Rebel response-----Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
But a presidential vote was held just in June last year, with Assad re-elected for a seven-year term with 88.7 percent of the vote.
That election was dismissed as a "farce" by the opposition and its supporters, with voting held only in government-controlled areas and millions of the displaced and refugees unable to vote.
It is unclear whether new elections could be held under different circumstances, and Syria's opposition has already said holding a vote now would be absurd.
"The Russians are ignoring the real facts on the ground, with millions who have been displaced inside and outside Syria, where cities are destroyed every day," said Samir Nashar of the Syrian National Coalition opposition group.
"What elections are they talking about holding under such circumstances?"
Assad army and Russians pounding Salma village in Akrad Mount #Latakia with 10s of rockets.
Another 3 soldiers and a colonel in the regime forces killed in Lattakia’s mountains
RuAF attack Hayyan NW #Aleppo with cluster bombs. @SyriaCivilDef secure unexploded munition.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36...59631&z=13&m=b …
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 02:22 PM.
Crow Bat--can you confirm??? He had been reported killed also two weeks ago as well.
Reportedly "Abu Omar TOW" Ex Hazzm & famous #FSA Soqur al-Ghab TOW ATGM operator was killed in #Ghab plain today.
The fallen hero is famous for his TOW hit blown 3 regime technicals in Muhambel. RIP champ.
https://youtu.be/MgILmRrqJS0
Would be interested if he was killed--just how? IE was the TOW team itself targeted, ambushed or was he hit in an artillery attack???
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 02:25 PM.
Hama Rebels blow up caterpillar near Khirbat al-Naqus /Ghab plain with TOW
Several #Assad-forces killed this morning at entrances to
Ter Maela this morning during heavy clashes http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34...08970&z=15&m=b …
Blackout in entire #Aleppo city after #Russia'n airstrike hit power line near Zerbeh http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36...72942&z=13&m=b …
Homs Clashes & airstrikes continues around Ter Maela
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klEPQKa9zmo …
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34...11202&z=15&m=b …
Rebels give al-Nusra full control of operation rooms in southern Aleppo a day after ISIS advances there
If hospitals aren’t being targeted by Russian/Assad jets then its car bombs. 1 exploded near a field hospital last night in Tafas, #Daraa
Footage from today of Assad's accomplishments in the #Damascus suburb of #Douma. #Syria
http://youtu.be/EYRq8pYJDC8
Breaking / #Battle_for_Shingal: a large #YPG convoy with heavy military equipment arrived in #Sinune, N#Shingal
pic.twitter.com/rMr4VIitzN
Syria Medical Group Issues Video Of Russian Attack On Hospital
http://go.shr.lc/1MjPjDx
Looks like an Il-20 "Coot" was filmed over Eastern Ghouta, #Syria, via @2Rook14
pic.twitter.com/LQm6SkuWmY
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 03:00 PM.
Bad weather in #Syria today & for next days
Heavy fighting continues in Sahl al-Ghab as regime tries to retake Mansoura & Tal Wasit under 10s of Russian airstrikes.
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 02:43 PM.
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/ov...y-benefit-isil
Overextension by the Kurds will only benefit ISIL
Hassan Hassan
October 25, 2015
Ever since they expelled ISIL from Tal Abyad in mid-June, Syria’s Kurds have been at the centre of many rumours. In particular, there has been talk of upcoming battles against ISIL in northern Syria, including Kurdish-Russian cooperation.
The idea of a Kurdish-led offensive to capture Raqqa has been widely discussed in policy circles in western capitals in recent weeks. The idea has became more relevant since the Russian intervention, which many thought would include a campaign to retake Palmyra so Moscow could have a public-relations win over the US.
Fighting between ISIL and the Kurdish and Shia militias has become less intense in recent months. ISIL has turned to low-scale attacks in vulnerable or less strategic areas to avoid air attacks, primarily in Syria where the Russian air campaign has targeted groups that fight on two fronts against the Assad regime and ISIL.
This new reality, along with the recent breakthrough between Ankara and Washington about a Kurdish role in the war, spurred talk of a major offensive against ISIL in northern Syria, building on the success in Tal Abyad. The fact that the Kurds control key areas near ISIL heartlands in both Iraq and Syria, and that Syrian rebels have all but vanished from eastern Syria, leaves the Kurds and the regime as the only forces that could potentially provide ground troops for any air campaign.
