Page 52 of 191 FirstFirst ... 242505152535462102152 ... LastLast
Results 1,021 to 1,040 of 3806

Thread: Syria in 2015

  1. #1021
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    N°1 #Syria myth is the 'lack' of US support narrative
    CIA assistance to rebels is the most extensive program they ran for years - worldwide


    Flash: Turkish jets are harassed by the Syrian MIGs for 4.5 minutes today. This is the 4th time in last couple days

    Talbesah, #Homs is dominated by #FSA Jaish al-Tawhid. #Russia of course said they attacked #IS

    But Syrian state media reported it | #RUSSIA: "All reports by foreign media that Russia conducted strikes on Palmyra are absolute lies."


    Close Calls Between Russia & NATO In Syria - Russian Jets Entered Turkish Airspace Twice http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-...nd-nato/#10277
    One very small mistake in this Putin led Russian game of chicken and we are into WW3--it is that easy now in Syria.

    http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-...nd-nato/#10277

    Russia Violates Turkish Airspace For Second Time

    (Actually for four days running they are crossing into Turkish airspace)

    13:48 (GMT)

    Over the weekend, Russian jets crossed from Syrian airspace into Turkish airspace, a dangerous and uninvited "mistake" since Turkey is a member of NATO.

    That prompted a strong response from Turkey.

    And yet, today NATO says that Russian jets violated Turkish airspace twice, not just once. CNN reports:

    "Russian combat aircraft have violated Turkish airspace," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, according to NATO's website. "This is unacceptable."

    Stoltenberg elaborated at a news conference.

    "We also have seen two of them, two violations of Turkish airspace," he said. "Intelligence that we have received provides me with reason to say it doesn't look like an accident."

    The first violation of Turkey's airspace is reported to have happened Saturday. The second was Sunday, officials said.

    The headlines, then, are slightly misleading, since Turkey's statements that it would shoot down Russian aircraft in its airspace came yesterday and both incidents occurred this past weekend.

    Still, the incident has increased tensions in the region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned today that Russia's actions could damage the relationship between Ankara and Moscow, a relationship which has been very good lately. Russia and Turkey are cooperating on the energy front, with Turkey playing a key role in several Russian plans for new natural gas pipelines which would deliver gas to Europe while bypassing Ukraine.

    France 24 reports:

    "If Russia loses a friend like Turkey with whom it has a lot of cooperation it is going to lose a lot of things. It needs to know this," Erdogan said in Belgium at a press conference alongside Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel broadcast on Turkish television.

    Turkey believes that the Russian mission in Syria fundamentally changes their game plan, which was already damaged because of Western non-committal. BBC reports:

    Turkey's government has been enraged by these Russian incursions - and by Moscow's military intervention in Syria as a whole.

    First, any violation of Turkish airspace could lead to the object being shot down, which would dramatically escalate events. Second, there could be a mid-air collision close to Turkey's borders, as this is the first time since World War Two that Russian and American combat planes have been in the skies over Syria. But third, Russia's air strikes are the final nail in the coffin for Turkey's "buffer zone" idea in northern Syria.

    Ankara has continually pushed for this, ostensibly to allow some of the two million Syrians in Turkey to return - though critics say it's designed to break up areas controlled by Syrian Kurds, who Turkey see as a threat.

    There was already opposition in the West to the plan. But Russia's air strikes will make it almost impossible to implement.

    Today, Russia seems to have confirmed this theory -- as long as Russia is in Syria, there will not be a no-fly-zone:

    Russia claims that these incidents were a mistake, but NATO is clear -- these cross-border infiltrations were not a mistake, and Russia is playing a dangerous game. Bloomberg reports:

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned the Russian intrusion into Turkey’s airspace and on Tuesday called it deliberate provocation.

    “This doesn’t look like an accident, the violation lasted for a long time compared to previous violations of airspace,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. He called on Russia to stop targeting civilians and Syria’s legitimate opposition, and to avoid coming into conflict with U.S.-led forces fighting Islamic State in Syria.

    Even if Russia does not violate Turkish airspace again, however, Russian and NATO aircraft are now operating in very close proximity, increasing the chances of an international incident. The commander of the US air campaign in Syria says that Russian planes have now traveled within 20 miles of US aircraft, and even closer to unmanned drones operated by the US. This picture demonstrates the problem. Russian planes are yellow, US planes are green

  2. #1022
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    For those that believe it is impossible to push back and or defeat Russian information warfare--the following.

