Kazan-60 Russian Navy Cargo Ship Close-up video
https://youtu.be/xKe5pWmdL0A
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Kazan-60 Russian Navy Cargo Ship Close-up video
https://youtu.be/xKe5pWmdL0A
Michael Weiss ✔ @michaeldweiss
I wrote in October that Russia's intervention was helping Isis.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...air-force.html …
I may have very slightly gloated about this yesterday
https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/statu...87807932485637 …
Know the feeling. I can only shout "#Syria is just Algeria but worse" from the rooftops so many times....
Ahem. I noticed it in October. Was trolled by those who will a) now ignore this, b) call IHS a CIA front.
Finally MSM starts to notice the obvious ....
ISIS attacks spike in Syria with help from Russian air cover, report says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...9096&tid=ss_tw …
Appears SAA is trying to torpedo the latest Russian US agreement...or is it really how Russian will actually implement the agreement????
Even the top proRussian commenter pointed out that this was the loophole in the Russian plans....that in the end lea to a Russian failure.Quote:
On Wednesday, Syria's army said it would exclude an important rebel bastion near Damascus from a ceasefire set to begin at the weekend because rebel forces there include jihadists. According to the agreement announced by the US and Russia, the truce does not apply to jihadists from the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) or al-Qaeda's affiliate, al-Nusra Front.One-fifth of rebel fighters in Darayya are al-Nusra militants."The Syrian army is committed to the decision of the Syrian leadership when it comes to the ceasefire, which will not include areas where al-Nusra Front and Daesh [ISIS] are fighting," an army general said. "Therefore, Darayya is not included in the cessation of hostilities agreement, because al-Nusra Front is one of the factions inside the town," he said. The general estimated between 1,000 to 2,000 anti-government combatants remained in the town. Darayya is the largest rebel bastion west of Damascus where fighting is still taking place, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group. "It's an essential opposition stronghold that has been out of regime control for nearly four years," Abdel Rahman said. [AFP, AP, 2/25/16]
NOTE: and it is 6kms from the Assad palace which is probably the truer reason......
That awkward moment when the guy writing most of the ISIS OPSEC guides has an exposed Facebook account. What is Arabic for "epic fail"?
AND Russia precision air strikes are not killing civilians.....think again.....another hospital hit an another family lost.......
SAMS @sams_usa
Our condolences 2 SAMS's Dr. Kaddeh for the loss of his wife & son. Both were killed yesterday in airstrikes #Syria
pic.twitter.com/ezfZbyqgTz
Syria #YPG militia banned @RudawKurdi network in #Kobane pic.twitter.com/QY6oT5OMNU
Syria: Liwa Dir' al-Watan: new pro-Assad militia in Damascus that overlaps w/ Iraqi Shi'a militia Liwa Dhu al-Fiqar
http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/liw...a-in-damascus/ …
It's been pointed out that the GRAD boxes say "Country of Origin: Bulgaria". More Bulgarian weapons for rebels.
pic.twitter.com/g2A7MPa9Ar
Good news, despite massive bombardment, mujahideen retake Tel-Hadadah. #Lattakia.
RUSSIA Parachuted Bomb fell in #Meskin_Hanano neighborhood
#Aleppo #Syria FEB 25
Isis carried out suicide-car bomb explosion targeting #SAA convoy in #khanasser
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 25
FSA destroyed #SAA terrorists Tank in #Darayya fronts
#Damascus #Syria FEB 25
RUSSIA "mistakenly" carried out airstrikes targeting #SAA terrorists positions in #Aleppo cs
#Syria FEB 25
Martyrs and wounded reports victims of #SAA shelling Grad Rockets in #Douma
#Damascus cs #Syria FEB 25
SCD collecting more #RUSSIA RBK-500 PTAB-1M Cluster bombs in #Urum_alKoubra village
#Aleppo cs #SYria FEB 25
SAA shelling with Grad Rockets
#Damascus cs #Syria FEB 25
Stay safe my brother @FirasAbdullah_7
CrowBat......can you confirm any of this Kerry statement.......but against that the Iraqi Shia militias climbed from 30 to 60.....
Kerry: "Iran's Revolutionary Guards withdraws from Syria in large numbers"
Syria : New stuff at "Latakia Air show" .
