'Careful: that's a two-years old video, and showing Daesh thugs of Russian origin (some of about 25,000 Putler 'exported' to Syria).Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
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'Careful: that's a two-years old video, and showing Daesh thugs of Russian origin (some of about 25,000 Putler 'exported' to Syria).Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Not really.Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
This is just a 'welcome to fighting Daesh reminder'.
Something that so many people have not understood about the FSyA, earlier this year.
Remember all the 'ping-poing' between Syrian insurgents and the Daesh in the area between Azaz and ar-Rai (along the Turkish border) earlier this year? On one day, the FSyA would assault and capture 6-8 villages. On the next day the Daesh would counterattack and recapture five, etc.
Everybody was laughing about and belittling insurgents back then (especially all the PKK-fans - in Syria, and in the West). Quasi, they couldn't capture a single place, nor hold it in face of Daesh's counterattacks; they're inexperienced, running away etc.
Problem was: the Daesh unleashed about 80 SVBIEDs and VBIEDs against them between January and August this year (at least I ceased counting at about 73 or so, that was back in July) - and not only some 4-5 like against Turks so far. But nobody has given a damn. And it did so especially in built-up areas, where it's hard to ID and knock out these on time (plus, word is they have brought some unit specially trained for urban combat to al-Bab, few days ago).
It's the same that's happening to Iraqis in Mosul, or to the GNA in Syrte: both are either going to win a major battle against Daesh, or have already won it. And this with full support from the USA and allies. But, they're still suffering such losses, that they'll have no effective military capability left once the nightmare is over.
I'm rather surprised they managed to wait for 'that' long...Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Dumb Kurds: they just can't learn from their own history.
Venter certainly expressed alarm at Iran's nuclear program, although one can agree with him when it is compared to developments in Iraq and Syria, as well as the United States' failure to detect Pakistan's cold testing and Chagai-I.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
However, I see no evidence that he believes that Iran possesses any bombs. I highly doubt that the Israelis would permit Iran to have any bombs, even of the Fat Man/Little Boy types that North Korea has.
Suffice it to say I am surprised you wrote that as well...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...mepage%2Fstory
Aleppo and American decline
Quote:
The fall of Aleppo just weeks before Barack Obama leaves office is a fitting stamp on his Middle East policy of retreat and withdrawal. The pitiable pictures from the devastated city showed the true cost of Obama’s abdication.
For which he seems to have few regrets, however. In his end-of-year news conference, Obama defended U.S. inaction with his familiar false choice: It was either stand aside or order a massive Iraq-style ground invasion.
This is a transparent fiction designed to stifle debate. At the beginning of the civil war, the popular uprising was ascendant. What kept a rough equilibrium was regime control of the skies. At that point, the United States, at little risk and cost, could have declared Syria a no-fly zone, much as it did Iraqi Kurdistan for a dozen years after the Gulf War of 1991.
The U.S. could easily have destroyed the regime’s planes and helicopters on the ground and so cratered its airfields as to make them unusable. That would have altered the strategic equation for the rest of the war.
And would have deterred the Russians from injecting their own air force — they would have had to challenge ours for air superiority. Facing no U.S. deterrent, Russia stepped in and decisively altered the balance, pounding the rebels in Aleppo to oblivion.
The Russians were particularly adept at hitting hospitals and other civilian targets, leaving the rebels with the choice between annihilation and surrender.
They surrendered.
Speaking about the bloodshed and violence in Aleppo, Syria, during a news conference, Dec. 16, President Obama reflected on the actions he took and the responsibility he felt. "Unless we ... were going to take over Syria, we were going to have problems," he said. (Reuters)
Obama has never appreciated that the role of a superpower in a local conflict is not necessarily to intervene on the ground, but to deter a rival global power from stepping in and altering the course of the war. That’s what we did during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Moscow threatened to send troops to support Egypt and President Nixon countered by raising America’s nuclear alert status to Defcon 3. Russia stood down.