    Ah.. the power of open source analysis via social media.

    BTW this was a crowdsourced project--rare actually.

    Initial Findings of the Crowdsourced Geolocation and Analysis of Russian MoD Airstrike Vid via @bellingcat https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena...ndings-of-the-... …

    One hour after these findings were released Russian info war media wnet into overdrive attempting to counter the report of the poor Russian bombing campaign directed supposedly against IS.

    BREAKING: #RussiaVsISIL operation prompted smear campaign in world media - @mfa_russia
    http://sptnkne.ws/

  3. #1023
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    One very small mistake in this Putin led Russian game of chicken and we are into WW3--it is that easy now in Syria.

    http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-...nd-nato/#10277

    Russia Violates Turkish Airspace For Second Time

    (Actually for four days running they are crossing into Turkish airspace)

    13:48 (GMT)
    Erdogan threatens Russia with rupture of diplomatic relations because of situation in Syria.http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2..._7739873.shtml … pic.twitter.com/wPub0LSEJq

  4. #1024
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    This is the updated diagram of geopolitical relationships in the Middle East with Russia included.

    pic.twitter.com/rnMaQMZgHh

  5. #1025
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Russia beefs up Hama military presence
    https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsRepo...itary-presence
    pic.twitter.com/x3l5TXDIOa

    Destruction of water wells and houses so anti Assad forces cannot use them----
    Russian Chechnya tactics----

    From #Zabadani now.. #ASSad mercenaries exploding the wells & homes in #Madaya plain as you read this..
    #Syria Oct 6

    ASSad #SAA #Hezbollah #Russia mercenaries launch an offensive to Sahl Al #Ghaab today Oct 6

    Urgent
    Rebels attacked with grad rockets the military airbase in #Hama
    #Syria

  6. #1026
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Reference the MIG 23 shot down yesterday----

    I've also heard reports that jet wasn't shot down in Ghouta but pilot had dropped a blank parachute as a diversion

    Pilot is alleged to have been Russian based on his ID taken from him---
    Claims of arrested Russian pilot, however...

    News
    Russian army outraged by "foreign media" claims, they attacked #ISIS-held Palmyra.
    Indeed:SANA leaves it open
    . pic.twitter.com/XPwldB5oDD

    But Syrian state media reported it | #RUSSIA: "All reports by foreign media that Russia conducted strikes on Palmyra are absolute lies."

    Syria #RuAF IL-20M ELINT platform over Idlib. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyP1fZLsLi4 … pic.twitter.com/rQ0oSfsI6L

    Close Calls Between Russia & NATO In Syria -photo of the air movement screen depicting all aircraft in and around Syria--Russian aircraft in yellow US in green pic.twitter.com/OR8glCrqAS
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-06-2015 at 03:34 PM.

  7. #1027
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    RuAF airstikes targeted Mount Zawiya villages #Idlib today.
    via @anasanas84

    RuAF unexploded cluster bombs dropped on rural #Aleppo y'day.

    Footage
    Aftermath of the Russian attack on #Hobait, conducted on Sept 30.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_quvfXMDdo

    Faylaq al-Rahman says their AA unit downed the Mig 23 regime fighter over eastern #Ghouta.
    https://youtu.be/QY_uOAcs-lk
    https://youtu.be/hd9WwmYOW8E

    Scary footage of the moment regime TNT barrel bomb hit Daraya district in #Damascus suburbs.
    https://youtu.be/XhS6yPDvT0k

  8. #1028
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    RuAF airstikes targeted Mount Zawiya villages #Idlib today.
    via @anasanas84

    RuAF unexploded cluster bombs dropped on rural #Aleppo y'day.

    Footage
    Aftermath of the Russian attack on #Hobait, conducted on Sept 30.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_quvfXMDdo

    Faylaq al-Rahman says their AA unit downed the Mig 23 regime fighter over eastern #Ghouta.
    https://youtu.be/QY_uOAcs-lk
    https://youtu.be/hd9WwmYOW8E

    Scary footage of the moment regime TNT barrel bomb hit Daraya district in #Damascus suburbs.
    https://youtu.be/XhS6yPDvT0k
    Unconfirmed reports suggest #Russia will be deploying TU160 strategic bomber in #Syria soon..

