Syria in 2016 (April-June)

[OUTLAW 09]

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 …


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"):


"Arab fighters are just camouflage... SDF is the #YPG"

Gen. Idris speaking to @jamiewrit

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-generals-surprise-visit-to-kurds-prompts-syrian-rebels-fury/3341868.html …

Jamie Dettmer

May 23, 2016 7:26 AM


GAZIANTEP, TURKEY—
A visit by a top U.S. military commander to northeast Syria to confer with Kurdish commanders and plot the next stage in the battle against the Islamic State group has provoked the anger of Syrian rebel commanders, who accuse the Obama administration of giving up on the Syrian revolution.

In interviews with VOA Monday, the Syrian rebels warned that the U.S.-led international coalition’s strategy is creating the circumstances for future sectarian violence between Arabs and Kurds by turning to the Syrian Democratic Force (SDF), dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, to liberate Arab majority towns from Islamic State.

The warning came in the wake of an unannounced 11-hour trip to Kurdish-controlled northern Syria Saturday by General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. Central Command. Votel told Pentagon correspondents who accompanied him that the U.S. had to work with the allies it has on the ground against IS and that the defeat of the jihadist group remains for Washington the clear military priority — not the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

The SDF's Arab militias, several of whom have checkered histories, at best represent about 20 percent of the total SDF force, which can field about 30,000 fighters. Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders, however, insist the number of Arab fighters in the SDF is much lower than the claimed 5,000 to 10,000.

US support of SDF incites anger

The U.S. attention being given to the SDF is infuriating FSA factions. Rebel commanders also bristle at what they say is the Western media’s uncritical reporting of the YPG, much of it focused on the Kurdish group’s embrace of secularism and the presence of young women fighters in its ranks.

“We are getting insufficient supplies form the West both in terms of quantities as well as the type of weapons we need,” says Zakaria Malahefji of the 3,000-strong Fastaqim Kama Umirt, a brigade aligned to the rebel alliance Jaish al-Mujahideen (Army of Holy Warriors).

He complained that the FSA is “just being kept on life support” while it is fighting, unlike the SDF. The course of the civil war would have been different if the West had supplied Syrian rebels with anti-aircraft missiles and offered the kind of close air support the YPG has been getting, Malahefji argues.

US coalition causing sectarian divide

General Salim Idris, the former FSA chief of staff, told VOA he welcomed any defeats inflicted on IS, but said the U.S.-led coalition risks building up deeper sectarian problems in Syria because of its support for the YPG, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which wants autonomy for the Kurds in northern Syria.

As the SDF moves against villages and towns that are traditionally Arab, the seeds for conflict are being sown, he warned. He says the Arab element being crafted onto the SDF is seen as being just cosmetic by most Sunni Arabs. “The Arab fighters are just camouflage,” Idris said. “The SDF is the YPG, which collaborates with anyone — Assad, the Russians, the Americans — when it suits its purposes,” he added.

FSA rebel commanders accuse the YPG of coordinating with Assad government forces elsewhere in Syria, including in the northern Aleppo countryside, where in February Kurdish fighters overran Arab villages during a Russian-backed regime offensive. YPG officials say the land-grab was to prevent territory from falling into the hands of government forces.

The U.S. embrace of the YPG started with American airstrikes to help Kurdish defenders see off a months-long siege by IS of the border town of Kobani in 2015.

U.S. support of the YPG increased subsequently as Washington sought to shape a proxy ground force to battle IS, initially setting up a “train-and-equip” program for moderate Syrian rebels. The program failed with rebel commanders declining to join because of Washington’s insistence that the ‘train-and-equip force’ could only be used against IS, and not against President Assad.

Votel visit to rankle Turkey

The Votel visit is likely to rankle the Turkish government, which earlier this year reacted with fury to a 2-day visit to Kobani by U.S. diplomat Brett McGurk.

During his visit to northern Syria, Votel said his trip had hardened his belief the U.S. has adopted the right approach to developing local forces to fight the jihadist group. "I left with increased confidence in their capabilities and our ability to support them. I think that model is working and working well,” he said.

But Gen. Idris questioned what the U.S. had in mind for the administration of territory seized by the YPG from IS. “Who will control the towns and villages?” he asked. “I raised this question with U.S. officials in the past when they talked about using the YPG but never got a reply. If it is the Kurds, then there will be trouble. I really don’t think the Obama administration has thought this through. Will the Kurds give up Arab towns they capture?” he said.

[OUTLAW 09]

One has to worry that the US MSM journalists are about as misinformed as the Obama WH is on Syria and the anti Assad opposition and especially the Kurdish terrorist grouping PKK which YEs YPG is a member of as well....

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister ·
This by @IgnatiusPost, reporting on trip to NE #Syria with Gen Votel is quite extraordinary:
http://wpo.st/9bZb1

Apparently, #Syria’s Sunnis are “weak,” compared to the "stronger" “rampaging Kurds,” who are “ferocious fighters, men & women alike."

American advisors are apparently “awe-struck” by YPJ female fighters, who "are so tough they sometimes go to battle w. suicide belts"

.@IgnatiusPost’s last line sums it up:

"The strategy has an unstated theme: Destroy #ISIS now; worry about the future of #Syria later."

This line actually summarizes the entirety of US policy on Syria. The definition of bankruptcy. Costs mounting daily

BUT WHAT this journalist does not seem to realize as does the Obama WH not realize is that FSA drove IS out of 4.5 regional cantons in Syria WITHOUT US assistance in 2014.......

BLUF:
Pushing the Kurdish dominated SDF to take #Raqqa is nothing short of stupid. The city will eventually fall, but the long-term repercussions?
Especially how will a Kurdish para military unit taking over basically a Sunni Arab town will look to the FSA?????

No question, the #YPG is a valuable ally vs. #ISIS, but our thirst for quick results is damaging any chance of sustainable success.

BTW... the YPG announced a few days ago that Raqqa would in fact indeed become a part of the newly founded Kurdish Republic....

[OUTLAW 09]

An interesting note that many US MSM journalists have rarely noticed in the last eight months......

FSA in N. #Aleppo are fighting:

#ISIS
#Russia
#Iran
#Assad regime
#Hezbollah
#Shia militias
#YPG

AND yet YPG fights only FSA and largely ignores IS......and receives Russia CAS and Assad artillery support.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Obama WH and Kerry needs to get their so called Iranian moderates under control........

Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in ‘less than eight minutes’
http://read.bi/1Wdlvw9

[OUTLAW 09]

Tartous Govenor indirectly confirms reports of vigilante attacks vs refugees. "Plz do not attack our guests... Terrorists not among them"

Bombs kill more than 140 in Syrian government-held cities: monitor
http://reut.rs/1VfCq00

There were dozens of massacres in the past months carried out by #Assad/#Putin warplanes with 50-80 victims that were complete ignored.

[OUTLAW 09]

Latakia: #Syria|n rebels repelled new #Assad regime offensive at #Jabal_Akrad and killed 50+ pro-#Assad forces today.

Jobar: Assad regime officer, tried to invade Jobar, ended up in rebel custody with a black eye

Jobar: Faliq al Rahman captures Assad regime officer & kills dozens of soldiers
http://fb.me/7Yk4GhpxS

Damascus: for the first time in this conflict humanitarian aid has arrived to Qudsiya. Just goes to show impotence of UN...

Another Hezbollah terrorist, Hussain Abd Al Karim Hamdan killed in Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Just where is Kerry these days......many of those against the Iran Deal kept saying this would occur BUT the Obama WH "spin machine" stated this would not be the case......

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/21/politics/john-kerry-money-iran-sanctions-terrorism/

John Kerry: Some sanctions relief money for Iran will go to terrorism

By Elise Labott, CNN

Updated 1939 GMT (0339 HKT) January 21, 2016



Davos, Switzerland (CNN) — Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged to CNBC Thursday that some of the money Iran received in sanctions relief would go to groups considered terrorists.

When asked about whether some the $150 billion in sanctions relief to Iran would go to terrorist groups, Kerry reiterated that, after settling debts, Iran would receive closer to $55 billion. He conceded some of that could go to groups considered terrorists, saying there was nothing the U.S. could do to prevent that.

"I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists," he said in the interview in Davos, referring to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. "You know, to some degree, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented."

But he added that "right now, we are not seeing the early delivery of funds going to that kind of endeavor at this point in time."

Earlier Thursday, speaking to reporters before a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Kerry defended the U.S. use of sanctions against Iran following charges by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in his interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the recent sanctions were illegal and that some in the U.S. were "addicted" to sanctions.

"We have made it very clear that we use sanctions when we think they are appropriate in order to counter behavior that we believe has broken the law or has challenged the United Nations Security Council or threatened the United States, and we stand by our sanctions," Kerry told reporters. "We think they have been used judiciously and effectively and we are looking to move on now to put to test the willingness of Iran and other countries in the region to try to reduce tensions and move in a different direction."

He also said that there are such great demands on the Iranian government to develop the country that "there is no way they can succeed in what they want to do if they are very busy funding a lot of terrorism."

He continued, "If we catch them funding terrorism, they are going to have a problem with the United States Congress and other people, obviously."

He added, "We are confident that this will not result in an increase somehow in the threat to any partner or any friend in the region."

This was carried once by CNN and then the entire US MSM appeared to not have heard about the comments....not a single further article on this appeared.....

[OUTLAW 09]

VBIED targeted one of Faylaq al-Sham positions S. Idleb. Faylaq is key force in the coalition fighting #IS N. Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

Is the actual "echo chamber" really to be found in the Obama WH...when a central decision making process is isolated among themselves this is in the end what we get...absolutely nothing as all the Obama WH and the 700 person NSC hear are themselves reverberating off the walls....when ground reality is totally ignore for the benefit of "legacy" the US FP if there was ever one under this WH simply does not exist.....

EVERYONE needs to seriously read this US Embassy Statement from the Obama Special Envoy to Syria....and then ask yourself ...WOULD you if you had been fighting for five long years for rule of law, good governance and transparency with a genocidal dictator "trust" the US??????

Paraphrasing the statement.....resist Assad and Putin you will get killed, do not resist and you will still get killed BUT you must listen to us and surrender..."so we can have peace in our lifetime"...AND all we will do for you is "talk to Russia".......

https://twitter.com/USEmbassySyria/s...44611277950976

US. Embassy Syria Verified account 
‏@USEmbassySyria
Statement by US Special Envoy for #Syria Michael Ratney to Armed Syrian Opposition Factions:

The United States of America to Syria'n armed opposition: "Yeah,you're being slaughtered but PLEASE don't defend. We will talk to Russia."

Assad has Russia and Iran.
Syrian opposition has this: from the US...do not defend and be killed otherwise accept defeat by Putin and Assad......BUT we are still talking to Russia.....

Empty words & NOTHING since 6 years.
"Peaceful political transition" until you are all killed by Assad & his allies!

If I was a Syrian rebel,I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry now.
But I would know that I can NOT rely on @POTUS!

Actually if you take the US reactions to the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and what Kerry, Nuland and the Obama WH is saying to Ukraine...hold unilateral appeasement talks with Russia and demand nothing in return BUT hold those "elections" in eastern Ukraine currently occupied by a Russian army of 9,000 and a mercenary army of 30,000.....

Both are the same.

Simple comment...what we are seeing out of this Obama WH, CENTCOM and Kerry when it concerns Syria/IS is simply put a complete farce....and hot air ie "talk"......

Obama is simply covering his tracks with spin and smoke and mirrors due to his full tilt to Iran as the new regional hegemon that he hopes the US public does not pick up on until he is long gone.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Mahan Air is still moving Iranian fighters into Syria and yet the Germans still grant it landing rights....so much for German FP......


FlightAlert
Iranian #MahanAir A300 enroute from #IRGC base/Iraqi militia stronghold in Abadan to Syria's Damascus.

MahanAir mit Kampfern aus Abadan in DAM gelandet.
Weiterhin auch zu Gast auf deut. Flughfen Dank @AuswaertigesAmt.

UPDATE See who just showed up behind the Iranian terror flight!
A Russian Il-76 with more supplies for #Assad!

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage
#Assad air force attacks on towns near the Turkish border in Idlib province
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTQgkvsSld0 …

Evidence!
The #Assad regime and #Hezbollah ended broke / ended the truce in #Zabadani.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0hT6zdrog …

They do this 2 days before the May 25 deadline to blame rebels for shelling Kafraya and Fuah and justify Assad/RuAF strikes on nearby towns.

[OUTLAW 09]

This simple statistic tells the story of that highly touted Obama WH Syria/IS defeating strategy.......

International coalition conducted 115 airstrikes against ISIS. 82 in Iraq 33 in Syria

BUT WAIT I thought the bulk of IS is sitting inside Syria????

AND WAIT...Iraq has an AF, a massively large ISF/SF and thousands of Iranian supported Shia militias and IRGC....YET they are fighting more in Syria than in Iraq.....

Why is that??

AND the Obama WH explanation for this is what again??

[OUTLAW 09]

These are the actions of the US 500% CENTCOM/Obama supported Kurdish proxy....YPG which is really just an offshoot of PKK....

Prominent pro-regime accounts say "authorities" in #Efrin confiscated 25 tonnes of medical aid bound to rebels

Syria rebel aidworker who disappeard in #YPG #Efrin with his medicine delivery reappears as "terrorist" on state TV

So PKK/YPG in Afrin kidnaps medical aid workers & sells them to the torture chambers of the Assad regime. Not my understanding of democracy.

[OUTLAW 09]

More comments from the ME on this US Embassy Statement yesterday from the US Special Envoy....

Never seen anything more ridiculous than this. What a farce #CoH #Syria

“CoH offers a degree of protection” - Yes, Russia & Assad will only bomb most of you but not all of you #CoH #Syria

Assad & supporters would claim this gives them license to attack all oppo without int. objection - Already happening without int. objection

ALL the US in their statement "suggested" they are to do after being bombed is "make reports back to DoS"......

BUT WAIT since DoS opened their so called "Call Center" DoS has not released a single report verifying that both Assad and Putin are in clear violation of the CoH.

BUT WAIT...social media open source analysts have released far more video footage and photos of clear Russian Minsk 2 and the Syrian CoH violations and the US has released "nothing"...other than a ton of words about violations....

Those in the ME are now saying this is the actual Obama Wh FP for Syria....

Threaten those you claim are your allies and make servile appeals to Russia and Iran. Obama Doctrine

[OUTLAW 09]

From yesterday.......

Shelling can still be heard in #Jobar but major regime attack appears to have been foiled by rebels

Unconfirmed reports claim regime even used chlorine gas against rebels in #Jobar today

[OUTLAW 09]

Man those Obama WH Iranian "moderates" are all over the ME these days....

Iranian Qods Force leader reportedly in Fallujah
The Long War Journal
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/05/iranian-quds-force-leader-reportedly-in-fallujah.php …

BUT WAIT...appears the IRGC has some serious fighting problems with IS where ever they run into IS......

ISIS has killed 58+ Shia militias, wounded 70+ more and destroyed 2 tanks on Day 1 of the #Fallujah Offensive. #Iraq

[OUTLAW 09]

Despite the #ISIS claim for yday's suicide bombings in #Syria,the #Assad regime keeps blaming "Ahrar al-Sham, Turkey, Qatar & Saudi Arabia".

Assad and Putin really do want al-Sham on the UNSC terrorist listing...watch Russia make their move again in the UNSC to get Sham listed after these attacks.

BUT WAIT for IS to have truly conducted these attacks would have meant they took their VBIEDS through a total of 11 Assad controlled CPs........

So was it an Assad false flag attack and IS jumped into taking credit for propaganda reasons ??????

[OUTLAW 09]

What both Obama and Kerry do not quite "get"...........

Disaster
With "freedom & democracy" just a couple of km north of #Raqqa, hundreds flee to ... #ISIS-held DeirEzzor.
http://qasioun.net/ar/news/show/26957 …
In Arabic...

They really do need as does CENTCOM...really do need to rethink their Kurdish proxy strategy as it is apparently not being noticed by Syrian Sunni's....

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian air strikes hit #KafrHamra west of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOrXksVzbSo …

BreakingNews
Several #Russian air strikes on Kafr Basin, Kafr Hamra and Anadan, all west and north west of #Aleppo.

After the demise of the #FSA in northern #Syria,groups like Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki are on the rise. Get most support via Turkey.
Ideologically far away from Nusra and co. but also more Islamist than several moderate groups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8efMv488TM …

[OUTLAW 09]

Ah....that CENTCOM visited/supported terrorist group PYD/YPG/SDF US proxy that has deep ties to the PKK speaks out again..........remember YPG/SDF seems to be getting their CAS from Russia and artily support from Assad BUT they are not fighting IS............

Remember some say that the PYD/YPG are just the Syrian extension of the PKK......

PYD: "The problem is not Assad but the armed opposition to him."
http://reut.rs/20ssZtE


"The problem is not the fall of Assad or people that are ruling, but changing (the) system," Sinam Mohamed, a member of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) told reporters in Paris.

"It's not matter of fighting Assad or not. It's how do you change the system from a dictatorship into a democratic system in Syria. Look at the other opposition, they called for the fall of Assad, but they have gained nothing but killing and many refugees," she said.

The PYD has been left out of the faltering Geneva peace process, where the main Western, Arab and Turkish-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC) opposition group has suspended its participation after it accused the government of breaking a fragile truce and blocking aid to besieged areas.

The HNC, which does include Kurdish groups, has accused the PYD and its allies of tacitly supporting Assad.

Sinam Mohamed is co-chair of the alliance led by the PYD. It controls an uninterrupted stretch of 400 km (250 miles) along the Syrian-Turkish border from the Euphrates River to the frontier with Iraq, where Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed autonomy since the early 1990s. They also hold a separate section of the northwestern border in the Afrin area.

She was speaking after opening a fourth overseas representative office for Rojava following similar moves in Moscow, Berlin and Stockholm. She said they aimed at giving the Syrian Kurds a voice overseas and promoting them as the best military force to defeat Islamic State militants in Syria.

"Our priority is to defeat terrorism and build stability in Syria," Mohamed said.

The French foreign ministry said it did not recognize the legitimacy of the Kurdish representative office. However, France is part of the U.S.-led coalition that is carrying out air strikes in support of the PYD's military wing, the YPG, and groups fighting with it as they make advances toward Islamic State's bastion of Raqqa.


Hasakeh: The Kurdish National Council condemns PYD practice of arresting youth & force conscripting them
http://ow.ly/KBqY300uDaW

[OUTLAW 09]

The 3rd mosque Russian regime destroyed in Syria. Oh yeah, let's have a ceasefire now...

One of those killed in Tartous attack yesterday Colonel Fouad Ibrahim Ismail

Hezbollah al Manar channel photographer Tahsin Al Saadi killed in Fallujah

Turkish relief distributes 2.6m meals & 14m loafs of bread since beginning of the year to Syrian refugees.
West says nothing about this humanitarian aid relief work by the turks.......

[OUTLAW 09]

Reference the IS VBIED attacks on Assad areas yesterday.........

Ahrar Al Sham claim alawites blame Assad for attacks in Tartous & Jableh
http://fb.me/42tYEiZW9

These "ceasefires" are meant to give time for Assad to set up defences & launch new offensives after making some gains.

NEW Putin battle tactic.......Assad attacks and tries to take territory......then fails and Putin thin asks for a "ceasefire".....
After Assad made gains in Ghouta & failed to advance in Daraya, Putin calls for 72 hour ceasefire. I see a pattern
http://en.eldorar.com/node/2346

BUT.......morever to withdraw some troops from several locations to focus on a single front. Ceasefire = Regime solution to manpower shortage

[OUTLAW 09]

I had posted a comment concerning the capture of an IRGC paystub for a IRGC fighter killed in Khan Tuman........

Acc. to this doc. from 1 #Iran|ian Revol. Guard (#IRGC) killed in #KhanTuman (S. #Aleppo) his last salary was ~520$.

Jaish Fateh reacted to Regime truce violation by pounding #Kefraya w/ a dozen Fil missiles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE3rc3AR0Gw …

Rebels seized parts of Allan barrier (ex-SAA fortified pos.) from #ISIS offshot in W. #Daraa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-GaxmsqnVc …

First Coastal Division hit a group of pro-Assad with a #Fagot in Jebal Al-Akrad, N. #Latakia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6orlSLtB2I …

Daraya Urban warfare: Rebels damaged T-72 w/ slat armour w/ anti-tank PG-7VT via @bm21_grad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWPoE92gQDg …

[OUTLAW 09]

These are the actions of the US 500% CENTCOM/Obama supported Kurdish proxy....YPG which is really just an offshoot of PKK....

Prominent pro-regime accounts say "authorities" in #Efrin confiscated 25 tonnes of medical aid bound to rebels

Syria rebel aidworker who disappeard in #YPG #Efrin with his medicine delivery reappears as "terrorist" on state TV

So PKK/YPG in Afrin kidnaps medical aid workers & sells them to the torture chambers of the Assad regime. Not my understanding of democracy.

Very disturbing if confirmed, while JaF #Aleppo just asked #YPG stop blocking in #Afrin fuel trucks headed to #Idlib

Latest update......
Looks like an agreement re blockade has been reached between rebels & YPG, Efrin road open 2 ways & fuel tanks passing to liberated areas

Might have been the not so subtle Turkish threat to stop all shipments into and out of Efrin.......and or shell YPG Efrin positions.....

[OUTLAW 09]

N. #Aleppo: when #ISIS counter-attacked (May 18-19) & seized 5 villages from Rebels, Intl coalition didn't make 1 single airstrike in 48hrs.

If Regime has 3.5km 2 besiege Rebels in #Aleppo, they're also close 2 besiege Regime by seizing Nasr & ArtilleryBase

Rebels still control all positions in #Harbinafsah, S. #Hama.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.946247&lon=36.635113&z=14&m …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rr8XgAvurs …

Regime again since last night are trying to break into #Daraya under CAS & heavy artillery/mortar shelling to no avail.

Over 15 Russia/Assad airstrikes on Kafrhamra, Anadan, Kafrbasin & Khan al-Asl in rural #Aleppo, #Syria this morning

About 10 Assad airstrikes on Kafrhamra & Kafarbasin in north & west rural #Aleppo this morning

Assad & Hezbollah shelling #Zabadani in rural #Damascus with tanks & heavy artillery.

[OUTLAW 09]

Is the actual "echo chamber" really to be found in the Obama WH...when a central decision making process is isolated among themselves this is in the end what we get...absolutely nothing as all the Obama WH and the 700 person NSC hear are themselves reverberating off the walls....when ground reality is totally ignore for the benefit of "legacy" the US FP if there was ever one under this WH simply does not exist.....

EVERYONE needs to seriously read this US Embassy Statement from the Obama Special Envoy to Syria....and then ask yourself ...WOULD you if you had been fighting for five long years for rule of law, good governance and transparency with a genocidal dictator "trust" the US??????

Paraphrasing the statement.....resist Assad and Putin you will get killed, do not resist and you will still get killed BUT you must listen to us and surrender..."so we can have peace in our lifetime"...AND all we will do for you is "talk to Russia".......

https://twitter.com/USEmbassySyria/s...44611277950976

US. Embassy Syria Verified account 
‏@USEmbassySyria
Statement by US Special Envoy for #Syria Michael Ratney to Armed Syrian Opposition Factions:

The United States of America to Syria'n armed opposition: "Yeah,you're being slaughtered but PLEASE don't defend. We will talk to Russia."

Assad has Russia and Iran.
Syrian opposition has this: from the US...do not defend and be killed otherwise accept defeat by Putin and Assad......BUT we are still talking to Russia.....

Empty words & NOTHING since 6 years.
"Peaceful political transition" until you are all killed by Assad & his allies!

If I was a Syrian rebel,I wouldn't know whether to laugh or cry now.
But I would know that I can NOT rely on @POTUS!

Actually if you take the US reactions to the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and what Kerry, Nuland and the Obama WH is saying to Ukraine...hold unilateral appeasement talks with Russia and demand nothing in return BUT hold those "elections" in eastern Ukraine currently occupied by a Russian army of 9,000 and a mercenary army of 30,000.....

Both are the same.

Simple comment...what we are seeing out of this Obama WH, CENTCOM and Kerry when it concerns Syria/IS is simply put a complete farce....and hot air ie "talk"......

Obama is simply covering his tracks with spin and smoke and mirrors due to his full tilt to Iran as the new regional hegemon that he hopes the US public does not pick up on until he is long gone.....

No one on the Syrian opposition side is listening to the US any more........
The #Syria-n Coalition supports faction's decision regarding #CoH truce
http://ow.ly/TcVl300tje8

[OUTLAW 09]

That Richter scale sized explosion was apparently multiple. Looks like the entire Russian u Syrian airfield was destroyed.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36366664 …

4 Russian Mi-24 attack helos, 1 MiG-25 fighter, supply depot destroyed by ISIS artillery fire, says @Stratfor
https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/discerning-damage-crucial-syrian-air-base …

[OUTLAW 09]

So this is what Kerry if up to when he goes to the ISSG Syrian meetings and this is the great example of the Obama WH FP..........??????

French source on the text of the last ISSG meet. “The best in a long while, because it didn’t include a retreat from previous positions.”

A French source tells al-Hayat that the fact the ISSG meet in Vienna didn’t reach any tangible results is *positive*

Why? Bc “it didn’t result in new US concessions to Russia.” Adding, Paris’ goal in these meets is to “limit the damage of US concessions”

In other words, US allies go to these meetings routinely expecting the Obama admin to strengthen the other side; not its allies.

Link to the al-Hayat piece...sorry in Arabic:
http://goo.gl/lXV6Vg

[OUTLAW 09]

Local activists reported Assad/Russia warplanes targeted fuel trucks entered rebel-held Darat Izza #Aleppo killing &injuring several drivers

Iran's Qud Force General Qassem Soleimani overseeing #Fallujah ops with Badr Commanders Hadi al Amiri and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes.
Badr Corp was always IRGC controlled even when the US was in Iraq......

Hope he has more luck than in Khan Tuman were he was sent to boost morale of the Shia militias and IRGC after a bad beating they took.......

Iran's General Soleimani Warns against American's Extensive Presence in Region
http://en.abna24.com/service/iran/archive/2016/05/24/756045/story.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

Another Obama WH smoke and mirrors.......Russia wanted joint air strikes....Obama says no....BUT did he really say no...??????

Russia and US discuss Moscow plan for joint attacks on IS in Syria

http://www.dw.com/en/russia-and-us-discuss-moscow-plan-for-joint-attacks-on-is-in-syria/a-19278673 …


Russia and US discuss Moscow plan for joint attacks on IS in Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry have discussed proposals for joint operations against militants not observing the latest ceasefire. Bombs in Syria killed scores on Monday.

Washington is reportedly lukewarm about a Moscow proposal issued last week that Russia and US-led coalition stage joint air strikes on Syrian rebels, including militant Islamist group Nusra Front.

The content of the talks, held by phone on Monday, were not disclosed.

Bomb blasts on Monday morning killed 148 people and wounded at least 200 in Jableh and Tartous on Syria's Mediterranean coast, Assad's coastal heartland, and a government-controlled territory hosting Russian military bases.

UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the attacks were undertaken by at least five suicide bombers and two devices planted in cars.

The attacks were the first of their kind in Tartous, capital of Tartous province, and home to a Russian naval facility, and in Jableh in Latakia province, near a Russian-operated air base.

Syrian state television said that one of the bombers in Jableh was apparently helping the wounded when he blew himself up.

Stoking sectarian conflict

The coastal region is firmly under government control and hosts hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the conflict inland. Both cities have so far up escaped the worst of the violence in the five-year conflict.

Many locals in the region belong to President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite religious minority, while most of the displaced people are Sunni Muslims from areas where government forces have been clashing with mainly Sunni rebels and jihadists.

So-called "Islamic State" (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks, adding that it had targeted members of the Alawite minority.

Never waste a good crisis

The Kremlin said the bomb blasts added to the case to press ahead with Geneva peace talks after the collapse of a February 27 ceasefire in April.

"This demonstrates yet again just how fragile the situation in Syria is. And this one more time underscores the need for new urgent steps to continue the negotiating process," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his readiness to fight with the Syrian government against "the terrorist threat" and sent his condolences to Assad, the Kremlin said.

[OUTLAW 09]

Raqqa: #YPG militias announced a new offensive to "liberate" #Raqqa (from Sunnis I guess).

CENTCOM Commander does not allow SDF to take Raqqa....just the Kurdish YPG who has already declared Raqqa to be Kurdish when in fact it is Sunni Arab.....

BUT WAIT SDF Arab forces are just a fig leaf to cover YPG as a multiple ethnic group to fulfill some kind of Obama WH echo chamber statements for their own proxy who is suppose to be fighting IS BUT has spent the last five months attacking FSA positions.....

Raqqa: #Syria|n civilians in and around #Raqqa refused to leave their homes and want to fight against #YPG instead.

Breaking News: Democratic Syria Forces (#SDF/QSD) announce beginning of Campaign Northern #Raqqah Liberation

BUT WAIT....SDF only has about 5K in Arab fighters which is nowhere close enough to take on IS directly AND they are being told they cannot take Raqqa...that is supposedly being reserved by the CENTCOM Commander for the YPG which wants to roll it into their own Kurdish territory ALTHOUGH Raqqa is a Sunni Arab town.....

AND we still do not have the Turkish and Saudi responses yet to the CENTCOM plans......

[OUTLAW 09]

US-designated FTO 'Kataib Hezbollah' and #US air force now fighting hand in hand ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZCuHzX3yU …

[CrowBat]

BTW, Outlaw: have you seen this?

On 15 May, Daesh's Amaaq News Agency (https://twitter.com/AmaaqAgency) claimed:

4 Russian attack helicopters and 20 trucks loaded with rockets burn inside #T4 Airbase, east of #Homs, after a fire breaks out nearby.

Today, STRATFOR fired few photos (see attachments below) and a report to the BBC, who then exaggerates with: Islamic State 'destroys Syria airbase' used by Russia (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36366664)

A strategically significant Syrian airbase, used by Russia, appears to have been almost completely destroyed - according to new satellite imagery exclusively seen by the BBC.

The Tiyas facility - near the recently re-captured city of Palmyra in Syria - was repeatedly hit - with the so-called Islamic State presumed to be behind the attack.

Four Russia combat helicopters and around 20 supply trucks were destroyed in the bombardment. It is not clear if any people died.
...
Now, Tiyas (aka T.4) air base was 'not even nearly destroyed'. It's rather one of corners of it was heavily hit and at least four helicopters that were destroyed.

