Russia Begins Operations in Syria: End Game for the US Empire?

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26.04.2018 - Trump to visit UK on July 13
Trump to Visit UK on July 13

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has told reporters that the date for the US president's working visit to Britain has been set.
The White House's statement has been confirmed by the UK.

"Yes, that's correct, a working visit, not a state visit," the Downing Street press office said, when asked whether London confirms information about Trump's July 13 visit to the United Kingdom.


24.04.2018 - Pompeo's Nomination as US Secretary of State Approved by Senate Committee
Pompeo's Nomination as US Secretary of State Approved by Senate Committee

The United States Senate's Foreign Relations Committee has voted 11-10 in favor of bringing Mike Pompeo's nomination as secretary of state to the wider Senate. One senator voting in favor, however, was absent and voted "aye by proxy," which could complicate the rest of the nomination process.


26.04.2018 - Photos of Mike Pompeo's Top Secred Meeting with Kim Jong Un Released
Photos of Mike Pompeo’s Top Secret Meeting With Kim Jong Un Released

The administration of US President Donald Trump released photographs on Twitter, Thursday showing newly minted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while Pompeo was still director of the CIA.

It was reported in mid-April that Pompeo had flown to North Korea and met with Kim Jong Un earlier in the year.

The White House's photographs come the day before a groundbreaking summit between Kim Jong Un and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae In. Pompeo met with Kim in the lead-up to negotiations between North Korea and the United States and US President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Kim sometime in the near future.


Thu Apr 26, 2018 - CIA Will Allow Senators to Review Classified Material on Haspel
Farsnews

The CIA informed lawmakers on Tuesday that the agency will allow senators weighing the nomination of Gina Haspel to review some classified information related to her controversial undercover background following pressure from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

The agency is also “actively working towards sharing additional information with the public to the greatest extent possible”, it said in a letter obtained by The Hill.

The letter provides no details about what episodes related to Haspel the agency will illuminate. Her confirmation hearing to head the agency is scheduled for early May.

Haspel's record has sparked a tense standoff with Senate Democrats, thanks to her role in a particularly controversial episode in CIA history; a pair of brutal interrogations that took place at a black site prison known as “Cat’s Eye”, which she briefly ran.

Because so much of Haspel’s record is still classified — 32 of her 33 years at the agency were spent undercover — much of the fight in Congress has revolved around what information, if any, the CIA will make public about her past.

A trio of Democratic senators — Dianne Feinstein, Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich — have been demanding that the agency declassify more information about Haspel to allow the public and lawmakers who aren't on the Senate Intelligence Committee to review her nomination.

They quickly blasted the CIA's response as "wholly inadequate."

“Concealing her background when no sources and methods are at stake shows nothing but contempt for the Senate and the public," they said in a joint statement, adding that "We believe senators and the American public have the need to know whether or not the nominee before us was a senior manager for a program that has been shown to be deeply flawed, as well as a number of other disturbing facts about her record.”

The three have complained that the CIA is selectively declassifying only positive information about Haspel and suggested that continuing to keep her record under wraps violates an Barack Obama-era executive order prohibiting the use of classification to “conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error” or “prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency.”


27.04.2018 - Newly - Declassified Records confirm CIA Director Haspel Supervised Torture
Newly-Declassified Records Confirm CIA Director Haspel Supervised Torture

Newly declassified records confirm allegations that newly appointed CIA Director Gina Haspel supervised the torture of a detainee and ordered the destruction of video evidence, the US National Security Archive at George Washington University said in a press release.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, who oversaw the release of a CIA torture report in 2014, and two other lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the agency for refusing a request for more information about Haspel’s background ahead of confirmation hearings.

"The Trump administration’s nominee to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a CIA detainee in 2002 leading to at least three waterboard sessions, subsequently drafted the cable that ordered destruction of the videotape evidence of torture," the release, citing newly-published declassified documents, said.

The release also said Haspel served as a senior official while the CIA lied to former presidents, lawmakers, and the public "about the effectiveness of torture in eliciting useful intelligence."

The new documents include less-redacted versions of materials that reveal activities at a CIA "black site" in Thailand in 2002 when Haspel was chief of base. Haspel supervised psychologists Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, who had developed so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, the release said. In the same month, Jessen and Mitchell supervised the torture of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian national alleged to be the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. He was waterboarded three times, according to the release.

The documents include a listing of 12 specific cables Haspel either authored or authorized that, according to a less-redacted CIA Inspector General report, accurately describe the torture sessions that had been documented on now-destroyed videotapes, the release said.

Gina Haspel assumed the role of Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after the US Senate confirmed former CIA Director Mike Pompeo as new secretary of state, CIA announced in a statement on Thursday.

"Today, upon Mike Pompeo's swearing-in as secretary of state, Deputy Director Gina C. Haspel assumed role of Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency," the statement said.

The National Security Archive, which is housed at George Washington University, was founded in 1985 by journalists and scholars to counter US government secrecy. The archive includes more than 100,000 declassified records documenting historic US policy decisions, according to its website. The archive reportedly now holds the largest nongovernmental collection of declassified US documents.


26.04.2018 - US Authorities combing through Residence of Russian Consul General in Seattle
US Authorities Combing Through Residence of Russian Consul General in Seattle

US authorities are combing through the premises of the seized Russian Consul General residence in Seattle, and regular police officers have been removed from the site, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday.

The officials, wearing plain clothes, were seen moving in and out of the shuttered residence and walking around the outside of the property.

One vehicle is parked on the premises, while another is parked outside behind the building.

Throughout the day, several vehicles arrived and departed from the residence, as various authorities arrived to tour the property. It was unclear exactly exactly what they were doing.

Three police officers who were stationed at the residence’s gates on Wednesday — two at the front and one at the back — have been removed, and no law enforcement officers are currently on the site.

The Russian flag continues to fly over the building.

For the first time since Russian diplomats left Seattle on Tuesday, a trash truck came to pick up rubbish from the neighborhood dumpsters, including from one located outside the residence.

The dumpsters have been attracting local journalists, who were seen examining garbage bags left behind by the Russian diplomats. Many posted pictures of their finds on social media, detailing the contents of the trash, which included shredded paper and leftover food.

On Wednesday, US officials came to the closed residence of the Russian Consul General in Seattle, opened the gates and entered the building after breaking all the locks. Commenting on the move, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Twitter that it was not intrusion but a legal action in response to "Russia’s continuing, outrageous behavior." The diplomat added that the US officials entered the residence to ensure that it had been cleared.

Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Washington grossly violated international legal norms at the residence and called the actions surrounding the seizure of the property "outrageous and unprecedented."

Zakharova reiterated that Moscow insists on the return of all six diplomatic facilities "illegally seized by the US authorities" over the last two years.

The diplomat added that if the incident had been caused by legal issues, then the United States should provide the details of the law that was used to justify the seizure of the Russian property.

A representative of the Russian ministry warned that if the United States considers its actions at the residence of the Russian Consul General a "lawful response," then maybe Russian officials should also "visit" their US partners.

On March 26, US President Donald Trump ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and the closure of the Russian Consulate in Seattle by April 2 over claims that Moscow played a role in the poisoning of an ex-spy in Salisbury, allegations which Russia strongly denies.

26.04.2018 - Russian Consulate Sweep in Seattle Crosses "Red Line" - Moscow
Russian Consulate Sweep in Seattle Crosses ‘Red Line’ – Moscow

24.04.2018 - Russian Diplomats leave Seattle after Closure if Consulate General, Residence
Russian Diplomats Leave Seattle After Closure of Consulate General, Residence

Thu Apr 26, 2018 - Russian Ambassador Slams US Steps against Seattle Consulate as Unfriendly
Farsnews

Thu Apr 26, 2018 - Diplomat Calls Intrusion into Russian Consulate in Seattle 'Hostile Takeover'
Farsnews

 

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25 April 2018 - Douma: Part 1 - Deception In Plain Sight
Media Lens - Douma: Part 1 - Deception In Plain Sight

26 April 2018 - Douma: Part 2 - 'It Just Doesn't Ring True'
Media Lens - Douma: Part 2 - 'It Just Doesn't Ring True'

Thu Apr 26, 2018 - OPCW: Experts Visit Second Site in Syria's Douma after Alleged Chemical Attack
Farsnews

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Wednesday that its fact-finding mission had visited a second site in Douma, Syria, following allegations of chemical weapons use in the region.

"Today, the FFM team carried out a visit to a second location in Douma. It also collected samples at this site. These samples will be brought back, together with other samples, to the OPCW laboratory in Rijswik," the statement read, Sputnik reported.

The statement came after earlier in the day Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi announced that the OPCW had confirmed that there were no chemical weapons found at the Barzeh research center in Damascus despite the US officials' claims. The mission visited the first site of the alleged attack in Douma last Friday.


Thu Apr 26, 2018 - Russia, Syria to Bring 17 Eyewitnesses of Events in Douma to OPCW
Farsnews

Permanent representative to the OPCW said in a press release on Monday Russian and Syrian officials plan bringing 17 eyewitnesses of the April 7 incident in the Syrian city of Douma to The Hague, where the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has its headquarters, in order to prove that the alleged poison gas attack was a setup.

A Spokesperson for the Russian mission stated the Russian and Syrian representatives would hold a news briefing for members of the organization on April 26 where they would speak about the alleged Douma incident, TASS reported.

"Taking part in the news briefing will be the eyewitnesses of shooting of the footage that featured the fake pseudo-humanitarian action staged by the White Helmets and that provided grounds for the US/UK/French missile strikes at Syria on April 14," the press release said, adding that "In all, there will be seventeen people, including physicians who were right at the scene on that day. They will recount the true story of the incident."

"The delegations [of the OPCW member-states] will get first-hand evidence on the forged footage that misled the world community," the Russian mission stressed.

"The briefing is organized in support of the OPCW fact-finding mission currently deployed in Syria to investigate the incident," the press release stated.

The Russian envoy to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin told a session of the OPCW Executive Committee on April 16 the Russian experts who had examined the site in Douma had not found a single trace of the attack. However, they managed to track down the people who had taken part in the shooting of the footage, which the White Helmets passed off later as confirmation of the alleged use of a chemical warfare agent.

The OPCW circulated a press release on Tuesday where it stated the organization’s technical secretariat had advised the Russian delegation to let specialists of the fact-finding mission interview the eyewitnesses first and to put off the news briefing until the mission rounded up its work.

Russian representatives said in response the briefing would be held as scheduled initially.


26.04.2018 - Douma Doctors, Witnesses Reveal Lies Behind White Helmets' Provocation (Video)
Douma Doctors, Witnesses Reveal Lies Behind White Helmets' Provocation (VIDEO)

An 11-year-old Syrian boy, whom the White Helmets NGO used in their video about a "chemical attack" in Syria's Douma on April 7 in exchange for food, and his father, who has also denied that any attack took place, have spoken before journalists.

Moscow's delegation to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is holding a press briefing in The Hague on April 26.

Head of the Russian delegation Alexander Shulgin said that Moscow views the alleged chemical attack on April 7 as a provocation, something it warned about in advance. He added that Russia will not allow new provocations such as this against Syria.

He noted that the only evidence is a "sloppily staged" video shot by a pseudo-humanitarian organization, the White Helmets, and was intended to "touch hearts." The same strategy as in previous false flag attacks.

Shulgin remarked that none of the representatives of the countries that committed the attacks are present at the press conference because they are afraid to look into the eyes of the young Syrian boy who witnessed the fake video from the White Helmets being shot and understand their wrongdoings. He also told reporters that the US envoy to the OPCW had gone to great length to convince American allies not to take part in the Russian press briefing.

Russian General Igor Kirillov, participating in the conference, showed footage from apartments that were allegedly fired at with chemical armaments. The video shows yellow cylinders that remained undamaged, which is, according to the general, highly unlikely if they were dropped from above. The general also noted that marks were discovered on the floor, suggesting that the cylinders were dragged there. He added that Russian investigators had found residents of the ground floors of one of the buildings who breed chickens; they claimed that their birds were all healthy and alive.

Hassan Diab, the little boy who participated in the White Helmets' filming of the so-called proof of the chemical attack, said during the conference that he and his mother were in the basement when they heard shouts calling on everyone to go to the hospital. There, he and his mother had cold water poured over them by unknown people and were released.

A doctor from the Douma hospital, also participating at the conference as a witness, said that what happened on April 7 is not corresponding with what was shown in the media. People were arriving at the hospital suffering from asphyxiation, not from a chemical attack. This was due to smoke inhalation from a nearby building that had been bombed. According to him, medical personnel were treating them when the White Helmets came in, claiming that there had been a chemical attack. He saw them creating hysteria in the hospital, but didn't believe them, as none of the staff saw signs of chemical poisoning. According to him, all their patients went home the same day.

Another witness, Abdurahman Hijazi, a resident of Douma, a freelancer and ordinary citizen said he had breathing trouble due to smoke from the nearby bombed building. He saw people coming to the Douma hospital claiming that they were from "civil protection," bringing others who, they claimed, were suffering from a chemical attack. When Hijazi saw these people, he thought that they were fine, as there were no signs that they were suffering. Nevertheless, according to him, people from the "civil protection" started to create hysteria in the hospital, shouting about chemical attack.

Another witness, Said Daaz, from the Douma Hospital Laboratory, was working on April 7, when he heard shouting. He went to see what was going on and found the floor doused with water and packed with frightened people. He also saw people outside shouting about a chemical attack, but all Said Daaz could smell was ordinary smoke.

Muvaffak Nasrim, a paramedic from the hospital's emergency care department, said that people who had suffered from recent airstrikes, who were suffering from respiratory problems, began to arrive around 7p.m. on April 7. He said that somebody brought a young girl to the hospital claiming that she was suffering from a chemical attack. Muvaffak Nasrim said that he examined her, but that she showed no signs of chemical poisoning. She was released from hospital the same day.

