaos, are back," the magazine The American Interest opined on its Mafia State Watch blog, adding that Russian leader Vladimir "Putin has long boasted that he alone was able to help Russia get over this tumultuous period, and that he alone could guarantee stability for an unlimited amount of time."

But in addition to giving us a blast from the past, the showdown at Moscow's largest cemetery also gave us -- perhaps -- a glimpse of the future.

Because Putin never ended the gangsterism of the 1990s, he just nationalized it.

And now the Kremlin's grip may be slipping.

If Boris Yeltsin's Russia often resembled a mafia masquerading as a country, it was a mafia run by a weak, feeble, and frequently inebriated godfather. This, of course, was a recipe for chaos, as it gave Yeltsin's capos and underbosses a lot of leeway, which they used with impunity.

Putin, in contrast, sent a clear and early message to the underworld: the state is the biggest gang in town and all others are subordinate to it.

Putin's deal with the criminal underworld was simple: do your gangster stuff, but don't do it in the open; don't embarrass the Kremlin with the noisy public shoot-outs that were the hallmark of the 1990s.

And oh, by the way, if the Kremlin needs a favor someday, you had best be ready to oblige.

The shoot-out in Khovanskoye Cemetery violated Putin's first commandment to the underworld.

It also exposed the soft underbelly of the regime; it revealed the rot that forms the foundation of Putin's Power Vertical.

Organized crime groups are colluding with the authorities and with law enforcement at every level. Police are often more concerned with taxing the illegal narcotics trade than fighting it. And even things like cemeteries are bound up in Russia's sprawling political- bureaucratic-criminal web.

Russian media quoted law enforcement officials as saying that this weekend's shoot-out -- which involved enforcers from the North Caucasus attacking Central Asian migrants working at the cemetery -- was related to turf wars over who would control burial plots and maintenance work at the cemetery.

One of those arrested was a police officer. Also under investigation is the cemetery's director. And one of the main subjects of the investigation is Ritual, a state-run funeral agency.

"The language of the banditized '90s no longer describes today's power structures," journalist and political analyst Oleg Kashin wrote in Slon.ru. "The integration between criminals and the authorities is on a whole new level, as are the stakes."

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 05:58 PM

Infighting in EastGhouta leaves +500 dead & forces JN & friends to face superior numbers & equipment of Jaish Islam

East Ghouta loses its breadbasket: ‘The regime exploited the ongoing infighting’
http://syriadirect.org/news/east-ghouta-loses-its-breadbasket-%e2%80%98the-regime-exploited-the-ongoing-infighting%e2%80%99/#.Vz32aXiuc7c.twitter …

“The areas Regime has taken control of are the biggest agricultural storehouse for E. #Ghouta. People will starve & blockade will intensify”

Homs: #Russia|n/#Assad airstrikes killed 10 #Syria|n civilians, including 4 children, in #Al_Houla moments ago.

YPG/SDF massing troops and heavy weapons for offensive on Raqqa area.

Rebel sources confirm that they still hold cities of Deir Assafir & Zibdeen in E. #Ghouta, #Damascus. Pro-Assad seized Ribakya, Bzina &

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 06:55 PM

Daraa : #FSA Forqan Brigades began a battle against the Regime this morning under the name of "Wind Storm" in the northwest suburbs.

At least some Rebels reacting to Regime attacks on areas under truce/ceasefire, but so far not from #Southern_Front.

After having failed to storm #Kabana for months, pro-Assad forces trying their luck on Tel Haddad area but facing same outcome, N. #Latakia

Footage: Rebels storming barrier of train station East of #Harbinafsah, S. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUEZw3K6rg4 …

2- farms outside Deir Assafir. Rebels sent reinforcements amid fierce clashes in whole S. #Ghouta.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.465387&lon=36.419849&z=14&m …

N. #Aleppo update: after #ISIS successful assault from several axis + SVBIED, Rebels were able to take back some positions in Yahmul & Jarez

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 07:04 PM

N. #Aleppo update: again, Rebels lost several locations during #ISIS counter-attack. Some fearing SVBIEDs &/or being captured left positions

Footage: Rebels storming barrier of train station East of #Harbinafsah, S. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUEZw3K6rg4 …

Jordanian #MOC working hard to split & neutralize #Ghouta for #Putin like they did with the Southern Front.

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 07:08 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 07:15 PM

YPG blocks 'hundreds of fuel trucks' from entering Idlib province, creates shortage
http://syriadirect.org/news/ypg-blocks-trucks-transporting-fuel-into-idlib-province-creating-shortage/ …

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
The U.S.-facilitated empowerment, military and political, of the #YPG *at the expense* of the rebellion has set up a needless conflict.

Syria: ongoing attacks by #YPG, with #Assad's warplanes operating in tandem, to besiege rebels in Aleppo City.
http://bit.ly/1YFQbnD

OUTLAW 09

05-19-2016, 08:00 PM

Raqqa: Coalition and #YPG calling on 100.000s of civilians in #ISIS controlled #Raqqa to leave the city. Dream on!

DeirEzzor: #ISIS has killed #Assad Brigadier General Bassam Jaowharah and Lieutenant Mohammad Samir Mahmoud.

CrowBat

05-19-2016, 08:51 PM

CrowBat.....something for you.....

Almaz-Antey claims S-300V4 can shoot down targets at range of 400km.
http://vpk-news.ru/news/30718
That was something for my NAV: the website attempted to launch a trojan attack...

Anyway, for your collection of 'versions' about what happned to Badreddine - and then one I've got from Israel: it was the IRGC. Accordingly, he was resisting closer control of Hezbollah by the IRGC (if not an outright 'integration'), and they removed him. With other words: he was an obstacle.

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 05:59 AM

That was something for my NAV: the website attempted to launch a trojan attack...

Anyway, for your collection of 'versions' about what happned to Badreddine - and then one I've got from Israel: it was the IRGC. Accordingly, he was resisting closer control of Hezbollah by the IRGC (if not an outright 'integration'), and they removed him. With other words: he was an obstacle.

CrowBat....thanks for the Trojan info....my IT company will take a closer look at it and a couple of other RU sites as well...........opinion wise do you think that the comment was designed to drive end users to the site based on subject matter and it was a deliberate attempt to inflict end users.

Also did you catch what type of Trojan...name wise if ID'd at all or was it just the standard Trojan warning that AV software tends to issue? As it was a RU site it had to be a variety of Trojan backdoors to allow for tracking the end user and building bot control nets without the end user realizing he had been inflicted.....also they might have been anticipating a "government computer user" checking in for the info as well...I had been a tad surprised by the willingness of the manufacturer to state engagement distances but the Russians want to sell so that was not so unusual in itself.

BACK to the assassination......starting to agree with you if the reports that our famous not so dead Iranian General was quoted as telling Hezbollah after his funeral......"focus yourselves on KSA"........are in fact accurate.

This would tie into the rumors that in fact IRGC truly wants a show down with KSA in Syria to repay the Iraq/Iranian war......

Just a side comment....have an European friend who is in and out of Tehran often and he is indicating that there is a growing disconnect between the Iranian educated middle class who had hoped for internal improvements after the Iran Deal ......in your opinion it does based on comments coming from families who have lost fighters also appear that they are also dissatisfied with the current government as well.......is there a growing disconnect between the government and the civil society over Syria?

Also in going back over your comments on the lost IRGC fighting skill set......can it be that during the sanctions period the IRGC got fat and soft in all of their attempts to grow the billions of dollars they were making on the sanctions and in growing their various business empires and war fighting became a secondary skill set to be fought by Shia mercenaries and not actual Iranians??

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 06:14 AM

High gov't casualties after a failed offensive against rebels in the Turkmen Mountains in Latakia

ISIS captured five villages in northern #Aleppo province from Syrian opposition forces.

EU & US assessments of "partially working cessation of hostilities" is misinformation of the public to appease and ignore their duty to act.

Killed civilian numbers are starting to climb again and the West just keeps saying "the CoH is partially working"......

Report
51civilians including 13 women and 10 children were killed by #Assad and his allies & #ISIS yesterday

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 06:18 AM

Reference the air crash yesterday of EA........

Reuters Top News Verified account 
‏@Reuters
BREAKING: U.S. sees no sign of explosion aboard EgyptAir flight in review of imagery: officials

Perfect when everyone involved contradicts himself some hours after having made a clear point ...

It was made clear by US sources when they "inferred" ISR assets had clearly detected an explosion.....

So why the back off now.....what did they detect that they had to backtrack on several hours later????

IF in fact IS then name it...if caused by something else then this is a whole different ball game....

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 06:25 AM

WHILE the West "fiddles" "Rome burns totally to the ground".........

And while @JohnKerry & @GermanyDiplo FANTASIZED about a "cessation of hostilities", #Assad recaptured #EastGhouta.

There is a growing perception in the key Sunni ME nation states that there is in fact a "golden handshake" between Putin, Assad and Obama to eliminate the anti Assad opposition and leave only Assad and IS as two choices for Syria thus fully rehabilitating a genocidal dictator......ACTUALLY one can now see just how the Sunni ME is coming to this conclusion after not really wanting to believe the "perception"....

The second perception is that the US together with Jordan are actually acting in full unison with Putin to also secure both IS and Assad by restricting the Sunni Southern Front Army as it is just sitting there and doing much of nothing...while the rest of FSA is deeply involved in a fight for survival against Assad, Iran, Putin and IS....

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 06:28 AM

Footage
The #Assad jet and heli that attacked #Houla and killed 8 humans and a dog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DhNXJ92NW0 …

By the way....the eight killed and the dog have been confirmed to have never been card carrying members of IS and or the anti Assad opposition.....just your basic normal Syrians and animals being killed daily by Assad and the West says nothing.....

