Trump Accountable for US Army's Rescue Operations for ISIL in Eastern Syria
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Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) magazine, told Sputnik that he believes that the information is reliable and that they do not need any comments from the CIA or the Pentagon on the matter.
"It is President Trump who must comment on this and declare clearly: either the evacuation of the ISIL field commanders was authorized by him personally and he assumes all political responsibility for this step, or the (US) special services acted without his approval," Korotchenko said.
He noted that if this information is finally confirmed, Trump should instruct the Attorney General to launch an appropriate investigation and bring all those responsible to justice for being involved in international terrorism.
Korotchenko was echoed by Franz Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the Russian Upper House's Defense and Security Committee, who suggested that the evacuation of ISIL's leaders by the US forces did take place.
"No matter how the so-called antiterrorism coalition tried to refute reports on the evacuation of more than 20 field commanders from Deir Ezzur, all the long-term experience of US actions, including in Afghanistan, convinces us that the evacuation was almost 100-percent true," Klintsevich said on his page in Facebook.
"As a person who took part in the 1979-1989 war in Afghanistan, I can say that we constantly felt that Americans were directly supporting the Mujahideen at the time," he added, also citing escape corridors for militants leaving the Syrian city of Raqqa, which is "allegedly besieged by (US) allies."
"Of course, Deir Ezzur is not Raqqa, and it will be impossible to evacuate hundreds of militants in this case here but this is not the point. It seems that the US still sees the meaning of its existence in its confrontation with Russia, and this, to put it mildly, does not cause optimism," Klintsevich said.
Earlier, in an interview with Russia's Rossiya 24 TV channel he suggested that the evacuation of ISIL's leaders from Deir Ezzur may indicate that the US is trying to save its agents and contacts, among other things.
"Unfortunately, I have come to this conclusion. I think that analyzing these events, we will have more complete information in the near future," Klintsevich added.
Commenting on ISIL leaders' evacuation, a military and diplomatic source, meanwhile, told Sputnik that the first such extraction took place on August 26, when a "US Air Force helicopter" evacuated 2 of ISIL's European field commanders with members of their families from an area located to the Northwest of Deir Ezzur at night.
According to the source's data, two days later,
US choppers transferred 20 ISIL field commanders and militants close to them from the Southeastern areas near Deir Ezzur to northern Syria.
When contacted by Sputnik, the Combined Joint Task Force of the Operation Inherent Resolve’s press office called the allegations "false."
On Tuesday the Syrian army, with Russian air support, managed to finally break the three-year ISIL's siege of the city of Deir Ezzur. Until that point, food and ammunition had only been delivered to the city by air. Helicopters from the city of Qamishli had evacuated the wounded and delivering essential supplies to the city's population.
The British Special Forces have completely withdrawn from their bases at Syria's border with Iraq, an Arab media outlet reported on Sunday.
Britain Withdraws Entire Forces from Bases at Syria-Iraq Border Region
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The Arabic-language al-Hadath news quoted another Arab news network, Elam al-Harbri, as reporting that
all the British soldiers have left al-Tanf and al-Zakaf bases at Syria's border with Iraq for al-Arzaq base in Jordan.
Elam al Harbi had previously reported that Ahmad Abdu terrorist group and later Jeish al-Soud al-Sharqiyeh had left Syria's Badiyeh (desert) in Southern Damascus for Jordanian territories afte receiving assurances from Russia and Jordan.
Elam al-Harbi had said that
the two terrorists groups were to hand over the region that was previously under their control to the Syrian government.
A Lebanese media outlet reported on Monday
that the UK ended training of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorists in al-Tanf base and withdrawn from the base in Southern Homs near the border with Iraq.
The English-language AMN website reported that the United Kingdom withdrew its troops from the coalition-operated al-Tanf base in Syria’s Southwestern desert and ended all military assistance hitherto provided to FSA-affiliated mercenaries in the region.
The UK-based Daily Telegraph reported the UK's wind-down of support for the FSA militants began in June of this year when at least 20 special forces troops were confirmed to have withdrawn from the al-Tanf base.
Russian Permanent Representative to the UN headquarters in Geneva said provisions of the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic related to the operation of the Russian Aerospace Force and Syrian army is "politically motivated fake".