RuAF' UAV "Outpost" (Israel' "IAI Searcher Mk.II" )
pic.twitter.com/qhCFwXpPzF
Fred Hof: "[Putin's] aim is to create an Obama-Assad handshake and get the West to pay for it all."
"…[Obama's] five-year failure to protect a single Syrian inside Syria from Assad’s campaign of mass extermination"
http://goo.gl/6XxSfP
On cusp of planned Syria cease-fire, details on monitoring remain unclear
http://wpo.st/PdPF1
"[DEF SEC Ashton Carter] doesn’t want to play ball with the Russians at all, no question about that." Understandable, in the circumstances.
Really worth the reading of this Hof article....
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs...cret-handshake
February 17, 2016
Washington and Moscow: A Secret Handshake?
By Frederic C. Hof
.Quote:
In the midst of a Russian military offensive, a suspended peace conference, and an escalating humanitarian catastrophe, the idea that all of this unfolds in accordance with a secret understanding between Moscow and Washington finds fertile soil in which to take root. It is probably by now an article of faith among most, if not all, Syrians: pro and anti-Assad regime people alike. And although the secret handshake thesis is not the product of idle conspiracy mongering, it is false nonetheless.
In a very real sense the notion of a bilateral, great power understanding on Syria reflects among its believers something resembling grudging respect for the United States. The reasoning seems to be that Russia would not have dared to risk sinking altogether the Vienna peace process it co-chairs without a green light from the United States—the other co-convener of the International Syria Support Group.
The motive assigned to Washington for this alleged betrayal is not altogether otherworldly: it is that the Obama administration allegedly wants Syria out of its in-box for the year-minus left to it. So (or so the reasoning goes), to the extent that Russian military actions force the Syrian opposition to submit to a national unity government deal that keeps Bashar al-Assad in power throughout an open-ended “political transition” phase, the Obama administration can consign a relatively quiet, Assad-dominated western Syria to its successor with a relatively clear conscience. And it can continue the air war against the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) in eastern Syria.
This hypothesis assumes the willingness of the Obama administration to accept the mother of all foreign policy humiliations: crawling back to Bashar al-Assad for the sake of the battle against ISIL. There may be little or no sentiment in Congress or the general public for pushing back against Russia or making it hard for Assad to exterminate Syrian civilians in wholesale numbers. Still, anything resembling an accommodation with Mr. Assad would expose President Obama to a painful, bipartisan political caning that could dominate his final months in office.
Yes, there is something passive-aggressive about American political culture that may not always translate coherently abroad. Members of Congress who lined up to vote against Mr. Obama’s request to authorize military strikes in the wake of Assad’s largest chemical atrocity (in August 2013) would be among the first to pillory him if he tries to make common cause with the barrel bomber he had called on to step aside in August 2011. And it would not just be Republicans. Already pieces of the president’s Democratic base are breaking off because of his administration’s nearly five-year failure to protect a single Syrian inside Syria from Assad’s campaign of mass extermination: a campaign producing genocide-like results in Syria while flooding the neighborhood and Western Europe with refugees.
It might have been one thing for the administration to tolerate endless processes for the sake of getting to noon, January 20, 2017. But Moscow had a vote. Are believers in the green light thesis also willing to believe that Secretary of State John Kerry was complicit in seeing a peace conference sunk; a conference for which he had twisted arms and offered assurances on ceasefires and civilian protection? It seems that some opposition figures who felt pressured by Mr. Kerry to show up in Geneva are comfortable now with the notion that it was all an act—that the fix was in with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov all along.
For a Syrian sitting in Aleppo waiting to join one million of his countrymen under siege, denied the basics of food and medical attention, the question of American intent in all of this rests somewhere between academic and irrelevant. For them the bottom line remains the bottom line: an American administration willing to rescue Yazidis and Kurds from an ISIS onslaught does nothing—absolutely nothing—to protect Syrian civilians from mass homicide undertaken by an Assad regime supported by Iran and Russia. For over ten million Syrians driven from their homes, for tens of thousands rotting in regime prisons, for the countless maimed, terrorized, and traumatized over the past nearly five years, the secret handshake scenario is either obvious or uninteresting. Two-hundred thousand dead Syrian civilians would, if they could, agree.