  9. #1029
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    One very small mistake in this Putin led Russian game of chicken and we are into WW3--it is that easy now in Syria.

    http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-...nd-nato/#10277

    Russia Violates Turkish Airspace For Second Time

    (Actually for four days running they are crossing into Turkish airspace)

    13:48 (GMT)
    Infringing Turkish airspace may simply be part of a Russian drive to push US into closer 'liaison', creating impression of common front


  10. #1030
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    http://www.interpretermag.com/putin-...n-eggert-says/

    Putin Views Obama as Being in ‘Panicked Retreat’ from the World, von Eggert Says

    October 6, 2015

    Staunton, October 6 – Vladimir Putin views Barack Obama as being in “panicked retreat” because of the latter’s decision to extricate the US from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and believes that it would be foolish not to exploit the possibilities that such a drawdown in American power present, according to Konstantin von Eggert.

    But in doing so, the Moscow analyst says, Putin has opened the door to even more problems for himself as the conflict continues not only internationally but at home where most Russians and especially Russia’s predominantly Sunni Muslim community oppose his support of Assad.

    In the short term, von Eggert argues, Putin has achieved five goals by his Syrian actions:

    First, he has forced Obama to meet with him because, as a result of Syria, Obama “simply could not refuse dialogue with Putin” given the stakes.

    Second, Putin has succeeded in reducing the importance of Ukraine for Washington and thus making it less the defining issue of the West’s relations with Moscow.

    Third, Putin has “sent an unambiguous signal to the not-very-numerous allies of the Russian regime: ‘if things are going badly for you, we won’t throw you over,’” a message by which the Kremlin leader wants to contrast himself with the behavior of the United States.

    Fourth, “participation in the Syrian civil war is giving [Russia] a chance to demonstrate what the latest Russian arms are capable of,” something useful not only to influence others but to attract new orders for Russia’s arms exporters.

    And fifth, “Putin has made it clear to the entire world and above all to the United States that the principle of the sovereign right of any regime to do what it finds appropriate on its own territory is for him inviolable.”

    Putin’s moves in this regard reflect a fundamental difference between the West and Russia. Western leaders get involved in foreign affairs “by necessity.” Putin in contrast sees foreign actions as “one of the main (if not the chief) component parts of his legitimacy in the eyes of his compatriots.”

    Moreover, von Eggert continues, “Obama and his entourage have the dislike of using military force characteristic of Western leftists while Putin considers [the use of such force] as the key element of world politics.” For him, respect is everything because people “’respect the strong but beat the weak,’” as he has said many times.

    Von Eggert says that he is “certain that the decision of Obama to leave Iraq and Afghanistan was viewed in the Kremlin as a panicked flight from responsibility,” as actions and an attitude that have created a power vacuum that it would be “strange” if Moscow were not to try to exploit.

    And consequently, Putin has moved back into the Middle East in much the same way the Soviet leadership did during the Cold War, as a region of competition with the US “in which Moscow has nothing particular to lose” unless and until Washington shows a new willingness to counter him.

    If Putin is able to get Obama to agree to his terms in Syria: Russian support for the fight against ISIS in exchange for the West’s acceptance of Assad’s remaining in power, then, von Eggert says, “America will suffer yet another diplomatic defeat and [Putin] will be confirmed as a politician without whose participation no major international problem can be resolved.”

    “More than that,” the Moscow commentator says, “until the end of the Obama presidency, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and Belarus will have reason to be nervous. For in the Kremlin, such a development of events will be viewed as carte blanche for a new expansion in the post-Soviet space, and even possibly into the Baltic countries.”

    But if Obama and the West do not agree, then “the situation for official Moscow could become quite unfavorable.” Russia is “not the largest, most influential and richest player in the Middle East scene,” and Putin would have to face potentially serious problems both there and at home.

    “Terror inside Russia and against objects linked with it abroad, the taking prisoner and execution of Russian troops, the gradual broadening of a military presence in Syria and the prospect of being dragged into a full-scale war on the ground are only some of the undesirable but possible consequences,” von Eggert says.

    At home, polls show that most Russians are not enthusiastic about any campaign in Syria and “the overwhelming majority of Russian Muslims are Sunnis.” Consequently, “the Kremlin’s struggle to save the Assad regime which is viewed namely as the hangman of Syrian Sunis is hardly going to please them.”

    And thus Putin might discover that “leaving the Middle East without losing face…would be more difficult than doing so from Ukraine,” von Eggert says, offering in conclusion the following analogy that the Kremlin leader may ultimately have to face.