What type of helicopters, and from what service - SyAAF or VKS - remains unclear.

But, there followed THE reaction from Keystone Cops in Moscow (http://tass.ru/en/defense/877805):

All Russian combat helicopters in Syria are performing scheduled tasks and there are no casualties among personnel, Russia’s Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Tuesday. The ministry’s spokesman thus commented on some media reports referring to the US intelligence firm Stratfor that a group of Russian combat helicopters and two dozen trucks had allegedly been destroyed at the Tias airbase in the province of Homs.

"All the Russian combat helicopters staying in the Syrian Arab Republic are performing planned assignments to destroy terrorists. There are no casualties among the personnel of the Russian airbase," the spokesman said. According to the spokesman, "the rumors about the destruction of a group of Russian helicopters and two dozen trucks were created by the propagandists of the ISIL [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] who unsuccessfully tried to ‘sell’ this alleged piece of news about ten days ago."

"As for the photos of the Syrian airbase, the burnt aircraft and motor vehicles, as well as numerous craters created by reactive shell explosions have been present there for more than one month. This is the result of fierce fighting for this aerodrome between the Syrian government troops and militants of terrorist groupings," the general said. "To put aside all the lyrics and speak directly, then, apparently, the spread of such information is ‘the fair share of contribution’ by our partners in the struggle against international terrorism," the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said.

By side that the BBC's 'completely destroyed' is nonsense: one can't expect anything much better from them any more. But, why do I have that 'special feeling' - that the Keystone Cops in Moscow remain insistent on embarassing their uniforms at least as much as Oblabla and his Mentalist are doing whatever is possile to embarass their office...?

[CrowBat]

Here two more, showing another corner of Tiyas AB, i.e. one of supply depots there...

Notable is that even all the vegetation out to 100m away from the place where helicopters were parked is burned out. A 'nice' indication about ferocity of conflagration.

To say 'nobody got hurt there', can't be described as a 'lie' any more. Just 'absurd nonsense'.

[OUTLAW 09]

.@EliLake gets internal Ploughshares emails detailing how the group tried to shape the narrative on Iran
http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-05-24/the-secret-history-of-the-iran-deal-echo-chamber …

Iranian info warfare hard at work inside Iraq now.......
A report from @vocativ on the fake IS document from Fallujah being circulated by Iraqi forces, with comments from me http://www.vocativ.com/321810/alleged-isis-document-outlines-plans-for-doomsday-in-fallujah/ …

Pro-gov't #Afghan Shia militia #Fatemiyoun Brigade #لواء_الفاطميون with a truck mounted IRAM launcher in #Syria.

Jaish Al-Mujahideen today in W. #Aleppo w/ a MANPADS FN-6 but didn't use it vs Assad chopper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fal5U0tWak …

Rebels shelling the most advanced positions of pro-Regime forces in Al Zahra, N. #Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.348384&lon=37.027016&z=14&m …

Newly formed Brigade 203 in the Jaydour area in west rural #Daraa joins Jaish al-Islam

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia desperately wants to be seen as defeating alone IS based on all of their propaganda as the main reason for going into Syria.....

AFP news agency Verified account 
‏@AFP
#BREAKING Russia ready to coordinate with Kurds and US on Raqa offensive: Lavrov


Question is now...will Russia and Assad stand down from attacking FSA which has been attacking IS......????

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage
@SyriaCivilDef in action after a Russian air strike hit a fuel depot N-W of #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4As1k1wURWw …

Footage
US air strikes vs. #ISIS in support of the SDF offensive north of #Raqqa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IZURxmqzs …

BUT WAIT not a single US CAS mission for the entire FSA.......

Footage
SDF prepare north #Raqqa push.
Some troops look like western mil. advisors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asxg13AEADE …

Any idea why @AlJazeera doesn't say a word on Iranian-backed militias taking part in the "Iraqi government forces assault on #Fallujah" ???

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat......what do you think.....??

Some Syrians would be wrong. Badreddine killed by exactly who you'd think would kill him.
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/an-offer-well-worth-refusing …

[OUTLAW 09]

Arab rebel commander re: SDF: “We're like people walking barefoot on a burning surface. It is a forced marriage.”
http://on.ft.com/22nEwMy

SDF attack area north of Raqqa includes the Turkish border...not so sure Turley is going to appreciate CENTCOMs moves here......

SDF said 4 km wide, 15 long area is the objective (for now), which corresponds to this area (al-Hisha) #Syria

SDF: " goal is to ``liberate'' the countryside north of Raqqa", without setting a date for the offensive to capture the city itself." @AP

N-Raqqa Countryside is already under PKK-SDF Occupation
So its a pretty good sign that Raqqa Op is pretty much a Show Off.

Clashes are reported in al-Hisha, and Tal Saman south of it #SDF

Even with this offensive the force that will be both willing and able to capture Raqqa just hasn't been built yet #Syria

There are also reports that 250 additional US Special Forces landed in northern #Syria to participate in the Raqqa offensive

Don't expect the Kurds to pay the heavy price to capture Sunni populated cities such as Raqqa or Mosul #Syria

Official statement by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=WDp4O0Lh6lU …

50,000 SDF fighters are participating in the offensive according to Rudaw

This number is largely exaggerated in my opinion, high estimates are that SDF has 30,000 fighters

The challenge #ISIS *will* pose is launching diversionary attacks - if it can reach #Tartus, it could [theoretically] reach #Afrin.

[OUTLAW 09]

Far too much broad-stroke generalization these days when assessing #Syria’s large opposit’n movements, whether FSA, Jaish al-Islam or Ahrar.

It does nobody - least of all Syrians - any good at all to paint these movements in such a simplistic generalized fashion.

Unfortunately, most generalization is done by those w. little/no 1st-hand contact w. subjects of their assessment, beyond the Internet

Jaish al-Islam is [largely] an E #Damascus-specific, locally rooted Islamist movement whose ideological foundations are highly “Syrian”

Ahrar al-Sham is *very* complex melting pot of #Syria Brotherhood, Syrian Salafism & nationally-focused Salafi-jihadism. It’s not *AQ*

The “FSA” = highly complex movement/brand, constituting an array of politically & militarily varied armed factions. It’s not *a group."

[OUTLAW 09]

Important:
Two US-vetted groups - Faylaq al-Sham & Central Division - have had their respective HQs attacked by car bombs in #Idlib yesterday.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia desperately wants to be seen as defeating alone IS based on all of their propaganda as the main reason for going into Syria.....

AFP news agency Verified account 
‏@AFP
#BREAKING Russia ready to coordinate with Kurds and US on Raqa offensive: Lavrov


Question is now...will Russia and Assad stand down from attacking FSA which has been attacking IS......????

The culmination of #Russia's scheme to draw the US in behind #Assad: once they get US to formally collaborate once …

[OUTLAW 09]

Kyle W. Orton
‏@KyleWOrton
Helping the #PYD expel IS from Kurdish-majority areas was defensible; using them to clear Arab areas is dangerous.

https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2016/02/18/america-picked-the-wrong-allies-against-the-islamic-state/

America Picked the Wrong Allies Against the Islamic State

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on February 17, 2016


Over the last six weeks the regime of Bashar al-Assad—which by this point means in most areas Iranian-run ground forces and Russian air power—have made territorial gains in northern Syria that threaten the existence of the armed opposition in the area. This threat has been compounded by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and allies, which have also drawn on Russian airstrikes to attack the rebellion in the same areas. The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) has made the PYD its main proxy inside Syria—the only force that can call in coalition airstrikes. This policy was obviously flawed given the view of the PYD by necessary anti-ISIS allies like Turkey and the demographic realities of ISIS, which require Sunni Arabs to be able to police their area, and ensure that ISIS begins to look like a protector of Sunnis if Kurds occupy Arab areas; the PYD now attacking the crucial anti-ISIS demographic in alliance with the regime underlines that fact.

The Rebellion Surrounded in Aleppo

On January 12, Salma, an important rebel stronghold in north-eastern Latakia, on the Syrian coast, fell to an ideologically diverse pro-Assad coalition: the Syrian Arab Army, the National Defence Force (the largely-Alawite, Iran-built sectarian militia that has overshadowed the SAA), Mihrac Ural’s al-Muqawama as-Suriya (ostensibly Communist), the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (the irredentist outfit descended from, as its party symbol attests, European fascism), and Iraqi Shiite jihadists under the control of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Latakia offensive was heavily directed by Russian military advisers and possibly included Russian troops. The offensive was carried into Aleppo, where the IRGC-led pro-Assad forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, set their sights on the narrow corridor in the north of the province around Marea and Azaz that kept supplies coming in from Turkey to the rebel enclave in eastern Aleppo city that rules over more than half-a-million people.

The rebels had been struggling to hold the Azaz corridor since the second week of Russia’s intervention, which began on September 30, when Moscow killed hundreds of rebels in Aleppo, clearing the way for ISIS to sweep into areas the rebels had held them out of for years. ISIS’s territorial advances in Aleppo in October 2015 were the largest since their capture of Ramadi and Palmyra five months earlier. This brought the pro-Assad and ISIS frontlines into contact; they made no move against one-another as the Assadists advanced on Azaz.

Meanwhile, the PYD was bearing down on the rebellion from the east. On January 2, the PYD pushed the rebels out of Tanab, a demarcation point between the PYD-held Efrin canton and the rebel-held corridor. The PYD claimed to have defeated Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda in Syria). The rebels were in fact al-Jabhat al-Shamiya (The Levant Front), Ahrar al-Sham, and three Free Syrian Army (FSA)-branded groups: The First Regiment, Division 13, and Division 16. The PYD would often use the Nusra pretext when attacking rebels, where they didn’t outright deny their involvement and claim it was an intra-Arab dispute between PYD-aligned Arab militias like Jaysh al-Thuwar and jihadist-Salafists.

A Deniable Ally

Jaysh al-Thuwar has been flagged as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an American-orchestrated conglomeration into which the PYD folded its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). The YPG was to give the PYD some deniability—originally the YPG was intended to be a broad-based armed formation of all Kurdish factions—but the PYD is undoubtedly still the leader of the YPG and now the SDF, both of which are “front groups for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK,” which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. That the PYD—in any of its iterations—is synonymous with the PKK is currently being denied by both the naïve and those with an agenda to push because the PKK is a registered terrorist organization.

Those with an agenda include the U.S. State Department. After saving the Kurdish city of Kobani in northern Syria went from non-strategic to imperative in the space of two weeks in October 2014, the U.S. fell into an alliance with the PYD, which became the only force in Syria able to call in U.S. airstrikes.

Continued.........

Despite the denials, the PYD/YPG’s own fighters don’t make a secret of their organization’s subservience to the PKK’s command structure. When the U.S.’s envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, Brett McGurk, journeyed to Kobani he met with one of the PYD’s founders, Polat Can, who just happens to be a veteran officer of the PKK. In late January 2016, with Turkey and the PKK back at war, an English-speaking foreign fighter for the YPG was featured in a video calling for more foreign volunteers to either join the YPG or at least carry out terrorist attacks against Turkey. The YPG does not just take orders from the PKK’s leadership in the Qandil Mountains, however. The extent of the PKK’s dominance over the YPG can be seen in the YPG’s self-reported casualty figures: between January 2013 and January 2016, half of the Kurds killed fighting for the YPG came from Turkey.

Peace Talks as Cover for a Military Escalation

On February 3, the pro-Assad coalition succeeded in cutting the rebels’ supply line into Turkey, severing it south of Tel Rifaat, and connecting up with the pro-regime villages of Nubl and Zahra, which had been under incomplete sieges by insurgents essentially since the regime was forced out of northern Rif Aleppo in July 2012. As the Iranian-led pro-Assad coalition moved toward tightening a siege on eastern Aleppo city on the ground, Russia bombarded it from the air. Within days, 70,000 people had fled from Aleppo, many toward Turkey.

Continued......

The proximate cause of this catastrophe was the Geneva III negotiations. It was obvious before the negotiations started that the Assad regime was too strong for negotiations to be meaningful and that swiftly the U.S. was going to be faced with the choice of allowing the collapse of a process it was invested in, or forcing its own side to accept the edicts of the other side.

The U.S. gave a strong indication of which track it was taking when it deliberately weakened the rebel hand in the run-up to these talks—stopping the shipment of TOW anti-tank missiles, among other things—ostensibly on the premise that it would make peace more likely. But—even on the best reading, where the intention was not to help defeat the rebels altogether—this was folly. The U.S. cannot calibrate something like this with any delicacy: it either means to supply enough pressure to force Assad out, or it doesn’t. But more than that: a strategy of weakening what is purportedly your own side would rely on the patrons of the other side doing the same, and they didn’t and never claimed they would. To the contrary: they saw an opening and took it—obviating the need for talks at all, if they succeed. As one Western diplomat put it: “It’ll be easy to get a ceasefire soon because the opposition will all be dead.”

One view is that this is bad negotiating; another view—already prevalent in Syria—is that this is deliberate. If the U.S. allows the destruction of the moderate rebels and lets the pro-Assad coalition make this a binary choice—the dictator or the terrorists—as they have wanted to all along, it won’t matter if the U.S. deliberately ran out the clock on those it claimed to be supporting or is engaged in post-facto rationalization. Everyone saw the U.S.’s pro-Iran tilt, symbolized most acutely by not punishing Assad for the chemical weapons attack, and every Sunni will believe it was a conspiracy—as ISIS has continuously told them.

Continued......

Kurdish forces have proven themselves, in Iraq and Syria, adept at defending their areas. The Iranian-run Shiite militias can clear zones when backed by U.S. air power, but the militias’ performances in Tikrit and Ramadi, during and afterward, including razing villages and mass-expulsion, not only ratifies ISIS’s central premise of a “Crusader-Shiite” anti-Sunni conspiracy against which only ISIS can defend Sunnis, but makes it likely Mosul will consider the current rule of takfirism the lesser-evil compared with the rule of Khomeini’ism. The political price aside, in simple military terms neither Kurdish nor Shiite forces can clear and hold ISIS’s heartlands; for that a Sunni Arab force is needed.

Input is also needed from the Gulf States and Turkey, which see ISIS as a threat, but see Iran and the PKK, respectively, as at least equal threats. A great power needs allies and to maintain world order the U.S. has to enforce the bare minimum foreign policy maxim that its friends are rewarded and its enemies punished. Such a policy is in the U.S.’s interest: the Gulf States and especially Turkey can do far more against ISIS than Iran or the PKK, both of which feed dynamics that make the ISIS problem worse. But to get allies on-side means attending to their needs. In Syria that can be summarized as being committed to the downfall of Assad and not allowing the PKK to control all of Turkey’s border and attack her assets with impunity inside Syria.

At present, the coalition’s policy is actively working against the mobilization of the forces, inside Syria and out, needed to complete its stated mission of destroying ISIS.

[OUTLAW 09]

Reference Russian info warfare against Turkey.......

This is a popular theme in #Russia's #propaganda lately: "Istanbul is a Russian city!"

[OUTLAW 09]

Intense regime air strikes continue to kill and injure civilians trying to drive on Castello Highway, Aleppo's only remaining supply line.

Cynically, #Russia allows and even supports the #ISIS oil to go to #Assad and partially #YPG but calls it terrorism when it goes to rebels.

So you can bet #Afrin/#YPG go either some of the truck loads of oil or cash for letting the tankers pass through it.
That's the way it works

After 2 months #YPG allowed oil fr #Azaz 2pass #Afrin 2 #Idlib
So #Russia bombed the trucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IZURxmqzs …

[OUTLAW 09]

Here two more, showing another corner of Tiyas AB, i.e. one of supply depots there...

Notable is that even all the vegetation out to 100m away from the place where helicopters were parked is burned out. A 'nice' indication about ferocity of conflagration.

To say 'nobody got hurt there', can't be described as a 'lie' any more. Just 'absurd nonsense'.

CrowBat..........

If I was into conspiracy theories I'd say this was a pinpoint attack with precision munition. Astonishing accuracy especially if one is firing surface rockets from a distance.......

CrowBat....thought you might like this Russian mod response to the BBC article......

Russian MoD refutes statement by BBC on the destroyed helicopters at Tiyas. Konashenkov says all combat helicopters perform planned tasks

MAYBE the "performed planned tasks" was catching fire from rocket hits......

BUT then the US DoD is helping protect their fellow Russian MoD counterparts......

US officials also believe it was an accident and not an attack
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/24/russian-attack-helicopters-destroyed-in-syria-us-officials-say-accident-to-blame.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

BGM-71 TOW ATGM in Jabal al-Akrad (Mountains of the Kurds), #Latakia Governorate a few hours ago. #FSA

[OUTLAW 09]

Critical for FSA unity going forward against both Assad and IS....

Jaish al-Islam & Faylaq al-Rahman Signed A Peace Deal In East Of #Ghouta,

We are now seeing the same atrocities being committed against Sunni's by Shia militias in both Iraq and Syria.....

Shia militia Rambo Abu Azrael fight against #IS in #Fallujah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Lx1BpUR-Y …

SAA Republican Guard captured in Jobar #Damascus
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=712_1440786093&comments=1 …

Statement made by a female Kurdish YPG fighter yesterday....
US soldiers fighting with #PKK/#YPG against #IslamicState in northern #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Why does Assad and Putin bomb hospitals? Because, a surgeon from Aleppo told me: "Kill a doctor and you kill thousands."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/36009-in-syria-rebuilding-bombed-hospitals-is-an-act-of-resistance

In Syria, Rebuilding Bombed Hospitals Is an Act of Resistance

Saturday, 14 May 2016 00:00

By Charles Davis


The horror of the conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, can be measured with statistics: over 400,000 people dead; half the population displaced; the life expectancy of a newborn child dropping from 76 years in 2011 to under 56 years in 2016. But the grotesque absurdity of this revolution turned civil war is perhaps best captured by the fact that today Syrians are forced to crowdsource money online to rebuild and fortify bombed hospitals.

"In our worst dreams -- in our worst nightmares -- we never thought we would have to fortify hospitals."

"Now, thanks to this war, we are 10,000 years back and we dig hospitals in the mountains and in the ground," Zaidoun al-Zoabi, head of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations (UOSSM), told me. "In our worst dreams -- in our worst nightmares -- we never thought we would have to fortify hospitals," he said. "It's not humane. It's impossible to comprehend."

Zoabi, a 42-year-old father of three daughters, spoke to me from Berlin, where he fled two years ago. Originally from Daraa, where the initially peaceful uprising against the government of Bashar al-Assad began, he fled when he "couldn't stand anymore the brutality of the regime. Two times in jail was enough for me." Now, like 4.8 million other Syrians, he witnesses the brutality from abroad.

Today, Syria lacks many things, including the democracy Zoabi and thousands of others were arrested and tortured for demanding, but there is no shortage of atrocities.

On April 27, airstrikes on the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo struck Al Quds hospital for at least the third time, killing at least 55 people, including one of the last qualified pediatricians in a city of 300,000 people. Before the strike, two barrel bombs were dropped outside, according to Pablo Marco, Middle East operations manager for Doctors Without Borders, which supported the facility. The third strike came after the victims of those bombs were brought in for treatment, Marco told PBS, suggesting the attack was "staged to provoke the maximum number of citizens killed."

Two days later, airstrikes hit Al-Marjah Primary Healthcare Center, which provided pediatric and gynecological care for residents of eastern Aleppo, Syria's largest city and, before the war, its economic hub. It was the fifth UOSSM-run health care center to be destroyed by the Syrian regime and its allies.

"It was leveled to the ground," Zoabi told me. "We lost two doctors that day. Two doctors means 4 percent of the doctors in eastern Aleppo. We only have 50 doctors inside Aleppo -- and not all at the same time."

I asked if he thought the destruction was on purpose or merely the product of an indiscriminate war where everyone and everything in territory controlled by the other side is fair game.

"There is nothing more systematic in Syria than bombing hospitals, at all, to cut the story short," he said. "When you have two hospitals being targeted [in] Aleppo in the span of one week, this cannot be collateral damage, especially when the bombing is so precise and destructive."

Rebuilding Is a Political Act

But Syrians have no choice: As the world watches from the sidelines -- or, increasingly, from the sky above, with an expanding number of major powers bombing the country as part of an indefinite war on non-state terror -- they must rebuild. But theirs is not the apolitical humanitarianism of an international nongovernmental organization: Building hospitals that are likely to be bombed again is as much an act of resistance as it is a humanitarian necessity, and an extension of the nonviolent activism with which the Syrian revolution began and which continues to exist despite a suffocating media obsession with the self-promoting butchers of ISIS (also known as Daesh).

That the money for such a project is being raised online is a commentary on the failures of our age and international system. It is striking that medical care for those suffering through the most devastating war of the 21st century is being funded by $5 donations from people on Twitter with far more empathy than politicians in Washington, Moscow or Brussels. Because of the time and red tape involved in applying for institutional sources of funding, Zoabi told me his organization had no choice but to turn to the internet. Waiting months for a grant would mean "many people will die."

The inspiring thing is people are not their governments: Seeing a tragedy, they are inspired to act. In under a week UOSSM raised more than $95,000 to rebuild both Al Quds hospital and Al-Marjah Primary Healthcare Center. Zoabi said it would have cost about $65,000 to rebuild both, but that's not an option anymore: If they are to be rebuilt, they must be fortified underground for the sake of those who will be working and treated there, raising the total cost to $100,000.

Abdulaziz Adel, a 50-year-old man from Aleppo, is one of the last surgeons who still works in the opposition-controlled part of the city. He told me the hospital where he spends most of his time has been attacked three times.


"When you have two hospitals being targeted [in] Aleppo in the span of one week, this cannot be collateral damage."

"The hospitals are hit more than military targets," he said, speaking from an airport in Turkey, where a child cried in the background. Ambulances are hit too. Indeed, whether it's a vehicle or a building, anything that's identifiable as providing medical care is ripe for an airstrike, so that staff have now taken to covering up any distinguishing characteristics. Even so, local residents are "always begging us to go away, take your hospital away from us or otherwise we'll be a target."

Adel thinks he knows why people like him are marked for death.

"Kill a doctor and you kill thousands," he said. "We have in Aleppo two or three pediatricians. Imagine that you kill one of them, in a city of more than 300,000. How many babies or children are in the city? One doctor will now have to care for all [of] them. This is a really difficult job, so of course mistakes will be made and patients will lose their lives. It's the same for all other specialties."

Doctors are the target, but the goal is to kill those they treat while making life unlivable for those who are left, or at least that's how the targeted see it.

"It's very simple and easy," Adel told me. "The Syrian people are paying the price of their freedom. This is a personal opinion, of course. Me, myself, I'm talking my own opinion. I'm not neutral anymore. I can't be neutral anymore. I'm sorry."

Like many medical professionals in opposition-controlled Aleppo, Adel goes to Turkey for a week or two each month for respite from the 15-hour workdays in a war zone, but Syria will always be his home.

"I'm very strange," he said when I asked why he keeps going back. "I would like to live and die in my country because it is my country. I hope I will die in my country. It is my duty as a doctor," he told me. "We hope that peace will come, but we will keep struggling until the last moment in time."

No One Is Innocent

No party to Syria's conflict has its hands clean when it comes to killing innocents, be it the Assad government, its Russian allies or the US-led coalition that has been bombing the country since September 2014. On May 3, for instance, three people at a maternity hospital in government-controlled western Aleppo were killed, according to the Guardian, when rebel mortars struck a military vehicle outside the hospital.

All hands are stained with blood, then -- but some are drenched in it. Non-state armed groups have attacked a total of 22 medical facilities in Syria, killing at least 25 medical personnel, according to Physicians for Human Rights. But non-state actors cannot hope to compete with the ghastly firepower of a state backed by a member of the UN Security Council. The Syrian government and its Russian partners have attacked no less than 326 medical facilities during the course of the war, killing 668 medical personnel and counting.

"All too often, attacks on health facilities and medical workers are not just isolated or incidental battlefield fallout," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this month, "but rather the intended objective of the combatants. This is shameful and inexcusable."

His remarks came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution reiterating that what four out of five of its permanent members and their allies have done -- bomb hospitals, from Afghanistan to Syria to Yemen -- is a war crime, though the council took care not to suggest any of those crimes be punished by any of the relevant international bodies.

"Well, that's an achievement," Zoabi told me. "Listen, next time you kill a child, I will really, really shout at you. Shame on the world. That we see such bloodshed, such an ongoing massacre, is a shame on the world."

"It has to stop," he added. "For God's sake it has to stop or we will collapse."


BUT WAIT the Obama WH "echo chamber" did respond.........

Obama advisor @robmalley44 says removing Assad will not be good for Syria.

So I guess the Obama assumption inside his advisors and NSC is..."leaving Assad in power is a great thing for Syria".....

NOW convince me with any argument that this is absolutely not one of the weakest FP Presidents we have seen in now over 70 odd years???

Either he is the weakest or even worse he simply does not care.

[OUTLAW 09]

Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister
Charles Lister Retweeted الرقة تذبح بصمت

Famed anti-#ISIS activists say opposition to #YPG/#SDF offensive towards #Raqqa has pushed civilians to join #ISIS:

Field response from someone who is a well known SME on the Syrian issue.....

"Jesus wept".

THAT is the Obama WH FP hard at work....pushing Syrians who do not support IS to support IS in order to resist being taken captive by a Kurdish YPG which is in fact part and parcel of the US declared terror organization PKK.

BTW the YPG was being carried by the US DoS Terror Center in 2014 as a "terrorist organization" until quietly removed this year from the list......

[OUTLAW 09]

In #Syria’s mangled economy, truckers stitch together warring regions. Excellent WSJ piece:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-syrias-mangled-economy-truckers-stitch-together-warring-regions-1464106368 …?

Cynically, #Russia allows and even supports the #ISIS oil to go to #Assad and partially #YPG but calls it terrorism when it goes to rebels.

So you can bet #Afrin/#YPG go either some of the truck loads of oil or cash for letting the tankers pass through it.
That's the way it works

Most probably way of the oil trucks before #Russia hit them n Darat Izza.
#Assad,#rebels & #YPG rely on "#ISIS oil".

After 2 months #YPG allowed oil fr #Azaz 2pass #Afrin 2 #Idlib
So #Russia bombed the trucks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IZURxmqzs …

[OUTLAW 09]

Sergeant Major with Assad's presidential guard that was captured yesterday in #Jobar, #Damascus

WHSummit Verified account 
‏@WHSummit
Until we hear the hum of peace, the world needs more beautiful collaborations like @DivanOrchestra.

While @WHSummit delegates enjoy concert, #Daraya continues 2 starve. Let's focus on what matters.

Some serious truth in this comment....
"When Assad jets are over Raqqa, the safest place to be is an ISIS HQ; it won't be bombed"

[OUTLAW 09]

2 dozen pro Regime Shiite forces killed during failed assault on Khan Thouman in southern outskirts of #Aleppo

Appears all that new Obama WH "echo chamber hype" about the impending capture of Raqqa the IS defacto capital with the excellent trained and US SOF lead Kurdish YPG seems to have forgotten that IS still has a say in the fighting.....

That happens when the "echo chamber" sits in DC.....

IS killed dozens of YPG forces in northern Raqqa with vehicle bombs
& US conducted 50 airstrikes on this area

BUT WAIT...not a single US CAS flown for the FSA who is also fighting IS on multiple fronts not just in Raqqa.....and has been far longer than YPG has existed.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Those Obama WH "Iranian moderates are at it again".......

Hardliner elected as head of Iran's top clerical body due to tap #Khamenei successor

[OUTLAW 09]

Latest plan for "liberating Raqqa" is just replacing one occupier with another-Syrian Democratic Forces are more ISIS-like than ISIS itself!


Another critical comment coming out of KSA about the Obama WH.....

This admin is ready to do and say anything to save a worthless deal.

AND then this.....

"The [Obama] admin is now dangerously close to becoming Iran’s trade promotion and business development authority.”

AND then this.....
Bashar al-Assad is #Iran’s redline," says Velayati, in case someone, somewhere, didn't get the message http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/402765/Velayati-says-Iran-won-t-allow-Syria-s-disintegration …

Saudi comment.......

What does their redline mean? What more can the mullahs do which they haven't already done?

[CrowBat]

CrowBat......what do you think.....??

Some Syrians would be wrong. Badreddine killed by exactly who you'd think would kill him.
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/an-offer-well-worth-refusing …
AFAIK, Russians are simply not able of running such ops in Syria.

They couldn't kill Alloush either: it was the SyAAF that flew that air strike (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/net-centric-warfare-whas-tom-cooper?trk=mp-author-card).

[OUTLAW 09]

Car bomb explodes near gas station between Bab al-Salama & Azaz in north rural #Aleppo, civilian casualties reported. #ISIS suspect as usual

Assad airstrikes also on Heila in rural #Idlib & road between Jabata & Hamidiya in rural #Quneitra, #Syria

Renewed Assad airstrikes on Castello Road, Babis, Hawr & Kafour in #Aleppo & its countryside

ANHA report of Assad airstrikes & artillery targeting Sheikh Maqsoud in #Aleppo today h/t @alkaraki10 http://www.hawarnews.com/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%81-%D8%AD%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%AF/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter …

Prepping schools in Latamna, rural #Hama for students to return. Nothing is safe when Russian/Assad jets are above!

Tajamu Fastaqim vid on defending the gateway to #Aleppo in Handarat & Sheikh Maqsoud (Arabic)
https://youtu.be/bUu74UH5gD8

Deir Ezzor: reports that ISIS has executed all doctors & nurses it captured from hospital operating in Assad held area

[OUTLAW 09]

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
US commander: IS may be reverting back to old terrorist tactics
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/77e5dd53728d40a88bfc9f024b51a9e8/us-commander-islamic-state-may-be-reverting-its-roots …
exactly what I wrote in Mar 2016.

ISIS suicide attacks likely to increase as it loses territory in Iraq & Syria - @hxhassan:
http://cht.hm/1TwhVYr

[OUTLAW 09]

Woman and child killed in #Assad airforce airstrike on Kansafra #Idleb today.
https://youtu.be/DinKfbXA0sI

[OUTLAW 09]

Today 4 yrs ago, Assad militia slaughtered 110 civilians including 32 children with knives in #Houla massacre #Homs

Groups of Houla children were killed together, ‘some by imploding their skulls,’ others by cutting their throats, stabbed or shot dead

A UN investigation itself concluded that the “government” & those “aligned” with it were responsible for the Houla Massacre.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia & #Syria'n regime conducted 40 airstrikes on #Aleppo's northern outskirts -also dozens in the southern rural

BUT WAIT.......