Senior American officials have privately indicated that, while Shia militias have become weary and less incentivised to fight ISIL in Iraq, the Kurds have emerged as the mainstay in the US effort against ISIL in the two countries. This fact led to immense pressure on Turkey to ease the provision of logistics and training to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and their Arab allies, often referred to as “Kurdified Arabs”.
As a result, Turkey agreed in July to let US jets use the southern Incirlik airbase. On the insistence of Turkey and under pressure from the US, the YPG agreed to limit their military activities to east of the Euphrates river, something that apparently ended talks about Turkish-enforced ISIL-free zones from Aleppo to the Kurdish-controlled areas in the north-east.
To maximise their gains, the YPG have decided to take on ISIL in its own heartlands with the help of Arab insurgent and tribal factions – supposedly with a 50:50 ratio of Kurdish and Arab fighters. Regardless of whether there is indeed a plan for a Kurdish-led offensive in Raqqa, the idea clearly has the approval of some in the West.
But the proposal is as dangerous as it is fanciful. The idea appears to be more of an attempt to make political gains than a sound military strategy. It ignores both the tensions that could generate more support for ISIL and the military limits for such a major offensive.
ISIL, for example, controls southern Hasaka and has demonstrated its ability to revitalise fronts against the Kurds in the rest of the province when the latter make a move against it. The YPG have repeatedly attacked ISIL’s strongholds in southern Hasaka, primarily Shaddadi and Al Houl, with no success, even though they have some territorial advantage relative to the one in Raqqa. Also, the Kurds have to balance their capabilities in areas they control in Hasaka and the Arab demographic under their control that might play against them if they overreach.
The Kurds benefit from their presence on the two sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border (such as Al Malikiyah, or Dayrik, in Syria, and Rabiaa in Iraq) to defend those areas, but the situation is fluid. Similar to the regime-rebel dynamic in Aleppo, where a military stalemate has been established because both the regime and the rebels could open new frontiers if the other party attacks in a certain area, ISIL could stage attacks in Kurdish areas in Hasaka.
That is a risk the Kurds might not take since they know that Arab forces would control Raqqa if ISIL leaves, while they could control areas in Hasaka, which is part of their self-rule project.
Beside the military limitations, tensions caused by widespread belief that Kurdish militias have an expansionist project in northern and eastern Syria – exacerbated by recent incidents of ethnic cleansing as documented by Amnesty International this month – complicate any Kurdish-led effort outside Kurdish or mixed areas.
As the anti-ISIL coalition debates the merit of such attacks, ISIL has been advancing quietly and steadily in northern and southern Aleppo and in areas from Palmyra towards southern Syria. Its strongholds in eastern Aleppo, which seem more vulnerable than Raqqa, remain untouched. The idea of a Kurdish-led campaign in Raqqa, which follows a dormant one to retake Mosul in May, epitomises how the anti-ISIL coalition is losing sight of basic dynamics on the ground while ISIL entrenches itself in its territory and quietly expands elsewhere.
AFAIK, majority of Palestinian refugees in Syria were Christians.
I guess, the same was the case with those that joined the PFLP-GC, i.e. now serve with al-Qods al-Filistini 'Commando' Brigade.
No better ideas but what you've found already.BTW--any idea as to what the IDF was up to late yesterday on the Golan-- a lot of chatter but still silence from the IDF?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0SI08820151025
Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:38am EDT
Russia says wants Syria elections, ready to help Free Syrian Army
MOSCOW | By Andrew Osborn and Maria Kiselyova
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin wanted Syria to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections, as Moscow intensified its drive to convert its increased clout with Damascus into a political settlement.
In comments which mark a shift in Russia's position, he also said that Russia's airforce, which has been bombing Islamist militants in Syria since Sept. 30, would be ready to help Western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels, if it knew where they were.
The Kremlin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's strongest foreign ally, has spoken broadly about the need for elections in Syria before. But Lavrov's comments were its most specific call for political renewal yet and came just days after a surprise visit by Assad to Moscow.
"External players can not decide anything for the Syrians. We must force them to come up with a plan for their country where the interests of every religious, ethnic and political group will be well protected," Lavrov told Russian state TV in an interview broadcast on Saturday.
"They need to prepare for both parliamentary and presidential elections."