BUT WAIT now the Obama WH has a future Exec genocide notification office....but starting in 2017 AFTER he leaves office and per exec order which can be rescinded by the new President....how nice for his legacy.....

BUT notice he somehow missed the current war crimes and ongoing daily genocide and starvation in Syria and THAT for over five years now....

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 07:12 AM

Graphic #footage
8 civilians killed,many more injured in #Assad air strikes on #Houla(#Homs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI4ouyYNubs …

Footage
Syrian rebels destroy #Assad regime position north of #Aleppo w/ the TOW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQhzl0RWhpk …

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 08:13 AM

Russia opening new base in Syria (Palmyra). Reinforces Moscow's desire to exert strategic influence across MENA & southern Europe against Europe & US. Which they denied they are doing but confirmed as always to be a lie....

6 children killed by Russian bombing in Syria yesterday
http://bit.ly/20cHHES

Assad regime fail once again to advance in South Aleppo
http://bit.ly/1WFK7yd

Hezbollah fighter Ali Mahdi died from wounds fighting in Syria

Hezbollah commander Abbas Al Sahmarani killed in Syria

Iraqi Shi'a singer calls on Shi'ites to eradicate Sunni Syrians "and their female babies":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-03PiAaCTX4 …

Mohammad Gawad Mughniyeh relative of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh killed in Syria
NOTE: is it me but this whole family has had a number of reported killed in the last two months

CrowBat

05-20-2016, 08:19 AM

CrowBat....thanks for the Trojan info....my IT company will take a closer look at it and a couple of other RU sites as well...........opinion wise do you think that the comment was designed to drive end users to the site based on subject matter and it was a deliberate attempt to inflict end users.Sorry, no clue. I know much too little about such affairs.

Also did you catch what type of Trojan...name wise if ID'd at all or was it just the standard Trojan warning that AV software tends to issue?Apparently a standard warning; I just can't find the content of original warning any more, but it said something about 'trojan' and 'invasion attempt'. It says 'invasion attempt from vpk-news.ru was blocked'.

Furthermore:

Web Attack: Venom Activity 3
Risk: high
Attacking computer: vpk-news.ru (80.251.129.172,80)
Attacking URL: vpk-news.run/news/30718

BACK to the assassination......starting to agree with you if the reports that our famous not so dead Iranian General was quoted as telling Hezbollah after his funeral......"focus yourselves on KSA"........are in fact accurate.

This would tie into the rumors that in fact IRGC truly wants a show down with KSA in Syria to repay the Iraq/Iranian war......It would also explain this all-out attack on Eastern Ghouta (i.e. Dayr al-Assafir) area.

Just a side comment....have an European friend who is in and out of Tehran often and he is indicating that there is a growing disconnect between the Iranian educated middle class who had hoped for internal improvements after the Iran Deal ......in your opinion it does based on comments coming from families who have lost fighters also appear that they are also dissatisfied with the current government as well.......is there a growing disconnect between the government and the civil society over Syria?Terminus 'government' is relative in Iran.

There is an official government and its institutions, there's a constitution, there are laws, rules and regulations. One could even say there is something like 'democratically elected' government at almost all the levels. All nice and fine.

However (and a 'big however'): that's all pointless.

Namely, above all the laws, above everything else (indeed: even above the clergy that's outranking him!) there are Khamenei and his clique, there's the IRGC and its maffia-like system of power cliques. And they are all not only untouchable: they are infailable.

To better understand how this 'system' works, imagine the following: imagine the USAF says, 'we need a new tactical fighter'. Pentagon says, 'OK, here you've got US$20 billion, go and buy one'. Imagine the USAF goes to the US industry, and says, 'here's US$20 billion, research and develop a new fighter for us'. Imagine the industry replying - literally, 'OK, you general XY pocket 2 billion, we pocket 10 billion, 4 billion goes for our clandestine operations of securing diamond, coltan and gold mines in the DR Congo, 2 billion goes to Baptist Church, Scientology, Jehova's Witness or whoever else... and 1,5 billion will be spent to keep everybody else sillent'.

Imagine they then 'spend years' working on that project, pocket all the money, and in the end come out with a 'mock-up' of a new fighter carpented and welded together by a carpenter and welder, paid US$20,000 in total...

And once the company in question - be it Boeing, or Lockheed or whoever else - then reveals that 'mock up of 5th Generation Fighter', and everybody sane realizes it's a giant scam... nothing happens to anybody involved. Yes, precisely because they are all above all laws, and untouchable.

That is how Iranian Defence Industries sector is functioning.

So, is there disconnect between the government and the civil society? The answer is: no.

But - and that is much more important - there was never any kind of connection between the cliques ACTUALLY rulling the IRI, and the civil society.

Also in going back over your comments on the lost IRGC fighting skill set......can it be that during the sanctions period the IRGC got fat and soft in all of their attempts to grow the billions of dollars they were making on the sanctions and in growing their various business empires and war fighting became a secondary skill set to be fought by Shia mercenaries and not actual Iranians??This is a slightly more complex topic, which I'll address in a different post, slightly later (it's breakfast time here).

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 08:27 AM

While Rebel offensive vs #ISIS stalling in N. #Aleppo, #NSyA support/supplies boosted in S. #Syria (#Jordan border).

What’s left of 6 known #YPG armours in N. #Aleppo?
3 T-72 (1 TOWed March29)
1 T-62
1 T-55
1 BMP (TOWed Apr4)
-1 U tank TOWed May29
→ 3 tanks

Daraya truce by Regime
May11: deal 2 allow RedCrescent aid
May12: Aid blocked
May12-: Regime shelling
May14-: Regime assault, still ongoing

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 08:33 AM

Sorry, no clue. I know much too little about such affairs.

Apparently a standard warning; I just can't find the content of original warning any more, but it said something about 'trojan' and 'invasion attempt'. It says 'invasion attempt from vpk-news.ru was blocked'.

Furthermore:

Web Attack: Venom Activity 3
Risk: high
Attacking computer: vpk-news.ru (80.251.129.172,80)
Attacking URL: vpk-news.run/news/30718

It would also explain this all-out attack on Eastern Ghouta (i.e. Dayr al-Assafir) area.

Terminus 'government' is relative in Iran.

There is an official government and its institutions, there's a constitution, there are laws, rules and regulations. One could even say there is something like 'democratically elected' government at almost all the levels. All nice and fine.

However (and a 'big however'): that's all pointless.

Namely, above all the laws, above everything else (indeed: even above the clergy that's outranking him!) there are Khamenei and his clique, there's the IRGC and its maffia-like system of power cliques. And they are all not only untouchable: they are infailable.

To better understand how this 'system' works, imagine the following: imagine the USAF says, 'we need a new tactical fighter'. Pentagon says, 'OK, here you've got US$20 billion, go and buy one'. Imagine the USAF goes to the US industry, and says, 'here's US$20 billion, research and develop a new fighter for us'. Imagine the industry replying - literally, 'OK, you general XY pocket 2 billion, we pocket 10 billion, 4 billion goes for our clandestine operations of securing diamond, coltan and gold mines in the DR Congo, 2 billion goes to Baptist Church, Scientology, Jehova's Witness or whoever else... and 1,5 billion will be spent to keep everybody else sillent'.

Imagine they then 'spend years' working on that project, pocket all the money, and in the end come out with a 'mock-up' of a new fighter carpented and welded together by a carpenter and welder, paid US$20,000 in total...

And once the company in question - be it Boeing, or Lockheed or whoever else - then reveals that 'mock up of 5th Generation Fighter', and everybody sane realizes it's a giant scam... nothing happens to anybody involved. Yes, precisely because they are all above all laws, and untouchable.

That is how Iranian Defence Industries sector is functioning.

So, is there disconnect between the government and the civil society? The answer is: no.

But - and that is much more important - there was never any kind of connection between the cliques ACTUALLY rulling the IRI, and the civil society.

This is a slightly more complex topic, which I'll address in a different post, slightly later (it's breakfast time here).

CrowBat...thanks as always for the info....the IT stuff we have already chased down and warned a number of people and are now in the process of patching together their attack/infect network......and it is a good one and definitely RU driven....whether criminal or government is hard right now to tell...will need some time...to see who actually gets involved from the background chatter tied to the network....means one has to get down into the weeds of coding and who is pushing that particular coding.....to learn more about the writer....

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 11:07 AM

Heavy "Russian" air strikes on southern #Hama province since the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdQfl_n-_W0 …

MLRS attack on the same area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnHOTk3f6Ck …

Believe me, ISIS is working harder than anyone to find out whether they are responsible for the #MS804 #EgyptAir crash.

CrowBat

05-20-2016, 12:11 PM

You're welcome, Outlaw.

BTW,

...and it is a good one and definitely RU driven....whether criminal or government is hard right now to tell...Hand on heart: is there a difference between 'criminal' or 'government' in Russia?

After all, Putin's clique is the top dog of all the criminal networks there.

Anyway, back to the IRGC, and your question:

Also in going back over your comments on the lost IRGC fighting skill set......can it be that during the sanctions period the IRGC got fat and soft in all of their attempts to grow the billions of dollars they were making on the sanctions and in growing their various business empires and war fighting became a secondary skill set to be fought by Shia mercenaries and not actual Iranians??
I attempted to address this in my write-up on the IRGC, posted here about a week ago (at least I hope/think to recall I've posted it here; I certainly did so on ACIG.info forum).

I don't know how much is the (rather dramatic) decline in IRGC's fighting capabilities since 2013 a result of the IRGC getting fat and soft. After studying the situation for few weeks meanwhile, I think they were actually never really that much better. The rest was all their own propaganda.

Guess, I'll need to explain this to some lenght.

