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CrowBat
07-02-2016, 05:50 AM
Moderator's Note

The current Syria thread has 2.6k posts and has had 56k views:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=23774 (http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=23774)

It will be closed and this new thread will take over (ends).


BTW, hours after losing that Su-22M-3 flow by Maj Noures Hassan over Qalamoun, Assadists have also lost a Mi-25 flown by Maj-Gen Muhammad Badr Mahmoud and Capt Zein Nayef Khaloof over Eastern Ghouta.

Photo below is showing Gen Mahmoud...

Ever since, Darayya is bombed by fighter-bombers (instead by Mi-25, as the last 25+ days):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afISzqZFVjo

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 06:10 AM
Shocked there's not more coverage of this. Amount of loot captured by JaF at Kinsaba is staggering. Here's an album
http://imgur.com/a/elUj1

included 8 tanks, 4 BMP,, artillery and ATGMs....

Not a bad weapons haul from an area a senior Assad Commander who claimed the area was empty and was of no importance....

A #TOW #ATGM in Latakia targets a column of #Assad troops

FSA Liwa ahrar sunnah targeted #Regime Intelligence Aviation branch in #Daraa city from #Noimah

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:02 AM
Recent gains in Jabal #Turkman now just about reopens logistics route back in Turkman after being pinned down by ATGMs for so long during day time.

Mainly #FSA groups now pushing to Jabal Abo Ali and al-Baydah in Turkmen mountain #Latakia. Not sure if Jaish al-Fath involved

Rebels take Jabal al-Qal'ah again in #Latakia countryside
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=35.791431&lon=36.130857&z=15&m=b …

Rebels discovered 2 #IS SVBIEDs before detonated in crowded Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey.

30 airstrikes on #Jairoud town in eastern #Qalamoun after the shot down of a fighter jet in the area yesterday

Appears the Russians do not know where theSA8 is located so they just bomb everything in their way....

They know the SA8 is a shot and scoot system and hard to find if on the move and since they do not have any real GMTI ISR abilities they will only "see it" when it activates into search mode...

Rebels seized again Mazrat Shahin from IS in northern #Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.640532&lon=37.361412&z=14&m=b …

FSA in Bashir #Latakia mountains seized heavy artillery
https://youtu.be/96i25XUCKtM

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:03 AM
FSA seized regime camp on mountain ridge Ghazal/ #Latakia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShCdBQPVRKY …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.764866&lon=36.127467&z=15&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:05 AM
CrowBat....any indication that the SDF is fighting with regime forces on this front.....??

Syria #Aleppo's Khalidiya front fight against #SAA Republican Guard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGYdBNsdSG0 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_t0j8kI0pE …

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:08 AM
Previously reported TOW hit that had no video attached.....
First Coastal Division #TOW strike on infantry in Bashoura, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5RYf82P4xQ …

Recent gains in Jabal #Turkman now just about reopens logistics route back in Turkman after being pinned down by ATGMs for so long during day time.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:11 AM
دمر
‏@PalmyraRev1
#Urgent :: #ISIS controls of Al Kassarat chickpoint and its surroundings near the Silos area in northeast of #Palmyra City.

Is that checkpoint near these silos? http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.602835&lon=38.411808&z=15&m=b …

Around this site:
http://wikimapia.org/35216091
9 km in east of Palmyra

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:14 AM
How many civilians killed by sectarian Shia militias and ISF as they fled Fallujah....???? we will never know....??

'Humanitarian corridor out of Fallujah' they said.
'11km long Daesh convoy flees Fallujah' they said.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 09:38 AM
Either a Russian "vodka moment" or the "truth".....cannot make this up though.....

Radical Islamists operating a cover-up timber business north of Vologda funnel money to ISIS, says FSB. https://twitter.com/rt_com/status/749165242970697729 …

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 10:17 AM
BreakingReport
24 civilians killed, more injured, in #Assad air force raids on medical facility and residential areas in #Jayrud.

16th Division clashing with Regime in Khaldiyah, #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGYdBNsdSG0 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBH_vkTPzCQ …

1st Coastal involvement in Yarmouk Battle in N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShCdBQPVRKY …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96i25XUCKtM …

First Coastal targeting Citadel hill with rockets
https://youtu.be/rudBr2QUVkk

For those who still don't get it
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sootoro #Qamishlo #SDF #Syria #Spetsnaz
Russian Spetsnaz officer standing in front of Iranian IRAMs....

BREAKING: Federal system introduced in N. Syria will be called: Rojava - Northern Syria. Qamişlo named as capital. #SDF as defense force.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 10:40 AM
BreakingFootage
#FSA 9K38 Igla attack on "Russian jet" over #Quneitra, "forcing it to flee"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8SiMFOnqjw …

Interesting Russian MANPADs against Russian aircraft.....

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 10:48 AM
The difference between ALL Syrian rebel groups and #Assad & his allies is:
Regime & Co. attack 90% civilians.
Rebels attack 90% mil targets.

Reality.
Rebels - among them one child soldier - celebrate killing of #Assad Republican Guard trooper in #Aleppo.
The war in #Syria caused a barbarization of an epic scale (also thx to our politicians' ignorance of it).
This is a fact, seen on all sides.

Evidence of cluster munitions dropped by Syrian or Russian forces in Idlib yesterday #Syria
https://twitter.com/syriacivildef/status/748445823042723840 …
BUT WAIT....the Obama/Rhodes WH and the entire national level IC cannot seem to see this yet??????

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 11:14 AM
Around #Aleppo today.
#Russian jets bomb densely populated areas NONSTOP.
World looks away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzKF-7Xo384 …

Patience still "running out", @JohnKerry, @GermanyDiplo and co.?!
ACT or at least stop pretending to be interested.

There are no safe zones, no cessations of violence, no regimes of silence and no mercy.
Hoping for this from Russia & Assad is #delusional.

BUT WAIT that is exactly what the Obama/Rhodes WH is hoping Putin and Assad will do...which they have never done before.....

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 11:28 AM
Appears that the US supported Kurdish proxy SDF...which is part and parcel of the YPG/PKK a US designated terrorist organization is now declaring it's independence EXACTLY WHAT the Turks stated they will not allow...their "red line"....

THIS cannot possibly be the Obama/Rhodes Syrian FP or is it?????

BREAKING: Federal system introduced in N. Syria will be called: Rojava - Northern Syria. Qamişlo named as capital. SDF as defense force.

CrowBat
07-02-2016, 11:50 AM
CrowBat....any indication that the SDF is fighting with regime forces on this front.....??

Syria #Aleppo's Khalidiya front fight against #SAA Republican Guard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGYdBNsdSG0 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_t0j8kI0pE …
Yes - and no.

The 'problem' is this: YPG militia in northern Aleppo (city) and in Efrin Enclave was organized by the PKK and with some support from Assad regime.

Then they declared themselves 'SDF'.

However, except via links to regime-held areas, and for trading with insurgent-held areas, they are de-facto cut-off from any kind of outside support since years.

They are NOT US-supported though, and their declaration for being SDF is as valid if I would now declare my piece of real estate something like 'Independent Democratic Kingdom of Schnurliland', and request membership in the UN.

davidbfpo
07-02-2016, 12:22 PM
The current Syria thread has 2.6k posts and has had 56k views:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=23774

It will be closed and this new thread will take over.This post may then not appear first as some posts will be moved here that were submitted today.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:07 PM
This is the face of the Obama/Rhodes WH who does nothing "stupid" in Syria....except allowing civilians (men, women, children) to be killed ...

The face of a broken man, lost both his wife and daughters in a single regime terror attack on #Aleppo

Syrian man in #Aleppo is inconsolable after he finds his little daughter, dead
https://youtu.be/CvaykaNDLI0

Assad airforce lost 4 pilots in 24 hrs.
https://twitter.com/syrianpc/status/749314083397206016 …

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:19 PM
East #Palmyra : #Daesh take back al-Kaziyah Farm from #SAA acc @PalmyraRev1

Hama Remains of "Tochka" ballistic missile fell on the city of Al-Lataminah today
https://youtu.be/XQk76p_5h_s

Qasajiq is under FSA control

Aleppo Rebels destroyed #IS-vehicle bomb in Tal Ahmar with maschine gun

N. Aleppo : Opposition take the villages of #Tal_Ahmar, #Tal_Batal, #Raghibia and #Shahin from ISIS. Clashes now on the outskirts of #Raei.

Rebels claim repelled next regime assault on Mallah farms in northern outskirts of #Aleppo

Aleppo Heavy clashes about control of Mallah farms continues
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.278462&lon=37.137952&z=15&m=b …

Saif al-Sham brigades firing 9K38 Igla MANPADS(Russian made)in Quneitra
https://youtu.be/-8SiMFOnqjw

Daesh coming from #Jarablus advance southwards to break the siege of #Manbij

More than 40 regime airstrikes on #Jeroud kills and injures dozens of #people

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:27 PM
Breaking. Jaish Al-Fateh launched the 3rd stage of Yarmouk Battle in Jebal Turkman, several locations reportedly seized. N. #Latakia.

US intelligence says it has identified nine training camps in northeastern #Iran for Afghan Fatemiyoun fighters who are sent to #Syria

Yarmouk Battle: updated map of Jaish Al-Fateh gains in N. #Latakia: 22 locations seized along #Kinsabba & M4 highway

Ahrar Al-Sham shelled Officers housing in Qutayfah with Grads in retaliation for airstrikes in Jairud, E. #Damascus.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.743469&lon=36.602926&z=14&m …

Russians are constantly attacking civilian positions over 100mkilled in less than 48 hours....

Die russische Luftwaffe greift ununterbrochen syrischen Wohngebiete an.
Über 100 Tote in 48h
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpUZcNxPPhs …

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:34 PM
The Obama/Rhodes WH wanted Russia to intervene with Assad to stop his bombing of civilians......well that did not work out well did it....

Crude regime BarrelBomb falls on Hayyan north of Aleppo.
Clearly diff. from RUS ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoaNX3_DypY …

VIRTUALLY all Russian and Assad air strikes ARE NOW strictly on civilians

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:37 PM
This is the face of the Obama/Rhodes WH who does nothing "stupid" in Syria....except allowing civilians (men, women, children) to be killed ...

The face of a broken man, lost both his wife and daughters in a single regime terror attack on #Aleppo

Syrian man in #Aleppo is inconsolable after he finds his little daughter, dead
https://youtu.be/CvaykaNDLI0

Assad airforce lost 4 pilots in 24 hrs.
https://twitter.com/syrianpc/status/749314083397206016 …

He just lost his beloved wife and baby girl.
Tell him of a "partially working cessation of hostilities".
Useless UNSC

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:48 PM
Listen in.
Heavy cluster bomb raids all across #RifDimashq today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCGbWCX3ZUI&feature=youtu.be …

Russia fights terrorists in Syria. US sanctions Russia. Therefore, US "supports terrorists." @mfa_russia's odd logic http://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/2340873 …

The final toll of the airborne terror attacks on #Rastan is 4 dead, incl. 2 children, 13 injured, incl. 8 children.

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 07:55 PM
Why Are #Kremlin's #Trolls Spreading #Online Hoaxes?:
http://wp.me/p1wMhe-3Q4

OUTLAW 09
07-02-2016, 08:32 PM
Manbij: #ISIS launched a massive offensive against #YPG around #Manbij and captured several villages north and east of #Manbij today.

Iran uses civilian airline to transport foreigners to fight #Syrians. How can world stand by & watch destruction ME? https://twitter.com/gholhaki/status/746001082481053696 …

Fancy new (to Syria) SPBE cluster munitions deployed by Russian Su-24 jets over Idlib. Photo credit @SyriaCivilDef

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:09 AM
Manbij: #ISIS captured 8 villages from #YPG around #Manbij since yesterday.

Syria Regime continues (paid) mass evacuation of loyalist people from #DeirEzzor city toward #Qamishli by helicopters
~200/day

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:10 AM
Fancy new (to Syria) SPBE cluster munitions deployed by Russian Su-24 jets over Idlib. Photo credit @SyriaCivilDef

Yet again, SPBE submunitions, only appearing since Russia started bombing Syria
https://twitter.com/snhr/status/749534872495161344 …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:30 AM
ProAssad supporter Fisk.....

Curious. Robert Fisk visits Mezzeh military prison & never thinks to ask about 1000s abused & killed there
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/inside-bashar-al-assads-syrian-jail-an-islamist-prisoner-talks-of-the-regret-for-his-killing-a7113556.html …

Rebels capture Citadel Hill in Latakia and loot abandoned government position
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vccYNuFjHUc …

FSA claim repelled (the usual) #IS-night assault on northern #Aleppo villages

Daraa: #IS attacked meeting of #FSA "Southern Front" -leaders with suiciders wearing explosive belts in Inkhil
7 dead Horan brigade

North #Latakia Updates: Opposition took control of Kapi Kaya and Sarraf villages in NW of Kellaz. Clashes in Jabal Abu Ali and al-Bayda.

Suqur al-Jebal inflicting casualties on pro-Regime forces trying to advance in #Handarat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-cBUjtSU4M …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:35 AM
Regime attempts to fully surround #Aleppo are intensifying, offensives reported near Layramoun & against Handarat refugee camp today #Syria

BUT WAIT Russian lied again when it stated via their FM that Syria did not intend to attack Aleppo......and the Obama/Rhodes WH honestly believes they can be "trusted"....when they cannot even fulfill Minsk 2....

Rebels repelling pro-Regime forces in #Handarat, despite airstrikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV4TBq30esg …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNitfQp9YVk …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:36 AM
Weapons & ammo seized by 1st Coastal Division on Mount Qalaa (RPG-26 launchers), N. #Latakia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccYNuFjHUc …

Precise #TOW strike by 1st Coastal Division inside Regime-held building in N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpBxMtIFuZk …

Suqur Jebal & Zinki also involved in renewed push vs #IS N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOOmix4dzfA …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdX11k9FBK4 …

1st Coastal Division #TOW strike on bulldozer in Jebal Turkman, N. #Latakia. Apparent miss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI4gdtg2yOg …

Important gathering of Sham Front Rebels amidst increasing pressure on #ISIS in N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzFUtumDhg4 …

Liwa al-Mutasim (#FSA) took out a #Daesh car bomb in Tal Ahmar with an US .50cal machine gun
https://youtu.be/SZ6opsAKQ00

Very interesting - never before seen - #FSA tank variation armored vehicle N of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_y_-wQVELU …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 10:44 AM
Part of a large new #FSA/moderate rebel offensive vs. #ISIS along the Syrian-Turkish border.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQLPHoACobo …

Turkish company "ÇUHADAR TREYLER" transports #FSA tank & BMP vs. #ISIS inside(!) #Syria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hznX7QcFGLM …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 12:56 PM
JaF jungle war in #Latakia mountains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoRGyCm9atc …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35.824355&lon=36.062450&z=15&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 01:50 PM
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
#RussiaLies
Vesti claims that #Turkey offered compensation to the family of the fallen pilot, but the family refused to take it.

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 02:41 PM
Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
#RussiaLies
Vesti claims that #Turkey offered compensation to the family of the fallen pilot, but the family refused to take it.



Julia Davis @JuliaDavisNews
Vesti: "Finally, Erdogan complied with all of #Putin's demands."
Russian Screen reads: "You don't chop off a repentant head"

Vesti: "#Turkey has itself crammed full of Islamic radicals."
Nonetheless, #Russia tells its tourists to go there.

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 02:42 PM
Syria's Assad keeps key portfolios in new cabinet line-up
http://reut.rs/299sNLf

#Syria #FSA try to storm #IS held town of Al-Ra'i in northern #Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.611256&lon=37.448015&z=14&m=b …

Breaking. Jaish Al-Fateh launched assault to take Tell Abou Ali & Burj Bayda in Jebal Turkman, N. #Latakia. Heavy artillery shelling ongoing

Regime drone overlooking #Aleppo's Al-Layramoun roundabout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzze0ND5WnY&feature=youtu.be …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.234806&lon=37.115893&z=16&m=b …

Jaish al-Tahrir (FSA affiliate) claims al-Nusra raided its HQ in Idlib, arrested its leader & 40 others #Syria

FSA Jaish al-Tahrir is a major force involved in fighting #IS, #Assad army and #IRGC militias in #Aleppo and #Latakia.

Seems like a Nusra campaign against Jaish al-Tahrir in Mount Zawiya. Still unknown why.

The DISPUTE was between Jaish Al Tahrir leaders themselves and JN intervened when they were asked to. JN was asked to by multiple JaT leadrs


IS seized Khirbat ar-Rus & Jubb al-Ashara
Now #SDF-Tishrin Dam supply line in danger

Pro-#Assad forces fleeing the battlefield in #Handarat (Northern #Aleppo) today.

Syria Rebels hit group of #Assad-forces in Handarat front with ATMG
& rest fled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SesG0ZPkco …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 03:15 PM
Map. The situation in #Aleppo with damaged/destroyed buildings (as per @UNOSAT) shown.
HD - http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/5d58/t9q8q6is5q13pubzg.jpg …

Report from Mallah farms front in northern #Aleppo shows mass destruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er0vOfLlXxo …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.283374&lon=37.138424&z=14&m=b …

FSA blow up regime technical in northern #Daraa with TOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR0lOhrNaSs …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=33.147325&lon=36.107254&z=14&m=b …

ISIS has launched a massive counter attack to break the YPG Siege of on Manbij city and so far has gained many positions

ISIS has captured Al-Nuamiyah,Khirbet Al-Rus,Jubb Asharah,Khirbet Al-Ashrah,Jabal Aqrah,Mount Umm Al-Sarj,Quraa Saghir&Kabeer&Jubb Nahid

Heavy Clashes in Zunqul village between YPG and ISIS

Manbij:
#IS drive vehicle bomb into Kaber Kabir after seized southern mountains & villages
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.445866&lon=37.979393&z=14&m=b …

ISIS advancing north and south of #Manbij now, using huge VBIEDs against #YPG militias.

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 03:22 PM
Daesh cut off cable phone lines for entire #Manbej

Yarmouk Battle: heavy artillery shelling on Jebal Turkman, N. #Latakia.

1 week after major offensive on #Mallah, Rebels still resist despite relentless airstrikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er0vOfLlXxo …

Saif Al-Islam blew up with a #TOW a 23 mm gun & its crew in Tell Qareen, N. #Daraa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR0lOhrNaSs …

Over 5 Quds brigade militiamen have been killed after a bid to break Handarat Camp in. In #Syria's #Aleppo

FSA News ‏@FSATruth
#Breaking
#FSA #Southern_Front brigades start major new battles against #Daesh in sw #Daraa

The car bomb planted by #NSyA affiliated grps that killed the #ISIS deputy of the Euphrates in al-Bukamal 2 days ago

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 03:46 PM
AND this is from a former US Ex Ambassador....

http://en.news-front.info/2016/07/01/john-herbst-assad-should-stay-to-prevent-extremists-from-taking-over/?utm_source=TW&utm_medium=ENG+TW&utm_campaign=SNAP%2Bfrom%2BEnglish+News+front

John Herbst:

Assad should stay to prevent extremists from taking over

Published: 01 July 2016, 12:28


“I think Russia is right on this very specific point that the only alternatives right now to Assad are Islamic extremists,” Herbst said on Thursday. “I think Assad is a tyrant, he is brutal, but he is not as bad as the Islamic extremists.”

Herbst stated he believed the US government had been “a little bit unrealistic” regarding the Assad regime, and Washington needed to adjust to acknowledge the Syrian government’s survival.

“I think Assad regime will have power in Syria for a while. It will be foolish for us to get rid of him because the only thing we would do if we got rid of him would be to allow Islamic extremists to come to power,” he maintained.

Herbst also noted that the United States and Russia had similar interests in Syria, and could cooperate.

“It may be possible to cooperate, but there is a very serious problem in this area, and that is, most of the Russian military activities are directed against not the Islamic extremists, but against the very weak forces that are supported by the United States,” he claimed.

However, if Russia stopped supporting military action against US-backed groups in Syria, the way would be open for greater cooperation between Washington and Moscow, Herbst maintained.

“If Russia were to stop doing that, I think it is possible for the United States and Russia to work together against ISIS [Daesh] against Jabhat al-Nusra and other extremist Islamists,” he added.

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 05:17 PM
People in Jayrud fear the worse after captured pilot killed
https://www.youtu.be/9MpXrBLsQ0E

Criminals: Qasem Soleimani #Iran/#IRGC, Nuri al-Maliki #Iraq (ex-PM) & Mohammed Abdul Salam #Yemen/#Houthi militia

Make no mistake, it’s no coincidence that Marat al-Numan & Kafranabel have now both seen Nusra assert its influence vs. moderate FSA.

Both towns (soon Ariha?) have housed confident, locally-rooted & West-backed FSA factions whose long-term presence challenged Nusra.

Jaish al-Tahrir issues warning to Jabhat al-Nusra & calls for issues to be resolved in court:
https://twitter.com/threrr1/status/749379556457476096 …

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 05:26 PM
Thanks @KyleWOrton for recording my comments on BBC Radio about the reported US-#Russia proposal:
https://youtu.be/hkdSmUAlUFY

Mountain Hawks Brigade commander discusses the Hndarat front, Regime still being repelled after months of attempts
https://youtu.be/xNitfQp9YVk

Fighting in Mallah north of #Aleppo city intensifying. If army takes it, it will be able to cut Castello & besiege oppos'n districts

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 05:34 PM
Extremely interesting applies to both Syria and Iraq.....

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
Isis has conducted exactly 666 suicide operations since Nov., according to the stats I've been compiling here. 666 suicide bombers in 8 mo.

"Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number ... 666"

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
Isis conducted 100 suicide operations in June. 3 in Sirte, 56 in Iraq & 41 Syria (YPG & Assad, 19 each; rebels, 3).

ISIS suicide ops in May, 81 ops. 77 IEDs. 21 inghimasis. Casualties: 225 FSA; 1591 ISF; 320 Kurds; 638 regime.

Isis carried out 83 suicide operations in April in Iraq & Syria -- Anbar was the hotspot, followed by #Aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 05:39 PM
Mastermind of Istanbul Airport Attack Had Been Georgian Informant, Official Says
http://thebea.st/29k07EN

Great by @michaeldweiss -New Syrian Army/US dependent on networked tribes revolt in core #ISIS areas, eastern #Syria
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/01/they-rescued-this-town-from-isis-then-lost-it.html

OUTLAW 09
07-03-2016, 06:47 PM
JaN is now backpedaling fast after they claimed JaI killed the captured Syrian pilot.......

JN arrested their soldier that executed the pilot.
JN makes it clear the soldier acted without consent of the leadership.

Eastern #Homs: #ISIS has repelled regime attack on #Mushayrifah village, captured Trfawi village and killed 18+ pro-#Assad forces today.

