Syria in 2016 (July-September)

[OUTLAW 09]

Christiane Amanpour Verified account 
‏@camanpour
US SecDef Ash Carter tells me it's up to Russia to influence Assad to stop using chlorine bombs and go for a transition. More soon.

Because Russia is the leader of the free world?

[OUTLAW 09]

Somehow I missed this before.....

Yury Barmin
‏@yurybarmin
The Syrian government exchanged 169 prisoners for the bodies of 5 Russians killed in recent helicopter crash

Also while Russian identified the crew they never really did ID the two passengers.....

[OUTLAW 09]

CrowBat.....does this statistic make sense....??

Jaysh al-Fath only mobilized 20% of its available power when it originally broke the siege

I had seen figures of around 1.5-2K involved by all participants so in fact the 20% might in fact be true....

Also anything on these numbers.....??

Around 1000 Iraqi hezbollah forces are fighting in Aleppo

[OUTLAW 09]

CNN Trk ENG
✔ @CNNTURK_ENG BREAKING Turkish army says border post attacked by YPG w machine guns fm #Afrin near #Hatay, retaliated by gunfire.

Turkey is building a 3km underground power line connecting its electrical supply to Jarablus, Syria, according to a Turkish official

[OUTLAW 09]

Shell shocked @shell_blog
My first piece for @offiziere. A closer look on relations between #YPG/#SDF and #Syria|n regime
https://twitter.com/offiziere/status/773841225145352193 …

News ‏@FSAPlatform
#FSA forces destroy regime tank on Kowkab frontlines in northern rural #Hama with a TOW missile

FSA forces destroy regime tank with a TOW missile in Koukib town in eastern rural #Hama province

Violent clashes are ongoing between #FSA's @AlrahmanCorps & #Daesh in eastern #Qalamoun

EuphratesShield
#FSA advances today against #Daesh in northern #Aleppo province with TAF support.....TAF/FSA slowly encircling several IS villages

Breaking #EuphratesShield
#FSA take control of Tel Hajr, Mazraa, Tal Ali from #Daesh in the area of Gandora town

E. #Qalamoun: footage of clashes between #FSA Martyr Ahmed Alabdo & #ISIS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P84gB78OmoM …

Breaking #EuphratesShield
#FSA forces control Qunra, Meirze, Tel Ali, S.Gandora from #Daesh after violent clashes

FSA News ‏@FSAPlatform
#Hama
Regime/ Russian warplanes targeted opposition held Kafrzeita with incendiary bombs resembling napalm during the night

[OUTLAW 09]

73 Syrian NGOs suspend cooperation with UN in Syria because of Assad influence over relief effort https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...P=share_btn_wa …

Footage: Zinki blew up w/ #Kornet a large group of alleged Hezbollah fighters in Kafr Obeid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niy1PVTmKO0 …

FSA took Al Hadjar from #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36...09799&z=14&m=b …

E. #Qalamoun: second #TOW strike by Faylaq Al-Rahman in 2 days vs an #ISIS 23 mm gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yEI6UJc6Y8 …

Turkey: Turkish army convoy of 155 Fırtına self-propelled howitzer moved towards #İslahiye, north of #Afrin pocket

EuphratesShield: #FSA seized from #ISIS Qantarah & Mirzah after Turkish airstrikes at ~6 km from #SDF territory. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36....731171&z=12&m …

Five Pakistani Zeinabiyoun fighters killed in #Syria were buried in #Iran today

[OUTLAW 09]

EuphratesShield: important and massive build-up of Turkish armor continuing near #Syria|n border

N. #Hama: Jaish Al-Nasr destroyed with a #TOW a tank in Regime checkpoint near Kawkab.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPAMMOvrQG4 …

E. #Ghouta: Jaish Al-Islam repelled a pro-Regime assault on Hawsh Nasri & Hawsh Al-Farah fronts.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33....477699&z=13&m …

[OUTLAW 09]

After two days of rumors, it seems that the notorious loyalist warlord and smuggler Aymen Jaber has fled Syria.

With his brother Mohamed, he built and leads the militia network that includes 'Desert Hawks' and 'Navy Seals'.

Under Assad, the Jabers rose from common oil smugglers to pillar "businessmen" to important militia leaders.

Aymen's departure follows months of rising tensions w/ other Latakia warlords, especially Assad's cousin Munzer.