Back in 2002-2004 period, and together with Farzad Bishop, I published a total of three books on Iranian air force at war with Iran. I do not say these three have outright 'caused a wave of hundreds of similar publications in Iran', but it cannot be denied that it is so that these books are very well-known there, have been translated (also by the IRGC), and that ever since there are thousands of comparable publications (all in Farsi). For example, veterans of their (regular) army have meanwhile published a book about literaly every single major army formation (surely: every division, probably every independent brigade too).

The IRGC reacted in a... hm... 'interesting' fashion to this. The first 3-4 years it just 'monitored carefully'. Then, when it saw what's going on and how much attention this has caused in Iranian public, it began publishing its own variants of anything else somebody else published (Mind: I was getting all sorts of 'thank you so much' e-mails from Iranians; at least two dozens simply expressed gratitude because our books prompted their kids to start learning English).

Then the 'translated' Farzad's and my book Iranian F-14 Tomcat Units in Combat (http://www.amazon.com/Iranian-Tomcat-Units-Combat-Aircraft/dp/1841767875/180-0014488-7685300?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0) (Osprey, 2004) - but replaced every single sentence, paragraph or sub-chapter that was in any way critical of the regime in Tehran with its own 'versions' - and then explained this would be a '100% correct translation' of what we said. I.e. it fabricated half of that translation. They did a lot of similar things with various articles from the ACIG.info (http://www.acig.info/CMS/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=47) website, too.

And then it became ever more of the same: whenever Farzad or me, or anybody else - in Iran or aboard - published something about Iran-Iraq War, the IRGC published a 'translation with correction' of the same work. It really doesn't matter what is who publishing: the IRGC is 'always reacting with correction'. This reached such proportions, that at some point in time in 2008, the IRGC launched a conference in Tehran, and then denied about 50% of IRIAF's kills against Iraqi air force scored during that war. Here one example for how ridiculous it got: In 1982, a well-known IRIAF F-14-crew shot down the CO of the first Iraqi MiG-25-squadron, as this was approaching the Khark Island. The loss was confirmed by Iraqis, the claim is more than well-documented (few years later the involved crew appeared on the Iranian TV too, in this documentary here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BJ1cdMHzKM)) - but nah, the IRGC insists that MiG was shoot down by 'IRGC air defences on Khark Island', although everybody informed in Iran knows the IRGC never had a single AK-47 at Khark, not to talk about 'air defences' (and especially not in 1982).

The situation 'culminated' in 2010 when - after nearly a year of mass-protesting in Iran - we've published the book IRIAF 2010: the Modern Day Air Force (http://www.amazon.com/IRIAF-2010-Modern-Iranian-Force/dp/0982553935?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0). This was something the IRGC couldn't correct: how and what shall one correct about a factual book about the current status of the IRIAF (which, BTW, is actually quite well-known in the Iranian public, anyway).

So, their reaction was to arrest everybody involved in that project (at least those living in the IRI), and let notorious judge Salvatti sentence everybody 'for espionage and cooperation with BND' [read: me], MI6, and whoever else.

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

I hope somebody is still with me by now, and might wonder why am I babbling about all of this?

Well, firstly, in order to show I'm not 'telling stories' here. I've got an insight and know what's going on. Secondly, in order to show how sensitive the IRGC is about critical research of its own history (and that of the regular Iranian miltiary); and, thirdly, to show their (IRGC's) approach to studying their own history - and thus their own experiences.

Namely, the more I learn about the IRGC, the more it turns out: they're not 'studying' their own experiences, but they are studying what are others writing and publishing about these - in order to correct other publications, and make everything 'IRGC-nice'.

Of course, one should (and must) say, 'C'mon Tom, this is just history; the IRGC is a serious para-military organization, they're very much running serious studies too'. And, be sure, that's correct. For example, after the US-led invasion of Iraq, they run a big study of the situation, and concluded they need a new defence doctrine, new (decentralized) C3 organization etc. That's what resulted in two developments, namely the emergence of the Iranian National Defence Doctrine - which, between others, is stipulating pre-emptive operations - and the emergence of the IRGC's 'Mosaic Doctrine'.

To keep a very long story a short one, the latter resulted in breaking-up the IRGC into 31 regional corps (30 for provinces and one extra for Tehran), each with regional autonomy, and each further subdivided into municipalities and towns. Namely, the IRGC saw what happened to Iraqis in 2003, and how the Iraqi command system was paralyzed, and - expecting an US invasion - decided to reorganize in a way that would enable its organization to survive any kind of conventional strikes and invasion, no matter how much these would decapitate its hierarchical organization.

This resulted in an IRGC that was custom-tailored for asymmetric warfare - which was then promptly put to test in Iraq (and against the US-led coalition), and which proved its worth, too.

But, it also resulted in creation of 31 different authorities - i.e. cliques - each with its own decision-making system, and so much corruption and so much incompetence as described above.

Finally: this resulted in significant decrease of IRGC's capability to fight conventional wars. Troops from units like the 8th Najaf Division (deployed in Syria in 2013), proved better at this, because that's an armoured formation and armour can only fight in a conventional way. But, when one sends to Syria troops from various IRGC's 'special forces', 'commandos' and whatever other units... well, then they can't perform better, because they were trained in asymmetric, but not in conventional warfare.

And when they are then commanded by officers with more experience from 'correcting' various history books than from serious studies of military history... well, then the 'bardak' (to use a Russian expression for a 'chaotic bordell') is really 'complete'.

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 04:12 PM

The 3 offensives on #Daraya, #Khan_Alsheh & Triangle of Death are linked & aiming to secure #Damascus Southern flank

Since February, most of resources deployed vs Rebels by pro-Regime forces (+ Russia) focusing on 2 major #Syria|n towns: #Aleppo & #Damascus

Rebels take out another Regime tank with an #ATGM hit near train station barrier, East of #Harbinafsah S. #Hama. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.936889&lon=36.643438&z=14&m …

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 04:17 PM

Alrahman Corps
‏@Alrahmancorps6
Thanks to the help and support of all fighters in the area, Bazina fields have been liberated despite the heavy bombardment by the regime.

Your infighting is a disgrace to the Syrian men, women and children who were tortured, raped and killed for the freedom

Unite and put the Syrian people first. They are depending on you.

Seems collaboration among all Rebels in E. #Ghouta is bearing fruit, #Damascus.

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 04:36 PM

Lebanese ‎@lebanesepress
US rejects Russia proposal for joint air strikes in Syria
http://goo.gl/GjsdKZ

Internet trolling is a tool of Russia's hybrid warfare
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxOJ68iCmykM2QtelNSUldKMlE/view?pref=2&pli=1 …

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 04:38 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/there...ng-2016-5?IR=T

There was just a sign that Putin's grip on power is slipping

Brian Whitmore, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Chechens" who attacked Central Asian migrants at Moscow cemetery turned out to be Russians
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFm1GcGLKnB/

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 04:47 PM

Russia/Assad airstrikes/barrel bombs/shelling today:
al-Hanboushia IDP camp, Idlib
Khan al-Subul, Idlib
Rashidin, Aleppo
Anadan, Aleppo

Hirbanifsa & Zara, Hama
Khan Touman & al-Eis, Aleppo
Daraya, Damascus
Khan al-Sheeh, Damascus
Dara Balad, Daraa
Bala, Ghouta, Damascus

Footage
War planes in intense bombing raids on rebel positions & towns in S #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f56sXmWbfvM …

Footage
War planes bomb #KafrLaha in #Homs province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvAXY521lkU …

Footage
War planes bomb #Atshanah south of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fGH2oq5y_k …

German FM just keeps claiming the "Syrian situation is calming down"....just as he repeatedly says the same thing for eastern Ukraine Minsk 2 ceasefire.....

Vater mit aus den Trümmern gezogenen Kindern in Rastan.
"Beruhigung der Lage" ist eine Lüge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh-gwvZHYSQ …

Syrian father pulls his children out of bomb rubble......

Footage
War planes continue their slaughter of the residents of #Rastan city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WU3vps9s0 …

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 05:21 PM

.@BILD's report on Iranian airline #MahanAir transporting terrorists and arms to #Assad was covered in 3 languages.

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 05:47 PM

Internet trolling is a tool of Russia's hybrid warfare
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzxOJ68iCmykM2QtelNSUldKMlE/view?pref=2&pli=1 …

AT what point is the Russian trolling in hybrid warfare any different than what we are currently seeing in a massive proTrump trolling...tactics are the same........

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/trumps-terrifying-online-brigades/

Trump’s Terrifying Online Brigades

The “alt-Right,” the “neo-reactionaries,” and the politics of grievance

James Kirchick / May 16, 2016

When the journalist Julia Ioffe published a profile of Melania Trump for GQ, she had reason to expect that supporters of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee would be disappointed by its portrayal of Donald Trump’s third wife. “Her journey to marrying The Donald is like a fairy tale, or a too-crazy-to-believe rom-com,” Ioffe revealed. “It’s a story full of naked ambition, stunning beauty, a shockingly Trump-like dad, and even some family secrets.” What Ioffe, who is Jewish, did not expect was a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse and death threats.

On Twitter, the candidate’s anonymous backers superimposed images of Ioffe’s face over those of concentration camp inmates. On her voicemail, they left recordings of Hitler speeches. “This is not a heavily critical article. There is nothing in it that is untrue,” Ioffe told the Guardian. “If this is how Trump supporters swing into action, what happens when the press looks into corrupt dealings, for example, or is critical of his policies?”