Another witness of the filming of the White Helmets' staged video, Jassim Al-Majid, a surgeon at the Douma hospital, said that he was working there the same day the alleged attack took place. According to him, many people were arriving with wounds from hostilities and shelling on that day. Specifically a girl was brought in by a group of people who claimed that she was suffering from a chemical attack. According to Jassim Al-Majid, her body temperature was very low and she was all wet. He was surprised by the claims, as after he examined her body extensively he found no symptoms of chemical weapons' exposure. He covered her in dry blankets and she was released the same day from the hospital.

When asked about possible pressure put on witnesses present to testify in favor of Bashar Assad, the administrator of the emergency ward at the Douma hospital said that there were was no such pressure.

"This is a very strange question, we came here not because we were under pressure. Nobody told us what to say, we came here to tell the truth," the medical official said.

Shulgin expressed confidence that after this conference, nobody will doubt "who is spreading fake news, and who is telling the truth."

He noted that OPCW technical experts have questioned six witnesses out of seventeen arriving to the Hague to testify, who deny the claims of the chemical attack taking place in Douma on April 7.

Shulgin denied allegations by UK representatives to OPCW that the press briefing could undermine the organization's mission. He added that OPCW experts have been at the site of the alleged attack twice, they know what they want to visit and whom to question and that the briefing can't inflict any damage to their work.


26.04.2018 - Army finds Terrorist Depots with Chemicals Produced in UK, Germany - Damascus
Army Finds Terrorist Depots With Chemicals Produced in UK, Germany - Damascus

Syrian government troops are continuing to make surprising discoveries during their campaign to put an end to the war and reinstate order in the country.

"In the depot with chemical weapons left by terrorists in Douma, we have found chemicals from Germany, the United Kingdom, from the Porton-Down laboratory in Salisbury," Syria's deputy envoy to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ghassan Obaid said after a briefing in The Hague on April 26.

He called on OPCW experts to visit the site and expressed hope that it will finally dispel all allegations.

The envoy's statement echoes Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's earlier statement that containers with chlorine and smoke bombs manufactured in Britain and Germany had been found in the territories liberated from militants in Eastern Ghouta.

 

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26.04.2018 - US Special Ops Command: Electronic Weapons are "Disabling" US Aircraft in Syria
US Special Ops Command: Electronic Weapons Are ‘Disabling’ US Aircraft in Syria

The commander of US Special Operations complained during a recent speech in Florida that electronic weapons are “disabling” US aircraft flying in Syrian airspace.

"Right now in Syria we are operating in the most aggressive [electronic warfare] environment on the planet from our adversaries," General Raymond Thomas said during a speaking engagement at the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation on Tuesday.

"They are testing us everyday, knocking our communications down, disabling our EC-130s, etc." the general said, referring to the US Air Force's Compass Call electronic attack aircraft, Breaking Defense reported. Some reporters attending the event heard the general say AC-130. These gunships also used in US special ops and have at least one electronic warfare officer on their flight crew lists, according to a US Air Force fact sheet.

It's not clear who exactly Thomas meant when he said "enemies," but Russia is known to have developed advanced EW capabilities, according to EW specialist Lauri Buckhout, a retired US Army colonel. "The Russians have redone and reengineered their entire EW fleet in the last 20 years… The Russians put in millions on upgrades after Georgia," the veteran told Breaking Defense, in reference to the 2008 conflict in the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions, which Georgia claims as part of its territory but whose self-determination Russia supports.

"They've ended up with killer capabilities, jamming in a multitude of frequencies for hundreds of kilometers," Buckhout said, clarifying that there are other vulnerabilities in US systems that Russian electronic weapons could target, too.

Instead of jamming an EC-130 in a head-to-head fashion, there are easier ways to degrade US capabilities, according to Buckhout. The specialist explained, "The problem the EC-130s have is that, while they are jamming, the crews aren't doing much else… they could have gone after the [position, navigation and timing equipment] or the comms."

Russian forces "know all of our vulnerabilities," the retired US colonel added.

Strategic analysts in the United States observe that one of the most remarkable aspects of Russia's EW capability is how widely integrated it is across domains. "We can't just strip out the EW capability and look at it separately (from) cyber, SIGINT (signals intelligence), air defense," Roger McDermott, a fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said at an event in February.

"It's found throughout every arm of service, every branch of service, it's almost impossible to avoid EW capability, which very much contrasts with western militaries," he said.

"Russia has integrated electronic warfare and offensive and defense electromagnetic spectrum capabilities into its operations and strategies, in a way not seen from NATO forces in Europe," USNI News quoted McDermott as saying January 30.


Back-dated 31.08.2017 - Invisible Shield, Invisible Sword: Russia's Electronic Warfare 'Second to None'
Invisible Shield, Invisible Sword: Russia's Electronic Warfare 'Second to None'

In the wake of successful drills involving the Russian electronic warfare system Krasukha-4, Sputnik looks into why such systems are of paramount importance to the defense capability of the country's army.

During the war games Russia conducted earlier this week, Krasuha-4 operators managed "to blind" the navigation systems and means of targeting high-precision weapons used by Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers, which played the role of enemy aircraft during the drills.

As a result, the "enemy" was unable to detect mock-up targets and launch an airstrike on them.

Deceiving a Missile
In May, Vladimir Mikheev, spokesman for Russia's Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET), said that the production of military equipment related to Russian electronic warfare systems will be increased by about 30 percent in the near future.

KRET plants have manufactured a wide array of advanced electronic warfare systems, including the Krasuha-S4, Rtut-BM, Rychag-AV, Vitebsk and Khibiny-M individual defense systems.

Speaking at the MAKS-2017 air show in the Moscow Region in August, Mikheev specifically cited a total of 100 Su-34 fighter-bombers that are currently in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces. According to him, all of them are equipped with the Khibiny-10V systems.

The Khibiny is a small torpedo-shaped container which is mounted on the wingtips of aircraft and increases the survival rate of the planes by 25-30 percent.

The Khibiny provides protection to individual aircraft, making it difficult for an enemy to detect and down the plane using air-to-air and ground-to-air missiles, according to RIA Novosti expert Andrey Kots.

Notably, these systems were installed on Russia's Su-34 fighter-bombers and Su-30SM fighter jets, which launched airstrikes on Daesh terrorists in Syria.

As for Russian helicopters, they are equipped with the Vitebsk electronic warfare system, which has Khibiny-like characteristics. In particular, the Vitebsk is installed on Ka-52 attack helicopters and Mi-8MT multi-purpose helicopters.

Additionally, Kots mentioned the sophisticated Tarantul (Tarantula) aircraft electronic countermeasures system, which is capable of helping a Su-34 effectively protect other combat aircraft in its squadron from enemy radar.

The system has been developed since 2007 and is now reportedly undergoing state tests, according to Kots, who touted the Tarantul as the future of Russian electronic warfare systems.

Asymmetric Response
The most well-known Russian electronic warfare system is the broadband multifunctional jamming station Krasukha-4, which is built onto a BAZ-6910-022 four-axle-chassis.

The system has a range of 300 kilometers and is designed to counter airborne early warning and control systems and other airborne radar arrays.

The Krasukha-4's range allows it to effectively disrupt low Earth orbit satellites and cause permanent damage to targeted radio-electronic devices. Ground-based radars are also a viable target for the Krasukha-4 system.

In the future, the Krasukha-4 is expected to tackle targets at extremely high altitudes, including in outer space.

The system will be capable of jamming spy satellites and creating a "dead area" around itself, making it impossible for an enemy to track this zone.

Speaking to Sputnik, Russian military expert Viktor Murakhovsky described Russia developing the electronic warfare systems as its "asymmetric response" to the United States' drive to modernize its weapons. He was echoed by Kots who touted the Russian electronic warfare systems as "second to none".

"Since the Cold War, the US has focused on achieving and maintaining technological superiority, primarily in its [aerial and naval weaponry]. We cannot directly compete with them in this regard because they have much more money and opportunities to supply troops annually with modern aircraft, drones and ships. That's why we take asymmetric measures, Murakhovskty said.

"For example, no country except Russia possesses thee automated electronic warfare control systems. Participation of the person is minimal: the operator only needs to choose one of several computerized options of action against a specific goal. This greatly reduces the system's time of response to a particular threat," he added.

On December 4, 2011, an American Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was captured by Iranian forces near the city of Kashmar in northeastern Iran.

It was unclear how Iran managed to seize and then safely land this sophisticated UAV but experts argued that it could be the work of a modern electronic warfare system delivered to Iran either by Russia or China.

In April 2014, the state-of-the-art destroyer USS Donald Cook was flown over in the Black Sea by a Russian Su-24 fighter jet which reportedly carried neither bombs nor missiles but only an electronic warfare system which experts said had jammed the warship's on-board radar.

After the fly-over, the destroyer which had approached Russia's territorial waters suddenly changed its course and set sail for a Romanian port.


26 April 2018 - Air Force gunships in Syria are being jammed by 'adversaries' rendering blind and unable to help under-siege troops, special ops general says
U.S. gunships in Syria being jammed by 'adversaries' | Daily Mail Online

• American warplanes are increasingly being jammed on the battlefields of Syria
• General Raymond Thomas made dire warning at a technology conference
• He said it was 'most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet'
• AC-130 gunships, that provide ground fire support, were often targeted
• Only said 'adversaries' but widely believed to be referring to the Russians

American warplanes are being jammed as they fly missions over Syria, preventing them from telling friend from foe on the battlefield.

General Raymond Thomas, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, said unspecified 'adversaries' were ramping up cyber attacks in the region.

He said the Air Force AC-130 gunship was 'aggressively' targeted, which could force it to abort missions and leave ground forces exposed.

'Right now in Syria, we're in the most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet from our adversaries,' he said.

'They're testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our AC-130s, etc.'

General Thomas made the candid remarks in his keynote address to a U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation symposium on Tuesday.

He did not mention who was responsible for the jamming, but military commentators believed he was almost certainly referring to Russia.

AC-130s are frequently used as air support for U.S. special forces and American-backed rebel fighters fighting in Syria.

One was used to kill dozens of Russian mercenaries who attacked an outpost manned by U.S. commandos and the Syrian Democratic Forces in February.

If the enemy jammed the gunship's communications or data links it could prevent them from coordinating strikes on the ground.

Even worse, the plane may not be able to target enemy forces accurately or even tell friend from foe - especially in close firefights at night where it is often used.

Disabling these systems could lead to attacks being aborted, leaving group troops without much-needed backup in the face of a larger enemy.

Such problems have in the past led to higher casualties, friendly fire, or even a hospital being accidentally destroyed.

 

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26 April 2018 - Air Force gunships in Syria are being jammed by 'adversaries' rendering blind and unable to help under-siege troops, special ops general says

U.S. gunships in Syria being jammed by 'adversaries' | Daily Mail Online

Mystery 'adversaries' jamming US gunships & disrupting communications in Syria – general
The US has experienced "aggressive" electronic warfare from its "adversaries" in Syria, a top US general said. While media pointed finger at Russia, it denied involvement, saying it has better things to do than harass US aircraft.

The claim was made Tuesday by the head of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Army General Tony Thomas. The "daily" interference in Syria disrupts US military communications and hampers aircraft missions, the general told the US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's 2018 GEOINT Symposium.

"Right now in Syria, we're in the most aggressive EW [electronic warfare] environment on the planet from our adversaries," Thomas said. "They're testing us every day, knocking our communications down, disabling our AC-130s, et cetera."

Some reports suggested that Thomas was referring to the EC-130H Compass Call. The EC-130H is an aircraft specifically designed to counter and wage its own electronic warfare, and if the machines were rendered inoperable by some "adversaries" on their own field, it would have been quite an embarrassing revelation.

Footage of his speech, however, clearly shows that Thomas was talking about the AC-130 close air support (CAS) gunships, which fall under SOCOM command. While the General did not point fingers at anyone, the media, which reported on his remarks, implied and even explicitly claimed that Russians were behind the electronic interference.

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis weighed in on Thursday, stating that he was not ready to pin the blame for the electronic interference in Syria on Russia. Apart from Moscow, Syrian government forces and Iranian servicemen are also present in the country, the official told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

Moscow has firmly rejected allegations of its involvement. Russia "has other things to do in Syria" than tamper with US gunships, Deputy head of the Federation Council defense committee Senator Yevgeniy Serebrennikov stated, namely helping Syrians to achieve and maintain a peaceful life.

"I don't know who are they calling 'adversaries' exactly, but Russia has nothing to do with it, and all the allegations are unsubstantiated," the official said.

State Department Admits U.S. Buys Votes In U.N., But There Is Problem

The US State Department is concerned over the UN members voting as not all of them seem not to be “loyal” to the US.

The US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley complained that the US spends on the UN too much and once again threatened to cut foreign aid for countries that oppose the US at the UN, The Washington Examiner magazine reported on April 26.

​

“The American people pay 22 percent of the UN budget — more than the next three highest donor countries combined,” Haley said.​

“In spite of this generosity, the rest of the UN voted with us only 31 percent of the time, a lower rate than in 2016. That’s because we care more about being right than popular and are once again standing up for our interests and values. Either way, this is not an acceptable return on our investment.”​

In the blacklist of countries that “disrespect” Washington are Zimbabwe, Burundi, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, China, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Bolivia and the Republic of South Africa (RSA).

The US allegations and claims of “disrespected” stance in the UN shows that Washington is able to exercise its power through international organizations and to affect the world politics. It could be marked that the UN voting outcomes do not reflect the real interests of all member states, but they are influenced by the US preferences. The allocation of military aid from the US to UN members reflects the predictions of the US vote buying policy.