Less dramatically but just as effectively, American threats of retaliation are what kept West Germany, South Korea and Taiwan free and independent through half a century of Cold War.
It’s called deterrence. Yet Obama never had the credibility to deter anything or anyone. In the end, the world’s greatest power was reduced to bitter speeches at the United Nations. “Are you truly incapable of shame?” thundered U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power at the butchers of Aleppo. As if we don’t know the answer. Indeed the shame is on us for terminal naivete, sending our secretary of state chasing the Russians to negotiate one humiliating pretend cease-fire after another.
Even now, however, the Syria debate is not encouraging. The tone is anguished and emotional, portrayed exclusively in moral terms. Much less appreciated is the cold strategic cost.
Assad was never a friend. But today he’s not even a free agent. He’s been effectively restored to his throne, but as the puppet of Iran and Russia. Syria is now a platform, a forward base, from which both these revisionist regimes can project power in the region.
Iran will use Syria to advance its drive to dominate the Arab Middle East. Russia will use its naval and air bases to bully the Sunni Arab states, and to shut out American influence.
It’s already happening. The foreign and defense ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey convened in Moscow this week to begin settling the fate of Syria. Notice who wasn’t there. For the first time in four decades, the United States, the once dominant power in the region, is an irrelevance.
With Aleppo gone and the rebels scattered, we have a long road ahead to rebuild the influence squandered over the past eight years. President-elect Donald Trump is talking about creating safe zones. He should tread carefully.
It does no good to try to do now what we should have done five years ago. Conditions are much worse. Russia and Iran rule. Maintaining the safety of safe zones will be expensive and dangerous. It will require extensive ground deployments, and it risks military confrontation with Russia.
And why? Guilty conscience is not a good reason. Interventions that are purely humanitarian — from Somalia to Libya — tend to end badly. We may proclaim a “responsibility to protect,” but when no American interests are at stake, the engagement becomes impossible to sustain. At the first losses, we go home.
In Aleppo, the damage is done, the city destroyed, the inhabitants ethnically cleansed. For us, there is no post-facto option. If we are to regain the honor lost in Aleppo, it will have to be on a very different battlefield.
Yawn. Where was the WaPo during the Hainan Island incident or the war in South Ossetia?Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
How much mass murder did Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton tolerate? Were Rwanda, Congo and Sudan all examples of "American decline"?
The Neo-Conservatives who wanted Iraq on a platter really have crossed the aisle now haven't they?
Well, for my part, I can only say that when one gets to hear detailed reports about special storage sites, exercises in delivery of special cargoes to specific air bases, and training of Su-24-crews by suitably experienced foreign instructors in very typical delivery profiles... then certain conclusions are more than logical.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azor
Call it an 'educated guess' if you like, but the moment when one 'connects the dots' and that 'light bulb' somewhere behind my eyes goes on, the feeling is similar to the one from this morning.
Namely CO Jaysh an-Nasr (FSyA, Idlib) - ex-SAA officer and thus well-informed thanks to his informants on the regime side, as always - issued the following message:
Now, please pay attention at the first two of his points:Quote:
“Don’t look at the situation as the regime wants#you”
- The regime is exhausted and Russians get weaker as the result of a war that lasts longer.
- There are deep contradictions between the Russians and the Iranians in Syria about the power sharing and control.
- They try to present another situation to the Syrians, which shows them victorious and strong.
- The rebels’ commanders are weak because they are unable to take a decision and live in the world of illusion that Assad’s regime and# his Mukhabarat though which they see their# their strengths and weaknesses .
To all the commanders, you should know you have fighters and people enough to change 180° within few days the de facto situation. We owe to show responsibility and not let ourselves dragged by the Mukhabarat inforAations# spread by# the regime news outlets.
- The regime is exhausted an Russian get weaker as the result of a war that lasts longer.
- There are deep contradictions between the Russians and the Iranians in Syria about the power sharing and control.