It’s a good question. For any journalist or political figure who has been remotely critical of Donald Trump over the past year, Ioffe’s treatment came as no surprise. It was hardly news that his backers would traffic in this sort of filth—all the more so if the critic is Jewish, a woman, gay, or not white. Of course, crudity has always existed in American political life, on a bipartisan basis. But there is something new in the pervasive and relentless nastiness of Trump’s supporters, especially as they represent themselves online. While it’s certainly true that most of Trump’s supporters are neither racists nor anti-Semites, it appears to be the case that all of the racists and anti-Semites in this country (and many beyond) support Trump.

To take but one of countless examples, one of the most active pro-Trump Twitter accounts, with 27,000 followers, goes by the handle @Ricky_Vaughn99. Unlike many of his Internet brothers-in-arms, who utilize the likenesses of obscure interwar European fascists and nationalists as their avatars, this troll features the visage of actor Charlie Sheen from the film Major League. What he lacks in visible nostalgia for the Third Reich, @Ricky_Vaughn99 makes up for in his concern about “#whitegenocide,” interpreted as any sign of nonwhite racial advancement. “The Trump presidency will probably be bad for neocon jews, bad for liberal jews, but good for jews who are believers in the nation-state and American nationalism,” he told Armin Rosen, of Tablet magazine, via Twitter. Contrary to most Americans, @Ricky_Vaughn99 thrills at Trump’s every insult, derogatory comment, and affront. On his Twitter profile, he describes himself as a “free speech activist,” an identifier defiantly adopted as a mark of resistance against an alleged campaign by “SJWs” (social-justice warriors) to circumscribe the freedom of white men.

“Free speech activist” is a curiously prevalent appellation on the medium of Twitter for members of the “alt-right,” short for “alternative right,” a populist movement that has been emboldened and bolstered by the fortunes of the Trump campaign. Existing largely on the Internet, which makes the size of its following difficult to gauge, the alt-right is proudly ethno-nationalist, protectionist, isolationist, and culturally traditionalist. It takes intellectual guidance from publications and websites like American Renaissance, Radix Journal, Occidental Observer, Taki’s Magazine, and, increasingly, the popular news website Breitbart.com.

It was at Breitbart that, in March, an extensive article appeared defending the alt-right. While “establishment” conservative institutions and intellectuals have criticized the alt-right as little more than a bunch of gussied-up white supremacists, authors Milo Yiannopoulos and Allum Bokhari explained that these arbiters of good conservative taste have the alt-right all wrong. Praising the “youthful energy” and “taboo-defying rhetoric” of alt-right writers and activists, the two Breitbart columnists led readers through a sort of ideological safari, applying their own taxonomy to the various types of personalities who comprise this “dangerously bright” movement.

Their “Guide to the Alt Right” is a prolix defense of juvenile racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and other assorted bigotries as much-needed “provocation” to the enervated conservative movement. One might quickly object that when so much of the alt-right’s rhetoric consists of terms like “peak negro,” “Niggertech,” and “ovenworthy” (the latter meaning “anything that would be substantially improved by immediate incineration”), it becomes difficult to know where the “taboo-defying rhetoric” and intellectual “provocation” end and where the monstrousness begins.

Our politics are becoming darker, our peoples more susceptible to the promises of demagogues, and the rise of an explicitly anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian right seems more possible in America than ever before.

Lest anyone take offense at these and other memes popularized by the dregs of the Internet (such as the cartoon of a hook-nosed Jewish caricature named “Shlomo Shekelburg” who cries, “Remember the 6 trillion, goyim!”) Yiannopoulos and Bokhari reassure their readers that the alt-right is harmless, the cheek of its younger cohort no different than that of the “60’s kids” who “shocked their parents with promiscuity, long hair and rock’n’roll.” Besides, the movement’s “true motivations,” they tell us, are “not racism, the restoration of monarchy or traditional gender roles, but lulz.” (“Lulz” is the Internet term to define the mocking laughter that arises from purposefully shocking someone else’s sense of decorum.)

Yiannopolous and Bokhari insist that the alt-right “is best defined by what it stands against rather than what it stands for.” This makes it the perfect intellectual base of the Trump campaign. Building walls, banning Muslims, “bombing the ####” out of people—there is nothing aspirational or positive about Trump, other than his vague and windy promise to “Make America Great Again.” In this important sense, Trump is truly an anomalous phenomenon, as he has replaced the perennially optimistic message of the American presidential campaign with something more suitable to Venezuela. Though we all have reason to be annoyed by the cultural resurgence of political correctness, the alt-right remedy is the oratorical inverse of the problem they claim they despise. Social-justice warriors needlessly shut down debate and proscribe certain words and ideas to assuage the feelings of allegedly vulnerable minority groups; the alt-right needlessly flings around racial epithets and Der Stürmer cartoons purely to transgress accepted social codes. And that’s only the most charitable explanation for their behavior, assuming as it does that they don’t “really” mean what they say.

But what about that element of the alt-right that actually does have a political agenda beyond annoying its adversaries? The primary alt-right constituency, according to Yiannopolous and Bokhari, consists of “natural conservatives,” largely white, male, middle-class Americans “who are unapologetically embracing a new identity politics that prioritizes the interests of their own demographic.” These voters are “conservative” not so much in the American sense as in the European one; they show no interest whatsoever in the GOP’s traditional free-market economic agenda of trade, low taxes, and flexible labor regulations, preferring instead a strongman leader promising trade protectionism, entitlement expansion, and the assertion of white male privilege.1

Illiberalism is sweeping the globe. Coming from left or right—and, as evidenced in this country by Trump and socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, often converging in that place where extremes meet—political leaders and movements across the democratic world are advocating economic and ethnic nationalism, the closing of borders, the imposition of trade barriers, the dissolution of multilateral alliances, and accommodation with dictatorships. Our politics are becoming darker, our peoples more susceptible to the promises of demagogues, and the rise of an explicitly anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian right seems more possible in America than ever before.
I
f the alt-right does have an intellectual forbear, it is a 43-year-old computer programmer named Curtis Yarvin. Along with fellow “neo-reactionary” thinker Nick Land (a former lecturer at the University of Warwick), Yarvin is the father of “The Dark Enlightenment.” This is a 21st-century, tech-friendly philosophy that, as its name implies, rejects democracy, egalitarianism, and the Whig interpretation of history. It is delineated in a 30,000-word pamphlet of the same name, written by Land and available for free on the Internet.

Continued.....

Along with “The Dark Enlightenment,” these works can be seen as the foundational texts of neo-reactionary ideology.

Around the time Trump’s rise began in 2015, his alt-right fans began slamming right-wingers of more conventional stripes with the term “cuck-servative” —a portmanteau of “cuckold” and “conservative” with racist undertones.

Continued.........

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 06:46 PM

SOHR reported on Wednesday that a Jabhat al-Nusra emir was killed in #Turkey.
Could do with some more details here:
http://goo.gl/6EbCIS

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
"Dissolution of Al-Nusra Front's AQ affiliation is conditional on…an Islamic government that meets AQ's…standards."

Worth noting: Sunni jihadis are not only foreign fighters #Russia is enabling; even more extensive Kremlin-controlled flow into #Ukraine.

OUTLAW 09

05-20-2016, 07:34 PM

Why work with #Russia when you can keep #Russia working for you?
Putin is pissed because he knows he is doing Obama’s dirty work in #Syria.

Name one thing #Russia did or doing in #Syria that Obama doesn't really approve.
Keeping Assad regime?
Killing civis?
Keep Turkey/Saudi out?
Support Kurds?
Protect Israel's interests?
Promote Iran as regional player?
Fight #IS and al-Qaeda?
Sell more arms to GCC?
Oil prices/war?

FSA give Faylaq al-Rahman 24 hrs to accept the mediation to end the infighting in #EastGhouta or face consequences.

Baby survived #SAA terrorists barrel bombs on #alHoula moments ago, dozens of martyrs & wounded
#Homs #Syria MAY 20

Regime breaking truce in #Daraya today shelling civilians areas with ground-to-ground elephant missiles

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 04:53 AM

Number of #FSA groups merge into Jaysh al-Mujahideen part of Levant Front mainly involved in fighting #IS in #Aleppo

Updated Eastern #Ghouta #Syria rebels succeeded to regain #Harasta_Qantara - and pushing Toward #Bazinah

Footage
Also Khan al-Asal, 5 km west of #Aleppo, was targeted by #Russian jets today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwWWHHR1_-8 …

More evidence that German FM #Steinmeier's "clear calming of the situation" has nothing 2do w/reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCfZyurvncM …

This is the TRUTH, no "working towards more stable ceasefire" Western myths can reject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-6h9Q6SvH4 …

Houla today
The entire "cessation of hostilities" narrative is a LIE,told by W politicians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW7kxxBuK88 …

Footage
Russian war planes bombed #Huraytan, 7 km north of #Aleppo, today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7kSdQsUkU8 …

Footage
War planes bombed towns in rural Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHJ7cV9uN70 …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:11 AM

Tadmur: ISIS destroy 2 regime tanks & kill 7 Assad regime fighters

Breaking news from Iranian channel "Nasrallah: If Israel dares attack our mujahideen! Our response will be heavy!" 😂

Pro Assad Palestinian Al Quds faction had funerals today for 14 fighters killed by rebels in Al Zahra after being able to retrieve bodies

Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Sayed Riza Tahir killed by rebels in Khan Touman in Aleppo

Syrian Rebels kill Iranian fighter Omit Sarkisyan of Armenian origin. He wanted to thank them for saving Armenians

Assad regime detain some fighters holding them accountable for failed offensive in Khan Sheikh

Up to 20 Assad forces killed & many injured in Harasta in clashes against rebels

Assad regime military leader Colonel in charge of Habernafsah & Zara fronts killed by rebels in Mahata with 4 bodyguards & tank destroyed

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:13 AM

CrowBat.....more evidence IRGC now fully controls Hezbollah and validates the visit of our favorite "dead" IRGC General....to Hezbollah.......