So #Russia official stop temporary airstrikes on Nusra Front in #Syria according to Defense Ministry

Appears that the Russian MoD is caught lying again as usual....

[OUTLAW 09]

The #Russia|n army. Begin renovating #Palmyra Airport In preparation for the establishment of a new Russian military base in the area #Syria

100Afghans of #IRGC's Fatemiun in training camp in Syria,led by Iranian Sadrzadeh.Full 4:20':
https://www.facebook.com/persian.war.news/videos/1749113122012584/ …

IS regained control of Tall al Sawwan near Al Sha'er field

Even with US 250 SOF boots on the ground with SDF...it will not be a walk in the park.....

Raqqah : After battle raged for several hours, #IS seem to have reppelled #SDF assault on Al Hishah

Raqqah : a #IS car bomb reportedly killed 35 #SDF members near Al Hishah

Miraculous: Two Syrian kids pulled alive from rubble after being buried following today's heavy strikes on Hreitan.

[OUTLAW 09]

This @HouseForeign hearing is basically a series of specific admissions that Obama administration misled Congress to sell the Iran deal.

Last July @SenBobCorker predicted admin backtrack on ISA/new sanctions, which happened today
http://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/chair/release/corker-warns-iran-could-effectively-block-future-sanctions-under-nuclear-deal …
https://twitter.com/rolltidebmz/status/735493068393218048 …

Just so everyone's clear: this is admin saying Congress can't extend sanctions that are (a) existing (b) non-nuclear https://twitter.com/WSJSolomon/status/735498696201117698 …

@RepEdRoyce wants to know why the administration is suddenly so blase about allowing Iran access to the dollar via offshore schemes.

RepEdRoyce catches Szubin trying to hide the ball on Iranian access to the dollar, and calls him out for it @HouseForeign

.@HouseForeign wrap-up:

- Iran deal prevents Congress from extending non-nuclear sanctions

- 0 new human rights designation since

[OUTLAW 09]

No significant advance on #IS held #Raqqa by #SDF today

They basically got kicked hard despite endless air support

More than 35 airstrikes & 50 barrel bombs on Haritan & Andan by Assad & allies. Rumours of jet being shot down

Assad regime Colonel Ali Deeb Yousif killed in Tartous explosions

Aleppo: Rebels kill up to at least 25 pro Assad fighters in Khan Touman & Rashideen

Assad regime war criminal responsible for massacres Ihab Tawfiq Sultana now in Germany as a "refugee"

[OUTLAW 09]

This is what happens when Obama empowers Shia extremists in Iraq. They're threatening US now & Saudi he's basically saying they don't just plan to take Fallujah but continue to Saudi Arabia & onwards.

Iraqi Shia militias have taken initially a heavy beating in their first attack on Fallujah......just as the SDF and the Shia militias which joined them did in their first attacks on IS near Raqqa....

[OUTLAW 09]

Look who's joining so called "SDF" to recapture Raqaa. Iranian militias! Obama's agenda is dangerously sectarian

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.....any idea of what the heck is ongoing right now?????

As Russia says its suspending airstrikes against Syrian opposition, regime planes bomb Syrian Kurds. What's up?

Rojava Defense Units
‏@DefenseUnits
Breaking: #Syria regime planes & artillery since 12 local time have started random bombardment on multiple places in #SheikhMaqsoud, #Aleppo

While the assaults have destroyed several buildings in residential areas, there is yet no clear report on civilian casualties #SheikhMaqsoud

[OUTLAW 09]

Did not realize Fallujah was central to protecting Shiism. The things the IRGC has to teach us all...

Beyond The Levant
‏@BeyondTheLevant
Advisor to Soleimani - "Iran entered Fallujah to protect its role as the center of Shiism [meaning its borders]"

[OUTLAW 09]

Senior IRGC officials turn out for #Mustafa_Badreddine mourning ceremony in Tehran, also attended by Mustafa's son

Every blood vessel in Badreddine's body burst. One hell of a missile.

[OUTLAW 09]

Assad feared most a nationalist, peaceful opposition: worked to bolster violent sectarians.
http://bit.ly/1Nn51cA

First of the series of atrocities (Qubair, Tremseh, Haswiya, Bayda) by which #Assad willfully inflamed sectarianism.

[OUTLAW 09]

Cluster bombing of Al-Lataminah, Hama by warplanes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDCM-Bphui8 …

[CrowBat]

CrowBat.....any idea of what the heck is ongoing right now?????

As Russia says its suspending airstrikes against Syrian opposition, regime planes bomb Syrian Kurds. What's up?

Rojava Defense Units
‏@DefenseUnits
Breaking: #Syria regime planes & artillery since 12 local time have started random bombardment on multiple places in #SheikhMaqsoud, #Aleppo

While the assaults have destroyed several buildings in residential areas, there is yet no clear report on civilian casualties #SheikhMaqsoud
Two days ago, the Fateh Halab Operations Room (FH, various Islamists and FSyA units inside Aleppo) negotiated an agreement with the PYD/YPG (https://twitter.com/Aleppo_Free2/status/735124831822315521), stipulating the latter to open supply routes via (Kurdish held) Efrin enclave for Syrian insurgents.

Even the Jaysh at-Thuwar (which is meanwhile little more but a gang of YPG-controlled, fiercely 'anti-everybody' ex-FSyA groups) announced (https://twitter.com/jabhetakrad/status/735205187594387456) that they would open a 'humanitarian corridor' from Shahba in Efrin to Idlib.

Guess, the PYD (and the JAT) simply concluded it's better for them to cash a cut from truck-drivers passing the area it controls than go fighting FSyA in Azaz pocket, after all...

Regime and Russians 'don't like', so they're now bombing all over the place. Russians along the Castello Road, Regime even the densely populated (by Kurds) Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo.

Overall, 'nothing special' in this war. People are struggling to survive, regime and Russians are struggling to kill people. 'Everything as usual' since 2011.

[CrowBat]

Assad feared most a nationalist, peaceful opposition: worked to bolster violent sectarians.
http://bit.ly/1Nn51cA

First of the series of atrocities (Qubair, Tremseh, Haswiya, Bayda) by which #Assad willfully inflamed sectarianism.
An absolute must-read, especially for all those day-dreaming about Assad and Iranians 'fighting Daesh', being 'lesser evil' and similar nonsense.

[OUTLAW 09]

Two days ago, the Fateh Halab Operations Room (FH, various Islamists and FSyA units inside Aleppo) negotiated an agreement with the PYD/YPG (https://twitter.com/Aleppo_Free2/status/735124831822315521), stipulating the latter to open supply routes via (Kurdish held) Efrin enclave for Syrian insurgents.

Even the Jaysh at-Thuwar (which is meanwhile little more but a gang of YPG-controlled, fiercely 'anti-everybody' ex-FSyA groups) announced (https://twitter.com/jabhetakrad/status/735205187594387456) that they would open a 'humanitarian corridor' from Shahba in Efrin to Idlib.

Guess, the PYD (and the JAT) simply concluded it's better for them to cash a cut from truck-drivers passing the area it controls than go fighting FSyA in Azaz pocket, after all...

Regime and Russians 'don't like', so they're now bombing all over the place. Russians along the Castello Road, Regime even the densely populated (by Kurds) Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo.

Overall, 'nothing special' in this war. People are struggling to survive, regime and Russians are struggling to kill people. 'Everything as usual' since 2011.

CrowBat.......it appears that since the last series of massive Assad ground defeats the main actors.....Assad, Putin, Khamenei, YPG and Hezbollah have in fact "lost the plot".......the US has never even found the "plot" and the only FSA and IS appear to fully understand the "plot".....
which is causing the Turks and Saudi's to hold back trying to figure out who is on 1st base and who is heading to third base before they make any moves militarily.

[OUTLAW 09]

Dear @CJTFOIR,
Are you aware of the fact that you bomb for #Iran's al-Quds force regulars around #Fallujah now??

[OUTLAW 09]

Assad's air force is targeting #Hama' northern countryside with cluster bombs.
Several hours ago Assad forces targeted Misraba in eastern Ghouta with cluster munition rockets, no reports of casualties.

Protest against #PYD violations in #Amude calling to stop child recruitment

Reports of clashes between rebels & regime forces on the Bayanoun & Tamoura fronts in north rural #Aleppo, #Syria

From yesterday......
Reports now of an Assad MLRS attack on Tamana’a in south rural #Idlib, #Syria

Dozens of dead pro Assad forces reaching Tartous from Al Jeed in Sahl al Ghab

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia and Kerry...working for the same exact FP goals...the destruction of the anti Assad opposition????

Russia has “delayed” its initiation of airstrikes vs. #Syria’s opposition groups it assesses remain involved in Jabhat al-Nusra fronts.

Paired with the recent statement by US Envoy Ratney to #Syria’s armed opposition, this reads as a final warning “before it’s too late."

Civilians in #Syria rely on connections within Jabhet Al Nusra to get prisoners released rather than the political process

[OUTLAW 09]

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
US Treasury documented #Iran-#Qaeda deal to allow AQ network to operate in #Iran, IS says it obeyed AQC's orders not to attack Iran.

The #Iran-based al-Qaeda network operates to this day, supplying AQ in #Syria (Jabhat al-Nusra), which Tehran is fighting on the ground.

[OUTLAW 09]

If AQ and IS can have an open publicly carried debate on which strategy will or will not work and both AQ and IS drive on defined campaign plans....HOW is it that the Obama WH has tap danced around the lack of any strategy for nearly eight years now??

BTW...seriously reflect on what is being said as to how they define a "tactical or strategic defeat".......sobering.....

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
Looking at this month's two key statements issued by Al Qaeda and ISIS two weeks apart

http://timep.org/commentary/threats-from-two-fronts-al-qaeda-and-is-define-their-strategies/

Threats from Two Fronts: Al-Qaeda and IS Define Their Strategies

By: Hassan Hassan

05-25-2016


In the space of two weeks, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State released separate audio statements that merit comparison. Both statements center on Syria as the emerging nucleus of global jihad, each marking a new way its respective organization operates or sees its long-term future. Each message includes an explicit attack on the other group, a sign that differences between the two are deepening, contrary to speculation that the twin giants of global jihadism might begin to cooperate as they face common enemies in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

On May 8, al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, mocked the Islamic State as a false caliphate—“the caliphate of Ibrahim al-Badri,” using the real name of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This marked the first time Zawahiri has spoken so aggressively against the group in public; he previously rejected the Islamic State as illegitimate but refrained from outright ridicule. Last August, Zawahiri urged fellow jihadists of all inclinations to refrain from attacking each other in public or making statements that deepen division. “We once conquered the world with our media,” he said in August. “Today, their media has divided us.”

In a statement on Saturday, Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani returned the favor by calling Zawahiri “the fool of the Muslim community,” rather than “the sage of the Muslim community,” his epithet among al-Qaeda supporters. Adnani, whose real name is Taha Subhi Fallaha, dedicated much of the recording to attacking al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra, its franchise in Syria, accusing them of working with apostates and compromising sharia principles.

A key theme in the two recordings is that each group claims its approach is more effective than the other’s. Al-Qaeda’s leader sounded more assured than in previous statements about how his organization has avoided the fate of the Islamic State by working closely with other groups and making it hard for Western powers to justify an all-out war against it. Zawahiri seemed less defensive about the fact that his group did not announce an Islamic state, in contrast to previous messages (especially in the wake of the Islamic State’s military and administrative successes in 2014 and 2015).

Adnani indicated that his group would not alter its approach despite territorial losses. “We will not beg people to accept the religion of God or to govern according to his sharia,” he said. “To those who accept it, this is God’s sharia. To those who hate it, complain about it, or reject it, we will force it down their throats, and this is God’s religion. We will excommunicate apostates and distance ourselves from them. We will show enmity and hatred to the infidels and polytheists… even if crops are wiped out, homes are demolished, honors are violated, souls are annihilated, or blood is shed.”

With Jabhat al-Nusra as his focus, Zawahiri’s remarks indicated that al-Qaeda is settled on its current strategy of acting as a wasati (middle-way) jihadi movement. Although he did not use the term in this recording, the middle-way theme has factored prominently in the discourse of al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, especially since the eruption of the Arab uprisings in 2011. Al-Qaeda seeks to synchronize the work of its franchises ideologically and strategically while working closely with local forces. In other words, it wants its local representatives to act more assertively as al-Qaeda but with closer cooperation with grassroots players.

Adnani, on the other hand, emphasized that territorial losses in Syria and Iraq should not be mistaken for a strategic defeat. He claimed that between 2004 and 2005, his group had just dozens of members, “fluctuating above and below one hundred,” and still survived against the American troops stationed in Iraq at the time. He said the group was driven out of all the Iraqi towns in which it once operated and withdrew to the desert by members of the Awakening, the U.S.-backed popular insurgency against the group that began in 2005. From the desert, Adnani claimed, the group waged a war of attrition against the Awakening militias. A seven-year insurgency then culminated in the Islamic State taking over a third of Iraq and establishing itself as the only major Sunni militia in Iraq.

“Do you think, America, that defeat is by the loss of towns or territory?” he said. “Were we defeated when we lost the cities in Iraq and retreated to the desert without a city or a land? Will we be defeated and you win if you’ve taken Mosul, Sirte, Raqqa, or all of the cities and we returned as we were the first time around? No, defeat is when we lose the will and desire to fight…. We are now many, many times stronger than we were at the beginning of your war against us. We march forward with steady steps while you stumble with a failed strategy.”

There is a dangerous tendency in media to portray the Islamic State’s losses as the beginning of the end for the group. The U.S.-led campaign has reduced the organization’s strength from its high point in 2014-15, but the group will continue to be a major actor in Syria and Iraq for the foreseeable future, especially given the deteriorating situations in the two countries politically, economically, socially, and in numerous other respects. The future of the Islamic State depends on how effectively the two countries deal with the issues that fostered the Islamic State’s growth in the first place. As one American official put it recently, the campaign against IS may have been “disastrously successful” in that military gains against the group are ahead of the political, economic, and social changes which are essential to root out the organization.

A noticeable surge in the group’s suicide operations—steadily increasing from 54 in November 2015 to 112 in March—also lends credence to Adnani’s statement. The number went down to 83 in April, almost half of them in Anbar, before a multi-front offensive over two weeks throughout May to mark the killing of al-Baghdadi’s deputy, Abu Ali al-Anbari, by a U.S. airstrike in Deir Ezzor in March. Additionally, the Islamic State’s reach inside its enemies’ strongholds does not seem to have diminished. The group has recently carried out suicide operations inside areas it previously could not infiltrate, such as in Baghdad, Sadr City, Damascus, Kurdish-controlled Tal Abyad in northern Syria, and most recently in the Alawite strongholds of Tartus and Jableh in western Syria. The attacks in all of those areas follow improved security indicators as a result of the U.S. and Russian interventions. The attacks in western Syria, in particular, are ominous: The Islamic State’s territory is nowhere near those areas, which renders control of territory less critical for its ability to strike in a devastating manner.

The events of the past two weeks should serve as a wake-up call to regional and world powers about the collective danger of two competing models. Both al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are doubling down on their own methods of terrorism and insurgency, as they illustrated in their statements and the Islamic State’s coordinated attacks in Latakia and Tartus. The two groups are unlikely to cooperate against their opponents, but they can still inflict lasting damage to regional order and international peace.

[OUTLAW 09]

http://newsweekme.com/casus-belli

Are Turkey and Saudi Arabia weighing military options in Syria?

BY Michael Stephens and Omar Mohamed


After five years of continuously worsening conflict in Syria, the chances of any decisive outcome are bleak at best. The superpowers and their allies continue to dither at the negotiating table, exacerbating the conflict and the misery of millions of Syrians.

The country is rapidly fragmenting. Nearly 470,000 have died in the conflict, according to the most recent Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) estimate. With ceasefires rapidly collapsing across the country, the prospects for Syria look grim.

The complexity of the conflict in Syria is almost too difficult to grasp. Today, there are dozens and dozens of rebel groups fighting the regime and its backers. Iran has its own troops on the ground, not including the thousands of sectarian militia-men it has sent to the war ravaged country. In the north, Syrian Kurds seek their own slice of land, to the chagrin of both regime and opposition forces. Meanwhile the forces of Daesh still control vast areas of central and eastern Syria.

But in this whirlpool of complexity, the axis of Saudi Arabia and Turkey has become the one to watch. Increasingly impatient with the lack of results on the ground, both nations have publicly contemplated entering into the fray to settle the conflict once and for all. The allies are said to have conducted four joint military trials in just five months.

In the midst of these discussions, it is important to consider whether any Riyadh-Ankara led intervention can produce the changes on the ground that could bring an end to years of stalemate—and forge a lasting peace. Does either nation possess the requisite firepower, or indeed the political willpower to see such an intervention through to a conclusion? What would such an intervention entail and what would the goals, costs and likely outcomes of such an intervention be?

The ongoing military campaign in Yemen (where Saudi Arabia heads a coalition of nations fighting against a Houthi insurgency, backed by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh) may provide some clues as to how a potential Syrian military intervention would take shape.

The 15-month long conflict has provided some vital lessons and experience to the Gulf militaries. The scale of the war in Yemen, as well as the human toll it has taken on both sides, has provided many units operating on the Kingdom’s southern border and within Yemen with significant experience in combatting guerrilla-type warfare. And although the price paid in casualties has been high, particularly for Border Guard units, Saudi Airborne units and artillery battalions of the Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) have proved to be very effective. By regional standards, Saudi Arabia has one of the best-equipped forces and is also the second largest operator of Apache helicopters in the world, which if utilized properly provides for effective close air support, with the additional value of eliminating the inaccuracies of high altitude air strikes.

Ultimately some tough—although much needed—lessons have been learned over the past 15 months. And while the air campaign in Yemen has come in for heavy scrutiny and criticism, the performance of land-based forces has been substantially better. Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) forces led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE demonstrated an effective capability in joint operations warfare in the initial reconquest of Aden in July 2015. Furthermore, the coordination on the ground between the Gulf states coalition and forces loyal to President Hadi, including the southern resistance, effectively removed Houthi and Saleh forces from the city in a decisive manner.

With only a few thousand troops currently stationed on the Yemen border, on paper at least, Saudi Arabia is capable of conducting sustained military operations on multiple fronts. As with Yemen, any military deployment would require a heavy reliance upon special forces, backed up by small tactical units from other branches. For the time being however, it seems sensible to assume that Saudi special forces would operate alongside Turkish units, using the current Command and Control (C4I) facilities available at Turkish bases at Incirlik, Malatya and Diyarbakir to coordinate close air support if required.

As Saudi Arabia has stated on multiple occasions, the main aim of any military intervention would be to first target Daesh, though this has changed recently to include a “Plan B” for the potential removal of Bashar Al Assad. Quite whether this could be achieved or not is contentious, but there is no doubt that the Gulf still considers a military option against Assad as available.
The three main goals and desired end for a Saudi-Turkish military intervention would be: firstly to raise the stakes for Russia and Iran, in effect forcing them to either escalate or seriously enter negotiations with a view to stopping the conflict and saving lives. Secondly, to defeat Daesh or greatly roll them back and weaken them to the point where they present little strategic threat. Thirdly, to create enough political space and battlefield advantages for the rebel groups they back, so that they are able to regain lost territory, affording them a stronger bargaining position at any future negotiation table.

But Saudi Arabia and Turkey need to carefully consider the costs of their proposed intervention. For the Kingdom, an Iran-Assad victory—that would be defined by Riyadh as the survival of Assad’s regime, bolstered by the presence of Iranian military and proxy groups in country—would be a serious blow for Saudi Arabia’s strategic goals in the region. It would forever place the Syrian government under the orbit of Iran, and that, in turn, would also affect Saudi interests in Lebanon, and weaken its alliance structures across the region; a scenario that must be avoided at all costs. But the costs of intervening involve the risk of a direct altercation with either Iranian troops, or even worse, Russian. This could seriously escalate the conflict to the point of uncontrollable war between states. Neither Riyadh, nor Moscow would welcome such an escalation of course, and so it could potentially be managed by way of sensible diplomacy. But the risks are great, and there is no guarantee that a limited intervention would not escalate into a far greater conflagration.

Additionally there are immense difficulties for Saudi and Turkish troops once they have established a presence in country. Coordinating military operations with the various competing militias and their competing military goals is destined to lead to confusion and potential cross purposes. There would need to be direct external military control over all groups operating in the area. Furthermore if Turkish-Saudi led forces begin to sustain casualties, there will be an inevitable domestic call for strategic clarity and a victory that may be difficult to achieve. Consequently, mission creep could very quickly take over, in which Saudi Arabia and Turkey become bogged down in the Syrian quagmire simply so they do not lose face.

For Turkey, geography has dealt them a bad hand. Millions of refugees from the conflict strain Turkish resources and continue to pass on through to other countries providing other pressures on Turkish politics. In addition to facing daily shelling attacks on the border town of Kilis, the Turkish army has already engaged in artillery exchanges with the Syrian army, as well as the Kurdish YPG forces. In 2012 a Turkish F4 was shot down by Syrian air defences, and Ankara is still contending with the political consequences of shooting down a Russian fighter bomber last year. Turkey understands the costs of military escalation better than anybody, and the stakes are even higher for Ankara than they are for Riyadh. In truth, there are no longer good options on the table for Turkey. Military escalation is fraught with risk, but the price of doing nothing has also laden Turkey with unbearable security risks, both internal and external. It is difficult to see how Ankara can stand by and do nothing for much longer.

But the operation would have to take place under the watchful gaze of the U.S. although unlike the Yemen operations, in which U.S. and U.K. personnel sit in the coalition command and operations room assisting with targeting and strike coordination, it is doubtful that any military operations in Syria that do not target Daesh would receive any assistance. This despite repeated calls from U.S. allies in Syria that they are not receiving enough aid or military support to be able to conduct operations effectively.
Given Washington’s lacklustre attitude, both Ankara and Riyadh would have to weigh up the implications of operating without U.S. support in a highly complex theatre, which lessens the attractiveness of longer term military deployment.

With all these difficulties in mind, it is worth remembering that the cost of inaction is still high. It is an anathema that Assad, sitting safely in Damascus, may end up stonewalling negotiations indefinitely, all the while claiming to fight terrorism, yet doing little to fight Daesh, and overseeing the further destruction of Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey do possess a military option to force Assad back to the table, but it is risky and could potentially backfire badly. Ultimately, it may be that Riyadh and Ankara temper their ambitions to a small territorial deployment around northern Aleppo for the time being, before assessing whether any further military gains are possible.

[OUTLAW 09]

Shift on Syrian Constitution Could Help Assad Survive
https://shar.es/1dxSX9

A new Russian-American plan would abandon support for a nationally-drafted constitution and all but rule out a true transitional period.


In late March, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced while meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow that the US and Russia would work together to draft a new constitution for Syria with an August deadline. No further official information has been given about this plan, but the timing of the announcement and deadline marks a shift in the terms of the Syria peace talks – namely, that a true transitional period might no longer be endorsed by the international powers involved in the conflict.

As the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), co-chaired by the US and Russia, meets again in Vienna, this makes it even more likely that President Bashar al-Assad would remain part of any new Syrian government.Previously, negotiations over a new constitution were not meant to start until agreement on a transitional government had been reached. Since the 2012 Geneva communique, the implied sequence for a peace settlement had been that an inclusive transitional governing body with full executive powers would be formed, followed by a review of the constitutional order and legal system on the basis of a national dialogue process.

This was affirmed in the ISSG’s November 2015 Vienna communique and a month later in UN Security Council Resolution 2254.The main sticking point about a peace settlement between the war’s external parties had been whether Assad could remain during a transitional period, not (at least ostensibly) on whether or not that transitional period would ever occur. Following Kerry’s Moscow announcement, a well-placed source claims that White House Advisor Robert Malley and Russian Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev are meeting privately in Switzerland to hammer out a draft new constitution based on a document authored in Damascus and then submitted to the Russians. Meanwhile, the Geneva Syrian peace talks which most recently concluded on 27 April have made no progress on agreeing the terms and timeframe for establishing a transitional government.

Constitutional principles a key requirement for a new Syrian government or governing body to be authentically ‘transitional’ is for it to have the mandate to oversee a constitutional review process through which a national reassessment of Syria’s governance and social contract can occur.

If a Russian-American drafted constitution is put on the table at Syrian peace talks later this year, it will mean that this defining element of a post-settlement transitional process is effectively no longer endorsed by the international backers on either side of this civil war.

Adopting a new constitution does not on its own equate to a transition having occurred. In fact, within the war’s first year a new Syrian constitution was drafted in Damascus and approved in a referendum with nearly 90 per cent of the vote.

Not only are there many criticisms of that referendum’s legitimacy, but the war’s subsequent escalation and continuation demonstrate that a new constitution was by no means a transition.The opposition has also argued after Kerry’s March announcement that discussion of a constitution is premature. High Negotiations Committee spokesman Salem Muslat affirmed in April that ‘the real agenda should start with the fully-empowered transitional governing authority and discussion of Assad’s role. Discussion of the constitution comes later.’

Rather, Muslat maintained, a future transitional authority would call for a general national conference. At this conference, a constituent assembly would be formed and tasked with drafting a new constitution. Others have proposed an alternative plan whereby once a transitional governing body is agreed, an international resolution would set out constitutional principles – not a new constitution – that would provide legitimacy and a legislative framework for the transitional period.Redefining transitional governanceIf the international powers involved in Syria’s war have moved away from endorsing the constitutional review element of a transitional process, this is yet another signal that the ISSG’s approach to a settlement for Syria is increasingly resembling the regime’s position on the issue.

As others have pointed out, the UN mediator’s summary of the latest round of Syrian talks implies that the institution of the presidency would continue during the transitional period. This effectively means that Bashar al-Assad would remain president during at least part of a transitional period, as US and UK leaders have also hinted at over the last year.

The well-placed source from the Switzerland talks also alleges that mediators are considering the creation of presidential deputy posts to be filled from among the opposition and allocated on a sectarian basis, serving under President Assad – i.e. a version of a national unity government.The provisions contained in this draft constitution indicate that the president would be elected by parliament and that only Syrians residing in the country, who are more likely to be pro-regime, could vote for parliamentary representatives, according to the same source.

This would mean that millions of refugees, who are more likely to be anti-regime, would not have a say in the election of the president.The anti-regime regional powers, primarily Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who previously had been pushing back on this sort of shift are increasingly tied up with other regional conflicts that have escalated in the last year.

Meanwhile, the upcoming American presidential elections could be a strong incentive for the White House to push for demonstrating some sort of achievement in Syria by the autumn. Redefining ‘transitional governance’ and pushing through a new constitution could serve this purpose in their eyes, particularly if regional powers are persuaded to concurrently reduce their support to the warring parties within Syria. However, abandoning the plan for a new constitution to be drafted, not just voted on, by means of a national process is likely to leave millions of Syrians at home and abroad believing that the conflict has not been resolved.

YET this is the daily ground reality and not a single word is said by either Kerry and or the Obama WH......

Two kids pulled alive from rubble, one still clutching her doll, after an airstrike on rebel-held area in Syria.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vDahN6tv1dA&feature=youtu.be …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Naval Express on the move......

ВМФ #ЧФ BSF Pytlivy 868 departed the Black Sea 06:30Z & transits southbound Bosphorus en route to the Mediterranean

ВМФ #ЧФ BSF Pytlivy pennant number recently was changed from 808 to 868.

Russian sailors are in their blue hot weather uniforms with pilotka hats on #ВМФ Pytlivy. Note the sniper aft ship

[OUTLAW 09]

This is the direct result of a total lack of any national level strategic strategy by this Obama WH for Syria, IS and the ME in general other than a full scale tilt towards Iran and Russia as the regional hegemons invalidating 70 odd years of US ME FP....

YET this is the daily Syrian ground reality and not a single word is said by either Kerry and or the Obama WH......or anything from his personal "spin doctor Rhodes"...not sure just what he would "spin anyway".....

Two kids pulled alive from rubble, one still clutching her doll, after an Russian/Assad airstrike on rebel-held area in Syria.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vDahN6tv1dA&feature=youtu.be …

BTW.....reference the Syrian CD unit working in this video...their leader was to receive a major humanitarian award for their efforts for working to save ALL Syrians and yet the Obama Homeland Security detained and sent him back AFTER the US DoS issued a valid entry visa to him...explain that one to anyone in the ME...that is just how bad the failures of the Obama WH have become....

BTW....the Syrian CD White Hats have been repeatedly and deliberately hit with Russian and Assad "double tap" air strikes......on first responders...AND not much was said by the Obama WH unless it made the US MSM.....and they were forced to say something.

[OUTLAW 09]

Seems twitter is again suspending accounts making fun of #Russia n regime. .@SovietSergey & .@AmbYakovenkoNot down https://twitter.com/RusEmbassyNot/status/735420039638188032 …

[OUTLAW 09]

No issues between the EU and Russia that can't be resolved, Putin says in an article for Greek newspaper.
http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/51997 …

BUT WAIT there are some small things like the military annexation and changing borders ie Crimea and eastern Ukraine and the massive killing via air strikes of Syrian civilians via bombing of residential areas, hospitals, critical civilian infrastructure and the supporting of Assad's use of CW and starvation....

BUT hey we can at least talk about the problems for the next 50 odd years or so......

BUT WAIT then this appears.......

Russia shops tank for urban warfare. Also, cannon for destroying tanks.
http://sputniknews.com/military/20160524/1040189024/russia-urban-warfare-tank.html …

BUT WAIT...this is the lessons learned after two years of eastern Ukraine and now Syria.......
Maintaining a dialogue with Putin plays right into his hands
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=45458&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=068e3cec4bd913569ef6fe0f21f6da46#.V0afyidXeK 3 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Just as the Iraqi Shia militias are fighting in Syria against FSA and not really against IS...SO are the Afghans.....

BUT WAIT now the Afghan mercenaries are also fighting in Iraq.....no wonder no one is fighting IS inside Iraq....they are all in Syria right now.....

Iran announced the deaths of 7 Afghans in #Aleppo and one Iranian in #Fallujah.

NOW we seem to have a global Afghan Shia jihadi mercenary army ..........hard at work defending Iranian hegemon interests and not fighting the Taliban/AQ/IS in AFG......

[OUTLAW 09]

Under the rubric of "to much vodka"......

Russian UN envoy #Churkin names Turkish companies helping I.S make bombs

Not really sure IS needs anyone's help in building IEDs.....they are right now the world's best at it by far.....

BUT WAIT...he forgot to mention that it was Iran that built the parts needed for KH and other Iranian Shia militias using EFPs against US troops in Iraq.....