Still, the secret handshake argument is wrong. Yes, Barack Obama’s failure to afford any kind of protection to Syrian civilians is beyond regret. But he is not the cause of Syria’s agony, and he does not see Russia as the cure. Indeed, he is on the record—most recently on February 16—decrying Russia’s intervention. “The question is, how can we stop the suffering, stabilize the region, stop this massive out-migration of refugees…end the violence, stop the bombing of schools and hospitals and innocent civilians, stop creating a safe haven for ISIS. And there’s nothing that’s happened over the last several weeks that points to those issues being solved.” And he further stipulated that “Russia has been a party” to the shattering of a country that Assad “was willing to shatter.” This does not have the ring of secret collaboration.
What matters is what “we”—the United States, its allies, and its partners—do to counter the homicidal, ISIL-abetting actions of Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime in western Syria. It is not enough to chide Mr. Putin about intervening in Syria as “a testament to the weakness of Assad’s position.” It is not enough to give him Dutch uncle advice about considering the cost of “a country that’s been completely destroyed as an ally that [he] now has to perpetually spend billions of dollars to prop up.” And it is not enough to counsel him that, “What would be smarter would be for Russia to work with the United States and other parties in the international community to try to broker some sort of political transition.”
Mr. Putin does not care a tinker’s dam about Syria, its people, or his miserable client. He will invest not a kopek in the country’s reconstruction. Syria for him is a tool to humiliate Washington, harm the West, and proclaim—mostly for the benefit of a misgoverned domestic constituency—the return of Russia to greatness. Preserving Assad—pure poison for the fight against ISIL—is the key to his goal. His aim is to create an Obama-Assad handshake and get the West to pay for it all.
As an American I am willing to listen to Syrians and others who are deeply angered and aggrieved over what an administration—one in which I once served—has done and failed to do with respect to Syria. Some hard words—incompetence and naïveté, even stupidity and cowardice—are acceptable, even as they hurt and offend. But complicity is untrue. And it is unacceptable.
The kind of cooperation Barack Obama and his Secretary of State seek from Russia requires an end to Russian support of and participation in an Assad regime policy of eradicating human beings. As of now they depend entirely on Mr. Putin’s decency and goodwill. It is precisely this that must change. Otherwise the practical, on-the-ground difference between operational complicity and principled, intellectual disagreement will remain as it is right now: negligible
No trace of confirmation for this - and I really couldn't imagine this happening (even if, say, Russians would replace these 35,000-40,000 IRGC-run troops that are in Syria, with those two brigades supposedly about to deploy there).
Even with all of its PMCs, and new NDF/Hezbollah units (established last year), regime has at best about 70,000 combatants - which is not enough alone to hold all the frontlines, not to talk about conducting offensive or defensive operations of any sort above battalion-level.
With other words: that would mean a complete and instant collapse for all of regime's positions in northern and most of south-western Aleppo, large parts of Eastern Ghouta, and probably in Sheikh Mishkin-Dera'a too.
...and to illustrate how many IRGC-run units are around in Syria meanwhile: it's about 60.
Repeat: 60.
That's more than double their number from back in November (and I still don't have full designations of something like 15 of them).
If I add newly-established Hezbollah/Syria units, many of which are run by Iraqi officers seconded from gangs like Abu Fadl al-Abbas, Hezbollah/Iraq etc... well, it's not getting any better.
Sound 'withdrawal'...
(After this, conclusion is on hand: gotta find a similar equivalent to 'Keystone Cops in Moscow' - for Oblabla and that gang of clowns in the White House.)
*************
EDIT: Sure, some of insignia in question are no 'units', but organizations like IRGC, Hezbollah/Lebanon, or Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Movement and Mehdi Army. I.e. 'groups' that run multiple units deployed in Syria. But sigh... that's 4-5 such groups. Rest are their units.
...which in turn means that my estimates for their troop strength are too low too. Sure, some of them have only 400-500 combatants, but more than half certainly has at least 1000, some 2000+. So, let's say 'average' figure is at around 800 'or so'. Multiply that with, say, 55... that's 44,000 (not 30,000 as thought until now).
...or nearly two times as many as there are Daesh - in Syria AND in Iraq (at least according to newest assessments of the US intel, which say '25,000 top').
And now imagine: what these 44,000 could achieve if they - plus Russians - would fight Daesh, instead of fighting a sectarian Jihad against Syrians in Syria...
#FSA & Faylaq al-Sham reportedly destroyed several #YPG Kurdish militia pick-ups around Ayn Daqna vlge north #Aleppo
No UN aid yet to these locations which was an inherent part of the so called Russian US CoH pan.......