    “The legitimization of a political regime with the help of ‘small victorious wars’ recalls a bicycle race: it is impossible to stop; one must keep pedaling. And thus risk a major defeat. Vladimir Putin, [by going into Syria as he has,] is risking just that.”

  11. #1031
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Either the Russians have really really really bad air maps are they are simply lying like champs for the home public--there cannot be any other explanation for being so far wrong on their combat videos.

    RuAF "near Talbiseh" geolocated to Jabal alAkrad http://wikimapia.org/#lat=35.739999&...46858&z=17&m=b … ~110km from Talbiseh https://youtu.be/5b08s4F-Z0o

    Julian Röpcke @JulianRoepcke
    See on the #map how far #Russia's target claim is away from the real target, thanks to geolocation of the video. pic.twitter.com/rcwjbTvcfu
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-06-2015 at 05:44 PM.

  12. #1032
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Breaking: The battle of Hama-Aleppo road has began, #SAA backed by #RuAF launched an offensive, shelling Atshan v pic.twitter.com/7OH46is5AJ
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-06-2015 at 05:44 PM.

  13. #1033
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Syria: more Su-25, again over-painted insignia, tractor drivers on vacation? @Ukr_Che pic.twitter.com/u3JUB4VrGn

    Full vid: #Russia|n Mi-24 gunship pilot inspection & low-fly-pass #Latakia #Syria
    NO INSIGNIA on copter or pilots!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnv60LkQH94

  14. #1034
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Just friggin brilliant, now both #Russia & #ISIS are targeting FSA Suqour al-Jabal at the same time in #Aleppo, #Syria. Air + ground attack!

    Hypocrisy! @RT_russian: terrorists move arms to mosques,"knowing that Russia wd NEVER strike one"—remember #Chechnya? pic.twitter.com/IllJqwO9AV

    Report: Mounting evidence that Russians are using cluster bombs in #Syria
    http://mashable.com/2015/10/06/russi.../#VOw49Zgig056

    BREAKING Turkish mil. says a MIG-29 of unidentified nationality interfered with 8 F-16s over Syrian border
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-06-2015 at 06:15 PM.

  15. #1035
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/a...rn/537218.html

    Syria Air Strikes Raise Risk of Terror Attack in Russia, Experts Warn

    By Eva Hartog

    Oct. 05 2015 20:41

    According to textbooks on political violence, a terrorist attack requires the following key components: a target, an actor or actors, and motivations.

    The Kremlin's decision to launch air strikes in Syria could raise the risk of terrorist attacks on Russian soil, security analysts said, as the move increases the motivation of Russia-related supporters of the Islamic State to retaliate against Moscow.

    As its forces waged security sweeps and real combat operations in the Northern Caucasus during the past two decades, Russia has been targeted by terrorists many times, but in the past 18 months the security forces have managed to contain them, at least from committing massive acts of deadly violence.

    "Islamists, jihadis and extreme Muslims are, to put it mildly, not pleased with Russia's interference in Syria and they will be prepared in some way to answer what is happening at the moment," Sergei Goncharov, a terrorism expert who heads an organization for veterans of Alpha, a Russian special forces unit, told The Moscow Times.

    Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday in an online statement that its planes had flown 25 sorties in Syria in the past 24 hours and had hit nine Islamic State targets.

    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 fighters, most of whom belonged to the Islamic State, had been killed since Russia launched its air offensive on Wednesday, Reuters reported Saturday.

    The threat of retaliation is not a new one: Even before Russia's massive buildup of arms in Syria over the last month, Islamic State counted Russia among its enemies.

    In September last year, after claiming to have seized a Russian-made MiG fighter jet at a military base in the Syrian province of Raqqa, IS militants for the first time openly declared war on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    "This message is for you, Vladimir Putin! These are the aircraft you sent to [Syrian President] Bashar [Assad], and we're going to send them to you. Remember that!" a militant could be heard saying in a video uploaded to YouTube at the time.

    But the decision to launch air strikes in Syria could be a trigger to translate words into actions, experts said.

    Homegrown Danger

    Around 2,400 Russians — mainly natives of Russia's southern predominantly Muslim-populated regions of Chechnya and Dagestan — are fighting together with Islamic State militants in Syria, Sergei Smirnov, first deputy director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), said last month.

    Nearly all major terrorist attacks in Moscow, from the Nord Ost theater hostage crisis in 2002 to the twin metro bombings in 2010, were perpetrated by natives of these regions.