Namely, this is precisely what one can hear from all sorts of regime-sources in Syria (except Assadist/IRGC's online trolling brigades, of course). When I reported the same here I've had all possible trolls accusing me of spreading propaganda, working for Qatar and similar nonsense.
'Best' of all was some journo from Ireland. She came with questions like, if I've ever at least been to Syria, why am I writing such science fiction, haven't I ever read any of reports by Robert Fisk etc.
After answering most important of her questions, I 'dared' asking back: Have you verified your standpoints that are making you questioning mine? Who told you these are ‘correct’ and mine would be ‘wrong’?
She blocked me and 'disappeared'.
My "educated guess" is that Iran wants to have a viable delivery system prior to constructing the bomb. North Korea is currently reliant upon a handful of heavy helicopters and cargo aircraft to toss out an unguided device, and Teheran is mindful that an undeliverable bomb will be useless in deterring the Israelis. Moreover, Teheran knows that Saudi Arabia will acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan, complete with reliable delivery systems shortly after Iran becomes a nuclear power.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
Therefore, I believe that the issue is over how much potential has, and whereas the clerics want the lead time reduced to a few months or less (as in Japan and South Korea), the Europeans, Americans and Israelis want a much longer lead time if the decision is made.
I agree that Obama would throw the Sunni Arabs in Iraq and Syria under the bus in order to secure an agreement with Iran and thereby re-establish monitoring mechanisms. However, I disagree that Tel Aviv and Washington were fooled by Teheran.
Both you and Venter have a rather dim view of the post-revolutionary regime in Iran, and it is odious to be sure, but I have to take that bias into account. And by "bias" I mean the emotion attached to the Iranian government as opposed to other equally bad or worse governments...
I disagree that Russia is necessarily becoming weaker. That would be the case if a certain black Republican Sovietologist were president rather than a certain black Democrat social worker/activist.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
Russia's Syrian adventure would become a quagmire if Russia were forced to spread its forces thinly in multiple theaters, such as Ukraine, the Caucuses and Syria, in addition to dealing with non-military threats to its influence in say Kazakhstan and Belarus. There is no way that Russia could deal with a rebel counter-offensive in Aleppo and a sudden Ukrainian surge to retake Donbas, without abandoning the pretense of limited war...
Yet the world watches as Russia shuttles forces to and fro to Ukraine and Syria and across the length and breadth of Russia, repeating the Israeli transfers of 1973, when the Arabs failed to coordinate and pressure both fronts equally.
Well, that much is obvious. Putin seems ambivalent about Assad, so long as Syria is not garrisoned by the US and so long as Russia retains its facilities in Latakia and the pipeline deal is resurrected.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
Have you come across Eva Bartlett?
Did CSIS think that Russia was just dabbling with DeLisle?
Within certain circles, there was 'lots of talk' about this issue back in, say, 1990s, then mid-2000s again, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azor
But, long before, that question was solved through above-described measures - 'rumours' about which resulted in my artworks/colour profiles like the attached one (nobody wanted to publish it back then, so it ended in an article on 'IRIAF in general', published in Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine, back in January 2008 or so).
Meanwhile (and shortly after certain 'exercises' were run), Khamenei issued his Nuclear Weapons Fatwa. When this became known in the West - which was years later (in 2003) - some insta-understood this as 'ah see, no, they have no nukes, after all'. And, hand at heart, it's text does sound 'nice', doesn't it?
On the contrary, few nifty nerds like me consider it 'doctrine for nuclear weapons'. No 'assembled and ready for deployment' weapons, no doubt; but, 'available in form of availability of all necessary components'.
...which in turn is prompting the question: 'why to hell do they need a doctrine if they don't have nukes'....?
Whatever, years later the situation of delivery was solved through development of suitable missiles (just like the issue of replacement of 'cradles' that run out of their shelf-life was 'never, never, never' solved through development of... 'suitable components').