However, the annual report, which has taken place since 1984, shows the effectiveness of this corrupt US policy descends as the 31 percent average is “a 10 percentage point drop from 2016”.

Washington now attempts to change this situation at least over the Syrian conflict. Currently, the Trump’s administration is seeking to find “investors”, which will pay for the US military presence in Syria.

On April 16, the WSJ claimed that Washington had allegedly requested Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to devote billions of dollars for reconstruction efforts in the US-occupied part of Syria and had asked Gulf states to contribute troops to an Arab force that would replace US forces.

On April 17, Saudi Arabia declared its readiness to send troops into Syria as part of the US-led coalition if a decision is taken to widen it. However, according to regional experts, the Saudi military deployment in Syria is hardly possible because the country is already involved in a long and complicated war in Yemen.

Syriana Analysis Published on Apr 27, 2018

Despite the U.S., UK and France aggression against Syria, on Tuesday 17th of April, Syrians celebrated their historic independence from the French occupation (called mandate by the late League of Nations) which lasted between 1920 to 1946.

Published on Apr 25, 2018

Apr 26, 2018

Israel: "The Iranian Regime Is In Its Final Days"
27.04.2018 Videos and Commentary
Snip:

“We haven’t intervened in the war in Syria since it began seven years ago. The Iranians, Hezbollah, other militias, Russia and ISIS are there. Everyone is fighting each other and I wish them all success there,” Lieberman said. “We are not intervening, but Iran is trying to establish bases in Syria and arm them with advanced weapons,” he said

“From there it wants to attack us. I cannot sit idly by while I watch Iran do that close to the Golan Heights, while it supports Hezbollah, Syria and Lebanon.“​

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[Ca.]

France Deploys More Special Forces Troops In Syria – Report
27.04.2018
New units of the French Special Forces were deployed in the US-led coalition base in the Syrian northeastern town of Rmelan on April 26, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported on April 27. According to the report, the new French units moved to eastern Syria from Iraq.

Map of French Army bases in Syria, by Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency also claimed that the French Special Forces are currently deployed in five military bases in the northern Syrian governorates of Raqqa and Aleppo. Local sources told the Turkish new agency that French forces are operating with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on several fronts, including the city of Manbij.

The main military base of the French Special Forces is located at the Lafarge Cement factory, more than 40km southeast of the Syrian city of Kobani, according to the Anadolu Agency. The source added that more than 70 French soldiers are currently stationed in the base which has been expanded to include an airstrip recently.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron announced during a briefing in Washington on April 25 that France has adopted a more aggressive approach towards Syria since the election of Macron.

During the last three months, the French president has worked to expand the French military presence in Syria under several pretexts including fighting terrorism and countering the use of chemical weapons.

PressTV-Pentagon vows to 're-energize' invasion in east Syria
Fri Apr 27, 2018 08:57AM
The United States is going to "re-energize" a multi-lateral military campaign that it has been leading in Syria, says US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, contrasting his boss President Donald Trump's pledge to pull out troops from Syria.

“We are not withdrawing,” Mattis said at a hearing session of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

"You'll see a re-energized effort against the middle Euphrates River Valley in the days ahead and against the rest of the geographic caliphate," the Pentagon chief told the panel, referring to Syrian territories that remain under terrorist control.

Since September 2014, the US and its allies have been pounding purported terrorist positions across Syria without coordination with Damascus or a mandate from the United Nations.

The airstrike has failed to yield any meaningful results and has on many occasions worked to the disadvantage of President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

However, Syria has been able to force Daesh and other terrorist groups from large parts of Syria with support from Iran, Russia and Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Claiming that the US-led campaign had achieved its declared goals, Trump said in late March that Washington would withdraw from Syria "very soon,” causing much debate in and outside America about whether that was the right decision.

The American head of state appears to have softened his position since, saying on Tuesday that he wanted to withdraw from Syria "relatively soon" but not before what he called a mission was completed.

US-led operations in Iraq to continue

Mattis told lawmakers during the Thursday hearing session that he expected an increase in US-led operations against what he called militants on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria.

The Pentagon has reportedly deployed around 600 troops, including special forces, to the al-Tanf garrison which was established four years ago in southeastern Syria on the border with Iraq.

The US military is occupying a 55-kilometer (34-mile) zone surrounding the garrison without the Damascus government’s consent and has threatened to repel Syrian and Russian operations against militants stationed in the area. In May 2017, US-led aircraft attacked a convoy of Syrian pro-government forces in the vicinity of the base.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, announced in June 2017 that they had dislodged Daesh terrorists from the the al-Waleed checkpoint on the Iraqi side of the border and were ready to enter Syria and fight terrorists there.

The US is said to be training various militants at the al-Tanf base, who operate against popular forces on both sides of the border.

Mattis also said France had been deploying its special forces to Syria over the past two weeks, in order to reinforce the campaign.

The French connection

One of the first Western countries to join the so-called coalition, France has been carrying out operations inside Iraq and Syria. It also joined the US and the UK in the April 14 cruise missile strikes against alleged chemical weapons-related facilities in Damascus and Homs that Washington claimed were used against the people of Syria.

PressTV-Turkey to ‘target’ French troops if they back militants
French President Macron infuriates Turkey by pledging support for US-backed Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

The French troops have reportedly been working with their US peers to train and assist fighters of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria which is largely dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The support for Kurds has angered Turkey, which has been carrying out its own military operation in northern Syria to curb threats from the YPG. Ankara deems the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.

Coalition casualties increase

Mattis' announcement of a re-energized campaign in Syria came shortly after the US admitted that it 28 more Syrian and Iraqi civilians had been killed in its airstrikes in March.

This brings the official number of the coalition's civilian casualties to 833, a number that has been widely disputed by Damascus and various rights groups.

Earlier this year, the London-based Airwars organization, which tracks civilian deaths in US-led airstrikes, put the figure at 5,961 people in both Syria and Iraq.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported November last year that 2,759 civilians, including 644 minors and 470 women, had been killed in coalition airstrikes.

US refusal to fund Syria aide programs

Despite all the talk about helping Syrian people, Washington has so far failed to prove that in action.

The lack of empathy was best put on display this week, after the US refused to pledge a single dollar in aid at a Syria donor conference in Brussels.

Organized by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations, the conference raised $4.4 billion in total, falling $1.6 billion below the target.

UN humanitarian officials said the shortfall would force them to "prioritize" who of the estimated 13 million Syrian refugees could receive help first.

Army advances on several directions in south Damascus after breaking fortified positions of terrorists – Syrian Arab News Agency
27 April، 2018
Damascus Countryside, SANA- Units of the Syrian Arab Army continued to advance in pursuing terrorist organizations in al-Hajar al-Aswad area to eradicate the terrorists completely from south Damascus.

The army units, backed by Syrian air force and artillery continued advancing on several directions in al-Joura, al-‘Asali and Hajar al-Aswad areas, south Damascus, after breaking the fortified positions of terrorists, SANA reporter said.

The reporter added that the army inflicted heavy losses upon terrorists in personnel and equipment.

The army units, based on accurate monitoring operations and backed by the army air force and artillery, are carrying out their plans of targeting the terrorist groups’ positions and movement’s routs, cutting off their supply routes, the reporter said.

The military operations will continue until control is established over the south of Damascus, and consequently securing the neighboring neighborhoods which the terrorist organization target with shells. (Shaza/Ghossoun)

Al-Nusra terrorists shell surroundings of Khan Arnabeh in Quneitra countryside – Syrian Arab News Agency
27 April، 2018
Quneitra, SANA – Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist groups targeted the surroundings of Khan Arnabeh town in Quneitra countryside, causing material damage.

SANA’s correspondent reported that al-Nusra terrorists positioned in some areas of Quneitra countryside targeted with a number of shells the surroundings of Tall al Quba’ and Khan Arnabeh, resulting in material damage to citizens’ houses and properties.

Units of the Syrian Arab Army responded by targeting the sources of attacks in the villages of Ofania and al-Houriah and destroyed fortified positions for terrorists, according to the correspondent.
Emma / Hazem Sabbag.

 

[angelburst29]

Apr 28, 2018 - Russia: Lavrov and Turkish FM hold bilateral talks in Moscow

(1:19 min.)

Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu held bilateral talks in Moscow on Saturday.

“It is a good opportunity to observe how all issues are developing, both bilateral relations and the current international agenda,” Lavrov said.

“Thanks to the regular meetings of the foreign ministers of the guarantor countries of the Astana Process, we have made substantial progress on the issue of the Syrian settlement,” the Turkish minister said.

Cavusoglu came to Moscow to participate in a special meeting with the Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif Javad, as Turkey, Russia and Iran are the sponsors of the Astana Process, which promotes the Syrian peace settlement.

In addition to the bilateral talks, the Russian Foreign Minister will also hold trilateral talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts.


Streamed live 4 hours ago - Apr 28, 2018 - Live: Lavrov holds joint press conference with Iranian and Turkish counterparts

(Press Conference begins at 1:11:06 mark)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov holds a joint press conference with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Moscow on Saturday, April 28.

The foreign ministers will exchange opinions on regional and international issues and discuss tensions around the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program.


28.04.2018 - Recent Events in Syria have demonstrated that Not Everyone Wants Peace - Lavrov (Video)
Recent Events in Syria Have Demonstrated That Not Everyone Wants Peace - Lavrov

The top diplomats of the three countries serving as guarantors of the nationwide ceasefire in Syria have given a joint press conference focusing on the prospects for a political settlement in Syria.

Sergei Lavrov, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu, the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey, respectively, have held a press conference in Moscow on April 28 following joint talks.

Foreign Minister Lavrov began his remarks by pointing out that the US, French and British coalition airstrikes against Syria on April 14 were conducted before the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had completed its investigation into the alleged chemical attack in Douma on April 7.

These strikes, he said, "seriously aggravated the situation," and were an indication that US statements about supporting Syria's territorial integrity were "only words which, apparently, cover plans for reformatting the Middle East and dividing Syria into parts."

The Russian foreign minister added that Russia, Iran and Turkey are resolute in their agreement on "the absolute inadmissibility of attempts to divide Syria along-ethno-confessional lines."

Lavrov emphasized that peace efforts should not be accompanied by any preconditions, such as the demands made by some opposition forces that the Syrian government resigns. Such preconditions are "highly destructive," he said, and aimed at complicating the resumption of the negotiation process.

The foreign minister said Saturday's talks will help further consolidate the three countries' efforts to abide by Resolution 2254 of the UN Security Council, which calls for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria.

Lavrov noted that the UN can play a major role in helping the Astana process develop in several key directions. This includes assistance with the ceasefire regime in the so-called deescalation zones. The foreign minister urged armed opposition groups to drive terrorists out of these territories, and stressed that the UN can play a role in making clear to the opposition not to make alliances, temporary or otherwise, with the jihadists.

Secondly, he said, the UN can assist in the campaign to help Syrians return to a normal life, including via its humanitarian agencies. Moscow can assist in convincing Damascus to show more flexibility regarding these aid efforts. The UN must also take efforts not to limit aid to opposition-held areas, according to Lavrov.

Thirdly, the UN can help in facilitating political dialogue. The Astana process, culminating in the Sochi conference, achieved more than any other process, and formed the basis for Syrian settlement, the foreign minister said.

Ultimately, Lavrov said that UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura's criticism of Astana and Sochi was odd, given what these platforms have achieved. The Sochi declaration remains the main instrument for de Mistura to implement his mandate on Syria under UN Resolution 2254, Lavrov noted.

No Military Solution

For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif stressed that the Astana peace process was the main instrument in bringing lasting peace to Syria. There was no military solution to the Syrian crisis, he emphasized.

Zarif pointed to the upcoming Astana summit in May, whose topics will include prisoner exchange.

The Iranian foreign minister also stressed that as a victim of chemical weapons use in the past, Tehran condemns the use of such weapons by any party, and hopes that an objective investigation on the ground in Syria by the OPCW will find the truth. He added that those countries who supported Iraq during its use of chemical weapons against Iran have no right to accuse Damascus today.

Zarif stressed that the world community has a responsibility to assist Syria, which has successfully fought against the terrorist groups such as Daesh (ISIS)* and al-Nusra,* in reconstruction efforts.

The Iranian foreign minister also accused the United States of sowing discord between various factions and groups in Syria. US policy is counterproductive, he said, and has helped to further spread extremism in the region, from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Zarif was also asked about the Iran nuclear deal, and said that President Trump's demands to alter the deal were a violation of Washington's international obligations, and "unacceptable" for the Iranian people.

Turkey Supports Syria's Territorial Integrity

For his part, Foreign Minister Cavusoglu said that Saturday's talks saw discussion on a whole gamut of issues related to the Syrian crisis and the Astana peace process. He also reiterated Turkey's support for the country's territorial integrity.

Cavusoglu said that the shared goal of the three guarantor countries was to provide Syrians with a normal life, to provide humanitarian aid, and ultimately to find a political solution to the crisis. The upcoming meeting in Astana will be "one more step" in solidifying the ceasefire and bringing peace to Syria, he added.

The foreign minister admitted that there have been efforts to undermine the Astana talks by "some groups." He emphasized that the guarantors will continue their work, continue their cooperation, and make an effort to increase such cooperation.

Cavusoglu urged every actor in the world community, including those presently trying to torpedo the political process, to contribute to the peace process instead.

The Turkish foreign minister urged all terrorist groups, including Kurdish YPG militia (which Ankara considers a terrorist entity), to leave Syria once and for all, and to return control of these territories to the Syrian people. He accused Washington of supporting Kurdish terrorist organizations in Syria. Cavusoglu stressed that terrorism needs to be systematically eradicated in the wartorn country, including in Idlib governate.

Some Don't Want Peace in Syria

Ahead of the press conference, Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow believes that collective measures were necessary in the Astana peace talks format to normalize the situation. He also reiterated that Russia, Turkey and Iran need to work together to help Damascus clear the war torn country of terrorists.

The Russian foreign minister added that unfortunately, "the events of recent weeks have shown that not everyone seems to want peace in Syria. Every time hope emerges in the Syrian reconciliation, this hope is struck down. We have to acknowledge the ongoing attempts to derail the effort to build a dialogue between the Syrians, attempts to hinder the establishment of a constitutional committee."

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif thanked Lavrov for Russia's hospitality, noting that he had "lost count" of the number of meetings he has held with his Russian counterpart. He added that Moscow and Tehran have reached a high level of understanding not only in security, but the economy as well. According to Zarif, the Astana platform for Syrian settlement was "the only initiative where Tehran cooperates with its Turkish partners, and this cooperation yields results." (*Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia.)


28.04.2018 - Israel Warns of 80,000 Iran-Backed 'Extremists' Operating in Syria
Israel Warns of 80,000 Iran-Backed ‘Extremists’ Operating in Syria

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that 80,000 “extremist” Shia Muslim militants are operating under Iran’s command in Syria.

"There are over 80,000 extremists from all over the Middle East who are members of Shia militias in Syria under Iranian control," said Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon. Wednesday, Danon was elected vice president of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly.

The ambassador showed the UNSC an aerial photograph of what Israel alleges is an Iranian base just on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital, which Danon said serves as "Iran's central induction and recruitment center in Syria," but reportedly did not offer up any evidence to support his statement.

It is likely that Danon is referring to Hezbollah, and possibly to the Badr Organization, among the most active Shia militias in Syria, which have fought alongside the Syrian Arab Army and Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in a number of battles in the war-torn nation against the Free Syrian Army, al-Nusra Front, Daesh and a number of other Islamic extremist groups.

Hezbollah is a Shiite political party and military based in Lebanon, labelled a terrorist organization by the United States in 1997. It has evolved from a cell-based structure largely involved with counterinsurgency to a full-fledged army, now considered the strongest non-state force in the world. The Badr Organization is an Iraqi political party that fought Daesh in Iraq and helped the Syrian government retake Aleppo from al-Nusra Front and other extremist groups.

Danon's announcement comes following the April 9 Israeli attack on Syria's T-4 air base, which killed seven Iranians operating in the country on behalf of the Syrian government.

An IDF member told the New York Times, "It was the first time we attacked live Iranian targets — both facilities and people," although the paper issued a correction after the IDF lodged protests, arguing he did not speak for the military.

Since then, Israel has been bracing for potential conflict. On Monday, Sputnik reported that the country pulled its F-15s from scheduled drills in Alaska to keep them instead on high alert in Israel.


April 28, 2018 - Who are Iran's 80,000 Shi'ite fighters in Syria?
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Who-are-Irans-80000-Shiite-fighters-in-Syria-552940

There are 80,000 Shi’ite militiamen, trained and recruited by Iran, in Syria.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon showed a map Thursday at the UN, asserting that some of them were being trained several kilometers from Damascus. “They are trained to commit acts of terror in Syria and across the region,” he said.

Danon’s map shows the Imam Hossein Iranian garrison on the road from Damascus to Lebanon near Dayr Qanun. The figures presented by Danon have been picked up throughout the world. Asharq al-Awsat, Sputnik, The New Arab, The Daily Star in Lebanon and others have reported on it. 80,000 Iranian-backed militia fighters in Syria affect the entire region and are a concern for other countries that oppose Iranian influence spreading. Danon calls these fighters “extremists from all over the Middle East who are members of Shi’ite militias in Syria under Iranian control.”

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Fellow at the Middle East Forum, says that “80,000 or so seems more like the number of foreigners and Syrians in various groups that are working with the Iranians in Syria.” That would include members of the Fatemiyoun and Zeinabiyoun, Shi’ites recruited from Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as Hezbollah fighters and members of the Local Defense Forces. “On paper the LDF number was around 88,000 last year, but I am sure some of those people only exist on paper,” al-Tamimi says. Hezbollah cycles its fighters in and out of the Syrian war to give them leave back in Lebanon. Their forces might be between 5,000 and 8,000 strong at a time in Syria over the last years. There are also elements of Iraqi-based Shi’ite militias fighting in Syria alongside the regime.

The origins of the Iranian training program lie in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recruitment of Iranians for advisory roles in Syria. By December 2015 there were 500 advisors undergoing training, according to an article at Foreign Policy.

Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani sought to expand the mission, and brought in volunteers from “all six branches of the IRGC.” There were so many recruits between 2013-2015 that they had to turn many of them away. By May 2016, as many as 700 Iranians were dead in Syria.

By November 2017, Iran’s web of Shi’ite fighters in Syria had grown as Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad’s army had suffered casualties. “The Lebanese Hezbollah was the among the first to arrive, and Iranian revolutionary guards, Afghan, Pakistani, Yemeni and Iraqi Shia militias are among the fighters that Iran has been relying on in gaining control in Syria,” one analyst argued in a paper at Chatham House. Iran preferred foreign Shi’ites because it found the LDF less reliable. These included Iraqis from the Abou Fadel al Abbas who journeyed to Syria before 2014 to help defend the Sayyidah Zeynab Shi’ite shrine near Damascus.

Examinations of the number of Shi’ite militias fighting in Syria all involve estimates of their overall strength. Even casualty figures for them are often unknown. An article at The Washington Institute of Near East Studies in February 2018 by Jackson Doering noted that the total estimate for Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria was 1,214 over six years of fighting. Thousands of Shi’ites from Afghanistan and Pakistan have reportedly been killed, as well as hundreds of Iranians and Iraqis.

The major concern about these militias is not just that they are connected to Iran but that they are putting down roots. “Iranian militias in the south are keeping the territory they conquer instead of handing it over to the regime,” Doering asserts. The militias have been pulled back from some frontline positions as the conflict in Syria becomes more frozen, with rebel areas under Turkish influence in the north and the regime seeking to solidify gains around Damascus. Many observers have suggested the militias are part of Iran seeking a “land bridge” or corridor of influence from Tehran, via Baghdad, to Damascus and Beirut. This consists of a network of these groups controlling roads throughout Syria and Iraq with the ability to transfer their people from place to place outside the say of Baghdad or Damascus. They fill the power vacuum created by ISIS and the civil war over the last several years, and then they stay.

For Israel, this is a concern if and when these fighters might be directed against Israel. It’s also a threat to have Iranian training bases, particularly so close by.

But the idea of 80,000 militiamen on Israel’s border is, as al-Tamimi argues, a bit of an exaggeration.

Some of the fighters exist only on paper and others, like the Afghans, are not well armed and have been used as cannon fodder by the regime. They aren’t equipped to fight an enemy like Israel; rather they’ve been dying in the hundreds fighting Syrian rebels and ISIS. It appears the number of recruits has decreased as their home communities have become reticent to send young men to Iranian recruiters to end up dying in Syria. In the beginning religious devotion and wanting to defend holy shrines in Syria was a motivation. Those shrines are now safe and the jihadist threat that motivated the recruitment drive has been beaten back.

The lasting influence and infrastructure of the Iranian militias will be felt long into the future. Regardless of their exact numbers, they have deeply affected the region and the networks that they carved out, from far off Pakistan to the Golan, are part of Tehran’s quest for hegemony.


28.04.2018 - Syrian Parl't Denies Reports about Assad Introducing Property Confiscation Bill
Syrian Parl't Denies Reports About Assad Introducing Property Confiscation Bill

Syrian President Assad has never issued a decree which allows for property of Syrian people, who fail to provide documents confirming their ownership of said property, to be confiscated, Secretary of the Syrian People's Council Khaled Abboud told Sputnik, stressing that such actions would contradict the nation's constitution.

There is no decree on this subject. And, in my opinion, such a decree would violate the constitution… Areas are being returned to the Syrian army, which represents the Syrian government, which is responsible for its citizens," Abboud said.

The Syrian government understands that today many Syrians do not have the opportunity to reach their homes, and that many of them were forced to leave because of terrorism, according to the official.

"In this regard, how can one issue such a decree when citizens cannot reach their property rights certificates in order to confirm it," Abboud stressed.

At the same time, he noted that over time, Syrian citizens may be asked to confirm their ownership, since many areas had been damaged or destroyed during the war.

"But I do not think that we will come to this stage soon. Especially bearing in mind that the [Syrian] army has not finished the liberation yet," Abboud underlined.

On Thursday, Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported, citing the country's Foreign Ministry, that Assad had signed a decree under which Syrians could lose their property if they failed to register their ownership within a period of 30 days. Berlin criticized the measure, calling on Syria's allies, including Russia, to prevent the decree from being implemented, according to the media outlet.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations.

 

[angelburst29]

29.04.2018 - VIDEO Claims UN Peacekeepers Led Syrian Police into Fatal Trap in Golan Heights
VIDEO Claims UN Peacekeepers Led Syrian Police Into Fatal Trap in Golan Heights

Austrian military forces found themselves in hot water as journalists brought a 2012 incident into the light, prompting public uproar and a governmental inquiry, as UN soldiers from Austria reportedly followed an order to not interfere and let Syrians die under fire.

The Austrian government has launched an investigation into allegations that, in the wake of the Syrian conflict, the country’s Blue Helmets deliberately led local policemen into an ambush on the Golan Heights, following orders from their command.

On April 28 the spokesman for the Defense Ministry, Michael Bauer, posted on Twitter that the investigation had commenced.

The commission started working this morning. First, all notifications, orders, laws and regulations that may be relevant to clarification are collected, reviewed and evaluated. The UN is invited to cooperate.

The public uproar arose after a local magazine "Falter" revealed a video from a whistleblower, which allegedly shows how Austrian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights watch smugglers preparing an ambush. Then a vehicle with Syrian secret policemen arrives, but the Blue Helmets don’t warn them that there are going to be ambushed. The police’s pickup keeps moving and eventually gets attacked. According to UN reports, 13 gunmen killed nine policemen.

According to the media, citing a UN peacekeeper, the attack was an assassination attempt on one of Syria’s top intelligence officials. The terrorists came to the buffer zone on the Golan Heights from Lebanon on purpose, aware that the UN peacekeepers wouldn’t be able to do anything, as a former Blue Helmet who was stationed with the UN group on the Golan Heights revealed to the newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten.

(4:02 min.) Warning - Graphic Video

He said that the order for the Austrians was: “Do not interfere." The man named Markus H., who didn’t reportedly take part in the incident, claimed that the soldiers on video had "acted 100 percent correctly according to our mandate."

The ex-peacekeeper noted that if his fellow soldiers warned the policemen, they would have become targets, exposing themselves to a fatal threat, as the Blue Helmets didn’t have ammunition and bulletproof vests.

He also stated that when the conflict in Syria escalated in 2011, the situation on the Israel-Syrian border became more dangerous for the peace group, causing problems for them, as the militia often blocked their provisions.

The representative of the Defense Ministry stated to the local broadcaster ОЕ-24.TV that the soldiers couldn’t act on their own, as they had to follow their orders. Ex-Defense Minister Norbert Darabos, who occupied the post in 2012, wasn’t aware of the incident and claimed that those guilty should be punished. Meanwhile, the Austrian news agency APA reported, citing a UN spokesman, that the incident was therefore known as the UN Security Council was informed that the Blue Helmets had witnessed policemen being shot by 13 gunmen in the buffer zone. The UN had stated that it would work with the Austrian authorities to investigate the case.

An Austrian group of the UN peace contingent stayed on the disputed Golan Heights, which has remained an apple of discord between Tel-Aviv and Damascus, since the seventies. The western two-thirds of the Golan Heights (known in Syria as the Quneitra governorate) was annexed by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967, which has been repeatedly condemned by the UN. The dispute over the territories has not only prevented Syria and Israel from signing a peace treaty, but has also provoked tit-for-tat strikes in the border areas.

At the same time, the eastern Golan Heights, which has remained in Syrian hands, became the target of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, as well as Daesh* militants and other Syrian opposition forces. In 2012 Austria remained the only European country to remain in the area. The decision to withdraw their troops came only in 2013 after tensions in the border area grew as the conflict in Syria deepened. *Daesh (IS/ISIS/ISIL) — terrorist group outlawed in Russia.

Also here:
29/04/2018 - Graphic video: UN peacekeepers watch nine Syrian policemen get ambushed by militants in Golan Heights
Graphic video: UN peacekeepers watch nine Syrian policemen get ambushed by militants in Golan Heights


Sat Apr 28, 2018 - Russian FM: West Plans Mideast Redivision While Stating Support for Syria’s Sovereignty
Farsnews

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday Western countries are making statements on the support for Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as a cover for their plans to reformat the Middle East and ruin the Arab Republic.

Russia’s top diplomat made this statement while opening a meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts Mevlut Cavusoglu and Mohammad Javad Zarif, TASS reported.

"For Western countries, the statements in support of the sovereignty, independence and the territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic are just words, which to all appearances are intended to cover up the plans for re-formatting the Middle East and dividing Syria into parts," Russia’s top diplomat stated.

"I am confident that Russia, Turkey and Iran, while confirming our support for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, sincerely want the Syrian Arab Republic to remain a unified state, in which all ethnic and confessional groups will get equal rights and will be able to live in peace among themselves and with all their neighbors," the Foreign Minister added.

"Today we need to help Syrians complete freeing the country from terrorists and we are helping the Syrian government build bridges of national reconciliation and restore what has been destroyed," he said.

Russia’s top diplomat slammed as unacceptable the attempts to destabilize the situation in Syria, encourage extremists and advance preliminary conditions for dialogue that do not comply with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

"This would mean an invitation to dividing lines inside the SAR, against which all of us speak," Lavrov stressed.