ISIS killed 16 #NSyA/#FSA fighters, captured 3 vehicles & a lot of heavy weapons & ammunition near the #Syria|n-#Jordan|ian border.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 03:46 AM
Well worth reading..........


Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
Obama retreats from Putin in Syria — again
http://wpo.st/Nc9k1

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:11 AM
Show of force from #FSA "Alaza Army" in northern #Hama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNaIViHtUNY …

Several dead #Assad-forces from #NDF during clashes with kurdish #Asayish-forces tonight in #Hasaka city

FSA in battle against #IS in Al-Rai area of northern #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dTu1FiV2Tw …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.609051&lon=37.442608&z=14&m=b …

JaF seized Abu Ali hilltop in #Latakia mountains

Clashes btw #Assad forces & Kurdish forces in #Hasaka city

Rebels regain lost positions in Khalidiyeh & Bani Zeid districts inNW #Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.232903&lon=37.122524&z=16&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:14 AM
Yarmouk Battle: 2nd Coastal Division shelling Tell Abu Ali & Burj Bayda in N. #Latakia. Fierce clashes ongoing.

Toyota goes to war.......
@ToyotaWars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s2fJMzpSVs&feature=youtu.be …

Hasakah: Pro-#Assad forces captured a foreign mercenary, who fought for #YPG, in #Hasakah City tonight.

Hasakah: #YPG reinforcements arrived in #Hasakah City and fighting against pro-#Assad forces tonight.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 07:14 AM
Wow...those so called Obama/Rhodes "Iranian moderates" are really acting "moderate".....

BREAKING: Yemeni Houthi militias launched ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia, which was intercepted.

The missile after being intercepted. appears to be a modified SAM2. Love the Saudis with the phone cams -via @g9gg9g

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 07:26 AM
To US readers and commenters everywhere on this globe.....Happy 4th of July....some of us though like in Berlin have to work today ......

German hot dogs are just not like the US ones.....:)

Stay safe where ever you are on this 4th.....the world is sadly not a safe place anymore....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 10:37 AM
Hasakah: Even female #YPG fighters are involved in the fighting now. Some were wounded.

Hasakah: Fighting between pro-#Assad forces and Kurdish fighters goes on. Many were killed and wounded since yesterday, also civilians.

Assad-forces from #NDF took over College of Arts, Children's Hospital & Ayaz Fihri School in #Hasaka city

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 10:39 AM
CrowBat...anything to this comment from the Russian MoD.....since it came from that famous propaganda outlet Russia Today.....


Military Advisor @miladvisor
Ankara could let Russia use its Incirlik airbase to fight ISIS – Turkish FM
http://rt.com/news/349413-turkey-russia-incirlik-airbase/ …

Not so sure Turkey would go this route without US/NATO thoughts being asked for......especially sine the US paid for the base extensions and the Us has nuclear weapons stored there as part of the NATO deterrence.....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 10:45 AM
#Russia'n cluster bombing on Darat Izza town in western #Aleppo near border to #Turkey
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.287456&lon=36.853638&z=13&m=b …

Airstrikes on #Rastan in northern #Homs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTHYrPqdVug …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxALJpkL7bc …

Assad upgrade notorious #SAA Brigadier Issam Zahreddine to rank of major general for entire eastern #Syria

From battlefield in NW neighborhoods of #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3AiSiwLS0 …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.231760&lon=37.123189&z=16&m=b …

Syria #Latakia: #Russia'n airstrikes on Kinsabba, Mahtaha &
Samra in Kurd & Turkmen mountains

Intensified #RuAF airstrikes on #Kinsabba area in attempt to halt Rebel offensive & possibly 2 pave way for a counter-offensive, N. #Latakia

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 11:14 AM
CrowBat...anything to this comment from the Russian MoD.....since it came from that famous propaganda outlet Russia Today.....


Military Advisor @miladvisor
Ankara could let Russia use its Incirlik airbase to fight ISIS – Turkish FM
http://rt.com/news/349413-turkey-russia-incirlik-airbase/ …

Not so sure Turkey would go this route without US/NATO thoughts being asked for......especially sine the US paid for the base extensions and the Us has nuclear weapons stored there as part of the NATO deterrence.....

Apparently just more Russian disinformation .......

#Turkey FM: says Turkey ready to cooperate with #Russia in anti-ISIL fight, denies news about opening Incirlik Air Base to Russia

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:28 PM
Russia and Putin attempting to play nice now........

Russia-backed channel RT censured for lack of impartiality in Turkish coverage http://gu.com/p/4nmc5/stw

BUT WAIT...initially Putin and his FM set the tone.....RT just followed their lead.......

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:32 PM
Rus EU envoy: a Russian's complicity in the terrorist attack in Turkey is a lesson to the EU proving the need for cooperation with Russia

Too many arms and fighters for one jet?!
Iranian/Assad Il-76/747 tandem to enter #Syria from #Tehran in 15 minutes.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:45 PM
Assad-forces run in booby trap -factory building in north western #Aleppo detonated
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.235023&lon=37.111516&z=17&m=b …

Reports Rebels blew up the Shabib factory with massive SVBIED, #Aleppo. Area probably here:
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.236416&lon=37.110035&z=16&m …

Damascus Regime T-55 tank hit (by recoiless gun?) at Harasta military hospital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELNYHZVtvWk&feature=youtu.be … http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=33.580911&lon=36.382813&z=16&m=b …

2 girls (5 & 2 years) killed by #Russia'n cluster bombing on #Aleppo's northern suburb Kafr Hamra

On 11th day of Regime offensive to besiege Rebel-held #Aleppo heavy clashes continue on #Mallah & #Khaldiyah fronts.

Photos being shared online of #HPG (#PKK) members with what looks like a German Panzerfaust 3

IS regain several villages in Jubb al-Jarrah area of eastern #Homs
after lost some yesterday to regime
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.834096&lon=37.322617&z=12&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:52 PM
Undetonated landmines left behind by #IS outskirts al-Ra'i in north #Aleppo countryside.

Rebels expelled Assad forces from some positions in Layramoun factories north Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.235031&lon=37.111516&z=15&m=b …

Jaish Al-Fateh claims seized back lost positions in Layramoun's area after large SVBIED. #Aleppo.

Jaysh al-Islam | apparent recoilless rifle strike on T-55 tank #Harasta Military Hospital:
https://youtu.be/ELNYHZVtvWk

Rebels are still in the outskirts of Al Rai & keep shelling #ISIS inside city, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJBWoFLY-eI …
STILL no US\Russian air strikes against IS........

Footage of clashes in #Khaldiya where Rebels claim they took out a tank & a BMP. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3AiSiwLS0 …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 04:54 PM
Waste of tax payers money and a total failure of the Obama\Rhodes WH along with Jordan......

SouthernFront now experiencing 1 year of fails:
- June-July'15: Daraa offensive
- Dec-Jan'16: Sh. Miskin lost
- Since March vs IS: stalling

Seems Regime forces no more used 2 face SouthernFront as they leave barrier after few shells
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIblXaTWFjg …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:01 PM
Interesting 'self-propelled' improvised mortar 'cannon' deployed in direct fire mode by @AlrahmanCorps .

@QalaatAlMudiq Results of pro-Regime offensive (summary):
No gain: Handarat & Khaldiyah/Bani Zeid
Few gains: Layramoun
Main gains: Mallah

An FSA security official from Marat al-Numan was assassinated this AM, while an IED targeted an Ahrar al-Sham commander near Saraqeb. #Idlib

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:03 PM
Amid massive troop losses, Hezbollah is at odds with the Assad regime over the 'impossible' fight to seize Aleppo.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hezbollah-syrian-govt-clash-over-aleppo-impossible-take-report-1337512772


Karim El-Bar

Wednesday 29 June 2016 17:01 UTC

Last update: Thursday 30 June 2016 13:11 UTC


Hezbollah is reportedly refusing to back Syrian government forces in a proposed attack on Aleppo, arguing that the city – a bastion of the Syrian uprising – is "impossible" to take, according to a report by an Italian news agency citing sources within the Lebanese Shia movement.

Hezbollah has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country's five-year war but AdnKronos International (AKI) - which is headquartered in Italy but covers Arabic-language news - said on Wednesday the group had strategic differences with the government over its plans to recapture rebel-held areas of Syria's largest city with the aid of Russian air support.

Hezbollah sources close to the group's military operations in Syria told AKI: "We realised that it is impossible to take over the city, and thus it is dangerous to increase expansion without securing the areas neighbouring the expansion. This is in addition to the party suffering losses in its forces and in Iran-aligned forces.

“The party stressed to the Syrian forces that a battle such as this needs 100,000 fighters at least on the ground to succeed."

AKI also quoted a journalist embedded with Hezbollah forces who said: "[Hezbollah] sent a clear message to [the Syrian government] regarding this matter, because the city of Fallujah in Iraq needed 40,000 fighters and several months of fighting. This Iraqi city is very small compared to the sprawling city of Aleppo.

“But government forces are not convinced by this message and insisted on continuing,” he added. “They will most likely realise their mistake soon.”

This difference of opinion, the journalist said, had led Russia to draw its own strategic red lines, essentially saying that Russian air support was for defensive, not offensive, purposes.

"I am not confident that an offensive on Aleppo will take place in the foreseeable future," Russian ambassador to Syria Alexander Kinshchak told Interfax on Tuesday. "As for Raqqa, in this case I would also like to refrain from any certain forecasts regarding its liberation."

Reports of splits in the pro-Assad alliance come just days after Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah came out forcefully in favour of the “greatest battle” in Aleppo:

In remarks broadcast over the group's al-Manar television station, Nasrallah said his party would "increase our presence in Aleppo... because the real, strategic, greatest battle is in Aleppo and the surrounding area".

"We are facing a new wave, or a new phase, of military operations in Syria that will be fought in the north, specifically in the area of Aleppo," he said.

"Fighting in defence of Aleppo is in defence of the rest of Syria, of Damascus. It's in defence of Lebanon and Iraq and Jordan.

"This is why it is our duty to be in Aleppo, and we were - and we will stay in Aleppo."

He also announced that 26 Hezbollah fighters had been killed in the offensive this month, in a rare admission of casualties for the group.

The Syrian conflict is purportedly the deadliest conflict in which Hezbollah has been involved since it was set up in the 1980s to fight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Damascus, Aleppo and Homs provinces, and up to 1,500 are estimated to have been killed.

They include Mustafa Badreddine, formerly Hezbollah’s top military commander, who was killed last month in contested circumstances in a secretive command facility near Damascus airport.

One account of Badreddine's death suggested that he had been killed by Syrian or Iranian fighters as a result of an argument over Hezbollah's presence in Syria, and said he had been planning to withdraw many of Hezbollah's fighters to Lebanon because of the heavy losses sustained by the group.

Aleppo - once Syria's industrial and economic hub - has experienced a surge in violence over the past two months amid clashes between government forces in the west and rebel groups in the east.

Government forces, backed by Hezbollah and by Russian warplanes, are now seeking to close off the last rebel route out of the city.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:09 PM
Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister ·
All in all, this is a critical component of Jabhat al-Nusra’s gradualist, long-game strategy in #Idlib, focused on…

Slowly & methodically, Nusra is taking apart potential future U.S-linked FSA threats in #Idlib, leaving a safer operating environment.

Jaish al-Tahrir was formed in Feb '16 by:

Jabhat al-Sham
Division 46
Div'n 312
9th Brigade
Saraya al-Haq 312
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo1D3kX-v4M&feature=youtu.be …

Mohammed al-Ghabi previously fought under controversial SRF leader Jamal Maarouf, who Nusra forcibly expelled from #Idlib in Oct '14.

Nusra has long accused certain Maarouf loyalists in #Turkey of coordinating attacks against JN figures using Jaish al-Tahrir fighters

It’s widely rumored that Jaish al-Tahrir fighters trained by America in Saudi Arabia were encouraged to share intel on Nusra positions.

More recently, Al-Ghabi was accused of diverting funds to his favored sub-commands = tensions were rising between Jaish al-Tahrir Units

Nusra exploited rising tensions yesterday to “intervene” & effectively neuter Jaish al-Tahrir, but left alone those open to JN power.

Nusra exploited similar dynamics in Marat al-Numan in March ’16, to expel the US-vetted 13th Division, led by Colonel Ahmed Saoud.

This was Marat al-Numan in #Idlib yesterday - 111 days of protests vs. #Assad & Al-Qaeda.

Day 112 in-a-row today.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:16 PM
Worth reading......
Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister
My new, exclusive article on FP:

"Jabhat al-Nusra initiates plans for Emirate in #Syria"

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/04/al-qaeda-is-about-to-establish-an-emirate-in-northern-syria/ …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:21 PM
Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
Reverting to guerilla roots? I said exactly that in March, here
(https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/706850890611892224?s=09 …)...

http://www.thenational.ae/world/middle-east/isil-may-be-reverting-to-its-terrorist-roots-says-us-commander

ISIL may be reverting to its ‘terrorist roots’, says US commander
May 18, 2016 Updated: May 18, 2016 07:09 PM


 RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, GERMANY // A series of deadly attacks by ISIL operatives in and around Baghdad may be a sign that the militants are “reverting to their roots" as a terrorist organisation, the top US commander for the Middle East said on Wednesday.

Army Gen Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, said this does not mean ISIL has given up its ambition to create a so-called caliphate. However, he said, it marks a new turn in tactics aimed at diverting attention from the group’s recent battlefield losses.

Gen Votel said the attacks that have rocked Baghdad over the past week – killing upward of 200 civilians – are an illustration of the dynamic nature of the war.

“We have to respect our enemies and respect their ability to adapt and adjust on the battlefield," he said, speaking to reporters while travelling to the Middle East.

“In this regard, some of the attacks we’re seeing in Baghdad – I think we are seeing a manifestation of that. We are seeing them see opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities," he added.

“I think they believe it will cause the Iraqi government to divert forces, divert effort, divert intellectual horsepower to solving those problems" as opposed to priorities like recapturing the ISIL stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq. His visit this week to the region comes amid concern about the slow pace of Iraqi military operations to recapture Mosul.

Now that ISIL has lost 40 per cent or more of the terrain it once controlled in Iraq, “they may be reverting in some regards back to their terrorist roots", he said.

The increase in attacks coincides with a political crisis over prime minister Haider Al Abadi’s efforts to replace the current cabinet.

The crisis has paralysed the legislature for weeks, and demonstrators angered by lawmakers’ lack of progress stormed parliament last month.

Gen Votel said he sees reason for “a little concern" about political paralysis that has gripped the Iraq government in recent weeks.

Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the international operation against ISIL, cited the group’s battlefield setbacks as the primary motivation for the increase in Baghdad attacks.

But he also said that ISIL may see political turmoil in the capital as “an opportunity they can try to exploit using truck bombs".

At least 69 people were killed on Tuesday in a wave of bombings claimed by ISIL that struck outdoor markets and a restaurant in Shiite-dominated neighbourhoods of Baghdad.

The deadliest of the recent attacks were triple car bombings that hit Baghdad last Thursday which killed at least 94 people.

“Baghdad is now being targeted because the group is on the defensive and they can still hurt the government in their capital," said Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer who is now with The Soufan Group consultancy

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:23 PM
Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister ·
All in all, this is a critical component of Jabhat al-Nusra’s gradualist, long-game strategy in #Idlib, focused on…

Slowly & methodically, Nusra is taking apart potential future U.S-linked FSA threats in #Idlib, leaving a safer operating environment.

Jaish al-Tahrir was formed in Feb '16 by:

Jabhat al-Sham
Division 46
Div'n 312
9th Brigade
Saraya al-Haq 312
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo1D3kX-v4M&feature=youtu.be …

Mohammed al-Ghabi previously fought under controversial SRF leader Jamal Maarouf, who Nusra forcibly expelled from #Idlib in Oct '14.

Nusra has long accused certain Maarouf loyalists in #Turkey of coordinating attacks against JN figures using Jaish al-Tahrir fighters

It’s widely rumored that Jaish al-Tahrir fighters trained by America in Saudi Arabia were encouraged to share intel on Nusra positions.

More recently, Al-Ghabi was accused of diverting funds to his favored sub-commands = tensions were rising between Jaish al-Tahrir Units

Nusra exploited rising tensions yesterday to “intervene” & effectively neuter Jaish al-Tahrir, but left alone those open to JN power.

Nusra exploited similar dynamics in Marat al-Numan in March ’16, to expel the US-vetted 13th Division, led by Colonel Ahmed Saoud.

This was Marat al-Numan in #Idlib yesterday - 111 days of protests vs. #Assad & Al-Qaeda.

Day 112 in-a-row today.

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
A call by 40 influential individuals to put an end to the "dispute" between Jabhat al-Nusra & Jaish al-Tahrir #Idlib

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:29 PM
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/uae-shows-the-way-to-deal-with-regional-crises

UAE shows the way to deal with regional crises
Hassan Hassan

July 3, 2016


Since late 2013, two main regional blocs have competed over how to deal with the rise of extremist forces in Syria. The policy in Syria today seems to have finally settled in favour of one of the arguments.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, on one hand, favoured a twin policy of fighting extremist factions at the same time as battling the regime of Bashar Al Assad. Turkey and Qatar, on the other hand, pushed for toppling Mr Al Assad first. They argued that it would be easier to build a local, regional and international consensus to fight extremists after the downfall of the regime. With varying success, the two sides competed to advance their visions on the ground in Syria and in policy circles outside it.

Around this time in 2013, Jabhat Al Nusra had already revealed its links to Al Qaeda after two years of acting as a local Syrian group with a jihadist bent. ISIL began to establish a foothold for itself in much of Syria, mostly focusing on policing rebel-held areas. Syrian Islamist groups then began discussions to form a unified front. By the end of the year, Islamist and jihadist forces became the main players in rebel-held Syria.

At the beginning of 2014, clashes erupted between the rebel forces and ISIL. This continued until the summer, when the latter took over #Mosul and returned to Syria with a vengeance – eventually controlling about half of the country.

Two summers later, it should be clear that the twin policy of fighting the regime and extremists would have a better chance of working. Today, the two superpowers involved in the Syrian conflict are getting closer to working together to defeat ISIL and Jabhat Al Nusra, after American president Barack Obama reportedly proposed a partnership with Moscow against the Al Qaeda affiliate. Turkey’s policy in Syria was also widely criticised after last Tuesday’s terror attacks inside Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, with many saying that the attacks were payback for neglecting the growing presence of extremists in Syria.

The lesson that must be drawn from how the situation developed in Syria is that the twin policy is more effective. But there is an inherent issue with counterterrorism efforts in the region, often because they have been largely led by the United States, or because operations show little regard for local sensitivities or aspirations. Shifting politics in Washington may also undermine ongoing efforts and therefore perpetuate or exacerbate the problem. So, the apparent solution is for regional countries to take on the task.

This is where the UAE comes in. On Tuesday, Reuters published a detailed account of the Emirati special forces’ counterterrorism mission in southern Yemen – an operation that turned out to be more extensive and impressive than initially made out in media. An Emirati eight-person special forces team landed in Yemen in April 2015 and began to train Yemeni soldiers. The UAE teams trained a 2,000-strong force that drove the Houthi rebels from Aden last July, and further 4,000 forces to run the newly captured city. The UAE special forces then began to prepare for the Mukalla operation which culminated with driving out Al Qaeda.

A US official told the agency that some in Washington had doubted the UAE’s sincerity in attacking Al Qaeda in the port city of Al Mukalla. But the Pentagon deployed a small number of military personnel to help in the fight after an evacuation in early 2015, according to Reuters, in a possible sign of increasing US willingness to re-engage on the ground.

“Whether there’s secession or not, the south is in the hands of its sons and that was made possible by the coalition countries," Mahmoud Al Salmi, a professor at Aden University, said.

What makes the UAE’s mission particularly significant is that the effort is conducted by local forces and led by a regional country with a long-term commitment to the neighbourhood’s stability. This aspect is critical for any counterterrorism effort. While locals who want to expel extremist forces from their areas often seek support from the US, long-term commitment weighs heavily in their calculation. This dynamic is felt in Iraq, Syria and other countries where extremists dominate.

Local tribes or insurgents would rather strike temporary alliances with extremists, even though they could defeat them with some help from the US, because they know the US commitment is often fickle but extremists always come back. That is a lesson many have learnt from the Iraq war, when the people of Anbar joined forces with the American troops to expel the predecessor of ISIL from their areas between 2005 and 2010. The US withdrew from Iraq and left them to deal with an increasingly sectarian government in Baghdad and a growing jihadist force in their midst.

Today, many seek US support but they also want a regional guarantor of long-term commitment. The UAE offers an example of what that commitment looks like.

BUT WAIT the Obama\Rhodes WH policy in fighting IS was what again????......not doing any "stupid ####".....

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:43 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/the-us-cant-ignore-russia-or-its-increasingly-horrendous-behavior/2016/07/03/c2533b08-3fa7-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html?postshare=7941467637142552&tid=ss_tw

By Josh Rogin

July 3 at 7:18 PM 

The U.S.-Russia relationship is too big to fail, but it’s failing.


The Obama administration came into office with a big idea about this relationship: that these two world powers must work together on areas of mutual interest even if they still worked against each other where their interests diverged. The concept was sound, but as relations have deteriorated and Russia has taken a more antagonistic stance, the United States has failed to adapt.

Last week’s revelation that the administration is proposing increased military cooperation with Russia in Syria, in exchange for Russian agreement to abide by the cease-fire it had already agreed to, was a stark example of how the administration’s theory about how to work with Russia is being misapplied on the ground. Washington is offering Moscow both a reprieve from the political and military isolation it imposed after the invasion of Ukraine — and a reward for taking unilateral military action designed to undermine U.S. policy in Syria.

The White House and the State Department believe that the only way to make progress in Syria is to work with Moscow, even if that means setting the isolation effort to one side. That makes some sense, but only if Russia actually honors its agreements in Syria and makes progress toward resolving the Ukraine crisis.

But neither of these things is happening. Ukraine’s recently departed prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, told me last week that while Russia has successfully distracted the world from the Ukraine crisis, the Russian military continues a medium-boil military campaign in violation of the Minsk agreement.

“Every single day they kill Ukrainian soldiers, every single day the death toll is rising, every single day we’ve got civilian casualties. There is no cease-fire on the ground,” he said.

To Yatsenyuk, Russian President Vladi#mir Putin’s strategy is clear. Russia will pretend to work with Western powers and even strike deals when the deals are sweet enough. But by selectively violating the agreements while manipulating other governments and the media, Putin will continue to make steady progress toward his anti-Western, anti-democratic objectives. For Yatsenyuk, there’s simply no way to work constructively with the current Kremlin.