The IRGC is in fact now zeroing in on KSA........IMHO as a way to remobilize their somewhat damaged image of being defeated by Salafists and FSA.

This should put the nail in the coffin of Hezbollah & their "resistance" credentials
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/68057/new-hezbollah-chief-of-staff-declares-truce-with-israel-05-16/#YqIC1sg43h6QDJXh.97 …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:23 AM

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:40 AM

Footage
Russian/Assad air strike on #Hirbnafsah in soutern #Hama cont. this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKXp8HfOOsk …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:47 AM

Not exactly sure just where the Russian mindset is these days.....

Under the rubric of "literally to much vodka".......

So Nato has like FOUR MILLION NAZIS pointed at Moscow. Got that? FOUR MILLION NAZIS.
https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/statu...25320617693184 …

NOT so sure why Moscow is worried as they have nuclear missiles pointed back at those 4M NATO Nazi's.....but wait maybe not enough nuclear missiles is what they are trying to convey.

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 08:58 AM

Footage
One of the severest terror attacks took place in #Anadan yesterday.
Struck by jets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDAojZzTvUw …

Footage
Russian/Assad air strike on #Hirbnafsah in soutern #Hama cont. this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKXp8HfOOsk …

Russian AF air strike on mosque...AGAIN.......
War planes attacked a mosque in the city of #Houla (#Homs prov.) overnight, severely damaging it.

2 minutes video from inside the hit mosque from this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBDrnNXkrR4 …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 09:03 AM

Russian Syrian Express on the move again......

BМФ #ВФ Dvinitsa-50 returns from its 4th Syrian deployment in 2016 & transits northbound Bosphorus

Russia-bound #BМФ #ВФ Dvinitsa 50 is 1 of only 2 operational Syrian campaign logistics ship, transits Bosphorus

She is starting to look a tad worn and rusty from the constant deployments....

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 09:06 AM

AT what point is the Russian trolling in hybrid warfare any different than what we are currently seeing in a massive proTrump trolling...tactics are the same........

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/trumps-terrifying-online-brigades/

Trump’s Terrifying Online Brigades

The “alt-Right,” the “neo-reactionaries,” and the politics of grievance

James Kirchick / May 16, 2016

This is how fascism comes to America
http://wpo.st/0kQb1

BTW... a side comment.....the word "alt" in German means "old" so in German "alt-Right" would mean "old guard Nazi's"......

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 03:00 PM

Another B9 hit by 1st Regiment wipes out a Regime fortified position in Breij, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxddQLeFHDo …

Jaish Al-Mujahideen direct hit with B9 wipes out a sniper position in #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=picLavNltBA …

Jaish Al-Fateh #JaF issued a last warning 2 Regime to respect Fuah-#Zabdani deal after violations recently increased

Jaish Al-Fateh #JaF issued a last warning 2 Regime to respect Fuah-#Zabdani deal after violations recently increased

Massive convoy from "Forces of the Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo" in the Syrian Desert on May 14th. US supported group.

24 hrs after huge NSyA convoy in S. Syria, another 1 from a FSA group fighting #IS in E. Qalamoum. Not a coincidence

SRF fired a #TOW & took out a14.5 mm gun on Tell Bzaq, N. #Daraa
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.151852&lon=35.957737&z=14&m=b …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtUXWA9ZRfY …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 03:06 PM

Heavy clashes since early AM between rebels & Assad forces/militias trying to advance into southern #Daraya under intense rocket/shelling

Example of an Assad IRAM rocket falling on #Daraya today
https://youtu.be/9LR0aGeQ4G4 #Damascus

Reports multiple #Russia|n airstrikes targeted Handarat Camp & vicinity of al-Kindi hospital in north rural #Aleppo

Furqan Brigades rebels pounding Assad positions in Brigade 121 in Kanaker, #Daraa with a 130 mm gun

Saida in #Daraa hit with several Assad barrel bombs today as well.

Assad bombing civilians in Houla, #Homs w/ barrel bombs today. +50 airstrikes in last 2 days
https://youtu.be/4x_TtMjaj9w

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 03:46 PM

Ghouta: Syrian Rebels capture Assad regime fighter

Iraqi Shia Hashd militia backed by Iran calling on dead Saint to help them capture a village

Assad regime notorious war criminal who tortured protestors Ali Samir Nabi'a, killed in Latakia by rebels

Really disgusting over 600 fighters killed in infighting in Ghouta that lasted around 90 days. Biggest idiots ever

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 04:47 PM

Mahan Air A340 EP-MNA from Tehran to Beirut today on its (un)usual route overhead Aleppo

You think Syrian troops are fighting for dictator #Assad in #Aleppo?
Think again!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaeQt1TY72o&feature=youtu.be …

#Syria aftermath regime airstrike on Saidaa in #Daraa province

This ugly Kamov Ka-27 of #Assad's air force dropped bombs on civilians for hours today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNFFhczPghI …

This was possibly the attack that caused the mayhem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMo9DeEtvT4 …

DeirEzzor: #ISIS killed dozens of pro-#Assad forces in #DeirEzzor during the last hours, including an #Assad Regime General.

Hell in #Houla as western politicians keep lying of an ongoing peace process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x_TtMjaj9w …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 04:54 PM

DeirEzzor: #ISIS launched new offensive against pro-#Assad forces south and west of #DeirEzzor.

Raqqa: #YPG militias attacking #ISIS in Northern #Raqqa. No #SDF. All pro-#YPG accounts talking about "Kurdish Forces" or #YPG.

BUT WAIT...where is the US supported proxy who was to be attacking IS?????

Raqqa: #ISIS killed 10 #YPG militias east of #Ayn_Issa in Northern #Raqqa.

Footage
#FSA keeps fighting #ISIS terrorists (just like #Assad terrorists) in #Daraa prov.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L4Ugao4ANs …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 04:58 PM

Footage
#Assad's jets keep bombing towns at the border between #Homs and #Hama provinces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWyiNDMiqpM …

Pro-#Assad militias keep shelling #Daraya with IRAMs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnbUOC2CkeE …

Footage
Also in #Houla(#Homs), an #Assad regime helicopter drops bombs on civilians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns5OSt4IXY4 …

BreakingFootage
#Assad's air force keeps shelling #Hayyan, some km N-W of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zMcWumX_u4 …

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 05:14 PM

Reference the Obama WH and their assistant national intelligence for strategic communications "novelist" guru Rhodes.....

A group that helped the White House sell the Iran deal gave NPR $100,000 to report on it
http://read.bi/1sK7ESe

Footage
#Daraya today.
No food.
Only #Assad's bombs for the besieged people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj2FNaw3Cb4 …

News
SDF are said to advance under #US air strikes vs. #ISIS around Al Hishah 40 km north of #Raqqa.

SyAA soldier with a Chinese TS-504 troposcatter communication system today, unknown location

Looks like an IRIAF B707 en route from Iran to Syria
https://fr24.com/9c88b0a

US/Jordan backed New Syrian Army #NSyA fighter with a camelback manning a pick up truck mounted Browning .50 cal

"The SDF will focus on important areas around, but not inside, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor”
http://bit.ly/1qB4n5C

A cruel siege on northern #Homs has been intensified. #Assad again specifically blocking medical supplies.
http://bit.ly/1NBlzmF

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 05:52 PM

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hezbollah-send-more-fighters-syria-nasrallah-1127997499#sthash.w3R8ZgY7.dpuf

Hezbollah to send more fighters to Syria: Nasrallah

Leader says pro-Assad Lebanese movement will avenge slain commander Mustafa Badreddine by inflicting 'great and final defeat' on rebels

Friday 20 May 2016 17:26 UTC

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said his Lebanese Shia movement would boost its support for Syria's government after one of its top commanders was killed there last week.

"We will increase and bolster our presence in Syria," Nasrallah said in a speech during a ceremony to mark a week since Mustafa Badreddine, the head of Hezbollah's military wing, was killed near Damascus.

"More commanders than before will go to Syria. We will be present in different ways and we will continue the fight," he said.

Hezbollah's intervention in Syria was considered vital in shoring up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government earlier in the more than five-year war against opposition rebels backed by Gulf Arab states and Western countries.

Its fighters secured most of the Lebanese border region, cutting vital rebel supply lines, and reasserted government control in most of the southern suburbs of Damascus, including the Sayyida Zeinab Shia shrine district.

Hezbollah said last week that Badreddine had been killed by rebel artillery fire, with Nasrallah on Friday vowing to avenge his death by inflicting a "great and final defeat" on those responsible.

But the circumstances of Badreddine's death remain unclear with earlier media reports citing Israeli security sources that he may have been killed by Syrian pro-government or Iranian forces in a dispute over Hezbollah's role in the conflict.

According to those reports, Badreddine had been planning to withdraw many of Hezbollah's forces back to Lebanon after suffering heavy losses, possibly a third of his fighters. The area where he was killed is technically under the control of the Syrian army and is also believed to host Iranian fighters.

Hezbollah expert Waddah Charara said Hezbollah has sent between 5,000 and 6,000 combatants to Syria and paid a heavy price for its support, with IS and al-Qaeda both launching attacks on Shia majority areas in Lebanon that have killed more than 100 civilians.

Hezbollah does not release Syrian casualty figures, but Israeli estimates last year suggested that as many as 1,500 Hezbollah fighters – or about a third of the group’s force in Syria - had been killed. Other sources suggest the figure could now be as many as 2,000, while data obtained from Iranian open sources put the casualty figure lower at 865 fighters between 30 September, 2012 and 16 February, 2016.

Middle East Eye earlier this week reported that Iran, which funds Hezbollah, was exerting more influence over the group and had even directly appointed Badreddine's successor as head of its military wing.

