The Syrian Crisis

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The first video was a good. The second video has a lot of footage from Russia's military exercises, nowhere near Syria, but in Russia.

 

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Syria - Sense and Compassion
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Published on Oct 6, 2015

The Russian air strikes in Syria have set fur flying in Westminster. But despite the strutting ministers, some people are speaking with sense and compassion, among them former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey and Crispin Blunt, a little-known MP who chairs one of the most influential select committees in the House of Commons.

Firstly, on Sunday 4th of October 2015, former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey was reported saying that the United Kingdom has a responsibility to Syrian Christians.

Lord Carey said: "Time is running out for Christians in the region. Successive UK governments have failed to do enough to support minority communities in the Middle East and now sadly, many Christians have concluded they have no future in a region where they have lived for nearly two thousand years."
He did not condemn Russia's air strikes, but our Defence Secretary did. Michael Fallon MP said Mr Putin was targeting the 'Free Syrian Army' and claimed: "He's shoring up Assad and perpetuating the suffering."
But also over the weekend, the Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee said that Britain and the US were getting "in the way" of solving the Syrian civil war by calling for Assad to step down.

Mr Crispin Blunt MP said it was not "helpful" for David Cameron to compare Assad's regime with the actions of ISIS terrorists. And he said the West was "in no position to complain" about Russian airstrikes in Syria.
We reported last month that Mr Blunt's committee heard from experts on Syria, among them learned professors and journalists who agreed that Mr Fallon's 'Free Syrian Army' is a busted flush and that the the Syrian Opposition is now totally dominated by Islamic State and Al Qaeda offshoots like the Al Nusra Front.
Much as one might dislike Bashar Al-Assad, said one expert, if he goes Syria implodes. There is no other guarantor of stability. It's Assad or the Deluge, said another.

So when Mr Fallon complains that the Russians are shoring up Assad, I respond on the video, 'You mean, they are preventing Syria from becoming a failed state like Libya is after our intervention? How inconsiderate of them.'

Our Government, including the previous gung-ho foreign secretary William, now Lord, Hague, bear much of the responsibility for the mass displacement of people by encouraging, supplying, training, even arming, Syrian rebel groups. It is we who have perpetuated the suffering, not Assad.

The sadness is, we can't trust either our government or that of the US to tell us the truth.

The word of God tells us to support Christian brothers and sisters and to pray for our leaders. So I'm praying to hear from Mr Cameron that he is prepared to prioritise asylum to Syrian Christians, and that he will work humbly with Syria and its allies to defeat Islamic State and bring stability to Syria - and Iraq - so that the Christians, and the other minorities, can return to areas they and their ancestors have lived in, as Dr Carey reminded us, for two thousand years.

 

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РБК-500 СПБЭ-Д (RBK-500 SPBE)

smerch in Syria

https://twitter.com/MuradoRT

 

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ISIS using Mosques as shields to protect their weapons
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http://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12059896@egNews
Having recognized high effectiveness of armament detection and threat of immediate liquidation, terrorists are taking efforts to transport weapons to inhabited areas

 

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Moderately graphic picture of dead Saudi terrorist: SAUDI RATS KILLED IN TABQA AB BY SYRIAN ARMY! ISIS TRAPPED IN TABQA

Moderately graphic picture of dead ISIS: ISIS TRAMPLED BY SYRIAN ARMY IN DAYR EL-ZOR; END OF WAR APPROACHING

Moderately graphic picture of several dead ISIS repelled by Syrian Army: ISIS ASSAULT ON D.Z. AIRBASE FLOPPED; SAA REINFORCMENTS OVERWHELM RATS

Graphic pictures of many ISIS carcasses after attacks by Syrian and allied forces: DAYR EL-ZOR AND AL-HASAKA: ISIS RATS SLAUGHTERED IN SYRIAN ARMY AND BA’ATH AMBUSHES AND COUNTERATTACKS

Some of the articles have Google Earth Maps to indicate the location where the encounter took place. The bloggers epithets reflect his passionate dislike for ISIS and their western backers. The articles are not in chronological order, and some are from past year.