Russian Diplomat Brands UN Independent Commission’s Report on Syria as Bogus
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"The report in the part concerning Russia and the use of chemical weapons is an example of a politically driven fake. What is more, it is clumsily made up," Alexei Borodavkin said, TASS reported.
"I think we should not pay attention to these accusations."
"It has recently become fashionable in some political and diplomatic quarters to trade in anti-Russia lies," the diplomat added.
"However, the situation is gradually turning the tide. Even where such allegations are still in demand, their political price is plummeting rapidly," he said.
The Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, published in the run-up to the 36th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council due to open in Geneva on September 11, says that Syrian and Russian air strikes targeted hospitals and medical staff, while Syrian government forces used chemical weapons.
Russia’s Defense Ministry rebuked German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen for falsely claiming that Moscow planned to send more than 100,000 troops to take part in the upcoming joint military drills in Belarus.
Russia Slams German Minister for ‘Baseless’ Remarks over Military Drill Plans
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Russia said the exercises with Belarus, code-named “Zapad 2017” and scheduled for September 14 to 20, will involve about 12,700 Russian and Belarusian troops and are “purely defensive” in nature, presstv reported.
Von der Leyenm, however, on Thursday claimed that the upcoming exercises would be a show of Russian might because “more than one hundred thousand” forces would be participating.
“Anyone who doubts that it is a show of might only has to look at the high numbers of participating forces in the Zapad exercise: more than one hundred thousand,” she said.
Russia rejected those remarks, saying that von der Leyen was misinforming the public.
“We are astonished by the statement made by Ms. von der Leyen, Germany’s Federal Minister of Defense, publicly handling baseless figures that allegedly 100 thousand Russian troops engaged in the Zapad 2017 and threaten Europe,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.
“The German side has timely received and does have comprehensive information of the concept, defensive nature, and true figure of the Russian troops engaged in the Zapad 2017 exercise,” the major general said. “It is hard to imagine that Ursula von der Leyen’s colleagues from NATO, other competent German ministries or her own subordinates deliberately misled her,” the statement said. “It is much easier to suppose the opposite.”
An earlier statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry had said that Western countries sought to create a “hype” over the planned exercises and justify military buildups near Russian borders.
“The hype was fanned up artificially and is definitely meant to convince the Western public that the cost of deploying additional forward military presence in Poland and the Baltics and increased NATO military activity is justified,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said last month.
Russia has criticized such a buildup as a threat to its national security.
In February, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “NATO’s expansion has led to an unprecedented level of tension over the last 30 years in Europe.”
Western countries and their small allies in Eastern Europe have long brandished what they say is a Russian threat to justify military activities and preparations near Russia.
During a recent visit to an Estonian military base near the Russian border, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the world today was increasingly dangerous because of, among other things, “a more assertive Russia.”
“We have proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in North Korea, we have terrorists, instability, and we have a more assertive Russia. It is a more dangerous world,” he said in an interview with The Guardian, which was published on Friday.
People in Germany staged an annual anti-war protest rally in front of a United States air base in their country, condemning war-mongering policies of the current US administration.
Germans Hold Anti-War Protest Near US Base
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Demonstrators on Saturday formed a human chain in the Ramstein-Miesenbach municipality stretching to outside Gate 5 of the American air base there, presstv reported.
The organizers of Stop Air Base Ramstein said as many as 5,000 protesters attended the rally.
They demanded an end to the use of the air base to relay telemetry to drones that collect information on militant groups or attack designated targets. The protesters said the attacks on suspected militants were “extrajudicial killings” and violated international law.
The human chain wrapped up a week of protests in the area.
The protesters who rallied on Saturday were joined by left-wing politician Oskar Lafontaine, the former head of Germany’s Left Party. He denounced German involvement in conflicts, role in the Iraq War, and the expansion of nuclear armaments.
“So long as we live in a system which requires military equipment and warmongering, the economic order on which capitalism is reliant, the world will edge closer to destruction,” Lafontaine told the protesters. “Nuclear weapons are not weapons. They are monsters and we need to chase them away from this planet.”
The Ramstein Air Base is host to 22,000 US military and Department of Defense personnel. Family members included, the number reaches 54,000. It is the largest concentration of US citizens outside of the US.
Ramstein Air Base is also the headquarters of NATO’s Air and Space program (AIRCOM).
