https://southfront.org/syrian-war-report-august-31-2017-isis-goes-all-in-in-southern-raqqah/
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By Harold Hoover
On August 30, the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq claimed that ISIS fighters killed two Russian military service members near Uqayribat town in the eastern Hama countryside. Amaq claimed that the two Russian soldiers and several Syrian soldiers were killed when ISIS repelled their attack towards Uqayribat town.
However, from the photos released by Amaq, it cannot be concluded that the bodies were those of Russian military servicemen. The two soldiers could be some private military contractors operating on the side of the Syrian government or just members of some pro-government group.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) 5th Assault Corps’ ISIS Hunters liberated al-Mushayrifah and deployed to within only about 2 km from the southeastern entrance to Uqayribat.
Separately, government troops took control of Mukaymen Janoubi near Taybah.
ISIS deployed additional reinforcements to southern Raqqah in order to boost its offensive against the SAA Tiger Forces and pro-government tribal forces in the area.
Clashes are still ongoing in the Ghanim Ali village area and both sides claim that they are taking upper hand in this battle. However, it seems that ISIS will not be able to deliver enough damage to stop the SAA advance in central Syria.
The SAA further advanced along the Palmyra-Deir Ezzor road and recaptured the Harbisha area from ISIS. The advance came amid intense airstrikes on ISIS targets in central Syria.
Syrian and Russian warplanes bombed ISIS in Aksh, Um Mail, Abu Jubilat, al-Qastal al-Shamali, al-Qastal al-Wastani, and al-Qastal al-Janubi in the eastern Hama countryside, and in Saria’at Junid, the al-Qriah hill and al-Mukbat areas around Deir Ezzor city.
The Russian Military Police has deployed in the towns of Shehba and Afrin in northern Syria in order to set up military observation posts and to provide additional security to the area, according to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Further deployments of Russian Military Police units in the YPG-held area in northwestern Syria show the growing Russian influence in the area. Meanwhile, Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria remain under almost a direct influence of the US-led coalition.
“The Russian Military Police has deployed in the towns of Shehba and Afrin in northern Syria in order to set up military observation posts and to provide additional security to the area, according to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Further deployments of Russian Military Police units in the YPG-held area in northwestern Syria show the growing Russian influence in the area. Meanwhile, Kurdish militias in northeastern Syria remain under almost a direct influence of the US-led coalition.”
A war between turks and the proxies of israel on Syrian territory isn’t in the best interests of the Syrian people living in those regions. The Syrian government does not recognize either a turkish or israeloamerican presence in their country as legal or desirable. But they do welcome Russians. Putting Russians where turks and israeloamericans want to be is a good way of excluding those 2 since the turks don’t want ruin their current improving relationship with Russia, and Asia, and israel’s pindo colony is afraid of confronting Russia directly.
Short Russia-24 news report on the US base in Al Tanf. (English subs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti7-KDmkfcQ
Journalist Interrogated, Fired for Story Linking CIA and Syria Weapons Flights
http://www.globalresearch.ca/journalist-interrogated-fired-for-story-linking-cia-and-syria-weapons-flights/5606848
“The Bulgaria-based journalist obtained and published dozens of secret internal memos which were leaked to her by an anonymous source as part of the report. The leaked documents appear to be internal communications between the Bulgarian government and Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Sofia detailing flight plans for Silk Way Airlines, which was essentially operating an “off the books” weapons transport service (not subject to inspections or tax under diplomatic cover) for the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), Saudi Arabia, Israel, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Silk Way Airlines has been the subject of other recent investigations involving weapons supplies for the Saudi war on Yemen. In addition, the military monitoring site Balkan Insight has exposed similar weapons cargo flights in and out of neighboring Serbia.
But perhaps the more explosive finding involves private American companies contracting with the US government to help train and equip militants in Syria. An investigative series by Buzzfeed – the first of which was published in 2015 – named military contractor Purple Shovel LLC as the recipient of two no-bid contracts totaling more $50 million as part of the US train and equip program for Syria. Gaytandzhieva’s report definitively links Purple Shovel and other private American military contractors to the Azerbaijan Silk Way Airlines shipments. One leaked memo includes a cargo manifest for multiple tons of anti-tank grenades purchased in Bulgaria by Purple Shovel which were ostensibly designated for the official consignee – the Ministry of Defense of Ajerbaijan – but which never made it to Ajerbaijan. The documents, however, reveal that the military cargo was offloaded at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, which is one of the US and NATO’s main command centers for covert operations in Syria.”
See also:
Silk Way Airlines Smuggles Weapons on Diplomatic Flights
https://founderscode.com/silk-way-airlines-smuggles-weapons-diplomatic-flights/
CONFIRMED: US backed so-called ‘moderate rebels’ sold American weapons to ISIS
http://theduran.com/confirmed-us-backed-called-moderate-rebels-sold-american-weapons-isis/
“Rossiya-24 correspondent Eugeniy Poddubny recently interviewed a man called Asaad As-Salem, a man who was once loyal to a US trained proxy army in southern Syria known as Maghawir al-Thawra. The group was based at the notorious illegal US garrison in At-Tanf. The garrison which previous fired at many Syrian Arab Army and allied convoys has since June of this year, been cut off from the rest of the country by newly established lines of government control, thus making the base largely ineffective and without any tangible purpose.
Asaad As-Salem has disclosed important details on how the US turned a blind eye to fighters it armed and trained openly selling weapons to ISIS. He stated,
“When we learned that our unit’s leader was selling weapons to ISIS terrorists, we reported that to American base command, but following our report no action has been taken, the Americans only ramped up the support to the man who was appointed our commander and who was dealing with ISIS.
And he was selling all sorts of weapons our unit possessed, US-made small arms, M-16 and M-4 rifles, recoilless rifles, various machine guns and ammunition for them”.
He continued,
“There’s no support for the local populace, the Americans are not interested in anything except pursuing their own goals. There’s a refugee camp, Rukhban, for example, located some 20 kilometres from the American military base.
Some of the people residing in the camp are relatives of those militants, collaborating with Americans, while the others are civilians from At-Tanf. There are no suitable living conditions there, children have nowhere to study, there’s no healthcare, the Americans support only those people who they use to pursue their own goals. All in all, I’ll tell you, they behave like invaders”.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has responded to the new information in the following way,
“Certainly those materials need thorough examination by competent organizations, including international organizations. These materials tell us that the American coalition, the so-called coalition, does not what was proclaimed, i.e. not fighting terrorists in the southern Syria, but pursues its own goals.
One of the goals is creation of their own sphere of influence in the country, exhausted in the fight against terrorism. In order to achieve that, according to witness reports, various means are being used, including direct transfer of foreign-made weapons to militants, as it happened at the At-Tanf base in the south of the country”.
Syrian rebel defector says his US-trained unit sold arms to ISIS
https://www.rt.com/news/401672-syria-rebel-isis-us-weapons/
“The information revealed by the rebel defector should not be surprising, as covert and overt support for various rebels worldwide is a usual practice by the US, political commentator and journalist John Wight believes.
And it explains the nature of the US airstrikes on the Syrian government and allied forces.
“It adds an extra and murkier dimension to US airstrikes, that were conducted against pro-Syrian government forces as they approached At-Tanf back in June this year, suggesting that rather than motivated by a desire to protect so-called moderate rebels that the US was supporting at the time, they were carried out with the desire to conceal the activities that are being described by this Syrian rebel defector regarding providing arms to ISIS and other Salafist jihadi groups,” Wight told RT.
The reportedly dire conditions in the refugee camps controlled by the US-backed rebels are not surprising as well, since “the US is not really interested in welfare of the Syrian people,” Wight said.
“I can tell they have never been interested in the welfare of the Syrian people,” Wight told RT. “The Syrian people have been used as a proxy and as a justification for the US presence in Syria with its own hegemonic agenda in mind.”
In a related area…”Les kurdes, armes de déstabilisation massive de Washington au Moyen-Orient” part one (in French)
http://www.voltairenet.org/article197628.html
seems to suggest that empire has not yet surrendered
http://www.globalresearch.ca/bashar-al-assad-on-the-future-of-syria-failure-of-the-west-and-americas-deep-state-several-parallel-wars-on-syrian-soil/5606452
full transcript of summative speech by Assad Aug 20th , very interesting
Another milestone achieved. SouthFront and other news sources report liberation of Uqairibat by the ISIS hunters.
https://southfront.org/breaking-government-forces-liberate-key-town-uqayribat-isis/