    While those people are fighting in the Middle East, Russia is safer, said Simon Saradzhyan, a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, a Harvard University policy think tank.

    "As long as they are there, the threat [of terrorism in] Russia has actually diminished," he said. "The more [militants] Russia annihilates on the ground [in Syria], the fewer will come back."

    But according to Alexei Malashenko, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank, the real number of fighters from Russia and Central Asia who have joined the Islamic State is closer to 7,000, and hundreds of them have already returned to Russian soil.

    The Russian government stepped up security at home after launching the air strikes in Syria.

    Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that the county's National Anti-Terrorism Committee, special security forces and FSB were on alert.

    "They are constantly taking measures to prevent [terrorist attacks]," Peskov was cited as saying by state-run news agency RIA Novosti.

    Terrorists strive to hit symbolic targets and generate as strong a media storm as possible. In Russia, they have taken hundreds of hostages, including children, sent teams of female suicide bombers on coordinated missions, and targeted Moscow. The concentration of the media — including international outlets — is the highest in the capital, which is the most targeted Russian city outside the North Caucasus.

    "The likeliness of a terrorist attack is very high, and it will probably take place in a large city like Moscow, to make a political point. But we cannot know when," said Malashenko.

    No Negotiations

    Previous attacks were primarily aimed at forcing Russia's hand in the North Caucasus, not abroad, and proved unsuccessful in pressuring the Russian government to change its policies with regard to Chechen separatists and the radical Muslim underground in the North Caucasus.

    But terrorist organizations have often hit targets abroad in order to force foreign policy change, such as the 2004 bombing of commuter trains in Madrid by an al-Qaida-inspired terrorist group when Spanish troops were supporting the U.S. military campaign in Iraq.

    Russia has a mixed record on negotiating with terrorists — the hostage taking in the Stavropol region city of Budyonnovsk in 1995 was widely seen as a turning point in the first Chechen War by forcing the Kremlin to return to the negotiating table with Chechen rebels.

    But since Putin took the helm in 2000, there has been an unbending policy of non-negotiation with terrorists, said Saradzhyan.

    Putin stood firm in refusing to give in to Chechen separatists even after the 2004 Beslan school hostage taking that shocked the world, in which over 350 people were killed, more than half of them children.

    "Even if the Islamic State manages to stage successful attacks on Russian soil, it will not change Russian policy [in Syria]," Saradzhyan said.

    Prolonged Threat

    Most analysts said the air strikes were unlikely to translate into immediate terrorist attacks. However, the danger will grow if Russia is drawn into a long conflict.

    "The question is whether the Kremlin gets seduced into the pattern, so often visible when countries embark on interventions abroad, of thinking one more push, one more expansion of forces will make a difference," Mark Galeotti, an expert in Russian security services and a professor at New York University, told The Moscow Times in written comments.

    And while Moscow's air strikes could eliminate some of its enemies, it could also sprout new ones.

    Western leaders have repeatedly expressed concern that Russia is targeting not only the Islamic State, but also U.S.-backed groups like the Free Syrian Army.

    Broadening its line of fire to include moderate groups will not win Russia new friends and could sow the seeds for a new wave of violence, Saradzhyan said.

    "Inevitably, these groups will develop grievances vis a vis Russia and will try to avenge," he said.

    More immediately threatened could be Russians based in Syria: both military specialists and "ordinary Russians who reside in Damascus and other cities," said Yury Barmin, a Middle East expert.

    "I also think that Russia's involvement in Syria may be risky for Orthodox Christians who live in Syria's coastal region," he added.

    The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, publicly backed the air strikes last week, and Vsevolod Chaplin, a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, called the fight against terrorism in Syria "a holy war."

    "The endorsement of the Syria operation by the Russian Orthodox Church gives extra impetus to the extremists," Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser for Gulf State Analytics, a consultancy, told The Moscow Times.

  16. #1036
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Syria #Russia planes cannot even navigate within proper borders yet #Putin claims his a/c so accurate that impossible that civilians killed

    Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins (aka bellingcat)
    Loads of idiot pro-Putin trolls expressing astonishment that I suddenly know so much about Syria

  17. #1037
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Russia Is Bombing Ambulances in Syria http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...mbulances.html

    Russia Is Bombing Ambulances in Syria

    On the same day the U.S. struck a hospital in Afghanistan, Putin’s pilots struck medical facilities and vehicles nowhere near ISIS.

    Dr. Ammar Martini has a simple question he would like answered: “Why are the Russians bombing my hospitals and ambulances?”