Don't worry: they're not even that far. Actually, they simply have no clue how to make use of them (in indirect, i.e. political, or... well, 'direct' sense). And, since the country is actually ruled by dozens of instabile cliques, and corruption is endemic - resulting in a situation where nobody trusts each other (not even various of IRGC cliques trust Khamenei, and versa-vice) - it's better for things to remain the way they are.Quote:
... Teheran is mindful that an undeliverable bomb will be useless in deterring the Israelis.
...which in turn would explain why, 'few years later', Oblabla became (and remains) as obsessed with 'respecting Iranian interests', and then that Nuclear Treaty.
Oh, we certainly have our biases etc. And 'it just so happens' that countries like Iran are somethining like 'centrepieces' of our attention. No doubt about this.Quote:
Both you and Venter have a rather dim view of the post-revolutionary regime in Iran, and it is odious to be sure, but I have to take that bias into account. And by "bias" I mean the emotion attached to the Iranian government as opposed to other equally bad or worse governments...
It's just so that each of us run his own research around the same time, independently from each other (indeed: without knowing that the other was researching about the same topic), yet both of us came out with the same conclusion - and this for entirely different reasons.
I would say that this should make one curious at least about 'how is that possible'. ;)
Forget the US-centric POV. Start with defining 'powerful' and 'becoming weaker'.Quote:
I disagree that Russia is necessarily becoming weaker. That would be the case if a certain black Republican Sovietologist were president rather than a certain black Democrat social worker/activist.
It should be obvious that modern-day dictatorships like those of Iran and Russia - dictatorships of state-sponsored organized crime - relay on ideology as much as on oppression for their survival. Part of that ideology is to make own population want to suffer for the sake of their nation recovering its prestige and power. From that POV, anything symbolizing 'the power' - like some military intervention, somewhere abroad - is 'good', and costs don't matter. Surely enough, costs do matter, and a lot too (at least for dictators in question), but as long as they can be kept within limits, and explained with ideology, everything's fine.
(Even more so, in the case of Iran, one can say that the current suffering is made 'even more bearable' by what appear to be 'clear prospects' for people's situation significantly improving. See, lessening of sanctions, outlooks to opening etc. In such situation, nobody cares if these prospects remain forever some sort of 'light on the horizon': everybody can see them - if in no other form then in that of soon-to-be-delivered airliners made by Boeing and Airbus.)
Therefore, Putler's successful breach of international isolation through what is essentially symbolic military intervention in Syria, and Tehran's successful breach of international isolation through a mixture of that Nuclear Treaty and a military intervention in Syria, are illusions of 'power'.
...even more so if not countered by 'declared enemies' in any meaningful fashion.
The longer the situation remains that way, the more likely that 'even sceptics' - i.e. people understanding the reality is different - might become convinced that this power is real. But, this is not making any of this reality: on the contrary, realists between the people in charge of what is going on on battlefields of Syria have different POVs, because they see what's going on with their own eyes.
Surely, one can describe such people for 'biased' too. But then, it could be that - considering they're not really 'just a few', and all of them came to such conclusions on their own, independently from each other - they might be right, and that 'power' is actually decreasing (if for no other reason, then because it's over a year since insurgents - and jihadists too - got adjusted to Russian military presence in Syria, just for example).
Not personally. But even if: she's just another of RT's trolls.Quote:
No idea. Sorry, but I'm too busy with what I'm monitoring but to monitor CSIS etc.Quote:
Did CSIS think that Russia was just dabbling with DeLisle?
Azor...all these comments have nothing to do with the article......if you noticed the article ties nicely into the Rhodes and then the Obama interviews..on why they basically did nothing......but find reasons to not engage even after the massively proven continued use of CWs by Assad.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azor
Russia and Iran's military axis is growing larger than ever before —
http://read.bi/2hkgS63
Aleppo: #Russia|n airstrikes with cluster bombs on towns & villages in Western #Aleppo Province today.
US sanctions 18 ppl, 5 companies tied to #Syria regime's "daily attacks on civilian centers" per @USTreasury's Adam Szubin
Let's hope that the #Idlib rebels will start any offensive in the coming weeks or 100.000s of people in Eastern #Ghouta are doomed.