“I don’t believe that you can agree on anything substantial with the Russian Federation because the U.S. is an enemy to the Russian Federation in their view,” he said. “They can have talks, they can have debates, they can even agree on some non-existential issues. But there is an existential difference. These are just two different worlds.”

The United States cannot afford to write off the U.S.-Russia relationship. There is truth to the argument that the world’s most pressing problems, including Islamic extremism, cannot be solved without some Russian involvement. But Washington cannot ignore Russia’s increasingly horrendous behavior. Russia’s dangerous military maneuvers near U.S. ships are now regular occurrences. Russian harassment and intimidation of U.S. diplomats across Europe is at an all-time high. Russian government cyberespionage and propaganda campaigns have run amok.

“The fact is, they are engaged in a new global Cold War against the U.S.,” said Samuel Charap, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “There’s absolutely no question about that. We have this festering wound on the relationship that nobody on the U.S. side is spending much time trying to fix.”

The United States has complicated relationships with lots of problematic countries. China, for example, is internally repressive and externally aggressive, but there’s no thought of cutting off relations with Beijing. Similarly, the policy of isolating Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine has limits. Russia was determined not to cave to sanctions, and if the recent vote in the French senate is any indication, the sanctions regime will not last forever.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:49 PM
Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Anyone know any more about this?
http://bit.ly/29bJu8U


Syria|YPG chief commander flees to Germany w/his lover



The Chief Commander of the YPG was arrested after being discovered to have married illegally, in breach of the internal rules that doesn’t allow him to marry , by Rydor Khalil personnally and was jailed in Qartashuk. Then he was sent on a tour of repentence in Qandil and returned to his village Yarmji in Derbasiya countryside.

After stealing 700 millions sp, he fled to Turkey and then to Germany with his lover. He left the militia. Rynas Ruz is considered to be one of its most important founder. He was replaced by al Haffal Syamin.

Another YPG responsible in al Hassakeh, Muhammad Issa, fled after stealing 90 millions sp to Kurdistan Irak.


BUT WAIT....I thought they were a US Kurdish Proxy?????

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 05:52 PM
Khamenei: Iran will never coordinate with the US on Syria. Those seeking ties with the West "have lost their minds".
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/212579-khamenei-iran-won-t-coordinate-with-us-on-syria …

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 06:14 PM
CrowBat...any idea just how many SA8 missiles JaI has left????

Confirmed by proAssad\Putin supporter.......

Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta MiG-23 was Shot down by a Anti Aircraft Missile. Pilot Shawkat Suleiman announced Dead

Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta Pilot Shawkat Suleiman was From #Banias - MiG 23 shot down today.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 07:15 PM
Manbij: #ISIS has captured #Al_Mankubah village north of #Manbij from #YPG today.

Palmyra: #ISIS advancing east of #Palmyra Airport & southwest of #Palmyra at #Jabal_Hayyanah after heavy clashes with pro-#Assad forces.

Hasakah: 7+ pro-#Assad forces and 2+ #YPG militias were killed in #Hasakah today. Dozens more were wounded.

Hasakah: #ISIS VBIED has killed several #YPG militias southeast of #Shaddadi.

DeirEzzor: #Assad regime arrested 50+ youths today and forcing them to fight against #ISIS.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 07:27 PM
A Russian military observation blimp has been tethered over Hmeymim, previously there were 2 in Palmyra

Manbij: #ISIS has launched new massive attacks against #YPG north of #Manbij this evening.

A newly released IS video of Shaer features the exact same T-72s that also took part in the Tabqa counterattack.

OUTLAW 09
07-04-2016, 07:33 PM
European Parliament
✔ @Europarl_EN 100,000 ISIS tweets a day: how EU can tackle radicalisation & online propaganda
http://bit.ly/29e3TuD


Europol
✔ @Europol Europol Deputy Director Wil van Gemert on how we tackle online #terrorist & violent extremist propaganda
https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/status/749930459518251008 …

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 06:20 AM
Faylaq Al-Sham took out with an #ATGM an armored bulldozer near Al-Hader, S. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMit9tHWiOw …

First Coastal Division blew up with a #TOW a bulldozer on Tell Bashoura front, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX_SG6ZSUMg …

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 06:55 AM
From proAssad commenter...

Inside the airbase that held out against #ISIS for 2 years
#Syria #Aleppo
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-syria-inside-the-air-base-that-held-out-against-islamic-state-for-two-years-and-the-death-a7117431.html …

SAA is in a real mess in #Latakia,with insurgents attacking the entire frontline form the Turkish border to Kabanah.

With such a lenghty &bloody fight,#SAA gained very little in N. #Aleppo battle,having a fragile control of Al-Isamat &Northern Mallah farms.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:02 AM
From yesterday........LLC lists 39 killed.....

19 martyrs in Aleppo
7 in Raqqa
5 in Damascus
3 in Idlib
2 in Hama
2 in Deir Ezzour
1 in Daraa
1 in Homs

Heaviest battles accompanied with big explosions in all fronts around #Manbij now.
Heavy Coalition airstrikes targeting #IS as well.

Rebel offensive in #Latakia - July 4, 2016 #Syria
#Jaish_alFatah vs. #SAA
HD: http://newsmap.pl/news/ofensywa-rebeliantow-na-froncie-latakijskim-4-lipca-2016#news-9446 …

Front is stabilizing in N. #Latakia: Rebels repelled pro-Assad attempt to reach #Kinsabba outskirts but didn't manage to capture Burj Bayda.

The use of the B9 recoilless rifle as a standoff weapon.....notice the weapon was totally new...not a scratch on the green paint.
https://youtu.be/z9sZGXMFaS0

Omar al Suri's gutsy reporting from #Salma outskirts. #Lattakia
https://youtu.be/s03iPaCQteM

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:19 AM
After capturing Shaer gas field, #IS destroyed the facility in a controlled demolition w/ IEDs

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:33 AM
Since more than a month, thousands of pro-Assad troops and the Russian air force have only one goal: Too cut off & besiege E Aleppo city.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians WILL be trapped.

The EU&US SEES this happening and says / does nothing.

Little room for interpretation...BUT WAIT the Obama/Rhodes WH does not want to do anything remotely appearing to be "stupid".....

APPEARS the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes the Russian Ambassador to Syria when he states Assad does not want to capture Aleppo.....YES he does as it is the second largest city on Syria....AND if the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes him then I have an entire desert I can sell to the WH...

Syria yesterday
The same procedure as ever day from #Aleppo to #Rastan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO17PBAlPV4 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9zgdHb29Y …

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:47 AM
While the entire West and the Obama WH talks about IS attacks on the West...we tend to forget this simple basic fact.......

Jordan
Lebanon
Turkey
Bangladesh
Iraq
Syria
Saudi Arabia
Libya
Nigeria
Yemen
Afghanistan
Egypt & more...

IS Attacks/Kills Muslims

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:52 AM
Reports from Kafranabel:

Jabhat al-Nusra has agreed to release Jaish al-Tahrir leader Mohammed al-Ghabi.

IS names suicide-killer who attacked YPG north of #Manbij: Qaswarah al-Maghribi, a German.

IS claim they have killed twenty SDF/YPG fighters around #Manbij with a suicide bomber.

Levant front footage of them fighting to capture al-Raeh from IS in North Aleppo. Go pro tank footage.
https://youtu.be/wJBWoFLY-eI

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 07:59 AM
Iraiq Shia cleric but self-styled secular has a theory about what produces a suicide bomber: homosexuality + Quran:

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 01:17 PM
New profile-Mustafa Sejari-compelling #Syrian rebel commander+leader of vital US-backed anti #ISIS group in #Aleppo http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=45578&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=7&cHash=1bd50b5775cca22a9ee1fd686450512c&utm_source=Viber&utm_medium=Chat&utm_campaign=Private#.V3uo_sspDqB …

NOW English @NOW_eng
Hezbollah’s mounting losses in Aleppo #Syria
http://mme.cm/1FBW00

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 01:25 PM
CrowBat.....what do you think.....??

'Admiral Kuznetsov’ could be preparing for war in Syria
https://warisboring.com/russias-creaky-old-aircraft-carrier-is-up-to-something-strange-d05d5d9a927c?source=rss----2ce4bbcf83bb---4 …

Iran saying since May it has info its 4 diplomats abducted in Lebanon in '82 in Israel prison. (info maybe from Lebanese allies) now Iran MP says Israel relayed message to Hezbollah, allegedly holding European POWs from Aleppo battles, willing to discuss a deal and peripherally, has it been suggested that austin tice is being held by some hezbollah allied group? (pro assad militia)?

Based on timelines/intvws I read it was, initially, Iran's Intel efforts hinting they are alive. Possible things moved after that.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 01:33 PM
@amnesty telling me, that "groups like the rebels, who committing war crimes, shouldn't be armed."

Why is @amnesty never demanding from #Russia and #Iran to stop arming #Assad and bombing the #Syria|n people?
https://twitter.com/worldonalert/status/750300356610027520 …

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 01:47 PM
Homs: #ISIS launched new attacks against pro-#Assad forces around #Jub_al_Jarrah today after failed regime offensive in Eastern #Homs.

Russia'n airstrikes with cluster bombs on
Harbinafsah in south western rural #Hama
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.937945&lon=36.623611&z=14&m=b …

Russia'n airstrikes with cluster bombs on
Harbinafsah in south western rural #Hama
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34.937945&lon=36.623611&z=14&m=b …

BREAKING-Multiple casualties reported as airstrikes hit Palestinian refugee camp.
But it was in Syria.
Carry on.
http://bit.ly/29k0oqp

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 04:12 PM
ISIS using tanks, BMPs and heavy artillery in the #Manbij offensive.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 04:32 PM
Damascus : Loyalist media source Misyaf News confirms a Mi-24 helicopter was shot down in #East_Ghouta on Sunday.

While #Russia removed restrictions on outbound #tourism with #Turkey, it is in no rush to remove #trade #sanctions:
http://newsru.com/russia/05jul2016/medveg.html …

Homs: #ISIS destroyed 1 regime tank, 1 heavy machine gun and killed several pro-#Assad forces in #Abu_al_Balaya village

Hasakah: 3 #YPG fighters killed & 5 wounded in a booby-trapped house in the village of #Hasan_Zayt, south of Mount #Abdul_Aziz.

#Syria|n rebels advancing against pro-#Assad forces in Eastern #Ghouta today.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 04:33 PM
Cracks are starting to appear between Russia and Syria
http://read.bi/29jViJt


Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah recently tackled the recent battles southwest of Aleppo, where the party reportedly suffered its worst losses since entering the conflict in Syria. Nasrallah admitted in a speech broadcasted live on the group's Al-Manar TV on June 24 that 26 Hezbollah fighters had been killed since the beginning of June.

This rare acknowledgment of the party’s death toll seems to be an attempt to downplay the recent spate of casualties suffered in fighting near Syria’s largest city. This tally was later confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who reported that “25 Hezbollah fighters were killed in southwest of Aleppo, which is the highest toll for Hezbollah fighters in a single battle since 2013.”

Nasrallah later explained that the heavy losses came after the arrival of thousands of opposition fighters to the area via the Turkish border, who aim is to capture Aleppo and its surrounding countryside. However, several experts claim that the mounting Hezbollah casualties were mainly due to a lack of Russian air cover in the battle.

Russia’s unilateral announcement of a two day ceasefire in Aleppo was actually one of the main factors that contributed to Hezbollah’s heavy losses. Russia's defense ministry stated that the goal of the ceasefire, which began on June 16, was to lower the level of violence and stabilize the situation in Aleppo.

However, it was later claimed that Russia announced the ceasefire in Aleppo without consulting Damascus or Tehran and that the Russians intentionally deprived pro-Assad forces in Aleppo of air cover due to conflicting agendas among the allies. Mustafa al-Ahmed, a rebel fighter with Jaysh al-Fatah in Aleppo, believes that the absence of Russian airstrikes was the main reason behind Hezbollah’s losses.

“Although the extensive use of mortar shelling and car bombs had contributed to a high number of casualties among Hezbollah’s fighters, the main reason was the absence of Russian air support to the Shiite militias backed by Iran,” Ahmed argued. Similarly, Hezbollah
supporters reportedly blamed Russia for the mounting casualties and publicly criticized Moscow for not using its air force to protect the party’s fighters.

Exhaustion among Hezbollah fighters, who are spread over several fronts in Syria, may also have contributed to the recent spike in casualties. Ali al-Saadi, a field commander in the Iraqi Shiite militia Harakat al-Nujaba, which is active in Syria and Iraq, told Al-Quds al-Araby that Hezbollah has requested urgent reinforcement from Iraqi Popular Mobilization militias to support their fighters in Aleppo.

Saadi linked this request to the increased inability of Hezbollah to fight effectively while its fighters are active in multiple operations across Syria. He added that the Russian government had informed its Syrian counterparts that airstrikes in support of Hezbollah near Aleppo would not be useful unless there were enough soldiers on the ground to secure areas taken from rebels.

Although not having enough fighters may have contributed to Hezbollah’s losses, it is unlikely that this was the main reason behind the spike in casualties. Al-Akhbar’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim al-Amin wrote on June 17 that Iran, Russia and Syria have agreed on an action plan for a large battle in Deir Ezzor province in which Hezbollah will play a central role.

This claim, if true, refutes Saadi’s explanation and demonstrates that Hezbollah is willing and has the man power to expand their operations into new fronts in Syria.

The most likely explanation behind the mass casualties is that Russia was not on board when the Syrian regime and Iran launched their Aleppo offensive. Nasrallah argued the fighting near Aleppo was necessary to “defend what remains of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan.”

However, it seems that Hezbollah was not able to convince Russia to fully support this battle. “Nasrallah’s latest speech exposed Iran’s failure to convince Moscow to fully join the fight to retake Aleppo and its countryside from the opposition,” wrote Mustafa Fahs, a former fellow at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Interfax news agency also quoted Russia's ambassador to Syria saying that he did not expect the Syrian army to assault the city in the near future.

Nevertheless, it seems that Iran had a plan to change Russia’s position, but the strategy backfired. “Iran was trying to drag Russia into Aleppo by starting the fight there alone and hoping that the developments on the ground would push the later to join. However, it seems that Hezbollah is the one who paid the heaviest price for Iran’s gamble,” said a Western diplomat based in Lebanon, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

“We had to be in Aleppo, and we will stay in Aleppo,” Hassan Nasrallah declared in the same speech. The Hezbollah leader even promised to increase their presence there as "retreat is not permissible." However, it seems that the party leader is ignoring the recent improvements in relations between Russia and Turkey, which may reduce Russia’s involvement in Aleppo and could in turn increase the party’s losses there.



Deir Ezzor civilians pressed into Hezbollah’s new militia
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/567166-deir-ezzor-civilians-pressed-into-hezbollahs-new-militia-activists …

So that is why Hezbollah was sent to DeZ, to create more militia outside of Assad's SAA structure.

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 04:57 PM
Jordan continues to block food deliveries to 65k + Syrians trapped in terrible conditions at Jordan/Syrian border

13th Division downed with machine guns a small #ISIS drone over N. #Aleppo.

Heavy clashes on Bahariya-Midaa front where JaI claims seized back few positions, E. #Ghouta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvFgsicmYtQ …

Jaish Al-islam's "Al Omar" missile: propulsion system is provided by a Grad rocket, #Aleppo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMQFHVV659s …

Jaish Al-Islam shelling Regime positions in #Khaldiyah with Omar missiles, #Aleppo.

Jaish Al-Nasr fired 2 #TOWs vs a tank & BMP in #Khaldiyah, #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DjlPQlUurI …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3CQc9NPKo …

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 05:16 PM
BREAKING: #ISIS Amaq news agency reports that #US combat drone was downed in Tabqah city, W. #Raqqa

New promo from @Alaza_Army, filled with TOW shots, epic graphics, and training montages
https://youtu.be/N3lQrjRalZ8

OUTLAW 09
07-05-2016, 05:26 PM
Hayyan near #Aleppo today.
Same #Assad/#Putin war crimes as every day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X1XyBfIDnw …

Azor
07-05-2016, 09:24 PM
http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-airstrikes-syria-june-3-28-2016

Jul 1, 2016 - Genevieve Casagrande:

"Russia continues to pressure the U.S. and regional actors into closer cooperation through its military intervention in Syria. Russia ultimately seeks to supplant the U.S. as a security guarantor in the Middle East and has used its air campaign in Syria to galvanize its demands for greater coordination in the theater. Unidentified U.S. administration officials claimed that the White House issued a proposal for military partnership with Russia in Syria after several weeks of negotiations between the two countries. The deal reportedly calls for the U.S. to conduct a coordinated air campaign against ISIS and al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al Nusra. In exchange, Russia has reportedly agreed to push the regime to stop striking specific geographic zones held by oppositions groups deemed acceptable by the U.S. The provision of geographic delineations of armed groups has been a longstanding demand of Russia. This type of delineation remains infeasible in opposition-held Syria as Jabhat al Nusra and other jihadist groups do not unilaterally control terrain, and any withdrawal of opposition forces from key frontlines jointly held with jihadist groups would likely render core opposition-held areas vulnerable to advances by pro-regime forces."

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 05:43 AM
http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-airstrikes-syria-june-3-28-2016

Jul 1, 2016 - Genevieve Casagrande:

"Russia continues to pressure the U.S. and regional actors into closer cooperation through its military intervention in Syria. Russia ultimately seeks to supplant the U.S. as a security guarantor in the Middle East and has used its air campaign in Syria to galvanize its demands for greater coordination in the theater. Unidentified U.S. administration officials claimed that the White House issued a proposal for military partnership with Russia in Syria after several weeks of negotiations between the two countries. The deal reportedly calls for the U.S. to conduct a coordinated air campaign against ISIS and al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al Nusra. In exchange, Russia has reportedly agreed to push the regime to stop striking specific geographic zones held by oppositions groups deemed acceptable by the U.S. The provision of geographic delineations of armed groups has been a longstanding demand of Russia. This type of delineation remains infeasible in opposition-held Syria as Jabhat al Nusra and other jihadist groups do not unilaterally control terrain, and any withdrawal of opposition forces from key frontlines jointly held with jihadist groups would likely render core opposition-held areas vulnerable to advances by pro-regime forces."

Several hours after this was "leaked by the Obama/Rhodes WH" social media correctly pointed out that DoD (the military) was expressly forbidden to collaborate with the Russian military on basically anything....so stated in the 2016 National Defense Funding Bill...which was the cause for the SecDef to be the only one against the idea as reported by the NYTs...

Then a few days later it was "again leaked" by the Obama/Rhodes WH that well maybe we will "share intelligence".....THEN that was shot down by the Intelligence Community.....

BTW....virtually no US MSM picked on the possible violation of the 2016 DoD Funding Bill......still has not picked up on it.

So basically this was a trial lead balloon by the Obama/Rhodes WH to show that they were indeed trying to stop the bombing...which we know they really do not care about if it continues....remember "actions speak volumes about intent".

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 06:16 AM
Clashes in Al-Mankubah at NE entrance of #Manbij after #IS counter assault http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.545949&lon=37.967978&z=15&m=b …

IS took control of Al Zatar Cement Factory at road
#Manbij -> #Jarablus
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.619523&lon=37.944460&z=14&m=b …

@UNOSAT This shows damage from a November 27th 2012 airstrike on Bab al-Hawa IDP camp. 47 tents destroyed.

@UNOSAT The razed (and revolution sympathetic) Masaa al-Arbaeen district of Hama, with 3256 buildings demolished.

Statistics by Syria's Civil Defense for June 2016 during the month of Ramadan: nearly 800 dead in Aleppo alone!

Comment from a proAssad/Russian regime supporter......
"Battle of Deirezzour maybe postponed to focus on Aleppo sources are telling me."

Translated means....
"Battle of Quagmire maybe postponed to give a priority to quagmire, sources telling me.

I guess assadists dont warn each other, same place 1st Coast gives Eid present - Fagot ATGM to KPV gunners #Lattakia
https://youtu.be/v_ckn3yMDWk

Assadist Kornet team shows their face in Jabal Akrad, 1st Coast replies with Fagot ATGM to their forehead #Lattakia
https://youtu.be/xWD9EihsNIU

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 06:28 AM
Discontent over 40% incr. fuel prices sparks protest movement 'ghazna' in #Latakia. Regime forbids protest sit-in.

SAA armored vehicles captured by #IS at Shaer gas field included 8 tanks & 4 BMPs

Appears the SAA has now given up trying to be a coherent military organization and has gone over to simply resupplying the entire anti Assad forces and IS ......

Who has fired most TOW missiles during the SCW? Abu Hamza, 1st Coastal Div. (More than 50)
https://youtu.be/s0nvprmbExQ

New video message from The Islamic State: “The Clear Victory – Wilāyat Ḥimṣ”
http://jihadology.net/2016/07/04/new-video-message-from-the-islamic-state-the-clear-victory-wilayat-%e1%b8%a5im%e1%b9%a3 …

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 06:30 AM
BUT WAIT AI says virtually nothing about the torture and atrocities being committed by the Assad regime....in the same article....

These pale in the face of Assad's actions........

Syria: besides #JN Amnesty accuses Ahrar al-Sham, Jabhat al-Shamia, Nour al-Din al-Zinki & 16th Division of torture

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 07:01 AM
Remember this?
Joint #YPG-Jabhat al-Nusra checkpts in 2012-13…
Yes, #Syria is complicated

http://vvanwilgenburg.blogspot.com/2013/02/anf-first-joint-ypg-fsa-checkpoints.html …

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 07:06 AM
Some US foreign policy experts insisted for decades Hezbollah was indigenous org fighting for Lebanon

Some still do

Don't worry, those people are still employed.

BUT WAIT........

#Iranian military official: We have 100,000 missiles in #Lebanon ready to hit #Israel
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Iranian-military-official-We-have-100000-missiles-in-Lebanon-ready-to-hit-Israel-459350 …

ALL under the control of Hezbollah.......

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 07:08 AM
ISIS could probably justify burning a Quran, banning the hijab, and drawing cartoons of the Prophet. Where there's a will, there's a hadith

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 11:39 AM
ShOAB-0.5M cluster bombs used near Homs, ShOAB-0.5M cluster bombs only appeared after Russia started bombing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kMX4T5cgBE …

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 11:39 AM
First it was Russia declaring "periods of silence"...now it is Assad....
Syrian military declares 72-hour truce across Syria: military source
http://reut.rs/29nsChe

First Regime violation to its own "72hrs ceasefire": Jaish al-Islam reporting continuous violent attacks on Midaa front in E. #Ghouta.

