Just another #Assad Il-76 to deliver arms from Iran to Syria.
Only one of 5-10 cargo flights per day in the #SyriaExpress.
French FM @jeanmarcayrault will be at #UNSC Saturday for vote on resolution to stop bombing Aleppo reports #AFP'sOriginally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Kyle W. Orton @KyleWOrton
In tandem with the fierce - and I do mean caustic - tweetstorm AMB Power has up her sleeve, this is a game-changer. #Aleppo is saved.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-07-2016 at 06:05 PM.
Overheard at the Pentagon: "The 'Yes We Can' crowd has become the 'But we won't 'cause its hard,'" Syria
Reports that Jund al-Aqsa has executed multiple Ahrar al-Sham prisoners in KafrSajna in #Idlib & attacked an Ahrar hospital in #Hama
Should always read @aaronstein1 + @RaoKomar747
What Can Turkey’s Intervention In Syria Really Achieve?
http://bit.ly/2dEVAeT#
Russia Today....
Like in #Daraya, I guess ...
Or in Talbisah, Da'el, Tal Rifat or al-Waer?! ...
RT lies again as there have never been any so called joint law and order bodies.....ALL and I mean ALL Sunni's where ethnically cleansed and their personal property looted by Assad regime troops....THAT is the reality....
There is not a single IS fighter inside eastern Aleppo and about roughly 800 JFS out of an estimated 10,000 opposition fighters....SO what the heck is RT talking about?????
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-07-2016 at 06:17 PM.
SMO Syria estimates for pro-regime forces killed in the month of September
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7pRxXqU5Vc#…
Community Kitchen in Aleppo moves its operations after Russian warplanes destroyed their building
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sahbUSI8z9w#…
Central districts of Rastan, #Homs being targeted by airstrikes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FL9WMbInIg#…
Two airstrikes hit #Rastan neighborhoods earlier today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmqg-6JkmdE#…
Aftermath of a strike on Rastan, #Homs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMlcYN7-BQ#…
no one was injured in the strike.
Moutasim Brigade footage from the capture of Akhtarin, #Aleppo #Euphrates_shield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95gtnIXZlbQ#…
First Regiment targeting pro-regime forces in Sheikh Saeed front, #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuCdUnkDiFI#…
First Regiment firing hell cannons at pro-regime militias on Sheikh Saeed front
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3bSsQSkhRE#…
Smoke rises over Dael, #Daraa after 3 airstrikes hit the town
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYhplX8wofs#…
Smoke rising after airstrikes hit Talbiseh, #Homs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNLYiquAQ7o#…
Jaish al Nasr firing on regime forces in E. #Hama who were trying to advance in the area
https://youtu.be/tmUntGBnO0w
Leader of Fastaqem Union @fko_union gives a speech about #Aleppo and defending it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q8kNdmLyQg#…
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-07-2016 at 06:40 PM.
Khan Sheikh in #Damascus countryside being hit by a barrel bomb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu_UcwWQxIs#…
Levant Front footage of rebel taking Akhtarin, Northern #Aleppo earlier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xfTK0xU9v4#…
200,000 killed in 50 years of FARC. Russian military killed more than that in Chechnya in a 10th of the time.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2016/...yQ0VuXC9FPSJ9#
…
AND yet the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH seems to think they can negotiate with Putin to stop his deliberate killing of civilians.......what planet are they on these days because it sure is not "earth".....the deliberate destruction by Russian forces is the same exact method used in both Chechen wars.....exact same methods.....
Former @CIA Director: 1st time US "publicly accused another country of trying to interfere in our elections" #Russia
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/1...crisis-229298#
…
THE core question will be JUST what is the US response under the Obama WH...probably nothing as it has been with the constant Russian violations of Minsk 2 and the Syrian CoH and Russian killing of civilians....
WHY do I ask....the following comment sums it up.....Russia is still deliberately killing Syrians and the US just talks, and talks, and talks,,,,,
The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef
Mahmoud Al Muhammad killed today in Daraa after responding to bombing of civilians leaving Friday prayers.
IT is great that Kerry uses the words "war crimes" in the same sentence as Russia BUT as long as the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH is totally unwilling to enforce those words...in the end they are just empty words.....
STRATCOMCOE @STRATCOMCOE
A great #Lithuanian documentary 'WAR 2020 #Russia's #information #aggression' by Martynas Starkus and Jonas Banys
http://bit.ly/1osDL6T
Stop Fake @StopFakingNews
Russia's information aggression - watch full movie
http://www.stopfake.org/en/war-2020-...n-aggression/#
…
BREAKING: over a dozen Syrian rebel groups declare war on Jund al-Aqsa jihadists after clashes with Ahrar
More than 50 armed opposition groups have joined &/or expressed support for Ahrar al-Sham’s offensive vs. Jund al-Aqsa in #Idlib.