Munzer is a powerful shabiha, who was arrested last year by Bashar after a two-day stand-off with regime forces.

Tensions between Munzer al-Assad & Aymen Jaber escalated in July into open clashes that left a dozen dead, many wounded across Latakia.

Munzer's men first surrounded Jaber's compound in Latakia city and opened fire. The attack was eventually driven back by J's bodyguard.

In return, Jaber locked down the Assad family hometown of Qardaha trying to capture Munzer - who threatened to go after Aymen's brother.

Munzer then full-on attacked Jaber's men in Jableh with technicals etc. - forcing regime to summon them to Damascus for mediation.

[OUTLAW 09]

After two days of rumors, it seems that the notorious loyalist warlord and smuggler Aymen Jaber has fled Syria.

With his brother Mohamed, he built and leads the militia network that includes 'Desert Hawks' and 'Navy Seals'.

Under Assad, the Jabers rose from common oil smugglers to pillar "businessmen" to important militia leaders.

Aymen's departure follows months of rising tensions w/ other Latakia warlords, especially Assad's cousin Munzer.

Munzer is a powerful shabiha, who was arrested last year by Bashar after a two-day stand-off with regime forces.

Tensions between Munzer al-Assad & Aymen Jaber escalated in July into open clashes that left a dozen dead, many wounded across Latakia.

Munzer's men first surrounded Jaber's compound in Latakia city and opened fire. The attack was eventually driven back by J's bodyguard.

In return, Jaber locked down the Assad family hometown of Qardaha trying to capture Munzer - who threatened to go after Aymen's brother.

Munzer then full-on attacked Jaber's men in Jableh with technicals etc. - forcing regime to summon them to Damascus for mediation.

Digging around, I found out that Ayman Jaber's motorcadr hasnt showed up to his house in Cote D'Azur resort in Latakia for the second day.

I first got a tip last night that Ayman Jaber seems to be MIA, too much s****t going on between shabeeha warlords.

[OUTLAW 09]

Kyle W. Orton ‏@KyleWOrton
Well now:

"Ankara is preparing the biggest military operation in its history against [PKK] south of the country."


http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News...l-support.html

Saudi has ‘similar stance’ with Turkey on region

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir says Riyadh has ‘coinciding stance’ with Ankara on Syria, Iraq and Yemen

By Staff writer, Al Arabiya Engish

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said on Thursday that Riyadh has “similar stance” with Turkey regarding Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

In a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, during his visit to Ankara, Jubeir said stances of Turkey and Saudi “fully coincide with each other regarding Syria, Iraq or Yemen, including terrorism.”

Jubeir described that the plan put forth by the Syrian opposition is “detailed” and “complete,” and said President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was still rejecting a political solution.

On Wednesday, the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), Syria’s main opposition negotiating group, said it would reject any deal struck by Russia and the United States on Syria’s fate that was very different from its own proposed transition plan.

The HNC said its proposed process would start with six months of negotiations to set up a transitional administration made up of figures from the opposition, the government and civil society. It would require President Bashar al-Assad to leave office at the end of those six months.

Meanwhile, Jubeir said Saudi and Turkey were “the first two states who cooperated to back the Syrian opposition since day one.”

He also said Saudi “looks forward” to work with Turkey on these “common issues,” vowing that Riyadh will gives Ankara full support on fighting terrorism.

Jubeir also extended his “thanks” to Ankara’s “supportive stance in terms of pilgrimage.”

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed his appreciation for Saudi’s support to Ankara following the failed coup in Turkey when a rogue military faction tried to oust the Turkish president from power on July 15.

Turkey launched an incursion on Aug. 24 into Syria - the so-called Euphrates Shield operation - to back Syrian rebels in their fight to push ISIS out of the town of Jarablus and to limit the Syrian Kurdish militia forces’ advance west of the Euphrates River.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Wednesday that the Turkey-backed rebel forces may go deeper into Syria after securing a 90 km (56 mile) stretch of land along the Turkish border.

[OUTLAW 09]

KyleWOrton
.@Charles_Lister: "Many Syrians living in opposition areas of Syria perceive JFS as a more…effective protector of their lives…than the US".

[OUTLAW 09]

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news...s-syria-policy

Obama’s Syria Policy Isn’t a ‘Mistake.’ It’s Deliberate.
How the Iran deal explains the administration’s inaction in Syria

By Lee Smith

September 7, 2016 • 10:00 PM

Perhaps it’s because Obama’s term is winding down, but in the wake of the recent siege of Aleppo, which brought injury, exile, and death to thousands of Syrian civilians, a late-breaking consensus seems to have emerged that the White House’s Syria policy is a tragic failure. Even opinion makers who generally admire Obama vie to outdo each other in soulfully condemning his Syria policy, while administration officials past and present echo the president’s line that there is little the United States could have done to stop the bloodshed. You could call it virtue-signaling or Kabuki theater—except the president’s critics really do seem authentically baffled by how a man they authentically admire could be guilty of such a terrible blunder.

“I admire Obama for expanding health care and averting a nuclear crisis with Iran, but allowing Syria’s civil war and suffering to drag on unchallenged has been his worst mistake, casting a shadow over his legacy,” writes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof.

His Times colleague Roger Cohen agrees. “Syria has been Obama’s worst mistake,” he writes. “It’s a disaster that cannot provoke any trace of pride; and within that overall blunder the worst error was the last-minute ‘red line’ wobble that undermined America’s word, emboldened [Vladimir] Putin and empowered [Bashar al-]Assad.”

Putin and Assad’s aerial bombing of Aleppo illustrated for many just how bad Syria had become, as Beltway tweeters vied to express their horror at the image of a 5-year-old boy, Omran Daqneesh, pulled from the rubble with his face bloodied and covered in dust and his eyes insensible. “Broke my heart to write this,” Robin Wright tweeted to promote her New Yorker story on Putin and Assad’s aerial campaign, “The Babies Are Dying in Aleppo.” If Wright doesn’t exactly lay the blame with the White House, she marshals enough evidence from doctors and U.N. officials who discretely point that way. “The existential plight of Syria’s kids is the worst in the world,” she writes. A UNICEF spokesman says about the children born since the opposition uprising began in March 2011 that “some 3.7 million Syrian children under the age of 5 have known nothing but displacement, violence, and uncertainty.”

If anything, Wright, Cohen, Kristof, and their colleagues are guilty of understatement: Bashar al-Assad’s five-year-long war against his own people is the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. In addition to the half a million killed in Syria, millions of refugees have fled to Jordan, Turkey, and Lebanon, and many more millions are internally displaced. The overflow from the Syrian refugee crisis now threatens to destabilize Europe. The war is also a strategic nightmare, primarily affecting American allies on Syria’s borders, including Israel, which is most concerned about keeping Iran and Hezbollah from opening a new front on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

So why didn’t the White House enforce its own red line back in 2012? Why haven’t we done anything since to stop Bashar al-Assad? Why won’t we do anything now, aside from fighting a phony war against ISIS? Because of Libya, say some. Obama saw how the unintended consequences of that engagement came out and doesn’t want a replay. Then there’s Iraq, the very war that Obama campaigned against in 2008 to win the White House. His mandate was to get America out of a stupid war, and the last thing he’s going to do is commit his country to more conflict in the Middle East. Life is complicated, folks.

What Kristof, Cohen, Wright, and their colleagues apparently can’t see, even at this late date, is that Obama’s inaction in Syria is not simply part of the hangover from the failed American war in Iraq, or of the president’s personal psychology. There is something entirely practical at stake here, too—namely, the Iran deal. The explanation is, in fact, a simple one: U.S. intervention in Syria against Assad would have made the Iran deal impossible. In fact, U.S. support for Iran’s continuing presence in Syria was a precondition of the deal, according to no less an authority than the president himself. In a December press conference, Obama spoke of “respecting” Iranian “equities” in Syria—which, translated into plain English, means leaving Assad alone in order to keep the Iranians happy.

The connection between Syria and the Iran deal was not particularly hard to spot for anyone in the administration. “Iranian officials told me that even had the diplomats doing the negotiations wanted to stay in talks, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would have pulled the plug,” says Jay Solomon, author of the just published Iran Wars, an account of U.S.-Iran relations. “Obama sent a letter to Khamenei saying he wouldn’t target Assad,” Solomon continues. “And Pentagon officials told us they were concerned that operations in Syria risked undermining the nuclear negotiations.”

Former State Department official Frederic C. Hof agrees. “The administration’s policy toward Assad Syria,” writes Hof, “rests on its desire to accommodate Iran—a full partner in Assad’s collective punishment survival strategy—so that the July 14, 2015, nuclear agreement can survive the Obama presidency.”

Hof, the State Department’s point man on Syria until he resigned in 2012 in quiet protest of the White House’s handling of the war, thinks the president should be honest about his decision. Imagining a version of what Obama might have said, Hof writes, in the president’s voice:

What I want people to understand is that I’ve had to make the hardest of calls. I think the nuclear agreement with Iran prevented a war and opens a door. I’m afraid that if I use cruise missiles or supply anti-aircraft weapons to make Assad pay a price for mass murder, Iran’s supreme leader—who sees Assad as an invaluable agent—will scuttle the nuclear deal. I may be wrong, but that’s the call I’ve made.

In short, the Iran deal wasn’t just about limits on uranium enrichment, inspections of nuclear facilities, and sanctions relief, etc., it was also about the Syrian conflict—in particular, about the United States agreeing to step back and let Iran protect its “equities” in Syria, by whatever means its gruesome proxy saw fit.

Continued.....

Here’s Nicholas Kristof shortly after the JCPOA was signed providing the White House with talking points to sell the deal: “If the U.S. rejects this landmark deal, then we get the worst of both worlds: an erosion of sanctions and also an immediate revival of the Iran nuclear program.” Nowhere does he mention the fate of children in Syria. Nor does he in this follow-up with more talking points two weeks later. Recently he wrote an op-ed arguing that Anne Frank today is a Syrian girl—without noting that the Nazi equivalents here are funded and armed by Iran.

Continued......

During U.S.-Iran talks, Wright spent a lot of time speaking with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, whom she says she has known for three decades. She interviewed him several times during negotiations. “Zarif is an affable man with a disarmingly unrevolutionary grin, a quick wit, and the steely tenacity of a debater,” she wrote in a 2014 profile for The New Yorker. But she neglected to ask him about Iran’s war in Syria, which Tehran has been financing since Assad started shooting at unarmed protesters in 2011. Instead, she queried him in a later article about Iran’s potential role in Syrian peace talks. To her credit, she notes that most of the “advisers” Iran has sent to Syria “have been helping the [Assad regime] fight the opposition.” But in her “The Babies Are Dying in Aleppo” article, there is no mention of Iran or its role in helping kill them.

Roger Cohen, who has written several rightly outraged columns the last few years about the administration’s Syria policy, advocated for the Iran deal and criticized those who didn’t as warmongers lined up behind Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It’s no service to Jews or Israel or Middle Eastern peace, for major Jewish organizations,” wrote Cohen, “to give airtime to Netanyahu on Iran rather than Obama. The alternative to this deal, as Obama said, is war.”

For Cohen, it seems the opposite of conflict is cultural exchange and commerce, which is perhaps why he serves as one of the featured tour guides in the Times’ Travels to Persia business. The JCPOA reopened Iran for investment, as Cohen explained, when the deal was implemented in January. “For Iran, the arrival of ‘implementation day’ means the lifting of all nuclear-related sanctions and access to about $100 billion in frozen assets. A big nation is open for business again, back in the global financial system and world oil market.”

Here, Cohen has unintentionally put his finger on why those who supported the Iran deal and criticize Obama’s Syria policy see no connection between the two. It is because business is frequently not the opposite of war. In fact, the reality is that giving money to a state at war means funding that state’s wars.

The reason that so many journalists and opinion-makers of good conscience cannot make the connection between the Iran deal and the Syrian war is because the truth is too awful. The president’s policy is not simply a matter of a lack of vision or political will. The money Iran received through the JCPOA, as well as the $1.7 billion paid in ransom for American hostages, has helped fund Iran’s war in Syria—which the president proclaimed to be Iran’s business and not ours.

Continued......

[OUTLAW 09]

BREAKING: Turkish military takes control of four 'residential areas' in northern Syria - military statement

[OUTLAW 09]

SAMS
✔ @sams_usa We're suspending cooperation w/ the #UN's information sharing program in #Syria. Read more:
http://bit.ly/2ccnDzQ .

Earlier today, a #Russian terror attack hit #Binnish, injuring 5 civilians, incl. 4 women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOFtJ2fVlKk …

Footage
Also just another day of #AssadPutin attacks on peaceful civilians in #Douma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnbg9HIOAEs …

Footage
Air strikes on #Lataminah and many other civilian areas in N #Hama prov. today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K4VD5u9SvE …

Pro-#Assad mappers even claim entire district fell, but I can't see footage of the Sadkop Fuel Depots being taken.