A source also told MEE that Iran had told Hezbollah to target Saudi Arabia, which many of its supporters blamed for Badreddine's death because of its support for Sunni rebel groups in Syria.

But Shahir Shahidsaless, a political analyst writing about Iranian affairs, told MEE that Hezbollah remained operationally independent of Iran.

"Yes, Hezbollah is very close to Iran, and the group was founded and is currently funded by Iran. But Hezbollah decides its policies independently based on the interests of Lebanese Shias and Lebanese national interests while Iran views the group as a major balancing and deterrent force against Israel," said Shahidsaless.

"Why is it fighting in Syria in tandem with Iran? Because, as Nasrallah has repeatedly said, its members believe that if they do not fight in Syria, they would have to fight against Sunni extremists in Lebanon."

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 06:05 PM

"The radical axis led by Tehran, and which goes through Assad...is the most tangible threat to [#Israel's] safety."
http://bit.ly/1sw3Jrp

What follows are seven points that describe an overarching strategy for weakening the radical axis and removing Assad from power:

First, we should encourage diplomatic action against the crimes of the Assad regime, and aid in bringing it to justice for its roles in mass killings and its use of chemical weapons. Israel has the power to help expose the statistics of the killings, and spread news of it as far as possible.

Second of all, we need to enter a dialogue with the US about the need to harm assets that are important to the Assad regime as part of President Obama's promise to go up against the regime for using chemical weapons, and to enforce their restriction as a non-negotiable international norm.

Third, it's important that Israel prove it too has red lines and moral principles. Israel should considers limited military action, such as destroying helicopters that drop explosive barrels onto civilians. These actions are focused on saving human lives and can be done without committing to a large-scale, continuous, aerial offensive.

Fourth, It's possible to contend with the threat of ISIS in the southern Golan Heights, in the form of their local affiliate Shuhada al-Yarmouk (the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigades. —ed). That's a way of showing that the fights against ISIS and Assad are not mutually exclusive.

Fifth, Israel should work to encourage humanitarian stabilization in southern Syria, along the Israeli and Jordanian borders, with backing from international and local powers.

Sixth, Israel should develop an understanding with Russia regarding the promotion of these steps, while preserving Russia's strategic interests in northern Syria.

Seventh, Israel should encourage and support Arab nations' actions in opposition to Hezbollah and Iran as much as possible.

The Middle East is being restructured in a process that began five years ago. No one can yet see its end clearly. Still, it seems correct to assume that the participants are seeking a new arrangement. Israel has a deep interest in depowering the Iranians and Hezbollah in the "new" Middle East.

Gone are the days in which Israel could observe the goings-on, wishing good luck to both sides. It should not miss the opportunity to weaken its most bitter enemies. A moral, assertive, initiating, and creative policy in opposition to the radical axis is the path we must walk—especially with chemical weapons being used once more. It's important that the Sunni Muslim world knows Israel was on the right side of this fight, and that it made the right moral and strategic moves, when Assad is finally gone.

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 06:13 PM

Ahrar al-Sham's "foreign minister" was allowed into the US in DEC; narrative problems for Ahrar, Qs for US re visas.

Question for the US is less why it allowed @LabibAlNahhas in and more why it barred @RaedAlSaleh3 of the @SyriaCivilDef.

OUTLAW 09

05-21-2016, 06:32 PM

DeirEzzor: Many #ISIS fighters, heavy weapons, tanks and armoured vehicles on the way to #DeirEzzor now.

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:35 AM

Damascus: #Syria|n rebels repelled the #Assad regime offensive in #Daraya, many pro-#Assad forces were killed in heavy clashes.

Azaz updated #map May 22 #DAESH #ISIS recaptured all lost areas #FSA
http://edmaps.com/html/syrian_civil_war_in_maps.html …

Reports Hezbollah targeting rebel positions in eastern Zabadani mountain from Habil (Cain) area in rural #Damascus with heavy artillery

Assad barrel bomb attack in Nawa, #Daraa

FSA SF SRF targeting pro #ISIS LSY positions in al-Alan & Sad Sahem in west rural #Daraa
https://youtu.be/UNQOASRtzPI

13th Division blew up a Regime 106 mm cannon with a #TOW #ATGM in S. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4XoTRF4ZhQ …

Jaish Al-Tahrir blew up a building with a #YPG sniper position in Sheikh Maqsud, #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzlUJ8idN1A …

The so called "New Syrian Army" promises it will liberate Deir Ezzor from ISIS. I hope it's not planning to save the regime though...

5 YPG fighters killed in Ras Al Ein from ISIS attacks

Hasakeh: ISIS carry out suicide attacks against YPG in Tal Tamr
http://fb.me/7lk6O21WX

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:47 AM

60,000 Syrians tortured to death by Assad in prisons! Wonders of having secular dictatorship
http://www.futuretvnetwork.com/node/214827

Civilians & fighters from ISIS region fleeing from ISIS to rebel held areas in Aleppo

Assad regime dropping barrel bombs on rebel held Homs killing dozens of civilians

Jaish Al Islam likewise release prisoners they held from Faliq Al Rahman in Ghouta

Infighting stopped & both Faliq Rahman & Jaish Al Islam release prisoners

Rebels in Habernafsah holding it down unlike in Ghouta, killed around 70 regime fighters, Commander & destroyed BMP
http://fb.me/7U6L7vveT

Assad regime NDF Commander Abu Hafiz Misyaf & several of his men killed by rebels in Habernafsah

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:53 AM

FRANCE24 news ticker: Russia proposes joint US air strikes over Syria. US rejects Russia's proposal for joint exercises over Syria.

US had to say no as there is a little known para in the latest Defense Spending Bill that prohibits the use of any DSB funding if there is any joint efforts with Russian military unless Obama comes before Congress...and thoroughly explains why....did not know that.....that is why the US NO came so fast....

Russian Damascus Embassy thanked US yesterday for not damaging Syrian military capability...like bombing runways.......destroying barrel bomb abilities...or CWs.....etc....

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 11:21 AM

The murderous #Assad regime attacked #CHILDREN in #Rastan and #Houla this morning.
NO reaction from our politicians.

Love it when politicians ask, "who are the 'moderates' in Syria?"
Answer: The people you abandoned five years ago.

BreakingFootage
#Rastan some minutes ago. #Assad's rockets strike all across the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qCmKKyjxLc …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 11:30 AM

War planes and helicopter resumed their strikes on civilian areas in #Rastan since dawn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJqoE3YL3yI …

Just another morning in #Syria.
#Assad kills civilians, the world remains silent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v58RK0jt3Gs …

Clear #footage
#Assad air force MiG-23 bombing #Houla in #Homs province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXDT6GDKULQ …

Russian war planes resumed air strikes on the #Castillo road, #KafrHamra and other towns N-W of #Aleppo.

Update
According to our information, the Castillo road is again passable since Friday but under big risk.
@BILD

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 11:32 AM

Burning #ISIS strongholds during battle with Syrian rebels in S-W #Daraa province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNQOASRtzPI …

Syrian rebel tank cam footage vs. #ISIS in the same area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6cQO28UWU …

SyAA M-240 (240mm) mortar, a rather rare sight

Shuhada Al-Islam Brigade hit slat armour T-72 in Daraya with PG-7VT, catches fire and engine smoking

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 11:45 AM

Monitor: 60,000 have died in Syrian government jails during war
http://reut.rs/20m1YIj

According to AQ leaning @al_maqal_pubb now Adnani officially uses the definition of apostates for Jabhat al Nusra

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 01:05 PM

Footage
Syrian rebels along the Syrian-Turkish border received and used fresh T-55 rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0hgGZIDDDQ …

Footage
#Assad air force attacks on southern #Hama province continue for 2 weeks now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_NozXV6qM …

Footage
Heavy #Assad air force attacks also continue south west of #Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2InSCPHZ24 …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 04:36 PM

39 #FSA groups consider #CoH deal over after #Assad & #IRGC attacks on several rebel-held areas including #Daraya.

The statement is probably meant for Saudis, Turkey and US forced #FSA to cease all hostilities against #Assad and militias for peace talks.

Waiting for some idiots to claim "armed opposition ends cessation of hostilities" or "rebels don't want peace" ...

Strikes were conducted by a modern Su-30.
Of course, the pilot knew what he hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78rkk_Fjto …

Russian terrorist forces hit and badly damaged the "Bara bin Malik" mosque in #Huraytan, 6 km north of #Aleppo.

BREAKINGFOOTAGE
AIMED #RUSSIAN AIR STRIKES ON MOSQUE AND RESIDENTIAL AREAS N-W OF #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9cSm0H8gPY …

Several moderate islamist groups west of #Aleppo merge into the "Army of Mujahideen".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd4mSb_dOII …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 04:37 PM

Footage
Just another day in #Assad's butchery aka #Syria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ool-J5iTQPc …
Summary from Homs province.

Putin is still trying to get "respectability" by claiming to be working together with the US...."sounds good for the home folks"......

Russia Urges Joint Action With US Against Syria's Al-Qaida
http://nyti.ms/1XF8mLQ

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 04:51 PM

Russia’s economy interests behind its risky military move in Syria:
https://informnapalm.org/en/russia-s-economy-interests-behind-risky-military-move-syria/ …

Julian Röpcke ‏@JulianRoepcke
Recommended read for western politicians: "There is no ’Syrian government’"
My op-ed @OrientNewsEn.
http://www.orient-news.net/en/news_show/112815/0/There-is-no-Syrian-government …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:04 PM

Fatah Halab committee to find solution w/ YPG/SDF CPs which block food/fuel supply lines or all will become targets

Liwa Shuhada al-Islam rebels resisting the regime & co push into southern #Daraya yesterday
https://youtu.be/EWPoE92gQDg

Rebels regain control of positions lost to regime & co in #Daraya yesterday, reports more pro-Assad militias amassing around the town today

Daraya was hit with dozens of IRAM rockets & continous artillery shelling since yesterday as part of yet another regime attempt to advance

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:13 PM

Appears CENTCOM Commander's visit to Syria did not impress IS in the least......