Sun Apr 29, 2018 - Russia Wants Ankara to Deliver Control of Afrin to Syrian Gov't
Farsnews

Russia's Humeimim airbase in Lattakia province underlined the necessity for Turkey to deliver control of Afrin to the Syrian government as Ankara continues attempts to occupy Manbij in Northeastern Aleppo.

The Russian airbase announced on Sunday that the Turkish army's operations in Afrin have attained their goals and therefore, the Turkish side should return the region to the legal government in Syria.

Meantime, analysts said that the Turkish and US military commanders have held a meeting recently, discussing increasing cooperation between the two countries about their common security concerns which includes the situation of Manbij.

They added that the meeting between Turkish Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar and his US counterpart Joseph Dunford was held following political talks between Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his American counterpart Mike Pompeo in Brussels after which the former said that the Turkish forces will be deployed in Manbij along with the US military men.

Meantime, earlier reports from Afrin said that the Turkish army and Ankara-backed militants had detained a large number of civilians and asked for a large amount of money to free them.

The Kurdish-language Hawar news reported on Sunday that the Turkish forces have detained 20 civilians, most of them Izadis, in the village of Qatmeh in Shara region in Afrin. It added that they also tortured the detainees and loot their properties.

Hawar news reported that the Turkish army and militants have asked $2,500 to $5,000 to free any of their hostages.


Sun Apr 29, 2018 - Ankara-Backed Militants Hold Civilians Hostage in Afrin
Farsnews

The Turkish army and Ankara-backed militants in Afrin region in Aleppo province detained a large number of civilians and asked for a large amount of money to free them.


Sat Apr 28, 2018 - Syrian Army Prepares for Purging Terrorists from Homs, Destroys Tahrir Al-Sham Base
Farsnews

The Syrian army smashed the strongholds of Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front) in Homs province, killing one of its top commanders, military sources said on Saturday, adding that the army is preparing to cleanse the Northern parts of the province of militants.

The sources said that a large number of special army forces have been sent to Northeastern Homs along with a large number of military equipment, adding that they are missioned with purging all terrorists of al-Rastan region in Northern Homs.

Meantime, the air force, artillery and missile units of the Syrian army attacked the terrorists' positions and moves in Northern Homs and Southern Hama, inflicting damage on the militants.

Also, field sources reported that the Syrian army has destroyed one of Tahrir al-Sham's bases in the village of Ezzeddin in Northeastern Homs by missile strikes.

During the operations, a commander of Tahrir al-Sham named Abu Ramah al-Hamawi was killed.


Sat Apr 28, 2018 - Syrian Army Wins Back Control of Key Region from ISIL in Southern Damascus
Farsnews

The Syrian army continued military operations in Southern Damascus, extending the range of its advances and regaining control of more regions.

The Syrian army forces continued clashes with the ISIL terrorists West of Hajar al-Aswad region on Saturday, retaking control of al-Madeniyeh district in al-Qadam neighborhood.

Meantime, the artillery and missile units of the army heavily pounded the terrorists' positions in Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk refugee camp, inflicting heavy casualties on the militants.

Also, the Syrian army advanced in the Western and Eastern fronts of Hajar al-Aswad region, tightening the noose on the terrorists in the region which is considered as the ISIL key stronghold.


TEHRAN (FNA)- Video footage has emerged showing the Syrian Army deploying a new never before seen weapon system against ISIL terrorists in Southern Damascus. [VIDEO] Monday 30 Apr 2018
Farsnews


29/04/2018 - Map update: Syrian Army squeezes ISIS pocket in south Damascus from three directions amid unrelenting assault
Map update: Syrian Army squeezes ISIS pocket in south Damascus from three directions amid unrelenting assault

The Syrian Army and allied Palestinian forces continue to squeeze Islamic State (or ISIS) militants in southern Damascus from three directions – the north, south and west.

On Saturday, the Syrian Army and its allies scored their biggest single advance of the southern Damascus operation to date – one that saw the seizure of the Al-Qadam district as well as the neighborhoods of Al-Madaniyah and Al-Asali.

Since then, ISIS terrorists have regrouped in the districts of Yarmouk Camp and Hajjar al-Aswad and are now taking up positions originally established by them some five years ago.

At the same time, the Russian military is preparing to evacuate rebel fighters from the districts of Yalda, Beit Sahm and Al-Babila to other militant-controlled areas of Syria; government forces are to assume control over rebel positions amid this withdrawal.

By taking up rebel positions in Yalda, the Syrian Army will be able to open a fourth front against Islamic State forces in southern Damascus.


Sat Apr 28, 2018 - More French Military Convoys Arrive in Northeastern Syria
Farsnews

Several units of France's Special Forces arrived in the Kurdish-controlled areas in Hasaka province in Northeastern Syria as foreign military troops are intensifying their movements in the region. The French troops entered the US base in Ramilan region which is controlled by Kurdish fighters in Hasaka province, field sources said.

The sources pointed to the increased military movements of the French forces from Iraq to Syria, and said that the French troops in their military vehicles accompanied by American soldiers patrolled several districts in Manbij, Raqqa and some regions of Deir Ezzur.

In a relevant development last Tuesday, the US and France dispatched new military convoys to Hasaka province, an Arab media outlet reported, adding that the American and French forces have increased their military movements in the Northeastern part of the war-held country.

Al-Manar TV network reported that a new American military column, including several vehicles, arrived in Hasaka city and later moved toward the town of al-Shadadi in Southern Hasaka.

The network quoted field sources as reporting that the US convoy of armored vehicles moved towards al-Shadadi from a military base North of Khabour Dam.

Al-Manar further said that three military vehicles under French flags entered a Kurdish militia base in al-Aliyeh silos region South of the town of Ra'as al-Ein in Northwestern Hasaka.

Another Arab media also reported earlier today that the US Army has set up a new military base in Hasaka province despite President Donald Trump's claims that Washington is resolved to withdraw forces from Syria.

Moraseloun news website quoted media activists as reporting that the US forces have embarked on setting up a new military bas between the towns of Tal Tamer and Tal Bidar in Hasaka province in Northeastern Syria.

It added that the US plans to set up a military airport near the base.

Donald Trump recently announced that Washington is determined to withdraw its military forces from Syria.


Sat Apr 28, 2018 - Assassination of Terrorist Commanders Continue in Northern Syria
Farsnews

Assassination of notorious terrorist commanders continued in the Northern provinces of Syria, specially Idlib on Saturday.
Field sources reported on Saturday that one of the commanders of Syria's Tahrir Front terrorist group named Abdolrahman al-Ali Adnan has been killed by members of the rival group, Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front), in the village of Mosayyebin in Southern Idlib.

They added that a commander of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorist group, namely Ahmad al-Jarou, was also killed in a bomb explosion in Northern Idlib.

Meantime, a number of Tahrir al-Sham militants were killed near the town of Arab Saeed in Western Idlib and one of the terrorist group's members was assassinated by unknown assailants near the village of al-Qaniyeh, North of Jisr al-Shaqour in Soutwestern Idlib.

Several other terrorists were also assassinated in territories occupied by militants in Aleppo province. Field sources said that the terrorist groups stationed in Aleppo and Idlib accuse each other of assassinating members of rival groups, adding that insecurity, fear and horror have increased among the militants.

In a relevant development on Thursday, two notorious terrorist commanders were killed by unknown assailants in Idlib as militants had apparently reached an agreement to stop infighting in Northern Syria.

A commander of Jeish al-Ahrar terrorist group, named Abu Salim Banash, was shot dead near the town of Banash in Northeastern Idlib after unknown raiders fired at him.

Also, reports said that a commander of Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at named Abu al-Ward Kafr Batikh was killed along with one of his comrades by unknown assailants North of Ma'arat al-No'eman in Idlib.

Meantime, unknown raiders' gunfire killed 3 foreign members of Tahrir al-Sham's Turkistani party near the town of Armanaz in Northwestern Idlib.

The developments came after Tahrir al-Sham, Syria's Tahrir Front and Soqour al-Sham terrorist groups had on Wednesday agreed to stop infighting in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.


29/04/2018 - Al-Qaeda branch in Syria merges with jihadist group to form new terrorist legion
Al-Qaeda branch in Syria merges with jihadist group to form new terrorist legion

An Al-Qaeda branch in Syria has recently merged their group with another jihadist faction to form a new terrorist legion in the northern part of country.

According to a statement from Tanzim Hurras Al-Deen, their organization has merged with another jihadist group, Ansar Al-Tawhid (formerly Jund Al-Aqsa), to form a new legion called “Nusret Islam.”

Tanzim Hurras Al-Deen is led by Abu Hammam Al-Shami, who was also a former member of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham.

Shami would leave Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham with many of its members to form this Al-Qaeda linked group in northern Syria.


29/04/2018 - Breaking: Syrian Army retreats from all new gains in Deir Ezzor following counter-attack by US-backed forces
Breaking: Syrian Army retreats from all new gains in Deir Ezzor following counter-attack by US-backed forces

Earlier on Sunday, the Syrian Army and allied paramilitary groups launched a surprise attack against US-backed forces along the eastern shore of the Euphrates.

According to reports, the government assault resulted in at least five towns and villages – Junaynah, Jayah, Shamrt Hossan, Huwayjat Ma’ishyah and Shaqrah – coming under Syrian Army control, at least so for several hours.

New information from official sources suggests that government troops have since retreated from all five settlements following a counter-attack by US-backed forces – whether or not American airpower was involved in the engagement remains unclear.

According to various sources, anywhere between six to nine US-backed fighters and possibly a top commander were killed in the clashes that took place; government losses are unknown.

It is still unclear why Syrian pro-government forces attacked US-backed factions today. Updates to follow.


28/04/2018 - Syrian Army uncovers more militant weapons left behind in East Ghouta (photos)
https://www.almasdarnews.com/articl...nt-weapons-left-behind-in-east-ghouta-photos/

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has uncovered more weapons in the East Ghouta region after combing through the Jobar suburb on Saturday.

According to Damascus Now, the weapons were found while the Syrian Arab Army was clearing some buildings that were once under the control of Faylaq Al-Rahman.

Below are the photos from Jobar:

 

[angelburst29]

Updates and added news reports ...

27/04/2018 - Syria will never agree to Israeli ‘occupation’ of Golan Heights – Envoy to UN
Syria will never agree to Israeli 'occupation' of Golan Heights – Envoy to UN

Relations between Damascus and Tel Aviv have recently escalated, as Syrian military infrastructure has reportedly been subjected to Israeli airstrikes on numerous occasions.

During a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East situation, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari has once again reiterated Damascus’ adherence to the so-called pre-June 1967 line, re-establishing borders from before the Six Day War, stressing that the country’s sovereign right on the “occupied” Golan Heights is non-negotiable, and the territory captured by Israel should be completely restored.

According to the UN envoy, some UNSC member-states have opted for a selective approach and the double standards policy, indulging in empty talk about international law, human rights, and the inalienable principles of the UN Charter while, at the same time, they turn a blind eye to the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, al-Jaafari said.

“Where have those states and their talk about counterterrorism and the international humanitarian law been when Syrian citizens were arrested and arbitrarily taken to Israeli jails, just as what happened to Sudqi al-Maqt, who was re-arrested because of his audio and video documentation of the close cooperation between the Israeli occupation forces and the Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations,” al-Jaafari said during the meeting.

Al-Jaafari proceeded to say that the United States has always protected Israel, granting it “immunity,” despite the fact that Tel Aviv has consistently violated UNSC resolutions, demanding that the pre-June 1967 status quo be restored. The UN official also denounced Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, recalling the recent developments in the country – the Israeli military turned to violence in Gaza over the last few weeks of Land Day protests, as Palestinians called for the return of their lands, seized in 1976 to set up Israeli settlements.

Concluding his speech, the UN representative called on the UNSC to take urgent measures against Israel, demand that it stop its “aggression” and force Tel Aviv to abide by resolutions 242, 338, and 497, stipulating the liberation of Arab territories from its “occupation,” including the Golan Heights, withdrawing to the pre-June 1967 line.

On June 5, 1967, Israel attacked three of its Arab neighbors, having eliminated the Egyptian air force in a preemptive strike following months of mounting tensions. As a result of the war, which lasted six days, Israel seized several Arab territories, including the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and Golan Heights from Syria.

Even though Tel Aviv returned Sinai to Egypt after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the country has continued its occupation of other territories for fifty years.

Marking 50 years since the beginning of the 1967 war, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the five-decade-long Israeli occupation, and called for the creation of an independent Palestinian state as a way to end the conflict. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, has refused to implement the UN resolutions, having repeatedly stated that Tel Aviv would not retreat to the 1967 lines because they were “indefensible,” and claimed that the Golan Heights would “remain in the hands of Israel forever.”


27/04/2018 - Jihadists attempt to sneak towards Syrian military positions near occupied Golan Heights
Jihadists attempt to sneak towards Syrian military positions near occupied Golan Heights

A group of jihadist rebels are attempting to sneak towards the Syrian government stronghold of Khan ‘Arnabeh near the occupied Golan Heights, a military report claimed this afternoon.

According to the military report, the militants were spotted moving towards Khan ‘Arnabeh in the Al-Quneitra Governorate, prompting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and National Defense Forces (NDF) to open fire on the jihadists.

Intense clashes are now ongoing between the Syrian Army and the jihadists near Khan ‘Arnabeh – no advances have been reported.

Khan ‘Arnabeh has long been a government stronghold in the Al-Quneitra Governorate; it has come under attack a number of times by the jihadist rebels in the past, but all of the infiltration attempts are usually repelled in a short period of time.