Many source videos.
This one is most evident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJDMQEktYbM …
The "international community's" / #RussianLIE became reality.

Rastan in #Homs, 2 hours ago.
Also here, ongoing #AssadPutin attacks on besieged civilians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxW3Fxuusoo …

Breaking Al-Arabiya TV: Turkish security sources say at least 5 people have been killed in an explosion in the Syrian town of #Jarablus

[OUTLAW 09]

OIR Spokesman Verified account 
‏@OIRSpox
We are working with #Turkey and our SDF partners to come up with a #gameplan for #Raqqa

NOT exactly sure that CETCOM even gets the ongoing TF/FSA "game plan"......

BUT WAIT..is not YPG not suppose to even be in Manbij...????

OIR Spokesman ‏@OIRSpox · Aug 25

The Syrian Democratic Forces have moved east across the Euphrates to prepare for the eventual liberation of Raqqa, Syria

OIR Spokesman ‏@OIRSpox · Aug 25

To clarify: Main element of SDF Manbij liberation force has gone east; some forces remain to finish clearing, IED removal as planned.

EuphratesShield @EuphratesShield
#PresidentErdogan : "If we step back, terrorist organizations such as DAESH, PKK, PYD and YPG will settle there."

[OUTLAW 09]

OIR Spokesman Verified account 
‏@OIRSpox
We are working with #Turkey and our SDF partners to come up with a #gameplan for #Raqqa

NOT exactly sure that CETCOM even gets the ongoing TF/FSA "game plan"......

BUT WAIT..is not YPG not suppose to even be in Manbij...????

OIR Spokesman ‏@OIRSpox · Aug 25

The Syrian Democratic Forces have moved east across the Euphrates to prepare for the eventual liberation of Raqqa, Syria

OIR Spokesman ‏@OIRSpox · Aug 25

To clarify: Main element of SDF Manbij liberation force has gone east; some forces remain to finish clearing, IED removal as planned.

EuphratesShield @EuphratesShield
#PresidentErdogan : "If we step back, terrorist organizations such as DAESH, PKK, PYD and YPG will settle there."

Dozens of #Turkey APCs on railroad towards northern #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Iranian faction among Kurds trained by US against militants
http://wtop.com/government/2016/09/i...nst-militants/ …

[OUTLAW 09]

24 pro Russian attacks yesterday, mortars and even artillery was used on #Shyrokyne

The so called Russian proposed ceasefire "within" the already existing Minsk 2 ceasefire is now virtually non existent....just as are the so called Russian "regimes of silence, 48 hour" and other Russian described "ceasefires" within the Geneva CoH.....

Anyone see a Russian pattern here...evidently not the Obama WH....

Kerry & #Lavrov finally set to meet in #Geneva w/ US barely able to hide doubts Russia will respect terms of any ceasefire deal in #Syria

[OUTLAW 09]

Appears that now the Syrian opposition is shifting to IS tactics.....namely guerrilla warfare which is where they should have been all along as they have the tactical advantage in most areas....and the Assad regime is dependent on long logistics lines...

Aleppo. As Rebels failed 2 hold static fronts a reshaping of overall strategy will use more guerilla tactics 2 exhaust pro-Regime forces & avoid massive #RuAF airstrikes by increasing hit & run attacks, ambushes, IEDs, #ATGM strikes, infiltration ops & snipers deployment.

The RuAF cannot air strike what they cannot see....and they have missed a large number of opposition force deployments...

[OUTLAW 09]

Nearly 80 of Aqrab town, #Daraa is displaced due to constant shelling and air strikes by Russian air force.
https://youtu.be/o8NcpNL-uxw

Khan Shaykhun, #Idlib this morning. Child killed and his family injured by airstrikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MiQ_X9DYgo …

Even more children and women are being killed daily by the Russian air strikes and all Kerry does is talk.....as he wants to "test how serious the Russians are about talking it appears"....

For Thursday, 8 Sept, the LCC documented 42 martyrs in #Syria, incl. 5 children, 2 women, and 2 tortured.
https://www.facebook.com/LCCSy/posts/1489917881035343 …