Lavrov on Saturday phoned U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss organizing talks between the Syrian government and opposition, the Russian foreign ministry said. It said the two men had spoken of the need to tap the potential of other countries in the region to push the political process forward.
John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, confirmed the conversation. "They focused on their shared pursuit of options to achieve a political transition and discussed the potential for future multilateral meetings on the topic," said Kirby.
Moscow says Assad must be part of any transition and that the Syrian people will decide who rules them. Washington has said it could tolerate Assad during a short transition period, but that he would then have to exit the political stage.
Lavrov, who also discussed Syria on Saturday with his Iranian and Egyptian counterparts, said the Kremlin had told Assad during his Moscow visit that political progress was needed. Lavrov said the success of Assad's army on the battlefield, with Russian air support, would consolidate his government, making it more interested in a political deal.
Lavrov's interview was broadcast a day after a meeting in Vienna between Russia, the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia where a political solution to Syria's civil war - now in its fifth year - was discussed.
Russia, like the Assad regime has for years, is targeting hospitals & medical centers in Syria
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/view...nd-Assad-.html …
BREAKING: Saudi FM: Cairo, Riyadh see ‘no place’ for Assad in future #Syria - @AlArabiya_Eng
Rebels hold most of #TerMaela (Homs province) as #Iran/#Assad/#Russia advance slowly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIphcvCrmVE …
VIDEO: Sham Front fire homemade mortar at #ISIS near #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g0tRlQhIp0 …
Footage
#FSA mortar position, targeting advancing #Assad/#Khamenei forces in #Homs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwCAr1KSYmo …
Camp Mercy"
@qcharity builds new #IDP camp in #Syria for 500 displaced families from #Hama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjJ86xNkTLw …
Also East of #Damascus, #Assad's ruthless extermination campaign continues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYRq8pYJDC8 …
Day 26 of the combined #Assad / #Putin / #Khamenei assault on free #Homs province.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klEPQKa9zmo …
Footage
#FSA Turkmen brigade moves towards the front south of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwt-mUalBS8 …
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 03:12 PM.
Another large sandstorm in #Syria. Will rebels use it to make advances like last time?
News
Bad weather saved dozens of lives in #Syria today as #Assad's and #Putin's air force could not operate.
Appears the RuAF is not a fully capable "all weather" AF.
Footage
A man thanks god for a thunderstorm in #Rastan (#Homs) as it gives water & stops Russian air strikes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHtyHp41pQg …
HadiAlabdallah
Brave Syrian journalist Mahmoud al-Loz has died as a result of wounds sustained while covering battles in Homs. RIP.
RussianAirStrikes kill 4th #Syria media in<5 days: #Homs Mhmud ALLoz. Activist bro killed 4 dys ago
Appears Russians are still killing civilians...............
Two apparent Russian airstrikes in northern Homs kill 59 civilians including 33 children.
http://bit.ly/1KydO8g
pic.twitter.com/RE042A7q8J
ISW @TheStudyofWar
ISW #Syria airstrikes map.#Russia stops releasing strike data because of civilian deaths.
http://bit.ly/1LVe4DT
pic.twitter.com/Ioq1FFlkRS
Crazy ...
Underground #school opening ceremony in #Aleppo to be safe from #Assad's bombs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EweB3De63Q …
Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 10-25-2015 at 04:14 PM.
CB--resolves the question--still interested in the how if you hear anything....
SYRIA: Suqur Al-Ghab announce the death of 'Abu Tow' an experienced TOW operator.
News
Weather slightly improves over #Syria -> Some air force re-starts bombing #KafrZita.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSfdlhXYvnY …
SYRIA: Turkey fired upon YPG boats crossing the Euphrates in order to fight #ISIS near Jarablus, #Syria.
http://www.sabah.com.tr/gundem/2015/...-firatta-vurdu …
Jaysh Usud al-Sharqiyah (#ADF) rebels clash with #Daesh militants in E #Qalamoon
https://youtu.be/ZETmHXk2LJo
Major rebel military development is underway------
FSA take Cement Factory in Shaikh Sa'eed & cut-off regime only supply road to inside Aleppo
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36...45033&z=16&m=b …
This huge development make any advance Assad & Iran campaign can achieve in southern #Aleppo "useless".
Reportedly #ISIL captured two new military CPs on Ithriya-Khanser road today. Total Assad army points lost is 19 according to activists.
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