28/04/2018 - Russia’s military police patrolling three neighborhoods in Syria’s Eastern Qalamoun
Russia’s military police patrolling three neighborhoods in Syria’s Eastern Qalamoun

Russia’s military police have begun patrolling the settlements of Ruheiba, Jeiroud and Nasiriyah in Syria’s Eastern Qalamoun, chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria Yuri Yevtushenko said on Friday.

“To prevent provocations, ensure security for civilians and maintain law and order, units of the Russian military police have organized patrolling in the settlements of Ruheiba, Jeiroud and Nasiriyah,” he said.

According to the Russian officer, chiefs of administrations in Eastern Qalamoun neighborhoods are working to raise awareness of members of illegal armed groups who are willing to surrender arms and undergo a status normalization procedure.

“During the past day, as many as 1,871 people settled their statuses under the control of the Russian reconciliation center and Russian military police units,” he noted.

The Russian reconciliation center said on Thursday a six-day operation to liberate Eastern Qalamoun from illegal armed groups was over.


26/04/2018 - Russian cargo vessel laden with arms, ammo en route to Syria (Photos)
Russian cargo vessel laden with arms, ammo en route to Syria

Russian continues to send more arms, ammunition and military equipment to Syria to help the Syrian forces defeat the terrorist group across the war-torn country.

Recently, the Kyzyl-60: a Russian cargo vessel was seen crossing the Mediterranean-bound Bosphorus en route to the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russia keeps its naval base.

According to sources, the vessel is laden with weapons, ammunition and desert camouflage URAL 4320 trucks.

The kind of cargo might indicate that Russia is planning a new offensive alongside the Syrian Army in the Syrian Desert.


26/04/2018 - US going to expand fight in Syria – Mattis
US going to expand fight in Syria - Mattis

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis has explained his country’s decision not to withdraw troops from Syria during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, referring to increased Daesh offensives in the region.

“Right now we are not withdrawing [US troops from Syria],” Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are continuing the fight, we are going to expand it and bring in more regional support.”

According to the top US defense official, the United States will expand its anti-Daesh operation with the help of regional states.

Amid Trump’s statements concerning the mulled pullout of US troops, Defense Secretary James Mattis has previously outlined the possibility of terrorist groups regrouping in remote positions in Syria, saying to the US president that the withdrawal would reverse the progress achieved so far.

On March 3, US President Donald Trump announced his plans to pull the country’s troops out from Syria in the near-term, which was met with a conflicting reaction from the president’s special envoy to the US-led coalition, Brett McGurk, as well as incoming US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, as well as a number of other officials.

Following the strong reaction from the officials, Trump decided to keep troops in Syria. However, according to a representative of his administration, “he wasn’t thrilled about it, to say the least”.

The United States has maintained a military presence in Syria since 2014, leading a coalition of allies in the fight against Daesh, without a UN mandate or authorization from the Syrian government. Damascus has consistently called the US military presence in the country “illegal.”

Communication With Russia in Syria
Speaking about the communication line between Russian and US forces in Syria, Mattis noted that it has never been interrupted.

“Right now in Syria, we have an open and never interrupted deconfliction communication line that has worked pretty well to make certain we do not run afoul of one another’s forces or one another’s operations,” Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The US and Russian military commanders set up deconfliction communication channels last year, aimed to avoid any accidents between their forces as both sides recaptured territory from Daesh along opposite sides of the Euphrates River. As part of these efforts, US and Russian forces maintain three telephone lines of communication — one for ground troops, another for air forces, and a third for senior commanders. *Daesh, also known as ISIL/ISIS/IS, is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

Sanctions Against Allies
The US Secretary of Defense went on by speaking about a national security waiver that would exempt certain US allies including Vietnam and India from secondary sanctions when they conduct arms trade with Russia.

“There are nations in the world who are trying to turn away from formerly Russian-sourced weapons and systems. We only need to look at India, Vietnam and some others to recognize that eventually, we are going to parallelize ourselves. So what we ask for is the Senate and the House pass a national security waiver in the hand of the Secretary of State,” Mattis said.

Under the US Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, countries that conduct arms deals with Russia risk secondary sanctions. Some US allies including Vietnam and India have Russian-made weapons hardware that they want to modernize without risking sanction.


27/04/2018 - US-led Coalition declines to comment on new base in Syria
US-led Coalition declines to comment on new base in Syria

The US-led coalition against Daesh will not comment on reports of an alleged new US military base in Syria’s northeast supported by France, the coalition’s spokesperson told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Lebanese Al-Manar TV network reported that the US military established a new base in the Syrian province of Hasakah, and France sent military convoys to the base.

For operational security reasons, we will not speak to our numbers or locations of our troops,” the spokesperson said.
The representative of the coalition underscored the unchanged character of its mission “to defeat ISIS in designated parts of Iraq and Syria, and to set conditions for follow-on stability operations.”

“We will transition to meet changing commanders’ needs and mission requirements in a complex environment,” the spokesperson added.

According to the media report, several US military columns, including armored vehicles arrived in Hasakah and later proceeded to Shadadi, while military vehicles allegedly under French flag followed into the area in northwestern Hasakah.


27/04/2018 - French military deployed at 5 bases in northern Syria – report
French military deployed at 5 bases in northern Syria - report

French military personnel are currently deployed at five bases in northern Syria, Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency reported this afternoon.

Citing their sources in Syria, Anadolu claimed that the French personnel are present at five military bases operated by the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.

The Anadolu report also claimed that the French Special Forces arrived at a U.S. military base in the YPG-held town of Rmelan on late Thursday. No further details were released by the Anadolu Agency.

Turkey has repeatedly criticized both the U.S. and French regimes for their continued support of the YPG in Syria.


27/04/2018 - Turkish FM says plan in motion with US to force YPG to withdraw from Manbij
Turkish FM says plan in motion with US to force YPG to withdraw from Manbij

Turkey is working with the U.S. to get the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) to withdraw from the key town of Manbij in northeastern Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated on Friday.

“If the [determined] plan is actualized, the YPG terror group will withdraw from Manbij,” Çavuşoğlu stated.

Cavusoglu’s comments came shortly after he met with the new U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Brussels.

The YPG has controlled Manbij since 2016 when they expelled the Islamic State (ISIS) from the town.


28/04/2018 - US denies agreement with Turkey on withdrawing YPG from Manbij
US denies agreement with Turkey on withdrawing YPG from Manbij

The Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Heather Nauert, stated on Friday that her country had no agreement with Turkey regarding the alleged withdrawal of the Kurdish-led YPG forces from the northeast Aleppo town of Manbij.

“The Secretary and Foreign Minister agreed on the value of U.S.-Turkish partnership in the region and of maintaining close communication. Secretary Pompeo conveyed the Administration’s concern for U.S citizens and Mission Turkey local staff detained in Turkey. Building upon prior discussions on Manbij, the two reaffirmed their support for the established bilateral process to find a common way forward,” Nauert stated.


Nauert’s statement contrasted that of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, who told reporters on Friday that he and his U.S. counterpart, Mike Pompeo, had an agreement regarding the eventual withdrawal of YPG forces from Manbij.


27/04/2018 - Qatari FM denounces Saudi calls to send troops to Syria
Breaking: Qatari FM denounces Saudi calls to send troops to Syria

The Saudi Foreign Minister had announced on April 23 that Riyadh was willing to send troops to Syria as part of a wider international coalition if it receives an invitation to do so.

Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Thani has branded Saudi Arabia’s demands for Qatar to pay for US troops to remain in Syria and the sending of its troops before the US withdraws an attempt to influence public opinion in the Arab world.

“This statement [by the Saudi Foreign Ministry] is not worthy of an answer. Qatar refutes the brainwashing of the public opinion in the Arab world in such a way,” Qatar Foreign Minister said.


27/04/2018 - Heavy cargo carrying Syrian plane leaves recently attacked T4 Airport for Damascus
Heavy cargo carrying Syrian plane leaves recently attacked T4 Airport for Damascus

A heavy cargo carrying aircraft belonging to the Syrian Arab Airlines was tracked recently leaving the T-4 Military Airport for the Damascus International Airport.

According to Yoruk Isik of the Bosphorous Observer, the Syrian Arab Airlines’ Ilyushin-76T strategic airlifter made a short trip from the T-4 Airport to the Damascus International Airport.

The Ilyushin-76A is owned by the Syrian Arab Airline and is used to carry heavy cargo; it has recently made many trips to Iran.

Its recent trip to the T-4 Airport comes just two weeks after the Israeli Air Force carried out a powerful attack on the installation, killing 14 military personnel, including seven soldiers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran.


28/04/2018 - Large Syrian cargo plane leaves Damascus for Iran
Large Syrian cargo plane leaves Damascus for Iran

For the second time in the last 24 hours, a Syrian cargo plane has departed from Syria and flown over Iraqi airspace in order to reach Iran.

According to Yoruk Isik of the Bosphorous Observer, a Syrian Arab Airlines Ilyushin Il-76T YK-ATD left the Damascus International Airport this morning and is currently traveling to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

The Ilyushin Il-76T is a four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter that has been used in the past by the Syrian Arab Airlines to transport military cargo from neighboring countries to Syria.

Most recently, the Ilyushin Il-76T has made repeated flights from Tehran to different airbases in Syria, including the Kuweires, T-4, Hama, and Abu Dhuhour airports.


30/04/2018 - Update: Potential US attack on Hama base
Update: Potential US attack on Hama base

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) reported tonight that a barrage of missiles struck the Brigade 47 military base in the Hama Governorate. According to a military source in Hama, several explosions rocked the Brigade 47 base after missiles hit the installations ammo storage.

While some reports indicate that it was a rebel attack, others allege that it was the U.S. military responding to the recent offensive by the Syrian Arab Army in the Deir Ezzor Governorate.

It still remains unclear who was behind the attack; however, it is widely suspected to be a foreign military assault on the installation.


30/04/2018 - Syria: Explosions reported at Syrian military bases in Hama and Aleppo (Video)
Syria: Explosions reported at Syrian military bases in Hama and Aleppo (video)

Footage allegedly shows a large explosion at a Syrian military base in the province of Hama, following reports of missile attacks at multiple locations in the country on Sunday.

Syrian state news agency reported massive explosions in the provinces of Hama and Aleppo at 10:30 local time (7:30 GMT). Some reports in the Israeli media have suggested that the Israeli military may be behind the airstrikes.

According to Syrian media reports, the strikes targeted Iranian facilities.


30.04.2018 - Possible Missile Strikes on Syrian Army Arms Depots results in Fires - Source
Possible Missile Strikes on Syrian Army Arms Depots Results in Fires - Source

Several Syrian military bases have been struck by missiles in the Hama and Allepo provinces, according to a report by local television.

The arms depot of the 47th brigade of the Syrian army was attacked near Hama. Powerful explosions and major fire have occurred as a result," a source in Syria law enforcement told Sputnik.
The Syrian Sana news agency reported earlier that explosions had been heard near the cities of Hama and Aleppo.

According to the Surya TV channel, Syrian army positions have been attacked in a missile strike, conducted at approximately 19:30 GMT.

Earlier, state television reported that successive blasts were heard in the rural Hama province and that authorities were investigating the cause.

This video shows explosion in the ammunition depot of #Syria Arab Army's 47th Brigade in South of #Hama after the #Israel Air Force (#IAF) airstrike at the #IRGC forces in the base almost 40 minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/dh1svPynXN​

Israel might be responsible for the attack, according to a report by Haaretz.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that Israel would continue to maintain that it had freedom of operation in Syria, cited by Haaretz.

“We have no intention to attack Russia or to interfere in domestic Syrian issues,” Lieberman said at an annual Jerusalem Post conference. “But if somebody thinks that it is possible to launch missiles or to attack Israel or even our aircraft, no doubt we will respond and we will respond very forcefully.”

Earlier this month, Israeli jets struck a Syrian air base, killing seven Iranian military advisers. Israel has warned it could hit Iranian bases in war-torn Syria should tensions with Tehran escalate, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Local residents in the Hama area told Reuters that the attacked bases were used by Iranian-backed forces.

 

[angelburst29]

30.04.2018 - Did Israel just use a tactical nuke to destroy the Iranian military base in Syria?
Did Israel just use a tactical nuke to destroy the Iranian military base in Syria?

The explosion was large enough to register as a small 2.6 earthquake.

(0:35 min.)


01/05/2018 - Israel likely behind attack on strategic base in Hama: source
Israel likely behind attack on strategic base in Hama: source

The Israeli military carried out the deadly attack on the Syrian Arab Army’s bases in western Hama and southern Idlib, yesterday, a source from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) told Al-Masdar News on Monday.

According to this military source, the Israeli Air Force heavily bombarded the Brigade 47 Base (western Hama) and the towns located near the Nayrab Airport (southern Aleppo).

The source added that the Israeli Air Force used an F-35 jet to evade detection and carry out the pinpoint attacks on these aforementioned areas.

These missile strikes also resulted in the death of more than 30 soldiers at the Brigade 47 Base, which is considered a hub for the Syrian Arab Army’s large supply of ballistic missiles.

The explosions that followed this attack were said to have measured at least 2.6 on the Richter Scale, with some reports claiming that the bombing could be heard from several kilometers.

Israel has yet to comment on the attack.


30/04/2018 - Suspected Israeli attack completely destroys Syrian missile base in Hama (photos)
Suspected Israeli attack completely destroys Syrian missile base in Hama (photos)

A powerful attack was carried out last night against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in the Hama countryside that killed more than 30 soldiers.

The attack completely destroyed the Brigade 47 Base, causing a massive explosion that could be heard throughout much of the country.

According to a Syrian military source, the attack was carried out by the Israeli Air Force; however, the latter has yet to comment on the allegations.

The military source added that the attack was believed to have been carried out by an Israeli F-35 fighter jet, as the remnants of glide bombs were found at the site.