Only yest., Jaish Islam claims took out 4 tanks, 1 Shilka & 1 BMP:
- Regime steps up efforts to seize E. #Ghouta
- Reinforcemenrs from South

Regime's ceasefire: focusing on its own attacks (Dam-N. Aleppo) & trying to stop Rebel offensives after their recent success (Lat-S. Aleppo)

Assad regime sends reinforcements from #Daraa Province to Eastern #Ghouta. Rebels in Daraa don't attack the regime since months.

Syria|n rebels destroyed 4 #Assad regime tanks and 1 BMP in Eastern #Ghouta yesterday.

Basically Assad and Putin use the so called periods of silence to move their troops around the battlefield and to resupply them.....

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 11:45 AM
NEW Nusra video release
Battle of Khalasah
https://youtu.be/sqEHGHj9GbU

4 Martyrdom VBIED's was used in this battle.

FSA 2nd Coastal Div. TOW strike on SAA position in Latakia
https://youtu.be/IVjQUdqIghU

Homs : Regime forces on the outskirts of #Waer fire Shilka 23mm cannons into the besieged neighborhood.

Hasaka : Al-Hilal said Regime will form new "Volunteer Brigades" supervised by #Hezbollah to support #Kurdish Units in their "ISIS" war.

Qunaitra : Israeli forces fire a missile into the Regime held city of #Baath that killed members of their forces.

Israel|i army helicopter fired two rockets toward SAA army building in Quneitra causing it to totally collapse..

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 12:01 PM
Assad regime Brigadier Ghassan Fayad assassinated, he's head of the political security branch in Damascus

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 02:39 PM
Russian Syrian Express is on the move again......

ВМФ #ЧФ Ropucha class LST Azov 151 completed Bosphorus transit & entered Marmara en route to Mediterranean 13:30GMT

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 02:41 PM
First it was Russia declaring "periods of silence"...now it is Assad....
Syrian military declares 72-hour truce across Syria: military source
http://reut.rs/29nsChe

First Regime violation to its own "72hrs ceasefire": Jaish al-Islam reporting continuous violent attacks on Midaa front in E. #Ghouta.

Only yest., Jaish Islam claims took out 4 tanks, 1 Shilka & 1 BMP:
- Regime steps up efforts to seize E. #Ghouta
- Reinforcemenrs from South

Regime's ceasefire: focusing on its own attacks (Dam-N. Aleppo) & trying to stop Rebel offensives after their recent success (Lat-S. Aleppo)

Assad regime sends reinforcements from #Daraa Province to Eastern #Ghouta. Rebels in Daraa don't attack the regime since months.

Syria|n rebels destroyed 4 #Assad regime tanks and 1 BMP in Eastern #Ghouta yesterday.

Basically Assad and Putin use the so called periods of silence to move their troops around the battlefield and to resupply them.....

Statement: #FSA forces would respect the 72 hours #EidAlFitr ceasefire but would fight back if attacked.

BUT WAIT...did not Assad state there is a ceasefire for 72 hrs.....

It is worth to mention that Assad airstrikes reported on Hama, Aleppo & Latakia countrysides today despite the ceasefire announced.

A big convoy of regime forces was seen moving from Aleppo to Salamiya, probably heading towards Lattakia

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 02:59 PM
The site where Jaish Islam seized several #Osa Systems: from Air Defense Base to agricultural settlement, E. #Ghouta

Jaish Al-Nasr dismantled several IEDs in S. #Idlib countryside.

OUTLAW 09
07-06-2016, 04:17 PM
Newspaper: "Nesawissimaja Gaseta" Negotiations between #Turkey & #Russia about military overflight rights to #Syria
#NATO?

Airstrikes by #Israel on financial directorate in #Quneitra's
Madinat al-Ba'ath - #Hezbollah inside?
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=33.170193&lon=35.880618&z=15&m=b …

Great pro-#Assad propaganda piece from Daraa by @TheRobertFisk for the @Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/welcome-to-deraa-northern-syria-the-graveyard-of-terrorists-a7121596.html …

Aleppo today
CAREFUL #RussianAirstrike hit charity kitchen preparing meals for #EidulFitr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ocXDCNtUc …

More #footage
#Assad-free #Idlib (though largely controlled by islamists) prepares for #Eid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bjuanC2SR8 …

Seeing women's dresses it becomes clear that most horror stories about "Burkas only in Nusra areas" are BS.
Their grip isn't that strong.

More #footage
Eid al-Fitr in #FreeAleppo
A vivid metropole #Assad&#Putin want to annihilate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wyliPUcMgg …

"Ghost town"?!
"Only rebels left"?!
Forget all the #Assad propaganda.
#FreeAleppo this eve!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-qERUhamzs …

Footage
The free & peaceful city of #Binnish in #Idlib province shortly before Eid al-Fitr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nra3NTxtnDA …

Azor
07-06-2016, 06:52 PM
Assad regime Brigadier Ghassan Fayad assassinated, he's head of the political security branch in Damascus

Oh no!

CrowBat
07-06-2016, 09:06 PM
CrowBat...any idea just how many SA8 missiles JaI has left????

Confirmed by proAssad\Putin supporter.......

Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta MiG-23 was Shot down by a Anti Aircraft Missile. Pilot Shawkat Suleiman announced Dead

Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta Pilot Shawkat Suleiman was From #Banias - MiG 23 shot down today.
Well, that last MiG-23 is not entirely 'confirmed'. That is: there is a pilot named Ali Shawkat Soleiman, but he's still alive. If any other was KIA, then there are no orbituaries (none for Soleiman, either); and, if any was captured, then nobody is reporting that. Indeed, even the JAI officially denied (https://twitter.com/Ibra_Joudeh/status/750020971021688832) to have shoot down this MiG...

So, it's a very unusual case.

Here my write-up of all the claims and confirmed Assadist losses in aircraft and helicopters of the last two weeks, and reported, as well as possible reasons:

Syrian Rebel Missileers Are Wreaking Havoc on Bashar Al Assad’s Air Force (https://warisboring.com/syrian-rebel-missileers-are-wreaking-havoc-on-bashar-al-assads-air-force-f384df34c205#.xhquiao1i)

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:04 AM
U.S. jets abandoned Syrian rebels in the desert. Then they lost a battle to ISIS.

Very important read.
http://wpo.st/Yk_k1

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:13 AM
Breaking. Fatah Halab commander claims Rebels repelled fierce assault from pro-Assad forces on #Mallah & set up ambush w/ IEDs in #Handarat.

Rebels launched surprise raid & took Safa barrier from Hezbollah in W. #Qalamoun, seizing 2 tanks/57 mm cannon. Airstrikes & clashes ongoing

Jaish Al-Islam claimed it took out several armours with #ATGMs & seized back some positions on Midaa front, E. #Ghouta.

2 weeks after launching offensive to besiege Rebel-held #Aleppo, pro-Regime forces renewed fierce assaults on S. #Mallah & Layramoun area.

Jaish Al Islam claims to have destroyed 7 Tanks in the past 48hours in Damascus...

Idlib : Three dead and several other civilians are wounded after #Russian warplanes made five thermobaric missile attacks on #Jisr_Shughur.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:24 AM
FSA Army Mojahidin inspecting the fronts in Aleppo
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/syria-fsa-army-mojahidin-inspecting-the-fronts-in-aleppo …

SHAM Legion Infographic of military operations during Ramadan
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/syriasham-legion-infographic-of-military-operations-during-ramadan …

Joureen Army Base A stronghold of Assad’s Killing Machine
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/syriajoureen-army-base-a-stronghold-of-assads-killing-machine …

Sham Legion denies to hand over Daesh defectors to Turkey and their countries
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/syriasham-legion-denies-to-hand-over-daesh-defectors-to-turkey-and-their-countries …

Aleppo update : Assad’s attack failed
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/07/syriaaleppo-update-assads-attack-failed …

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:27 AM
Unexploded vacuum missile dropped on Anadan
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/syriaunexploded-vacuum-missile-dropped-on-anadan …

Unexploded missile in Anadan|pics
https://yallasouriya.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/syriaunexploded-missile-in-anadanpics …

A powerful explosion followed by violent fire inside the Petrochemical compound in Maashur #Iran Losses= $millions
Apparently a terrorist attack on the plant......Apparently a group in Ahvaz was behind it, protests are flaring again

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:39 AM
This @KyleWOrton reconstruction of Saddam Hussein's global terrorist legacy is really good.

Really really worth reading....a lot of information not really talked about much in the Us ...especially concerning the 1993 first attack on the NYC Twin towers......

Long read.....

Donald Trump is Wrong (Again): Saddam Hussein Supported Terrorism


By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on July 6, 2016



Last night Donald Trump unburdened himself of the view that Saddam Hussein was an efficient anti-terrorist operator. It is a statement Trump has made before, and it is one of such staggering ignorance—yet one which has such wide sympathy—that it seemed worth examining the multiple ways in which it was wrong.

Trump and Saddam

Trump’s praise for Saddam having “made a living off killing terrorists” in February followed a statement in December 2015,


“Saddam Hussein throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy, ‘oh he’s using gas!'” Trump said. Describing the way stability was maintained in the region during that time, Trump said “they go back, forth, it’s the same. And they were stabilized.”

One might wonder if the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction against the Iranians during the eight-year war Saddam started can really be called “stability,” and the genocidal use of such weapons as part of the Anfal campaign that murdered at least 100,000 Kurds hardly seems to have helped regional stability either.

Trump’s exact statement from last night was:


Saddam Hussein was a bad guy … really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. It was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism. You want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq.

Christopher Hitchens used to say that anyone who would content themselves with saying only that Saddam Hussein was “a bad guy” did not know anything about that man, his regime, or Iraq, and that rule can be safely said to hold in this case. It does accidentally contain a truth, however: If you “want to be a terrorist, you go to Iraq,” was in fact a well-known maxim for international terrorists for many decades.

A Long Trail of Murder

Sabri al-Banna (Abu Nidal) had many paymasters and agendas in his career as the most infamous international terrorist before Usama bin Ladin, but in preparation for that career and then for long stretches of it he was sheltered by Saddam. Hitchens met al-Banna in 1976 in Iraq, where he threatened Said Hammami, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) representative to Britain and a moderate who had publicly promoted a two-state solution long before it was acceptable in Palestinian politics. Hammami was struck down in London on 4 January 1978 by a member of the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). This was just one of many crimes Saddam enabled al-Banna to commit.

Al-Banna departed Iraq to Assad’s Syria in 1979, but returned to Saddam’s realm in March 1982, after he had acquired the moniker of “the Arab world’s foremost terrorist.” It was from Baghdad that al-Banna attempted to murder Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to London, sparking Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to dismantle the PLO’s state-within-a-state—and doing great damage to the strategic standing and military of Saddam’s great rival in Damascus that had heretofore had almost unchallenged primacy over Lebanon.

A wave of assassinations and attempted assassinations then followed from the ANO against Jordanian, Kuwaiti, and Emirati officials. There is every reason to believe that the attacks against Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates especially were, at the least, encouraged by Saddam since those two states were making overtures to normalize their relations with the Iranian revolution that Saddam was then at war with.

Al-Banna departed Iraq again in November 1983—though parts of his organization remained there—and again put himself at the service of Hafez al-Assad. Though the Assad regime is now presenting itself as a victim and opponent of terrorism, before geopolitical amnesia set in the regime was known for carrying the near-unique attribute of having sponsored terrorism against every single one of its neighbours. Assad’s bugbear in the mid-1980s was Jordan—which was showing dangerous signs of making peace with Israel—so al-Banna was directed to blow up her diplomatic outposts and murder her diplomats, which he duly did from India to Spain.

Al-Banna would, in 1987, take up residence in Muammar el-Qaddafi’s Libya—another bizarrely lamented government (including by Trump) whose record as a global, long-standing state-sponsor of terrorism has been clumsily revised—where al-Banna ended up massacring most of ANO’s members after being deceived into thinking his organization was riddled with spies. Al-Banna was reported to be in Egypt in the summer of 1998, and finally came back to Iraq in December 1998. The curtain finally came down for al-Banna in August 2002: a suicide, reported Saddam’s regime, wherein he had shot himself three times in the head.

Muhammad Zaydan (Abu Abbas) led the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) and directed the taking of hostages aboard the Achille Lauro on 7 October 1985. During the assault, the PLF shot and killed the wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer because he was a Jew, and threw his body overboard. When Italian authorities caught up with Zaydan they had to release him because he was travelling on an Iraqi diplomatic passport—despite being neither Iraqi nor a diplomat. Zaydan moved to Saddam’s Iraq and remained there until he was captured five days after the fall of Saddam’s regime.

In April 1993, Saddam tried to murder former President George H.W. Bush with a car bomb during his trip to Kuwait, using Wali al-Ghazali, who had taken part in the Shi’a uprising in March 1991, as a cut-out to give the regime plausible deniability. President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes in retaliation.

Islamic Terrorism

It might be felt that this record, bad as it is, doesn’t exactly contradict Trump because this terrorism was not Islamist or jihadist in nature. Not to fear: Saddam supported Islamist and jihadist terrorism, too—a lot.

Saddam’s regime supported the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (SMB) from when they initially rebelled against the Assad regime in 1976. Al-Banna was even tasked with training Syrian Ikhwans in camps at Hit, in Anbar Province. One man trained in these camps—which evidently operated even after al-Banna departed the country—was Ahmed Barodi, who later resided in the U.S. before being deported partly for these ties. In the wake of the crushing of the SMB rebellion in 1982 at Hama, Saddam took in the survivors—the “most radical” ones anyway (many others went to Europe), including Eddin Barakat Yarkas and Mustafa Nasar (Abu Musab al-Suri). Yarkas became a roommate of Mohamed Atta—the lead death pilot on 9/11—and was swept up in Spain after the 9/11 massacre, later convicted of helping to plan and finance that atrocity. Nasar went on to become probably the greatest strategist in the Jihadi-Salafist world, a guide for both the Islamic State (IS)* and al-Qaeda.

Continued.....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:48 AM
Ever wonder what those Obama/Rhodes WH "moderate Iranians are up to these days"?????

How about that? Iran's already-high level activities to procure nuclear and missile technology got even higher.

In German.....German Defense of the Constitution equal to say the British MI5.....clearly stated Iran still wants their nuclear bomb.....

http://m.bild.de/politik/ausland/atomprogramm-iran/verfassungsschutz-warnt-iran-will-atombombe-46676216.bildMobile.html

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 09:51 AM
Ehab Al Atrash, Assad's spy, was captured in Istanbul.
http://www.haber7.com/guncel/haber/2033470-esede-buyuk-sok-istanbulda-yakalandi …

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 10:06 AM
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/06/al-qaeda-reaps-rewards-of-u-s-policy-failures-on-syria.html

Al Qaeda Reaps Rewards of U.S. Policy Failures on Syria

Charles Lister 6/7/2016

Unless America addresses the chaos Assad has wrought, it can’t stop the rise of jihadism in Syria.


Warfare and diplomacy are intrinsically linked, except when it comes to the Obama administration’s policy on Syria. While a negotiated settlement remains the only viable pathway out of the Syrian crisis, currently existing facts on the ground do not in any way allow for a meaningful process, let alone a solution. As things stand, there is no reason for Bashar al-Assad to view a political process as anything less than a game in which to taunt and kill his adversaries, while compelling his allies to double-down in defense of his regime.

Nevertheless, the principal benefactor of Assad’s survival is not Assad, nor Russia, Iran, Hezbollah or even ISIS—it is Al-Qaeda. Having spent the past five years embedding itself within broader revolutionary forces and strategically choosing to limit and very slowly reveal its extremist face, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra is reaping the rewards of our failures to solve the Syrian crisis. According to sources close to the group, al-Nusra has accepted more than 3,000 Syrians from Idlib and southern Aleppo into its ranks since February alone. That is an extraordinary rate of recruitment from within a territory roughly the size of Connecticut.

It is desperately unfortunate and painfully ironic that for increasing numbers of Syrians, Al-Qaeda appears to have been a more loyal protector of their lives than the United States. Civilian protection is therefore key, and widespread perceptions of the moral bankruptcy of U.S. policy on Syria in this regard has unquestionably and directly stimulated Al-Qaeda’s growth. Even our fight against ISIS has provided an opening for Al-Qaeda, which exploits the fact that most of our chosen anti-ISIS partners maintain an ambiguous relationship to the Assad regime and an open one with Russia. Our fight against the scourge of ISIS is indeed securing us consistent gains, but these are tactical gains fought in such a way as to produce long-term secondary sources of instability that Al-Qaeda will chiefly exploit.

Enough is enough. It is not sufficient to wait for a new administration in 2017. Events are unfolding too quickly and ISIS is far from the only issue needing urgent resolution. Based on its current trajectory, the conflict in Syria will almost certainly continue and indeed worsen, lasting for a decade or more. Extremists on all sides will benefit the most, meaning we will face an Afghanistan on steroids, on Europe’s borders. ISIS may be defeated territorially in the near-term, but it will live to fight another day. Al-Qaeda meanwhile may come to represent a terrorist actor far more intelligent, more deeply rooted and offensively capable than anything we have faced until now.

While it remains feasible to defeat ISIS in Syria independently from attempts to solve the country’s broader crisis, Al-Qaeda’s fate is intrinsically linked to the conflict’s outcome and how it ends. Moreover, unlike ISIS, undermining and ultimately defeating Al-Qaeda in Syria cannot and should not be done primarily through military means. Russia has consistently pushed for a bilateral campaign against Jabhat al-Nusra alongside the U.S. Air Force and though this is still some way off from being realized, it is being actively considered by President Obama. Far from being helpful, this is precisely the wrong thing to do. Jabhat al-Nusra’s entire modus operandi has been designed to insure itself and ultimately benefit from just such a scenario.

At the end of the day, Al-Qaeda has increasingly thrived in Syria due in part to two realities: consistent conflict, instability and the regime’s unchallenged mass killing of civilians; and an insufficiently supported mainstream, moderate civil, political and armed opposition. If and when reversed, these two factors could come to represent Al-Qaeda’s greatest and likely crippling vulnerabilities.

To challenge the first reality, the U.S. has an opportunity to grasp back some credibility by prioritizing a determined and if necessary, aggressive protection of civilians. Whether through the creation of limited ‘safe’ or ‘no-bombing’ zones along border areas, or through the use of punitive strikes to punish the bombing of civilian, humanitarian or medical facilities, the U.S. must demonstrate a willingness to draw more discernibly upon its might to punish war crimes. An escalatory menu of ‘softer’ options—expanded sanctions, naval interdictions in the Mediterranean, or challenging Syria’s role within the UN General Assembly—could be considered prior to military action, although these take time, which we do not necessarily have.

While military action does indeed carry with it risks, pre-warning Moscow of such plans would minimize any chance of counter-escalation, while realistically, Russia has absolutely no interest in, nor a capacity for entering into a war with America. It is long past time to call Vladimir Putin’s bluff. After all, beyond its aggressive military actions in Syria, Russia’s biggest investment has arguably been in exploiting its bilateral relationship with the U.S. in an attempt to acquire an outward appearance as a ‘constructive partner’ in solving Syria. Russia will not be shooting down American jets or cruise missiles anytime soon, especially if our targets are non-critical regime infrastructure.

Consequently, by using civilian protection as a mechanism for limited and targeted aerial intervention, the U.S. would simultaneously contribute towards saving human lives; de-escalating the most deadly aspect of Syria’s conflict and providing a more stable environment in which the moderate civil opposition could thrive. Most importantly, the Assad regime will lose its principal source of escalation, while its backers will face less reason to stand so aggressively by his side. Paired with hard diplomacy, such conditions would be at least more potentially favorable to lead towards meaningful negotiations. In September 2013, merely the threat of limited punitive U.S. strikes sparked a temporary collapse of regime confidence in Damascus, as dozens of figures fled to Beirut with their families. It is by no means unthinkable that a similar situation could be replicated.

To challenge the second reality, the U.S. must acknowledge that while the vetted opposition is far from perfect, they remain the best and only viable option on the table for securing a mainstream Sunni Arab role in Syria’s future and undermining Al-Qaeda’s pseudo-revolutionary narrative. There are currently at least 50 such vetted opposition factions across Syria, who have received assistance through the CIA’s covert ‘Timber Sycamore’ program since late-2012. Such assistance has only ever been enough for each faction to sustain a role within Syria’s complex conflict dynamics. That it has never been sufficient enough to produce genuine moderate opposition dominance is exactly what has allowed Al-Qaeda to step in so strongly. To continue our current policy of providing ‘just-enough’ support to the vetted moderate opposition means nothing short of indirectly enabling Al-Qaeda’s continued growth.

This must change. While weaker than some conservative Islamists, all 50 vetted opposition factions remain deeply rooted within the exact Syrian communities we need most to reject extremist alternatives. Using external force to combat Al-Qaeda will feed the jihadist group’s existing narrative, as occurred in late-2014 when U.S. strikes against its forces were quickly labelled by the opposition as “counter-revolutionary” for they served only to weaken opposition lines against the regime. Allowing Assad and his external backers to take the fight to Al-Qaeda would likely have even worse mobilizing effects. The only solution is local and the mainstream, moderate opposition is the only game in town. But the only feasible scenario in which such forces can and would take on their long-time military ally of convenience is if we appeared more assertively ‘on-side’ in challenging the Assad regime’s continued brutality and obduracy in the face of an internationally-backed political process.

Al-Qaeda is not a problem that can be merely contained in Syria. At its current rate of growth, it could feasibly command close to 20,000 fighters by the time a new President steps into the Oval Office. Moreover, the establishment of an Islamic Emirate in northwestern Syria is now very much on the cards. Its creation will bring the initiation of complex and centralized foreign attack planning, from Europe’s doorstep. Letting Syria burn itself out while trying to contain its consequences is not only a fantastical policy, but an astonishingly dangerous one.

Nevertheless, the principal benefactor of Assad’s survival is not Assad, nor Russia, Iran, Hezbollah or even ISIS—it is Al-Qaeda.

Continued....

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 10:35 AM
Russia/Assad announce 72 hrs ceasefire but still attack Layramoon and Kafr Hamra with incendiary munitions in Aleppo

Syrian army fire cuts only road into rebel-held Aleppo: rebels
http://reut.rs/29pVplC

Rebels claim pushed Assad militias back from positions they captured this morning near Castillo only supply road to Aleppo.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 10:53 AM
Important chart from #ISIS’ latest video, detailing 35 provinces (19 in #Syria/#Iraq) & more…
(via @Rita_Katz)

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 10:56 AM
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/06/al-qaeda-reaps-rewards-of-u-s-policy-failures-on-syria.html

Al Qaeda Reaps Rewards of U.S. Policy Failures on Syria

Charles Lister 6/7/2016

Unless America addresses the chaos Assad has wrought, it can’t stop the rise of jihadism in Syria.



Negotiated political solution = only viable way out for #Syria but conditions *in no way* amenable to it working.
Need U.S. assertiveness.