[CrowBat]

Shift on Syrian Constitution Could Help Assad Survive
https://shar.es/1dxSX9

A new Russian-American plan would abandon support for a nationally-drafted constitution and all but rule out a true transitional period.

Just a second: do you seriously expect the USA and Russia to write a constitution for Syria which would empower 'the people'?

[CrowBat]

http://newsweekme.com/casus-belli

Are Turkey and Saudi Arabia weighing military options in Syria?

BY Michael Stephens and Omar Mohamed
I think the authors might want to find themselves some sources within Saudi armed forces. Namely:


Additionally there are immense difficulties for Saudi and Turkish troops once they have established a presence in country. Coordinating military operations with the various competing militias and their competing military goals is destined to lead to confusion and potential cross purposes. There would need to be direct external military control over all groups operating in the area....which is exactly what the Saudis and allies are doing in Yemen already. Considering much simplier terrain and certain presence of much larger numbers of potential allies in Syria... where's actually the problem?


Furthermore if Turkish-Saudi led forces begin to sustain casualties, there will be an inevitable domestic call for strategic clarity and a victory that may be difficult to achieve. Consequently, mission creep could very quickly take over, in which Saudi Arabia and Turkey become bogged down in the Syrian quagmire simply so they do not lose face....like there were such calls from Saudi Arabia over Yemen?


In truth, there are no longer good options on the table for Turkey....thanks to all the ignorance by an entire host of closest Turkish allies, starting with the USA and NATO.

Can easily become a reason for Erdo to 'flip out' i.e. at least get 'fed up' of the West - and decide to go into Syria in cooperation with Saudis.

The question is therefore: is this the Turkish point of view...? Or a private opinion of the authors? Perhaps their recommendation to the Turkish government?


Military escalation is fraught with risk, but the price of doing nothing has also laden Turkey with unbearable security risks, both internal and external. It is difficult to see how Ankara can stand by and do nothing for much longer.What a surprise...


But the operation would have to take place under the watchful gaze of the U.S. although unlike the Yemen operations, in which U.S. and U.K. personnel sit in the coalition command and operations room assisting with targeting and strike coordination, it is doubtful that any military operations in Syria that do not target Daesh would receive any assistance.Why should that be of any importance?

The USA have meanwhile made its position re. Syria more than crystal clear. If the US doesn't want to do anything there (except for all the empty babblign), this doesn't mean nobody else can do so.


Given Washington’s lacklustre attitude, both Ankara and Riyadh would have to weigh up the implications of operating without U.S. support in a highly complex theatre, which lessens the attractiveness of longer term military deployment.If nothing else, the experience of Yemen has shown that one can run such an op in an even more complex environment - and then with - essentially - air power and 40,000 'boots on the ground' alone (and that vs an Army that is actually in much better condition than Assadist, IRGC's and Daesh's gangs - combined).

Given many more 'boots on the ground' are already available in Syria (no matter how much ignored by the West), things would only be much simplier.

[OUTLAW 09]

Anti-#Assad sheep, I guess?!
1 person, 5 sheep killed, several people injured.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LAEoeXR5gI …

[OUTLAW 09]

Damascus #Syria Assad targeting #Daraya w/ intense artillery & mortar shelling & rocket fire, infantry & tanks attempting to advance again

Reports from yesterday of clashes between pro-Assad Quds Brigade & Iraqi Shia militias at Nayrab camp in rural #Aleppo

Several civilians killed by Assad artillery shelling on Castello Road in #Aleppo earlier today as well

@SyriaCivilDef pulling civilians from under the rubble after an Assad barrel bomb attack on Anadan #Aleppo today

[OUTLAW 09]

Reports also from yesterday that #ISIS military chief Abu Athir al-Jazrawi has defected & joined Nusra

[OUTLAW 09]

Anti-#Assad sheep, I guess?!
1 person, 5 sheep killed, several people injured.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LAEoeXR5gI …

Assad airstrike w/ cluster munitions targeted a sheep market in Saraqeb, #Idlib today, several dead & many wounded

Footage
The coward #Assad air force bombed a sheep market near #Saraqib in #Idlib province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVRUOpXaEE …

[OUTLAW 09]

8 Afghans of #IRGC's Fatemiun brigade killed in Khan Touman, southern Aleppo, Syria, buried in Mashhad, Iran.

Syria 40+ barrel bombs hit northern #Aleppo suburbs today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwI5HBiB6fA …

Rebels thwarted night attempt by Regime militias to reach Banayoun from Tamurah & Zahraa w/ huge shelling. N.#Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) labelled the #YPG the #Syria wing of the *designated* #PKK in 2014:

Defected #US-Delta Forces with patches of communist #YPG militia
But now #Chuck_Norris arrived in #Syria

US special forces in #YPG uniforms were pictured close to the Tishrin dam in #Syria's #Aleppo province.

When you think, you've seen it all ...
@USArmy soldiers with #YPG insignia north of #Raqqa in #Syria.

US Special Forces in north of #Raqqa near #Fatissa village #Syria

U.S. troops in northern #Syria are wearing Kurdish YPG patches. What you just heard was Erdogan's head exploding.

Syria 5000 Sunni arabs among #SDF but 30.000 kurdish #YPG-fighters
Without Arab tribes in #Raqqa the offensive on "#IS-capital" will fail

BUT WAIT......YPG/SDF and US SOF still have not been able to move much at all against IS.....

[OUTLAW 09]

BreakingFootage GRAPHIC!
#Assad air strikes on #Aleppo city kills at least one person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7x-JHd3Rzg …

[OUTLAW 09]

The calm before the storm?
Lavrov says "Syrian opposition had enough time to leave Jabhat al-Nusra areas" ...

And again: The #CoH agreement does NOT define "Nusra areas" or "opposition areas".
Nusra may be hit, not entire tracts of land.

[OUTLAW 09]

@GermanyDiplo votes #Israel the only "violator of (...) health" at the WHO.
#Assad or the #KSA,bombing hospitals,were not at choice.

Panorama pic
#Huraytan under intense #Assad / Iranian regimes artillery attack today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6mJIe70IUM …

Footage
#Assad regime Mil Mi-8 heli drops bombs on civilians in #Anadan today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odg9VSTQBeA …

Footage
Rescue operation after #Assad regime air strikes on #Anadan N-W of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OejdjlwqYqU …

[OUTLAW 09]

US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) labelled the #YPG the #Syria wing of the *designated* #PKK in 2014:

Defected #US-Delta Forces with patches of communist #YPG militia
But now #Chuck_Norris arrived in #Syria

US special forces in #YPG uniforms were pictured close to the Tishrin dam in #Syria's #Aleppo province.

When you think, you've seen it all ...
@USArmy soldiers with #YPG insignia north of #Raqqa in #Syria.

US Special Forces in north of #Raqqa near #Fatissa village #Syria

U.S. troops in northern #Syria are wearing Kurdish YPG patches. What you just heard was Erdogan's head exploding.

Syria 5000 Sunni arabs among #SDF but 30.000 kurdish #YPG-fighters
Without Arab tribes in #Raqqa the offensive on "#IS-capital" will fail

BUT WAIT......YPG/SDF and US SOF still have not been able to move much at all against IS.....

Have there been any other cases of US troops re-badging themselves as communist militia?

Gents they're not 'blending in'. They have Kurdish patches but everything else 'signature' US kit

[OUTLAW 09]

Syrian Rebels exchange 45 dead regime fighters for 10 women & 5 children Assad regime kidnapped. Some "government"

[CrowBat]

Have there been any other cases of US troops re-badging themselves as communist militia?

Gents they're not 'blending in'. They have Kurdish patches but everything else 'signature' US kit

I was about to ask you about this... can't believe US troops would be doing anything of that kind. Not even to 'blend in'.

But, if they do... oh man, that's beyond 'outrageous' (and nobody of those _perhaps_ involved in such an affair has got a trace of clue what kind of repercussions such 'brotherhood' can have).

[OUTLAW 09]

After Soleimani had his whole brigade wiped out in Khan Touman & had to flee he's now in Fallujah hoping to claim a victory

Fallujah: At least 60 sectarian Iraqi Shia forces along with 8 officers & generals killed

Iraqi Commander Fadel Mirza killed in Fallujah

Iranian general: we are in Fallujah in defence of Iran & to spread Shiism

Syrian Rebels destroy part of Assad regime Hama airbase runway
http://bit.ly/1XxzpZh

Just days before his death, Badreddine was going to be leading attack on Aleppo
http://morningiranian.blogspot.com/2016/05/iran-former-fsa-brigadier-reveals-irans.html …

Rumours that Hama prison has fallen out of regime control once again with officer & soldiers detained by prisoners

[OUTLAW 09]

Iraqi Hezbollah KH Shia cleric......Iraq: Aws Al Kafaji, same person who once called for blood of American "invaders" now an "ally"

[OUTLAW 09]

I was about to ask you about this... can't believe US troops would be doing anything of that kind. Not even to 'blend in'.

But, if they do... oh man, that's beyond 'outrageous' (and nobody of those _perhaps_ involved in such an affair has got a trace of clue what kind of repercussions such 'brotherhood' can have).

CrowBat......from the past I have worked with a number of local national fighting groups who wore their own ID patches......we worn no identifying patches...if you train them, eat with them, live with them and fight with them.....they know exactly who you are and why you are with them...I do not buy the last sentence of "band of brothers" argument.......

Here is the core problem...they are all and I have seen the photos they are all wearing SOF identifying equipment and uniforms....ALL they are missing is the US flag on them......but since all know they are there they could have easily and simply worn the US flag.....and all including the media would have fully understood as well as the YPG.

May concern is that the US SOF has no earthly idea of what the make up of the PKK is, what the PKK has been doing since the mid 80s when they shot down Turkish diplomats on the streets of Germany nor do they know of the communist left leanings of the PKK....THAT is dangerous.....AND I am concerned the DoS NCTC having carried YPG since 2014 as a terrorist organization is "suddenly" declared "not terrorist".....that would then mean that DoS has been lying to the public....

AND I am highly concerned that US SOF is being pulled into the US Turkish debate that they do not need to be in AND I am tired of hearing that the YPG is this great IS fighting machine when the ground reality has been just the opposite with FSA fighting IS far longer than YPG has even thought about doing it......


http://www.businessinsider.de/us-soldiers-ypg-patches-syria-2016-5?r=US&IR=T

People are getting worked up over these photos of US soldiers fighting ISIS in Syria

Natasha Bertrand


Photos of US soldiers wearing Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG) patches as they fight the Islamic State alongside Kurds in Syria have re-ignited the debate over Washington's support for the group, with some calling the patches "politically tone deaf" and others insisting it is "perfectly normal."

The YPG has proven to be the most effective force fighting ISIS on the ground in northern Syria, but the territorial expansion their victories have afforded them is vehemently opposed by Turkey, an important US ally and member of NATO.

Ankara views Kurdish demands for autonomy as a threat to Turkey's sovereignty and backs many of the rebel groups that have clashed with the YPG, which Turkey says is linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) — a designated terrorist organization currently waging an insurgency in Turkey's southeast.

As such, some analysts wonder whether the Americans' show of solidarity with the Kurds will further inflame tensions between the US and Turkey.

As one Kurdish activist asked on Twitter, "How will Erdogan react?"

Charles Lister, a Syria expert and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said it is "absolutely remarkable seeing US special forces personnel wearing YPG patches in the northern Raqqa operation."

"The US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) labeled the YPG the Syria wing of the 'designated' PKK in 2014," he added.

Michael Weiss, a Middle East analyst and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," noted on Twitter that the image on the YPG patch appears to derive from the original PKK flag.

Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, tweeted that the photos are "politically tone-deaf and counterproductive in this context." He was likely referring not only to the US-Turkey relationship, but also to the tension between Kurdish forces and Syrian Arab rebel groups associated with the Free Syrian Army.

Mutual distrust continues to cast a shadow over the Kurdish-Arab relationship in northern Syria, even as the Obama administration has tried to bring Arab and Kurdish forces together via the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to fight the Islamic State.

FSA rebels were reportedly enraged, for example, when they learned that the US' top military commander, General Joseph Votel, visited Kurdish commanders in northern Syria last weekend to discuss the Kurdish-dominated SDF's plans to retake territory from ISIS.

Many FSA groups don't trust the Kurds — who wish to carve out an autonomous region in northern Syria known as Rojava — and are wary of the US' support for them.

“The Arab fighters [in the SDF] are just camouflage,” General Salim Idris, the former FSA chief of staff, told Voice of America on Monday. “The SDF is the YPG, which collaborates with anyone — Assad, the Russians, the Americans — when it suits its purposes."

He added: "I really don’t think the Obama administration has thought this through. Will the Kurds give up Arab towns they capture?"

Kurdish members of the Self-Defense Forces stand near the Syrian-Turkish border in the Syrian city of al-Derbasiyah during a protest against the operations launched in Turkey by government security forces against the Kurds, February 9, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said Thomson Reuters
Kurdish members of the Self-Defense Forces stand near the Syrian-Turkish border in the Syrian city of al-Derbasiyah during a protest against the operations launched in Turkey by government security forces against the Kurds

Some analysts worry that photos of US soldiers showing solidarity with the Kurds by wearing YPG patches will infuriate FSA rebels — and Turkey — even further.

But Wladimir van Wilgenburg, a field researcher for the Iraqi Institute for Strategic Studies and a journalist based in the region, said the practice is "quite normal."

"They do it out of respect for the local forces they are working with," van Wilgenburg told Business Insider on Thursday. "Its the same with coalition soldiers in Iraqi Kurdistan. I have seen them with Kurdish flags, or patches of different Peshmerga forces (like the Zerevani)."

He added: "It has nothing to do with politics. They are fighting together as a 'band of brothers' against the Islamic state, so it's quite normal."



THIS comment reflects just how badly the US fails to really understand the in's and out's of Syrian ground reality and the various fighting groups....

He added: "It has nothing to do with politics. They are fighting together as a 'band of brothers' against the Islamic state, so it's quite normal."

[OUTLAW 09]

Fisky headline, fisky article. "US is dropping calls for Assad to go because Syrian regime is better bet than Isis" http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-us-is-dropping-its-calls-for-assad-to-go-the-syrian-regime-is-a-better-bet-than-isis-a7050261.html …

The US is dropping calls for Assad to go because the Syrian regime is a better bet than Isis

In Syria and Lebanon there are no plans for a future, but the Syrian army is going to have a role in any New Syria


I’m getting a bit tired of reading about the “US-backed alliance of Syrian militias” and their advance against Isis. The ‘alliance’ is largely Kurdish – which is why, I suppose, the Americans talked about northern Syria when they announced the visit of General Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, to the little Kurdish enclave.

General Votel could only set foot in the tiny strip of territory along the Turkish border partly held by Kurdish and a sprinkling of Turkmen groups. A visit to northern Syria by an American general is thus a lot less impressive than it sounds.

It’s interesting to see a US commander crossing the border to cheer on participants in a civil war. That’s also what the American military has been doing in Iraq, where forces have been encouraging Shia militias fighting on the outskirts of Fallujah, and even providing air support to the forces of the perilously weak government in Baghdad.

For Iraq now meets many of the definitions of civil war. Yet in Syria, the Americans started by supporting “democratic” forces fighting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad and mysteriously supported the same men (and women) when they were ready to fight Isis for Ain al-Arab (or Kobani for those who prefer the Kurdish version of the name).

How did this transfer of allegiance come about? Are the Kurds supposed to fight their way into Raqqa and when Isis has turned tail and run across the Iraqi border, to fight on against the Syrian government army and its Lebanese militia allies and its Iranian allies?

Has anyone in northern Syria looked at any maps? And do the Kurds think that Turkey will allow their mini-state to survive?

“We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got,” according to General Vogel. And I couldn’t agree more. What that means is that the “Assad has got to go” routine is changing. We haven’t heard many Americans saying that recently, and we’ve hardly noticed it.

The Russian military is still in Syria (albeit scaled down), but we saw plenty of them at Palmyra after its recapture. Assad’s forces want to take back Deir El-Zour, where their soldiers are still fighting under siege.

I suspect that the Assad-must-go campaign is going to be gently dropped – thanks to Isis, of course, which is even more hateful for the Americans than the Syrian government in Damascus.

Certainly, Isis still exists on the border with Lebanon. Incredibly, nine soldiers are still being held in an enclave on the Lebanese border after being captured almost two years ago.

The father of the Lebanese soldier Mohamed Hamieh, executed at the time by the Jabhat al-Nusra Front (recently credited as “moderates” by Saudi Arabia and Qatar), this week went to the Lebanese home of his killer’s nephew (Sheikh Mustafa Hujeiri is a well-known figure on Islamist tapes) and shot the 20-year old 35 times. He then left the corpse on the grave of his own son.

It was a bad week in Lebanon. The government staged the usual military parades to mark Liberation Day when guerrilla fighters finally persuaded the Israeli army to flee across the border after 22 years of occupation in 2000. Tanks and armoured vehicles drove through the streets of Beirut amid public assurances (and private fears) of inter-communal violence amid the generals.

Many of those resistance men who drove out the Israelis are now fighting – and dying – for the Assad regime in Damascus. Thus has the Syrian war touched Lebanon again. The fears are, of course, of a Sunni-Shia conflict starting in the Beqaa Valley.

The Syrian war has already divided Lebanon, not least because so many Hezbollah men have perished in Syria. They are “martyrs” to the militia and many Shiites, but the source of great anger to Lebanon’s Sunnis. The Islamists up at Arsal, including the Nusra Front men, are Sunnis.

And still, in Syria as well as Lebanon, there are no plans for a future. No plans for post-war development. No plans for future policy towards Assad.

The Syrian army is going to have a role in any New Syria. Maybe the Russians realise this, which is why they intervened so dramatically. But Syrian military casualties are so high – half the government soldiers I have met since the start of the conflict in 2011 are now dead – that it was probably inevitable that Moscow decided to bring its air force to Lattakia and Tartous.

If Isis is ‘beaten’ – and the recapture of Fallujah and Raqqa will not achieve that – then there must be projects for those Syrians who fought on both sides. The Syrians are specialists on ‘mediation’ committees, but this will have to be far greater than that.

And what do we have? Turkey threatens Isis, and Nusra and Isis remains a threat right across the Middle East. Saudis support Isis and Qatar supports Nusra, and Hezbollah supports the regime.

The Americans seem to have left the air bombing to the Russians (after complaining about it) and Putin is not afraid to say the obvious: that the government in Damascus is a better bet than Isis.

We shall see who wins. “We do, absolutely, have to go with what we’ve got.” That pretty much sums it up.

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat......from the past I have worked with a number of local national fighting groups who wore their own ID patches......we worn no identifying patches...if you train them, eat with them, live with them and fight with them.....they know exactly who you are and why you are with them...I do not buy the last sentence of "band of brothers" argument.......

Here is the core problem...they are all and I have seen the photos they are all wearing SOF identifying equipment and uniforms....ALL they are missing is the US flag on them......but since all know they are there they could have easily and simply worn the US flag.....and all including the media would have fully understood as well as the YPG.

May concern is that the US SOF has no earthly idea of what the make up of the PKK is, what the PKK has been doing since the mid 80s when they shot down Turkish diplomats on the streets of Germany nor do they know of the communist left leanings of the PKK....THAT is dangerous.....AND I am concerned the DoS NCTC having carried YPG since 2014 as a terrorist organization is "suddenly" declared "not terrorist".....that would then mean that DoS has been lying to the public....

AND I am highly concerned that US SOF is being pulled into the US Turkish debate that they do not need to be in AND I am tired of hearing that the YPG is this great IS fighting machine when the ground reality has been just the opposite with FSA fighting IS far longer than YPG has even thought about doing it......


http://www.businessinsider.de/us-soldiers-ypg-patches-syria-2016-5?r=US&IR=T

People are getting worked up over these photos of US soldiers fighting ISIS in Syria

Natasha Bertrand

THIS comment reflects just how badly the US fails to really understand the in's and out's of Syrian ground reality and the various fighting groups....

He added: "It has nothing to do with politics. They are fighting together as a 'band of brothers' against the Islamic state, so it's quite normal."


Yes, the insignia thing is strange but US Javelin teams embedded with YPG is a more solid case of weirdness.

[OUTLAW 09]

Many of the bombs on innocents were dropped by #Assad helis.
Rebels have nothing to defend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qZNL6dNo8 …

Assad & Hezbollah attacks on besieged Daraya reactivated Western Ghouta front. Rebels launch offensive from Khan al-Shih & take Dirkhabiyah.
Footage
Dozens of air strikes hit towns and villages just north of #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBlH2BK56VI …

Footage
Cluster bomb attacks on #Hayyan continued throughout the day
Several killed/wounded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wU-eblcNU4 …

Footage
Also in #Daraya, the #Assad campaign of extinction continued without interruption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3zzReTAbmc …

Footage
The relentless #Assad offensive around #Damascus continued also today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVGQZt2nknk …

Jabhat al-Nusra shown firing 122mm rocket-assisted mortars at Nubl & Zahra:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5elbsjkuak …

[OUTLAW 09]

US claim of "no militias involved" is more than ridiculous ...
#Fallujah

Symbolic: Behind every Iraqi army humvee in #Fallujah walks at least one Kataib Hezb. fighter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6N63DSRm_8 …

[OUTLAW 09]

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=187284

Obama Admin: U.S. Stopped Sanctioning Iranian Human Rights Abusers
After Nuke Deal

Despite promises, America silent on Iranian human rights violations

BY: Adam Kredo


The Obama administration has not designated a single Iranian as a human rights abuser since finalizing last summer’s comprehensive nuclear agreement, despite rising abuse in the Islamic Republic, including state-sanctioned killings and the imprisonment of opposition figures.

The administration’s hesitance to use sanctions as a tool to confront Iranian human rights abuses, despite past promises made to Congress, has prompted outrage on Capitol Hill among lawmakers who were given assurances the administration would act.

A senior administration official admitted during questioning on Capitol Hill Wednesday that the U.S. has not sanctioned a single Iranian human rights abuser since the deal was finalized. The disclosure calls into question further administration promises to continue using sanctions as a tool to pressure Iran.

The White House is pressuring Congress not to pass new Iran sanctions as the old measures near expiration later this year.

Republicans and Democrats alike are now accusing the administration of misleading Congress about its commitment to sanctions and saying that it has avoided such designations in order to prevent the Iranian regime from walking away from the deal.

“We were told during this process that getting the nuclear issue off the table was so critical and we could actually expect Iran to engage in additional destabilizing activity,” Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.) said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee examining the administration’s promises regarding Iran.

“We were assured that this would give us an opportunity to push back hard in these other areas because the danger of a nuclear Iran would be off the table, and I was very persuaded by that,” said Cicilline, a supporter of the nuclear agreement.

Cicilline asked Ambassador Stephen Mull, the administration’s lead coordinator for implementing the nuclear deal, what the administration has “done since the signing of the [nuclear deal] with regard to imposing sanctions on human rights violators in Iran.” Mull admitted that the U.S. has not taken any action.

“There has not been a specific sanction on human rights cases since the signing” of the deal, Mull said.

Cicilline questioned why, since the administration promised to take action, it had not done so in the face of rising human rights abuses by Iran.

Mull emphasized that the administration is concerned about human rights in Iran and has raised the issue in meetings with regime officials.

Insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon warned that the administration will block all Congressional attempts to impose new sanctions on Iran out of fear that the Islamic Republic will abandon the deal.

“Congress wants to impose new pressure against Iranian human rights violations, but the Obama administration keeps blocking new action. The administration’s excuse is they already have all the tools they need,” said one source who works closely with Congress on the Iran issue. “What today’s admission shows is that they might have those tools, but they’re certainly not using them.”

Human rights groups continue to observe gross human rights violations in Iran, despite the election of President Hassan Rouhani, who was touted as a moderate reformer.

“Although Iran elected a moderate candidate, Hassan Rouhani, to be president in 2013, the country has seen no significant improvements in human rights,” the advocacy organization Human Rights Watch wrote in its latest report on Iran.

“Repressive elements within the security and intelligence forces, as well as the judiciary, retained wide powers and continued to be the main perpetrators of rights abuses,” according to the group. “Executions, especially for drug-related offenses, increased sharply from previous years. Security and intelligence forces arrested journalists, bloggers, and social media activists, and revolutionary courts handed down heavy sentences against them.”

Amnesty International, another human rights observer, also warned of rising executions and oppression in Iran.

“The authorities severely curtailed the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, arresting and imprisoning journalists, human rights defenders, trade unionists, and others who voiced dissent on vague and overly broad charges,” Amnesty wrote in its 2015-2016 assessment of Iran.

“Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees remained common and was committed with impunity; prison conditions were harsh,” according to the group. “Unfair trials continued, in some cases resulting in death sentences. Women and members of ethnic and religious minorities faced pervasive discrimination in law and in practice. The authorities carried out cruel punishments, including blinding, amputation, and floggings. Courts imposed death sentences for a range of crimes; many prisoners, including at least four juvenile offenders, were executed.”

[OUTLAW 09]

I was about to ask you about this... can't believe US troops would be doing anything of that kind. Not even to 'blend in'.

But, if they do... oh man, that's beyond 'outrageous' (and nobody of those _perhaps_ involved in such an affair has got a trace of clue what kind of repercussions such 'brotherhood' can have).

CrowBat.....this is a perfect example of just how little the Obama WH and yes even US SOF fully understands the history of PKK....I have never forgotten their terror campaign here in Germany.........especially this founding flag of the PKK from ..1978......many in the US do not fully understand the Communist background of the PKK...probably also not many that were here in Europe in the 70/80s remember it as well......

Michael Weiss ‏@michaeldweiss
Best part about US Special Forces wearing YPG patches? The patch derives from this original PKK flag.

[CrowBat]

I understand perfectly and everything about 'training them, eating with them, sleeping with them, fighting with them'. Went through the same, after all.

But heaven... applying their 'national' insignia - which is neither 'national', nor even something like 'official' - that's against all rules of any decent military service (and especially one that's as proud of itself as the US services are).

...not to talk about applying insignia of what is de-facto a terrorist organization, and then declared as such not only by the USA, but the entire NATO and the EU.

The troops in question are now actually at war with Turkey, just for example (not to talk with all of Syria etc.). :rolleyes:

This is such a mindless action, it cannot even be described as 'damaging' for the US prestige in the Middle East (and well beyond). This is 'coup de grace'.

[OUTLAW 09]

Assad & Hezbollah escalate the attack on besieged #Daraya knowing US will not allow #FSA groups to respond/end CoH.

Rebels say they took full control of Dirkhabiyah village in West Ghouta #Damascus & killed 10s Assad army soldiers.

Damascus : A FIL surface to surface missile strikes #Daraya.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs799GT4ylQ …

Besieged #Daraya repel another Assad & Hezbollah major attack. Rebels activate nearby Khan al-Shih front to help.

What looks like Iranian drone? spotted over north #Aleppo today.
https://youtu.be/B2CWaaewLMY

Rebels captured 2 tanks and a shilka from Assad army in Dirkhabiyah.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.363223&lon=36.160469&z=15&m=b …
https://youtu.be/UzbodNgAzbE

Rebels take full control of Al-Dirkhabiyah 15km south of #Damascus
& expelled #Assad-forces
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=33.362936&lon=36.160469&z=14&m=b …

Ghouta: breaking, Rebels just seized Deir Khobya

Syria Military Situation Map | May 26.
HD: https://goo.gl/sBZyuq

[OUTLAW 09]

Yes, the insignia thing is strange but US Javelin teams embedded with YPG is a more solid case of weirdness.


Racist #YPG + sectarian #Hashd militias are indistinguishable from #Daesh in cruelty, hatred, corruption + horror.

[OUTLAW 09]

I understand perfectly and everything about 'training them, eating with them, sleeping with them, fighting with them'. Went through the same, after all.

But heaven... applying their 'national' insignia - which is neither 'national', nor even something like 'official' - that's against all rules of any decent military service (and especially one that's as proud of itself as the US services are).

...not to talk about applying insignia of what is de-facto a terrorist organization, and then declared as such not only by the USA, but the entire NATO and the EU.

The troops in question are now actually at war with Turkey, just for example (not to talk with all of Syria etc.). :rolleyes:

This is such a mindless action, it cannot even be described as 'damaging' for the US prestige in the Middle East (and well beyond). This is 'coup de grace'.

They did not just say this...
Kurdish Democratic Union: we will free Raqaa and it will join the federal system...

PYD representative in #KRG Gharib Haso says #Raqqa will become part of federal #Rojava after liberation from #IS

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo: Syrian Rebels destroy regime Kornet base in Handarat

The sectarian Shia Hashd militia also have major problems with Kurds. Don't know if anyone saw this


KHURMATU, Kurdistan Region- The Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shaabi reportedly opened fire on a police car in Khurmatu on Tuesday killing three police officers and wounding two others a Rudaw correspondent in the city said on Tuesday.

Rudaw's Hiwa Hussamaddin said the shooting took place near the city's Komari hospital.

The police were Sunni Muslims serving in the Iraqi police force.

Fighting in Khurmatu started late on Saturday night when Kurdish youths and Hashd militants clashed. Those clashes quickly escalated into street battles between the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Hashd al-Shaabi.

Despite efforts to bring about a ceasefire fighting continued on Monday.

At least six Peshmerga and forty Hashd al-Shaabi militants are believed to been killed along with four civilians.


Pro Kurdish twitter accounts constantly report the animosity between Peshmerga and the Hashd al Shaabi.

What Shia think about Kurds. Sorry have no better source:
https://youtu.be/E-dnKLHsb38?t=164

[OUTLAW 09]

On the whole it appears that the Iranian IRGC and their supported Iraqi Shia militias are having an extremely tough time of it in both Syria and now in Iraq against both FSA and IS.....

Leader of Iranian backed Shia Badr militia Alwan Mutlak Al Ristamawi killed in Fallujah with number of his fighters

Fallujah: 9 armoured vehicles & helicopter shot down belonging to Iranian backed militias. Not bad. Hows the offensive going? Winning?

Fallujah: Sectarian Hashd militia had to withdraw from Al Umayra after suffering heavy casualties

The Shia Hashd militia has beheaded a woman and a child in Fallujah, just for the crime of being Sunnis...