Fateh_Halab announces that they will fully support #Ahrar_Al_Sham in there ongoing Fight with #Jund_Al_Aqsa
Opposition factions in North of Syria unite in one side against Jund Aqsa jihadist group; listing it as pro-#ISIS group.
Jaish al-Islam has dispatched reinforcements from #Aleppo & #Latakia to bolster the offensive vs. Jund al-Aqsa.
[Despite JFS talks]
Flashback:
April, when the admin last pretended it had a Plan B: worked it out with allies, White House vetoed.
http://on.wsj.com/25YBq4t#
Russia has seized the advantage in #Syria: neutralized Turkey, outmaneuvered the West, writes @hxhassan
http://timep.org/commentary/a-breakt...gime-in-syria/
By: Hassan Hassan
10-07-2016
More than a year into the Russian intervention in Syria, the long-term impact of the involvement has remained constant since the first two months of the campaign: the removal of Bashar al-Assad’s government has become untenable.
The Russian campaign has been more successful than many observers anticipated in ensuring the regime does not lose. It has also been too limited to turn the tables and enable a regime victory, an outcome defined as the takeover of the country, the surrender of the rebels, or the stability of what the regime currently holds. However, two recent developments appear to help the regime and its Russian backers achieve the breakthrough in northern Syria they have sought since launching the mission last year.
The first development was the Turkish-backed operation to fight the Islamic State in the eastern countryside of Aleppo on August 23 this year. When the operation started, Moscow issued a three-paragraph statement that situated the Turkish operation in its narrow context of being directed at the Islamic State and Syrian Kurdish militias.
The Russian foreign ministry expressed concerns about the development and the prospect of greater civilian losses and heightened ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds.#The ministry made no mention of concerns related to the regime, a clear indication that Moscow did not oppose the operation but reserved the right to retract its tacit approval. Russia, as well as Iran and the regime in Damascus, was increasingly worried about the ambitions of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its militia—the People’s Protection Units or YPG—as the Kurdish group was poised to play an even greater role in the fight against the Islamic State in three provinces in northern Syria.
The Turkish incursion into northern and eastern Syria serves as a check on Kurdish expansion in that region.
Due to mutual understanding or alignment of interests, Russia avoided confrontation with Turkey. And Turkey reciprocated. During the vicious Russian onslaught on Aleppo over the past few weeks, Ankara uncharacteristically avoided hostile rhetoric against Moscow. Despite pleas by the opposition for regional backers to act against the intensification of the airstrikes, the response from Ankara was that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would make a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to revive a failed U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan.
Such a position by Turkey is uncharacteristic. Even though Turkish officials have demonstrated an inclination toward diplomacy since the botched coup, their relative silence over Aleppo raised eyebrows among its proxies and supporters in the region.
There have been even rumors that Turkey struck a deal with Russia that involves the abandonment of Aleppo in exchange for a free hand in eastern Syria.
The reality is that, while Turkey is still committed to the rebel groups that it supports in Aleppo and Idlib, Russia has pined after Turkey’s military involvement inside the country. Turkey has hardly any countermeasure other than to seek a diplomatic understanding with Russia to deescalate the situation in Aleppo.
The presence of both countries in the north, as I argued in August, has changed the state of play in that region. Russia knows that Turkey prefers to avoid confrontation because Russia can make Turkey’s task against the Islamic State and the YPG significantly harder.
For example, the regime’s forces are only six miles away from the Islamic State stronghold of al-Bab, much closer than the rebels some 20 miles away. Al-Bab is a key town for the YPG, which seeks to use it to link its cantons east of the Euphrates with other areas of control in the northwest via Manbij, which it helped liberate in August, an event that triggered the Turkish intervention. If the rebels take al-Bab, they will face the YPG west of the town and the regime to its south.
Turkey finds itself compelled to strike a balance between committing to the welfare of its proxies in Aleppo and Idlib and avoiding a confrontation with Russia. The delicate balance is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, and thus Turkey has no moves other than to seek deescalation diplomatically.
At the same time, Turkey has to preserve the strength of allied groups in the north. Rebel allies are an important source of influence in future Syria regardless of how the situation develops and, more importantly, they remain a vital piece for Turkey’s chess game in the event that Russia changes its calculations in northern Syria. Russia too will continue to maintain links with the YPG even as it seeks to check their ambitions.
