ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

delft

Brigadier
From PressTV:
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3 Syrian forces killed in fresh Israeli attack on military camp
Sun Apr 23, 2017 7:11AM

Three Syrian forces have been killed in a fresh Israeli attack on a military camp near the southwestern city of Quneitra, a military official says.

The attack hit the al-Fawwar camp on Sunday, wounding two others, the unnamed official told the French news agency AFP.

It was not clear whether the assault was an airstrike or shelling. The attack comes after Israel struck a Syrian army position in the province of Quneitra on the Golan plateau on Friday, "causing damage."

A Syrian military source told the official SANA news agency that the Israeli aggression came after an attempt by terrorists to infiltrate military positions in Quneitra was foiled and the assailants suffered heavy losses.

The Israeli military confirmed the raid in a statement, saying it was conducted shortly after three mortar shells allegedly fired from Syria hit an open area in the northern occupied Golan Heights.

The Tel Aviv regime regularly hits positions held by the Syrian army in the Golan Heights, claiming that the attacks are retaliatory. Syria says the raids aim to help Takfiri militants fighting against government forces.

In the past, the Syrian army has confiscated Israeli-made arms and military equipment from terrorists fighting the government forces. There are also reports that Tel Aviv has been treating the extremists wounded in Syria.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria after the 1967 Six-Day War and later occupied it in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

The regime has built tens of illegal settlements in the area ever since and used the region to carry out military operations against the Syrian government.

Army advances against militants

Separately on Sunday, Syrian forces recaptured Halfaya town in the west-central Hama Province, the Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen TV channel reported.

Meanwhile, pro-opposition media reported fierce clashes between the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northern countryside of Hama.

US defense officials also told Fox News that the Daesh terrorist group is now centered in the city of Dayr al-Zawr, some 144 kilometers southeast of Raqqah, the Takfiri outfit’s de facto capital in Syria.

They said that US military drones have watched hundreds of Daesh “bureaucrats” or administrators, leaving Raqqah in the past two months.
On the AFP website I only found the bald statement that three Syrian soldiers had been killed. It didn't point to an article with more information.
This:
The Israeli military confirmed the raid in a statement, saying it was conducted shortly after three mortar shells allegedly fired from Syria hit an open area in the northern occupied Golan Heights.
surely suggest that the three mortar bombs were a false flag.
 
From PressTV:
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On the AFP website I only found the bald statement that three Syrian soldiers had been killed. It didn't point to an article with more information.
This:

surely suggest that the three mortar bombs were a false flag.

False flag or not, it is an inconsequential excuse for attempts at consequential intervention against the Syrian government.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
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BY
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| April 23, 2017 | [email protected] |
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Screen-Shot-2017-04-23-at-3.18.00-PM.png


Al Qaeda’s propaganda arm, As Sahab, released an audio message from emir Ayman al Zawahiri earlier today. The audio file, which was spliced together with images from the Sunni jihad in Syria, is just over six minutes long. It was released via social media, including on As Sahab’s Telegram channel.

Zawahiri warns that the Syrian war shouldn’t be considered an exclusively “nationalist” effort, because this is what the Sunni jihadists’ enemies want. Instead, he said the Syrian conflict should be viewed as the “cause of the entire Ummah,” or worldwide community of Muslims.

Zawahiri’s comments are potentially interesting in light of Al Nusrah Front’s
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, and then the
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(“Assembly for the Liberation of the Levant”) in January. Various al Qaeda actors and other jihadists inside Syria have debated how to best portray themselves to the world. Al Nusrah’s
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was blessed beforehand by Zawahiri’s deputy, but
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rejected it.

Zawahiri does not specifically mention Hay’at Tahrir al Sham or any other group in Syria, so we can only speculate if he is commenting on some specific debate within jihadist circles. But that appears likely.

Zawahiri does explicitly endorse the insurgency in Syria, saying that it is a “guerrilla” war and the jihadists should not focus on holding territory at this time. Instead, Zawahiri says, they must focus on weakening their enemies.