    One of the cofounders of Orient Humanitarian Relief, a non-profit that provides medical treatment and educational services in northern and central Syria, Martini was recounting to The Daily Beast how Russian airstrikes in the Idlib countryside Saturday destroyed a part of his emergency ambulance center. “They destroyed four or five of our vehicles,” he said. “These attacks were specifically targeting Orient.”

    Below is a video Oubai Shahbandar, a former Pentagon officials turned Orient employee, shared The Daily Beast, showing the charred vehicles. “If the Russians think ambulances are legitimate terrorist targets,” Shahbandar emailed, “imagine what they’re going to do to the rest of Syria.”

    On the same day the U.S. struck a hospital in Afghanistan, Putin’s pilots struck medical facilities and vehicles nowhere near ISIS.

    It’s been a dark week for medical volunteers, all around. A Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was struck repeatedly on Saturday by U.S. warplanes. 19 were killed, the majority of them hospital workers. Colonel Brian Tribus, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said that any powdered medical facilities constituted “collateral damage” against legitimate Taliban targets threatening U.S. forces in the area. Doctors Without Borders countered that there were no militants in or around its facility, and accused the American military of a “war crime.” That isn’t clear, at this point. But what is apparent is that the Kunduz hospital attack is a major violation of the standards U.S. forces have set for themselves. A military investigation is underway, and the Pentagon has now retracted its initial claim that American soldiers were under threat.

    Russia, too, nearly hit a separate Doctors Without Borders hospital in a refugee camp in Al Yamdiyyah, Latakia. According to McClatchy, “The bomb struck in the village just a few hundred yards from the actual border, wounding several townspeople, local residents said. The Doctors Without Borders hospital apparently was not damaged.” However, Dr. Jawad Abu Hatab, a heart surgeon at the hospital, told the news agency that he believed Russia had been targeting the site and missed.

    So far, 80 percent of Russia’s air sorties in Syria have hit decidedly non-ISIS targets, mainly in the center, north, and west of the country. That’s where, in addition to civilians, a grab bag of opposition fighters ranging from hardline Islamists to al-Qaeda to U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army units have all had bullseyes painted on their backs.

    “They attacked Jisr al-Shughour and Latakia,” Martini said, “but also Yamadea, where there is a big hospital that’s been in operation for about 40 years. Thank God they didn’t hit it! The missile went elsewhere. They also struck on the outskirts of Hama, attacking a the field hospital and killing a lot of people.”

    One recent sortie struck another Orient ambulance, this one transporting casualties from Ihsem, a village in the Jabal al-Zawiyah area, which lies about 30 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital of Idlib City. A medical facility there maintained by the White Helmets, a civil volunteer corps opposed to the regime and ISIS, was bombed on October 3. Two Orient paramedics were wounded while ferrying the injured out of the village. Luckily, they survived. But after the Russians bombed Jabal al-Zawiyah, regime helicopters swooped in and dropped one of their nastier munitions — barrel bombs, according to Martini. These are large metal drums packed with shrapnel and explosives, which Assad’s air force has relied on increasingly as a means to unleash the highest degree of devastation on the least discriminate target zone.

    The one-two punch on Jabal al-Zawiyah only underscored for Martini the operational coordination between Damascus and Moscow, and the true nature of Vladimir Putin’s Syria adventure: “Russian forces came to continue what the regime began. I think the regime is giving the targets and locations. There is no ISIS here, absolutely.”

    Martini had been a successful surgeon in Idlib, Syria’s northwest province, before the 2011 uprising against Assad. That’s when he was instructed by Assad’s military police to ignore his Hippocratic oath altogether, and let any opposition-affiliated patients die on the slab at the Red Crescent hospital he then worked in. Martini refused. So he, too, was arrested and tortured, an experience he declined to relay in detail to the Washington Post eighteen months ago. His hospital’s general manager was murdered by the regime.

    Orient was established in 2012 by Martini and a wealthy Syrian, the Dubai-based entrepreneur Ghassan Aboud, who financed the project. It aimed to inject a bit of humanity into a ghoulish conflict that has since become not one civil war but several.

    Although Orient runs an anti-Assad television station out of the Gulf, its charitable activities inside Syria are strictly non-aligned, Martini insists: “Our ambulance system works for all people from the regime to the rebels to innocent civilians who are on neither side. We treat anyone who is wounded.”