Continued mass killing, destruction & chaos overwhelmingly by regime.
Biggest benefactor?
Not #Assad, #Russia, #ISIS or #Iran. It is AQ.

US should prioritize civilian protection, with punitive strikes (#Russia pre-warned) if necessary.
+ Expanded support to vetted opposition.

AQ’s rise in #Syria now an urgent policy issue. But external military action will *not* work.
Only option = the existing local alternative.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 11:54 AM
Syria|n rebels have captured #Maydaa town in Eastern #Ghouta from the regime today. Dozens of pro-#Assad forces were killed.

Dozens killed in #Assad #Airstrike on #Mashhad #Aleppo as #Civilians were exiting the mosque after #Eid prayers

Footage from besieged Daraya #Damascus shows Assad tanks trying to storm the southern parts.
https://youtu.be/wHMX7tI9OuI

Syria|n rebels have captured #Safa Barrier in #Qalamoun from #Hezbollah, seized 2 regime tanks & killed many #Hezbollah militias

Manbij: #Syria|n woman killed and her children injured by #US drone strike on their house in #Manbij this morning.

DeirEzzor: #ISIS attacking Artillery Brigade's Base and other regime positions around #DeirEzzor Airport since the morning.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 04:10 PM
Oryx @oryxspioenkop
The moment you just geolocated the Islamic State's main armour workshop in Syria. Judging by satellite imagery, the coalition so far hasn't.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:01 PM
Ever wonder what those Obama/Rhodes WH "moderate Iranians are up to these days"?????

How about that? Iran's already-high level activities to procure nuclear and missile technology got even higher.

In German.....German Defense of the Constitution equal to say the British MI5.....clearly stated Iran still wants their nuclear bomb.....

http://m.bild.de/politik/ausland/atomprogramm-iran/verfassungsschutz-warnt-iran-will-atombombe-46676216.bildMobile.html

Angela Merkel attacks Iranian regime: "Iran violates resolutions of UNSC and continues ballistic missile program."

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:03 PM
Less than 2km separate #SAA from Capturing #Castlo Road in #Aleppo City #Syria
https://goo.gl/K30VIw

Will the current 'ceasefire' finally cut off #Aleppo city?!
Assad/Putin/Rouhani fight on as the entire west sleeps.

Hit by thousands of #Assad's & #Putin's bombs, the people of #AlGhantu in #Homs stay strong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGIJfzOrAiY …

Pro-#Assad/YPG propagandists claim "FSA is like Daesh".
Reality in #FreeSyria's #Daraa prov.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTlRfa6Mit4 …

More footage from islamist-controlled #Idlib you wouldn't expect.
Fun for kids @ #Eid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTKXGdy-sWM …

Also in #Idlib province,the butcher's air force kept hitting urban hubs like #Jisr.
GRAPHIC!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uHW9h44c1c …

Footage
#KafrHamra yesterday
The #Assad air force fully ignores its own "ceasefire".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpT8w4_SQCg …

Also this bombing vs. civilians happened just hours after he declared a 3-day ceasefire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZP1a5nX2-g …

Aleppo yesterday.
#Assad promised 3 days of calm.
But the killer did the only thing he can do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbT8yQBNHRM …

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:31 PM
Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
So, these maps are awesome from @TheStudyofWar
And anyone maintaining #Russia focuses on #IS is still a fool.
http://bit.ly/29nTwIC

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:37 PM
Castillo Road moments ago, via @el_sarkis. Regime/Russia unleashing hell to besiege (& starve) Rebel-held #Aleppo.
PTT-20160707-WA0025.opus

Northern #Mallah farms widely flattened by shelling & airstrikes. 1st pic h/t
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.283910&lon=37.137458&z=17&m …

Aleppo Battle: fiercest clashes ongoing in Arab Sallum ~1.5 km from Castillo road as Rebel counter-attack allowed them to regain some pos.

Footage: pro-Regime shows abandonned section of Castillo road from Khaldiya. Huge airstrikes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFp__L0p4w …

Russia & Regime unleashing the hell since last night with v. intense airstrikes to try to besiege & starve Rebel-held #Aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:41 PM
Castello Road is completely a military zone right now. The fighting is ongoing as reinforcements have arrived and their are attempts to recapture ++

Mallah Farms, the mujahideen recaptured 2 or 3 of them, but the regime still has an important hill overlooking Castello road so the ++

The situation in Al Mallah for those asking is changing hence no accurate updates, the regime captured the 5 key positions in Southern ++

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 05:52 PM
The group "Hawks of Ahwaz" has claimed an attack on an Iranian petrochemical facility, calls Iran occupiers of Arabs
https://justpaste.it/w0dq

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 06:16 PM
Manbij: #US warplanes have bombed 2 #YPG positions north of #Manbij by mistake today.

Homs: #Russia|n warplanes have bombed #Sukhnah in Eastern #Homs today. Several #Syria|n civilians were killed and wounded.

YPG today: "#Manbij frontlines are still the same for nearly a week"
Reality: #YPG has lost several villages and mountains in this week.

Manbij/#Raqqa: #ISIS stormed a #YPG position east of the #Tishrin Dam and killed 4 #YPG fighters there yesterday evening.

OUTLAW 09
07-07-2016, 06:46 PM
http://europe.newsweek.com/putin-calls-obama-discuss-syria-ukraine-karabakh-478285

Obama and Putin talk by each other........again......


Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned U.S. counterpart Barack Obama to discuss Syria, Ukraine and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The readouts from Wednesday’s conversation published by the White House and Kremlin had some notable differences, with each leader stressing their side on each issue.

According to the Kremlin’s statement, during their discussion on Syria, Putin called on Obama to find a way to separate militant groups from the moderate Syrian opposition in order to continue peace talks. Meanwhile, according to the White House, Obama stressed to Putin “the failure of the Syrian regime” to comply with the ceasefire and urged Russia to pressure its ally towards compliance.

The Kremlin also said that Obama “gave high praise to Russia’s efforts” in regulating the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed forces in Nagorno Karabakh. The White House makes no mention of this, but instead affirms Obama’s willingness to maintain U.S. efforts in peace initiatives in the region.

The two leaders also appeared to be talking past each other when it came to Ukraine, with Putin insisting the U.S. see the importance of including the Russian-backed separatist groups in dialogue.

Ukraine considers Russia to be behind the separatists so it has repeatedly called for Russian officials to represent the separatist forces in peace talks, while Russia denies this and argues that the dispute is domestic. For that reason Obama asked Putin to ensure the uptick in violence in eastern Ukraine is reversed and Russia implement the ceasefire agreed by all sides last year.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 05:26 AM
Opposition factions regain full control of Castello Rd, trying to push Regime out of the southern farms of #Mallah area. #Aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 06:20 AM
Regime militias try to advance in Jabal Akrad by starting clashes pre dawn #Lattakia

Syria|n rebels have killed 27+ #Hezbollah militias and captured some others in #Qalamoun yesterday.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 06:21 AM
When will the Obama/Rhodes WH realize that just talking with Putin get's them nowhere...Or maybe that is all they really want to do as it then appears as if they are really doing something......

U.S. Embassy Syria Verified account 
‏@USEmbassySyria
.@POTUS stressed the importance of Russia pressing Syrian regime 4 a lasting halt to offensive attacks agst civilians & parties to #CoH


BUT WAIT...Putin was never against IS which is indirectly a direct Russian proxy...it was always about securing Assad in power and destroying all anti Assad forces NOT JaN (AQ) or IS.....

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:12 AM
Coalition airstrike on #Manbij
https://youtu.be/cuHeeLWUmLQ http://wikimapia.org/#lat=36.510123&lon=37.948620&z=18&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:15 AM
Obama/Rhodes WH support for the Kurdish YPG/PKK/SDF proxy seems to be out of control with YPG working with Assad regime against the Us semi supported on occasions FSA.

Why I am not surprised, YPG attack Castillo road from Shaikh Maqsoud north Aleppo probably in co. with Assad army offensive in Malah farms.

For Jaish al-Fath, It always has been Aleppo vs. Latakia I guess. Situation in EastGhouta, Latakia and Aleppo is not promising at the moment

Cutting off Ramousah road SW Aleppo seems like a long shot. Rebels should focus on repelling Assad army from the Castillo outskirts first.
The war of supply roads into #Aleppo city. Assad army cut Castillo NW while Jaish al-Fath trying to cut Ramousah SW.

Renewed clashes in Akrad Mountain #Latakia countryside as Assad army trying to recapture positions lost to Jaish al-Fath in the past days.

Assad army supported by Russian airforce advanced to strategic positions in Malah farms north #Aleppo overlooking rebel-held Castillo road.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:20 AM
Russian_Navy's aircraft carrier #Admiral_Kuznetsov is headed to #Mediterranean_Sea, #Syria, 4 MiG-29K/KUB on-board!

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:37 AM
Mallah: heavy clashes still taking place in Southern farms bombed with barrel bombs & targeted by #RuAF (report of friendly fire). #Aleppo

Al-Safwah Brigade wiped out with a #TOW a 130 mm cannon in Ramoussah, #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DAsTCtl0KQ …

Heavy clashes btwn Jaish Islam & pro-Assad backed by armor to control Midaa in E. #Ghouta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXlC0PEKuWs …

Yesterday Rebels seized Safa barrier in W. #Qalamoun, took 14 prisoners & at least a T-55 (+ 1 truck,1 cannon & AKs)

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:43 AM
Levantine Group ‏@Levantinegroup
Weeks of shelling put SAA in striking distance of Castello Road; 1 step closer to sieging #Aleppo's rebel-held areas

SDF media interview the same person twice, firstly as a displaced one from Menbij, then as an ISIS militant

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:47 AM
New from me at @TCFdotorg: New Syrian Army's near-destruction yet another blow to America's proxy war on ISIS:

https://tcf.org/content/report/suppose-america-gave-proxy-war-syria-nobody-came/

Suppose America Gave a Proxy War in Syria and Nobody Came?

July 7, 2016 — Sam Heller


Last Wednesday, the New Syrian Army—America’s best, maybe only, hope to challenge the self-proclaimed Islamic State in its east Syrian stronghold—launched a daring attack on the heart of Islamic State territory.

By Thursday, it had gone wrong.

Islamic State had been waiting, and the New Syrian Army only barely avoided being annihilated by circling jihadists. On Twitter and in an interview with me, the group’s commander, Khaz’al al-Sarhan, railed against his American backers and speculated that his own group may have been infiltrated by Islamic State.

Translation: “Your brothers [only] lost two martyrs – we ask God to accept them – and there are a few wounded. The reason your brothers withdrew was America’s treachery and betrayal of our forces.”

For the United States, it was just the latest in a series of mostly unsuccessful attempts to field a Syrian Arab proxy force against Islamic State. Even after the conspicuous failure of other U.S.-trained units, the United States seems no closer to figuring out how to get Syria’s rebels to fight America’s war.

Near-Disaster in Albukamal

The June 29 offensive was supposed to showcase the New Syrian Army (Jeish Suriya al-Jadid, or the NSA), America’s latest partner in Syria. It is one of several Syrian factions fighting Islamic State (IS, also known by an earlier acronym, ISIS) that have been trained and equipped overtly by the Pentagon and backed by the international coalition America has assembled against Islamic State. The NSA was attacking Albukamal, a key strategic border town in Syria’s eastern Deir al-Zour province that serves as the desert link between Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

The NSA advanced from its base in the central Syrian desert to Albukamal’s outskirts, where it seized an airfield and set up a base in a local school. But the offensive seems to have been dramatically undermanned. The NSA may have top-of-the-line U.S.-supplied hardware and U.S. air support, but according to sources within the group, it has only about 150 fighters. The day after it arrived in Albukamal with such fanfare, the NSA had been encircled by Islamic State forces.

“Thank God they didn’t use a car bomb on our encircled men,” Khaz’al al-Sarhan told me over social media. “We would have lost a lot.”

The NSA could have been wiped out. “Thank God they didn’t use a car bomb on our encircled men,” Khaz’al al-Sarhan told me over social media. “We would have lost a lot.”

It was only thanks to help from American bombers that the NSA was able to narrowly escape and retreat west to its base. The heavily publicized rebel offensive had completely collapsed a day after it begun. Somewhat miraculously, it had suffered only a handful of casualties—Sarhan told me two had died, although other accounts put the number higher. But the defeat was a blow to hopes that the NSA—or anyone, really—can free the residents of Albukamal and Deir al-Zour from Islamic State.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 10:49 AM
Iran invited anti-police Us activists In 2015
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11895197/Iran-invites-families-of-black-men-shot-by-police-to-a-Tehran-anti-discrimination-conference.html …

Khamenei already tried to speculate on racial tensions

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 11:46 AM
Heavy fighting between #Syria|n rebels and #YPG now. #YPG trying to capture the Youth Complex to reach Castillo Highway.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:11 PM
Syria PTAB-1M HEAT submunitions recovered near Saraqib.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:15 PM
Unconfirmed.....as of yet....

Palmyra: Reports that #ISIS has shot down a #Russia|n helicopter east of #Palmyra.

Palmyra: #ISIS captured 3 #Assad regime checkpoints east of #Palmyra this evening.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:21 PM
Who killed 1271 Syrian civilians in June 2016?
The @snhr chart gives the answer.
1. #Assad
2. #Putin
3. #ISIS

Some spoils #ISIS made in Shaer gas fields last May, via @SMantoux:
- 7 T-55
- 2 T-62
- 4 BMP
- 1 BM 21
- 1 M46...

Latakia: after initial pro-Regime breakthrough S. of #Kinsabba, Rebels were able to foil multiple axes offensive

Footage: Jaish Tahrir clashing with pro-Regime forces N. of #Kinsabba & claims attack foiled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgJ19cP4ooo …

Jaish Al-Nasr blew up with a #TOW a pick-up with 23 mm gun on #Mallah front, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjPdCoYndok …

Rebels are still in the outskirts of Al-Rai shelling #ISIS positions near Silos, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gSm2ObkucA …

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:22 PM
The upcoming siege of Aleppo proves the world learned NOTHING from Srebrenica, Ruanda and other locations of horror.

If Aleppo gets besieged on the coming days, Western governments bear co-responsibility for whatever happens to the 300K+ civilians.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:28 PM
132 days into the"cessation of hostilities"
60 hours into a "3 day ceasefire"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTwl4Y9mWs …

No 'jihadi / FSA' shelling can justify YPG's attempt to help besiege eastern Aleppo, encircling 300.000+ civilians.

BUT WAIT.....YPG is the US supported Kurdish proxy....so why is it not fighting IS......

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:35 PM
Ever wonder what those Obama/Rhodes WH "moderate Iranians are up to these days"?????

How about that? Iran's already-high level activities to procure nuclear and missile technology got even higher.

In German.....German Defense of the Constitution equal to say the British MI5.....clearly stated Iran still wants their nuclear bomb.....

http://m.bild.de/politik/ausland/atomprogramm-iran/verfassungsschutz-warnt-iran-will-atombombe-46676216.bildMobile.html

So the German and French intelligence services and who have great experience with the Iranian embargo/sanctions workarounds......

France and #Germany claim that #Iran's ballistic missiles program is violation of "nuke" deal brokered by #Obama. Washington rejects claim.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:49 PM
The Iran Deal strengthened the regime in Iran and made its foreign policy more aggressive.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/i-used-support-us-led-nuclear-deal-iran-i-was-wrong-1569480

I used to support the US-led nuclear deal with Iran – I was wrong

Iran's nuclear deal with the US and Europe has made the Middle East more divided, unstable and violent.

Iyad el-Baghdadi
By Iyad el-Baghdadi July 7, 2016 15:22


Last week I sent out a tweet about the state of the Middle East after the Iran nuclear deal, in which I argued that the agreement "has made the Middle East a more violent, unstable, and dangerous place".

The tweet – viewed over 35,000 times at the time of writing – engendered many responses, a few in support, but many in outrage: 'How can you be against an anti-war, anti-nuclear, anti-sanctions deal?' they asked. 'Do you not want peace and prosperity for the Iranian people?'

I didn't always feel this way about the Iran deal. Although I had occasional doubts, I was mostly supportive, even optimistic. I had never bought into "nuclear Iran" scare stories, considering them to be warmongering propaganda. I had never believed that the Iranian regime was close to having nuclear weapons, and that even if it had them it would ever use them.

I understood the Iranian regime's core need as a need for international legitimacy – this is a regime that was born in 1979 ringed by enemies, and almost immediately engaged in a devastating and prolonged war (with Saddam Hussein's Iraq) that sought to uproot it. The regime, I understood, needed the deal for the same reason it needed the nukes: To ensure that its existence was no longer threatened.

But I also never saw the deal to be simply about nuclear weapons vs sanctions – I consider that view rather myopic. Put in its historical and geopolitical context, the deal is about more than just the lifting of sanctions. It is about the final legitimisation of the Iranian regime and the normalisation of its relationship with the world as an acceptable and valid partner.

My optimism about the Iran deal was based upon two main reasons - the first being the potential economic and political liberalisation it would bring, and the second being the belief that it would catalyse a wider regional drive to reduce violence and war.

Economic and political reform

I thought that the momentum created by the lifting of sanctions would be used by Iran's regime reformists to push for economic and political liberalisation. Sanctions rarely change the behaviour of a committed regime and instead punish and weaken society, critically reducing its ability to push against its own regime, and hence leading to entrenchment rather than change.

I had hoped that the lifting of sanctions and the return of foreign trade could create a momentum that can lead to an "opening up" of economic and political space within Iran, allowing civil society and native reformers some breathing space.

I now see I was wrong in that hope.

Iran deal Foreign Minister Javad Zarif Palais Coburg
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif waves from the balcony of Palais Coburg, the venue for nuclear talks, in Vienna(Reuters)

Iran's regime – even its presentable faces – continue to mock those who call for human rights or political liberalisation. In this astounding clip (recorded last month in Oslo), Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif responds to a question posed by an Iranian academic with accusations of "Iranophobia".

It's almost tragicomic and reminds me of sympathisers with the Egyptian regime responding to criticism of General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's dismal human rights record with accusations of "hating Egypt".

Well – perhaps the human rights situation won't immediately improve, but maybe the renewed economic dynamism can lead to an economic liberalisation that can improve the lot of many Iranians? Unfortunately, it now looks increasingly more likely that the prime benefactors of new business contracts will be none other than Iran's Islamic Republican Guards Corps (IRGC), which control an increasing sector of Iran's economy, especially in heavy industry and infrastructure (the very industries that will probably see the first, and largest, business contracts).

The IRGC, created in 1979 to "protect the Islamic system", increased their power during Ahmadinejad's term, and helped crush Iran's Green Revolution in 2009. Their expanding role has led several Iranian friends to comment that their country seems to be gradually transitioning from a theocracy to a military dictatorship. This may seem ironic if not for historical precedents – a force established to protect a ruling establishment, ending up controlling, dominating, and overshadowing that establishment.

In short, I had initially hoped that the Iran deal would give Iran's entrepreneurs, reformists, and civil society at large more breathing space, but I now see that it's more likely that we'll see exactly the opposite, with existing powers entrenching themselves even further.

Reducing war and violence

I was also initially optimistic about the Iran deal due to my belief that it would lay the groundwork for a wider regional agreement that would reduce violence and defuse war.

Iran's regime, as I have mentioned, was under siege for most of its lifetime and regularly threatened with war or regime change. The deal removes the existential threat of a Western-led invasion, in effect giving the Iranian regime immunity against foreign-led regime change. My initial optimism was grounded in a belief that the regime's aggressive foreign policy will become far more moderate if it no longer feels existentially threatened.

Additionally, I thought that the United States would use the diplomatic momentum created by the deal to lead a regional effort to reduce tensions; primarily by getting Iran to help a Syria transition or resolution, and "rebalancing" the region through a US-led Iran-GCC détente. There were some early signs of this, with the UAE's Foreign Minister visiting Iran in late November 2013, after which there was talk about an Iran-UAE presidential summit (which unfortunately never materialised).

I now see that I was wrong about this as well. The region, post Iran deal, has become even more unstable and more violent, due to choices made by both Iran and its regional competitors, the GCC block.

We cannot be prosperous unless we are also at peace, and we deserve better than to be cannon fodder in a regional war.

Iran's foreign policy was not at all tempered by the deal – it only became more aggressive, ramping up support for Syria's Assad and with the IRGC even going to the extent of recruiting and training Afghani refugees to fight in return for asylum for their families. Simultaneously, the GCC countries felt so threatened by the Iran deal that they intensified the regional conflict in Syria, and opened a new front in Yemen.

Whether it's the Iranian regime or the GCC that are more responsible for the increased violence is debatable; but the point stands that the Iran deal contributed to an atmosphere of insecurity, instability, sectarianism and violence. It created a situation which empowered (rather than moderated) aggressive foreign policy among both Iran and the GCC. The Iran deal could have made the region better – but it ended up making it worse.

Is there a better deal?

So what is the alternative? It's commonly argued that to reject the Iran deal is tantamount to advocating war – but I reject this view. The alternative to a short-sighted deal is a better and wider deal, one that is sustainable and that stands to empower the region's societies rather than precipitating further war and empowering tyrants and terrorists.

It is of course too late, in a way – the deal has already been concluded, and the regional situation has mutated and has become far more complex since.

We can only hope that Western players – especially those that played a role in creating the region's mess – would use their diplomatic capital for a better outcome for the region's societies. I say this with bitterness, because the region's own players do not seem to be interested in de-escalation, and seem to find sectarianism the convenient and even pragmatic thing to do.

It is the average Iranian and the average Arab who will suffer the most in an atmosphere of rampant terrorism, sectarianism, and war. We cannot be prosperous unless we are also at peace, and we deserve better than to be cannon fodder in a regional war.

OUTLAW 09
07-08-2016, 07:59 PM
Raqqa: #ISIS fighters killed 23+ #YPG militias east of #Ayn_Issa today as they attacked several villages in Northern #Raqqa.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 05:25 AM
So the German and French intelligence services and who have great experience with the Iranian embargo/sanctions workarounds......

France and #Germany claim that #Iran's ballistic missiles program is violation of "nuke" deal brokered by #Obama. Washington rejects claim.

UN chief calls on Iran to stop conducting missile launches http://abcn.ws/29nF6bG

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:31 AM
BUT WAIT....the Russian Syrian ambassador lied again when he stated Assad was not going to attack Aleppo....BUT WAIT Assad did not attack Aleppo...it was the US supported Kurdish proxy YPG/SDF/PKK......

Just how does the Obama/Rhodes WH "spin" this bit of news?????

