Hassan Hassan @hxhassanOriginally Posted by OUTLAW 09
A call by 40 influential individuals to put an end to the "dispute" between Jabhat al-Nusra & Jaish al-Tahrir #Idlib
Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
Reverting to guerilla roots? I said exactly that in March, here
(https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/...611892224?s=09 …)...
http://www.thenational.ae/world/midd...s-us-commander
ISIL may be reverting to its ‘terrorist roots’, says US commander
May 18, 2016 Updated: May 18, 2016 07:09 PM
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, GERMANY // A series of deadly attacks by ISIL operatives in and around Baghdad may be a sign that the militants are “reverting to their roots" as a terrorist organisation, the top US commander for the Middle East said on Wednesday.
Army Gen Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, said this does not mean ISIL has given up its ambition to create a so-called caliphate. However, he said, it marks a new turn in tactics aimed at diverting attention from the group’s recent battlefield losses.
Gen Votel said the attacks that have rocked Baghdad over the past week – killing upward of 200 civilians – are an illustration of the dynamic nature of the war.
“We have to respect our enemies and respect their ability to adapt and adjust on the battlefield," he said, speaking to reporters while travelling to the Middle East.
“In this regard, some of the attacks we’re seeing in Baghdad – I think we are seeing a manifestation of that. We are seeing them see opportunities and take advantage of those opportunities," he added.
“I think they believe it will cause the Iraqi government to divert forces, divert effort, divert intellectual horsepower to solving those problems" as opposed to priorities like recapturing the ISIL stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq. His visit this week to the region comes amid concern about the slow pace of Iraqi military operations to recapture Mosul.
Now that ISIL has lost 40 per cent or more of the terrain it once controlled in Iraq, “they may be reverting in some regards back to their terrorist roots", he said.
The increase in attacks coincides with a political crisis over prime minister Haider Al Abadi’s efforts to replace the current cabinet.
The crisis has paralysed the legislature for weeks, and demonstrators angered by lawmakers’ lack of progress stormed parliament last month.
Gen Votel said he sees reason for “a little concern" about political paralysis that has gripped the Iraq government in recent weeks.
Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the international operation against ISIL, cited the group’s battlefield setbacks as the primary motivation for the increase in Baghdad attacks.
But he also said that ISIL may see political turmoil in the capital as “an opportunity they can try to exploit using truck bombs".
At least 69 people were killed on Tuesday in a wave of bombings claimed by ISIL that struck outdoor markets and a restaurant in Shiite-dominated neighbourhoods of Baghdad.
The deadliest of the recent attacks were triple car bombings that hit Baghdad last Thursday which killed at least 94 people.
“Baghdad is now being targeted because the group is on the defensive and they can still hurt the government in their capital," said Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer who is now with The Soufan Group consultancy
Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
A call by 40 influential individuals to put an end to the "dispute" between Jabhat al-Nusra & Jaish al-Tahrir #Idlib
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...egional-crises
UAE shows the way to deal with regional crises
Hassan Hassan
July 3, 2016
BUT WAIT the Obama\Rhodes WH policy in fighting IS was what again????......not doing any "stupid ####".....Since late 2013, two main regional blocs have competed over how to deal with the rise of extremist forces in Syria. The policy in Syria today seems to have finally settled in favour of one of the arguments.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, on one hand, favoured a twin policy of fighting extremist factions at the same time as battling the regime of Bashar Al Assad. Turkey and Qatar, on the other hand, pushed for toppling Mr Al Assad first. They argued that it would be easier to build a local, regional and international consensus to fight extremists after the downfall of the regime. With varying success, the two sides competed to advance their visions on the ground in Syria and in policy circles outside it.
Around this time in 2013, Jabhat Al Nusra had already revealed its links to Al Qaeda after two years of acting as a local Syrian group with a jihadist bent. ISIL began to establish a foothold for itself in much of Syria, mostly focusing on policing rebel-held areas. Syrian Islamist groups then began discussions to form a unified front. By the end of the year, Islamist and jihadist forces became the main players in rebel-held Syria.
At the beginning of 2014, clashes erupted between the rebel forces and ISIL. This continued until the summer, when the latter took over #Mosul and returned to Syria with a vengeance – eventually controlling about half of the country.
