Russia has deployed the S-300V4 "Antey-2500" and the S-400 Triumf to the Syrian port city of Tartus and the Hmeymim airbase respectively to show the bare minimum that Moscow requires to "prevent military hotheads from the other side from making rash decisions," retired colonel Mikhail Khodarenok wrote for Gazeta.ru.
Russia Deploys S-300 to Syria to 'Prevent Hotheads From Making Rash Decisions'
https://sputniknews.com/military/201610121046268404-russia-s300-s400-syria/
The military expert pointed out that both advanced air defense systems have been installed in Syria in the most basic configuration possible. In other words, the capabilities of the S-300V4 and the S-400 deployed to Syria are largely limited, meaning that the systems have been ostensibly stationed in the war-torn Arab country to send a message.
"A single S-400 air defense missile battalion and a single S-300V4 squadron are incapable of tackling all challenges with regard to efficient fight against modern air assault weapons," he said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, Khodarenok said, expects that a limited deployment will "sober the West up" and Moscow will not have to send additional defense complexes to Syria.
The Russian military "has all the capabilities to drastically increase the operational strength of its air defense forces in Syria," the analyst noted. "Moscow is currently merely demonstrating its capability to push back a potential adversary. Earlier, the lack of this prospect to a certain extent spoiled our potential partners."
The S-400 Triumf (NATO codename SA-21 Growler) anti-aircraft and anti-missile system was deployed to Syria last November after the Turkish Air Force downed a Russian Su-24 in northern Syria. In service since 2007, the complex is capable of intercepting all types of modern air weaponry, including fifth-generation warplanes, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles at a maximum range of nearly 250 miles.
Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the S-300V4 (NATO designation SA-23 Gladiator) was deployed to Tartus. The system is meant to track and intercept short- and medium-range ballistic missile, aeroballistic and cruise missiles, as well as fixed-wing aircraft, ECM (electronic countermeasure) platforms and precision-guided munitions.
Bluffing its way through citing the Islamic Sharia, the al-Qaeda Takfiri group has for a while been acting directly under the auspices of the Israeli regime in an attempt to bring down the Syrian government even at the cost of uniting with the Muslim world’s sworn enemy, the Zionist regime.
Israel-Qaeda love relationship in Syria
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2016/10/12/488663/IsraelQaeda-love-relationship-in-Syria
Being home to Islam’s third holiest site, the al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestine serves as a unifying element among Muslims, whose disgust at the Zionist regime has made them condemn Tel Aviv’s atrocities hand in hand with human rights activists across the globe on a lot of occasions.
Sticking to an anti-Israeli rhetoric, al-Qaeda has also tried to portray itself as an enemy of the regime while today’s realities on the ground in Syria prove the notion otherwise.
Take this 2009 statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri, for example, in which he drums up support for anti-Israel efforts while addressing Palestinians.
"My Muslim brothers and mujahideen in Gaza and all over Palestine, with the help of Allah we are with you in the battle, we will direct our strikes against the crusader-Jewish coalition wherever we can," said the then- second in command and current leader of the Takfiri entity in an audio message.
Osama bin Laden, the Takfiri group’s leader at the time, himself released a message in the same month, tying al-Qaeda’s fate to fighting with the regime in Tel Aviv, as the Gaza Strip was being bombarded by Israeli jets.
But years of war in Syria have now shed light on al-Qaeda’s readiness to shake hands with Israelis.
Not long after war broke out in Syria in 2011 and foreign-backed militants were transferred to the Muslim country to fight President Bashar al-Assad, there emerged reports indicating that the Israeli regime was aiding and abetting the so-called rebels, particularly in the Syrian Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra, self proclaimed as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in July 2016) is active.
As the situation became more complicated in Syria later, with different factions rising to power, losing ground, uniting, re-uniting and splitting from others, the inclination between the two anti-Islam entities – Israel and al-Qaeda – was put into a brighter perspective, with Israeli officials coming out in support of the terrorists, citing human rights concerns.
"It's always useful […] to deal with your enemies in a humane way," the former head of Israel's intelligence agency Mossad told Al Jazeera back in May, when asked about why Israel treated Nusra Front militants fighting against the Syrian government.
Efraim Halevy went even further in the interview, asserting that Israel’s motives are not purely “humane,” and there also exist “tactical” considerations.
Asked by Al Jazeera English journalist Mehdi Hasan on why the regime does not equally treat other fighters such as the ones from Hezbollah, Halevy did not shy away from saying that “al-Qaeda has never attacked Israel” unlike the Lebanese resistance movement, audaciously reiterating that Tel Aviv is not afraid of any “blow-back” over its proclivity for al-Qaeda.
The former Israeli spymaster, however, claimed that the regime wants an “independent” government in Syria and supports neither the militants nor Assad.
A ‘sensitive’ Israel! Tel Aviv’s obsession with who is in charge in Syria was shed light upon even further when the military affairs minister, Moshe Ya’alon, commented on the matter two months later.
Ya’alon candidly talked about Tel Aviv’s priorities in Syria, or at least some of them, saying the al-Qaeda militants were being treated under some conditions.
“That they don’t get too close to the border, and that they don’t touch the Druze [in Syria’s Israeli-occupied Golan Heights],” he explained, adding, the al-Qaeda terrorists “on the other side, feel that we’re acting sensitively.”
Cooperation between Nusra and Israel has been used even by Daesh elements to undermine the once-ally and later-opponent faction, with an ISIL big wig going as far as calling Nusra fighters “Jews of Jihad,” to expose the reciprocity.
Abu Maysarah al-Shami, an influential ideologue within Daesh, wrote an article entitled “The Jews of Jihad: Zawahiri’s al-Qaeda,” circulated mostly through the Telegram messaging application in January, to denounce Israel-Qaeda ties.
The Daesh element accused Nusra militants of seeking “to infiltrate the Khilafah [the self-titled Islamic caliphate] to distort its methodology from within,” by referring to their ties with Israel.
His statement also censured those who are “infatuated with [al-Qaeda leadership’s] opinions, compete to attain status and doubt the deviance of” Zawahiri.
Laith Alkhouri, the co-founder and Middle East and North Africa director of research and analysis at US-based internet monitoring group Flashpoint Intel, told Newsweek that this is the first time Daesh is likening its rival group to Israel.
“I have never heard any jihadist [Takfiri] before use this specific term,” he said. “[Shami] has been a very active, pro-ISIS supporter online. He is what I call an influencer in the jihadi [Takfiri] community.”
In December 2015, British newspaper The Daily Mail said Israel had saved the lives of more than 2,000 Takfiri militants since 2013.
The deputy secretary general of Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, probably summed up the two enemies' cooperation in the best way, noting,
the "central" crisis in the Middle East involves “Takfiri terrorism, which is supported by the Israeli terrorism.”
Syrian sources said Russia plans to respond to the US officials' boastful remarks by intensifying its airstrikes against the terrorist groups in Syria.
Source: Russia to Respond US Braggery by Intensifying Anti-Terror Campaign
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950721000326
"While ordering its troops to respond to any provocative move by the US, Russia has intensified its offensives against the terrorists in Aleppo, Hama and Damascus countryside," Syrian military and diplomatic sources told FNA on Wednesday.
The sources underlined that the regions which are more important to Syria and its allies are the city of Aleppo and its countryside, the city of Hama and its countryside, Damascus countryside and Dara'a province.
"The recent diplomatic dispute between Russia and the Western countries in the UN Security Council as well as the tension between Moscow and Washington made the Russian leadership call on its military officials in Syria to prepare plans for fresh attacks on some terrorist-controlled strategic regions while maintaining their state of alert in a bid to respond to the US braggery by making new military gains," the sources said.
In early October, Russian media reported that the country's defense ministry had devised a preemptive plan to be implemented if the US withdraws from talks with Moscow on Syria and opts for its Plan B.
Izvestia newspaper quoted a high-ranking military source as saying that the plan includes military and political measures. The source didn’t reveal the details of the Russian plan.
Also, Franz Klintsevich, the deputy head of the Unity group in the State Duma, revealed that "if needed, we can highly increase our military support for the Syrian armed forces".
A notorious field commander of Fatah al-Sham Front (the newly-formed al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group previously known as the al-Nusra Front) was killed in clashes with Syrian Army troops and National Defense Forces in Northern Homs.
Senior Fatah Al-Sham Commander Killed in Syrian Army Attacks in Homs
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950721000103
Samer Mustafa al-Sheikh, alongside a number of his forces, was killed in Syrian government forces' assaults on Fatah al-Sham's bases in al-Sa'an region in the Eastern side of Talbiseh.
Field sources said on Tuesday that a long convoy of terrorist groups' military and supply vehicles came under heavy attack by the Syrian Army troops in Northern Homs, adding that the column sustained major damage.
"Syrian Army units, tipped off by intelligence agents, stormed a column of terrorists' vehicles carrying arms and fresh forces near the village of Ein al-Hossein in al-Nasr region, inflicting heavy damage on the vehicles," the sources said.
"The convoy was on its way towards Northeastern Homs," the sources said.
"A number of terrorists accompanying the cargo were killed and wounded in the attack," they added.
Some 150 terrorists from Jund al-Aqsa, another militant group called by Washington as moderates, arrived in the city of Raqqa to join the ISIL on Wednesday after the main part of their group expressed allegiance to Fatah Al-Sham (Al-Nusra) Front few days ago.
Syria: Large Numbers of Jund Al-Aqsa Terrorists Join ISIL in Raqqa City
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950721000242
A sum of 150 Jund al-Aqsa terrorists in three groups of 50-strong men joined the ISIL in Raqqa city to fight for the self-proclaimed caliphate.
The move comes after the main part of the group joined Fatah al-Sham Front (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) on Sunday.
The announcement by Jund al-Aqsa came as the differences between Jund al-Aqsa and its rival militant group Ahrar al-Sham intensified and ended up in severe clashes in recent days.
Jund al-Aqsa claimed that its allegiance to Fatah al-Sham is aimed at preventing more clashes with Ahrar al-Sham which is a much larger terrorist group in terms of number.