The @OCHA_Syria euphemism for the developing horrific 300.000+ civ pocket of eastern Aleppo.
http://aranews.net/2016/07/un-relief-wing-sounds-alarm-behalf-300000-syrians-trapped-war-torn-aleppo/ …

Regime forces have reached the Jurf Al-Sakher area very close to the Castello road,situation is very dangerous

Graphic!
A civilians tried to leave #Aleppo over the #Castillo road.
A deadly endeavour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDQnrwfu2q4 …

Pro-Assad sources confirm,regime troops + allies from Russia and Iran are in the last stage of besieging Aleppo.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:38 AM
Rebel flank in eastern #Damascus collapses, Syrian Army enters new village: Map
https://goo.gl/HMJhh1

Footage
3 civilians killed, 10 wounded in #Assad/#Putin evening air strike on #Aleppo city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8DMKccLK0Y …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:44 AM
For those serious SWJ commenters who truly believe that the Obama/Rhodes WH Syrian/Is FP is really working and saving Syrian lives.....

And for those, doubting.
This video only contains the bearable footage ...
Other is much worse (example below) ...

22 civilians killed & 35 wounded in Assad/Putin ballistic missile attack on Darkush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMO_6K0aXfw …

Madaya today
Newborn child died hours after being born due to malnutrition of mother.
ALEPPO NEXT!

Over the last mins, #RUS war planes attacked the last entrance to #Aleppo with cluster bombs, supporting combined pro-#Assad troops.

Pro-Assad sources confirm,regime troops + allies from Russia and Iran are in the last stage of besieging Aleppo.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:47 AM
4 civilians killed, 20 wounded, in #Assad/#Putin air strikes on market in Kafar Takharim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPmhIj3rmTY …

Beside rebel positions north of #Aleppo, civilians in the towns of #Huraytan and #KafrHamra were hit by the Russian jets.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 07:01 AM
Al-Nusra's statement on Jaish al-Tahrir episode: we only have an issue with its leader, we left his group alone.

Jabhat al-Nusra: we don't have an issue with those who seek foreign support, our problem is with those who become tools to foreign countries

25 prisoners, including former FSA commanders, reportedly fled Jabhat al-Nusra detention

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 07:02 AM
Raqqa A huge military convoy for #ISIS arrive to Sherkrak front in #Alskira area in Raqqa north countryside #Syria #ISIL

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 07:10 AM
New from me at @TCFdotorg: New Syrian Army's near-destruction yet another blow to America's proxy war on ISIS:

https://tcf.org/content/report/suppose-america-gave-proxy-war-syria-nobody-came/

Suppose America Gave a Proxy War in Syria and Nobody Came?

July 7, 2016 — Sam Heller

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/07/08/pentagon-chief-on-pulling-air-support-for-u-s-backed-rebels-we-missed-an-opportunity/?postshare=1391467991104691&tid=ss_tw

Pentagon chief on pulling air support for U.S.-backed rebels: 'We missed an opportunity'

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Dan Lamothe July 8 at 5:00 AM 


WARSAW — Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter said Thursday that the United States had “missed an opportunity” when it chose to shift air support from covering a group of U.S.-backed rebels attempting to seize a key border town in Syria to striking a large Islamic State convoy in Iraq.

Carter’s comments, made to reporters while on his way to the biannual NATO summit, was the most candid acknowledgment yet by the Pentagon that the U.S. had failed to adequately support one of its fledgling proxy forces on the ground during the recent operation.

On June 28, the Pentagon-backed group, called the New Syrian Army, drove more than 200 miles from their base on the Syrian-Iraq border to wrest the town of Bukumal from the Islamic State. Despite early gains, including seizing an abandoned airfield on the outskirts of the town, the unit of roughly 100 fighters was repelled the next day when the Islamic State counter-attacked, killing a handful of the rebels and capturing U.S.-supplied weaponry and equipment.

Instead of circling overhead ready to support the fighters that had been promised air support, U.S. bombers were diverted to strike two large columns of Islamic State vehicles fleeing the recently captured Iraqi city of Fallujah in the early morning hours of June 29. U.S. and British aircraft proceeded to join their Iraqi counterparts, who initiated the strikes, in destroying more than 500 vehicles and killing hundreds of fighters.

The bombardment, nearly unprecedented in the two-year conflict against the Islamic State, was reminiscent of the Gulf War’s “Highway of Death.” It is unclear how many civilians might have been killed.

“The allocation of forces is a daily tactical decision that commanders make,” Carter said, defending the decision to shift the U.S. aircraft away from the tenuously positioned Syrian forces to striking Islamic State militants outside of Fallujah.

“We have a lot of air assets and a lot of partners who have air assets, but on any given day they have to go to a certain place at a certain time,” Carter said, after being asked whether the United States has enough aircraft to support multiple operations spread across Iraq and Syria. “But circumstances change.”

Commanders in the New Syrian Army realized that U.S. aircraft had left during the fighting, but were unaware they had been pulled away to attack a more tantalizing target in Iraq.

Muhanned Tallaa, the group’s leader, said despite the bombers’ temporary absence that they returned when he called them “right away.” When the New Syrian Army assaulted Bukamal, U.S. aircraft carried out eight strikes around the town, while on the day they were routed there was only one, according to reports released by the U.S.-led coalition.

The lack of U.S. air support, however, was only one issue that plagued the rebels’ offensive. Additional fighters, in the form of dormant resistance cells spread throughout Bukamal, failed to arrive, said Abdulsalam Muzil, a fighter with a rebel group that formed the New Syrian Army. A radio station, called Bu kamal liberation radio, was purposed to broadcast a call to arms when the New Syrian Army arrived on the outskirts of the town. The call, Muzil said, went unheeded.

[Islamic State routs Pentagon-backed Syrian rebels in fresh setback for U.S. strategy]

Although the rebel forces were pushed out of the town and forced to drive back to their garrison at al-Tanf, the New Syrian Army characterized the attack a success, stating that it was meant to be a raid that penetrated into well-defended Islamic State territory. However, prior to the offensive’s collapse, U.S. military spokesman Col. Chris Garver said the operation was originally meant to “to liberate Bukamal and cut [the Islamic State’s] military supply lines in the Euphrates Valley between Syria and Iraq.”

Garver told reporters Wednesday that some aspects of the operation are ongoing and that it had managed to disrupt Islamic State operations in the area.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 07:38 AM
This is being spread by proAssad trolls...it was the "rebels" who shelled the market....

Pic: unexploded rebel rocket in a market in Forqan w Aleppo. Death toll now 20, 100+ wounded, streets closed #Syria

BUT WAIT......

Russian/Assad Uragan missile.... opposition do not have these well done for exposing your own crimes

Cluster munition container from a rocket system only pro-government forces are known to have.

Pro-Assad sites putting out ridiculous stories about the Aleppo shelling

In details: How jihadists recycled BM-27 rocket tubes into the deadly weapon that devastated Aleppo’s civilians

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/details-jihadists-recycled-bm-21-rocket-tubes-deadly-weapon-devastated-aleppos-civilians/ | Al-Masdar News

Eliot Higgins ‏@EliotHiggins
I'd like them to explain how a rocket filled with explosives would look like that after detonation.:confused:

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 03:56 PM
This is what #Iran's Armed Forces General Staff now looks like:
(NB. Army separate to the #IRGC)
via @Arkenstoneblog

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 03:58 PM
CrowBat...anything to this?????

Rumours Turkey approve Assad's staying in power during transitional period after a deal with Russia. Wondering if Saudis would do the same?

Ankara reacts!
Turkish-backed #FSA group with new D-30 arty & ammo north of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Smj6VmdgeI …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:01 PM
This is being spread by proAssad trolls...it was the "rebels" who shelled the market....

Pic: unexploded rebel rocket in a market in Forqan w Aleppo. Death toll now 20, 100+ wounded, streets closed #Syria

BUT WAIT......

Russian/Assad Uragan missile.... opposition do not have these well done for exposing your own crimes

Cluster munition container from a rocket system only pro-government forces are known to have.

Pro-Assad sites putting out ridiculous stories about the Aleppo shelling

In details: How jihadists recycled BM-27 rocket tubes into the deadly weapon that devastated Aleppo’s civilians

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/details-jihadists-recycled-bm-21-rocket-tubes-deadly-weapon-devastated-aleppos-civilians/ | Al-Masdar News

Eliot Higgins ‏@EliotHiggins
I'd like them to explain how a rocket filled with explosives would look like that after detonation.:confused:


Problem:
Assad army hits a target: guaranteed civilian casualties
Assad army misfire: guaranteed civilian casualties

Misfired Assad's cluster Uragan rocket 9M27K killed over 20 civilians in govt. held Aleppo yesterday:

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:07 PM
Thuwar Al-Sham blew up with a Malyutka an #ATGM base (& crew) used to target Castillo road.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OusJjxK2WM …

Last shot of a T-72 taken out by an Ahrar Al-Sham's #Kornet on Tell Ghazalah, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jKiRqKSJ4U …

Rebels released map showing current clashes on S. #Hama front where pro-Assad forces still outside Zara-Harbinafsah.

Footage of Jaish Islam denies Regime claim it is in full control of Midaa front, E. #Ghouta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3b-0m7ngto …

Rebels managed 2 advance last night despite #RuAF dropped incendiary bombs on Castillo front
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGbZSBbcZE …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:10 PM
Assad army launched 4 major offensives in Aleppo, Ghouta, Hama & Latakia after announced #Eid 72 hrs truce now this!:mad:

NOW after they intently violated their last 72 hr ceasefire......

BREAKING: Syrian army says it will extend nationwide "cease-fire" for 72 hours to July 12: state media - @DailyStarLeb

During this "ceasefire" regime forces launched multiple ground offensives in Aleppo and near Damascus #Syria

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:16 PM
First Coastal Division fired Grads to repel pro-Regime offensive in N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddFcmJ3SILU …

FSA 1st Coastal Division | #Grads target regime attempted advance Jabal al-Akrad #Latakia:

Rebels claim took back some positions S. of #Mallah, incl. a hill, during overnight counter-attack. #Aleppo.

Regime launched another attempt to take over Harbinafsah & Zara (seized by Rebels mid-May) in S. #Hama.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.939282&lon=36.648159&z=13&m …

Colonel Mudhir, who massacred 120+ in Zabadani was beheaded by Nusra...

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:20 PM
Update: All AreAs in Al Shaqeef near Castello road are recaptured by JaF ...

Castello will reopen انشالله.

Pay close attention, taking that position makes Salma & many other villages as good as gone from assadist control.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:26 PM
CNN Trk ENG ‏@CNNTURK_ENG 30m30 minutes ago

BREAKING State-run AA: Top PKK commander Fehman Hseyin (nom de guerre Bahoz Erdal) killed in Syria.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:29 PM
Assad TV claims rebels would "recycle" the BM-27 war heads and fire them back at regime-held areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRULgFA1_bg …
Nonsense.

Seen terrible footage
Dozens killed in #Assad-held western #Aleppo
By BM-27 cluster ammunition.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:34 PM
BreakingFootage
#Rastan some minutes ago.
Endless #Assad/#Putin air strikes / war crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4VMI7H5ccg …

And today the terror continued inside #Aleppo. Many air strikes.
2 kil, 10 wou in this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DeTbPPmzW8 …

Countless #RUS incendiary strikes on towns along the last supply route to #Aleppo last night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGbZSBbcZE …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:42 PM
Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
Things around #Aleppo getting v. ugly - siege will have big implications.
Renewed “ceasefire” totally irrelevant.
US seemingly powerless.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:49 PM
Noticeable change for Jabhat Akrad logo on the right of the photo. FSA flag has been removed in the new logo.

New group in Northern Aleppo, Sareya Jaljalat, decided to attack YPG on first day of Eid around Mranaz.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 04:57 PM
https://en.zamanalwsl.net/news/16818.html

Ali al-Usaymi, British Daeshi arrested in Kuwait a week ago, apparently proving very cooperative, esp on Assad ties.



(Zaman al-Wasl)- Few days only passed after the recapture of ex-ISIS fighter by Kuwaiti authorities that he confessed confidential information related to ISIS especially ISIS connection with Assad regime and Iran along with ISIS marketing oil, the main source of ISIS income.

Kuwaiti al-Jareede Newspaper reported some of the “fascinating” confessions of Ali Omar nicknamed as Abu Turab confirming that Ali Omar “attended personally coordination meetings with bodies representing Assad regime and Iranian intelligence.” It is a very dangerous confession coming from ISIS significant member.

So who is Ali Omar which Kuwaiti intelligence thought of as precious hunt and whose confessions, some published, confirm the expectations?

Zaman al-Wasl investigated ISIS archive and found this precious hunt is only Ali Mohamed Omar al-Usaymi according to ISIS registration data form regulated by General Administration of Borders. The registration form is filled by new joiners as soon as they enter Syrian lands.

According to the form, the Ali’s nickname is Abu Turab al-Kuwaiti. His mother’s name is Husa (Zaman al-Wasl indicates al-Jareeda newspaper published his mother’s full name).

The fourth field in the registration form says his blood type is O+ and his date of birth 03/12/1988 and national of Kuwait.

According to the form, al-Usayimi is single; however, he got married after entering Syria with a Syrian woman and had one child. His address is al-Umayiriya/ Kita 3 street 101 No 3 and his education; he was a navy officer in England.

The registration form shows that Abu Turab entered Syria on April 16 2014 via al-Raee cross point in Aleppo countryside by the recommendation of Thuban al-Ghamdi and his entrance was facilitated by Abu Ilyas al-Maghribi.

Al-Usyaimi did not mention any contact details, but he only pointed to Mudafet al-Akhawat, his mother, which confirms what Kuwaiti press said that his mother is involved for real in propaganda for ISIS and recruiting young men.

To return to what al-Jareeda reported on behalf of senior officials, al-Usayimi confirmed ISIS has a good connection with Assad regime and Iranian intelligence, and he confessed he personally attended coordination meetings with Assad regime and Iran intelligence.

Al-Jareeda indicated Kuwaiti authorities arrested al-Usayimi with his mother Husa Mohamed. The two revealed a treasure of intelligence information which amazed the International Coalition against ISIS.

Abu Turab revealed to the intelligence how ISIS smuggles oil and sells it in black market of regional countries and international traders. He mentioned names of individuals involved in this trade.

Abu Turab’s statements are important because he was one of the ones responsible for exporting oil in ISIS-controlled oil fields in Syria and Iraq. He estimated the number of Kuwaiti and al-Bidoun fighting with ISIS in Syria and Iraq to be around 100 persons.

Al-Bidounis a Kuwaiti terminology called on persons who do not hold Kuwaiti citizenship or any other citizenship.

Zaman al-Wasl owns documents which reveal tens of Kuwaiti persons recruited in ISIS as new joiners as well as key persons who recruited others in ISIS.

Abu Turab pointed out in his confessions that Kuwaitis and Bidoun who joined ISIS have exited Kuwait on different pretexts including, Going for Umra, study, tourism in Turkey. He confirmed there are no Kuwaiti females in ISIS except for his mother who returned with him.

Also, he added the leadership of ISIS in Syria are Iraqis and that most of ISIS members are from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria in addition to Saudis.

ISIS choose al-Usayimi to assume an important post in oil sector because he speaks excellent English and to invest in his field of study. The young man was about to graduate from one of the most important navy academies in England, South Tyneside College for Navy Studies. He was supposed to by employed in Kuwaiti Oil company, but he dropped off school and his dream job to join ISIS.

Talks about al-Usayimi circulated in last May after his joined ISIS. Back then, military experts warned of ISIS using his expertise to launch terrorist attacks.

Back then, his uncle explained al-Usayimi was affected a lot with killing of his small brother during fighting with extremists adding “he seemed a different person after his brother was killed. He would not talk to everyone like before. He was used to call his family every two weeks and he visited them end of 2013 and that was the last time they heard of him.”

Kuwait ministry of interior announced late Monday arrest of al-Usayimi. They brouth him from abroad was his mother, Husa Mohamed (born in 1964) in addition to his child born in Raqqa from his Syrian wife.

The ministry of interior said al-Usayimi confessed he joined ISIS with his mother under his mother’s incitement. He explained she pushed her small son first Abduallh, born in 1991, to join ISIS. He was killed during his terrorist battles in Iraq. Later on, Ali Omar dropped off his school in England to go with his mother to ISIS in Raqqa.

He assumed a post related to oil and gas fields while his mother was teaching wives and sons of the terrorists and to motivate them psychologically and intellectually.


Ali al-Usaymi, Brit, ex-Navy, joined #IS, captured in Kuwait, confesses to personally attending coordination meetings with #Assad + #Iran.

DoD, 6 July:
- #IS oil sales halved (to $15m per month) since Op TIDAL WAVE II began 10/2015
- 303 anti-oil strikes conducted since 09/2014

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 05:02 PM
Can anyone explain this to me.....seriously ...........????

DoD’s New Program for Syrian Rebels Includes Just Air-Dropping Weapons into an Open Field

http://www.themideastbeast.com/pentagons-new-program-training-syrian-rebels-includes-just-air-dropping-weapons-open-field/?utm_source=The+Mideast+Beast+Newsletter&utm_campaign=f5afa752b4-The+Mideast+Beast+-+Daily+Update+RSS&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2c7340e4d8-f5afa752b4-313496349 …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 05:18 PM
Russian crew of a combat helicopter Mi-25 killed in #Syria

http://tass.ru/politika/3442553 …

This must be the one IS claimed recently shot down near Palmyra....

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 05:34 PM
Yesterday, Russia denied they had lost any helicopters in Syria
http://tass.ru/en/defense/887211 …

mod_russia denies ISIS shot down Mi-25 #helicopter in #Syria but admits it was shot down by ISIS but denies denying

Ru media sources confirm helicopter downed in Syria, say 55 helicopter regiment cmdr colonel Habibullin was killed. https://lenta.ru/news/2016/07/09/vertolet/ …

Assad regime states the two Russian pilots were "instructors".....

Who operates Assad jets and helis? Undercover Russian 'instructors'. Like those 'instructors' of 'Buk' downed #MH17

Russian 'instructors' were piloting a Syrian Mi-25.

Which sheds an entirely new light on "#Assad" jets and helicopters, bombing civilians daily.

Would be the 7th helicopter Russia lost so far in Syria
- 1 Mi-8 (TOWed)
- 4 Mi-24 (T4)
- 1 Mi-28N (crash)
- 1 Mi-35

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 05:47 PM
CNN Trk ENG ‏@CNNTURK_ENG 30m30 minutes ago

BREAKING State-run AA: Top PKK commander Fehman Hseyin (nom de guerre Bahoz Erdal) killed in Syria.


Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
Wow. That’s big.

Senior Syrian #PKK leader Bahoz Erdal has *reportedly* been killed in #Syria, near #Qamishli.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:02 PM
The killing of civilians which fulfills the definition of genocide and war crimes just continues...with utter silence from the Obama/Rhodes WH......

Just north of #Aleppo today.
Imagine that was your hometown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ulfpY4M-8 …

Aleppo city shortly ago.
More #Assad/#Putin air strikes on civilians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWaBHPhtyYw …

That's the "islamist terrorists", #Assad and #Putin are obliterating in #EastGhouta.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITmPS31E1Os …

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:10 PM
Footage
Regime media doesn't make a secret out of its push to cut off Aleppo.
"Ceasefire".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9MIWtAmgno …

This is the so called Assad ceasefire which is the same as the Putin ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.....the fighting and killing does not stop and yet the Obama/Rhodes WH remains utterly silent.....

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:17 PM
VBIED detonated few moments ago during counter-offensive on #Mallah front.

Breaking. Ongoing Rebel counter-offensive in #Mallah. #Aleppo

Updated map by @Nrg8000 of #Mallah front after Rebels managed to retake positions from pro-Regime forces, #Aleppo.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:29 PM
Awaiting further confirmation on this as he is a jihadi from Berlin......

Abu Talha al Almani a.k.a Deso Dogg - Denis Cuspert dead again?

Sieht nicht nach Fake aus. Offensichtlich ist er gettet worden. Abu Talha al-Almani!

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:33 PM
Germany says forces in Iran trying to torpedo nuclear deal

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-germany-idUSKCN0ZO1F9?feedType=RSS&feedName=Iran&virtualBrandChannel=10209&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter



Responding to German intelligence agency reports that Iran has been trying to acquire nuclear technology in Germany, Berlin said on Friday that certain forces in Iran may be trying to undermine its nuclear deal with the West.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), said in its annual report that Iranian efforts to illegally procure technology, especially in the nuclear area, had continued at a "high level" in 2015.

A separate report from the intelligence agency in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia this week said it had registered 141 attempts to acquire technology for proliferation purposes last year and that two-thirds of these attempts were linked to Iran.

Asked about the reports on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said Germany expected Iran to stick to a United Nations Security Council resolution which sets restrictions on arms-related transfers.

But he also suggested that the procurement attempts may stem from forces in Iran that oppose last year's nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to roll back its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of western economic sanctions.

"There are forces within Iran for which the policies of the country's president and foreign minister are a thorn in the eye," Schaefer said. "They may be trying, one way or another, to undermine or torpedo the nuclear deal and the normalization of relations between us and Iran. We are watching this closely."

Schaefer said Germany had a "great deal of faith" in President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and had the impression that Tehran was doing its best to stick to the deal, which ended a 12-year standoff with the West over the nuclear program.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose power far outweighs that of Iran's elected officials in parliament or the presidency, gave decisive support to the nuclear deal.

But hardline allies of Khamenei, including the elite Revolutionary Guards, are wary of losing their grip in power by opening up to the West and have repeatedly criticized pragmatist President Rouhani's foreign policy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a speech to parliament on Thursday, said ballistic missile launches carried out by Iran earlier this year were inconsistent with the UN resolution, which calls on Iran to refrain from work on missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.

The NRW intelligence report said procurement efforts in 2015 had been focused on so-called "dual-use" technologies that can be used in both civil and military sectors. While nuclear-related procurement attempts fell slightly, those related to Iran's missile program rose.

The report said documents had been falsified to suggest technologies were destined for the oil, gas and steel industries. In an apparent attempt to cover its tracks, Iran was seeking to acquire technologies via third countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China, the report said.

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:39 PM
This is a tweet from the Rhodes WH and he apparently has no understanding of the violation of the National Defense Act of 2016 which would cut DoD funding......


US is "very open" to cooperating with #Russia to fight Nusra & #ISIS, and to reinforce cessation of hostilities in #Syria says @rhodes44

BUT WAIT all he gets paid for is "spin".....

OUTLAW 09
07-09-2016, 06:54 PM
UPDATE: FSA releases a statement condemning attack on civilians in regime held #Aleppo. Says it was regime misfire.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:04 AM
This US journalist was tracked and targeted in 2012 by senior Assad military officers.......due to her reporting on the killings in Homs.....her family is now suing Syria......