When your ideal press corps is 22 year-olds who don't know anything and have never gone anywhere, you get this:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/rubio-...mpaign=buffer#
Damascus: #Assad regime announced that the pro-#Assad forces will recapture Eastern #Ghouta.
This will be greater than Aleppo for human suffering.....
BREAKING Putin calls Assad to congratulate on Aleppo 'liberation'
First #Iraqi #Militia member to be killed in #Yemen evidence that Iran sponsored Iraqi militias are not only fighting in #Syria and #Iraq
Damascus: #Assad regime and #Hezbollah are blocking "evacuation" from besieged #Madaya.
Idlib: Regime/#Iran|ian plane dropped more weapons & ammunition on #Fuah today (for the upcoming #Idlib offensive).
Russia sends battalion of military police to Aleppo.
Have fun with that next stage of the insurgency to come.
Putin’s ‘achievement’ in Syria: now Russians the target for Muslim anger, Portnikov#says
http://euromaidanpress.com/2016/12/2...rtnikov-says/#
Assad and #Putin have command responsibility, a war crime in Aleppo Crimes Against Humanity.
http://ln.is/www.newyorker.com/ne/Jh1AD#
Aleppo: #Assad regime and #Iran|ian militias launched a new offensive and trying to capture the area west of #Al_Assad Suburb.
Merry Christmas and a safe slide into the New Year........
Taking a few days off......The worlds violence will still be us in 2017........
Hopefully it will abate for a few days, although there are the usual plots...Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Richard, and have a prosperous New Year.
Will
Santa SOF....
Aleppo: Rebels destroyed 2 #Assad regime excavators with ATGM strikes at #Al_Hader. First rebel ATGM strikes since 2 weeks.
How the post-red line world created by Obama+@rhodes44 made a U.S.-Russian nuclear exchange thinkable
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8845913...war#hybridwar#
Palmyra: Reports that #ISIS has captured 50 pro-#Assad forces west of #Tiyas Airbase.
Palmyra: #ISIS has killed 18 pro-#Assad forces and destroyed 3 regime tanks west of #Tiyas Airbase near #Sharifah village today.
Chechen military police en route to Aleppo. Reportedly will serve as Russian leverage against Iran's Shiite militias there
Syrian online activists can be brutal but they have a point with this.....
BREAKING
Last image before #Russia Tu-154 heading to Syria crashes in the black sea.
#merrychristmas
Russia Death Toll Last Week:
Irkutsk-75
Donbas-40
Sochi-92
All preventable by Kremlin.
Turkish Air Force - 1
Russian Air Force - 3
Being reported from Russian sources that this particular plane was 33 years old...crash due to pilot error or technical failure being reported by Russian Interfax....
This lady's name has cropped a few times this week and via Twitter there is an expose of her that starts with:Link:http://eaworldview.com/2016/12/syria...d-activist-un/Quote:
Eva Bartlett is a Canadian activist who has dedicated herself to supporting Syria’s Assad regime through propaganda. For months, she has been featured on conspiracy sites denigrating civilians and rescue workers in opposition-controlled areas. Recently she gained international attention with an appearance at the UN, organized by the Assad regime’s representative Bashar al-Ja’afari.
There is a lively comments section.
Getting clearer.
The Chechen Military Police unit prepared the stage for the today-crashed RU Army chorus in #Aleppo
https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles...m_source=push#
Similar to E. #Aleppo, 10s of thousands of civilians are now at the mercy of Hezbollah’s & Assad’s scorched earth policy in Wadi Barada
The regime continues to pound the small towns in the rebel pocket in Wadi Barada with all types of IRAM rockets & heavy artillery.##Damascus
Rebels continue to fight off Hezbollah & regime offensive on the Basimeh, Hussainiyah & Deir Qanoun fronts in Wadi Barada, rural #Damascus
Turkey sends more T-155 howitzers toward northern #Syria /al Bab battle against #IS after lost several tanks last week
#EuphratesShield
2 crashed #Russia'n warplanes Su-27SM on Borisovsky Khotilovo airbase some days agoQuote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Eva Bartlett is no 'independent journalist', but working for Russian PR-outlet RT. Enough said.Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
*************
This is probably as 'reliable' as Bartlett, but Daesh's Amaq should've claimed an USAF A-10 as shoot down over northern Syria.