America Grasping at Straws
The picture for the Syrian rebels in the north seems bleaker if the Turkish dilemma is viewed alongside the weakened American hand in the same region, the second development in recent weeks. An indication of how the situation has devolved is that despite the Russian onslaught on Aleppo over the past few weeks, both Washington and Ankara have been proven powerless.
Threats by Washington to sever diplomatic channels with Russia fell on deaf ears in Moscow. On Monday, the United States finally announced certain lines of communication with Russia would be suspended, after the ceasefire agreement the two countries reached last month failed to take hold. Earlier, even as the Syrian regime declared the end of the ceasefire, Washington desperately insisted the deal was still on. Secretary of State John Kerry had dismissed the remarks from Damascus and said the agreement was reached with Moscow, not the regime.
Despite attempts by Washington to persuade the Russians to comply with the terms, including the delivery of aid and cessation of air raids against opposition areas, no progress was made. Tension reached a high point when Russia reportedly struck an aid convoy, and the U.S. mistakenly targeted dozens of regime soldiers in the city of Deir Ezzor. The U.S. still hopes to revive the ceasefire deal, which involves a joint campaign to strike Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the idea of strikes against the Syrian regime was back on the table on Wednesday, with more officials showing support for the kinetic effort to prevent the fall of Aleppo. On the same day, Turkey and Russia also discussed the prospect of deescalation in a telephone conversation between the presidents of the two countries, and further discussions are expected when the two presidents meet on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Istanbul next week.
Notwithstanding discussions of a military course, the Obama administration’s ultimate objective is still to revive the deal with Moscow.
Russia, meanwhile, knows the constraints and priorities of the two rivals in northern Syria. For Turkey, the priority is to prevent the PYD from connecting its cantons in the north and to fight the Islamic State. The regime factors later in Turkey’s calculations today. Crucially, Turkey also finds itself in a new reality where it has to maintain a level of calm with Russia, especially as the two countries work to improve their bilateral relations.
For the United States, the priorities continue to be the Islamic State and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Russia’s operations are concentrated in the north, where the front’s influence is mostly concentrated. This means that if the U.S. wants to fight Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, it has to reach a deeper understanding with Russia than the existing deconfliction procedures that exist in eastern and northeastern Syria, where the regime has little to no presence.
Russia finds itself in an optimal position of leverage against the only two countries that can make a substantive difference for the rebels in northern Syria. Both the United States and Turkey have clear priorities that do not involve the regime and their hands are tied by the need to maintain a certain balance with Russia. This new reality opens new possibilities for the Russian involvement in Syria unconceivable some months ago.
EU Mythbusters
✔
@EUvsDisinfo
What is the price of disinformation? Journalists in RU national pro-government media get paid well:
http://eepurl.com/ciMedb
Syria #Idlib: Battles ongoing between Opposition factions (led by Ahrar-Sham) & Jund Aqsa; mainly in Ablin, Sarmin and Khan Shaykhun.
Apparently the mediation didn't work & a decision has been made by Ahrar/FSA to make an example out of Jund al-Aqsa & send a message to IS.
According to local activists, Ahrar expelled Jund from Ariha in Idleb & massing to storm JAA positions in Khan Shaykhoun, Kafr Zita & Morek.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-08-2016 at 01:10 PM.
Assad forces captured a number of villages in northern #Hama province, reversing recent rebel gains.
Footage
#Russian cluster bomb attack south west of #Damascus last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uVa1cqbtMA#…
Footage
Air strikes on #Morek and other northern #Hama towns now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl-KpZj4TsQ#…
Huge #ISIS counteroffensive north of #Aleppo.
Rebels and the Turkish army lost #Akhtarin and 4 more villages.
In the meantime all villages and Akhtarin have been recaptured by FSA and the TAF......
Also in #Quneitra province, the targeted #AssadPutin air strikes on medical facilities continue.
2 km from the border w/ #Israel ...
Idlib province this morning.
#AssadPutin air strikes continue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOkAvcNID2w#…
Urum al-Kubrah after 24 more hours of severe #Russian air strikes on the town, just 12 km west of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3-vodbXTyc#…
Footage
#Russian Su-34 bombs suburbs of #Aleppo - today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XOyQmtpzco#…
I think we now have the perfect example of the Obama/Kerry two step dance they perform when trying to avoid doing anything.....
New York Times World
✔
@nytimesworld
John Kerry calls for war crimes investigation of Russia and Assad government
http://nyti.ms/2dTDs4E
BUT WAIT...during the DoS press conference yesterday the DoS spokesperson stated...Kerry does not know of any Russian war crimes"......
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