 

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http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.gr/2015/10/with-russian-forces-fully-entrenched-in.html

 

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Female fighters vs Islamic State: 'We let ISIS members end up in hell'

 

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This is why the US created ISIS

Exactly how the US trained and armed ISIS

General Wesley Clark explains ISIS was created by U.S. Allies

 

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Syrian Christian Leader Tells West: ‘Stop Arming Terror Groups Who Are Massacring Our People’
A simple request

RI Staff | Russia Insider


Ignatius Aphrem II, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, speaks with Pope Francis

In a July interview, The Patriarch of Antioch, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, called on the West to “stop arming and supporting terrorist groups that are destroying our countries and massacring our people.” The Syrian Christian leader added that “state institutions need to be strengthened and stabilised. Instead, what we see is their forced dismemberment being fuelled from the outside.”

The Patriarch also recounted a meeting he had with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad:

Along with bishops of his church he recently had talks with President Assad of Syria. “President Assad urged us to do everything in our hands to prevent Christians from leaving Syria. ‘I know you are suffering,’ he said, ‘but please don't leave this land, which has been your home for thousands of years, even before Islam came.’ He said that Christians will also be needed when the time comes to rebuild this devastated country.”

He said the majority of Syrian citizens support Assad’s government and have always supported it.

“We recognise legitimate rulers and pray for them, as the New Testament teaches us. We also see that on the other side there is no democratic opposition, only extremist groups. Above all, we see that in the past few years, these groups have been basing their actions on an ideology that comes from the outside, brought here by preachers of hatred who have come from and are backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt. These groups receive arms through Turkey too, as the media have shown us.”

Not only is the West attempting to destroy the last secular nation in the Middle East, it’s also giving weapons to Christian-killing fanatics. A sound foreign policy. ​

 

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BREAKING: ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘Killed in Air Strike’
The Iraqi air force says the ISIS leader’s convoy was attacked near the Iraq-Syria border

RI Staff | Russia Insider


Very likely dead, according to Iraq

(UPDATED) ISIS is having a bad week:

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hit by an airstrike while travelling in a convoy in the western province of Anbar in Iraq, the country’s military has claimed.

Iraq’s air force said the militant leader was targeted near the border with Syria on Sunday and his condition remains unknown.

The whereabouts of Baghdadi, who has declared himself the leader of an Isis-controlled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, have been unknown for long periods.

“Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh commanders,” an Iraqi air force statement said, using the Arabic acronym for Isis.

Karabla is on the Euphrates river, barely three miles (5km) from the border with Syria. The statement did not make clear when the strike was carried out.​

Of course, it’s important to remember that Abu Bakr’s predecessor, “Abu Omar al-Baghdadi,” never actually existed, according to the New York Times. So who knows? Maybe the Iraqi air force bombed a hologram. Or maybe Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a CIA asset “whose time had come.” At this point, nothing would surprise us.

UPDATE: His convoy was hit, but sources say he’s not dead:

Several leaders of the Islamic State were killed in an airstrike conducted by the Iraqi Air Force, but “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is not among them, Reuters reports citing an Iraqi hospital source.

Earlier it was reported that the Iraqi Air Forces had attacked a convoy of the Islamic State jihadist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in the Iraqi western Anbar province. His fate was unknown.​

 

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TOP-5 leaders of the Caliphate, which must be eliminated
http://13571113.blogspot.gr/2015/10/top-5-leaders-of-caliphate-which-must.html

 

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http://in.rbth.com/blogs/stranger_t...hould-join-rusian-air-strikes-in-syria_480837

Six reasons why India should join Russian air strikes in Syria
Warplanes from multiple countries are screaming through the skies over Syria. On the ground, terrorist groups are nibbling at Syria’s extremities. It is an environment that India should jump right into. Here are six good reasons why India needs to send its well-trained and ferocious military to defend beleaguered Syria.

India needs to show support for an ally

Currently, Russia is conducting airstrikes against ISIS, al-Qaeda and CIA-backed terror groups all by itself. The Russian Air Force has brought a strong detachment of jet fighters and bombers to Syria, but the fact remains that it is a solo act. Iran has provided shock troops to fight on the ground, but no aircraft. India should send at least a squadron of jets for joint air strikes with the Russian Air Force against terror groups. This is a matter that concerns India’s only strategic partner. When your friend is in a fight, you enter the fray.

India’s counter-terror expertise can be a game changer

India’s experience in counter terrorism could play a decisive role in combating ISIS as well as CIA supported terrorist groups such as the so-called Free Syrian Army. The Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Army have been fighting extremists in Kashmir and eastern India for decades. India also stamped out separatism in Punjab after a take-no-prisoners campaign that lasted nearly 20-years. Such valuable counter terror experience is precisely what Russia would appreciate having on its side in the Syrian war.

India’s armed forces will gain invaluable experience

Significant events are happening over Syrian airspace and beyond. Turkish Air Force F-16s that attempted to come close to the action got a taste of Russian airpower when MiG-29s interceptors – providing top cover – achieved radar lock on the F-16s. Turkey’s military admitted that as many as eight Turkish F-16 jets patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border were “painted” by a MiG-29 as well as surface-to-air missile systems based in Syria in two separate incidents.

This is an eerie replication of the 1999 Kargil War when Indian MiG-29s – which were providing top cover to IAF jets targeting Pakistani intruders – achieved missile locks on Pakistan Air Force F-16s, forcing the latter to disengage from the battle.

The airspace over Syria is an environment that India’s MiG-29 and Sukhoi-30MKI pilots would relish. Not only would they be right at home in the Syrian cauldron, Indian pilots will also gain experience in a 21st century battlefield environment involving western air forces. The IAF can also test its ability to quickly airlift Indian troops into a war zone.

After the bombardment by Russian and Indian aircraft, the Indian Army would savour the prospect of mopping up the remnants of the ISIS as well as CIA-backed rebel groups.

Fight them in Syria, not at home

There will be plenty of naysayers who will argue India should not enter the mess because they fear the country will end up on the ISIS radar. But the point is to fight – and exterminate – ISIS in its home base than in India. ISIS should not be given any breathing space which would allow them to expand out of the Middle East. India – like Russia – faces a serious threat from these media and technology savvy terrorist organisations that are able to radicalise its citizens via the internet. India, therefore, has every right to destroy ISIS in its breeding grounds before it becomes a threat at home.

India’s stock will rise globally

Despite sending spectacular missions to the Moon and Mars and becoming an IT superpower, India is still known as the land of holy men, tigers and Gandhi. What the country needs is an image makeover. If India sends its armed forces to Syria, its stock will rise globally as one of the few countries able to hit the ISIS. We are talking about fighting the world’s most vicious rebel group, whose terror tactics have achieved the impossible task of making al-Qaeda look like a moderate bunch.

There is an ancient Indian saying – the brave shall inherit the earth. India’s leadership needs to bite the bullet.

India’s entry will be a landmark geopolitical event

The Russian airstrikes in Syria could be the beginning of a more assertive BRICS group. Until now it was the West which was enforcing no-fly zones and dictating terms. Now the Russian side is doing it – not against small, defenceless countries but against real terrorists who are a global menace. This is a significant development because Russia is finally taking decisive military action and has received wide support internationally.

Importantly, Russian air strikes against opponents of the secular Bashar al-Assad government have decapitated American foreign policy in the Middle East. People in the Middle East have front row seats to the wilting of American power in the face of a determined Russia.

India has rarely intervened outside the scope of the United Nations. The country is known as the reluctant superpower because it rarely ventures into global hot spots. If India sends its mighty defence forces to support Syria, it would have the weight of over 1.2 billion people saying no to terrorist groups holding a peaceful and secular country to ransom.

This is history in the making – don’t sit it out.

 

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Iran has provided shock troops to fight on the ground, but no aircraft.

Iran sends fighters to Syria, escalating its involvement

BEIRUT: Hundreds of Iranian troops are being deployed in northern and central Syria, dramatically escalating Tehran's involvement in the civil war as they join allied Hezbollah fighters in an ambitious offensive to wrest key areas from rebels amid Russian airstrikes.

Their arrival, a regional official and Syrian activists said Wednesday, highlights the far-reaching goals of Russia's military involvement in Syria. It suggests that, for now, taking on Islamic State extremists in eastern Syria seems a secondary priority to propping up President Bashar Assad.

The development is almost certain to increase pressure on Western-backed rebels, who are battling multiple foes, and push more civilians out of the areas of fighting, potentially creating a fresh wave of refugees.

Russia began its air campaign Sept. 30, and Syrian troops and allied militiamen launched a ground offensive against rebels in central Syria a week later. Russia says its airstrikes are meant to weaken the Islamic State group and other "terrorists" in Syria, but Western officials and Syrian rebels say most of the strikes have focused on central and northern Syria, where the extremist group does not have a strong presence.

The official, who has deep knowledge of operational details in Syria, said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards _ currently numbering around 1,500 - began arriving about two weeks ago, after the Russian airstrikes began, and have accelerated recently. The Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has also sent a fresh wave of fighters to Syria, he told The Associated Press.

Iranian and Syrian officials have long acknowledged Iran has advisers and military experts in Syria, but denied there were any ground troops. Wednesday's statements were the first confirmation of Iranian fighters taking part in combat operations in Syria.

The main goal is to secure the strategic Hama-Aleppo highway and seize the key rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughour in Idlib province, which Assad's forces lost in April to insurgents that included al-Qaida's Nusra Front.

The loss of Jisr al-Shughour, followed by the fall of the entire province, was a resounding defeat for Assad, opening the way for rebels to threaten his Alawite heartland in the coastal province of Latakia. The official suggested the Syrian army's alarmingly tenacious position around that time is what persuaded the Russians to join the fray and begin airstrikes two weeks ago.

The Syrian government and Iran had been asking Russia to intervene for a year, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss military affairs. He said the Russian "tsunami wave" has given allies such as Iran the cover to operate more freely in Syria.

His account of Iranian troops arriving ties in with reports from Syrian opposition activists, who reported a troop buildup in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported Wednesday that Iranian troops were arriving and being transported to a military base in the coastal town of Latakia, in the town of Jableh outside the provincial capital.

At least two senior Iranian commanders were killed in Syria in recent days, including Gen. Hossein Hamedani, a senior Revolutionary Guard commander, who died Oct. 8 near Aleppo.

"Syria will witness big victories in coming days," said Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, speaking Monday at Hamedani's funeral.

"Sending more troops from Hezbollah and Iran only increases the shelf life of the Syrian regime, which is destined to end," Maj. Jamil Saleh, the leader of Tajammu Alezzah, a CIA-backed Free Syrian Army faction, told the AP. "It will only add more destruction and displacement."

He said their presence in Syria is not new but had been kept quiet.

"Now they are taking cover behind Russia since it is a super power and strengthens their position," Alezzah said.

The Syrian army began its offensive a week ago against rebels on three major fronts in areas between Idlib and Hama. To the north, the Islamic State group capitalized on the strikes against rebels in northwestern and central Syria to capture a string of villages and a main military base from insurgents that brought them closer to Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

"They took advantage of the vacuum," said Lt. Colonel Ahmed Saoud, commander of 13th Division, a rebel group that is part of the Free Syrian Army. The group is a staunch IS opponent and operates in Aleppo.

J.M. Berger, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World, said the moderate rebels "are in a pretty bad spot, unless the West is prepared to sponsor them over the long term in a full-on proxy war against the Russians."

Such support would be "a complicated proposition," he added, given that a lot of the materiel the U.S. has sent to moderate rebels has ended up in the hands of jihadists.

Mathew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre, said the Russian airstrikes against more moderate, nationalist elements of the opposition has facilitated IS territorial gains in these areas, ultimately "leaving the government and its allies principally in a conflict with hard-line, fundamentalist actors."