CrowBat...was this confirmed or denied as of yet?
BREAKING: Unconfirmed Report that the US Pilot was Captured by #ISIS. #Syria #Raqqa
Russian Syrian Express...
Russia flaged, Gov chartered merchant Ro-Ro vessel Alexander Tkachenko returns from #Tartus #Syria & transits Bosphorus towards BlackSea
Alexander Tkachenko carried Russian military equipment to #Tartus #Syria 12 days ago:
Head of #military police of #Russia's defence ministry Vladimir Ivanovsky was onboard the crashed Tupolev-154:Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
BTW...those two SU 27s
Dec15 #Tver oblast, #Russia: 2 Su-27SM collide
EuphratesShield
Turkish special forces continue the preparations to take Al Bab.
Until they publish a photo/video - nothing firm.Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
***********
BTW, David: here somebody one can rely upon - even if many are damning and hating him to the bone, declaring him a 'Qatar-lackey', and 'jihadist/al-Qaida' and whatever else:
Bilal Abdul Kareeem - from New York, fresh out of Eastern Aleppo, and still reporting for On the Ground News (OGN; sometimes also for al-Jazeera).
Thoughts on the Tu-154 crash?
I can't think of a single person on that plane, who is not a soldier, official or agent of the Russian government.
Moreover, they are flying to visit a county where Russia is committing war crimes and supporting war criminals.
Therefore, despite the crash occurring on Christmas, I feel no pity. I consider all of the Russians non-combat casualties of war, and I am not in favor of them or their side. Suffice it to say, I am in favor of any increase in costs for Russian aggression in Ukraine and Syria, whether accidental or not.
Kind of applies to the outgoing Obama ME FP and the incoming confusion of Trump and his not so clear view of the world....
Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Poles tend to go overboard..when one talks about Russia..but have a point.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ-SNl914MY
BTW..during the Cold War in the early 80s we would watch the Warsaw Pact Polish special purpose troops like a hawk...even then they were head and shoulders above GDR or Soviet same type units....
~A little girl in a foreign country prayed that angels would come and save her and her family from evil. ETA: 2 minutes!~
One civilian journo might have been on board.Quote:
Originally Posted by Azor
Don't make a mistake: there's no Christmas in Russia on 24-25 December: as Orthodox Christians, they're celebrating Christmas in early January.Quote:
Moreover, they are flying to visit a county where Russia is committing war crimes and supporting war criminals.
Therefore, despite the crash occurring on Christmas, I feel no pity.
That aside, nobody is calling 'RIP' for dozens of Syrian civilians massacred by Russian bombs every single day - like in this case in Atarib, western Aleppo, on 24 December (warning: GRAFFIC!!!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruBeZxBH6WY
Oh, and BTW... here some 'connecting the dots'. Namely, another 'thing' entirely ignored by the Western media is the situation inside 'liberated' Aleppo. It seems that in reaction to reports about widespread looting and torching by the IRGC and Assadists, Russians (should) have decided to deploy a battalion of MPs to the city. Some are going as far as to announce that these are about to 'evacuate' all the militias from the city.
I don't think they could manage anything of that kind, but they can always try.
Of course, others are going to say 'no surprise' there's looting and torching - given the SOHR is reporting up to 60 IRGC and its thugs KIA by mines left behind by insurgents. Given all the insurgents were left to evacuate the place, Shi'a jihadists might find it hard to 'extract revenge'...
BTW, one of mines went off inside an ex-FSyA base in Sukkari District, and right in front of regime's media. Several IRGC and Hezbollah should've been KIA there.