Senior leader in Iranian Basij, Qurban Najfa killed in Fallujah

All Sunnis now see Fallujah as attack on Sunnis & vids like this continue to confirm it "we will conquer Kaaba next"

[OUTLAW 09]

Daraya: huge offensive mounted by Hezbollah & other pro Assad fighters but completely failed as Rebels killed dozens, destroyed tank & BMP

Dozens of dead pro Assad fighters rushed from Hama airbase after Rebels managed to shell it with grads

Faylaq Al-Sham pounded #Hama military Airport with Grad rockets. Claims Regime casualties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn1zvzWj84 …

FirstCoastalDivision strikes another regime target via ATGM #Lattakia

Regime forces hit by a #Fagot fired by First Coastal Div. near Tel Haddada, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4GmY8jVCgA …

First Coastal Div. fired a #TOW vs a 23 mm gun near Kinsabba, N. #Latakia. Seems a miss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A83uIMtuJiE …

[OUTLAW 09]

Amazing paragraph from the De Mistura press conference earlier. Russia airdropping to DeirEzzor, Iran to Fua/Kefraya

BUT nothing is being sent into the FSA besieged villages and towns...nothing what so ever.....

[OUTLAW 09]

US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces make slow advances on day 3 of #RaqqaCampaign
http://www.levantinegroup.com/#!Syria-Conflict-Update-USbacked-forces-slowly-advance-into-ISIS-heartland/c21xo/57473fa90cf2ed22bb47cfc5 …

[OUTLAW 09]

https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/16048.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Russia deliberately burns wheat crops in Homs: farmers


With the start of the harvest season each year, the regime forces and sectarian militias that aid it purposefully ignite fires whether by plane or by shelling fields from the checkpoints surrounding the cities and towns in Homs’ besieged northern countryside.

Eqtsad’s correspondent in Homs stated that the Russian airplanes are participating alongside the regime forces this year in burning the agricultural crops with the start of the harvesting season. He added that the Russian fighter jets launched 4 airstrikes two days ago on the village of Tallaf and its agricultural fields which led to the incineration of over 50 acres of land planted with wheat and barley and if not for the arrival of the civil defense al-Houla sector at the right time the fire would have extended to larger areas due to the heavy winds.

-Staying up at night next to fields-

The farmers of Homs’s northern countryside confirmed to Eqtsad that a number of fires were stated this year due to the regime checkpoints targeting fields with burning bullets, leading farmers to watch their fields night and day.


Abu Mahmoud, a farmer from Talbiyseh said, watching the land is the only way to protect it from burning. He added to Eqstad’s correspondent that the cost of growing one acre of wheat exceeds 20 thousand Syrian Pounds, “so we must stay up at night next to the fields of wheat and barley, it is better than helping to put out the fire.”

Abu Mahmoud confirmed that the agricultural produce, especially grains is the only source of income for over 60% of those besieged in the northern countryside.

Another farmer said, “the farmers benefited from the fires that happened in prior years as this year they purposefully divided up on field into several sections so that the flames would not consume the whole field, only parts of it because some parts were left unplanted.”

This helped the civil defense teams present in some of the cities and towns in the liberated northern countryside in putting out the fires, and they exert a lot of effort in this regard as a result of the large burden placed on their shoulders despite the lack of firefighter cars that they own.


Incredible: under renewed (Russian) truce in #Daraya, Regime even worsened siege by burning crops via @DarayaCouncil

[OUTLAW 09]

Regime interpretation of #Daraya truce (#Damascus). US: Rebels can report violation to UN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs799GT4ylQ …

Report: Castillo road, last lifeline to Rebel-held #Aleppo, protected from snipers but not from artillery/airstrikes

[OUTLAW 09]

Faylaq Sham fired unusually high nbr of Elephant missiles on militias in Zahraa, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq44pAxNXjc …

Fierce clashes in #Lattakia since morning, heavy weaponry and air force all over, operations on for about 2 weeks now, regime trying advance

So far pro-Assad forces backed by Russian Airforce failed to take back
- Al Eis since 8 weeks
- KhanTuman since 3 weeks
- Zara since 2 weeks

Deir Ezzour : Coalition aircraft drop leaflets over #Bukamal asking the people to stay away from ISIS HQ and to support "Jaysh Souria Jadid"

It confirms that the main goal of New Syrian Army (#NSyA) is to seize the whole Southern #Syria|n border from #ISIS.

[OUTLAW 09]

He cannot win in Syria so he tries for a win in Iraq........

Iran confirms officially that Qasim Suleimani is leading the Fallujah battle.
http://ln.is/www.ara.shafaaq.com/iZLHv …

Islamic State banner now covered with Husayn ibn Ali and Alasaib Ahl al-Haq flags in al-Karma near #Fallujah.

Not a good look for those who say this is not sectarian. Potential for IS to look like freedom fighters gets raised in Sunni nexus.

[OUTLAW 09]

IS trying to split #FSA held Azaz pocket north #Aleppo. Clashes reported inside Kaljibrin and Kafr Kalbin villages.

Fierce clashes as #ISIS is trying to split Rebel pocket & isolate Marea stronghold by attacking Kaljibrin, N.#Aleppo

IS seized Tal Hussein, Niyarah, Tatiya and Burayshah east Azaz. Reports coalition and Turkish artillery started providing support for #FSA.

Local activists reported 4 civilians killed in #IS attack on Kaljibrin village including 2 year-old girl.

Azaz update #map May 27 #DAESH #ISIS major attack #Kafr_Kalbin #Kaljibrin
http://edmaps.com/html/syrian_civil_war_in_maps.html …

JaN released 18 members of division 30 who have been held for months...JaN is under local civilian pressure via by their daily demonstrations against JaN actions......

[OUTLAW 09]

Massive proAssad and proRussian troll attempts at blocking a large number of Twitter accounts that report on Syria...and who have reported for now going on years......AND on Twitter accounts that report as well on eastern Ukraine.....a well coordinated attack to block social media reporting.

So who says social media is not one of the best weapons against Russian info warfare........

AND Twitter Support again supports Russian and Assad trolls......AGAIN the core question....why is an American company listed on NASDQ being such a great friend of Russian and Assad trolls and literally bends over backwards to support their demands which have always led to the Twitter accounts being reinstated.....AS there was never a "violation" of Twitter Service agreements.

Maybe the SEC needs to fully understand just how much Russian black oligarch money has been invested into US social media companies especially Twitter and FaceBook....

[OUTLAW 09]

Twitter Support even blocked this Turkish account which reports on Russian Naval and Syrian Express movements...

#ВМФ Ropucha class LST #Бф BF Minsk transited Bosphorus

Heavily-laden #ВМФ Ropucha class LST #Cф NF Alexander Otrakovsky transited Bosphorus en route to #Tartus #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Under the rubric of "what the heck is this"......????

"Taliban's interests in the fight against ISIS in Afghanistan coincide with #Russia." -FM Lavrov
http://www.interfax.ru/world/486749


Michael Weiss
✔ ‎@michaeldweiss Awesome? Exclusive: Iran Teams With Taliban To Fight Islamic State in Afghanistan
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/26/exclusive-iran-teams-with-taliban-to-fight-islamic-state-in-afghanistan/ …

BUT WAIT.....Iran is the private pullback and supply sanctuary for the Taliban....and AQ and IS.....

SO why is Iran using Afghans to fight FSA in Syria instead of IS and to fight Sunni's in Iraq?????

[OUTLAW 09]

APPEARS that now Twitter Support is actually blocking well known journalists who both write on actions inside Syria but are considered to be ME SMEs......

This is now a serious threat against social media as a whole and YET Twitter goes along with the proAssad and proRussian troll demands with absolutely no pushback.......

TWITTER Support is now apparently blocking all social media accounts that report and analyze Syrian events.....to include extremely well known journalists......

[OUTLAW 09]

Something that is extremely critical but never talked about even here at SWJ is the ongoing seriously fought social media info war against both Assad and Putin with little to no assistance from the US in any form.

The interesting question that should be openly discussed by SWJ is just how much of the so called US owned social media companies ie FB, Twitter, YouTube is actually full under the influence of Russian oligarch black money via investments into those companies.

FB, YT and Twitter have begun aggressively in the last year to block accounts after massive complaints by proAssad and proRssuain trolls who point to so called Service Agreement violations.

WHAT is interesting is that the trolls use a very effective bot network to push these complaints and Twitter or FB Support does not take the time to even review th complaints....they simply automatically block the account.

In some aspects these bot networks parallel criminally used Russian bot networks that many US IT departments have problems with.

Today Twitter has effectively blocked a large number of accounts that both analyze and report on Syrian events AS WELL as eastern Ukraine events and often critique Russian actions.

THIS even includes well known Us journalists who have written extensively on say Syria and who are considered to be ME SMEs.

Is it time for the Us government to seriously look at the use of US social media companies as part and parcel of the ongoing and intensive Russian info war being carried out against the US.

IMHO...it is time to have the SEC check the Russian inv estments into these Us companies via the Panama Papers and I think they will find a number of sanctioned Russian oligarchs have invested into US social media companies via off shore accounts.

BUT here is the flip side of this comment.

A large number of the accounts are from US journalists to pointed out yesterday the wearing by US SOF personnel of the Kurdish YPG emblem on their combat uniforms and rightly pointed out the in fact the YPG up to 2014/2015 was being carried by the DoS NCTC as being a US named terrorist organization effectively tied into the PKK which is conducting an open guerrilla war against Turkey going on now for over 30 odd years.

SO hwere they effectively blocked by proAssad and or proRussian trolls.....

OR the US government for their critique of US SOF for wearing a "terrorist emblem" on their uniforms.....???

A very valid point????

[OUTLAW 09]

#Footage The day starts as the last day ended. #Assad air force strikes on #Hayyan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RICxYUkyfq8 …

#Footage The #Assad air force attacked and damaged another mosque in #Aleppo city overnight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuuYDTbEx84 …pic.twitter.com/RC3QxSDL4u

NewsMap #ISIS is in its final offensive to cut-off #Marea and took four rebel-held villages overnight. #Syriapic.
twitter.com/gD9t5iYZMV

[OUTLAW 09]

IslamicState destroyed #Erdogan's "Save Zone" in northern #Syria along #Turkey border in less than 6 hours

IS claim captured a dozen rebels & killed 33 others during their assault in northern #Aleppo

Smoke rising in the distance from intense IS/FSA fighting....NOT a single Us CAS mission in support...they are all supporting the purported SDF advance which has basically stalled and pulled back.....

View from Kilis to battle at outskirts of the #Turkey/#Syria border-crossing in N-#Aleppo when #IslamicState advance

Reports ISIS take Syria-Turkey border Xing - 165,000 displaced Syrians now trapped @ closed border @HRW
http://bit.ly/1Ttgnll

Syria 100.000 residents & #refugees in #Azaz & #Mare towns now under siege by #IslamicState at border to #Turkey
-massaker expected-

Syria #IslamicState in full control of #Azaz -> #Mare road in northern #Aleppo (Kafr Kalbin, Kaljibrin, Sandaf seized)

BreakingReport
At least 10 killed, many injured, in #Assad air strike on bakery in #Huraytan, north of #Aleppo.

N.#Aleppo update. Locations in red taken by #ISIS. Azaz pocket split in 2 & possibly in 3. Marea officially besieged

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria #Aleppo #IslamicState reach Bab al-Salameh border crossing to #Turkey & isolate #Azaz (Niyarah & Tatiyah seized)

ISIS CUTS OFF #MAREA FROM #AZAZ, OVERRUNS LAST REBEL LINES OF DEFENCE.

STILL no US coalition provided CAS....why is that with large number of IS target opportunities?????

[OUTLAW 09]

So much for that vaulted US SOF SDF attack designed to destroy IS......went absolutely nowhere...after much heralded MSM support.

Instead of coming to the assistance of FSA which is under heavy IS attacks SDF pulls back...the US population has been told that the US proxy was built to destroy IS but in reality it seems like US SOF and SDF are in fact assisting IS........

SDF/#YPG withdraws forces from #Raqqa battlefield towards
#Manbij after #IslamicState advance to #Afrn & #Azaz in N- #Aleppo prov.

Syria #US airstrikes on Kafr Kalbin at south of #Azaz in northern #Aleppo
Seems #IslamicState finished #Turkey backed rebel pocket

CrowBat....if IS can hold these captured areas...will this finally push the Turks and Saudi's into northern Aleppo area?

CrowBat....Sorry FSA has already answered the question if confirmed as true.......
UPDATE
Rebels claim they retook Sandaf, Jibreen and Kafr Kalbin, restoring the supply line between Azaz and Marea.
Unconfimed so far.

Second Update...to many conflicting reports coming in as to whether the towns were retaken or not...BUT IS definitely killing captured FSA fighters and their families.....

STILL no US coalition CAS anywhere to be seen......all while SDF/YPG have stopped their IS Raqqa attacks and are pulling back together with their US SOF advisors.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Syria Footage from Al-Salihiyah town at Euphrates river ~30km NW of #Iraq'i border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5C4fKPn3_s&feature=youtu.be …

Russian and Assad AF are running an air strike rate alleged to be between 100-150 per day and the US coalition rate is again WHAT?????

MSF International @MSF
BREAKING: We are evacuating team & patients from our Al Salamah hospital in north #Syria after IS offensive in #Azaz

BREAKING I got confirmation from #Azaz that #ISIS executes rebels & their families of the main squares of #Jibrin & #KafrKalbin 30+ killed.

Conflicting reports Some say,connection reestablished, some say ISIS holds the towns Latest I heard:"Thousands of families trapped in Marea"

Latest Update: Rebellion has retaken Sandaf from ISIS....counterattacks underway to retake IS captured towns....

[OUTLAW 09]

IS make significant gains north #Aleppo. This could be the scenario #YPG long waited for to expel #FSA completely.

At least 12 ppl killed in Russian/Assad air attack targeted Huraytan village #Aleppo.

[OUTLAW 09]

I was about to ask you about this... can't believe US troops would be doing anything of that kind. Not even to 'blend in'.

But, if they do... oh man, that's beyond 'outrageous' (and nobody of those _perhaps_ involved in such an affair has got a trace of clue what kind of repercussions such 'brotherhood' can have).

CrowBat.....wonder of Obama WH and CENTCOM will "rethink" the patch issue...highly doubt it as they just do not "get it"....???

Turkish FM calls US troops in YPG patches "unacceptable." Bad optics 4 Ankara, which is well aware they're embedded http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us-soldiers-with-ypg-insignias-unacceptable-says-turkish-fm.aspx?pageID=238&nID=99734&NewsCatID=510 …

[OUTLAW 09]

YPG has withdrawn all its Heavy Weaponry and Tanks from Ain Essa towards Manbij and Jarablus

So as I said #Raqqah offensive was a diversion... as they made their move towards Azaz.......which is Sunni arab and has been under FSA control for a long while and is NOT IS controlled.....

Let's not forget that it was Turkey and US who wanted Jabhat al-Nusra out of north Aleppo before they agreed to provide any support to #FSA.

#FSA factions north #Aleppo counted on irregular and poor Intl coalition and Turkish army support.... seems designed to eventually lead to this.

YPG is amassing its forces near Azaz

Time seems right for YPG to mass forces and take whats left of Azaz pocket, they are experts in this sort of attacks
https://twitter.com/VivaRevolt/status/736146030970834944 …

BUT WAIT.....the YPG potentially taking Azaz is a massive "red line" for both Turkey and the Saudi's.....and has been so stated by both a number of times in recent weeks.....

ISIS offensive in #Azaz and Mare'a will be rebelled,rebels massing troops to retake what they lost

[OUTLAW 09]

Regime targets Sunni worshipers after Jumah prayers with a carbomb in #Idlib city outside Shuyab Mosque.
https://twitter.com/RFS_mediaoffice/status/736146456080486400 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Naval and Syrian Express was busy today and yesterday........

#ВМФ Natya class minesweeper BSF #ЧФ Kovrovets returns from the Mediterranean deployment after 103days
pic.twitter.com/vStRLMeLb7

[OUTLAW 09]

How to giv Syria territory to #YPG?
1-Assad/Russia attack FSA
2-FSA lose to ISIS
3-US attack ISIS
4-ISIS lose to YPG

IS executed 33 #FSA fighters and captured 10 others north Aleppo.
https://twitter.com/Syriamubasher/status/736151970151563268 …

More than 100k ppl in Azaz & several IDP camps north Aleppo under #IS attack & Turkey is worried about is US troops wearing YPG/PKK patches!

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian info warfare media outlet Russia Today is blasting this hard and heavy with Breaking News.......

https://www.rt.com/news/344577-nusra-weapons-supplies-turkey/ …

Al-Nusra Front in Syria gets daily weapons supplies from Turkey - Russian military

Published time: 27 May, 2016 10:54


Terrorist group Al-Nusra Front is receiving daily arms shipments across the border from Turkey, the Russian General Staff says. The Al-Qaeda offshoot used the truce between government forces and moderate rebels in Syria to regroup and renew hostilities.

Al-Nusra Front remains a major destabilizing factor in Syria, Lt. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday.

Russian Sukhoi Su-24 planes at the Khmeimim airbase in Syria. © Maksim BlinovRussia postpones airstrikes against terrorist-held areas in Syria
“Damascus is being continuously shelled from Eastern Ghouta. There were numerous attempts to capture power station near Homs and block the road connecting Aleppo and Damascus. The flow of trucks carrying weapons and ammunition from Turkey continues, with border crossings reported on daily basis,” he said.

The general added that Al-Nusra Front attacks are confirmed by other nations as well, and that they agree with Russia’s assessment of the negative impact of the militant group.

“It’s obvious that the terrorist group, which operates in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, is currently the biggest stumbling block for the process of expanding the truce to new territories in northern Syria,” Rudskoy said.

Al-Nusra Front benefited from the truce because some of the territories under its control are mixed with those, which were designated as held by so-called moderate rebel forces and which are excluded from Russian airstrike missions, he stressed.

Rudskoy also blasted Turkey for continued shelling of Kurdish forces across the border.

WOW.....not sure the FSA would completely agree with the Russian MoD on this sentence

Al-Nusra Front benefited from the truce because some of the territories under its control are mixed with those, which were designated as held by so-called moderate rebel forces and which are excluded from Russian airstrike missions, he stressed.

[CrowBat]

CrowBat.....wonder of Obama WH and CENTCOM will "rethink" the patch issue...highly doubt it as they just do not "get it"....???No way. These ignorants are currently explaining to FSyA and IF's representatives that it was a 'strategic mistake' to keep areas like Eastern Ghouta and defend them from regime and then IRGC's onslaught.

I wonder what these a-holes in the DC would have done if somebody was about to overrun their homes and slaughter their families?

Anyway, the Daesh really overrun the insurgent lines on the eastern side of the Azaz Pocket this morning. Despite plenty of reporting, details are still scarce and confusing, so I do not understand what exactly happened there. But, it seems they simultaneously captured Kfar Kalbin and Kaljibrin - two villages half-way between Azaz and Mare'a, then turned north and south. In the south they captured Sandaf, thus isolating Sheikh Isa and Mare'a from the rest of the pocket. In the north, they reached YPG's positions in Efrin enclave, and then attacked Azaz - but were quickly repelled.

Turkish military reacted only after receiving news that Kaljibrin was captured - and promptly plastered the place. But, its 16 Firtnas were not enough, especially since it seems nobody was left around to guide their fire...

There was one report about a supposed CENTCOM air strike on Daesh in Kaljibrin, but I doubt there was any.

Around the noon, Daesh captured the Bab as-Salameh border crossing (the only official border crossing between the Azaz Pocket and Turkey), approached to about 1km of the Muqawamah IDP camp, and were 2km short of Shamarin and Salameh IDP camps.

That's when the insurgents went into counterattack. They report to have recovered Tatiyah in the north and Sandaf in the south. Latest reports indicate they have re-captured part of Kaljibrin too....

Whatever... that the USA is not serious about fighting Daesh in this part of Syria. That's a fact well-known even to crows on my roof. There's no sufficient expression for all the shame Americans should feel about this fact alone. But, who cares any more....

Fact is that the Turks and then the insurgents 'overslept' all the Daesh preparations (which must've been massive). That IS unexplainable to me.

Sure, many of insurgent units in the Azaz pocket are still recovering from all the fighting of the last nine months; some were reinforced by plenty of noobs, while others are consisting of little else but local farmers. But, others are some of the best there is around in northern Syria. The Jaysh al-Mujahidden for example, was the first ever to fight and to defeat the Daesh on the battlefied, back in early 2014, months before the Daesh ever clashed with Kurds or the USA ever came to the idea to fight it. Lately, JAM was reinforced by a big intake of local militias, too.

And still, they all appear to have not even been around when this attack came: there are only minimal reports about casualties from fighting, but already a mass of reports about dozens of insurgents slaughtered by the Daesh - together with their entire families - in Kaljibrin, just for example...

[OUTLAW 09]

Blocked Twitter accounts "magically reappeared"....must have been a "computer glitch".....some "young It guy" must have been doing backups and did not realize he was blocking wholesale accounts...yeah sure?????

[OUTLAW 09]

No way. These ignorants are currently explaining to FSyA and IF's representatives that it was a 'strategic mistake' to keep areas like Eastern Ghouta and defend them from regime and then IRGC's onslaught.

I wonder what these a-holes in the DC would have done if somebody was about to overrun their homes and slaughter their families?

Anyway, the Daesh really overrun the insurgent lines on the eastern side of the Azaz Pocket this morning. Despite plenty of reporting, details are still scarce and confusing, so I do not understand what exactly happened there. But, it seems they simultaneously captured Kfar Kalbin and Kaljibrin - two villages half-way between Azaz and Mare'a, then turned north and south. In the south they captured Sandaf, thus isolating Sheikh Isa and Mare'a from the rest of the pocket. In the north, they reached YPG's positions in Efrin enclave, and then attacked Azaz - but were quickly repelled.

Turkish military reacted only after receiving news that Kaljibrin was captured - and promptly plastered the place. But, its 16 Firtnas were not enough, especially since it seems nobody was left around to guide their fire...

There was one report about a supposed CENTCOM air strike on Daesh in Kaljibrin, but I doubt there was any.

Around the noon, Daesh captured the Bab as-Salameh border crossing (the only official border crossing between the Azaz Pocket and Turkey), approached to about 1km of the Muqawamah IDP camp, and were 2km short of Shamarin and Salameh IDP camps.

That's when the insurgents went into counterattack. They report to have recovered Tatiyah in the north and Sandaf in the south. Latest reports indicate they have re-captured part of Kaljibrin too....

Whatever... that the USA is not serious about fighting Daesh in this part of Syria. That's a fact well-known even to crows on my roof. There's no sufficient expression for all the shame Americans should feel about this fact alone. But, who cares any more....

Fact is that the Turks and then the insurgents 'overslept' all the Daesh preparations (which must've been massive). That IS unexplainable to me.

Sure, many of insurgent units in the Azaz pocket are still recovering from all the fighting of the last nine months; some were reinforced by plenty of noobs, while others are consisting of little else but local farmers. But, others are some of the best there is around in northern Syria. The Jaysh al-Mujahidden for example, was the first ever to fight and to defeat the Daesh on the battlefied, back in early 2014, months before the Daesh ever clashed with Kurds or the USA ever came to the idea to fight it. Lately, JAM was reinforced by a big intake of local militias, too.

And still, they all appear to have not even been around when this attack came: there are only minimal reports about casualties from fighting, but already a mass of reports about dozens of insurgents slaughtered by the Daesh - together with their entire families - in Kaljibrin, just for example...

CrowBat....then the following question...was the SDF/YPG "so called Raqqa offensive" just a side show and not really a planned offensive....side show as it I think it led both the Turks and FSA to believe IS would be to busy defending Raqqa to be bothered to attack anywhere else...thus they would not be really looking for IS attack indicators.

Why do I say that?...the SDF/YPD offensive did not really go far then they stopped it basically after a short advance and started pulling back.... just enough of a PR effort to make it appear as if they were really attacking and then today they suddenly swung completely around and are fully facing Azaz with their full forces which I think is in fact their actual intended target not Raqqa....and is IS getting Russian and Assad CAS in their attack on Azaz?

Confirmed: #SDF/#YPG withdrawn heavy weaponry & equipment from Ain Issa towards #Manbij in N. #Aleppo. #Raqqa offensive ending after 4 days.

ALEPPO: while Rebels face huge #ISIS counter-offensive, dozens of Regime & Russian airstrikes on Rebel locations in Aleppo province.

If in fact Azaz is the YPG target then did they plan the "so called Raqqa offensive feint" before the swing towards Azaz with IS and then the IS attacks would make some serious sense as a prelude to Is handing the captured towns to YPG before pulling back?

What bugs me is that if that is the case then why would US SOF be part and parcel of this sudden move by YPG towards Azaz if planned together with IS????

[OUTLAW 09]

Forthcoming Turkey dilemma: Rebels pushed back by #ISIS in Azaz pocket & reports SDF/YPG going towards #Manbij. Decisive hours in N. #Aleppo

N. #Aleppo update: Rebels striking back & unconfirmed reports that several locations were just taken back from #ISIS. #TOW also in action.

N. #Aleppo update: rebels backed by airstrikes regaining the initiative around Kafr Kalbrin, Tatiyah & Sandaf. Seems #ISIS offensive stalled

Seems #Raqqa-offensive on #IslamicState canceled by #SDF/#YPG
(reasons: heavy losses 70+ dead or #US-order)

Note that ISIS targeted the currently peaceful village of Ahres with 15 car bombs when it was controlled by rebels

[OUTLAW 09]

https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/16048.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Russia deliberately burns wheat crops in Homs: farmers


Incredible: under renewed (Russian) truce in #Daraya, Regime even worsened siege by burning crops via @DarayaCouncil

Syria #Russia'n airstrikes destroyed the last bread factory in northern #Aleppo suburbs

1 of many ways for Regime & Allies to starve effectively civilians, after implementing sieges & burning crops.#Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Rebels captured #Assad-forces in Al-Dirkhabiyah in southern #Damascus
20+ airstrikes hit town this morning

UXO SPBE submunitions found by local activists in Haritan, north of Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEiibZRQefM …

Another #TOW by Zinki wipes out a Regime Kornet launcher on #Handarat front, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrezPNMpg0M …

Faylaq Sham blew up w/ #ATGM a Kornet launcher who just fired missile vs Rebels in #Handarat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_vI-f90RNw …

Palmyra-#Tadmor, outskirts of Russian Army base in Northern archaeological area, E. #Homs, #Syria via @PalmyraRev1

First Coastal Division shelling #Kinsabba in Jebal Al-Akrad with 122 mm cannon, T-55 & 23 mm gun, N. #Latakia.

Regime forces hit by a #Fagot fired by First Coastal Div. near Tel Haddada, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4GmY8jVCgA …

Dozens dead after #Russia'n & #Assad -airstrikes on #Aleppo city

Russia still continues to bomb #Aleppo city in northern #Syria
with cluster bombs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEiibZRQefM …

[OUTLAW 09]

Turkey slams US 'hypocrisy' for backing Kurdish militia in Syria
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-slams-us-hypocrisy-backing-kurdish-militia-syria-100433289.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw …

[OUTLAW 09]

Forthcoming Turkey dilemma: Rebels pushed back by #ISIS in Azaz pocket & reports SDF/YPG going towards #Manbij. Decisive hours in N. #Aleppo


Slowly we are seeing the Turkish response and the US actually may have provoked this by their open and blatant disregard for Turkish sensitivities concerning YPG patches and the IS assault on Azaz.....

Note...not confirmed as of yet it is reported to be near the IS attack on the Turkish border crossing point...

Turkish tanks and ground troops entered about 700m inside Erfin region

If they entered 700m 10 km to the east, they could stop IS........

May be also a not so subtle warning to YPG/SDF/US SOF to not head towards Azaz which Turkey has declared a "red line for them".....

[CrowBat]

CrowBat....then the following question...was the SDF/YPG "so called Raqqa offensive" just a side show and not really a planned offensive....side show as it I think it led both the Turks and FSA to believe IS would be to busy defending Raqqa to be bothered to attack anywhere else...thus they would not be really looking for IS attack indicators.Well, it's surely so that the YPG has first announced an offensive on Raqqa, then on northern Raqqa, and is presently announcing everything possible (http://www.adarpress.net/2016/05/26/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%8F%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%91%D 8%AB-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85-qsd-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%91%D9%82%D8%A9-%D9%82%D8%AF-%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D9%83%D9%88%D9%86-%D9%87%D8%AF%D9%81%D9%86/), from offensives on Manbij, on Dayr az-Zawr, on the Moon, Mars and Jupiter, while their 'Arab appendix' - i.e. the Jabhat Thuwar ar-Raqqa, Sanadid Forces etc. are still fighting Daesh in northern Raqqa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo-5G__uL7U).

Point is this: the PYD had to accept that it's not welcome to Arabs in Raqqa. The YPG f...ed up with ethnic cleansings and massacres of Arabs further north, and from the standpoint of local Arabs, it's nothing better than the Daesh. Plus, while the PYD would be very keen to get Raqqa into its hands, not few of its combatants have expressed their utter lack of interest in going there. Finally, word is the YPG suffered over 70 KIA yesterday alone. So, the YPG is out of that game, and the Arab-part of the SDF coalition left on its own there.


...and is IS getting Russian and Assad CAS in their attack on Azaz?Surprisingly enough: this time not. Russians and Assadists ceased bombing the Azaz pocket in late February.


If in fact Azaz is the YPG target then did they plan the "so called Raqqa offensive feint" before the swing towards Azaz with IS and then the IS attacks would make some serious sense as a prelude to Is handing the captured towns to YPG before pulling back?Right now the mass of the YPG is too far away from Azaz pocket so they can't go there. On the western side, in the Efrin enclave, the YPG has two own brigades, plus its Jaysh at-Thuwar appendix. Earlier fighting has shown that's barely enough to attack the insurgents in the pocket even if these are busy fighitng the Daesh in the east and the IRGC in the south.

But the point is: the YPG is not keen to go into the Azaz pocket then destroying it would mean two things.

a) Turkey would be finally enraged and shell them all the time;
b) they would then have to explain everybody why aren't they fighting Daesh.

Then, currently, the JAT and the YPG in Efrin have a frontline to the Daesh too (south of Mare'a) but this is one of most peaceful corners of Syria. So much so, one could make tourist excursions there, and nobody would get hurt.


What bugs me is that if that is the case then why would US SOF be part and parcel of this sudden move by YPG towards Azaz if planned together with IS????The US SOF has nothing to do with all of this. Not only that they're about 150km east of the Azaz pocket, or - unless the USA open an air base in Efrin too (like they already did in Qamishli and Hasakah) - would have to return to Turkey to go to the Azaz pocket (where they could now be easily arrested for supporting a terrorist organization). They're just pawns in Oblabla's big game, in which he's strictly following his idiotic script of trying to make-nice with Iran.

[OUTLAW 09]

US, Kurds to clear path toward Raqqa, with or without Turkey
http://almon.co/2o5u

BUT WAIT.... YPG/SDF/PKK/US SOF all pulled back from their four day old Raqqa offensive today after relative high loses and not going anywhere fast.

KRAUTHAMMER: 'Obama's naive idealism has caused havoc' — via @Telegraph
http://read.bi/25qfbGR

[OUTLAW 09]

Not confirmed as of yet........
IslamicState reach now the eastern entrance of #Azaz in northern #Aleppo & probably storming border town to #Turkey tonight

SDF/#YPG have now a ~20km frontline with #IslamicState in northern #Aleppo
But its still quiet -equal to #Assad-frontline with #IS

US/#Obama's war against #IslamicState in #Syria is a desaster
#Raqqa offensive canceled & backed rebels in northern #Aleppo nearly defeated

Rebels retake Tatiyah village rom #IS
That secures several #refugee camps
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.620694&lon=37.115679&z=15&m=b …

Map
Just like near #Ahras,#ISIS stopped its advance when reaching #YPG territory.
No fighting for #Menagh air base.

Rebels pounding #IS-offshoots in Ayn Dhakar /western #Daraa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUgfenTw01g …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=32.856662&lon=35.909414&z=14&m=b …

Hama Rebels shot oil tanks of Mahardeh power plant into fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf5GzK9LPrg …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.264771&lon=36.583700&z=16&m=b …

Hama Parts of Mahardeh Power Plant burning after rebel shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wo4wLzj2OY …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.263562&lon=36.584301&z=14&m=b …

Rebels blow up #IS-vehicle bomb -tried to drive into #Azaz town coming from Kafr Kalbin
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.570321&lon=37.071476&z=14&m=b …

Rebels (SRF) fighting #ISIS affiliates in W. #Daraa fired a Malyutka #ATGM in Ain Dhakar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXH31cV8JNo …

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia'n airstrikes hit Sakhur Electrical station that supplying
the #Aleppo (fresh)-water company

Raqqa_SL
#Raqqa #ISIS targeted #SDF #YPG Positions East Eyn Essa with Katyusha rockets #Syria #ISIL

Syrian Rebels capture 8 points in Ghouta
http://en.eldorar.com/node/2370

While USAF is busy bombing for Iran's militias in Fallujah, no CAS for FSA, letting ISIS capture Kafr Kalbayn.

[OUTLAW 09]

Eye on Homeland founder throw cold water on the push into Raqqa.
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/raqqa-update-no-progress-450-gis-and-pyd-has-cold-feet/ …

Raqqa update : no progress. +450 GIs and PYD has cold feet



Ahmad Abdel Qader is the founder of Eyes on HomeLand org. 2 of his members were beheaded by Daesh in their room in Turkey. He speaks to Jisr TV from Turkey about the last events in Raqqa :

Q: report say many villages have been taken over and progress has been made by the PYD and the militias.

Let me tell a great news that I am hearing through the kurdish news outlet propaganda say that the PYD militias have reached the centre of Raqqa. Those news still say that they have advanced 60 kms and took over 26 villages or 36 villages.
So far, neither the PYD militias nor the Marines who are fighting with them have not advanced one inch and they are still at the outskirts of Ain Issa where clashes are still taking place. So there is no progress made. The farms they took over are the confrontation lines between them and Daesh, where there are neither PYD militias nor Daesh members.

Q: About the US Marines. What are the information you have about them ?

On one hand, PYD said yeterday that it will merge Raqqa to the self determined province. This was a provocation attempt to force the countries that support the FSA to ask for the PYD exclusion from the battle. Today, the militias is attempting by all means to avoid that battle that will cost them score of lives. On the other hand US are attempting to prove to the world that PYD militias are organised army and can fight that battle. US has increased the number of GIs to plus 450 in Ain Issa neighborhoods to ease PYD worries and prove that they will fight the battle with them.

Q: Why the PYD has accepted to enter the battle knowing that it will cost them score of lives, and Raqqa as the city has no link to Rojava ?

Raqqa is not within their border lines or a town they can control. When they issued the statement that they will merge Raqqa to the self determined Province, statement that Salah Muslim denied, it was meant to provoke the countries who support the FSA who will ask the PYD to be excluded from the battle. Today, the PYD militias were forced into this battle. US have put PYD to chose either fight or we stop to support the kurdish militias. US administration does not care how many of the militias will die in this battle. Obama wants the liberation of Raqqa before he leaves office. PYD is attempting to find a gate away of this battle.

[OUTLAW 09]

.@janinedigi calls Syria what it is: a slow-motion genocide.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-di-giovanni-syria-20160529-snap-story.html …

First really good US MSM article on the Syrian genocide and it is from the LA Times on the West Coast not in DC.....

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat...this might be one explanation of the suddenness

ISIS took many villages in #Azaz pocket by surprise due to sleeper cells, who suddenly took over villages & let ISIS in from East side.

[OUTLAW 09]

Michael Weiss

Regional intel, two Western intel services and ISIS acknowledge Baghdadi was banged up in a US airstrike:

One US intel source confirmed with me this is an "open secret" in the IC. Yet US gov won't publicly acknowledge. Why?

[OUTLAW 09]

BREAKING: Turkish artillery hitting #YPG positions in Tat Merash, Afrin #Syria

YPG continue shelling Castillo road into rebel-held #Aleppo from Skh Maqsoud.

FSA recaptured Niyarah and Tatiya villages east Azaz from #IS. Ongoing counter attack to take back other villages.
https://twitter.com/alhamza_brigade/status/736227645290123268 …

Breaking. Report Rebels retook control of Niyarah from #ISIS. Strategy to secure #Azaz eastern flank underway
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.606433&lon=37.111988&z=13&m …

Remarkable as #ISIS is considering Rebels as the major threat in N. #Aleppo, instead of #YPG/#SDF & Regime.

Fierce fighting between rebels & #ISIS near Azaz area, rebels have so far retaken Sandaf, Tiatyia & Nayara

IslamicState in control of cattle market at eastern entrance of #Azaz
probably here:
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.584227&lon=37.068644&z=16&m=b …

Who is bombing #Syria: personal data of 58 #Russian Army officers.
https://twitter.com/newsburko/status/736194652177453056 …

North #Aleppo : #IS is shelling Bab al Salameh border crossing with Turkey

[OUTLAW 09]

Several International coalition airstrikes neaz #Azaz as it seems #ISIS inching closer to the city from East.

Actually state of emergency been declared in Ankara before Azaz. Let's see if Turk/US will allow reinforcements now.
https://twitter.com/deSyracuse/status/736229058644746240 …

Meanwhile #Russia & Assad focus on causing max damage via airstrikes, artillery & rocket attacks on civilians & infrastructure in #Aleppo

Jaih Al-Izza claims artillery set on fire oil tank near Mahardeh Thermal Station, N. #Hama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf5GzK9LPrg …

Heavy shelling/clashes in Ain Dhakar as Rebels renew push to expel #IS affiliates. W. #Daraa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUgfenTw01g …

[OUTLAW 09]

Important to note this.......comments concerning this JaN withdrawal before the extensive Russian bombings were posted here.....

Note: Last year, Nusra Front handed all their positions in N-#Aleppo to #FSA factions and withdrew to #Handarat area and S-#Aleppo. #Syria

As a result of #US coalition ignorance, leaving #FSA lose territory to #ISIS; Nusra Front announce to enter N-#Aleppo again to fight #ISIS.

JN withdrawn to allow Rebels getting aid from Inlt coalition & set-up safe zones in N. #Aleppo.

Syria Military Situation Map | May 26.
HD: https://goo.gl/sBZyuq

JaN fully understood that Russia would use them as an excuse to strike the Syrian civilian population thus their pull back and handing off to FSA and others....AND they have been totally correct with that assumption as Russia has indeed used them as an excuse to kill civilians in the name of bombing JaN......

[OUTLAW 09]

NOW it truly appears that the UN is on a "vodka high".......

"Staffan de Mistura praised Damascus for their efforts to deliver aid to parts of the country"

Still no humanitarian aid has been delivered to over 350,000 besieged Sunni's...besieged by Assad , IRGC and Hezbollah.......

[OUTLAW 09]

Congress has tasked defense officials to report on #NATO countries that allow #Russia's warships to use their ports ie...Spain
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/spain-betraying-nato-allies-by-hosting-russian-navy-v5kpktct9?shareToken=b298622d156f871af6deb19c7ed59 996 …

[OUTLAW 09]

News
8 free Syrian settlements were captured by #ISIS today and more than 20 bombed by #Assad and possibly #Russia.
The world's reaction:

Crickets hard at work..............

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat....as always the Obama WH and CENTCOM is a tad to late..........

After Turkey complains, the Pentagon's @OIRSpox says US troops wearing badges of the Kurdish YPG was "unauthorized" & "inappropriate".

[OUTLAW 09]

Orient News English
‏@OrientNewsEn
#BREAKING: Rocket fire from #Syria kills 1 in southeastern #Turkey province of #Kilis - HD News

[CrowBat]

CrowBat....as always the Obama WH and CENTCOM is a tad to late..........

After Turkey complains, the Pentagon's @OIRSpox says US troops wearing badges of the Kurdish YPG was "unauthorized" & "inappropriate".
I suggest Mr. @OIRSpox to put a nice big US flag on his chest - and go fighting Daesh in Syria. Right now.

[OUTLAW 09]

Russia’s MoD lies again: Evidence of destroyed Russian helicopters found
http://en.censor.net.ua/n390604

[OUTLAW 09]

I suggest Mr. @OIRSpox to put a nice big US flag on his chest - and go fighting Daesh in Syria. Right now.

CrowBat....by the way did you see this comment coming in.....are you sure both the IS attack on Azaz and the YPG fake Raqqa attack are not both coordinated??

YPG now use the momentum of #IslamicState-assault on #Azaz pocket & try to storm Sheikh Isa west of #Mare
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.477551&lon=37.148294&z=14&m=b …

No they can't,they would be outfkanked by bla bla"
YPG north of Aleppo fights the Syrian opposition.
Not ISIS.
Simple Fact

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo #FSA destroyed #IS-technical at Tatiyah near border crossing to #Turkey TOW hit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdkHlP-cO30 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.620350&lon=37.116365&z=14&m=b …

Syria al-Sakhour powerstation in #Aleppo has been completely shutdown after being targeted by #Russia|n airstrikes today

Station said to also feed water pumping stations in Sulieman Halabi, #Russia achieves a 2 in 1 hit on infrastructure

Hama : #Russian warplanes cluster bomb the village of #Talf damaging homes.

Damascus : Warplanes make more than twenty airstrikes on the West Ghouta town of #Derkhabia along with fierce mortar and artillery shelling.

Ghouta: Assad regime fighters captured by rebels in Deir Khobya.

Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei meet the family of hezballah military commander Mustafa Badreddine killed in #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2016/5/25/assads-allies-in-the-west

Shawn Carri

Assad's allies in the West

Pro-Assad pundits and media outlets in the West have established ties with Assad


If there's one thing everyone can agree on about Syria, it's that nobody can agree on anything.

After five years of constantly evolving strife, the world still looks on in occasional waves of horror, pity, outrage and apathy - before returning to the stoic conclusion that the conflict is just too complicated to understand.

The laws of war, human rights and geopolitics have gone out the window. With them, regrettably, the rules of responsible journalism seem to have gone, too.

At one time, open-source activists and "Facebook revolutionaries" made the Arab Spring history's most documented tectonic societal shift. Today, Syria's war is a dangerously polarised nebula of partisans, as much in the media as on the battlegrounds.

Few non-aligned journalists remain to report unbiased and trustworthy news. Without credible information, it's hard to understand anything that happens in Syria, contributing to a political and public consensus of apathy. What's left is a news landscape driven less by actual events than by a narrow set of available perspectives.

"The Syrian conflict involves a public relations war with a level of sophistication weve never seen before," American writer Patrick Henningsen said in an report published by Russia Today. Ironically, it's an accurate assessment of a reality which Russia had a primary role in fostering.

In areas where Russian intervention hasn't decisively turned the tide militarily in favour of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the allies' powerful public relations machine has been working to pick up the slack.

The alliance with Putin has availed Assad of the full gauntlet of Moscow's superior state-controlled media apparatus. The result: a highly efficient and centralised narrative spread throughout the international press. For every report, a favourable counter-narrative filters down from the regime megaphone to a wide network of smaller websites and blogs.

An example: Last month, when reports of 27 people killed in an airstrike that destroyed Aleppo's Quds hospital pointed blame towards the Syrian Army, it sparked a rare outrage that briefly put the conflict back on the international agenda.

Regime media arm SANA denied there was never a hospital hit. Russia Today then commandeered video footage shot by Aleppo journalist Hadi Al-Abdallah from a separate incident and re-edited it to remove dialogue mentioning the bombs came from an airstrike, before broadcasting it on its Arabic channel with a headline blaming the hospital attack on rebel groups.

A host of blogs followed suit, aiming to discredit the initial reports, attacking the NGOs and rescue workers and the #AleppoIsBurning campaign as all being part of some sinister Western conspiracy.

They are the type of reports that wouldn't get a second glance in mainstream news outlets, but that's just the point



However, many of the stories weren't produced by propaganda agencies run by the Russian or Syrian government - they were written in English by young bloggers who have positioned themselves as Assad's allies in the West.

They are the type of reports that wouldn't get a second glance in mainstream news outlets, but that's just the point. Publishing coverage that is more activist than journalistic, they have formed a network of "independent" and "alternative" news websites aiming to challenge the mainstream media.

One such outlet, The Anti-Media, has more than 1.6 million Facebook followers. Many such groups make their bread and butter from blogging and tweeting articles about environmentalism, mass surveillance and policebrutality, with a general affinity for protests and distaste for global capitalism - with the occasional exception.

Courting an engaged, young and progressive audience concerned about global inequality and social injustices, wary of mainstream media and weary of foreign wars - they offer simple answers to complex problems. Among them, examples abound, running the gamut from hagiography of Muammar Gaddafi and singing praises of President Assad, to comfortably wading in the realm of conspiracy theory.

When there was starvation in besieged Madaya, Eva Bartlett, a Canadian writer for Russia Today,trumpeted reports claiming that the images of severely malnourished children were either fake or propaganda.

The White Helmets? Those guys who regularly pull bodies out from the rubble of airstrikes? According to Vanessa Beeley, a writer for 21st Century Newswire, their their life-saving work is "propaganda designed to reinforce Washington's policy of 'regime change' in Syria".

MintPress Newsrepublished that article, and later followed up with another stating "[The White Helmets] are nothing more than a terrorist rescue organization, funded, directed and promoted by Western governments, intelligence agencies and foundations aimed at assisting Western-backed terrorists in the destruction of secular Syria".

Rick Sterling, writing in the long-running political newsletter CounterPunch, scoffs at the suggestion that a no-fly zone in Syria would save lives or stop the carnage of regime airstrikes - the same airstrikes which multi-year surveys show cause the majority of civilian deaths, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

Echoing Sterling in the same publication, writer Paul Larudee ventures that NGOs such as Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights - in league with NATO's warmongers - exaggerate the Syrian Air Force's use of barrel bombs, which are notorious for their crude technology and imprecise targeting, resulting in disproportionate civilian casualties.

Continued.....

The peremptory agendas of such independent outlets have in the past raised questions as to their credibility and funding sources.

In a lengthy response to allegations that MintPress is "on the payroll of the regime of President Assad of Syria", its chief editor Mnar Muhawesh denied the publication's editorial positions had been influenced by outside actors, while doubling down on those positions, such as the belief that Syria's 2011 uprising was "instigated by the CIA and planned out as early as 2006".

Some writers in this milieu share ties more significant than their dissenting opinions: Bartlett, Beeley, Larudee and Sterling are all steering committee members of an organisation named the "Syria Solidarity Movement" - an activist group and registered nonprofit which has collected more than $1,545,000 in gross receipts from donors since its founding in 2007.

SSM has organised demonstrations "in support of the Syrian government", and two group trips to Syria on official visas arranged by an Iranian NGO.

In June 2014, the group sponsored a delegation to travel to Syria to observe presidential elections dismissed as a "stage-managed sham" by many in the international community, with Bashar Al-Assad receiving 89 percent of votes.

On the morning of the election, the delegation published an endorsement, stating: "The poll is about to demonstrate the real scale of public support President Assad is enjoying inside the country, heroically resisting foreign-sponsored aggression for more than three years."

One delegation member, however, acknowledged in an email that the process was "not without flaws", including voters being intimidated, possibly paid off, and that the delegation was under constant watch by government chaperones.

During the visit, Larudee and Bartlett appeared in an interview on Syrian state television, met with government officials, and were even granted a sit-down meeting with Ali Haidar, head of the Ministry of National Reconciliation. Created in 2012, it is responsible for negotiating surrenders of rebel groups in efforts to win hearts and minds and facilitate reinsertion for who wish to return to the state.

SSM has continued to promote the ministry's efforts and has organised similar trips for Syrians to visit the United States.

Interviewed for this report, Paul Larduee, SSM's treasurer, acknowledged his group's opinions were unpopular, but offered a calculated rationale. "It's easy for us to come off as apologists for Assad when were working to correct the false information in the hostile Western media," Larudee said.

"What we see is a long-term intention to overthrow the government of Syria and replace it with a puppet. If you compare Assad's Syria with the US, you can see how rigged the system is not to allow any kind of real change - just look at Bernie Sanders' election campaign."

Indeed, US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders today represents a faultline among the American left.

"I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change," Sanders said of his opponent, signalling a sensitivity to the views of his base, which recent survey data show to be highly concerned about US military involvement in Syria.

In an interview, Syrian-British writer Robin Yassin-Kassab bluntly criticised what he termed the left's nave allurement with anti-establishment rhetoric.

"They see it in silly binary terms - 'I'm against American imperialism; therefore I support President Putin's "anti-imperialism",' which is insane because that's also, or even moreso, a savage imperialist power, and at the moment a very worrying one," said Yassin-Kassab.

Continued........

But any media outlet that eschews established standards of responsible journalism, fact-checking and editorial neutrality to pursue a partisan agenda doesn't advance public understanding - it only polarises it. And in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands, expatriated millions, and confused everyone else, more polemic is the last thing we need.

[OUTLAW 09]

.@OIRSpox says US SOF wearing YPG insignia "unauthorized & inappropriate," yesterday @PentagonPresSec portrayed it as routine solidarity.

Indicative of ‘adapt as we go’ counter-#ISIS strategy.

Politics seen as minimally important until after mistakes.

Another photo.......
Syria Another #US-soldiers with patch of kurdish #YPG-forces at northern #Raqqa front
What type of weapon is that?

[OUTLAW 09]

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan

Important lecture by Ahrar al-Sham's deputy general director on the place of Ahrar in the Islamist landscape

Ali al-Omar lays out four main 'schools' that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman caliphate, including MB and Jihadism

He faults all of the four schools, and say Ahrar combines all of them, including jihadism, and "prioritize" according to context & needs.

Great talk -- @NoahBonsey & @AbuJamajem disagreed with me once about whether the group can be labelled Salafi-jihadist, I believe it must.

[OUTLAW 09]

Just another day of Assad,ISIS,YPG&Russia attacking the Syrian opposition.
Reaction: Don't defend, stay moderate and don't exit the country.

Remember #SDF/#YPG seized Tel Rifaat with help of #Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pweWuBj9ew …

[OUTLAW 09]

Msg left on a school door in #Homs: "we can replace God, bt never replace Bashar... Best regards, the Special Forces"

IslamicState shelling villages inside #Turkey with rockets from
N-#Aleppo -army respond with artillery
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.657127&lon=37.445612&z=14&m=b …

[OUTLAW 09]

Foreign Policy
✔ ‎@ForeignPolicy Turkey to U.S. troops: You clearly support terrorists, so maybe you should start wearing ISIS and Boko Haram flags.
http://atfp.co/1WpZBpA .


Turkish officials are so furious that American special forces troops accompanying Kurdish militants in Syria are wearing their partners’ insignia on their uniforms that Ankara’s top diplomat suggested Friday that U.S. soldiers add Islamic State flags to their sleeves next.

Speaking at a press conference in Antalya, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said that “wearing an insignia of a terrorist organization by U.S. soldiers, who are our ally and are assertive about fighting against terrorism, is unacceptable.”

"Our suggestion to them is that they should also wear Daesh, al-Nusra and al-Qaeda insignias during their operations in other regions of Syria,” Cavusoglu said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State. “They can also wear the Boko Haram insignia when they go to Africa.”

Turkey believes the U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Unit, or the YPG, is an armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which both Ankara and Washington have labeled as a terrorist organization. But the United States supports the YPG, claiming it is Washington’s best chance of beating back Islamic State militants in Syria. The photos that emerged Thursday show U.S. commandos on patrol in the village of Fatisah, near the Islamic State’s stronghold in Raqqa, wearing YPG insignia on their sleeves. Cavusoglu said Friday that the YPG is responsible for two recently bombings in Ankara that left dozens dead.

After the photos were released, Maj. Tiffany Bowens, spokesperson for U.S. Special Forces Command in the Middle East, told Foreign Policy in an e-mail that “this practice is officially against uniform regulations,” but “U.S. Special Operations Forces and their counterparts typically swap unit patches as a method to build trust.” The patch swap is intended to signal cooperation, and has been “employed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jordan,” she said. “This is a tactical decision and not a reflection of U.S. government policy.”

She would not specifically elaborate on what the American forces are doing on the ground.


JUST IN: The Pentagon has banned troops in Syria from wearing these Kurdish militia patches
http://militari.ly/1VlZXwg

"We realize our President has asked you to defeat an enemy by helping our allies enemy, but we don't need to brag"
https://twitter.com/adegrandpre/status/736271626795405312 …


“Wearing those YPG patches was unauthorized, and it was inappropriate and corrective action has been taken,” Army Col. Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman, told reporters Friday. “And we have communicated as much to our military partners and our military allies in the region.”

Warren’s condemnation of the patch Friday ran counter to Pentagon statements Thursday, when Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook said it was normal for special operations troops to try to “blend in with the community to enhance their own protection.”

[OUTLAW 09]

FSA recaptures Niyara from #ISIS -

After "liberation" of Tel Rifaat by #SDF/#YPG from #FSA the former residents still live in tents near #Azaz

[OUTLAW 09]

What an Islamic State Offensive in Aleppo near Azaz means for US Policy
http://bit.ly/1qPxCSl


On May 26 the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) launched a successful westward offensive in Syria’s northern Aleppo countryside. ISIS effectively encircled thousands of insurgent fighters in the town of Marea and is now less than 2 miles from the critical opposition-held city of Azaz. Although ISIS only seized six villages and may yet lose them, that does not reveal the full extent of the danger this attack poses. Aleppo province is where multiple axes of the Syrian war intersect: the regime-opposition conflict; Kurdish-insurgent competition; Russia’s military role; US policy toward the rebellion (and therefore the regime); Turkey’s critical geopolitical interests; and of course, the multi-front war on ISIS. The real significance of military developments in Aleppo usually goes beyond territorial changes. For the insurgency and its Turkish patron in particular, the margin for error in a critical part of Syria is now vanishingly thin. The implications for the US war on ISIS are alarming.

In recent weeks, US and Turkish-backed rebel groups have repeatedly fought ISIS, in an attempt to drive the group out of Aleppo province. The insurgents captured territory but were unable to hold it against ISIS counterattacks. Over the weeks, Russian-backed regime operations, ISIS attacks, and Kurdish PYD offensives further squeezed the insurgency in Aleppo, eventually confining it to the narrow “Azaz corridor” and a single critical but vulnerable supply line running through it from Turkey. Surrounded by hostile PYD forces to the west, ISIS to the east, and the regime to the south, the insurgents in the corridor were already in danger before the recent ISIS offensive. With all these actors positioned to make land grabs in the area, and rebels exhausted by months of fighting, the corridor is now on the verge of collapse.

A number of scenarios could destroy the corridor and, with it, the rebel presence in Aleppo province (with the exception of soon-to-be-encircled Aleppo city). First, the PYD could move on opposition territory, under the pretext of defending it from ISIS. The PYD could grant these insurgents safe passage through Kurdish-dominated territory instead of attacking them, but that seems unlikely given mutual hostility. ISIS may also continue its westward offensive in a race with the PYD for the corridor, and would likely execute any rebel prisoners. Regime and Russian air strikes on the insurgents would facilitate either ISIS or PYD movement. That would be consistent with a regime policy of prioritizing the war on the insurgency.

If the Azaz corridor collapses, the most obvious loser (apart from the opposition of course) will be Turkey. It would no longer have proxy capability in northern Syria’s most strategic province, in a war where critical national security interests are at stake. These interests include, but are not limited to, containing expansion by the PYD - a group closely linked to Turkey’s historical enemy the PKK - in part through Turkey’s rebel allies in Aleppo. With Kurdish-led forces, ISIS, the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, and the regime controlling most of northern Syria, Turkey would be nearly out of allies in Syria.

US policy in Syria is more narrowly defined and largely focused on defeating ISIS, and the collapse of the Azaz corridor would significantly complicate that fight. Presently, the United States and Turkey have a two-pronged approach to fighting ISIS. East of the Euphrates river, the United States supports a largely-Kurdish military effort against ISIS, the PYD-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This ethnic imbalance has strained Kurdish-Arab relations in areas liberated from the group, amid reports of ethnic cleansing of Arabs by the PYD. The United States however, unwilling to get more deeply involved in the Syrian conflict, calculates that this is a risk worth taking. West of the Euphrates however, and under strong Turkish insistence, there is an Arab opposition-led anti-ISIS effort. The so-called Hiwar Kilis Operations Room includes Turkish-backed Islamists and US-backed nationalist insurgents and has enjoyed Turkish artillery and US aerial support.

The United States needs local Arab partners against ISIS, such as the Hiwar Kilis Operations Room. It also needs Turkish cooperation against ISIS which is essentially contingent on keeping Kurdish forces east of the Euphrates. Without a significant Arab force in northern Aleppo, and in the absence of a broader more ambitious policy to end the civil war, the United States will be tempted if not compelled to rely completely on the PYD and allow it to expand westward into Arab territory. That would be catastrophic for US-Turkish relations and the related anti-ISIS effort. An exclusively Kurdish war on ISIS would deepen Sunni extremism among an aggrieved Arab population, deprive the United States and its allies of Arab partners in a crucial geography, and eliminate the moderate opposition in northern Syria.

US military planners recognize the tension between beating ISIS and the limited local tools available to them. Much of the Arab population in Raqqa and Deir al Zour is disorganized, disoriented and, understandably, fearful of ISIS and resentful of the PYD. The United States is trying to address that by augmenting the Arab component of the PYD-led SDF. This same logic ought to apply doubly in Aleppo, where local fighters with experience and commitment have fought ISIS for years. At the moment, overwhelming Turkish artillery and US airpower are needed to help them push ISIS back, and expand the eastern boundaries of the Azaz corridor. In the longer run, if the corridor survives, this crisis only highlights how much the United States needs a well-armed, well-trained Arab insurgent partner in Aleppo.


Some how many seem to be not seeing the FSA as a fighting force that can deal with IS......why is that......

[OUTLAW 09]

Michael Weiss
✔ ‎@michaeldweiss How the Kurds’ neighbors play games to block the expansion of ‘Greater Kurdistan’:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/05/27/kurdish-factions/ …

Lebanese Hezbollah ministers, MPs could be hit by U.S. law: U.S. official http://reut.rs/27WaIdV

[CrowBat]

CrowBat....by the way did you see this comment coming in.....are you sure both the IS attack on Azaz and the YPG fake Raqqa attack are not both coordinated??They were not coordinated, but the YPG is a PKK, and so it quickly exploited the opportunity to attack Sheikh Issa (which was never a Kurdish-populated area). Fighting there is still going on.

Of course, they didn't attack the Daesh...

[OUTLAW 09]

From battle btw #Assad-forces & #IslamicState at
Panorama roundabout in #DeirEzzor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4rZk_Rsggg …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.300241&lon=40.085056&z=16&m=b …

[OUTLAW 09]

IS were able to reach the field hospital in #Mare town but were overwhelmed by #FSA

ISIS assaulting force is composed mainly of children from northern and eastern Aleppo towns

15 dead #IS-fighters & several captured- tried to storm #Mare town in northern #Aleppo

IS VBIED blown up near Mare3 before reaching target

Intense clashes are taking place on the periphery of Marea, where ISIS detonated 5 vehicle bombs in the early morning

Syria'n regime airstrikes hit several neighborhoods of #Aleppo city now

Rebels seized BMP from #IS during their assault on #Mare town in northern #Aleppo

#FSA continues battle against #IslamicState-offshoots in western #Daraa province
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drGH92I4flk …

Footage from yesterday shows battle btw #FSA & #IslamicState at highway to #Turkey border crossing

Rebels have retaken the village of Nada near Azaz in north rural #Aleppo from #ISIS

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo Halab Ops Room commander Major Yasser Abdulrahim in anticipation of a major regime offensive declares general mobilization

Kurds are desperately trying to "walk back" their previous statements on Raqqa becoming part and parcel of a Kurdish federation after the capture of it....THAT after a number of blustering statements from them on the offensive against Raqqa....Raqqa is Arab Sunni and never has been Kurdish.

Salih Muslim denying Raqaa will be part of PYD federalism

Obama WH now has a "loose cannon proxy" in Syria that wants to create their own nation state with Obama supporting them....and he is actually going along with it.

[OUTLAW 09]

I suggest Mr. @OIRSpox to put a nice big US flag on his chest - and go fighting Daesh in Syria. Right now.

Apparently Americans fighting with PYD/SDF have complained that Obama has already betrayed them.

What amazes me is that US SOF has not been fully made aware of the multiple political agendas being played now in Syria and the sensitivities of some of those players to a simple thing like a unit insignia..

BUT again many of those now in US SOF cannot be that well informed to the history of PKK over the last say 30 odd years and their close ties to the international communist national liberation movement.....as that was "long before their time"......

[OUTLAW 09]

IDP tents on fire on outskirts of Zakia in W. Ghouta, #Damascus after being targeted by Assad airstrikes last night

Reports of Russia/Assad airstrikes this AM on Zakat & Latamna in north rural #Hama

Assad barrel bombs also targeted today Sakhour, Masakin Hanano, Halak, Haidaryia, Bustan Basha, Ard al-Hamra, Jandoul & Ba’adin in #Aleppo

Russian airstrikes continue today on Kafrhamra, Hayan, Hraytan, Anadan & Asia area in #Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.....what do think of this.....is IS using child fighters to conserve their manpower....??

IS were able to reach the field hospital in #Mare town but were overwhelmed by #FSA

ISIS assaulting force is composed mainly of children from northern and eastern Aleppo towns

Also there was a comment yesterday that the suddenness of the IS attacks might have been due to sleeper cells being called into play....that were already in the towns taken over..

[OUTLAW 09]

HIZBOLLA: STOP BURYING FIGHTERS WHO DIED IN #HOMS IN DAHYE WITHOUT A PROPER FUNERAL. YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO HIDE THE TRUTH.

Back in 2011, when Nasrallah was going on TV and absolutely denying he had any fighters in #Syria

"6000 mines surround the town of Madaya"

[OUTLAW 09]

Reference the early morning IS attack on Mare today......

So far #FSA killed 30+ #IS-attackers in early morning

[CrowBat]

There were something like 7-8 major Daesh attacks yesterday and today, all by its Halab Division, something like in the following order:

27 May, 2016

In the early hours of Saturday, 27 May, 2016, the 'Halab Division' of the Daesh launched a big offensive on wide front against the eastern side of Azaz pocket, in northern Aleppo province.

At first there were reports (https://www.facebook.com/A.R.N.ALEPPONEWZ/posts/1629985103994558) about the Daesh infiltrating Kfar Kalbin and Kaljibrin - with help of local sleeper cells. Then there were reports (https://twitter.com/samie19699/status/736084841616138241) about heavy fighting in both of these places, followed by reports (https://twitter.com/NorthernStork/status/736078471240126464) that the Daesh captured Tel Hussein, Niyarah, Tatiya and Burayshah.

Later during the morning, it turned out Daesh was in control of Kaljibrin, and already in the process of massacring any civilians and few insurgents it caught (https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/736102686479810560). Daesh subsequently released a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXUbVCnqD8) showing its nocturnal attack on Kfar Kalbin and Kaljibrin. Daesh's Amaq news agency photos of the loot (https://twitter.com/JakeGodin/status/736279035597185028) from local insurgent ammo depots.

(Some of photos are showing inscriptions in cyrilic, apparently indicating ammo purchased from one of countries of former Yugoslavia [sources differ if from Croatia or from Serbia, but this is near-irrelevant: both are known to have been selling arms to different insurgent-supporters in recent years]).

Mare'a was thus cut off from Azaz.

There followed reports (http://www.sna-agency.com/%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%8A-%D8%A5/) about Turkish artillery shelling villages captured by Daesh, and even the USAF fighter bombers (http://www.sna-agency.com/%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B7%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%82%D9%8A-%D8%A5/) flying air strikes against Daesh (Jenan Moussa (https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/736216643563626496) was another source citing air strikes), foremost against Daesh in Kfar Kalbin. Correspondingly, the USAF should've started flying over the area already around the midnight, and flew one air strike at 06.00hrs in the morning, followed by another at 06.13hrs in the morning.

Around the noon, Daesh reportedly (https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/736115644450676736) reached Bab as-Salameh border crossing with Turkey. This proved an exaggeration: insurgents blocked the Daesh advance in direction of Bab as-Salameh about 1km short of it, apparently with some effective support from Turkish artillery. Daesh then limited itself to shelling the area with BM-21s and mortars.

Sometimes around the noon or during the afternoon, the Daesh was then said to have reached the Cattle Market on the eastern entrance to Azaz. Around the same time, the MSF reported to have been forced to evacuate its hospital in as-Salamah.

The Daesh assault on eastern Azaz - precise timing of which remains unknown, though which might have been repeated the last night (27-28 May) - was apparently spoiled, and this morning insurgents claimed to have recaptured the village of Nadda, 2-3km east Azaz.

This attack (on Nadda) took place already within something like 'general counteroffensive' of insurgents, launched already during the afternoon of 27 May. This began with re-capture of Sandaf (first village north of Mare'a), yesterday around noon. Fighting for that place is still going on, nevertheless.

Elsewhere in Azaz Pocket, insurgents managed to recapture the village of Niyarah (https://twitter.com/theOSINTblog/status/736266292886310914), already around the noon, and then Tatiyah, yesterday evening, as visible on this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vORBHWi7kI).

***

''Azaz Pocket: Western side'

Amid a lot of PR- the YPG/PYD/SDF conglomerate announced yesterday (https://twitter.com/24Aleppo/status/736258105982455810), it is 'opening a humanitarian corridor' for civilians from the Azaz Pocket into the Efrin Enclave.

Actually, and opportunist as ever, the 'SPD' - i.e. YPG (which has two own brigades plus SDF's Jaysh at-Thuwar in the Efrin enclave) - attacked Sheikh Issa (https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/736258511894630400), yesterday, and then again this morning, and was said to have entered the place (https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/736503316981665792), today - apparently without any fight. Supposedly, the Sheikh Issa was empty - of civilians, but also of insurgents, all of whom went to fight the Daesh in Mare'a.

However, it turned out the YPG failed to capture Sheikh Issa, and then conditioned letting civilians evacuate Mare'a via Efrin enclave to Azaz if the insurgents would let it into the town. Apparently, left without the choice, insurgents accepted this offer, and the Kurdish ANAH news agency (http://www.hawarnews.com/6124-%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AC-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B9-%D9%88%D8%B4%D9%8A%D8%AE-%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%89-%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%81%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B2/) proudly reporting that 6124 civilians arrived in Efrin from Mare'a, around the noon local time (today).

[CrowBat]

28 May, 2016

After checking about a dozen of different maps, this one (https://twitter.com/deSyracuse/status/736462220574490624) appears to be closest to what the situation on the ground should've been this morning.

This morning, the Daesh unleashed an all-out attack on Mare'a. This was reportedly (https://twitter.com/bdrhmnhrk/status/736442957348343808) initiated by no less but five VBIEDs (one of which was apparently knocked out before it reached its target (https://twitter.com/Syrian_view321/status/736448567880093696)), and is said to have reached the local hospital. There the insurgents managed to stop this attack, killing up to 30 KIA (about a dozen of these were visually confirmed so far (https://twitter.com/NorthernStork/status/736447000837787649), while two (both teenagers from Aleppo (https://twitter.com/kovandire/status/736482142318891008) were captured.

Local sources are reporting (https://twitter.com/StefanieDekker/status/736455003393646597) 'fighters in high spirits' after their latest defensive success against the Daesh, but also confirmed that most of local population was evacuated to Azaz - via YPG-held Efrin enclave.

Another Daesh assault on Mare'a, once again led by a VBIED, was reported (https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/736510978746155008) around the noon today, together with additional additional claims (https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/736503282378543105) that the YPG seized Sheikh Issa.

Meanwhile, according to reports like this one (https://twitter.com/bm21_grad/status/736505382068162560) preparations are underway for a counterattack from Azaz in southern direction, with intention of fully re-establishing the land connection to Mare'a.

Turkey is claiming (http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-turkey-says-104-isis-militants-killed-in-air-land-strikes-in-syria-2217490) its artillery and (US) air strikes to have killed 104 Daesh in two days of fighting.

***
***

US Military Operations

Despite claims about US air strikes from 27 May, these remained unconfirmed until this morning, when the CJTF-OIR reported (https://www.facebook.com/CJTFOIR/posts/1704670459799088:0?platform=hootsuite) exactly, 'three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions'.

Similarly, while a lot has been said about supposed 'US support' for some of insurgent groups operational inside the Azaz pocket, I've seen next to nothing of that, and consider availability of US-made weapons - or, more often, 'US-designed weapons manufactured somewhere abroad' - no confirmation for US support.

Nevertheless, the CENTCOM did fly additional air strikes this morning. For example, Jenan Moussa (https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/736303494286708741) reported up to 10 additional air strikes - some of these by A-10 Thunderbolt IIs.

Furthermore, the US DoD is reporting (http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/721537/marine-corps-aircraft-deploy-to-turkey-for-operation-inherent-resolve) a re-deployment of Grumman EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft of the VMAQ-4 to Incirlik AB in -Turkey and their operations against Daesh in northern Syria.

For better understanding of what the CENTCOM might use over Azaz pocket:

- USAF has 12 A-10s from the 75th FS (http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/10/20/-10s-deploy-turkey-fight-isis/74288250/) at Incirlik, and now

- USMC has 4 EA-6Bs from VMAQ-4 there.

- Reports about either USAF's or CIA's UCAV ops from Incirlik AB are making circles since about a year (http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/turkey-united-states-syria-iraq-isis-incirlik-air-base-jets.html#), and it's quite sure that some of these are MQ-9 Reapers (https://theaviationist.com/tag/general-atomics-mq-9-reaper/). But, I do not know what agency is operating them.

***
***

One of most surprising things about what happened in Azaz Pocket the last two days is the apparent 'non-appearance' of insurgents on their frontlines. At least there were very few of them early on. While the Daesh did release some photos showing up to about a dozen of insurgents - primarily local militia - 'killed in action' (KIA), there are next to no reports about losses: perhaps 10 were KIA in fighting for Kaljibrin, for example, while about 30 were claimed as captured by the Daesh - which seems to have infiltrated the area with help of their 'sleepers', and then attacked from behind.

Daesh subsequently published a number of photos (https://justpaste.it/up5q) of KIA insurgents. Several seem to be members of Fastaqam Kama Umrit (Stand Upright as Ordered) that recently joined Jaysh al-Mujahidden coalition (photos 10 and 14).

Regardless of infiltration and sleeper cells, the total insurgent force in the Azaz Pocket should be up to 10,000 combatants. Sure, many of them were new intakes, undergoing training etc., but most of commanders are highly experienced - especially from fighting Daesh (one shouldn't forget that the JAM for example, was created specifically with the aim of fighting Daesh, was the first to fight it and the first to defeat it - back in Janaury 2014, when it kicked the Daesh out of this part of Syria). They were also excellently supplied. So, they should not only have been 'everywhere' (up to 500 per every village there), but could not have possibly 'disappeared' just they way they appear to have. There are also no reports citing panic or flight of insurgents, regardless how tense the situation is.

However, after chatting with few people in Turkey, the story is emerging according to which a big part of insurgent force was recently withdrawn into Turkey, for rest, recuperation, and training, pending a 'planned big offensive on Jarablus' - all of this in 'big secrecy'.

But, if this is the case, then the the MIT (Turkish military intelligence) should've known that Daesh has got excellent intel and would have learned about such a move. I.e. if such a measure was taken and insurgents withdrawn into Turkey, regardless the reason, the Daesh learned about such a development and this offensive can thus be seen as a sort of pre-emptive attack.

That said, there is little doubt that plenty of well-equipped insurgent units - including a new (at least to me) appearance named 'Liwa ar-Ra'ad' - are streaming into the area since noon of 27 May. They seem to have been quite successful with first of their counterattacks. So, this might confirm their 'absence' too, at least early on.

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat....thanks for clearing a tad the "fog of war" on a difficult to track ground war with an ever shifting front.....especially woith at least six different players......

[OUTLAW 09]

Once a vassal of Muslim empires itself, Russia has always had a Middle Eastern vocation. My WSJ cover essay explains
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-long-road-to-the-middle-east-1464361067 …

Another YPG "reason" for not attacking IS......
Commander of #SDF Raqqa Operation Rojda Felatl says they are cleaning ISIS landmines #YPG @VOANews

Putin threatens Romania, Poland, ready to make peace with Turkey - read on -
http://uatoday.tv
http://uatoday.tv/politics/putin-threatens-romania-poland-ready-to-make-peace-with-turkey-662858.html …

[OUTLAW 09]

State Dept's Mark Toner denies YPG/PKK relationship. Astoundingly ridiculous.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/05/257787.htm …


QUESTION: Can we go to Syria?

MR TONER: Yeah.

QUESTION: Yesterday you didn’t address the question of the shoulder flashes that appear on the soldiers – U.S. soldiers who were photographed by AFP in northern Syria. Obviously we talked to the Pentagon about that, but now it’s become a diplomatic incident. The foreign minister of Turkey said some very strong words. He said that if American soldiers are going to be wearing YPG flashes, why don’t they just wear al-Qaida flashes or ISIS flashes? They’re all terrorists and you’re hypocrites for pretending otherwise. What’s your response?

MR TONER: So I’m going to stay in large part where it was yesterday, in that I’m not going to talk about or provide information about these specific photos, and the reason why – and I think Peter Cook also spoke to this, as you noted at the Pentagon – is that I’m not going to talk about where our Special Forces may be located at any given moment. We’ve said before they’ve been deployed to northern Syria to work with the Syrian Democratic Forces who are fighting there, but I can’t get into any specifics. It’s not in my purview, but also I don’t think it’s in the best interests of their operational security.

With respect to Turkey’s comments about these photos, we’ve been very clear from this podium and elsewhere, our belief that the YPG is not connected to the PKK, which we have designated as a foreign terrorist organization. On the contrary, we believe the YPG, as well as other forces in Syria, in northern Syria, are effectively taking the fight to ISIL and we’re going to continue to support them with our advise and assist operations there.

QUESTION: Well, when you say that PYG is not connected to the PKK, they don’t have any ties at all or you just don’t think they fall under the same command?

MR TONER: We have said that we believe they’re – and we hold to this – that we believe they are separate entities. I can’t rule out that there’s some connections. Look, I can’t – let me put it this way, David – I can’t categorically say that there’s not any connections, but we have made very clear that the YPG is a separate entity from the PKK with – is located geographically in a separate area in northern Syria and is, as we have said before, taking the fight to Daesh in northern Syria and is a very effective fighting force, I might add.

QUESTION: But some YP – PYG personnel have been PKK and vice versa. They train in each other’s camps. They have a similar ideology. They’re born from the same movement.

MR TONER: Again, I’m going to stay where I was.

QUESTION: Okay. And do you think this is a crisis in relations with Turkey?

MR TONER: No, look, we’ve been – we understand Turkey’s concerns, and let me make that clear. And we continue to discuss this as well as other concerns that Turkey has regarding Daesh and regarding issues in northern – concerning northern Syria. We’re going to continue to work through those, such as providing stronger border security as well as other aspects that we – where we feel we can strengthen the relationship with Turkey. But Turkey’s been a member of the anti-Daesh coalition, continues to be an active member, and we – we’re grateful for Turkey’s support.

I’ll get to you.

QUESTION: Same subject?

MR TONER: Are we a different subject or still Syria?

QUESTION: On that, on that very issue.

MR TONER: Okay.

QUESTION: You always say Turkey is an ally, a NATO member, and all that, but in this particular conflict --

MR TONER: Because they are.

QUESTION: -- in this particular conflict in Syria, is Turkey really an ally when they view America’s partner forces on the ground, the YPG, the patches of which U.S. troops are wearing on their uniforms right now, as terrorists? Doesn’t that suggest a huge difference in goals in this conflict?

MR TONER: No, it does not. Because the goal here is to destroy and degrade Daesh and remove them from the battlefield. Frankly, it’s a --

QUESTION: But isn’t YPG the same as --

MR TONER: Frankly, it’s a --

QUESTION: -- Daesh and al-Qaida, just like the Turkish foreign minister said?

MR TONER: It is a goal we share – but it’s a goal we share with all members of the ISSG; it’s a goal we share with all members of the anti-Daesh coalition. Now, are there disagreements among members of the coalition as to how we proceed and with whom we’re cooperating on the ground? I’m not going to say that there aren’t. And obviously, Turkey’s made very clear their feelings about the YPG. We have also been equally clear, while we understand Turkey’s concerns, that we’re going to continue to work with the YPG as a part of the overarching Syrian Democratic Forces. So the YPG is not the sole group that we’re working with on the ground. We’re working with Syrian Arabs, Syrian Turkmen, and other groups that are fighting Daesh.


NOTICE not a single mention of FSA which has far more combat experience against IS and has beaten IS...than anything YG has currently done.

[CrowBat]

Additional points and updates:

- The Daesh is spending VBIEDs like there's no tomorrow in northern Aleppo: back in April, when insurgents took ar-Rai, the Daesh counterattacked with 30 of these - on the same day!

- Yesterday and today, over 20 VBIED attacks were counted (and over 50 the last week or so): it appears most are driven by 'kids', 10-15-years young indoctrinated kids from northern Aleppo province.

- There are still contradictive reports about who controls Sheikh Issa. One version is (https://twitter.com/CivilWarMap/status/736514875220971520) that the YPG is there to help extract civilians, but status of the FSyA is unclear. Another is that the YPG is 'simply' in control now (https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/736555676101705728).

- Latest Daesh attack on Mare'a was launched about two hours ago, this time starting with five VBIEDs (https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/736567639586181120), and from the south (well outside the range of even rocket-assisted Turkish artillery). 9 Daesh are said (https://twitter.com/jenanmoussa/status/736557456118145024) to have entered some houses there, and to have taken hostages.

Not a single air strike was reported from Mare'a area today.

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo 40+ residents killed yesterday in Kaljibrin by #IslamicState -followed by #US airstrikes after #IS took over town

Regime airstrikes on northern #Aleppo suburbs

NOW tell me the US intelligence community with all their ISR capabilities cannot find this IS VBIED factory...especially their improvised explosives manufacturing sites.....

IslamicState used ~50 VBIED against rebel held #Azaz/#Mare pocket the past weeks. Seems they have a big factory in northern #Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

SyAA soldier with Iranian Toophan ATGM (BGM-71 TOW copy) today, likely in Aleppo

About 20 barrel bombs and 10 airstrikes have hit Aleppo city and northern suburbs

IS shelled #Gaziantep airport by 2 rockets one of them exploded
No report about casualties

Situation between #Azaz and #Marea right now.
Rebel counteroffensive was tiny & regained only 4 villages

(failed) #IslamicState-assault on border-crossing shows
no hope for intervention by #Turkey army against #IS

Big news (really not since they're working in pincer movement) from #Azaz/Marea is how Daesh & YPG are taking Opp territory from both sides.

Assad rocket attack on Haidariya in #Aleppo now, civilian casualties reported

Assad Regime & Allies Kill Over 3,000 #Syria-ns in 90 Days since #CoH Truce Agreed
http://ow.ly/ZKtx300EYF9

Ghouta: More Assad regime fighters killed in Deir Khobya

Hama: Syrian Rebels capture 5 Assad regime fighters in Faroro

[OUTLAW 09]

Appears Shia fighters and their officers are getting killed as fast in Iraq as they are in Syria....

Sectarian Shia leader in Ashura Militia Dawud Zarouk Sa'idi killed in Fallujah

General in sectarian Shia Hashd militia Aziz Majid killed in Fallujah

[CrowBat]

...it seems that Russians have re-deployed Su-25s to Syria again.

At least it is said that the one below (https://twitter.com/YallaSouriya/status/736501646566391808) was spotted over Kfar Hamra today.

If so, that's 'perfectly in line' with news from Moscow yesterday, according to which, The Russian Parliament's Defense Committee has asked President Vladimir Putin to Annihilate Jabhat Al Nusra in Syria and to do so unilaterally (http://newsru.com/russia/28may2016/komoedov.html).

Now, considering this was the result of a 'cease-fire' - Assad Regime & Allies Kill Over 3,000 Syrians in 90 Days since Truce Agreed (http://en.etilaf.org/all-news/local-news/assad-regime-allies-kill-over-3-000-syrians-in-90-days-since-truce-agreed.html) - everybody is free to imagine what's going to happen as next. :rolleyes:

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage
Russian jets w/multiple air strikes on civilians in #Huraytan today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9glH3qCIvVk …

News
Turkey say it hit #ISIS with 223 artillery rounds and 40 rockets yday + 11 US air strikes hit the terrorists.
Didn't help much though.

Footage
New regime offensive in #Hama?
Su-24 bomb Kafr Zita, Al-Lataminah&more since yday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saj1LT8xJRM …

Footage
The #Assad regime dropped barrel bombs on #KafrHamra this morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdnYhW6k6Y …

Footage
Women and children in #KafrNabl block road, protest arrest of relatives by #Nusra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw5t4FEJ8 …

Idlib : Angry locals set on fire a #Nusra and a Ahrar Sham checkpoint in #Ras_Maasara after Nusra arrested a young man from the town.

Rebels regained control of #Naddah just east of #Azaz last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vORBHWi7kI …

MSF's Al Salamah hospital in #Syria received 14 more patients today. Situation calmer as frontline with IS established at 6 km

Fire was caused by rebel mortar attack. Fuel tank hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLAzjfx5_lA …

[OUTLAW 09]

Alleged video of alleged Turkish tanks and machinery inside Rojava between Hamam & Marwan vlgs SW of Afrin

The doctors of @sams_usa had sleepless night treating victims of #ISIS attack in #Maree

Reports Mansoura in Sahl al-Ghab in south rural #Hama is under rocket attack by Assad forces in Jorin camp (same ol' same ol') #Syria

Heavy clashes between rebels & regime forces trying to break into #Daraya again under artillery & rocket fire. #Damascus

[OUTLAW 09]

State Dept's Mark Toner denies YPG/PKK relationship. Astoundingly ridiculous.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/05/257787.htm …

http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/02/20/archives-testimonies-confirm-pydypgs-organic-link-with-pkk-terror-organization

Archives, testimonies confirm PYD/YPG's organic link with PKK terror organization

RAGIP SOYLU

WASHINGTON, D.C.

February 19, 2016


Although links between the PKK and PYD have been deliberately disregarded by some, especially Washington, archives and testimonies show contrary evidence that in terms of leadership, ideology and militant activities

The Syrian Kurdish group Democratic Union Party (PYD) has seized the northern parts of Syria after forces loyal to President Bashar Assad abruptly abandoned Kurdish cities in 2012. Since then, Turkey has claimed that there was a solid link between the PYD and the Northern Iraq-based radical Kurdish nationalist PKK, recognized as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as Western countries.

Although the connection between the two parties has been established as a fact within many academic circles, Turkey's NATO ally the U.S., currently refuses to recognize that connection and claims that despite their ideological similarity, the groups have separate decision-making processes and that there is no organic attachment between them. The U.S. officially designated the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, but for reasons associated with the struggle against DAESH, the U.S. is willing to work with the PYD.

A report published by the Atlantic Council has detailed the widespread presence of Turkish citizens in the ranks of the PYD's armed wing, the People's Protection Units (YPG). Casualty data from the YPG compiled through open sources confirms links between the YPG and the PKK. Kurds from Turkey total roughly 50 percent of Kurdish casualties between 2013 and 2016.

Salih Muslim, the current chairman of the PYD, has also implicitly accepted that there were hundreds of PKK militants in the ranks of the YPG. "It is quite natural for a Kurd who was formerly one of the [PKK] fighters in the mountains to defend his home" Muslim told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper last month.

But this information is not enough to reach a conclusion in the eyes of American officials as well as other commentators who are sympathetic to the PYD's cause in Syria.

This is why we decided to investigate the PYD-PKK connection in the PKK archives, past news stories and testimonies. We found strong organic links between the two organizations.

The PYD's foundation: The PKK's direct role

The Kurdish insurgent group PKK, established in 1978 by Abdullah Öcalan and headquartered in Syria from 1979 to 1998, was forced to leave Syria after Turkey threatened war against Hafez al-Assad's Syrian regime, which was providing logistics and training for the Kurdish militants. Many accounts suggest that a new party had to be founded after this development, since the PKK still had strong support in the country's north.

Syrian Kurds had a presence in the PKK's ranks as well, and they are generally referred to as "undocumented" by the Turkish authorities, since the Syrian regime didn't recognize them as Syrian citizens. Research carried out in 2007 by James Brandon of the Jamestown Foundation suggests that twenty percent of PKK militants were Syrian nationals.

The PKK's official magazine, Serxwebûn, (Independence), mentions the name of the PYD for the first time in its May 2002 issue where the documents of the PKK's 8th General Congress were compiled.

The Political-Practical Working Report, prepared for the 8th PKK Congress, underlined the absence of a political party in Syria that can defend the rights of Kurds in the country. The report suggested that PKK needed to establish a political arm in Syria as follows,

"Our Congress should make assignment and create a Democratic Union Movement of Syria or Democratic Union Party, and support it as part of our movement in upcoming days."

Osman Öcalan, the younger brother of the imprisoned founder of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, and also a senior PKK commander at the time, said that he founded the PYD in 2003.

He stated in an interview with Iraqi television Zelal in 2013 that, "I founded the PYD, as I did PJAK (the PKK's Iranian arm). We did not use the word "Kurdistan" in the party's title since we did not want to provoke the Syrian regime. The PYD is connected to the PKK, and acts upon on PKK orders."

In a separate interview given to the Turkish daily Yeni Akit, Osman Öcalan said that the PKK decided to establish the PYD while bearing in mind a possible US intervention in the region. "We held the first general PYD congress in October 2003. We trained the cadres."

2003 was an important year for the PKK. Following his 1999 arrest by the Turkish authorities, Öcalan tried to redesign the party based on an "updated" philosophy that ended the organization's demands for independence and instead prioritized a confederated struggle within the existing states of Iran, Turkey and Syria. The PKK changed its name after a congress in November 2003, and established the "People's Congress of Kurdistan," or Kongra-Gel. The PKK's armed wing, the People's Defense Forces (HPG), which has been operating since 2000, preserved the previous organizational scheme and continued its operations without regard to the PKK's name change.

Turkish newspapers reported the establishment of the PYD in May 2004, referencing unnamed Turkish officials. The Cumhuriyet daily said that the PYD was founded to shield the PKK/Kongra Gel's illegal activities in the region. It said the riots in Syria's Qamishli village, which occurred in March 2004, "were provoked" by 2,000 PKK militants.

Official PKK websites and magazines depict the establishment of the PYD in detail. For example, an undated article published by Zaxo Şiyar on the PKK's women's branch, the Kurdistan Women's Freedom Party's (PAJK) website, says that the PKK's leadership decided to establish individual parties separately in every region of Kurdistan. The article, which also appeared on the PKK's Arabic website, depicts the PKK's psychology after its forced exit from Syria and subsequent arrest of Öcalan:

The Syrian state was planning to destroy the remaining party cadres since the leadership was dispersed. The PYD party was established under the shadow of these liquidation operations in the four parts of Kurdistan. The PYD was the first party in southwestern Kurdistan, and tried to create its own perspective.

The four original PYD founders were PKK militants

There is no doubt that PKK militants were the PYD's original founders, because its current leadership still commemorates the five founders, who were members of the PKK's armed wing the HPG, and were later assassinated in Iraq's Mosul.

Following the Syrian regime's 2004 crackdown in northern Syria against the PYD, the party's political committee decided to move to Northern Iraq to review their strategy: namely Şilan Kobani (Meysa Baqi), Zekeriya (Zekeriya İbrahim), Fuat (Hikmet Tokmak), Cemil (Nebo Ali) and Ciwan (Hacı Cuma Ali).

PYD militant Şilan Kobani (CR) with seen next to the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan (R).PYD militant Şilan Kobani (CR) with seen next to the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan (R).

The PKK's official magazine Serxwebûn describes the aim of the committee in an article dated November 2006:

A group of comrades were assigned to re-construct our democratic struggle in south-west Kurdistan. Comrades Şilan, Fuat, Zekeriya Ciwan and Cemil were chosen to do this task. These comrades, who were martyred in Mosul on November 29, 2004, would take a memorable place in the history of the Apoist (Abdullah Öcalan) movement.

In another article published in February 2007, the magazine explains that,

Şilan's formal area of work was Syria but Syrian state was looking for her, this is why it was better for her to perform her work in Iraq. She was coordinating the PYD tasks from Iraq. This area was formerly belonging to our leadership (Abdullah Öcalan) and for Syria and Turkey it was important to take over this territory to weaken the PKK. Our enemy thought "if we weaken the PKK in southwest Kurdistan, then they would weakened everywhere. Comrade Şilan played a vital role to expand PYD as an organization. This is how the PYD survived.

PYD Commemorates Fallen Founders

The PYD officially recognizes its fallen members and regularly commemorates the date they died. For example, according to pro-PYD Kurdish news agency ANHA, the PYD last year issued a statement in which it commemorated its former founders, who were "martyred" by "a conspiracy" on November 29, 2004.

The statement says that the construction of social revolution in Syria was possible thanks to these leaders, especially Şilan Kobani, also known as Meysa Baqi.

Şilan Kobani, who joined the PKK in 1998, has a special place in the PKK's cadres. The PKK's official websites and magazines have published multiple articles and interviews in memory of her.

The PKK also declared her a symbol for new PKK cadres in its" Remodeling Congress" held in 2005.

The PKK's armed wing HPG lists Şilan Kobani (Meysa Baqi), Zekeriya (Zekeriya İbrahim), Fuat (Hikmet Tokmak), Cemil (Nebo Ali) and Ciwan (Hacı Cuma Ali) among their 2004 martyrs.

Turkish newspaper Milliyet, confirming the PYD leaders' membership in the PKK, reported that five senior PKK/Kongra-Gel commanders were assassinated in Mosul's Shingal.

The PYD is today connected to the PKK in a framework, a supreme body called the KCK that supervises the associated organizations created by Abdullah Öcalan while he was looking for new ways to increase his outreach across Kurdistan.

[OUTLAW 09]

Iraqi Sunni politicians reject visit by Iran's Soleimani to Falluja
http://reut.rs/1qRNWBX

[OUTLAW 09]

https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/16080.html?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

Homs: Russia seeks discord among rebel factions in northern countryside



Zaman Al Wasl)- While the Russian Ministry of Defense’s announcement on Wednesday the 25th of May of the extension of the period it previously gave to the Syrian opposition factions for them to continue what Moscow calls “their disclaimer from al-Nusra Front” under the title of “National Reconciliation” under the pretense that it received requests from several armed groups, knowledgeable sources passed on the news that what actually happened in some parts of eastern Ghouta area are being attempted in Homs’ northern countryside and other areas.

A dissident officer from the al-Assad regime working in the Homs Corps as a field leader, confirmed to Zaman al-Wasl that what is rumored about reconciliations and decisions with the Russians is pure fabrications and there is nothing like that on the ground. He highlighted that Russia is creating those rumors as part of the false propaganda that was inspired by the al-Assad regime against the unarmed Syrian people since the start of the Syrian revolution.

He added that the decision in Homs’ revolutionary northern countryside and inside Homs, and no one is thinking of this issue, and that the Russians are purposefully spreading these rumors to target the revolutionary ranks, no more, especially after it was unable to break through the fronts that it wanted despite the continued siege and starvation, in the shadow of the countries supporting the Syrian opposition being unable to send aid.