30/04/2018 - Suspected Israeli missile attack wipes out small town in Aleppo (photos)
Suspected Israeli missile attack wipes out small town in Aleppo (photos)

A suspected Israeli missile strike against the Syrian government forces and their allies destroyed much of a small town in the Aleppo Governorate last night.

According to local reports, the suspected Israeli missiles struck Al-Malkiyah in the Aleppo countryside, destroying several buildings inside this town located near the Nayrab Military Airport.

As shown in one of the photos below, the remnants of a missile that appears to be a glide bomb struck a building in Al-Malkiyah, indicating that it may have been dropped from a warplane.

A source in Damascus told Al-Masdar News this afternoon that if it was the Israeli Air Force that carried out this attack, the latter would have most likely used their F-35 jet, as the Syrian Air Defense cannot detect them.

 

[Ursus Minor]

Did Israel just use a tactical nuke to destroy the Iranian military base in Syria?

Here is some further information on this subject by Ian Greenhalgh and Jeff Smith of VT

Jeff Smith is a physicist and former IAEA inspector. He is Science Editor at Veterans Today.
Jeff has worked on issues of nuclear non-proliferation (NNP) and as part of the UN Treaty Security Organization along with investigative services for the White House.

Israel Strikes Syria with Tactical Nuke - Veterans Today | News - Military Foreign Affairs - VA

Late on Saturday night, 28th April, a series of airstrikes hit Syria, local time was 10:30pm, about 2 hours after sunset. Of particular interest is the strike that hit a target hear Hama, supposedly an arms depot. This strike produced an explosion of such massive magnitude that it shook the earth violently enough for the tremors to be picked up by seismic monitoring stations in Europe which recorded a magnitude 2.6 earthquake.

An explosion on the earth’s surface, in order to cause tremors between 2 and 3 on the Richter scale, would be between 1.5 and 3 kilotonnes TNT equivalency. Clearly this was a tactical nuclear weapon and the arms depot story is the usual cover automatically issued when there is a suspiciously big bang.

As you can see in photos published by Al-Masdar, the target was totally obliterated, this is the aftermath of a tactical nuclear strike – everything reduced to rubble. Note the shipping containers blown around like toys, the blown back trees and a very large shallow crater. Too big for a standard weapon of 1,000lb size. It appears to be a low altitude air blast causing the 2.6 magnitude quake. Everything was vapourised, no soot / carbon present on the ground. Only steel car parts left intact that were melted at high temp. No aluminium meaning that the heat was over 3,000 ° C in order to vapourise it away.

A big blast like this is over 20,000 lbs. so definitely not conventional explosives. Small arms and artillery rounds go off like pop corn in a microwave oven. Conventional blasts throw up lots of dirt with a small fire ball.

These huge plasma fireball/mushroom cloud explosions are small neutron bombs using lots of lithium 6 with a thin outer shell of fissile material. Very clean burn with minimal fallout; after several hours radiation would be almost undetectable above background.

These tactical neutron bombs are likely uranium-based in order to mask their use. They are either older warheads from surplus SS-21 missiles from Russia/Ukraine or newer Israeli-made stuff using the surplus US stocks transferred under Daddy Bush. This is why both sides are quiet on their use.

 

[angelburst29]

Did Israel just use a tactical nuke to destroy the Iranian military base in Syria?

Here is some further information on this subject by Ian Greenhalgh and Jeff Smith of VT

Jeff Smith is a physicist and former IAEA inspector. He is Science Editor at Veterans Today.
Jeff has worked on issues of nuclear non-proliferation (NNP) and as part of the UN Treaty Security Organization along with investigative services for the White House.

Israel Strikes Syria with Tactical Nuke - Veterans Today | News - Military Foreign Affairs - VA

These tactical neutron bombs are likely uranium-based in order to mask their use. They are either older warheads from surplus SS-21 missiles from Russia/Ukraine or newer Israeli-made stuff using the surplus US stocks transferred under Daddy Bush. This is why both sides are quiet on their use.

Very interesting ... Thanks for Posting the additional information, Ursus Minor.

01.05.2018 - Israeli F-15s Hit Syrian Base Storing Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missiles - Reports
Israeli F-15s Hit Syrian Base Storing Iranian Anti-Aircraft Missiles - Reports

Arms depots in the vicinity of the Syrian cities of Hama and Aleppo were attacked in the early hours of Monday with "hostile rockets," a Syrian military source told Sputnik. The Israeli military has declined to comment on the strikes.

Three US officials told NBC News on condition of anonymity that Israeli F-15 jets attacked the military facilities after Iran had transported its weapons there. According to them, Tehran had been delivering weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, small arms and anti-aircraft missiles for two weeks.

Two officials alleged that the weapons were delivered to Syria for Iranian ground forces for a subsequent attack against Israel.

The media outlet earlier reported that Syria's 47th Brigade base in Hama district, a military facility in northwestern Hama and a facility north of Aleppo International Airport were targeted in the strikes. Local media outlets reported that 26 Shiite fighters under the leadership of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had been killed in the airstrikes.

The Israeli Defense Force has refused to comment on the issue; the Syrian government has also fallen short of commenting on the attacks.

Israel has attacked military facilities in Syria dozens of times, explaining its actions by the need to prevent sophisticated weapons from falling into the hands of groups that Israel deems hostile, including the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.

And here:
Iranian missiles destroyed in 'bunker busting' Syria strikes: Report
Iranian missiles destroyed in 'bunker busting' Syria strikes: Report


01.05.2018 - US Mattis Says Washington "Had Nothing To Do" with April 30 Strikes on Syria
US Mattis Says Washington 'Had Nothing to Do' With April 30 Strikes on Syria

The United States "has nothing to do" with reported strikes on targets in Syria early on April 30, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said.

We had nothing to do with the strike last night," Mattis told reporters.


01.05.2018 - Russian Su-27 Fighter Jet Intercepts US Navy Airplane in Baltic Sea - Reports
Russian Su-27 Fighter Jet Intercepts US Navy Airplane in Baltic Sea - Reports

The US Navy said the Russian jet's action was "unprofessional," but "safe", Fox News reported. The Russian jet came within about 20 feet of the US Navy aircraft, but the American pilots told officials that they had not felt threatened or unsafe.

Tensions between the US and Russia had intensified when the country's foreign minister claimed that the US was trying to divide Syria.

Sergey Lavrov said the recent US-led missile strikes on Syria "seriously aggravated the situation," stating that statements supporting the territorial integrity of Syria "are only words that, apparently, cover plans for reformatting the Middle East and plans for dividing Syria into parts."


01.05.2018 - Russian Navy Transports More Military Equipment to Syria
Farsnews

The Russian Navy recently made another large delivery of military supplies to Syria, adding to their already significant amount of weapons in the country.

According to the Bosphorous Observer’s Yoruk Isik, the Russian flag ship RORO Sparta III crossed the Bosphorous Strait in order to head towards their destination at the Port of Tartus, the AMN reported.

The Russian Navy has made this long trip from their port-city of Novorossiysk to the Port of Tartus on a number of occasions this year.

Typically, the Russian Navy transports heavy military cargo that is later delivered to the Syrian Army.


01.05.2018 - US Military reportedly Sends More Troops to Syria's Manbij
US Military Reportedly Sends More Troops to Syria’s Manbij

Even as President Donald Trump promised to pull out American troops from Syria, the US military has reportedly dispatched yet another convoy to the country’s northern reaches.

A military convoy has departed from a US military base located in the Syrian city of Kobani and set course to Manbij, the Fars News Agency reports, citing local media sources.

The convoy is reportedly comprised of 10 Humvees, “three trucks carrying short-range missiles” and “two vehicles equipped with advanced radar and communication systems,” and is accompanied by an unspecified number of personnel.

According to Anadolu news agency, the US has already established two bases in the Manbij region and deployed some 300 soldiers in the area.

Earlier in April, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis had declared that the United States would not withdraw its forces from Syria, but would expand operations there and “bring in more regional support.”

On March 3, Donald Trump announced his plans to pull US troops out from Syria in the near term, which was met with a conflicting reaction from the president's special envoy to the US-led coalition, Brett McGurk, as well as incoming US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, as well as a number of other officials.


01.05.2018 - More American, French Military Convoys Arrive in Northern Syria
Farsnews

Orient news website reported that the American and French forces have deployed near Sajour River Northwest of the town of Manbij in Northeastern Aleppo.

Also, other sources reported that the Kurdish militias have been put on alert in the town of Manbij and have started to set up more checkpoints in and outside the town.

In the meantime, local sources in the town of al-Bab reported that the US and French forces have deployed in a region between the Kurdish positions and the regions held by the Turkey-led Euphrates Shield forces.

In a similar development last week, several units of France's Special Forces arrived in the Kurdish-controlled areas in Hasaka province in Northeastern Syria as foreign military troops are intensifying their movements in the region.

The French troops entered the US base in Ramilan region which is controlled by Kurdish fighters in Hasaka province, field sources said.

The sources pointed to the increased military movements of the French forces from Iraq to Syria, and said that the French troops in their military vehicles accompanied by American soldiers patrolled several districts in Manbij, Raqqa and some regions of Deir Ezzur.


01.05.2018 - US, French military convoy enters Manbij in northeast Aleppo
US, French military convoy enters Manbij in northeast Aleppo (video)

A joint US-French military convoy entered the town of Manbij in northeast Aleppo this week, despite reports of a potential Turkish-led operation to expel the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

According to a statement from the Manbij Military Council Spokesperson, Sharfan Darwish, the US and French troops in northern Syria are preparing to open a joint military base in this town located in Aleppo’s northeastern countryside.

Video below shows the French and US troops heading towards Manbij:

US, French military convoy enters Manbij in northeast Aleppo (video)

These latest reports come just days after the Turkish Foreign Minister stated that he was working with his US counterpart to force the SDF to leave the Manbij.


01.05.2018 - Over 40 Hostages reportedly Released in Syrian Province of Idlib
Over 40 Hostages Reportedly Released in Syrian Province of Idlib

At least 42 hostages were released in the settlement of Estabraq in the province of Idlib, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to the SANA news agency, the hostages were released as part of the agreements reached between Damascus and militants, under which the latter must allow the evacuation of some 1,500 people from the settlements of Fua and Kefraya as well as free 85 people held in Estabraq. The government must, in turn, ensure evacuation of militants operating in the Yarmouk camp located south of Damascus.


01.05.2018 - More Civilians Killed, Wounded in Fresh US Air Raid in Northeastern Syria
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970211000878

Tens of civilians were killed or wounded in another US air force bombardment in Southern Hasaka on Tuesday.

The warplanes pounded the village of al-Fazel near the town of al-Shadadi, killing and wounding tens of civilians.

There is yet no further detail available on the exact number of casualties in the incident.

In a similar development on Sunday, The sources said that the warplanes bombed the town of Hajin in Eastern Deir Ezzur, leaving 3 civilians dead and 9 more wounded.

The sources said that most of the victims were children and women, adding that some of the injured are in critical conditions.


01.05.2018 - US Warplanes Struck Syrian Army Positions in Deir Ezzur Province
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970211000542

The US-led coalition fighter jets bombed the Syrian Army positions in Eastern Deir Ezzur after the army's advances against the Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the province, militant-affiliated websites reported on Tuesday.

Qasyoun news website reported that the fighter jets bombed the army positions between the towns of al-Qouriyeh and Mahkan near the Euphrates River bank in Eastern Deir Ezzur.

The coalition's air raid came after the army won control of several villages, including al-Ji'eh and Janineh in Western Deir Ezzur.

Field sources said on Sunday that the Syrian army had driven the SDF forces out of Al-Jieh Water Pump as well as the villages of Shaqareh and al-Alian West of Deir Ezzur city and also on the Eastern coast of the Euphrates.

The Syrian army's advances in the region took place several days after construction of a bridge by the Russian forces between the two coasts of the Euphrates river for the passage of the military equipment and delivering them to the army positions in Eastern Euphrates, the sources added.

The army troops regained control over the two villages of al-Ji'eh and al-Janineh in Western Deir Ezzur after heavy clashes with the SDF forces.

Meantime, the SDF forces started dispatch of military equipment from al-Kasreh city to Western Deir Ezzur after Syrian army's victory in the two regions.

And here:
US-led jets bombed pro-Assad forces advancing on Deir Ezzor: Report
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jets-bomb-pro-government-fighters-syria-operation-1276052674


01.05.2018 - ISIS terrorists carry out gruesome execution of Syrian soldier in Yarmouk Camp
https://www.almasdarnews.com/articl...-execution-of-syrian-soldier-in-yarmouk-camp/

The Islamic State (ISIS) continued their reign of terror in the Yarmouk Camp this week, as their terrorists carried out another ruthless execution of a Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldier.

Using similar tactics deployed in Iraq, the Islamic State strapped the Syrian soldier with explosives around his helmet and then dropped him head first off of a building.

The soldier was identified by the Syrian Arab Army as Shadi ‘Issa; he was fighting the terrorist group in the Yarmouk Camp before his capture.

This latest execution marks the second time in the last four days that the Islamic State has carried out a gruesome killing of this sort.

 

[angelburst29]

They say history is cyclical and, generally, repeats itself: over the past few years the entire world has been glued to the atrocities committed by Daesh, but it appears that a similar violent radical movement established its rule over one German city back in the 16th century.

03.05.2018 - Fear, Orgy & Execution in Munster: Rise and Fall of Daesh's Medieval "Prototype"
Fear, Orgy & Execution in Münster: Rise and Fall of Daesh's Medieval 'Prototype'

It may seem that Daesh* has invented its own “sophisticated” means of torture and execution, yet if you look back to the 1500s it turns out that another notorious radical movement, the Anabaptists, headed by Dutchman Jan of Leiden, largely contributed to a similar reign of chaos and anarchy in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Munster.