Maher Assad gave Fares a black luxury vehicle as a reward for the killing of Colvin and Ochlik.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/war-reporter-marie-colvin-was-tracked-targeted-and-killed-by-assads-forces-family-says/2016/07/09/62968844-453a-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html …

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:16 AM
So true these days...

First They Came for the Experts: Anti-intellectual demagogues posing as populists threaten democracy.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/07/liberalism-isnt-working-but-illiberal-democracy-is-coming-to-america-trump-erdogan-orban/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=%2AMorning%20Brief …

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:21 AM
Aleppo: 2 @SyriaCivilDef heroes were killed by #Russia|n airstrikes in #Aleppo City today.

Latakia: #Assad's "elite" forces "Desert Hawkes" arrived in #Latakia. What a bunch of losers. Pure cannon fodder.

Latakia: "Desert Hawks" is the #Assad regime unit that was crushed by #ISIS in #Raqqa Province last month.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:26 AM
I am posting this article for the simple reason the writer is being shopped as the coming DoD SecDef under Clinton....I had met here the first time in the deserts of the National Training Center Fort Irwin during the training of a BCT being deployed to Iraq in 2007....one really sharp thinking and speaking woman who knows her business.....and someone who has an very solid opinion of Russian military and Putin.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/a-four-point-strategy-for-defeating-the-islamic-state/2016/07/08/13ea5f1c-3e42-11e6-84e8-1580c7db5275_story.html


A four-point strategy for defeating the Islamic State

By Michle Flournoy and Ilan Goldenberg July 8 at 8:18 PM

Michle Flournoy is chief executive and founder of the Center for a New American Security. Ilan Goldenberg directs the centers Middle East security program.



There are two theaters in the conflict with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and they are not defined by international borders. The first is ISIS-stan in western Iraq and eastern Syria. Here the U.S.-led coalition is making progress and has rolled back significant portions of the territory held by the terrorist group. But the gains have come from predominantly Kurdish and Shiite forces, and there are limits to how far these groups can advance into Sunni heartland areas and be accepted by local populations. Rolling back the Islamic State is not enough to sustain these gains, we must focus on the security forces and governance mechanisms that will replace them.

The second theater lies farther west, where Syria is embroiled in a horrendous civil war. The United States has assumed that this problem is not as important and has heretofore avoided involvement except for pursuing diplomatic negotiations. Thats a mistake. In Syria and Iraq, the challenge of countering the Islamic State is bound up in the broader civil wars that have created governance and security vacuums and allowed the group to thrive. These vacuums are the disease; the Islamic State is the most serious of many problematic symptoms.

We propose a strategy that applies a consistent, long-term approach to Iraq and Syria, based on four interlocking efforts.

First, the United States should increase its support to those local armed groups that are acceptable to U.S. interests, whether they are fighting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad or the Islamic State. There is no central authority in Syria or Iraq that can seize, hold and govern all of the territories held by the Islamic State or the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. Supporting more moderate local forces is the only way to secure these areas.

When we have used this approach in the past, it has brought success, from the Sunni Awakening during the surge in Iraq to recent advances by Kurdish and Sunni forces in northeast Syria. The groups we work with must be acceptable to local populations, which means supporting different groups in different areas, building security from the bottom up. In providing support to these groups, the United States must take steps to ensure that any weapons we provide them do not fall into the wrong hands.

Second, we must increase our overall military support. This should include expanding strikes and raids to take out Islamic State leaders and gain intelligence that stops terrorist attacks outside Islamic State territory. We should embed more U.S. combat advisers with local partners and provide our partners with support enabling them to do more, such as greater direct U.S. and coalition support from the air while they conduct attacks on the ground and air transport to move people and equipment quickly on the battlefield.

We should also explore whether there are viable limited military options using missiles and other long-range weapons from greater distances that will deter the Assad regime and its Russian patrons from bombing civilians and moderate opposition groups without leading to a major military escalation. Importantly, U.S. troops should not seize and hold territory or engage in large-scale ground combat operations. That must be done by local forces.

Third, we must do more to get important external actors on board. In the near term, the greater U.S. commitment we propose will appeal to key partners, especially Turkey and Saudi Arabia; we can use an increased commitment as leverage to get better cooperation on whom they arm and how we can together control the borders. Over time, this increased U.S. investment should also expand our leverage with Russia and Iran. They will not surrender their core interests, but greater U.S. involvement should open more space for a negotiated outcome.

Finally, we should focus on governance and politics by providing support to local municipal structures that can provide services and outgovern the extremists. And in time, as more acceptable groups gain influence and territory and as external actors become more pliable, the international community may be able to bring these conflicts to an end through negotiated outcomes that are based on keeping Syria and Iraq whole, but with highly decentralized governance models.

At this point, there are no good or easy options, only better and worse ones. To reduce and, eventually, eliminate the ability of the Islamic State to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies, the U.S.-led coalition will have to destroy the proto-state in Iraq and Syria and something too often overlooked ensure that it is replaced with an acceptable and sustainable alternative. We believe our approach can be executed at a cost commensurate with our national interests and, most important, can keep the American people safe.


Only concern is that the fighting on the ground is far faster than DC can think and we are long past some of these points and JaN is increasing in strength and popularity among the Syrians themselves because they are fighting aainst Assad, Iran and Putin......

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:36 AM
Aleppo: #Syria|n rebels have killed a high ranking #Iran|ian #IRGC officer and a #Hezbollah field commander at #Mallah frontline today.

Assad regime artillery attacks on #Douma near #Damascus killed & wounded many civ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqOyI7mbVHw …

More #RUS war crimes.
Air strike on @SyriaCivilDef 1st responders in #KafrHamra shortly ago. 2 KIAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyW--0mMGp0 …

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:37 AM
Russia's terrorism is only the 2nd worst.
Worst is #EU/#US silence and inaction on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHhVWIt3QdE …

BREAKINGFOOTAGE
#ALEPPO CITY A SHORT WHILE AGO.
#RUSSIA AIR FORCE JET DROPS CLUSTER BOMBS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcbJ1G7N9qQ …

CrowBat
07-10-2016, 06:50 AM
Yesterday, Russia denied they had lost any helicopters in Syria
http://tass.ru/en/defense/887211 …

mod_russia denies ISIS shot down Mi-25 #helicopter in #Syria but admits it was shot down by ISIS but denies denying

Ru media sources confirm helicopter downed in Syria, say 55 helicopter regiment cmdr colonel Habibullin was killed. https://lenta.ru/news/2016/07/09/vertolet/ …

Assad regime states the two Russian pilots were "instructors".....

Who operates Assad jets and helis? Undercover Russian 'instructors'. Like those 'instructors' of 'Buk' downed #MH17

Russian 'instructors' were piloting a Syrian Mi-25.

Which sheds an entirely new light on "#Assad" jets and helicopters, bombing civilians daily.
Sorry, nope.

As can be seen on the video below, the helicopter in question was a Russian Mi-35N: this variant cannot retract its undercarriage, and has short, 'stubby' winglets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgzjMMPDQD0

What the video shows appears to be two hits into the cabin, and the third - decisive - one, hitting the tail rotor. Most likely, the Daesh used a calibre 57mm S-60 flak (of Soviet origin), which they love to install on trucks. This weapon proved lethal against all sorts of helicopters during earlier wars, especially in Vietnam and Iran-Iraq Wars.

All of which means: the Keystone Cops in Moscow (see: 'MOD') are lying.

No Russians are flying any kind of Syrian aircraft or helicopters. Instead, the Keystone Cops are lying to hide their own losses; they're lying when they describe the helicopter as being underway on some sort of test-flight; they're lying when they say it was shot down by a 'US-made TOW missile' too.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 08:13 AM
Report from Mallah farm battle in northern #Aleppo several hours ago
https://youtu.be/ZKNJ0BsJvhw

Damascus countryside
Clashes between rebels and regime forces , around milk-man factory ,in AlderKhiba , west Ghouta.

Nursra front declare the control of strategic points on #Almallah farms,
#Aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 08:14 AM
Video of IS shot down of Russian piloted Syrian attack copter.....

Daesh militants shot down a Russian helicopter E of #Palmyra, killing 2 Russians
https://youtu.be/LxkfCdoU_90

Watch the #Putin helicopter that wasn't downed, never, ever, according to Ruski MOD..
by #manpads destroying tail

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 08:19 AM
Nusra sends a third car bomb against Regime forces on the #Castello Mosque block as intense fighting in the area continues.

Rebels declare that North hill of #Almallah under their control , #Aleppo countryside

Heavy Clashes in Alkhaldia neighbourhood, while regime trying to advance.
#Aleppo city.

Attack fully repelled by Rebels.

At dawn assadist try the same bombardment from 2 days ago to try & gain back loses in Jabal Akrad #Lattakia

Jaysh Fatah units, #Nusra alongside #Aleppo groups liberates again some positions in Bani Zaid that were lost + Mallah hillside perimeter.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 08:38 AM
Sorry, nope.

As can be seen on the video below, the helicopter in question was a Russian Mi-35N: this variant cannot retract its undercarriage, and has short, 'stubby' winglets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgzjMMPDQD0

What the video shows appears to be two hits into the cabin, and the third - decisive - one, hitting the tail rotor. Most likely, the Daesh used a calibre 57mm S-60 flak (of Soviet origin), which they love to install on trucks. This weapon proved lethal against all sorts of helicopters during earlier wars, especially in Vietnam and Iran-Iraq Wars.

All of which means: the Keystone Cops in Moscow (see: 'MOD') are lying.

No Russians are flying any kind of Syrian aircraft or helicopters. Instead, the Keystone Cops are lying to hide their own losses; they're lying when they describe the helicopter as being underway on some sort of test-flight; they're lying when they say it was shot down by a 'US-made TOW missile' too.

CrowBat...thanks for the update.....

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 11:49 AM
Hezbollah cmdr Samir Awada
Born in S. Lebanon
Dead in #Aleppo
Cause of death: tried 2 go to Jerusalem
via @el_sarkis

Funny how despite Russian and Iranian backing, the regime celebrates over a farm or hill captures as if it was the liberation of Jerusalem++

Regime T-55 shelling #Kinsabba from Ara hill (possibly destroyed by Ahrar Al-Sham), #Latakia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ciuVzN5bjs …

Must watch: Zinki assault on #Mallah with T-72 & BMP amidst intense shelling & airstrikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV1Vm5dPqp0 …

Heavy clashes & bombing ongoing on several axis of #Latakia front, especially in Shalif area (where pro-Assad made breakthrough 2 days ago).

Yesterday's Rebel counter-offensive on #Mallah front, despite initial gains, didn't manage to fully secure Castillo Road.

Faylaq Al-Sham took out a firing 23 mm gun on #Mallah front with an #ATGM, N. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nikd_4FokfQ …

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 11:50 AM
Russia's Su-35 bombing #Aleppo city today, making sure it stays besieged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q6S8wD3dkI …

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 01:04 PM
The #FSA fights pro-#Assad ground forces north of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H__kRdGcvBU …

Exclusive: Iran sought chemical and biological weapons technology in Germany http://goo.gl/qpTSz8

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 01:05 PM
MORE Russian troops killed.....

Palmyra: #ISIS killed 43+ pro-#Assad forces, including 3 #Russia|n soldiers, east of #Palmyra since the morning.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 01:10 PM
SDF is trying OPSEC in their operations since they are not making any headway with IS.....

MANBIJ: At the request of SDF, we will suspend reporting on Manbij until 1700EDT on 10 JUL.

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 01:23 PM
24yr old Lt Dolgin, KIA in Russian Mi-35 shot down
http://m.kp.ru/daily/26553.5/3569522/ …

Houla, #Rastan and 3 villages were attacked by what Qasioun News Agency & activists call "Russian" jets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuJqVlizth8 …

Extremely graphic!
Children died due to "Russian air strikes" on free #Homs province today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHhBVW8Mf0E …

Video: Moment notorious PKK leader Fehman Hüseyin killed by Tel Hamis in Syria's Qamishli
http://sabahdai.ly/5qQoST

Iran says Saudis back terrorism after senior prince attends rebel rally
http://reut.rs/29x4FEg

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 01:45 PM
Regime/Russia strategy to besiege & starve Rebel-held #Aleppo (~200,000 ppl) already producing first food shortages http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/rebel-held-aleppo-fears-shortages-after-syria-regime-advance/article/469602 …?

BREAKING and URGENT: 2 strike corps of SAA Armour with around 80 Tanks seen moving from Sheikh Najjar towards Nubl and Zahraa.

It would mean pro-Regime forces will try to seize Anadan-Kafr Hamra to secure #Mallah & definitively besiege #Aleppo

What the heck is this?????
Muqtada al - Sadr accuses Iran of sending suicide bombers to Iraq

The moment of Assad/Russian airstrike on north Aleppo
https://youtu.be/XlFrNqso3wQ

Report from north Aleppo front today. Seems one of VBIEDs detonated deep inside enemy lines.
https://youtu.be/PPWkc4Y-de0

Rebels destroy Assad army heavy machine gun north Aleppo with ATGM.
https://youtu.be/W7UmUTsqaGM

Rebels destroy Assad army heavy machine gun with mortar north Aleppo
https://youtu.be/Ks1TCLO__O8

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:49 PM
Latakia: #Syria|n rebels killed #Assad regime war criminal Wadi'i Al Weza in Northern #Latakia.

DeirEzzor: #Assad warplane bombed & killed a group of pro-#Assad forces at #DeirEzzor Artillery Brigade's Base by mistake today.

The stubborn resistance in Aleppo despite nonstop artillery fire, cluster & even thermobaric bombs sucking air from lungs is amazing.

Ahrar Al-Sham takes out with a #Konkurs a tank in Jebal Al-Akrad, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Vqov1xUnI …

Assad choppers dropped 6 barrel bombs on #Syria's #Daraya followed by artillery & missiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV3_zIhCToc …

Iran|ian fighter screaming sectarian slogans against Sunnis north of #Aleppo City.

ISIS with 2 killed #YPG militias in #Manbij. #Aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-10-2016, 06:58 PM
Russian Syrian Express is on the move again....

Russian Navy's Ropucha Class BDK Yamal 156 southbound on the Bosphorus towards Syria.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:12 AM
Syria #Russia'n airstrike on Abyan town 35km west of #Aleppo (far away from all frontlines) killed lots of people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcxbq6V8wE8 …

Southern #FSA continues battle against #IslamicState in western #Daraa province
https://youtu.be/R40QP4Y67CA

FSA Ahmed Alabdo forces stormed #IS hold farm area at #Damascus - #Iraq/Bagdad road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pw4Zt65zGA …

Municipal Building heavily shelled by Rebels in new offensive on #Aleppo city center.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.203023&lon=37.146513&z=16&m …
https://mobile.twitter.com/aboalaith1999/status/752403090192601089/video/1 …

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:17 AM
Syrian rebels launched an offensive INSIDE #Aleppo city...

Clarification: Some say it is only Nusra that launched the offensive.
This is just because Nusra announced it online.
Many groups involved.

Especially tunnel bomb that made the start of the (surely limited) push is very unlikely to be detonated by Nusra.

If someone finds out Nusra itself actually dug and detonated the tunnel bomb, please let me know. Would be first be them in Aleppo?!!

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:32 AM
Syrians in #Turkey who crossed to #Aleppo for Eid are now trapped
http://ow.ly/7oaD3025ZIU

Confirmation
#Aleppo is 100% besieged since 24 hours.
NO foreign government reacted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsBxSNNBvjY …

Unusual cluster ammunitions used in the #Russian attacks on Babis and nearby Bashnatrah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6bXfWkDlXM …

New #footage
4 ppl. got killed and 20 injured in another #RussianAirstrike on #Babis near #Aleppo last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8LL7Jdn5mk …

Another regime air strike on #Aleppo city yesterday afternoon injured one woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj10sxgnCss …

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:37 AM
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/how-assad-has-outfoxed-his-foes-time-and-again …


How Assad has outfoxed his foes time and again

Hassan Hassan

July 10, 2016


I remember when I heard that Baghdad had fallen to the US-led coalition in 2003. I was on my way back to university in Damascus from a visit to my home town in Albukamal, in eastern Syria. The news came as we stopped in Palmyra for a half-hour break. For the rest of the trip, gloom and doom dominated among travellers.

For many, such feelings of deep anger and frustration later turned into action. The next time I returned home for another visit, a taxi driver told me that volunteers were flowing from Syria into Iraq. Syrian authorities, the driver said, were not stopping people. Noticing my disbelief, he said that he would drive me to the other side of the border any moment.

The story did not make much sense to me. After all, the Syrian regime was secular and would not tolerate any form of activism, much less one that was expressed in jihadi terms. I asked relatives at home about what the driver said, and they confirmed that two people in my town had travelled to fight with the Iraqi resistance. Albukamal came to be known as the gateway for jihadists pouring from the region into Iraq through Syria.

Rashad Al Kattan, a security risk analyst and a fellow with the Centre for Syrian Studies at the University of St Andrews, was a witness to this activity from his neighbourhood too. Volunteers heading to Albukamal would travel from Damascus.

“My family’s house is near the US embassy in Damascus," recalled Mr Al Kattan. “A few months after the invasion, I started seeing the large green buses used for public transport parked outside the Iraqi embassy, which is opposite the US embassy. It continued for some time but the buses moved to Sumarieh coach station, on the outskirts of the capital, apparently after the Americans complained it was happening under their watch, literally."

In September 2009, former Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki said that “most terrorists came from Syria". Bashar Al Assad replied that the accusations were “immoral". Less than two years after the Damascus-Baghdad escalation, Mr Al Assad issued an amnesty for jailed jihadists a few months after the eruption of the Syrian uprising. What happened between 2009 and 2011? Did the Assad regime stop seeing jihadists as a useful tool?

I am reminded of the story after the debate that followed the release of the Iraq inquiry report in the Uk. The discussions largely overlooked the cynical game played by Damascus, and seem to have learnt the wrong lessons from the Iraq war. Many of those fired up after the report’s release are guilty of repeating the same mistakes that led to the unimaginable suffering in Iraq today.

For example, those who voted in favour of the Iraq war in the British parliament are arguably no worse than those who voted in the same place against punitive air strikes against Mr Al Assad’s regime after it used chemical weapons against civilians several times. Ideally, the West has no business intervening in the Middle East. But the reality is that western forces are entrenched in the region and therefore have the capacity to play a leadership role. This is called leverage. Those who do not want that leverage to be utilised, in the name of anti-imperialism, are complicit. They are overcorrecting history.

The Assad regime wanted Iraq to turn into hell, and it helped achieve that. The reward the regime wanted was that foreign powers would think twice before they intervened in Syria. It won the Iraq war, with the help of jihadists. When the same regime released extremists from prisons in 2011, it wanted to pull off the same trick. As the uprising turned into a civil war, the regime forces avoided jihadists and targeted the rest. It struck deals with jihadists, and ignored the rest. It traded with jihadists and hit the rest.

The policy worked. Today, the US is seeking a formula of cooperation against those extremists with the Russians in Syria. The circle is complete. The US that failed to rule effectively in Iraq partly because of Mr Al Assad and his allies has, once again, to seek indirect cooperation with Damascus.

For Iraqis and Syrians, much of the discussion about the Iraq inquiry report is beside the point.

Many of the loudest voices after the report was released are fighting a different fight that has little to do with Iraqis. Whether leftists or anti-imperialists, they are fighting the Iraq war through Syria. They do not want to consider the differences between an invasion of a country and the use of force to put an end to continuing butchery. Mr Al Assad wanted them to think twice before intervention, but they do not want to even think about it. They blindly oppose.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:47 AM
Ah.....those so called "moderate" Iranian supported Iraqi Shi'a militias.....who fought as well and are still fighting inside Syria BUT not against IS....

Fallujah refugees hesitant to return home for fear of Shiite militia
http://goo.gl/k7Lm2x

Same militias the US government assured us were not going into Fallujah.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 08:51 AM
Syrian rebels launched an offensive INSIDE #Aleppo city...

Clarification: Some say it is only Nusra that launched the offensive.
This is just because Nusra announced it online.
Many groups involved.

Especially tunnel bomb that made the start of the (surely limited) push is very unlikely to be detonated by Nusra.

If someone finds out Nusra itself actually dug and detonated the tunnel bomb, please let me know. Would be first be them in Aleppo?!!

Opposition fighters (Jabhat al-Shamiya) have launched a counter-offensive vs. regime forces in #Aleppo’s old city.

Nusra's role is minimal.


Nusra has long had a minimal presence in central #Aleppo (mostly Bustan al-Qasr).

Clearly its social media seeks to aggrandize this.

BUT WAIT.....the total failure of the Obama/Rhodes WH in Syria is literally driving thousands of Syrians into the arms of JaN (AQ).....

Nusra has taken more than 3k Syrians from Idlib & S.Aleppo into its ranks since Feb.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 09:19 AM
Syria Pro regime Quds brigade & #Iran lead militias try to enter Handarat in northern outskirts of #Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.274379&lon=37.177477&z=15&m=b …

Aleppo Rebels detonate tunnel bomb under Aqaba district
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36.200564&lon=37.153648&z=18&m=b …

Heavy clashes around the "Municipal Palace" in #Aleppo city today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bwww4ZMTUE …

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 12:48 PM
Massive offensive by the #Syria|n rebels against pro-#Assad forces in #Aleppo City.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 03:39 PM
ISIS is at the gates of Palmyra, and Russia may have shot down its own helicopter near the town. Live updates:
http://bit.ly/29y9Bgf

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 03:47 PM
Sorry, nope.

As can be seen on the video below, the helicopter in question was a Russian Mi-35N: this variant cannot retract its undercarriage, and has short, 'stubby' winglets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgzjMMPDQD0

What the video shows appears to be two hits into the cabin, and the third - decisive - one, hitting the tail rotor. Most likely, the Daesh used a calibre 57mm S-60 flak (of Soviet origin), which they love to install on trucks. This weapon proved lethal against all sorts of helicopters during earlier wars, especially in Vietnam and Iran-Iraq Wars.

All of which means: the Keystone Cops in Moscow (see: 'MOD') are lying.

No Russians are flying any kind of Syrian aircraft or helicopters. Instead, the Keystone Cops are lying to hide their own losses; they're lying when they describe the helicopter as being underway on some sort of test-flight; they're lying when they say it was shot down by a 'US-made TOW missile' too.

CrowBat....Russians are hitting the "vodka" heavily today...US TOW downed their Mi35M...

Which we know is a true "vodka moment.......as there was no TOW rocket motor smoke

There is some question though about their own fire hitting the tail rotor.....saw a darkened video where you can clearly see the 57mm hits then one under the tail boom and then the hit on the tail rotor.....

Appeared to be a barrage of four rounds....

For a friendly fire incident I do not think so as the second Mi35 was right behind in a trailing formation and lower than the one that was hit as if they were flying a combat patrol mission.....