Two summers later, it should be clear that the twin policy of fighting the regime and extremists would have a better chance of working. Today, the two superpowers involved in the Syrian conflict are getting closer to working together to defeat ISIL and Jabhat Al Nusra, after American president Barack Obama reportedly proposed a partnership with Moscow against the Al Qaeda affiliate. Turkey’s policy in Syria was also widely criticised after last Tuesday’s terror attacks inside Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, with many saying that the attacks were payback for neglecting the growing presence of extremists in Syria.
The lesson that must be drawn from how the situation developed in Syria is that the twin policy is more effective. But there is an inherent issue with counterterrorism efforts in the region, often because they have been largely led by the United States, or because operations show little regard for local sensitivities or aspirations. Shifting politics in Washington may also undermine ongoing efforts and therefore perpetuate or exacerbate the problem. So, the apparent solution is for regional countries to take on the task.
This is where the UAE comes in. On Tuesday, Reuters published a detailed account of the Emirati special forces’ counterterrorism mission in southern Yemen – an operation that turned out to be more extensive and impressive than initially made out in media. An Emirati eight-person special forces team landed in Yemen in April 2015 and began to train Yemeni soldiers. The UAE teams trained a 2,000-strong force that drove the Houthi rebels from Aden last July, and further 4,000 forces to run the newly captured city. The UAE special forces then began to prepare for the Mukalla operation which culminated with driving out Al Qaeda.
A US official told the agency that some in Washington had doubted the UAE’s sincerity in attacking Al Qaeda in the port city of Al Mukalla. But the Pentagon deployed a small number of military personnel to help in the fight after an evacuation in early 2015, according to Reuters, in a possible sign of increasing US willingness to re-engage on the ground.
“Whether there’s secession or not, the south is in the hands of its sons and that was made possible by the coalition countries," Mahmoud Al Salmi, a professor at Aden University, said.
What makes the UAE’s mission particularly significant is that the effort is conducted by local forces and led by a regional country with a long-term commitment to the neighbourhood’s stability. This aspect is critical for any counterterrorism effort. While locals who want to expel extremist forces from their areas often seek support from the US, long-term commitment weighs heavily in their calculation. This dynamic is felt in Iraq, Syria and other countries where extremists dominate.
Local tribes or insurgents would rather strike temporary alliances with extremists, even though they could defeat them with some help from the US, because they know the US commitment is often fickle but extremists always come back. That is a lesson many have learnt from the Iraq war, when the people of Anbar joined forces with the American troops to expel the predecessor of ISIL from their areas between 2005 and 2010. The US withdrew from Iraq and left them to deal with an increasingly sectarian government in Baghdad and a growing jihadist force in their midst.
Today, many seek US support but they also want a regional guarantor of long-term commitment. The UAE offers an example of what that commitment looks like.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-04-2016 at 11:15 PM. Reason: Remove odd symbols before copying to Yemen thread.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...2552&tid=ss_tw
By Josh Rogin
July 3 at 7:18 PM
The U.S.-Russia relationship is too big to fail, but it’s failing.
The Obama administration came into office with a big idea about this relationship: that these two world powers must work together on areas of mutual interest even if they still worked against each other where their interests diverged. The concept was sound, but as relations have deteriorated and Russia has taken a more antagonistic stance, the United States has failed to adapt.
Last week’s revelation that the administration is proposing increased military cooperation with Russia in Syria, in exchange for Russian agreement to abide by the cease-fire it had already agreed to, was a stark example of how the administration’s theory about how to work with Russia is being misapplied on the ground. Washington is offering Moscow both a reprieve from the political and military isolation it imposed after the invasion of Ukraine — and a reward for taking unilateral military action designed to undermine U.S. policy in Syria.
The White House and the State Department believe that the only way to make progress in Syria is to work with Moscow, even if that means setting the isolation effort to one side. That makes some sense, but only if Russia actually honors its agreements in Syria and makes progress toward resolving the Ukraine crisis.
But neither of these things is happening. Ukraine’s recently departed prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, told me last week that while Russia has successfully distracted the world from the Ukraine crisis, the Russian military continues a medium-boil military campaign in violation of the Minsk agreement.
“Every single day they kill Ukrainian soldiers, every single day the death toll is rising, every single day we’ve got civilian casualties. There is no cease-fire on the ground,” he said.
To Yatsenyuk, Russian President Vladi#mir Putin’s strategy is clear. Russia will pretend to work with Western powers and even strike deals when the deals are sweet enough. But by selectively violating the agreements while manipulating other governments and the media, Putin will continue to make steady progress toward his anti-Western, anti-democratic objectives. For Yatsenyuk, there’s simply no way to work constructively with the current Kremlin.
“I don’t believe that you can agree on anything substantial with the Russian Federation because the U.S. is an enemy to the Russian Federation in their view,” he said. “They can have talks, they can have debates, they can even agree on some non-existential issues. But there is an existential difference. These are just two different worlds.”
The United States cannot afford to write off the U.S.-Russia relationship. There is truth to the argument that the world’s most pressing problems, including Islamic extremism, cannot be solved without some Russian involvement. But Washington cannot ignore Russia’s increasingly horrendous behavior. Russia’s dangerous military maneuvers near U.S. ships are now regular occurrences. Russian harassment and intimidation of U.S. diplomats across Europe is at an all-time high. Russian government cyberespionage and propaganda campaigns have run amok.
“The fact is, they are engaged in a new global Cold War against the U.S.,” said Samuel Charap, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “There’s absolutely no question about that. We have this festering wound on the relationship that nobody on the U.S. side is spending much time trying to fix.”
The United States has complicated relationships with lots of problematic countries. China, for example, is internally repressive and externally aggressive, but there’s no thought of cutting off relations with Beijing. Similarly, the policy of isolating Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine has limits. Russia was determined not to cave to sanctions, and if the recent vote in the French senate is any indication, the sanctions regime will not last forever.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-04-2016 at 05:46 PM.
Kyle W. Orton @KyleWOrton
Anyone know any more about this?
http://bit.ly/29bJu8U
Syria|YPG chief commander flees to Germany w/his lover
BUT WAIT....I thought they were a US Kurdish Proxy?????The Chief Commander of the YPG was arrested after being discovered to have married illegally, in breach of the internal rules that doesn’t allow him to marry , by Rydor Khalil personnally and was jailed in Qartashuk. Then he was sent on a tour of repentence in Qandil and returned to his village Yarmji in Derbasiya countryside.
After stealing 700 millions sp, he fled to Turkey and then to Germany with his lover. He left the militia. Rynas Ruz is considered to be one of its most important founder. He was replaced by al Haffal Syamin.
Another YPG responsible in al Hassakeh, Muhammad Issa, fled after stealing 90 millions sp to Kurdistan Irak.
Khamenei: Iran will never coordinate with the US on Syria. Those seeking ties with the West "have lost their minds".
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/2...th-us-on-syria …
CrowBat...any idea just how many SA8 missiles JaI has left????
Confirmed by proAssad\Putin supporter.......
Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta MiG-23 was Shot down by a Anti Aircraft Missile. Pilot Shawkat Suleiman announced Dead
Ivan Sidorenko @IvanSidorenko1
#Syria #Damascus #EastGhouta #EasternGhouta Pilot Shawkat Suleiman was From #Banias - MiG 23 shot down today.
Manbij: #ISIS has captured #Al_Mankubah village north of #Manbij from #YPG today.
Palmyra: #ISIS advancing east of #Palmyra Airport & southwest of #Palmyra at #Jabal_Hayyanah after heavy clashes with pro-#Assad forces.
Hasakah: 7+ pro-#Assad forces and 2+ #YPG militias were killed in #Hasakah today. Dozens more were wounded.
Hasakah: #ISIS VBIED has killed several #YPG militias southeast of #Shaddadi.
DeirEzzor: #Assad regime arrested 50+ youths today and forcing them to fight against #ISIS.
A Russian military observation blimp has been tethered over Hmeymim, previously there were 2 in Palmyra
Manbij: #ISIS has launched new massive attacks against #YPG north of #Manbij this evening.
A newly released IS video of Shaer features the exact same T-72s that also took part in the Tabqa counterattack.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-04-2016 at 07:31 PM.
European Parliament
✔ @Europarl_EN 100,000 ISIS tweets a day: how EU can tackle radicalisation & online propaganda
http://bit.ly/29e3TuD
Europol
✔ @Europol Europol Deputy Director Wil van Gemert on how we tackle online #terrorist & violent extremist propaganda
https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/stat...30459518251008 …
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-04-2016 at 07:35 PM.
Faylaq Al-Sham took out with an #ATGM an armored bulldozer near Al-Hader, S. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMit9tHWiOw …
First Coastal Division blew up with a #TOW a bulldozer on Tell Bashoura front, N. #Latakia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX_SG6ZSUMg …
Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-05-2016 at 10:39 AM. Reason: remove duplicate
From proAssad commenter...