    Orient’s only no-go zone, Martini told The Daily Beast, is territory controlled by ISIS. “We don’t work inside ISIS areas because they are criminals who attacked Orient already,” he said. “In March 2014, they sent a car bomb to Atmeh [a border-town in Aleppo] and killed 17 people, 5 of them children. In Marea, ISIS attacked people with chemical weapons. We treated people with very strange symptoms.”

    “It is very dangerous to shoot these hospitals because we have oxygen pumps and highly flammable equipment. One explosion can cause a lot of damage.”

    Martini is based in Turkey, about a kilometer from the Syrian border. But he darts in and out of his homeland, at great personal risk, to oversee Orient’s extensive network. Today, the charity maintains ten surgical hospitals in Syria, from the north to the Aleppo borderline. “These are all free. We perform more than 500 operations each day. Every hospital has outpatient clinics. It is very dangerous to shoot these hospitals because we have oxygen pumps and highly flammable equipment. One explosion can cause a lot of damage.”

    One Orient hospital in Kafranbel city, Idlib, contains 70 beds. It routinely provides kidney dialysis to 15 patients with renal failure. But all that is now under threat, thanks to Putin. “We cannot open the hospital or accept any patients because we were very afraid the Russians will attack us again. All hospitals are afraid. They’re working in the basement, closing outpatient clinics. We run outpatient clinics at night. We can work only then and treat people to avoid the warplanes.”

    As The Daily Beast earlier reported, Russian jets have mainly been using “dumb bombs” rather than guided munitions, making it difficult to discern intended targets and guaranteeing higher body counts. There’s already evidence that Russia’s Su-24 bombers have been firing cluster munitions in southwest Aleppo. These bombs have been proscibed by U.N. convention, to which Russia is not a signatory.
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-06-2015 at 07:31 PM.

  18. #1038
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Humor------

    The Russian airforce know as much about map reading as the Russian paratroopers do.

  19. #1039
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/06/...-war-in-syria/

    Spy Planes, Signal Jammers, and Putin’s High-Tech War in Syria

    Russian airplanes are battering rebel targets throughout Syria, but Moscow’s use of next-generation surveillance and communications-blocking equipment is packing a growing punch.

    By Elias Groll

    October 6, 2015


    Russia has been sending fighter jets, drones, and bombers to Syria to bolster the regime of Bashar al-Assad, generating concern and outrage among the United States and its allies. Far less attention has been paid to Moscow’s simultaneous deployment of advanced surveillance, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare equipment that could deal a new blow to the beleaguered, American-backed rebels working to oust him.

    In recent weeks, Russia has deployed the IL-20 surveillance aircraft, better known by its NATO name “Coot” and roughly equivalent to the U.S. Navy’s P-3 Orion, a mainstay of the Pentagon’s spy tools. The Russian plane is bristling with high-tech equipment like surveillance radar, electronic eavesdropping gear, and optical and infrared sensors. One of the Kremlin’s premier spy planes, it provides Russian forces with a powerful tool for locating rebel units and assigning targets to its fighter planes. In late September, Syrian rebels posted a video purporting to show the plane flying over a battlefield.

    The Russian buildup of intelligence assets and tools of electronic warfare also includes the deployment of the Krasukha-4, an advanced electronic warfare system used to jam radar and aircraft. Its presence in Syria was reported by Sputnik News, the Russian state outlet, which claimed to have spotted the distinctive jamming system in a video report on Russian jets at a Syrian airfield in Latakia. The system and its parabolas are visible at the 6-second mark in the video below.

    The deployment of the IL-20, or Coot, is perhaps the clearest indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to ensure his troops in Syria are not reliant on Assad’s forces for targeting information — and that they may be preparing for a ground combat role. On Monday, Moscow said “volunteer” troops would be heading to Syria to join in the fight there, a barely disguised sign that Russian forces could soon be directly battling U.S.-backed rebels inside Syria.

    Russia’s transfer of advanced electronic warfare tools to Syria is the latest example of Moscow’s so-called “hybrid warfare” tactics, which use deception and covert operations to achieve strategic objectives with a minimal use of military force. Indeed, the Krasukha-4 was also spotted in Ukraine and played a key part in Russia’s campaign of electronic warfare there, which Kiev claimed resulted in a disruption of cell service at times. The deployment of the Krasukha, which can be used to disable aircraft avionics, came at around the same time that Western policymakers publicly entertained the idea of establishing a no-fly zone over eastern Ukraine. The positioning of the Krasukha, in addition to other air defenses, prevented the enforcement of such a no-fly zone and kept Putin in control of the skies, according to Igor Sutyagin, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank.