Two #ISIS suicide truck bombs hit a #YPG/Asayish checkpoint yesterday, just 2km from @CENTCOM's Gen. Votel in #Syria's Hasakeh
via @syriahr

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:14 PM

Ahrar al-Sham's @LabibAlNahhas made private trip to DC in December - @HannahAllam reports: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article78962527.html …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 05:21 PM

60,000+ people died/killed in #Assad regime prisons since 2011.

That's *33 every day*.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/tens-thousands-die-syria-government-prisons-160521173306410.html …

OUTLAW 09

05-22-2016, 06:03 PM

A Belgian jihadi was a senior security official for al-Qaeda in #Syria (al-Nusra), killed May 13.
http://bit.ly/1Xq5eD8
v @p_vanostaeyen

Heavy artillery attacks on Turkmen Mount villages suggest Assad preparing for new campaign on rebel-held NE rural #Latakia with RuAF support

Aleppo: 9 women & a child in Kafr Halab killed by Russian cluster bombs

Homs: Al Jazeera reporter Jalal Sulayman injured

Daraya: Assad regime had advanced at night after barrage of airstrikes but Rebels reversed all of them by morning
http://bit.ly/20mnMU0

Daraya: Assad regime has now lost more than 30 fighters & 2 tanks
http://bit.ly/1XpQ2Ga

Homs: Russian airstrikes on ISIS held Al Sha'er

Homs: Assad regime thugs kidnap 6 women around Salmiyah

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:00 AM

YPG blocking fuel trucks from passing through Afrin to supply Idlib, south Aleppo & rural Hama & taxing each truck

Fuel prices tripled in rebel-held areas north #Syria as #YPG Kurdish militia now control oil trading with #IS.

Reports
More air strikes on Syrian rebel-held towns north, west and south of #Aleppo right now.

Anadan N-W of #Aleppo tonight.
#Assad's foreign militias shell the town with artillery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Jtr23fNSvA …

Houla tonight.
Another summer in #Syria. So #Assad shells the crops to starve the people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzvjwPQVvw …

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 03:57 PM

Assad and his supporters are pushing a true sectarian agenda.....interesting that when the Alawite militias export their genocide towards Sunnis and when it comes back to their front door then they flip out.....

Reports Assad loyalist attacked & burned IDP camp in Tartus following the explosions today. No reports of casualties

Series of explosions struck #Assad core loyalist coastal areas reportedly 4 in Jablah and 3 in Tartus.

After the #ISIS terror attacks on #Tartus & #Jableh, Alawite militia men raid #IDP camps.
At least 7 Sunni refugees killed.

IS claim responsibility for explosions targeted Syrian coastal areas today - @YallaSouriya

The UNSC and the Obama WH who is off trotting around Southeast Asia for his legacy does not say a single word......

AND the proAssad propaganda machine first blames Sham as they had wanted Sham placed on the UNSC terror list but failed.....

After #Syria'n regime TV falsely accused Ahrar al-Sham for coastal bombings -now #IslamicState claim responsable

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 03:59 PM

Assad army drone downed by rebels in #Daraya #Damascus.

Bara mosque in #Aleppo's northern suburb Haritan after several #Russia'n airstrikes

Russia'n propaganda present new war game for kids
"#Syria'n Warfare"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCUVMp4NT40 …

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 04:14 PM

Assad now turns again to starvation tactics and yet the UNSC, Kerry and the Obama WH say absolutely nothing......

Footage
#Assad war planes attacked crops around #Talaf in #Hama to starve the people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RCEFV-Vzj8 …

Also in flagrant ignorance of the agreed-on ceasefire, #Hezbollah artillery and mortars shelled #Zabadani.

Footage
#Assad regime artillery shelled #Aleppo city today, causing some damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVY0araPdMw …

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 04:16 PM

To those,claiming "Afrin fights for its survival":
Rebels never challenged it
The #YPG is the expansionist aggressor

There have been minor clashes & shellings on the canon's border.
But no rebel group ever started an offensive to capture the canton's towns.

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 04:18 PM

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 04:41 PM

7 civilians were killed in a #Russian air strike on #KafrNaha, 2 in an #Assad air strike on #Idlib city.

Assad regime artillery shelled #Aleppo city today, causing some damage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVY0araPdMw …

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 04:43 PM

Really worth reading the entire article....

Charles Lister ‎@Charles_Lister
Excellent by @NicholasAHeras:

US must support #Syria’s opposition more to counter AQ plans

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/fighting-terrorism-syria-its-more-isis-16294 …

Fighting Terrorism in Syria: It's More Than ISIS

The once-promising cessation of hostilities that had significantly reduced the fighting between the Assad regime and the armed opposition in Syria is collapsing, and major questions are being asked about the future course of U.S. policy toward Syria. These questions are being asked as, more and more, Al Qaeda and its allies are building a proto-state in northern Syria, which will have potentially dire consequences for the future of Middle East and international security.

A recently released Center for a New American Security report emphasizes that in order to defeat Al Qaeda and its enablers, the United States will need to more proactively support the Syrian opposition to build security and governance institutions in rebel-controlled areas of the country. Beyond the anti-ISIS campaign, there is also a preventative counterterrorism campaign that needs to be waged in other areas of the country, as Al Qaeda and its enablers in the Syrian armed opposition seek to build a sharia state based on the teaching of influential global jihadi theorists.

One of the longest running and strongest criticisms against current U.S. policy in Syria is that it needs to do more than just combat ISIS, and needs to do a better job of supporting the Syrian opposition. The latest vicious cycle of regime-initiated siege-and-starve warfare, and the bombardment of opposition-held areas in Syria’s two most important cities of Damascus and Aleppo, certainly demands stronger international action to enforce the cessation of hostilities. Many critics of the present U.S. approach are seeking a strategy that goes beyond the current diplomatic process and its product—the shaky, frequently broken cessation of hostilities.

They are seeking a strategy that protects Syrian civilians, stems the flow of refugees from Syria that destabilizes its neighbors and increasingly Europe, and which applies military pressure on the regime to bring it seriously to the negotiating table. There is open discussion within the U.S. and its regional partners of “Plan B” courses of action: a military assistance strategy that provides advanced MANPADS directly to rebel groups, and the imposition of a safe zone over rebel-ruled areas of Syria, particularly in the north along the Syrian-Turkish border. While these lines of action deserve strong consideration, as the situation on the ground inside of opposition-held areas of northern Syria stands, there is great risk that pursuing them now could have long-term negative consequences for Syrian, regional and international security.

The reason is that it is a clear fact on the ground is that the IRGC, its proxies and Russia have strengthened and entrenched Assad’s rule over a statelet in western Syria, particularly in Latakia, Tartus, Homs and around Damascus, and have begun expanding this territorial base east to Palmyra. But as much the Assad regime and its allies might like to pretend that they can reconquer all of the territory that has fallen under opposition control, including ISIS’s pseudostate in eastern Syria, they will not accomplish that mission. The reality is that post-Assad Syria exists throughout the country, and that it is unlikely anything short of a significant escalation in the conflict such as a large-scale foreign military intervention will change that.

For most of the civil war, the debate over the proper level of U.S. support for the moderate Syrian opposition has focused on overthrowing the Assad regime, particularly because of its extensive and infamous record of perpetrating human-rights abuses and crimes against humanity. While it is understandable that there is a great deal of sympathy for removing Bashar al-Assad and his enablers from Syria, including Russia and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRCG) and its proxies, this scenario is unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future. For all intents and purposes, Syria is in a process of partitioning that leaves a large area of the country open to alternative governance structures to the Assad regime.

In the majority Sunni areas that are rebel-ruled, there is a looming war-within-the-war between more ideologically moderate opposition organizations and ideological extremist actors, which will have great impact on the type of Syria that emerges from the conflict. Ideological extremist groups such as Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and its principal ally Ahrar al-Sham, are embedded within the rebel movement throughout northern Syria, and are a formidable vanguard within the anti-Assad fight. The two are parallel organizations established by Al Qaeda in Syria, and following jihadi theorists’ strategic directives for guerilla warfare, they are seeking to be the vanguard of the popular revolution against the Assad regime.

Working with other allies within the armed opposition, Al Qaeda and its enablers are laying the groundwork for the implementation of a sharia state, and building local community cover in Syria for the global jihadist network. It is significant that at the onset of the anti-ISIS campaign, in November 2014, U.S. aircraft struck targets in northern Syria controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham that were suspected of hosting international jihadist operatives. And the resulting furor within the Syrian armed opposition at the U.S. strikes against these non-ISIS, ideological extremist groups demonstrated the considerable and unfortunate power that they hold within Syria’s rebel movement.

Continued......

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:20 PM

Regime offensive continues on #Jobar this morning, heavy clashes since last night with constant artillery & mortar shelling by regime

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:24 PM

Reports Assad loyalist attacked & burned IDP camp in Tartus following the explosions today. No reports of casualties

Series of explosions struck #Assad core loyalist coastal areas reportedly 4 in Jablah and 3 in Tartus.

After the #ISIS terror attacks on #Tartus & #Jableh, Alawite militia men raid #IDP camps.
At least 7 Sunni refugees killed.

AND the proAssad propaganda machine first blames Sham as they had wanted Sham placed on the UNSC terror list but failed.....