“To begin with, I would like to tell our beloved people in Sham [the Levant] that your wounds are the wounds of the entire Ummah, and your pain is the pain of the entire Ummah. You are in our prayers at every moment, and we wish to sacrifice our souls for you,” Zawahiri begins his message, which was released with an English transcript.

“If anything stands in our way,” Zawahiri continues, “it is the fact that we are engaged in fighting the same Crusader enemy which you are up against, though on a different front.”

The al Qaeda chieftain claims that the “only reason” Sunni Muslims in Syria “are being targeted” is that they “want Islam to rule over the land of Sham.” The “International Satanic Alliance will never accept this, and it will spare no effort to stop this Islamic tide,” Zawahiri says.

Consistent with al Qaeda’s messaging in the past, Zawahiri portrays the US and the West as being in league with Iran and Bashar al Assad’s regime. Indeed, he advises the people of Syria to “prepare” themselves “for a protracted war against the Crusaders and their Rafidhi [derogatory term for Shiites and Iran] and Nusayri [meaning the Assad regime] allies.”

Zawahiri praises the people for having “taken up the path of jihad in the way of Allah to raise the flag of Islam and jihad on the land of Sham, and to liberate it from oppression, tyranny and corruption.”

“So do not backtrack,” he says. “Know no wavering or compromise. Die honorably, but never accept a life of humiliation.”

The al Qaeda head reiterates his
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within the insurgency. Since the beginning of the war, with a few exceptions, al Qaeda’s men have attempted to remain as closely allied with other rebel groups as possible. This strategy was upset by the rise of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s Islamic State in 2013 and 2014, but al Qaeda’s arm continued to cooperate with other Islamist, jihadist and Free Syrian Army-branded outfits.

“Unite and close your ranks with your Muslim brothers and mujahideen not just in Sham, but the entire world, for it is a single Crusader campaign being waged against Muslims the world over,” Zawahiri says.

He then pivots to a critique of anyone who thinks the Syrian war can be separated from the jihad elsewhere around the globe.

Speaking to the jihadists in Syria, Zawahiri says that some “wish to deceive you into buying the myth that only if you were to change your jihad to an exclusively nationalist Syrian struggle, [then] the leading international criminals would be pleased with you.”

“My people and my brothers in Sham,” Zawahiri says, “I would like to offer here a few words of advice as a reminder to you and myself.” Then, somewhat cryptically, he adds: “We must constantly review our actions, and retract ourselves from everything which is capable of hindering victory. For we can never be better than the Companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him), who were denied victory when they disobeyed. Critical reassessment and correction of mistakes is the first step in the patch to victory.”

Zawahiri does not say which “mistakes” he has mind.

“In my humble opinion,” the al Qaeda head continues, “the strategy for jihad in Sham must focus on a guerrilla war aimed at wearing down the enemy and bleeding it to death.” This “has been the weapon of choice of the oppressed against arrogant transgressors in every age,” Zawahiri says. “Do not occupy yourselves with holding on to territory, instead focus on destroying the morale of your enemy. Take the enemy to the point of abysmal despair by inflicting unrelenting blows and unbearable losses on its forces.”

For the second time in his short message, Zawahiri again warns against treating the Syrian conflict as a “nationalist” struggle. The “cause of Sham is the cause of the entire Ummah,” he says. “We must not present it as merely a cause of the people of Sham, and then further narrow it down to a cause of Syrians alone, for this is precisely the enemy’s plan and his much sought after objective.”

“The enemy seeks to transform the jihad in Sham from a cause of the Muslim Ummah to an exclusively nationalist Syrian cause, then turn the nationalist cause to an issue of specific regions and localities, and finally reduce this to an issue of a few cities, villages and neighborhoods,” Zawahiri argues. Therefore, it “is incumbent upon us to confront this evil strategy by declaring that the jihad in Sham is the jihad of the Muslim Ummah aimed at establishing the rule of Allah in the land of Allah. This must coincide with encouraging the entire Ummah to participate in the jihad of Sham with its sons, wealth, efforts, and energies.”