    Now, too, the Krasukha has been put in place as several countries are calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria. Sutyagin described the deployment of the Krasukha as an effective “no-fly zone for those who want to create a no-fly zone.” For now, there is no evidence that the electronic warfare system has been used against American and other coalition planes flying in the skies over Syria, but its presence has surely been noted by the American military.

    The use of cutting-edge signals intelligence and electronic warfare tools is indicative of Russian intentions in Syria. Jeffrey White, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a 34-year veteran of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, described the rebels as not “that hard a SIGINT target,” using a shorthand term for signals intelligence, or transmissions plucked off the airwaves. “Do [the Russians] need their best and most sophisticated collection techniques and methods?”

    Russia’s use of the new tools — in particular the equipment designed to provide more precise targeting information — comes amid a fierce debate between Putin and the Obama administration over Russia’s true targets in its Syria air war. Russian leaders insist they are only hitting targets tied to the Islamic State, but rebel groups in the country — backed by senior U.S. officials like Defense Secretary Ash Carter — say Moscow is actually dropping almost all of its ordnance in areas held by groups fighting Assad.

    If it changed course and decided to focus on the Islamists, Russia could more easily use the newly deployed equipment to mount precision strikes against Islamic State targets and jam the group’s communications. If Moscow sticks to its current path, by contrast, it will have powerful new tools to use against Syria’s moderate opposition.

    Russia and Syria have a long history of intelligence cooperation in the fight against the country’s rebel groups, and Russia has previously supplied signals intelligence expertise to the Syrian government. In October 2014, rebels overran a Syrian military base near the Golan Heights, discovered a joint Russian-Syrian listening post, and posted a gleeful video tour of the highly secretive facility.

    Asked about the intensified Russian intelligence buildup in Syria, one U.S. senior defense official remained closed-lipped about Moscow’s capabilities there other than to acknowledge the sophisticated tools at Russian troops’ disposal and that “their operational patterns remain the same” as in Ukraine. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss classified details, the official said that Russia has concealed communications and movements as it did in Ukraine, including by hiding Russian fighter jets within the signature of larger cargo jets.

    Other assets deployed to Syria include the R-166-0.5 signals vehicle, which provides command and control functions for a battalion of Russian ground troops. Its presence in Syria is intriguing, Sutyagin said, because it implies the presence of a battalion-strength detachment of ground troops. On Monday, Interfax reported that the Vasily Tatishchev, an advanced naval surveillance ship, has sailed for the eastern Mediterranean.

    Earlier this summer, military blogs reported that the Syrian army had received from Russia a new batch of R-330P communication jammers. The simple radio communications tools used by anti-Assad rebels are easy fodder for such a system and could be used to undermine coordination by rebel forces in mounting operations and offensives.

    Between the Krasukha, the IL-20, and the Vasily Tatishchev — in addition to the reported presence of surveillance drones — Russia has poured its best assets into Syria against targets that really shouldn’t be particularly hard for the country’s air force to hit. But that deployment is still quite small, and its concentrated use has allowed Putin to achieve his goals with a minimal amount of effort.

    With a handful of fighter jets, a few naval assets, a jammer, and a signals intelligence plane, Putin has managed to reshape the balance of power in Syria. It is what Sutyagin, who spent 11 years in jail in Russia on flimsy espionage charges that caused human rights groups to label him a political prisoner, called a huge achievement “with tiny efforts.”

  20. #1040
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    More cluster munitions by #Russia on non-#ISIS positions in Kafrzita, #Hama, #Syria http://youtu.be/-kYJ_PQX7GM

    Use of cluster munitions by #Russia on civilian/rebel liberated areas in #Syria are now slowly becoming the norm unfortunately.

Similar Threads

  1. Foreign fighters in Iraq & Syria
    By davidbfpo in forum Middle East
    Replies: 39
    Last Post: 12-08-2015, 08:52 PM
  2. Afghanistan 2015 onwards: Moderator's Notice
    By davidbfpo in forum OEF - Afghanistan
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 12-30-2014, 09:12 PM
  3. Syria: The case for inaction
    By Fuchs in forum Middle East
    Replies: 33
    Last Post: 09-10-2013, 01:23 PM
  4. Replies: 534
    Last Post: 09-20-2010, 01:18 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •