On April 19, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies supported by warplanes of the Syrian Air Force launched a military operation against ISIS in the Yarmouk refugee camp and the al-Hajar al-Aswad district in southern Damascus. The SAA also involved artillery guns and rocket launchers to support the attack.
The development came after negotiations on a possible withdrawal of ISIS members from the area to the eastern Homs desert had collapsed. However, according to local sources, the ISIS members in Yarmouk still have chances to accept a withdrawal agreement.
On the same day, militants in the main Eastern Qalamoun pocket surrendered to the SAA and accepted an agreement under which they will be able to withdraw to the militant held parts of Aleppo and Idlib provinces or to settle their legal status. Militants already began handing over their heavy weapons, including a few battle tanks. The evacuation process is set to be started on April 20.
With the liberation of Eastern Qalamoun and southern Damascus, the SAA will be able to free a large force for further operations against militants across the country. One of the key problem areas is southern Syria where, according to Russian military and diplomatic sources, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and its allies are preparing to launch a large advance in order to capture the city of Daraa.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry’s TV channel Zvezda, militants are actively receiving support via corridors established in the militant-held areas on the Syrian-Israeli and Syrian-Jordanian borders. The estimated strength of the militants’ force is 12,000 members with hundreds units of military equipment, tens artillery pieces and rocket launchers.
Meanwhile, US State Department accused Damascus and Moscow of preventing the OPCW mission from investigating the site of the alleged chemical attack in Douma.
In turn, Russian Foreign Ministry said that Syrian troops have found “containers with chlorine” from Germany and “smoke grenades” produced in the UK city of Salisbury in the liberated areas of Eastern Ghouta. The region where the alleged chemical attack took place in the town of Douma on April 7.
Syria has handed over to Russia two cruise missiles unexploded after the recent US-led strike on the country, the Russian state-run news agency TASS reported citing a source in the Syrian Defense Ministry. According to the report, the missiles were sent to Russia in good condition by plane on April 18.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not commented on this report yet.
On April 14, the US, the UK and France carried out a massive missile strike on Syrian targets. According to the Pentagon, all 105 launched missiles hit their targets. In turn, the Russian Defense Ministry says that 71 missile had been intercepted.
Is IRAN conscious that the fight in Syria is more vital for his existence than for Russia?
I wonder if they understand fully that.
Otherwise, why, for instance, they have yet not only not recognized (“de facto” if not “de jure) Crimea as constituent member of the Russian Federation, but also opened a Consulate in Simferopol to hinder the influence on Tatars of Turkey and other Sunni conspirators?
Why they do not allow, for instance, the cruising, within IRAN territorial waters, of MIG-31 patrols armed with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles?
Interesting. Two intact US cruise missiles were retrieved by the Syrians and sent to Russia. This strongly suggests the missiles were downed by means of a Russian electronic warfare system.
Another possibility is someone, perhaps from within the Pentagon itself, has assisted Russia with hacking of these missiles.
Quick, get Mueller on it – if you dig far enough, you will find that at some point you will dig enough to find that someone, somewhere, for some reason, has dug a hole!!
Disgusting that the islamic terrorists have corridors into both Israel and Jordan. The people of the west are becoming increasingly outraged by the treasonous, duplicitous politicians in their parliaments. Western forces have been dying fighting these terrorists and the government of the West, particularly the US-Israel and British-Israel governments have been financing, arming and supporting the terrorists killing US and British soldiers.
Trump’s ‘smart’ missiles are so smart it appears they have found away to preserve themselves by refusing to detonate! IF it wasn’t so tragic for the wrold’s peoples, it would be funny.
Maybe the missile was like the ‘suicide-bomber’ who was suffering depression and unable to commit suicide?
“Syria has handed over to Russia two cruise missiles unexploded after the recent US-led strike on the country, the Russian state-run news agency TASS reported citing a source in the Syrian Defense Ministry. According to the report, the missiles were sent to Russia in good condition by plane on April 18.”
A report in Sputnik said one of the missiles was a JASSM-ER.
Moscow Can Boost Its Defenses by Studying Intact US Missiles in Syria – Analyst
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201804191063713142-russia-us-unexploded-missiles-syria/
“These findings may be very useful for our country. Russian experts do not copy western arms patterns, since we have our own development strategy, but it will be interesting for them to get acquainted with the latest western developments in this field. Some missiles, used to strike Syria, were not new, while others were exploited for the first time,” Murakhovsky told Sputnik.
The missiles found by the Syrian forces were reportedly transferred to Russia on April 18, and, as Murakhovsky explained, they will be of special interest because the rockets were quite new.
“It would be interesting to look at the American missile – JASSM-ER – that the US used in the battlefield for the first time. Studying these rockets will help Russia improve its missile defense systems and electronic warfare systems,” the military analyst elaborated.”
One question. I admit i’m stupid as man can be but here it is: why is it so hard for Syria with regular army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to crush those jihadists? This is not some Russian Civil War. Why has Syrian armed forces been so poor? And another question: is there any reliable figures of military casualties? I’m not interesting in “estimates” because there are so much evidence of highly exaggerated claims of victims of before real scientific studies have been made (e.g Vietnam War which wasn’t as bloody as commonly claimed with e.g 5 million deaths)
Because mass causalities of your troops are not acceptable in modern warfare as they were in WW1 AND WW2.
This is especially true in a civil war where the loyalty of your troops is questionable.
We should never fall in love with any experts which have sometimes make true conclusions when being in business there where things really have happened. I pick strongly respected Robert Fisk and Scott Ritter as good examples. Think about. You have been successful and get reputation. Now you are sitting there in your nice home in London, Texas or where ever. And then been asked: “say, what has happened there in Syria, Douma, Khan Shaykhon, Ghouta….”
Just take a look at Ritter:
“Two issues flow from this line of thinking. First, the Khan Shaykhun incident is not without significant controversy, with its conclusions questioned by numerous experts, journalists and governments. Second, even if one accepts the findings that sarin nerve agent was used in Khan Shaykhun, that fact does not automatically sustain any allegations of sarin use in Douma, especially when there is no evidence to sustain that allegation.”
That fact doesn’t sustain any allegations at all. Khan Shaykhun and Douma are two different separate things. Period. Both them have to be studied without linking each others.
Ritter’s article is here https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-shocking-lack-of-intelligence-in-our-missile-strike-on-syria/
We must always trust only in primary sources and they must be checked, checked and again checked. I don’t believe in theories that CW atrocities could be somehow hidden. Nazis were not able to keep Holocaust as secret. Millions and millions of Germans know it. Much more reasoned it. Ritter in America (?) and Fisk in UK are as reliable as any of us (with only their experience as advantage and doesn’t mean so much in case of Syria). When Fisk visited Douma he should have sniffed something has happened there. He found not evidence at all. Fisk himself threw rather dubious claims of East Aleppo hysteria 1½ years ago as armchair London general.
Accuse the OPCW of blocking entry to Douma? Following their website press releases etc. it was just the UN Security team that stopped them, so nothing to do with Russia or Syria. That is how we know that they lie and lie.