Zawahiri provides a short list of Muslims who have “defended Sham earlier in history,” including Salahuddin and the Ottoman Turks. He points out that “none” of the people on his list “were Syrians, but were Muslims and mujahids before anything else.” This is likely a reminder to jihadists to treat the many foreign fighters in Syria who have joined the anti-Assad insurgency as equals.

The al Qaeda leader closes by saying that the jihadists should not seek to placate the West, or any others. “We must not submit therefore to the dictations of the leading criminals, who seek to intimidate us with accusations of ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism,’” Zawahiri says. He warns that this will lead to the same fate as that suffered by Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who briefly served as president of Egypt.

“These are the same forces that did not even spare Mohamed Morsi, inspite of the fact that he had given them all they had asked for,” Zawahiri says. He adds: “I ask Allah to give our people in Sham steadfastness. May Allah bless them with His victory and support, and guide them to take a common stance alongside their Mujahideen brethren the world over against a common united enemy.”

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.
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delft

Brigadier
The Los Angeles Times has an has an article about the large number of civilian casualties of the bombing of Mosul:
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It is a very long article and it suggests that the numbers are very much higher than those acknowledged by the US command.
I wonder whether the conduct of the campaign is less prudent than that of Syria and Russia to retake the Eastern part of Aleppo city.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
Here is an interesting article.

[QUOTE
Opinion Israel's Favorite Arab Dictator of All Is Assad
Both Assad senior and Assad junior advocated resistance against Israel. This slogan was hollow, serving the regime merely as an insurance policy against any demand for freedom and democracy.

Salman Masalha Mar 29, 2011 2:30 AM
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Syrian President Bashar Assad, November 10, 2010. AP
As strange as it sounds, everyone in Israel loves Arab dictators. When I say everyone I mean both Jews and Arabs. The favorite dictator of all is president Assad. As Assad junior inherited the oppressive regime in Syria, so did both Jews and Arabs transfer their affection for the dictator from Damascus from Assad senior to his son.
Following the intifada in the Arab states, Bashar al-Assad maintained in an interview to the Wall Street Journal that the situation in Syria is different, adding that Syria is not like Egypt. He also emphasized that Syria was not susceptible to sliding into a similar situation, because it was in the "resistance" front and belongs to the anti-American, anti-Israeli axis.
Well, Assad is right. The situation in Syria is indeed different. The Syrian regime is more like Saddam's defunct regime. The Ba'ath Party that ruled Iraq and the one still ruling Syria both held aloft flags of pan-Arab national ideology. But slogans are one thing and reality is another. All the ideological sweet talk was only talk. For the Ba'ath Party, both in Iraq and in Syria, constituted a political platform to perpetuate tribal, ethnic oppression.
Indeed, the situation in Egypt is completely different. If we put aside the Coptic minority, then Egyptian society is homogenous religiously and not tribal at all. The demoted Egyptian president, Mubarak, never had a tribal-ethnic crutch to lean on. The Egyptian army is also different and not at all like the Syrian or Iraqi armies.
For example, when the United States invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army splintered into its tribal and ethnic fragments. The soldiers took off their uniforms and each joined his tribe and ethnic community. Saddam too adhered to those tribal codes. He did not flee Iraq but went to hide in the well-protected areas of his tribesmen. This is what happens in these societies. In the land of the cedars, as soon as the civil war broke out, the Lebanese army dissolved into its ethnic components and disappeared.
True, Syria is not Egypt. Syria is also different in terms of the price in blood inflicted by the tyrannical Syrian regime. The Syrian tribal government is based on the force exercised by the security branches ruled by the tribesmen and their interested allies.
Inherently, a tribal regime of this kind will always be seen as a foreign reign. This kind of reign can be called tribal imperialism, which rules by operating brutal terror and oppression. This is underscored when a minority tribe rules, like in Syria. Thus every undermining of the government is seen as a challenge to the tribal hegemony and a danger to the ruling tribe's survival. Such a regime by its very nature is totally immersed in a bloodbath.
Both Assad senior and Assad junior advocated resistance against Israel. This slogan was hollow, serving the regime merely as an insurance policy against any demand for freedom and democracy. The Syrian "resistance" government has not uttered a peep on the Golan front since 1973. Instead, the "resistance" regime was and still is ready to fight Israel to the last Lebanese, and if that doesn't do the trick - then to the last Palestinian.
As voices in Israel have recently spoken out in favor of Hamas' continued rule in Gaza, so many Israelis are worried these days over the Syrian regime's welfare. Astonishingly, not only Jews are praying secretly for the Damascus regime's survival, but many in the Arab parties as well. These parties' leaders have been dumbstruck, their voices have been muted and no outcry has been raised against the Syrian regime's massacre of civilians.
All the hypocrites, Jews and Arabs alike, have united. It seems Assad has wall-to-wall support here, as though he were king of Israel.
read more:
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][/QUOTE]

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Equation

Lieutenant General
From PressTV:
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On the AFP website I only found the bald statement that three Syrian soldiers had been killed. It didn't point to an article with more information.
This:

surely suggest that the three mortar bombs were a false flag.

False flag or not, it is an inconsequential excuse for attempts at consequential intervention against the Syrian government.

So Israel kills 3 foreign soldiers from it's neighbors and hardly anyone from the Western media says anything about it? Meanwhile they all focus on how "tensions" are rising over in the Korean peninsula with NO military actions from either side...yet.o_O:eek:
 

delft

Brigadier
France has published its evidence on the Syrian chemical weapons:
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France reveals 'proof' Bashar al Assad carried out Syria chemical attack
Foreign minister says intelligence services compared samples from 2013 attack

France has said it has proof Bashar al-Assad's government was behind the recent sarin chemical weapons attack in
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.

Foreign affairs minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France had made the determination based on comparing samples from another attack in 2013.

He said: "We know, from a certain source, that the process of fabrication of the samples taken is typical of the method developed in Syrian laboratories.

"This method is the signature of the regime and it is what enables us to establish the responsibility of the attack. We know because we kept samples from previous attacks that we were able to use for comparison."

The attack on the village of Khan Sheikhoun, on 4 April, killed scores of people including children.

It has been claimed the regime
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hundreds of tonnes of chemical weapons despite saying it had handed over all of them.

French intelligence agents are aware that a Syrian Sukhoi 22 warplane struck Khan Sheikhoun six times on the day of the attack, Mr Ayrault said.

There is no doubt that sarin used there was manufactured in Syrian laboratories, he added.
A Syria could have no advantage from such use of chemical weapons in Ghouta, it did look like a false flag and no evidence against Syria could be produced the conclusion must be that the Khan Sheikhoun atrocity was equally produced by the terrorists.
 

delft

Brigadier
A de-escalation proposal, from Sputnik ( I didn't see the item on the BBC site, only yesterday's news that it was coming ):
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Russia, Turkey, Iran Sign Memorandum Establishing De-Escalation Zones in Syria
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15:05 04.05.2017(updated 15:42 04.05.2017)

On Thursday, participants of negotiations in Astana on Syrian settlement adopted a memorandum on four safe zones in the country. Russia, Turkey and Iran, the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states, have signed the document.


According to the document, Russia proposed to set up security zones in the Idlib province, to the north of the city of Homs, in Eastern Ghouta and in the south of Syria.

The guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire under the project of creating zones of de-escalation vowed to create a working group for its implementation within five days after signing the relevant memorandum, according to the signed document obtained by Sputnik on Thursday.

"Guarantors within five days after signing the memorandum will create a working group at the level of authorized representatives to determine the boundaries of disarmament, areas of tension and security areas, as well as to address technical issues related to the implementation of the memorandum," the text reads.

The preparation of the necessary maps of the "areas of tension and de-escalation areas" will be complete by May 22.
The memorandum envisages safe areas along the zones' borders to prevent direct fire between the warring sides: "Along the borders of the de-escalation zones, it is envisaged to create safe areas to prevent incidents and direct clashes between the warring parties."

The signing ceremony was interrupted by some members of the Syrian opposition who expressed their protest, some of them left the hall, according to Sputnik reporter.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced during the joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the two leaders, as well as the US President Trump, discussed the establishment of safe zones or de-escalation zones in Syria. "[It is] one of the ways to consolidate the ceasefire regime," Putin said.

Later that day, Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it supports the Russian proposal on de-escalation zones.
I just heard BBC Radio 4 news complain that the cease fires doesn't include Al Qaeda and IS nor the removal of the Syrian president. And not a word about the advantages of free and fair elections.
 
it's News Of The Hour at gazeta.ru right now (
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)
U.S. strikes Syria militia threatening U.S.-backed forces: officials
Thu May 18, 2017 | 2:38pm EDT
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I have been dilatory in keeping up with developments in Syria but saw last week that this militia invaded from Jordan and with US boot on the ground. This can become very serious. Russian Whitehousologists will be looking to find out what intentioned by invasion.

This is probably the most appropriate thread for these posts. And the following article from several days ago mentions the potential incursion into Syria from the south.

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Jordan and US begin war games amid claims of Syria buildup
#Abdullah'sWar
'Eager Lion' begins weeks after first US intervention in neighbouring Syria and Iranian claims of a planned incursion through Jordan

MEE and agencies
Sunday 7 May 2017 14:01 UTC
Last update: Monday 8 May 2017 10:50 UTC

Topics: Abdullah'sWar
Tags: Jordan, US, Eager Lion

Jordan and the United States kicked off annual military exercises known as "Eager Lion" on Sunday, with about 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part, officials said.

US and Jordanian officials said the manoeuvres would include border security, cyber defence, and "command and control" exercises to bolster coordination in response to threats including terrorism.

"Joint efforts and coordination and the exchange of expertise ... are needed at the time when the region is facing the threat of terrorism," said Khalid al-Shara, a Jordanian brigadier general.

Bill Hickman, the US deputy commander for the US army in the region, said this year's "Eager Lion" exercises, the seventh since the first held in 2011, are "the largest and most complex to date".

The exercises come amid reports that Iran had offered to send troops to the southern areas of Syria to support the government of Bashar al-Assad in response to a reported buildup of US backed-forces near Jordan's border.

Iran considers deploying forces to counter US intervention in Syria
The reports in the Tabnak news agency, which is affiliated to a former commander of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, indicated Iran had growing concerns about a buildup.

"There are increased activities in southern Syria that indicate preparations for an attack through Jordan and Israel and [with the help of] armed groups," the report read.

Journalist Asaad Hanna tweeted earlier this month that US forces had been positioned and were standing by on the southern Syrian border with Jordanian special forces.

Another report in al-Hayat also indicated a joint force was preparing to enter southern Syria from Jordan, albeit ostensibly with the aim of combating the Islamic State (IS) group.

The exercises also come weeks after the US launched a cruise missile attack on a Homs airbase, the first direct intervention against Assad, in response to a chemical weapons attack on the Idlib town of Khan Sheikhun.

The highlight of this year's exercise, Hickman said, will be that "for the first time ever a global strike mission" will be conducted by "two US Air Force B-1B bomber aircraft," a long-range multi-mission bomber.

A statement by the Jordanian army said troops from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab Gulf region are taking part in the exercises, which run to 18 May, including from Britain, Japan, Kenya and Saudi Arabia.

About 6,000 troops from Jordan and the US took part in last year's exercises.

Jordan is a key recipient of US financial aid and a partner in the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

US forces have trained a small group of vetted Syrian rebels in Jordan, and American instructors have trained Iraqi and Palestinian security forces in Jordan as well over the past few years.

Two years ago, the United States announced its intention to increase overall US assistance to Jordan from $660m to $1bn annually for the 2015-2017 period.
 
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