In the same context, Homs corps faction, Homs Liberation Movement, and al-Tawhid Brigade announced in statements their denial about any communication with Russian officials in the framework of any Russian project to form a truce with the regime and transfer the battle to al-Nusra Front.

The factions confirmed that no negotiation with the Russians on any subject except the fall of the regime and even then that is through the efforts of the High Council for Negotiations. They insisted that any Russian intervention in Syria is a blatant act of aggression and a brutal intervention. The factions insisted that they are not engaged in act of selling out in any international operation room.

The Homs Liberation Movement clarified in turn that the Russians and those with them have resorted to planting sedition between brothers in arms. They already tried this cheap method when they created the issue of categorizing the revolutionary factions, and they messed up by placing each of Ahrar al-Sham and Jaysh al-Islam on fraudulent terrorist lists. And today after the success of the truce between the revolutionary factions in Eastern Ghouta suburbs, and with that news falling on their chests like a solid rock, they resorted to moving the sedition to Homs’ northern countryside which defeated the regime militias and the sectarian militias from Iran and Hezbollah, and the Russian forces combined in three military campaigns.

He added that the revolutionary forces in Homs’s northern countryside succeeded and they still stand together tightly bound both militarily and politically, and formation is set on the unity of target, fate, decision, and this is the matter which confused the Russians.

[OUTLAW 09]

Intriguing claim: Iran and Assad helping PYD/PKK keep KRG-aligned Kurds out of #Syria
http://wapo.st/1UkkzCW

[OUTLAW 09]

Pentagon-trained, Amman-backed New Syrian Army sits unhappily in the desert, waiting for IS to attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east

BUT WAIT....the Jordanian MOC under instructions from the US have basically parked the NSA in the desert and have not allowed them to either attack Assad OR IS....they have been repeatedly told that if they attack Assad they will lose all US military support......

[OUTLAW 09]

Ajnad al-Sham Islamic Union versus "SLAT T-72(s)", Daraya :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKjX8LAct6g …

NEW MAP: Battles for #Marea, North #Aleppo | #Syria
#YPG attack #FSA and seize Sheikh Isa
HD https://goo.gl/IpJfTX

[CrowBat]

Back in late November and early December, I thought the US ops and actions in northern Syria just can't get any more grotesque and absurd.

I was wrong. They can.

About 70 civilian and fighter casualties in the military operations in the northern countryside of Aleppo (http://www.syriahr.com/en/2016/05/28/46476)

The casualties rose since yesterday in the northern countryside of Aleppo, Mare’ and Kaljibrin to at least 68, including 41 fighters at least from the rebel and Islamic Factions killed in the shelling, bombings and clashes against the “Islamic state”, as well as 27 civilian citizens -including 7 children at least and 5 citizens- were killed during the military operations which took place in the town of Kaljibrin north of Mare’ city, and information about another 10 people their fate is still unknown, it is unclear whether they were killed or they were able to flee to areas near the town in the northern countryside of Aleppo .

All provided one could describe US actions in this part of Syria with straight face any more, it would be tragic to add that 37-40 of casualties (sources differ (https://twitter.com/markito0171/status/736543431527411713)) were actually caused by US air strikes.

That is: these were those Syrian casualties caused by US air strikes on 27 May alone.

Yesterday, another 7 FSyA fighters were reportedly kllled (https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/736736485576085505) when the CENTCOM hit their position in Mare'a...

Meanwhile, the American 'most effective and reliable anti-ISIS force' is cynically exchanging local civilians for Sheikh Issa, and then 'proudly' taking photos of its thugs at the entrance to the place - as can be seen here (https://twitter.com/DirejSiyar/status/736610982223609856) - but not moving small finger to fight the Daesh. YPG's Jaysh at-Thuwar is already inside (https://twitter.com/DrPartizan_/status/736636820683919365).

On the top of that, there are reports (https://twitter.com/Barambeg/status/736623406729289728) that the YPG is in the process of doing the same with Mare'a too...

Makes one wonder: is backstabbing included in the US 'train & equip' program for the YPG - an organization for which the US officials are so staunchly stressing has 'no relations to the PKK', while all the possible archives, testimonies etc. confirm is directly linked to the terrorist organization PKK (http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/02/20/archives-testimonies-confirm-pydypgs-organic-link-with-pkk-terror-organization)?

[CrowBat]

BTW, that with insurgent and civilian casualties caused by US bombardments gets less surprising considering the video here (http://tune.pk/video/6540368/nt29052016) is showing a USAF B-52 approaching a position of the Daesh in northern Aleppo...

[OUTLAW 09]

Russian Syrian Express on the move....


ВМФ #ЧФ BSF Tsezar Kunikov completed its 5th Syria campaign deployment, transited Bosphorus & entered the Black Sea

[OUTLAW 09]

Just a side comment concerning an interesting comment that one often overlooks in all the comments on non linear warfare be it in eastern Ukraine and now in Syria .....the use of ideology to drive FP.

Ideological debates seem to have disappeared after the Wall came down in Berlin......

Reference Putin's visit to Greece which was intended to show NATO he can walk on NATO soil and they can do nothing and to "purchase" via the Greek privatization moves an entire "naval port" also inside NATO just as he has landing rights in Spain and Malta.....

Two avowed atheists & Marxists dabble in a bit of icon-worshipping, just because this is supposedly anti-Western

[CrowBat]

...and for those wondering why is the YPG (i.e. the PYD) considered 'terrorist' by so many people around the Middle East (and abroad), read this description of what the YPG actually did in Sheikh Issa (https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/syria-details-how-pyd-blackmailed-fsa-in-mare/), prepared by one of local Arab journalists (English translation is a little bit bumpy, but then, 'nobody is perfect'):

(Note: QSD stands for YPG/PYD/SDF conglomerate)


1. The forces of the treachery of Daesh attacked Kafar Kalbin and Jebrin on 25/5/2016 and have managed to control them after violent battles that led to the martyrdom of FSA good fighters.

2. Daesh besieged Marea after occupying the villages leading to Azaz. There was where great fear on civilians in Marea and Sheikh Issa, almost 1,200 families,

3. Contact with Saleh Muslim terrorist forces and QSD to open the road to allow civilians to cross crossing toward Azaz, so it was accepted that almost 200 families will cross out toward Tal Rifaa so that they can access Azaz.

4. Once the civilians were in Muslim and QSD forces grip, they were forced to go to the village called Abin and forced them to hand over the cellular phones and personal identities.

5. On friday evening 26/5/2016 delegation came from the so falsely called Jaish Thuwar to Azaz to negotiate with FSA on the civilians who have become prisoners of the their masters, and asked them to surrender Mare and Sheikh Issa in return for allowing those who wish to access Azaz to pass within the territory that they have recently occupied Tal Rifaat and Ain Daqne.

6. The meeting ended without reaching an agreement; Friday evening and the negotiating delegation left Mare. Daesh began immediately a strong attack in an attempt to control the besieged city.

7-Near Sheikh Issa forces, Saleh terrorist Muslim pressed the FSA to hand them over sheikh Issa, and in case they refuse they will open a front from the west and therefore Mare will be under fire from all sides and will not be able to withstand Daesh forces or Saleh terrorist Muslim,” QSD”together.

8. Because of th meaness and pettiness of Saleh Muslim’s forces “QSD”, FSA was forced to withdraw from Sheikh Issa in return for the release of civilians who have been detained in advance and opening the road to aid the injured and evacuate the rest of the civilians from Mare in case they wanted to do so (Mediation and guarantees were given by the countries supporting QSD, i.e the US).

9. Today morning Saturday 27/5/2016 forces, Saleh Muslim terrorist and QSD released civilians who were detained in the previous day, of course after they took their personal IDs, so they had to beg for their names from international organizations.

So much about what the YPG/PYD/SDF calls 'humanitarian corridor'.

[OUTLAW 09]

From the Sakhour hospital in #Aleppo a father only has this baby left, entire family killed by Assad bombing

On Liwa al-Yarmouk merging with Nour al-Din Zinki in #Aleppo

Update
Another 5 ppl were injured in #ISIS rocket attacks on #Kilis yesterday. They are doing everything they can to draw #Turkey into the war.

[OUTLAW 09]

Al Arabiya English ‏@AlArabiya_Eng

US 'not doing what they could,' to fight #ISIS says #Pentagon-trained rebel commander
http://ara.tv/mvvcc

ISIS confirms that Abu Ali Al Anbari (Baghdadis deputy) was killed
Interesting question is where especially after they lost their Fallujah commander to an air strike this week....

Hama prison: prisoners detain General Ashraf Taha and Brigadier Jasim Khalaf and 15 other policemen

[OUTLAW 09]

Obama WH is now attempting to control the decisions and actions of the Saudi's in much the same way as they do delivery of TOWs to FSA units that have been vetted multiple times over........

White House Blocks Transfer of Cluster Bombs to Saudi Arabia
https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/27/exclusive-white-house-blocks-transfer-of-cluster-bombs-to-saudi-arabia/?utm_content=bufferbe8aa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer …

[OUTLAW 09]

Rebels captured Braghidah and Kafr Shosh from #ISIS in north #Aleppo.

Reports rebels lost Dirkhabiya village captured 2 days ago in #Damascus western Ghouta to #Assad army today.

Drone video #Daraya 8000 people starved by Assad #Syria Army #UN fails bends over for Assad
https://video-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t43.1792-2/12934407_1717965738421226_1780688754_n.mp4?efg=eyJ ybHIiOjE1MDAsInJsYSI6MTAyNCwidmVuY29kZV90YWciOiJzd mVfaGQifQ%3D%3D&rl=1500&vabr=635&oh=c614f54031246c721fbd2e877b12791c&oe=574A1226 …

FSA Mountain Hawks Brigade ATGM strike on #IS truck at entrance to Kafr Kalbayn, N. Aleppo
https://youtu.be/YSNGHsoYfuA

Rebel-held towns north of Aleppo pounded by airstrikes
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNxwX7r4A557qAxwDCQb8sH1y-YZEd0SC …

Jabhat al-Nursa evacuated its positions in north #Aleppo months ago however part of Ahrar al-Sham Central Force fighting #IS with #FSA.

Killed #IS fighter was wearing hand watch with Hafez al-Assad face on it probably original owner is an Assad soldier

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.....thought you would like this YPG comment from yesterday....explaining evidently just why they attacked Shk Issa......

YPG linked JaT fighters in Shk Issa say we're here to "support our brothers in Mare against IS, JN & Ahrar al-Sham"

YPG propaganda now has shifted...we are "liberating you from IS, JaN and AAS but then we will incorporate you into the new Kurdistan"..... because your territory is Arab Sunni but we will forget that and call it "previously at some point in history formerly Kurdish".....

NOT exactly sure what they mean by "our brothers" since Mare is Arab Sunni........

[OUTLAW 09]

Obama, Kerry, the UN and especially Putin need to urgently understand the Kurdish issues and that not all Kurds especially in the south east fully support PKK and YPG/SDF.....

Diyarbakir: Erdogan receives heroes welcome in Kurdish majority. Blasts the PKK

Diyarbakir: Seems like Erdogan still has a lot of support in Kurdish majority. Let's hope he delivers on promises

[OUTLAW 09]

While the YPG and the 300 US SOF together with a much vaulted MSM support structure designed to evidently take IS controlled Raqqa..PULLED back after three days...... BUT did take FSA territory when they were suppose to be attacking IS and when IS was massively attacking FSA both the YPG and US CAS basically did nothing to assist them...why is that?

BUT WAIT...YPG after taking the Arab Sunni town claimed they were helping "their brothers" in repelling IS, JaN and AAS....BUT only IS was in the town and JaN and AAS are not even in the area....AND YPG did not mention that they were not turning the Arab Sunni town back over to the FSA they "claimed" were their "brothers".....

Aleppo: Syrian Rebels managed to repel the most heaviest ISIS offensive ever on Mare
http://eldorar.com/node/98752

Simply stated the much vaulted YPG/US SOF attack on Raqqa was nothing more than a propaganda move.....as there never was a serious intent to attack IS and take Raqqa.....just a lot of talk....

[OUTLAW 09]

US calls on Syria rebels to respect truce...
... while being bombed by Russia and Assad.
http://buff.ly/1X3Tdoy


The Obama "fatalism" in Syria also applies massively right now to the Russian occupied eastern Ukraine where there is an ongoing war largely ignored by Obama and his spin machine......

There is absolutely no ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and Minsk 2 is a total failure and yet western MSM ignores the fighting and the Obama WH basically ignores it as well.......

ATO spox reported 5 KIAs and 4 WIA UAF servicemen for yesterday
https://inforesist.org/vsu-ponesli-bolshie-poteri-za-minuvshie-sutki/

BTW....The UAF has had over 21 KIAs and over 60 WIAs just in the month of MAY..does that sound like FULL and COMPLETE Russian compliance with the 11 point Minsk 2 agreement?????

BUT WAIT...Obama and Kerry state often...the "ceasefire" is largely holding"...the same exact words used for the CoH in Syria....

Anyone see a pattern yet in the lack of Obama actions.....??

[OUTLAW 09]

Day 92 of the CoH in Syria.
Russia & Assad cont to ignore it.
Jet & helicopter bombings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaPp8fS2kw4 …

Obama "fatalism" hard at work......

[OUTLAW 09]

Footage Rebels claim to have downed a small quad drone over #Daraya with small arms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMLTpID1qqk …

Assad helicopters attacked (formerly) densely populated neighbourhoods in #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzOVLlQ9gss …

Watch and listen!
Heavy #ClusterBomb air raids on #Anadan, N-W of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZQ4DP8aCaU …

Footage
Dozens of #Assad air strikes also on Khan Alsheh S-W of Damascus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia0YPZRfoUI …

Footage
#Aleppo city is under heavy artillery attacks and air strikes since the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQvZma51jEc …

Assad barrel bombs on Deirkhabiya in western Ghouta, #Damascus this morning

Assad IRAM rocket falls close to the cameraman in #Daraya, #Damascus,

Heavy clashes between rebels & regime forces/militias on the Bahariya front in eastern Ghouta, #Damascus

Over 10 barrel bombs struck Deirkhabiya, al-Abaseh & Khan al-Sheeh in rural #Damascus this morning as well

Nearly 20 Russia/Assad jets & helicopters burning many areas in #Aleppo this morning w/ 10s of airstrikes & barrel bombs

Areas in #Aleppo targeted inc. Maysar, Ma’asarniya, Halk, Dawar al-Jandoul, Castello Rd, Sheikh Khudr, Karm al-Baik…

Areas in #Aleppo targeted inc. Salihin, Marjeh, al-Eis, Khan Touman, Hraytan, Kafrbasin, Bustan Basha & Haidariya

Over 10 barrel bombs struck Deirkhabiya, al-Abaseh & Khan al-Sheeh in rural #Damascus this morning as well

[OUTLAW 09]

Breaking. Unexpected Rebels gains in North as they take from #ISIS KafrShush, Baraghidah & and most part of KafrGhan http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.631509&lon=37.183228&z=12&m …

Despite some reports of Regime seizure, DirKhabiyah still in Rebels hands as city still bombed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcsdFAlS7i4 …

Jaish Al-Fateh troops entrenched around #KhanTuman to repel Iranian-led militias, S. #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCHKQDtPBQ …

Rebels giving a tough time to T-72s with slat armor extensively used by Regime to breach into #Daraya, #Damascus

[OUTLAW 09]

YPG linked JaT fighters in Shk Issa say we're here to "support our brothers in Mare against IS, JN & Ahrar al-Sham"

When JaishThuwar became confused by own propaganda. Hard to find pretext to cover city seizure while Rebels fight #ISIS

BUT WAIT........
Aleppo dirty Deal: #FSA hand over Sheikh Isa to #SDF/#YPG in exchange for save passage of 4000 residents from #IS besieged #Marea

FSA is more interested in protecting Syrians from Is than the entire YPD/SDF/US SOF is it appears.........

US SOF and CENTCOM appear to have no control or influence over their very own proxy...in reality they never have.....

[OUTLAW 09]

Daraya yesterday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lZTM7KxLs&feature=youtu.be

[OUTLAW 09]

VIDEO: What look like western SOF on the front line in the #Peshmerga offensive in E. #Mosul - @BarzanSadiq

The very same Peshmerga that Iran will not allow to enter Syria to fight IS...why is that???

Notice these SOF did not wear any Peshmerga unit insignia's......

[OUTLAW 09]

Under the rubric of Iranian "Shia weirdness".....

Constantly looking for occasions to show their weirdness,#mullahs are designating poet #Omar #Khayyam who died in 1131 as "enemy of #Islam."

Roughly how many years later did these Iranian mullah's need to figure this out???

AND more from Iran........

KHAMENEI organ #Kayhan today:Lie of #Holocaust Exhibition showed #Iran is home of truth-tellers. 850 cartoonists from 50 nations took part.

Obama WH 'Echo Spin Chamber' failed in empowering their friends in Tehran:
Hashemi-Rouhani-Khatami

In setback for #Obama "moderates", Ali #Larijani elected Speaker of Islamic #Majlis, defeating Reza #Aref, candidate of #Rafsanjani faction.

TEHRAN- Hardliners seize control of all 6 committees of #Assembly of #Experts. #Obama's #moderates" fail to get a single chairmanship.

[OUTLAW 09]

AND everyone complains about the Saudi's being conservative.......

[B]Population Director Islami: Iran has 2.3 million infertile couples; must help them become fertile to meet Supreme Guide's 100 million target

BTW...getting killed fighting in Syria and or Iraq is not healthy also for Iranian men it seems.....

Islamic Guidance Min. cancels licence for Iranian film "50 Kilos of #Cherries" after #Hezbollah demands ban, citing "anti-Islamic messages"

Islamic Prosecutor cancels concert by classic singer #Shahram #Nazeri for 2nd time for containing anti-Islamic poems by #Omar #Khayyam.

Tehran-#Islamic #Prosecutor Dolatabadi announces arrest of 8 youth for publishing "anti-Islam" clips with #male & #female dancing together.

Tehran-Music publishers Mehdi Rajabian, Yusef Emadi and Husein Rajabian sent to prison for 3 yrs each for marketing songs with female voices

Iran #News Iran: Wider crackdown,Students Lashed 99 Times for attending a graduation party
http://dlvr.it/LQFhRv

[OUTLAW 09]

Official agency #IRNA in editorial: Becoming aware of errors in facing the #West, #Putin is drawing closer to #Iranian position on #Syria.

[OUTLAW 09]

"There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all."
- Peter Drucker

[OUTLAW 09]

Wow go figure, @AlArabiya has decided that Mare’a has fallen to #ISIS

Looks like rebels were able to secure all the hostages taken by #ISIS south of Mare’a in north rural #Aleppo

FSA Division 13 targeting #ISIS fighters around Mare'a in north rural #Aleppo
https://t.co/4kCykufJm9
https://youtu.be/hAJp4L5lGW8
https://youtu.be/3EhNBy2pKvg

[OUTLAW 09]

Revolt in #Hama's Central Prison continues #Assad-forces failed to storm it today ...
Hama prison: prisoners detain General Ashraf Taha and Brigadier Jasim Khalaf and 15 other policemen

Opposition #FSA took control of Baraghidah & Kafr Shush, and expelled #ISIS militants from all positions they gained in #Marea.

FSA launched a counter assault against #IS at #Turkey border this morning....
BUT WAIT not a single attack by YPG and their US SOF advisors on any IS positions.......

SDF now try to advance along #Assad-dam/Euphrates river (east bank) toward #Raqqa after stalemate on northern frontline

[OUTLAW 09]

Civilians pulled from under the rubble following Assad artillery, barrel bomb & rocket attack on Wa’er, #Homs today
https://youtu.be/D12Vc2om1eA

4 civilians killed,17 wounded in #Assad regime tank shelling of residential buildings in #Waer, #Homs province

2 members of @SyriaCivilDef were killed & ambulance destroyed by Assad whilst rescuing civilians in Wa’ar, #Homs today

Heart breaking footage of babies injured by Assad artillery, barrel bomb & rocket attack in Wa'ar, #Homs today
https://youtu.be/sWUvSFV28cY

Same as every day, Assad forces continue to launch IRAM rockets at the besieged town of #Daraya. #Damascus #Syria
https://youtu.be/jOI834TA89E

@SyriaCivilDef putting out fires caused by Russian bombing of Anadan in #Aleppo with cluster munitions today
https://youtu.be/QPhx439lClk

[OUTLAW 09]

German Intel agency BND still maintaining its traditionally friendly contacts to the #Syrian Mukhabarat.

Ever wonder why the German FM is so quiet about the removal of Assad......

Dozens of air strikes on Aleppo & its suburbs today.
Not a single word by Steinmeier German FM & co.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL7bo99wRZQ …

AND absolutely nothing from Obama and Kerry....both totally missing in action......

[OUTLAW 09]

VIDEO: What look like western SOF on the front line in the #Peshmerga offensive in E. #Mosul - @BarzanSadiq

The very same Peshmerga that Iran will not allow to enter Syria to fight IS...why is that???

Notice these SOF did not wear any Peshmerga unit insignia's......

US Army Combat Engineers in embedded with Peshmerga in Northern Mosul?
https://twitter.com/conflicts/status/736914842204962816 …

[OUTLAW 09]

YPG linked JaT fighters in Shk Issa say we're here to "support our brothers in Mare against IS, JN & Ahrar al-Sham"

When JaishThuwar became confused by own propaganda. Hard to find pretext to cover city seizure while Rebels fight #ISIS

BUT WAIT........
Aleppo dirty Deal: #FSA hand over Sheikh Isa to #SDF/#YPG in exchange for save passage of 4000 residents from #IS besieged #Marea

FSA is more interested in protecting Syrians from IS than the entire YPD/SDF/US SOF is it appears.........

US SOF and CENTCOM appear to have no control or influence over their very own proxy...in reality they never have.....

Video source.
20 ISIS suicide bombs vs. Marea since Friday.
Not a single one vs YPG north, south and now west of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cb3k3Mng08 …

[OUTLAW 09]

Remember that CENTCOM and US SOF supported US Kurdish proxy.....YPG that failed in their first attempt to attack Raqqa and then pulled back and attacked FSA in Sheik Issa...........

Remarkable ...
SDF watches heavy fighting between FSA/IS in Marea from SheikhIssa.
ISIS does not attack them anywhere.

AND more importantly THEY do not attack IS...so are they working together and does that mean US SOF is actually supporting IS now....

[CrowBat]

CrowBat.....thought you would like this YPG comment from yesterday....explaining evidently just why they attacked Shk Issa......

YPG linked JaT fighters in Shk Issa say we're here to "support our brothers in Mare against IS, JN & Ahrar al-Sham"

YPG propaganda now has shifted...we are "liberating you from IS, JaN and AAS but then we will incorporate you into the new Kurdistan"..... because your territory is Arab Sunni but we will forget that and call it "previously at some point in history formerly Kurdish".....

NOT exactly sure what they mean by "our brothers" since Mare is Arab Sunni........
I might react in an unexpected way now, but 'just wait and see': Kurds are playing this dumb, just like they are playing all their games dumb since over one century.

The PYD is PRBS-itting as if all the Kurds in Syria are a monolithic bloc, and the same. They are not. Sure, the PYD is presently having it good: it's earning nice profits from cooperating with an ill-advised... nah: incompetent US administration, just like at earlier times they were cooperating with Soviets, and with Israel, and Iranians and whoever else. They should know better after all the years: such allies like USA, USSR, Iran, Israel etc. are coming and going. And when they go, then it's Kurds who are paying the price.

Just like so often in the past, after a while time is going to come when they'll pay a particularly hefty price for letting a terrorist organization take-over their something like semi-democratically elected administration in northern Syria - and then letting that group successfully turn everybody else in the country into their enemies.

(Recommended reading: The Kurdish Revolt: 1961-1970 - 1973 (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=10185850078&clickid=wAVVtX1MhSQ816G1pXW8O3MXUkQWp0xNy0aBw80&cm_mmc=aff-_-ir-_-59757-_-77798&afn_sr=impact), by Edgar O'Ballance; old, but still very topical.)

[OUTLAW 09]

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister

On #PYD-#PKK link, by all means dismiss me, but even Kurdish expert @vvanwilgenburg says so:
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/syrian-kurds-fear-territorial-gains-are-at-risk-after-turkish-action …

[OUTLAW 09]

State Dept's Mark Toner denies YPG/PKK relationship. Astoundingly ridiculous.
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2016/05/257787.htm …


Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister

On #PYD-#PKK link, by all means dismiss me, but even Kurdish expert @vvanwilgenburg says so:
http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/syrian-kurds-fear-territorial-gains-are-at-risk-after-turkish-action …

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister ·
Acc. to @StateDept, the #YPG is “separate" from #PKK as it’s:
- “Located differently”
&
- Takes the fight to #ISIS

The latter is certainly true, but doesn’t really matter re. #PKK links

-The former shows inherent misunderstanding of PKK/KCK model

[OUTLAW 09]

I might react in an unexpected way now, but 'just wait and see': Kurds are playing this dumb, just like they are playing all their games dumb since over one century.

The PYD is PRBS-itting as if all the Kurds in Syria are a monolithic bloc, and the same. They are not. Sure, the PYD is presently having it good: it's earning nice profits from cooperating with an ill-advised... nah: incompetent US administration, just like at earlier times they were cooperating with Soviets, and with Israel, and Iranians and whoever else. They should know better after all the years: such allies like USA, USSR, Iran, Israel etc. are coming and going. And when they go, then it's Kurds who are paying the price.

Just like so often in the past, after a while time is going to come when they'll pay a particularly hefty price for letting a terrorist organization take-over their something like semi-democratically elected administration in northern Syria - and then letting that group successfully turn everybody else in the country into their enemies.

(Recommended reading: The Kurdish Revolt: 1961-1970 - 1973 (http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=10185850078&clickid=wAVVtX1MhSQ816G1pXW8O3MXUkQWp0xNy0aBw80&cm_mmc=aff-_-ir-_-59757-_-77798&afn_sr=impact), by Edgar O'Ballance; old, but still very topical.)

Graphic!
Result of Syrian rebel shelling of #SheikhMeqsud.
Reports say 9 civilians, 6 YPG fighters killed there.
https://twitter.com/4rj1n/status/736901810112368640 …

[OUTLAW 09]

#Syria From battle #FSA against #IslamicState near #Aleppo's #Azaz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0y8ivZso18 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.555706&lon=37.093019&z=14&m=b …

Reports now of #Russia|n airstrikes with cluster munitions on Tal Daman in south rural #Aleppo, #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat....any idea who might have conducted this air strike........

Airstrikes (unknown if coalition) target YPG/SDF convoy near the village of Abu Qalqal in east rural #Aleppo, #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Analysts and YPG / rebel supporters argue,who is the "aggressor" north of Aleppo.
Let's have a look at the facts:

FSA has not attacked and or captured a single town in Kurdish Afrin canton.

YPG has attacked and captured a minimum of 16 FSA held towns largely Arab Sunni NOT as they claim "formerly" Kurdish....

NOW let's see the history of the YPG attacks on IS.....ZERO

FSA attacks on IS and IS counterattacks on FSA.....CONSTANTLY......

[OUTLAW 09]

After Hama & Aleppo past days, Faylaq Al-Sham fired Grad rockets vs Regime in N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VGffjmLErg …

Footage: Rebels counter-attacking #ISIS in #Azaz pocket, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewZU2l57K_Y …

Al-Hamza Brigade T-55 at work vs #ISIS targets in #Azaz pocket, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAJp4L5lGW8 …

Rebels using several anti-tank weapons (M79 Osa & PG-7) in #Daraya urban warfare, #Damascus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lZTM7KxLs …

[OUTLAW 09]

Rojava Defense Units
‏@DefenseUnits
#YPG #Efrin: Despite our support near #Mare/#Azaz, @SyrianCoalition forces are brutally attacking #SheikhMaqsoud – We will strongly respond.

Support by taking Shiekh Isa and by taking Tall Rifaat, Menagh, erltc few months ago with Russian support?

"Our support" in #YPG language: take advantage of #ISIS offensive vs Rebels to seize further territory at low cost.

[OUTLAW 09]

Revolt in #Hama's Central Prison continues #Assad-forces failed to storm it today ...
Hama prison: prisoners detain General Ashraf Taha and Brigadier Jasim Khalaf and 15 other policemen


Renewed Unrest in #Hama_Prison as #Assad Reneges on May 9th Agrmnt
http://ow.ly/NnpT300Hh7F

[OUTLAW 09]

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
#Iran is now selling its support for the #Taliban as a common interest with us in countering #IS in Afghanistan: it simply isn't true.

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

[OUTLAW 09]

YPG linked JaT fighters in Shk Issa say we're here to "support our brothers in Mare against IS, JN & Ahrar al-Sham"

When JaishThuwar became confused by own propaganda. Hard to find pretext to cover city seizure while Rebels fight #ISIS

BUT WAIT........
Aleppo dirty Deal: #FSA hand over Sheikh Isa to #SDF/#YPG in exchange for save passage of 4000 residents from #IS besieged #Marea

FSA is more interested in protecting Syrians from Is than the entire YPD/SDF/US SOF is it appears.........

US SOF and CENTCOM appear to have no control or influence over their very own proxy...in reality they never have.....

JAT video to these comments.....
https://youtu.be/nJIAcTV8Eis

[OUTLAW 09]

Albu Rashid tribe around #Raqqa has reportedly reacted to the #SDF operation to liberate the city by pledging allegiance to #IS.

[OUTLAW 09]

Aleppo clearly priority in Regime & Co. strategy. Anadan-Hraytan widely bombed, seems 2 pave way 4 next offensives.
https://twitter.com/Paradoxy13/status/736973883589431296 …

370 airstrikes, 280 naval mines, 27 cluster bombs & 58 barrel bombs by Russia/Assad hit #Aleppo in previous 2 days

At least 6 civilians killed & more wounded in a Russian airstrike on a local market in Tal Daman village in south rural #Aleppo, #Syria

Multiple Assad airstrikes & barrel bomb attacks on Houla in #Homs in the last hour in addition to artillery shelling from nearby positions

Assad barrel bomb on the Haidariya district in #Aleppo this morning
https://youtu.be/PaPp8fS2kw4

[OUTLAW 09]

UN Refugee Agency 
‏@Refugees
Pleased to reach besieged East Harasta in rural Syria. First aid through since 2013:
http://trib.al/dxK3WaC

There are STILL over one million civilians living under siege in #Syria