A pair of Japanese F-15 fighter jets conducted a military exercise with a duo of US B1-B bombers in the skies above the East China Sea. The drill comes as Seoul braces for a possible new missile test by North Korea.
Japanese Jet Fighters, US Bombers Conduct War Games over East China Sea
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The exercise involved two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flying from Andersen Air Force Base on the US Pacific island territory of Guam, joined by two Japanese F-15 jet fighters on Sunday, Japan’s Air Self Defense Force (ASDF) reported, RT reported.
Late last month, Japanese F-15 fighter jets also conducted a military exercise with US B1-B bombers and F-35 stealth fighters in skies south of the Korean Peninsula. The August 31 drill came two days after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Northern Japan.
Japan is on high alert after a series of North Korean missile and nuclear tests, including one which passed over its territory.
On Thursday, for the second time in its history, Japan carried out a series of anti-missile drills at a US airbase in the northern Tohoku region, as tensions mount with North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons program.
A crew of 30 set up a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile interceptor system capable of intercepting short- and medium-range missiles at Misawa Air Base, Aomori Prefecture. The aims of the exercise were to boost US-Japanese co-operation, and to ready the military for any potential attack by North Korea.
Japan carried out missile interception drills for the first time at the end of August at the Iwakuni Air Base in Yamaguchi and the Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, only hours before a North Korean missile passed over the Northern island of Hokkaido.
As tensions continue to flare up on the Korean Peninsula, the US has been deploying more military equipment into South Korea, such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system, which has met with protests from both Russia and China, as well as the local population.
On Thursday, clashes broke out between police and protesters in the South Korean province of Gyeongsangbuk, where locals fear the THAAD deployment will make them a target of the North Korean government.
The US has also been holding joint military drills with South Korea.
The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercises, conducted in late August, involved 40,000 American and South Korean troops in land, air, and sea drills. Pyongyang has repeatedly described the annual US-South Korea military drills as the “most explicit expression of hostility,” voicing fears that the war games may “evolve into actual fighting.”
Russia has noted that through these military drills, the United States engaged in activity on the peninsula that could be considered provocative. “The United States and South Korea are provoking Pyongyang by flexing military muscle and making repeated threats of intervention and pre-emptive strikes,” Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma foreign affairs committee, told reporters following North Korea’s latest nuclear test last week.
To help end the crisis, Russia and China have proposed a double-freeze plan, which would see Pyongyang suspend its nuclear and ballistic missile tests in exchange for a halt in joint US-South Korea military drills. The US has rejected this proposal, saying that it has every right to conduct exercises with its ally, South Korea. The US has also demanded more sanctions, calling on Russia to stop shipping oil to North Korea.
However, Moscow has rejected these calls, stressing that dialogue, not sanctions, is the only solution to the crisis.
“There are possibilities to achieve the settlement of Pyongyang’s problem by diplomatic means. This is possible and must be done,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok on Thursday.
Putin believes that Pyongyang perceives nuclear weapons as its only protection, and will not abandon them.
“They [in North Korea] view the possession of atomic weapons and missile technology as their only means of protection. Do you think they’ll give it up now?,” he added.
An Iranian missile boat has sent a warning signal to a US Navy ship that closed on an Iranian fishing boat in the Persian Gulf, the press service of the Iranian Navy said Sunday in a statement.
Iranian Navy Warns US Ship Off Sinking Fishing Boat in Persian Gulf
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According to the statement,
Iranian fishing boat Shams was traveling 45 nautical miles off the Jask port in Iran's Hormozgan province testing its engine, when it started to sink. Upon receiving a distress signal from Shams, Iranian Navy missile boat Falahen set off to rescue the sinking boat.
"It is reported that a US Navy ship with the vessel number 02 approached the mentioned [fishing boat] when the missile boat 'Falahen' sent a warning signal and forced the ship to leave the area," the statement read.
The crew of the boat in distress was rescued. So far, the cause of the incident is still unidentified.
The incident is one of many times when US' and Iranian maritime forces have come dangerously near conflict and likely will not be the last. In a similar incident in August, Pentagon officials said Iranian speedboats had “harassed” US warships in the Strait of Hormuz. They claimed that Iranian boats moved close to two US Navy destroyers with their weapons uncovered in the strait in an “unsafe and unprofessional” encounter.
