Miragedriver
Brigadier
An injured Syrian man poses for a photo at a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus
Picture: ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Image
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ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
An injured Syrian man poses for a photo at a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus
Picture: ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Image
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
Syrian Assad Army the T-55AM tank fire guided 9M117 Missile
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
Islamic State militants behead archaeologist in Palmyra: Syrian official
(photo not included, too graphic)
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.
IS, whose insurgents control swathes of Syria and Iraq, captured Palmyra in central Syria from government forces in May, but are not known to have damaged its monumental Roman-era ruins despite their reputation for destroying artifacts they view as idolatrous under their puritanical interpretation of Islam.
Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said the family of Khaled Asaad had informed him that the 82-year-old scholar who worked for over 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was executed by Islamic State on Tuesday.
Asaad had been detained and interrogated for over a month by the ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants, he told Reuters.
"Just imagine that such a scholar who gave such memorable services to the place and to history would be beheaded ... and his corpse still hanging from one of the ancient columns in the center of a square in Palmyra," Abdulkarim said.
"The continued presence of these criminals in this city is a curse and bad omen on (Palmyra) and every column and every archaeological piece in it."
Abdulkarim said Asaad was known for several scholarly works published in international archaeological journals on Palmyra, which in antiquity flourished as an important trading hub along the Silk Road.
He also worked over the past few decades with U.S., French, German and Swiss archeological missions on excavations and research in Palmyra's famed 2,000-year-old ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site including Roman tombs and the Temple of Bel.
Before the city's capture by Islamic State, Syrian officials said they moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations out of concern they would be destroyed by the militants.
In June, Islamic State did blow up two ancient shrines in Palmyra that were not part of its Roman-era structures but which the militants regarded as pagan and sacrilegious.
(Reporting by Kinda Makeih in Damascus Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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(photo not included, too graphic)
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.
IS, whose insurgents control swathes of Syria and Iraq, captured Palmyra in central Syria from government forces in May, but are not known to have damaged its monumental Roman-era ruins despite their reputation for destroying artifacts they view as idolatrous under their puritanical interpretation of Islam.
Syrian state antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim said the family of Khaled Asaad had informed him that the 82-year-old scholar who worked for over 50 years as head of antiquities in Palmyra was executed by Islamic State on Tuesday.
Asaad had been detained and interrogated for over a month by the ultra-radical Sunni Muslim militants, he told Reuters.
"Just imagine that such a scholar who gave such memorable services to the place and to history would be beheaded ... and his corpse still hanging from one of the ancient columns in the center of a square in Palmyra," Abdulkarim said.
"The continued presence of these criminals in this city is a curse and bad omen on (Palmyra) and every column and every archaeological piece in it."
Abdulkarim said Asaad was known for several scholarly works published in international archaeological journals on Palmyra, which in antiquity flourished as an important trading hub along the Silk Road.
He also worked over the past few decades with U.S., French, German and Swiss archeological missions on excavations and research in Palmyra's famed 2,000-year-old ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site including Roman tombs and the Temple of Bel.
Before the city's capture by Islamic State, Syrian officials said they moved hundreds of ancient statues to safe locations out of concern they would be destroyed by the militants.
In June, Islamic State did blow up two ancient shrines in Palmyra that were not part of its Roman-era structures but which the militants regarded as pagan and sacrilegious.
(Reporting by Kinda Makeih in Damascus Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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An injured Syrian man poses for a photo at a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus
Picture: ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Image
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If I have to name the picture? Tears of blood.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
The reporter was saying they are well trained, but they don't look Well trained to me. The first guy was lucky he didn't get shot or killed when he casually strolling down the road shooting and making throat slashing gesture. You can definitely say they are not afraid of death for sure.
That footage only tells me two things.
1. The Jihadists are idiots, and 2. the militia facing them can't hit the side of a barn door unless by accident.
Miragedriver
Brigadier
Syrian Army Retakes 16 Villages, Kills Over 300 Rebels in Hama Province
DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The Syrian military launched a large-scale offensive on Monday aiming to take back territories captured by a rebel alliance that includes al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.
"The army has eliminated 300-350 rebels from groups fighting in the north of Hama. Sixteen settlements have been recaptured since the start of the offensive…The active phase is underway. The terrorists continue to retreat."
The coalition of rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, seized Syria's northwestern city of Idlib in late March after five days of intensive clashes between militant groups and government forces.
A week later, the militants said they took over the city of Jisr ash-Shugur in the Idlib Governorate, continuing their southward advance on the way to the Hama province.
In July, Jaish al-Fatah in the Southern Region, an alliance of rebel groups dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra, managed to seize a number of villages in Hama.
Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011. Over 250,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, according to UN estimates.
Link:
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DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The Syrian military launched a large-scale offensive on Monday aiming to take back territories captured by a rebel alliance that includes al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front.