The official who spoke to AP all but confirmed that the Islamic State is not the priority for the Syrian troops and their allies, saying most areas held by the group in eastern Syria are desert regions considered to be on the periphery.

A week into the multipronged offensive, insurgents say they are overstretched, exhausted and their ammunition is depleted. There have been hundreds of sorties in an area that stretches for about 60 kilometers (about 35 miles), and a significant mobilization of ground troops.

And yet, rebel commanders say the offensive has failed to dislodge the various insurgent groups from territory they control that leads to the heartland of Assad's power. The rebels are backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, including some ultraconservative groups and al-Qaida affiliates.

Instead, the rebel groups are still pushing back. Some are using U.S.-delivered TOW anti-tank missiles, while others are resorting to tactics such as booby-trapped cars.

Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Brookings Doha Center, said much will depend on how quickly and efficiently the rebels' weaponry can be replenished by the states supporting them.

The CIA-backed rebels shrugged off criticism of cooperating with al-Qaida.

Saoud, the 13th Division commander whose fighters received TOW missiles, said he worked in the same trench with a faction from the Army of Conquest. That umbrella group includes militants from the Nusra Front.

"There is now something bigger than our differences and disagreements. It is the Russian invasion," he said. "It is an emergency situation. Everyone would understand that."

Saoud said only one of his bases was hit by the Russians, with few casualties. The rebels have kept a lid on their casualty figures, just like the Syrian government.

"With all that firepower, with new launchers and a hail of airstrikes ... they were not able to advance," Saoud said of the government troops. "In my mind, that is a victory."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ting-its-involvement/articleshow/49367920.cms

 

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Turkish PM's '360 Degree Difference From ISIL' Blunder Sparks Viral Outcry

In an attempt to explain to a Turkish journalist the difference between the Islam that is being defended by Turkey and the one advocated by the ISIL, Prime Minister Davutoglu proclaimed that "there is not a 180 degree, but a 360 degree difference"; the apparent gaffe instantly sparked mockery online, with many recalling that he is a professor.

 

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Guess Who ISIS Got All Those Toyota Trucks From
From Uncle Sam. Surpised? No? We neither

(Ron Paul Institute) | Russia Insider

Originally appeared at Ron Paul Institute

Recently the Department of the Treasury, responsible for keeping track of sanctions and violations of sanctions, turned its bureaucratic eye toward the massive convoys of Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks in possession of ISIS. How the heck did they get such a massive fleet of identical tactical war-machines? They put some pressure on Toyota at first: do you know anything about how these bad guys got all the trucks? Toyota had no clue, as it only makes cars.

But just down the road the answer had been obvious for several years: the State Department had long been providing these Toyotas to its “Free Syrian Army” which, as Syria expert Josh Landis at the University of Oklahoma asserts, somehow manages to deliver between 60 and 80 percent of its US-supplied goodies to ISIS or al-Qaeda. How did ISIS get the Toyotas? From the State Department.

Ron Paul Institute Executive Director joins Sputnik News to discuss the Toyota fiasco and the larger Afghanistanization of the Syria conflict on Radio Sputnik yesterday. Is Zbigniew Brzezinski riding again, taking the US to oblivion this time? Listen to the full interview with Daniel McAdams on Radio Sputnik to find out…

https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/isis-toyota-trucks-daniel-mcadams

 

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http://panampost.com/panam-staff/20...oops-deployed-to-syria/#.ViAwmWN7x2A.facebook

 

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Tank warfare in Syria — A sequence of events

A Syrian T-72 tank takes a direct hit from an RPG.

The tank crew members survive the hit, exit the tank, and run to safety.

Another Syrian T-72 tank arrives next to the RPG-struck tank and engages the terrorists.

A tank rescue vehicle pulls the RPG-struck tank back from where its crew left it.

The place where the tank was hit by the RPG is visible showing the effectiveness of the armour bricks.

Source: Abkhazia News Network Agency
Reporter: Marat Musin (who also reported from NovoRossiya)

Spoiler: Video from where these screenshots were taken