As Jan desperately sought to create a new kingdom, his followers flooded the city, having set their own rules: Jan, their self-proclaimed king, announced that every woman of marriageable age in Münster should find a match despite the fact that the number of women exceeded that of men in the city – which led to the official endorsement of polygamy.

The adoption of polygamy prompted an attempted coup d’etat, which, in turn, laid grounds for another dramatic twist of events – Jan decided to render executions without trial acceptable, and it was done in the most brutal way – beheading. The self-proclaimed king did not even hesitate to take one of his sixteen wives to the town’s chopping block when she laughed at his luxurious lifestyle and to personally chop her head off making the crowd sing as the events unfolded.

As Jan and his allies proceeded with their malign activities, spreading fear and intimidation across the city, they hadn’t realized that they’d fallen short of food supplies and ammunition, becoming vulnerable to an attack. And this is exactly what happened: a disgruntled refugee Gresbeck led hundreds of soldiers, loyal to the town’s bishop Franz Van Waldeck, into Münster, killing Jan’s followers and imprisoning Jan and his highest-ranking supporters.

Van Waldeck managed to regain control over the city, while Jan of Leiden and his two loyal followers were tortured and executed in a brutal manner – the mutilated bodies of the Anabaptists were placed in iron cages hung on the tower of Münster’s St. Lambert’s Church, where they remained for 50 years as a warning. Despite doubts among the locals, the cages are still hung up, as if to remind the people of what the town had been through hundreds of years ago.

Many scholars have drawn parallels between an “Anabaptist caliphate” and the so-called Islamic State, known as Daesh, which uses similar tactics – turning to violence and terror to achieve its goals.

The terrorist group had set up special torture chambers, subjecting detainees to a wide range of punishments, being especially violent towards women, and had consistently turned to brutal mass beheadings, documenting them in videos.
*Daesh, also known as ISIL/ISIS/IS, is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.

 

[Ca.]

Syriana Analysis Published on May 3, 2018

South Front Published on May 4, 2018

Anna News May 4, 2018

 

[angelburst29]

03.05.2018 - Israel Wants Russia to Respect "Its Security Interests" in Syria - Lieberman
Israel Wants Russia to Respect 'Its Security Interests' in Syria - Lieberman

Tel Aviv doesn't want any conflict or tensions with Russia, the country's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant, adding that the two countries have had good partnership relations.

"In recent years, we have developed, I would say, a very clear and frank, transparent dialogue with Russia, both when we have similar opinions and even when we have not," Avigdor Liebermann said.

The official also stressed that Israel has always taken into account Russian interests in Syria and, therefore, hopes that Russia "will take into account Israel's interests related to our security as well."

At the same time, Lieberman noted that Israel is "not going to interfere in the internal Syrian affairs."

"What we won't allow are Iran's attempts to turn Syria into an advanced bridgehead against us," he said. "Any attempt by Iran to gain a military foothold in Syria will be prevented," he added, warning that if Syrian President Bashar Assad would interfere, Israeli forces "would respond to an attack."

Commenting on the question about how Israel Tel Aviv would react if Moscow decides to supply Damascus with S-300 defense systems, Lieberman replied:

"If they are not directed against us, that's one thing. But if these S-300s will open fire on our aircraft, then we will certainly respond," he concluded.

Earlier, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it is ready to supply Syria with S-300 air defense systems if Russia's top political leadership gives it the go-ahead.

Lieberman's remarks came in wake of several airstrikes on Syria carried out by Israel, including an attack on the T4 airbase in April 2018, which, according to Russian diplomats, undermined Syria's stability.

Relations between Israel and Iran have always been tense, with Tehran not recognizing Israel's right to exist. Israel claims that Iran has military forces in Syria that it intends to use against Israel. Tehran denies the allegations, claiming that it is only sending military advisors to the Arab Republic.


04.05.2018 - Syrian Army Uncovers Cargo of Israeli-Made Arms Smuggled to Terrorist - Reports
Syrian Army Uncovers Cargo of Israeli-Made Arms Smuggled to Terrorists - Reports

In late April, several Syrian military bases were struck by missiles in the Hama and Aleppo provinces, with some media suggesting that Israel might be behind the attacks – Tel Aviv, however, refused to comment on the incident.

While Israel has repeatedly expressed concerns over Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and its alleged smuggling of weapons to the war-weary country, it appears that the Syrian army has identified and seized a huge cargo of Israeli-made arms, munitions, explosives, as well as digital equipment and drugs, as they were reportedly destined for the terrorists in the northern suburb of Homs.

Having stepped up their offensive on the militants south of Damascus, the army units have also uncovered another stockpile of weapons manufactured in Israel and chemical materials, hidden in a network of tunnels in the areas of al-Hajar al-Aswad and Moghadam.

Last month, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported explosions near the cities of Hama and Aleppo, which appeared to be missile strikes on arms depots that were allegedly being used by Iranian-backed forces. A report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz suggested that the IDF might be responsible for the incident, citing Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that Tel Aviv would continue to declare that it had freedom to operate in Syria.

However, when speaking to Sputnik, a spokeswoman for the IDF, refused to comment on the attack.

This is not the first time that Israel is suspected of striking targets in Syria as tensions between the two countries have further escalated: on April 9, Israeli fighter jets hit the country’s T-4 airfield in the province of Homs, killing 14 people, including seven Iranian military advisers, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In February, Israeli Air Force carried out an attack on the same airbase, having struck 12 Syrian and “Iranian military targets” at T-4. Prior to the strikes, Tel Aviv reported that an Israeli Apache helicopter had intercepted an Iranian drone after it crossed into the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, and had struck at what the IDF called Iranian targets in Syria, provoking retaliatory fire from Syrian air defenses, which brought down an Israeli fighter jet.

According to recent report by CNN, referring to an unnamed source in the US administration, the intelligence services suspected that Iran might have been transferring weapons to Syria after the United States, France and the United Kingdom fired over a hundred of missiles at the war-ravaged country in response to an alleged use of chemical weapons by government forces in Douma.

The media outlet suggested that the shipments from Iran to Syria were of particular interest because they may have contained weapons that could be used against Israel in the future.

In late February, SANA reported that the Syrian military had discovered warehouses in Deir ez-Zor filled with arms and ammunition, including those made in Israel.

 

[angelburst29]

May 5, 2018 - Israeli PM to focus on Middle East in talks with Putin - PM’s Office
Israeli PM to focus on Middle East in talks with Putin - PM’s Office

The leaders will meet at the Kremlin after the parade for Victory Day.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to discuss the situation in the Middle East at talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on May 9, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, 9 May 2018, in Moscow, in order to discuss regional developments," the press release says.

"President Putin invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to join him at the parade for Victory Day over Nazi Germany. The leaders will meet at the Kremlin after the parade."

Netanyahu and Putin agreed to hold a meeting during a phone conversation on April 30, the PM’s Office said.

"The meeting will be in continuation of their telephone conversation this past Monday (30 April) during which they decided to meet soon," it says.


05/05/2018 - Israeli warplanes stalk Syrian-Lebanese border
Israeli warplanes stalk Syrian-Lebanese border

Israeli warplanes were spotted flying along the Syrian-Lebanese border tonight, raising the Syrian Air Defense’s alert level,
raising the Syrian Air Defense’s alert level, a source told Al-Masdar tonight.

The Israeli warplanes reportedly did not cross over into Syrian territory, but rather, turned around and flew from the Beqa’a Valley to southern Lebanon.

Israel has recently increased their flights over Lebanon following their attack on the T-4 Airbase in late April.

In addition to their flights along the Syrian-Lebanese border, Israeli warplanes were spotted circling the Lebanese border-city of Marjeyoun.


05/05/2018 - Inside the Islamic State’s fortress in southern Damascus (photos)
Inside the Islamic State's fortress in southern Damascus (photos)

As the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) was combing through the recently liberated areas in Hajar Al-Aswad, their forces uncovered a large network of trenches and tunnels that were used by the Islamic State (ISIS) inside this southern Damascus town.

The tunnels and trenches revealed a large fortress the Islamic State was using to defend the area from the Syrian Arab Army and the past rebel forces that were present in this town. Below are the pictures that were captured by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA):


05/05/2018 - At least 33 buses filled with rebels, family members leave southern Damascus for northern Syria
At least 33 buses filled with rebels, family members leave southern Damascus for northern Syria

At least 33 buses carrying hundreds of rebels and their family members departed from southern Damascus, today, and made their way north towards the Idlib Governorate.

According to local reports, the 33 buses were carrying the rebels and their family members from the southern Damascus towns of Babila, Yalda, and Beit Sahm.

This is the third batch of rebels to leave these southern Damascus towns; another large batch is expected to leave in the coming days, as the Syrian Army awaits to take over these areas.


05/05/2018 - Rebels surrender large quantity of heavy weapons in southern Damascus (photos)
Rebels surrender large quantity of heavy weapons in southern Damascus (photos)

The rebel forces in southern Damascus have surrendered a large quantity of heavy weapons that they previously used to fight the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their allies.

According to military report in Damascus, the rebel forces handed over their medium and heavy weapons to the Syrian Army before they were officially evacuated from the towns of Yalda, Babila, and Beit Sahm in southern Damascus.

As the photos show below, the militants surrendered a couple technical vehicles, mortar field guns, hell cannon launchers, and mortar and tank shells to the Syrian military on Friday.


Sat May 05, 2018 - People in Al-Bab Start Strike against Turkish Forces' Atrocities
Farsnews

People in al-Bab in Northeastern Aleppo stopped working on Saturday to stage a general strike in opposition to cruelty and oppression of the Turkey-backed militants in their town.

Al-Bab citizens went on a general strike after gunmen of Firqa al-Hamzah, affiliated to the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), stormed al-Hekmah and al-Salam hospitals in the town and arrested a medical staff.

In the meantime, field sources in Afrin, another town in Aleppo under the Ankara forces' control, reported that Karim al-Makhlaf nom de guerre Abu Balal al-Dahlah, a commander of the FSA-affiliated Jeish al-Sharqiyah, was assassinated by unknown gunmen in the town of Jandaris South-West of Afrin region.

The sources further said that the Ankara-backed militants are still looting people's assets and arresting them illegally in the Afrin region, North-West of Aleppo province.

A Kurdish media outlet reported earlier today that the Turkish Army has arrested a sum of 3,000 civilians in Afrin ever since it occupied the city in Northwestern Aleppo and transferred them to different locations.

Hawar news quoted well-informed sources in Shih region in Afrin as reporting that the army has taken into captivity a sum of 3,000 civilians in several villages in Shih and transferred them to the village of Mirkan in Mobata region.

Hawar news further said that some of the jailed civilians have been transferred to the village of Qarmitlaq and some others have been sent to Turkey to be kept in detention centers there.

It further said that the captured civilians have been tortured severely by the army and its allied militants, adding that the Turkish soldiers have been shooting around blindfolded captives to scare them.

In the meantime, a local source on Bolboleh region said that the Ankara-backed militants have forced villagers in Khalika to leave their houses to replace them with almost 2,000 militants and their family members that had left Douma region in Damascus province under an evacuation agreement with the Syrian Army.

The source further said that the Ankara-backed militants have been forcing men and women in the villages of Shirwa and Bolboleh region to carry out hard jobs, including digging trenches and cooking food and serving the militants.



May 4, 2018 - US hampering humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria's Rukban, al-Tanf and Raqqa
US hampering humanitarian aid deliveries to Syria's Rukban, al-Tanf and Raqqa

The US-led coalition is not providing assistance to the residents, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman notes.

The US is blocking deliveries of humanitarian supplies from international organizations to the Rukban refugee camp, al-Tanf and Raqqa, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Friday.

"Despite the earlier made hopeful statements, US representatives continue to block any deliveries of humanitarian aid to the Rukban refugee camp where about 50,000 Syrians need help, most of them women, elderly people and children," Konashenkov said.

"The US regional command refuses to guarantee safe entry for UN and ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) aid convoys, insisting that all products, water and necessities should be transferred only to militant gangs controlled by Americans… The humanitarian situation also remains difficult in Syria’s Raqqa, which turned into a ghost city after the carpet bombing by the international coalition," he stressed.

He stated that "after the release from terrorists Raqqa residents were deprived of the possibility to receive humanitarian aid from international organizations due to the unwillingness of the US to admit convoys from Syrian authorities and international organizations there." "That said, the US itself and its allies in the ‘coalition’ are not providing any help to residents," the major general noted.

The situation in Aleppo
A similar situation can be observed in Aleppo, Eastern Ghouta and Deir ez-Zor, where people have to take up arms and go to fight with the legal government for their living in order to survive and support their families, he said.

After releasing these territories from terrorists, large stockpiles of food, drugs and other humanitarian cargoes were found at the militants’ warehouses, while ordinary Syrians were dying of hunger and illnesses, the major general reiterated.

"Hundreds of Syrians are talking about it, including in interviews with foreign mass media. Isn’t it a crime against humanity?" Konashenkov said.


03/05/2018 - Syrian military uncovers large quantity of NATO-made weapons in Douma (video)
Syrian military uncovers large quantity of NATO-made weapons in Douma (video)

A mine-clearing operation saw hundreds of explosives being laid out in Douma on Wednesday, following the city’s liberation from Jaysh al-Islam militants.

According to the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria, Syrian sappers have so far detected and defused a total of 1.2 thousand mines, 1.5 tonnes of explosive material and four thousand home-made explosive devices.

The centre also reported that an arsenal left behind by militants included landmines with the markings of manufacturers of NATO-member countries.

Douma’s demining process is expected to take at least three months from start to finish, the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides in Syria said.

The Russian Defence Ministry has stated that the evacuation of more than 21,000 militants and their family members concluded on April 13.

Syrian military uncovers large quantity of NATO-made weapons in Douma (video)
Video credit: Ruptly