Nearly 230k starving under Assad & Hezbollah siege in #EastGhouta & #Madaya. Another 300k about to in #Aleppo yet..
CrowBat.....asking for your opinion on this......
From Berlin this morning.....
In German:
Der hssliche Clown ist aus der Kiste!
Russland erklrt 90% des Rebellengebiets zur zum legitimen Ziel.
Translated...the ugly clown is out of the box...Russians declared 90% of the rebel territory as legitimate air strike targets.
Russian disinformation and propaganda has spent the last two days explaining over and over that JaN is everywhere and controls the 90% thus they can attack...same argument is being used by Assad.....AND thus ME analysts that know Syrian well are pushing back calling the Russian information complete lies.....
AND the US...silence total silence....silence and more silence.....
So does this sound like the FSA is not going to be the direct target of the RuAF again and why then would the FSA/HNC accept the CoH?
Especially since virtually no UN humanitarian aid has not made it to any besieged towns as per the Kerry statements of seven towns getting aid an a part of the CoH.....
In my not so humble opinion both Turkey an the Saudi's knew this would happen and are steadily moving forward.......thus e sudden announcement yesterday of both Saudi troops and AC arriving in turkey and the UAE pulling out of Yemen announcement ALL at the same time....
Yesterday there were continuous cyber attacks on the Saudi's from Bulgaria, Iraq and Syria......this morning they are exceptionally stronger than the normal ranges seen yesterday.
Why Bulgaria........appears the Syrians are using a number of compromised servers at a Bulgarian hosting site....
A new attack route appeared this morning.......Morocco alternating with Algeria via Turkey then into KSA.
News
51 people were killed by #Russia and #Assad on Thursday across #Syria. 10 of them children, 2 women.
- LCC
AND Russia is not deliberately bombing and killing civilians as their MoD and FM repeatedly claim.....
Evidence
It was a #RUSSIAN Su-24 that bombed towns in #Daraa province today (red stars).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYqRIImagKo …
Footage
#FSA TOW vs. #YPG troops, occupying #TallRifat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIceAD8ZIW4 …
#Aleppo #Syria
Footage
The #FSA in #Latakia hits a pro-regime position with the "Fagot" ATGM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzKZjafTFMc …
.@mod_russia does not consider North Aleppo part of ceasefire and will keep bombing it.
http://eng.syria.mil.ru/en/index/syr...2079277@egNews …
Russia is now using anti tank cluster munitions on civilians as well....
More #Russia anti-tank Cluster Bombs targeted civilians found in #Anadan yesterday FEB 25
#Aleppo cs #Syria
YPG info warfare now against Turkey....so who stated in the Obama WH that YPG is not part an parcel of PKK...stand up and be counted......
Pro #YPG using victims of Russia airstrikes in their cheap propaganda against turkey..
Russia|n airstrikes targeting rebel towns in #Aleppo all day (Hraytan, Tal Rifa’at, Ma’arat, Babis, Kafr Bisin, Anadan, Hayan)
Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Khan_Aalsal
#Aleppo cs #Syria FEB 26
When UN can't airdrop food to besieged civilians in Madaya, Daraya/Moadamiyah but attempt at giving Assad army then u know they're a joke
And naturally the RuAF does not bomb hospitals.....
nurse trapped for 8hrs under the rubble of the #MSF hospital in Maraat al Numan that was destroyed by Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TThzXkTemgU …
For those interested in IS/AQ info warfare.........
switched @switch_d
Jihadist forums and Cloudflare, as of 25FEB2016
pic.twitter.com/2ls0v4RPYx
It is extensive and the US and EU/NATO efforts have not even put a dent in it as it works the social media and the western answer to the agility of social media is throwing large government agencies and US Corporations and defense contractors at it.....who are inherently always slower...that will never work....
Russian military tactics in Syria are actually those practiced in both Georgia 2008 and in Chechnya.....
#Syria: Under #Russia's fist - deliberate targeting of civilians
http://wp.me/ppCFZ-ca5 via @im_PULSE
AND the Obama WH certainly did not realize Putin would do this right????
And these are the Syrian Kurds a US proxy in #AynDaqnah fighting the #FSA ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nEOpVG2zTk … pic.twitter.com/Ig12au0N76
Footage
#FSA vs #YPG in #TallRifat last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Qm0ag88zA …
pic.twitter.com/t3k29hXchW