Inside the airbase that held out against #ISIS for 2 years
#Syria #Aleppo
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a7117431.html …
SAA is in a real mess in #Latakia,with insurgents attacking the entire frontline form the Turkish border to Kabanah.
With such a lenghty &bloody fight,#SAA gained very little in N. #Aleppo battle,having a fragile control of Al-Isamat &Northern Mallah farms.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-05-2016 at 06:58 AM.
From yesterday........LLC lists 39 killed.....
19 martyrs in Aleppo
7 in Raqqa
5 in Damascus
3 in Idlib
2 in Hama
2 in Deir Ezzour
1 in Daraa
1 in Homs
Heaviest battles accompanied with big explosions in all fronts around #Manbij now.
Heavy Coalition airstrikes targeting #IS as well.
Rebel offensive in #Latakia - July 4, 2016 #Syria
#Jaish_alFatah vs. #SAA
HD: http://newsmap.pl/news/ofensywa-rebe...2016#news-9446 …
Front is stabilizing in N. #Latakia: Rebels repelled pro-Assad attempt to reach #Kinsabba outskirts but didn't manage to capture Burj Bayda.
The use of the B9 recoilless rifle as a standoff weapon.....notice the weapon was totally new...not a scratch on the green paint.
https://youtu.be/z9sZGXMFaS0
Omar al Suri's gutsy reporting from #Salma outskirts. #Lattakia
https://youtu.be/s03iPaCQteM
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-05-2016 at 07:14 AM.
After capturing Shaer gas field, #IS destroyed the facility in a controlled demolition w/ IEDs
Since more than a month, thousands of pro-Assad troops and the Russian air force have only one goal: Too cut off & besiege E Aleppo city.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians WILL be trapped.
The EU&US SEES this happening and says / does nothing.
Little room for interpretation...BUT WAIT the Obama/Rhodes WH does not want to do anything remotely appearing to be "stupid".....
APPEARS the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes the Russian Ambassador to Syria when he states Assad does not want to capture Aleppo.....YES he does as it is the second largest city on Syria....AND if the Obama/Rhodes WH truly believes him then I have an entire desert I can sell to the WH...
Syria yesterday
The same procedure as ever day from #Aleppo to #Rastan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO17PBAlPV4 …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9zgdHb29Y …
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-05-2016 at 07:41 AM.
While the entire West and the Obama WH talks about IS attacks on the West...we tend to forget this simple basic fact.......
Jordan
Lebanon
Turkey
Bangladesh
Iraq
Syria
Saudi Arabia
Libya
Nigeria
Yemen
Afghanistan
Egypt & more...
IS Attacks/Kills Muslims
Reports from Kafranabel:
Jabhat al-Nusra has agreed to release Jaish al-Tahrir leader Mohammed al-Ghabi.
IS names suicide-killer who attacked YPG north of #Manbij: Qaswarah al-Maghribi, a German.
IS claim they have killed twenty SDF/YPG fighters around #Manbij with a suicide bomber.
Levant front footage of them fighting to capture al-Raeh from IS in North Aleppo. Go pro tank footage.
https://youtu.be/wJBWoFLY-eI
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-05-2016 at 07:54 AM.
Iraiq Shia cleric but self-styled secular has a theory about what produces a suicide bomber: homosexuality + Quran:
New profile-Mustafa Sejari-compelling #Syrian rebel commander+leader of vital US-backed anti #ISIS group in #Aleppo http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_...e#.V3uo_sspDqB …
NOW English @NOW_eng
Hezbollah’s mounting losses in Aleppo #Syria
http://mme.cm/1FBW00
CrowBat.....what do you think.....??
'Admiral Kuznetsov’ could be preparing for war in Syria
https://warisboring.com/russias-crea...e4bbcf83bb---4 …
Iran saying since May it has info its 4 diplomats abducted in Lebanon in '82 in Israel prison. (info maybe from Lebanese allies) now Iran MP says Israel relayed message to Hezbollah, allegedly holding European POWs from Aleppo battles, willing to discuss a deal and peripherally, has it been suggested that austin tice is being held by some hezbollah allied group? (pro assad militia)?
Based on timelines/intvws I read it was, initially, Iran's Intel efforts hinting they are alive. Possible things moved after that.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 07-05-2016 at 01:32 PM.
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