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 03:59 PM
10+ #Syria|n civilians killed by #Assad airstrikes on Bab Al Maqam in #Aleppo City

A lot of outcry about the "brutal" rebel offensive in #Aleppo City.
Syria|n rebels have captured 53+ pro-#Assad forces around the #Aleppo Citadel.
Battles still ongoing in Bab Faraj area, as Police station, Sheraton hotel, Clock square and multiple buildings still Regime-held.

Damascus: #ISIS suicide attack killed 16 #Syria|n rebels, including 7 leaders, in #Dumayr today.

Idlib: @SyriaCivilDef hero Haitham Al Hasan was killed by #Russia|n airstrikes in #Turmanin today

Latakia: #Syria|n rebels blowing up a group of pro-#Assad forces with TOW in #Turkmen_Mountain, Northern #Latakia.

Manbij: #ISIS captured another #YPG fighter north of #Manbij.

Clashes & airstrikes now reported around #Palmyra silos between pro-Regime & #ISIS who blew up 1 cannon with #ATGM.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=34.602482&lon=38.411121&z=14&m

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:06 PM
Ah.....those so called "moderate" Iranian supported Iraqi Shi'a militias.....who fought as well and are still fighting inside Syria BUT not against IS....

Fallujah refugees hesitant to return home for fear of Shiite militia
http://goo.gl/k7Lm2x

Same militias the US government assured us were not going into Fallujah.

Terrifically blinkered comments from CJTF-OIR spox re US support for Fed Police and Badr in Fallujah in this piece:
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/opinion/2016/07/09/iraq-shiite-militia-sunni-sectarian-violence/86804634/ …

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:11 PM
Palmyra: #ISIS has reached the outskirts of #Palmyra. Heavy fighting and airstrikes now.

NOW that is embarassing for Putin.....

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:18 PM
Thank goodness Iran is a bulwark against sectarian fitna because otherwise this would be disturbing.
http://gu.com/p/3xt4c/stw

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:33 PM
Opposition's Faylaq al-Sham (#FSA-linked) lost 2 important commanders in #Mallah ongoing battles. #Aleppo

Regime sources saying heavy clashes ongoing around the Citadel while unconfirmed sources claimed the Citadel is now under siege.

Opposition factions claim full control of Bab Faraj area in Old city, and claimed to capture 53 Regime fighters around the Citadel.

From battle in #Aleppo city center today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gZBxoKkwQ0 …

Russia'n airstrikes on northern #Idlib & western #Aleppo along rebel supply road from #Turkey killed dozens of people today

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:34 PM
Al Jazeera reporter Ibraheem Omar killed by #Russia'n airstrike in northern #Idlib near border to #Turkey

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:36 PM
2nd Coastal Division #TOW strike vs infantry in Burj Bayda, Jebal Turkman, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R_JlbqFXMM …

Recent advances of regime forces in the besieged Daraya left the rebels & civilians in a tiny space subjected to ceaseless bombardment

RuAF airstrikes reported on #Palmyra hours after some #ISIS fighters managed to sneak into E. suburbs, via @PalmyraRev1

Unidentified drone shot down by rebels over south Aleppo where IRGC militias operates

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:41 PM
After siege on Rebel-held #Aleppo, #RuAF trying now to create fuel shortage in Idlib prov. destroying fuel tankers.

Footage
Number is up to 20 killed in #Russian cluster bomb attack on vital fuel convoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGBgmC2rB2k …

Video of the aftermath of a Russian airstrike on a convoy between Termanin and Dar Taizzah #Syria
https://youtu.be/pER1k2DU2N8

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
International community still holds out hope that #Syria political process is alive & will move forward soon.

#Aleppo siege will end that.

Backed by tanks & BMPs Rebels renewed push vs #ISIS affiliates in Ain Dakhar, W. #Daraa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv1WDCCPxPw …

Regime forces advancing against #FSA in #Darayya in West of #Damascus; took control of important areas and farms. Battles ongoing.

Clashes with regime army break out across old Aleppo front in what seems like an attempt to reduce pressure on city NW gate around Castillo.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:41 PM
Unconfirmed reports rebels gained serious ground in the ongoing offensive inside Aleppo city. So far there is a media black out to confirm.

Neither Trump nor Clinton discusses pressuring Putin to stop Assad's sieges & barrel bombs.
http://bit.ly/29xoTPB

Except for "deep concerns" here and there, US, EU & Turkey seems to have approved Russia/Assad plan to siege Aleppo.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:50 PM
Footage
Russian secondary air strike on firefighters in #Idlib province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niBhtsPTC9o …

Burning inferno and heinous attack on first responders by #Russia in #Idlib province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcsPhjzcxNA …

Graphic!
40 sheep were killed in another air strike on #Hayya, N-W of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVilYttw9P0 …

A heavy Russian airstrike on central #Aleppo killed 10 people & injured 4 more around noon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyUFdEVMmLc …

Children among dead in Sunday's west #Aleppo airstrikes
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNxwX7r4A555-9dkKRfX-c26UsMkHTwb2 …

Idlib : #Russian airstrike massacre in #Tirmanin as missiles kill 8 civilians and wound dozens of others.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 04:59 PM
CrowBat...anything to this comment...??

Palmyra coordination also claims another helicopter crashed, citing a possible technical malfunction

Commenter is relatively good with his info......

تنسيقية مدينة تدمر
‏@PalmyraRev1
The fall of another helicopter for #SAA in the vicinity of the silos area east of #Palmyra. It is believed she fell technical failure.#Syria

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:01 PM
"We'll keep that." The US sneaks off with a crashed Hind during Operation Mount Hope 3 (its real actual name!).

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:13 PM
Syria State TV reporter Kinanah Alloush breaks in laughter while covering civilian deaths in regime-held #Aleppo

Alloush is the same reporter who took the now-infamous smiling selfies with bodies of rebels in background.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:15 PM
Unconfirmed reports rebels gained serious ground in the ongoing offensive inside Aleppo city. So far there is a media black out to confirm.



Just spoke to some locals in Aleppo, Assad regime is getting humiliated. All the foreign fighters are running away scared in every direction
not standing and fighting.....

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:16 PM
ISIS is at the gates of Palmyra, and Russia may have shot down its own helicopter near the town. Live updates:
http://bit.ly/29y9Bgf

While Russia is murdering hundreds of civilians daily in Syria, dropping cluster bombs, phosphorus & focussed on fighting moderate Rebels now 9 months into intervention & ISIS has shot down Russian helicopter & returned to Palmyra. How has Russia fought ISIS exactly?:confused:

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:18 PM
Homs: many civilians killed after Russian airstrike on Sakhna. Don't expect UN to condemn it.

Islamic scholar Zakir Naik says don't call them "Islamic State" call them "Anti Islamic State"
https://youtu.be/ryyYVS2a7aA

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:19 PM
Aleppo: Rebels don't control any part of citadel they infiltrated killed dozens of Assad forces & withdrew in successful surprise attack

Syrian Rebels have turned the tables on Assad regime in Aleppo & opened up 4 different fronts & captured 53 pro Assad fighters

POW number verified by vids? If so wow.

This offensive is getting serious.. tht is wht we called surprise attack. now JaF please attack s.aleppo

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:22 PM
Aleppo: Syrian rebels destroy Assad regime sniper nest followed by heavy clashes. Aleppo turning into Assads grave

Aleppo: Rebels bomb Baath party headquarters killing and wounding dozens & stormed castle in Balanghmasiin

Aleppo: Rebels bomb Baath party headquarters killing and wounding dozens & stormed castle in Balanghmasiin

Idlib: Syrian rebel group capture 2 Assad regime agents in Binnish attempting to plant road side bombs

IRAMs still key component of #SAA proxies arsenal despite #Russia exponential additions to regime firepower
https://twitter.com/bm21_grad/status/752531273663602688 …

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:23 PM
Damascus: Assad regime Brigadier Bashar Hassan Ghaswan assassinated! This guy was responsible for torturing & killing of detainees

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:47 PM
Kyle W. Orton @KyleWOrton
Great piece by @Millermena: IS losing urban strongholds far from the end, underlying conditions of strength remain.
http://goo.gl/xvW7p5

Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
225+ pro-opposition media activists call on FSA to re-launch operations against #Assad regime in southern #Syria:

Aleppo Rebels blow up regime Konkurs ATGM base monitoring Castello road with Malyutka ATMG

ATGMs war raging on Castillo Road: last 72hrs Rebels blew up a 3rd Regime ATGM launcher (targeting vehicles) with 1 guided missile.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:49 PM
After siege on Rebel-held #Aleppo, #RuAF trying now to create fuel shortage in Idlib prov. destroying fuel tankers.

Footage
Number is up to 20 killed in #Russian cluster bomb attack on vital fuel convoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGBgmC2rB2k …

Video of the aftermath of a Russian airstrike on a convoy between Termanin and Dar Taizzah #Syria
https://youtu.be/pER1k2DU2N8

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
International community still holds out hope that #Syria political process is alive & will move forward soon.

#Aleppo siege will end that.



4 Double-tap #RuAF airstrikes vs diesel-laden trucks #Idlib reportedly kill 4 @SyriaCivilDef as they were saving ppl

The White Helmets ‏@SyriaCivilDef · 9. Juli

Since March 2013, 127 White Helmets have sacrificed their lives to save others. They died so that others may live.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:55 PM
Damascus: #ISIS suicide attack killed 16 #Syria|n rebels, including 7 leaders, in #Dumayr today.

Combat and evacuation footage on the Front lines of Saif al Sham fighting Islamic state
https://youtu.be/lv1WDCCPxPw

On the Syrian Coast: Government Supporters, But…
http://www.syriauntold.com/en/2016/06/on-the-syrian-coast-government-supporters-
but … cynicism, bitterness & a lack of options—by Alia Ahmad/@SyriaUntold

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 05:59 PM
While Mallah ground progress was minor, it appears that regime received hard blows in #Aleppo city &have a critical situation on their hands:D

Update: Regimes Ba'ath HQ in sa'ad Allah center in Aleppo city was blown up with 60KG of explosives

For the last 2 weeks, assadist loses in tanks quite high ~15 between BMPs & mostly MBTs, about half lost as rebel war spoils. #Lattakia

Regime operations fizzle out again. #AhraralSham destroys another assadist MBT via ATGM in Ara - Jabal Akrad #Lattakia

Abu Basir al-Tartusi (@Abubaseer123) pictured (recently? likely in #Turkey) w. Ahrar al-Sham leader Mohanad al-Masri

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 06:09 PM
Islamic State shrank by 20% in Syria & 50% in Iraq. Overall IS lost 40% of its areas: shrank from Britain to Greece

"The number of members volunteering to blow themselves up is not a sign of a dying group.” -

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
ISIS has a backlog of suicide bombers, but it's now receiving more volunteers in the wake of its territorial losses

Defeat of ISIS will come when its ranks lose the will & desire to fight -

Hassan Hassan ‏@hxhassan
Who want to defeat IS more: those who want to properly uproot it, or those who seek to 'take it out' no matter the mess they leave behind?

#ISIS is reverting to insurgency tactics it relied on in #Iraq & #Syria before June 2014, @hxhassan says in @nytimes

The Opinion Pages

Is the Islamic State Unstoppable?
By HASSAN HASSANJULY 9, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/opinion/is-the-islamic-state-unstoppable.html?_r=1

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 06:11 PM
PalmyraRev1 · 3 Std.Vor 3 Stunden

#Palmyra city is still under #SAA control, but #ISIS took control over the eastern part for hours and then withdrew after bombardment by SAA

Palmyra: #ISIS has repelled a regime assault at Abraj hill southeast of #Palmyra and killed several pro-#Assad forces today.

Palmyra: #ISIS has killed 17+ pro-#Assad forces and wounded 20 more at the #Palmyra Silos today.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 06:14 PM
Aleppo: 7 #Syria|n rebels infiltrated #Aleppo Citadel through a tunnel they dug and killed many regime fighters in beds.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 06:15 PM
Russian Syrian Express is on the move again....

Russian Navy's Ropucha Class BDK Yamal 156 southbound on the Bosphorus towards Syria.

SyriaExpress update. High rate of supplies indicates Russia is ready (prepares) for another round.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 06:58 PM
Manbij: #ISIS VBIED has killed several #YPG militias south of #Manbij today.

OUTLAW 09
07-11-2016, 07:12 PM
Iran Threatens to Destroy Israel With '100,000 Missiles'
http://buff.ly/29KwV76

Destroy in a moderate way, though.

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 09:21 AM
JaF fighter posing in front of killed pro regime Shia militia members in (southern) #Aleppo (date unknown)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiEMBuwcdvE …

FSA ATMG's hit tank & ATMG base in northern #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnGXRzc0ByI&feature=youtu.be …

SDF reaches formerly #ISIS-held mosque,Sharia school,hit by susp. #US air strikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaJNngFCh3s …

This is a spy drone it seems, sniffing on ISIS in Al-Rai.
But why does it have its transponder turned on?!

Syrian activist journalist......air strike targeting him barely missed his position........
Der Journalist Louay Barakat der "#Buraq Media Foundation" überlebte einen Luftangriff auf seine Position nur knapp.

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 09:32 AM
Footage
Three D-30 artillery pieces in #FSA convoy towards fighting #ISIS in S-W #Daraa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mld1RRBBUJU …

Aleppo (300.000+) is fully besieged since more than 48 hours now.
Not a single comment from #GER, #FRA or the #UK.
Morals collapsed.

Just another day in #Aleppo ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGkZOfxNIOE …

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 09:34 AM
Regime/Russia strategy to besiege & starve Rebel-held #Aleppo (~300,000 ppl) already producing first food shortages
http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/rebel-held-aleppo-fears-shortages-after-syria-regime-advance/article/469602 …?

Thuwar Al-Sham took out an alleged ATGM launcher with #Malyutka on #Mallah front, N. #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo1PquSnQ9U …

ATGM hit on T-72 confirms Regime gains on Shihan Avenue, btwn Khaldiya & Bani Zeid, #Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.228922&lon=37.127073&z=17&m …

Urban warfare: very short range Malyutka strike by Thuwar Sham vs T-72 in Bani Zeid, #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnGXRzc0ByI …

Bulk of pro-Assad recently killed in #Aleppo:
- Syrians from Coast, Homs & #Aleppo provinces
- Palestinians
- Iranians-Hazaras
- Hezbollah

E. #Ghouta under increasing pressure: Rebel pocket reduced by ~20% since April. Unprecedented since 2013.

Assault from Al-Quds' Palestinians on #Handarat camp preceded by night shelling with cluster bombs, N. #Aleppo.

SAA are attempting to merge from Mallah & Layramoun at Bani Zaid, YPG in SMaqsood would act as buffer for E flank

Fatah Halab launches assaults around Aleppo citadel, while Jaysh al Fatah wants them to attack south at Ramouseh. https://twitter.com/syria_rebel_obs/status/752491481257172992 …

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 10:44 AM
Absolute horror inside #Aleppo hospitals this evening as @sams_usa doctors are overwhelmed with casualties #Syria

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 11:12 AM
In #Russia published book of Russian #weapons in #Syria.Praises possibility to combat proven
http://oborona.gov.ru/news/view/11542

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 11:28 AM
Syria's southern tribes are growing increasingly restless in protest against #Jordan's constraint of FSA.
Expect this to surface soon.

Sayf al-Sham, one of the stronger US-vetted groups in #FSA's Southern Front, battling #IS in western Deraa.
https://youtu.be/T_TwamdCf7s

In Kiswa, West Ghouta, al-Ittihad al-Islami li Ajnad al-Sham is cracking down on activists, monopolizing control.
http://bit.ly/28NpOc4

Abu Islam al-Lubnani, suicide bomber for Jabhat al-Nusra (al-Qaeda #Syria), attacked pro-#Assad forces in Qalamoun.

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 11:29 AM
Fred Hof: The battalion of straw men deployed against State Dept dissidents shows they have a point.
http://goo.gl/ebPkVl

Jaysh al-Islam, other rebels, resisting pro-#Assad coalition, backed by #Russia's airstrikes, in East Ghouta

At least 90 civilians killed, tens wounded in heavy airstrikes across rebel-held parts of Aleppo, Homs and Idlib since Friday.

In his latest audio, #AQ top leader Al-#Zawahiri labeled #ISIS ideologues/leaders as "officers & intelligence [personnel] of Saddam" Hussein

Which is another way of saying that AQ and ISIS ain't gonna kiss and make up.

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 11:37 AM
Ali Allawi: "#ISIS...were around...in the shadows in the 1990s...well, well before the #Iraq invasion."
https://youtu.be/9Ek9ZcOXR_A

I have been commenting often in SWJ that we were already facing when we arrived in Baghdad a Phase Two guerrilla war being fought since the early 1990s by Iraqi Salafists in the underground against Saddam..and the forerunner of IS (QJBR) had been active inside Iraq from the early 2000 time frame...we just did not see it.....

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 04:07 PM
Aleppo: #Syria|n rebels started an assault against pro-#Assad forces on Al-#Miyasat hill north of #Aleppo City.

Russian soldiers in Palmyra (Tadmor), Syria. Drum magazine in the AK, previously seen only in special units of FSB

Rebels (Fath Halab) started an assault on Al-Miyasat strategic hill north Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.260781&lon=37.199793&z=15&m=b …

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 04:17 PM
Russian bombers targeted IDP camps east Syria instead of #IS killing 17 ppl according to FSA
https://youtu.be/gPPtkohR5NM

Tajamu Fastqem wiped out with #TOW 2 14.5 mm guns + crew on top of Municipal Palace, #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJhpXoiT_h0 …

Heavy clashes reported in Al-Breij area between Rebels & pro-Regime forces, NE #Aleppo. 1 Gvozdika destroyed.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.251022&lon=37.209792&z=15&m …

Rebel leaders in Idlib & key figures should take extra OPSEC precautions, expect new attempts to behead JaF like happened with Ahrar & JN.

Russian carpet bombing (probably on #ISIS positions) in Eastern Desert filmed by Rebels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPPtkohR5NM …

Seems Russia concerned over #ISIS inching closer to #Palmyra as 6 long-range Tu-22M3 bombers reportedly struck ISIS
http://tass.ru/en/defense/887758 …?

Yesterday clashes between Sultan Murad & pro-Regime forces on the #Aleppo Citadel perimeter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxSG8V7A10c …

No recent Regime gain near M4 as 1st Coastal Div.'s T-55 shelling Tell Mokhtar, N. #Latakia.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=35.752747&lon=36.117682&z=14&m …
https://youtu.be/w1zV9Z7YYLQ

Southern Front's ceasefire while last 24hrs Regime bombed Tseel, Adwan, Jilin, attempted to advance in Manshiya & shelled Rebel-held #Daraa.

First Regiment tried to prevent Regime from building defenses in Sheikh Said striking a bulldozer w/ #Fagot, #Aleppo
https://youtu.be/etTe0LALZxQ

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 04:22 PM
Rare #Assad Il-76 cargo flight from #Hama to #Damascus.

Is #Assad Close to a Victory That Could Turn the War in #Syria? #Aleppo
http://goo.gl/GFvPUZ

OUTLAW 09
07-12-2016, 04:26 PM
Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
Kerry buying #Russia's position?
Appears so

NOW we can see exactly how Kerry has blown it again ......this is not the first time he has misspoken to the point that it makes one think he actually works as the DoS for Putin....BUT again maybe he is just channeling the Obama/Rhodes WH thinking on Syria......


John Kerry labeled Ahrar al-Sham & Jaish al-Islam "subgroups" of AQ & #ISIS last week.

By Josh Rogin July 12 at 7:01 AM 


While the United States and Russia inch closer to more military cooperation in Syria on the ground, Secretary of State John F. Kerry is sounding more and more like he agrees with the Russian view of the Syrian rebel groups fighting against the Assad regime.

Late last month in Aspen, Colo., Kerry said the most important thing the administration is doing to ramp up the effort to defeat extremists in Syria is to “reach an understanding” with the Russian government about how to deal with the terrorists there, which he names as the Islamic State, often referred to as Daesh, and Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch. As I reported, Kerry and President Obama have proposed to Moscow increased cooperation against those groups, especially Jabhat al-Nusra, in exchange for Russia convincing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to abide by the crumbling cease-fire and lay off bombing the other rebels.

But then Kerry, perhaps accidentally, threw two other Syrian rebel groups under the bus by calling them “subgroups” of the terrorists.

“There are a couple of subgroups underneath the two designated — Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra — Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham particularly — who brush off and fight with that — alongside these other two sometimes to fight the Assad regime,” he said, referring to two rebel groups that the United States has not named as terrorist groups until now.

The remark, which went largely unnoticed by the media in Aspen, nonetheless set off alarm bells inside the Obama administration. Two administration officials who work on Syria told me that Kerry’s naming of the Jaysh al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham as “subgroups” of the terrorist organizations was not only inaccurate but potentially harmful to U.S. government efforts to convince the Russians and the Syrian government not to attack them.

“For months, we’ve been arguing to make sure the Russians and the Syrian regime don’t equate these groups with the terrorists,” one senior administration official told me. “Kerry’s line yields that point.”

Another U.S. official simply emailed, “Baffled. SMH[Shaking my head].”

State Department spokesman John Kirby told me that there has been “absolutely no change” in the U.S. government’s support for the policy that only groups designated by the United Nations as terrorists groups should be excluded from the cease-fire, also known as the “cessation of hostilities.”

“Secretary Kerry was simply trying to describe the complexity of the situation in Syria, noting that we aren’t blind to the notion that some fighters shift their loyalties,” he said.

Even if Kerry misspoke, some Syrian groups see his comments as an example of how the Obama administration has slowly but steadily moved toward the Russian view of Syria, which includes painting all opposition groups as terrorists.

“Russia considers all revolutionaries and rebel groups as ISIS or al-Nusra to justify its indiscriminate shelling of civilians and the moderate opposition,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, an American nongovernmental organization that works with Syrian rebel groups.

Ahrar al-Sham is made up of Islamic and Salafist units and does not believe in a secular, democratic Syria, but it is not an al-Qaeda subsidiary and doesn’t take direction from Jabhat al-Nusra, Moustafa said. Jaysh al-Islam is supported by U.S. allies including Saudi Arabia and has been part of the opposition negotiating team in the Geneva process.

Russia’s obligation, under the new proposed cooperation deal, is to stop bombing Syrian rebel groups the U.S. declares are not terrorists. It’s true that the groups fighting Assad are hard to distinguish and often co-mingle, but U.S. policy is based on knowing which are which. Kerry muddied the waters. That’s typically Moscow’s job.


This is in fact a serious comment....

Michael Weiss ‏@michaeldweiss

Forget Rhodes and Obama. Where does Lavrov stop and John Kerry begin?