Turkey?????
After blaming USG for involvement in July coup attempt & murder of Russian Ambassador to Turkey, govt now seeks US support in Syria?
Sechin's chief of staff found dead in a car in Moscow.
By my count, this is the first time an FSB general has been murdered in Russia.
FSB is investigating, and its initial diagnosis is announced as "heart failure". Lesin's initial "diagnosis" was also heart failure.
REALLY a heart failure...the FSB can do better than that.....?????
Lots of accidents and early deaths among the Russian elite.
Raqqa: #ISIS has recaptured #Jabar village from #YPG.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35...9914&z=12&m=b#
While Russian FSB still says....pilot error...bad fuel...technical failure,,,suddenly this pops up today.
Russian expert claims with 99% certainty #Tu154 was act of terror.
https://twitter.com/fontanka_news/st...4102747156480#
Источник в ЗВО: Найдено тело летчика, но не командира Волкова
http://www.fontanka.ru/2016/12/26/12...apress#…
The Moscow Times
✔
@MoscowTimes
On this day in 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the #Soviet Union formally dissolved the Soviet Union.
Aleppo: A rebel IED inside a washing machine, that was looted in Eastern #Aleppo, exploded and killed several pro-#Assad forces today.
Raqqa: Huge #YPG flag in the Arab town of #Suluk. Locals: "It's a provocation!"
EVERYONE see the large Red Star...the core logo of the PKK since 1979n in all of their flags.....
On board of the #Tu154 were army 8 senior officials:
1 Gen-Lt.
4 Col.
1 Lt.
Col.
1 Maj.
1 Capt.
http://newsader.com/31669-yekspert-r...si-tu-154-99/#
The Moscow Times
✔
@MoscowTimes
Elizaveta Glinka, Russia’s most prominent humanitarian, died in yesterday’s crash. We look at what her life meant.
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/...k-alive-56650#
Against families, homes, schools, hospital & markets:
Russia tested over 160 new weapons in #Syria
https://www.rt.com/news/371302-russi...QT9O9.twitter#
As Western and Arab leaders remain inactive after the fall of #Aleppo, #AssadPutin & #Iran bomb to cleanse new besieged areas across #Syria.
...and here something for all those trying to explain something else (includes a number of top US officials, British FM, but Keystone Cops in Moscow - like FM Lavrov - too): the story of SyAAF night ops - and then not 'only' from 1st hand, but supported with what many prefer nowadays: 'sources within social media'.
al-Assad’s Nighttime Killers: Yes, the Syrian Arab Air Force can operate under the cover of#darkness
I was just mentioning her...Quote:
Originally Posted by davidbfpo
She is a real troll...
Good.Quote:
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
They were ALL military or government personnel.
They must have F-117's supplied by the Americans!Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
Interesting article on WiB, but still waiting for the NFZ one on WOTR ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by CrowBat
Why is the SyAAF pilot's face obscured? Why delay justice?
It just goes to show that low-tech trainers and light-attack aircraft are very useful in COIN missions in uncontested airspace.
So are the Russians eschewing missions at night? If so, I fail to see how the RuAF can compete with NATO AFs or the USAF at all...
What are your thoughts on Paul Iddon's commentary on Operation Euphrates Shield?
https://warisboring.com/turkish-sold...521#.o4lcok90o
Selected Excerpts:Quote:
The ramshackle, Turkish-backed offensive has come with deceptive victories and major problems for Ankara since it launched on Aug. 24.
For a week in November, Turkish jet fighters stopped breaching Syrian air space after Damascus said it activated surface-to-air missiles and threatened to use them on Turkish intrusions.
Only after talks with Russia was Turkey able to resume air support to its FSA proxies.
Turkey appears to have tried to compensate for these losses by increasing its bombing of Al-Bab. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights conflict monitoring group reported that Turkish air strikes killed 72 civilians, 21 of them children, on Dec. 22. The following day another 16 civilians, three of them children, died in subsequent strikes.