[B]After #Syria'n regime TV falsely accused Ahrar al-Sham for coastal bombings -now #IslamicState claim responsable

Ahrar categorically denies any links to the explosiones in Tartus & Jablah, this is not our modus operandi: we do NOT target civilians

Most of the victims of the Tartus & Jablah explosiones are civilians who have fled their homes in Aleppo and Hama due to Regime bombing

Resorting to staged terrorist attacks against its own and foreign population is a regular practice for a Mafia State Regime of Assad

Regime history since the late 70s is full of examples of staged terrorist attacks against domestic & foreign targets for political gain

Calculated staged attacks were used to justify regimes atrocities in the 80s. Similar tactics were used in 2011 against rebels/opposition

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:30 PM

Appears there is a far deeper connection between AQ/Taliban in Iran and yet the Obama WH appears to not fully understand that connection........

Kyle W. Orton
‏@KyleWOrton
How shocking >> #Taliban leader had been in #Iran hours before he was struck down in Pakistan, acc RFE/RL source.

Iran's been ramping up its support for the #Taliban (but only to help us fight #IS in Afghanistan!)

Remember the U.S. Treasury Dept's claims about Iran's links with Al Qaeda & Taliban?

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:32 PM

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/08/26/leaving-afghanistan-to-iran-wont-bring-stability-nor-keep-isis-out/

Leaving Afghanistan to Iran Won’t Bring Stability—nor Keep ISIS Out

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on August 26, 2015

Published at National Review

The admission by the Taliban on July 30 that its leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, had died was widely seen as good news for the Islamic State (ISIS) against its jihadist competitors. But while ISIS’s growing power in Afghanistan over the last year has garnered significant attention, the rise of Iran’s influence in the country has been less noted. Worse, in the light of the nuclear agreement with the U.S., Iran’s expanded influence is held by some observers to be a stability-promoting development. This is a dangerous fantasy that has already been falsified in the Fertile Crescent, where the synergetic growth of Iran and ISIS promotes chaos and radicalism—to the advantage of both and the disadvantage of the forces of moderation and order.

Several leaders of the Pakistani Taliban and the al-Qaeda–linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have defected to ISIS in the Afghanistan–Pakistan theater, but ISIS’s presence in the area remains small. This has not prevented an outrageous attempt by Tehran to sell its recent increase in support to the Taliban as an anti-ISIS measure. Tehran’s argument does not fit the timeline—which shows consistent Iranian support for anti-Western Sunni jihadist forces in Afghanistan from the beginning of the Western intervention in 2001.

While most people recognize the fallaciousness of the argument that Shiite Iran and the Sunni Taliban could not work together, there are still those who point to Iran’s nearly invading Afghanistan in 1998 after the Taliban murdered nine Iranian diplomats during a spree of anti-Shiite massacres. Moreover, it is often suggested that Iran did not mind the Taliban’s fall. Ryan Crocker—who was the senior State Department official charged with conducting secret meetings with Tehran during the invasion of Afghanistan—has even said that Iran provided intelligence to the U.S. to help overthrow the Taliban. But that is belied by what Iran has been actually doing.

Iranian financial support to the Taliban has been constant since 2001, and Iran’s military support began before the invasion, continued during the invasion, when Iran offered anti-aircraft weapons to the Taliban to “use against the United States and Coalition forces,” and has been increasing since at least early 2007. A congressional report from October 2014 noted that Iran’s “lethal assistance, including light weapons,” to the Taliban was ongoing.

Iran “formalized its alliance with the Taliban by allowing the group to open an office in Mashhad” at the beginning of 2014, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. Iran has been “training Taliban fighters within its borders” at four terrorism camps.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is the leader of Hizb-i-Islami, one of the three main jihadist groups in Afghanistan (the others being the Taliban and the network led by Sirajuddin Haqqani). Hekmatyar has been an ally of Iran since at least the mid-1990s; he even moved to Iran after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 1996. Hekmatyar was “expelled” from Iran in early 2002, but he has since received consistent support from Tehran. Documents released by WikiLeaks from 2005–06 show that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps kept Hekmatyar afloat and provided direct assistance to him for “carrying out terrorist attacks against the [Afghan] governmental authorities and [Coalition Forces],” including supplying Hizb-i-Islami with hundreds of cars to use for car-bombings.

The 2005–06 documents reveal that Iran offered bounties for the murder of NATO soldiers and members of the elected Afghan government. Later reports indicated that this policy continued into 2009, when Iran was working in tandem with al-Qaeda to spread the Taliban’s reach in southern Afghanistan. This should hardly come as a surprise: The 9/11 Commission reported that Iran began training al-Qaeda jihadists through Hezbollah in 1992 and collaborated with al-Qaeda on the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia in 1996. To this day Iran maintains an al-Qaeda network on its territory, which supplies weapons, money, and fighters to Jabhat an-Nusra in Syria.

Iran has spent considerable resources in the north and west of Afghanistan, among the Hazara Shiites and the significant Shia minority of Tajiks—populations that are mostly loyal to the Western-backed Afghan government—to try to win converts to their Khomeinist version of Shiism. Iran has also recruited Hazaras for its Shia jihad in defense of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad.

But Afghanistan is an overwhelmingly Sunni country, so Iran’s “soft power” offensive cannot be strictly sectarian. Iran provided funds to former Afghan president Hamid Karzai, who was quite brazen about the arrangement. Mohammed Fahim—a powerful Tajik warlord and, until his death in March 2014, Karzai’s vice president—was also on Iran’s payroll. Another well-known case is that of Mohammad Omar Daudzai, Karzai’s chief of staff, who came back from Iran literally with “a large bag of cash.”

While acknowledging much of this Iranian meddling, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Michael Kugelman exemplified an increasingly influential school of thought when he argued last year that “the role Iran plays in Afghanistan is relatively constructive,” and that Iran and the U.S. have a common interest in stability.

This line of thought evidently has sway at the top of the U.S. government.

In September 2014, the U.S. secured an Afghan unity government by the direct intervention of John Kerry after Ashraf Ghani (now the president) triumphed over Abdullah Abdullah (now in effect the prime minister). Ghani is a technocratic and relatively uncorrupt figure with some reformist credentials. Abdullah is more Islamist-inclined and is backed by Iran. So, rather than securing an American victory over Iran, Kerry accommodated Iran. This has become a defining theme of the Obama administration’s Greater Middle East policy.

The administration is currently trying to sell its nuclear agreement with Iran in the “narrowest possible terms, as a limited transaction in which Tehran gives up the bomb in return for sanction relief,” but this is a political strategy, the New York Times reports, aimed at concealing from our allies—and from the American people themselves—the administration’s “grander ambitions,” in which the deal could “open up relations with Tehran and be part of a transformation in the Middle East.” This transformation can already be seen in practice in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen; basically, it means America is underwriting an Iranian Empire. The effects so far do not inspire confidence that extending this policy to Afghanistan will produce a positive outcome.

The theory is, as Obama wrote in a secret letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, that the U.S. can partner with Iran to stabilize the region, specifically by fighting the Islamic State. This would allow the U.S. to pull back—maybe to “pivot” to Asia. Unfortunately, Iran’s and ISIS’s interests—heightened sectarian polarization, instability, and the removal of Western influence in the region—largely overlap, and they conflict with Western interests. Increasing Iran’s influence in Afghanistan produces a symbiotic increase in ISIS’s influence. In Iraq, the Obama administration’s withdrawing our personnel and allowing Iran to fill the void initiated a series of events that drew the West back in militarily, on less advantageous terms than if we had stayed and tried to contain both the Sunni jihadists and Iran. The same will happen in Afghanistan if Iran is trusted to stabilize the country after the West leaves.

OUTLAW 09

05-23-2016, 05:55 PM

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
My latest on 1) today’s attacks in Tartus & Jableh & 2) Gen. Votel’s visit to Syria:

http://www.mei.edu/content/article/monday-briefing-afghan-taliban-leader-killed-syria-bombings-and-iraq-s-intra-shiite-feud …

The death earlier today of over 120 people in regime-controlled Tartus and Jableh is a deeply worrying sign of things to come. Today’s attacks employed multiple car bombs and suicide bombers and were the first such attacks to penetrate the city of Tartus, which amongst other things now hosts an expanding Russian naval base.

While the veracity of a purported ISIS claim of responsibility cannot be substantiated, the perpetrators had one clear objective: to stoke a self-sustaining cycle of sectarian ###-for-tat violence that incapacitates moderates and empowers extremists. This is a strategy that ISIS’ predecessors have previously used with cold-blooded success in Iraq. That regime loyalists subsequently raided an IDP camp shortly after today’s attacks and killed at least seven Sunni civilians underlines the explosive potential that today’s events could have.

Meanwhile, CENTCOM commander General Votel’s visit to northeastern Syria has exacerbated another source of division: between the mainstream anti-Assad opposition and the Kurdish-dominated U.S.-backed anti-ISIS forces. Overwhelming U.S. support to the Kurdish Y.P.G. since September 2014 may have secured valuable short-term victories against ISIS, but it has also created a dangerous long-term power imbalance in northern Syria. Continued hostility in this respect may well outlast the conflict between the Assad regime and the opposition.

As much as CENTCOM continues to aggrandize the role of several former opposition groups, and a number of small tribal and minority militias, Washington’s anti-ISIS force remains at least 75 percent YPG. By continuing along this path, territory will be won back from ISIS, but in such a way as to create the conditions for its eventual return.

This marks #ISIS' first activity on #Syria's coast in 26 months (since March 2014), when FSA, Ahrar al-Sham et al. forced them out.

This is a big deal:
#ISIS officially claims #Tartus & #Jableh attacks & establishes Wilayat al-Sahel ("the Coast"):