"The army has eliminated 300-350 rebels from groups fighting in the north of Hama. Sixteen settlements have been recaptured since the start of the offensive…The active phase is underway. The terrorists continue to retreat."
The coalition of rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, seized Syria's northwestern city of Idlib in late March after five days of intensive clashes between militant groups and government forces.
A week later, the militants said they took over the city of Jisr ash-Shugur in the Idlib Governorate, continuing their southward advance on the way to the Hama province.
In July, Jaish al-Fatah in the Southern Region, an alliance of rebel groups dominated by Jabhat al-Nusra, managed to seize a number of villages in Hama.
Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011. Over 250,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, according to UN estimates.
Link:
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
ISIS destroys ancient Catholic monastery in Syria
Beirut (AFP) - Islamic State militants have destroyed an ancient monastery in the central Syrian province of Homs, according to a monitor and pictures published by the jihadist group.
"The Islamic State group yesterday used bulldozers to destroy the Mar Elian monastery in Al-Qaryatain, in Homs province," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the militants demolished the Syriac Catholic monastery "on the pretext that it was used for worshipping others than God."
Photographs posted online by IS showed militants bulldozing parts of the monastery, although they did not appear to have completely destroyed the building with explosives as they have done with shrines and other religious buildings elsewhere.
IS seized Al-Qaryatain on August 5, kidnapping at least 230 people, including dozens of Christians.
The town lies at the crossroads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and points further west in the Qalamun area bordering Lebanon.
This picture released late Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, by an Islamic State militant-affiliated website, …
The Observatory said that IS had released 48 of those it took captive when it overran the town, and had transferred another 110 to its stronghold of Raqa province.
The fate of the other 70 hostages was unclear.
The Mar Elian monastery dates back to the fifth century and is named for a Christian from Homs province who was martyred for refusing to renounce his faith.
It is attached to a famous church of the same name, but it was unclear if that too had been damaged by IS.
In May, Syrian priest Jacques Mourad was abducted from the monastery by masked men as he prepared to receive residents of nearby Palmyra fleeing an IS advance.
Intolerant of any religious practice other than its own interpretation of Islam, IS has regularly destroyed religious buildings and icons in territory under their control.
They have also targeted statues, which they consider idolatrous, and grave markers, including those of Muslims.
This picture released late Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, by an Islamic State militants website, shows a tomb at the Saint Eliane Monastery near the town of Qaryatain which IS captured in early August, in Homs province, Syria. A priest and activists say the Islamic State group has demolished an ancient monastery in central Syria. A Christian clergyman told The Associated Press in Damascus that IS militants also wrecked a church inside the monastery that dates back to the first Christian centuries. The priest, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the monastery included an Assyrian Catholic church. (Islamic State militant website via AP)
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Beirut (AFP) - Islamic State militants have destroyed an ancient monastery in the central Syrian province of Homs, according to a monitor and pictures published by the jihadist group.
"The Islamic State group yesterday used bulldozers to destroy the Mar Elian monastery in Al-Qaryatain, in Homs province," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.
He said the militants demolished the Syriac Catholic monastery "on the pretext that it was used for worshipping others than God."
Photographs posted online by IS showed militants bulldozing parts of the monastery, although they did not appear to have completely destroyed the building with explosives as they have done with shrines and other religious buildings elsewhere.
IS seized Al-Qaryatain on August 5, kidnapping at least 230 people, including dozens of Christians.
The town lies at the crossroads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and points further west in the Qalamun area bordering Lebanon.
This picture released late Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, by an Islamic State militant-affiliated website, …
The Observatory said that IS had released 48 of those it took captive when it overran the town, and had transferred another 110 to its stronghold of Raqa province.
The fate of the other 70 hostages was unclear.
The Mar Elian monastery dates back to the fifth century and is named for a Christian from Homs province who was martyred for refusing to renounce his faith.
It is attached to a famous church of the same name, but it was unclear if that too had been damaged by IS.
In May, Syrian priest Jacques Mourad was abducted from the monastery by masked men as he prepared to receive residents of nearby Palmyra fleeing an IS advance.
Intolerant of any religious practice other than its own interpretation of Islam, IS has regularly destroyed religious buildings and icons in territory under their control.
They have also targeted statues, which they consider idolatrous, and grave markers, including those of Muslims.
This picture released late Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015, by an Islamic State militants website, shows a tomb at the Saint Eliane Monastery near the town of Qaryatain which IS captured in early August, in Homs province, Syria. A priest and activists say the Islamic State group has demolished an ancient monastery in central Syria. A Christian clergyman told The Associated Press in Damascus that IS militants also wrecked a church inside the monastery that dates back to the first Christian centuries. The priest, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the monastery included an Assyrian Catholic church. (Islamic State militant website via AP)
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b787
Captain
poor man war is so senseless
An injured Syrian man poses for a photo at a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus
Picture: ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Image
Back to bottling my Grenache
