https://southfront.org/the-last-white-helmet-of-idlib/
Israeli media are celebrating.
Asghar Bashpour, a top commander in Iran’s Quds Force who was close to its assassinated leader, Qassem Soleimani, has reportedly died in battle in Syria. Bashpour, who was overseeing Iranian operations in Aleppo, was killed at the forefront of clashes against “opposition forces” on February 3, reports said.
Israel has long been on the side of ISIS and al-Qaeda freedom fighters battling the oppressive Assad regime and Iran. At the end of the day, Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly said that Iranian entrenchment inside Syria is ultimately aimed at harming Israeli security and interests, while, it must be noted, the ISIS offshoot, that has for years existed just meters away from the Israeli-controlled Golan Height, hasn’t fired a single bullet at Israeli troops. Now that ISIS is defeated, the sole democracy of the Middle East is in danger.
However, there are even more clouds hanging over the region.
Late on February 4, Assad forces broke through the defenses of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Turkistan Islamic Party and their colleagues southeast of Saraqib and captured over 110km2, including the villages of Sheikh Edris, Balisah and Kafr Amim. Nearby Turkish observation posts observed this with tears in their eyes. Ankara just declared that its military had delivered a devastating blow to the regime with dozens of strikes. Turkish troops just did not expect such a cowardly attack from the defeated pro-government forces.
Fortunately, Mr. Recep Erdogan promised that his country would not allow the regime to gain more territory in Idlib. He is probably planning to flood the Saraqib-Tal Toqan road, Afs, Resafa and Sarmin with Turkish troops who will thus gain the opportunity to sacrifice their health and even their lives protecting innocent al-Qaeda members hiding in Saraqib from Assad’s aggression. A minor flaw in this approach is that the Syrian Army, supported by the Russians, can advance from more than one direction, and the danger may come from the north. What a cunning plan!
So, forces of law and order should unite to protect Idlib rebels and their leaders, and they are doing so. The United States, France and the United Kingdom called for a United Nations Security Council session to condemn the unreasonable aggression perpetrated against the al-Qaeda book club in Idlib. On top of that, the United States employed its most powerful weapon. The U.S. Embassy in Damascus, which incidentally is located outside of Syria, changed its cover photo to demonstrate a strong determination to oppose “the continued, unjustifiable, and ruthless assaults on the people of Idlib by the Assad regime, Russia, Iran, and Hizballah”.
But that’s not going far enough. To demonstrate solidarity with the Idlib peace activists, US diplomats, including Mike Pompeo and Kelly Craft, should wear white helmets and carry little black flags during all briefings and events related to the conflict in Syria. Mr. Pompeo himself could visit the city of freedom, Idlib, where he could take the opportunity to drink a cup of tea with leaders of all these groups and organizations which the State Department supports so fiercely. For sure, members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham will be glad to hear Pompeo’s explanations for the nebulosity of the US approach towards them. It is a bit unclear why the US officially recognizes them as terrorists, when its diplomacy is aimed at supporting them.
Last but not least, the US, France and the UK can accept as refugees all these Idlib freedom fighters whom they support so that they will no longer be oppressed by the Assad regime but can enjoy real democracy.
Sitreps here are just getting better and better!
Yesterday, heavy satire.
And today, the funniest headline ever: “The Last White Helmet Of Idlib”
I almost died laughing when I saw the picture of Pompous Mike with his trendy helmet prop!
:)
Now that the white helmets have just finished their new film in Syria it’s only a matter of days that the US will come to their fake rescuers side and try and turn Syria backwards, however my faith in Russia is strong . I knew Turkeys president was a liar and will always be hand in hand with the US.
I wonder, would have Putin been better off if he did not save Erdogan’s life a couple of years ago?… Cursed either way it seems…
Notice that Putin yanks on the chain and Erdogan obeys. Each time Erdogan stands and yells, Putin “convinces” the Emperor that he is better off not threatening with his military, and the cur gets back to chewing on a dog bone.
Erdogan has no way to control the Kurds if he leaves the triad of Russian-Turkey-Iran. He also knows that the US would love to get rid of him. The CIA has his replacement ready. Thousands of Turk ex-military would be used to rid Turkey of his regime. His crackdown in 2016 made many lifelong enemies.
His economy needs to rid itself of the millions of Syrian refugees who wait for reconstruction of Syria. He needs the Russians to help.
His options are nil.
So, as the al Nusra and Uyghurs in Idlib and Aleppo fight to the last man, Erdogan sees his power to hold back the Kurds and Assad’s military dissolve. He sees the sector of Syria he wants to hold as his slip away to Syria’s army.
The more terrorists he pulls out of harm’s way and takes inside Turkey, the more his costs go up. They bring families with them. So, he sends thousands to fight in Libya, but that is even more costly.
Erdogan has lost in Syria as badly as ISIS and AQ, Israel and the US.
This faux Emperor is a controllable asset for Putin to use. That’s what’s going on.
Erdoggy playing the good cop role telling the headchoppers to stay put and wait for him to rescue them (cue in some old videos of Turkish troops moving in columns – when? where? but sure mention it is happening right now to gaslight the headchoppers), while RuAF and the SAA fix their targets.
…”The Ministry also said at Russian and Turkish military experts being killed in January:
“In mid-January, the Russian and Turkish military made another attempt to introduce a “ceasefire” in the Idlib de-escalation zone. But the terrorists not only did not reduce their combat activity, but rather increased attacks.
Russian and Turkish military experts were tragically killed. Attempts to attack the Russian Hmeimim airbase with the use of attack drones do not stop.”
The Russian side provided no further details. However, other reports from the ground allow to suggests that a possible fire exchange between Russian and Turkish forces took place.
This is of note, since the only casualties Turkey reported were a result from Syrian Arab Army strikes on its observation post, to which it retaliated.
The only incident that even mentions Russian troops being harmed and having died in recent weeks took place on February 1st. Reportedly, 4 Russian service members were killed in an attack by HTS on Western Aleppo.
The Russian statement is a strange way of reporting casualties either caused by Turkish aggression or Turkish-backed militants, it is also reporting on Turkish casualties, not admitted by Ankara itself.”
Southfront extract….later post…
Situation on a knife edge to me it seems……but appreciate your positivity
@ JJ
Fully agreed.
“… Situation on a knife edge …” – very much so.
“… your positivity …” – you put that very gently…
Indeed. South Front reports on 6 February 2020:
“… Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On February 5, he vowed that Turkey would deploy locally made air-defense systems along the border with Syria. The President did not provide many details on the matter, but the aforementioned systems were likely the HISAR-A low-altitude air-defense system which will be deployed along the border with Idlib.
Additionally, Erdogan delivered an ultimatum to Syria claiming that “if the Syrian regime will not retreat from Turkish observation posts in Idlib in February, Turkey itself will be obliged to make this happen.” In other words, the Turkish president threatened to declare war on Syria if the Syrian Army does not withdraw from the territory it liberated from terrorists. …”
https://southfront.org/syrian-army-captured-saraqib-netanyahu-n-erdogan-to-the-rescue/
As they say … “we live in interesting times” … don’t we………
Erdogan is a liar, and treacherous, but he doesn’t give a damn about the US. He wants some chunks of Syria for himself, he has no interest in giving any to the Americans.
It just so happens the Americans would rather Erdogan have parts of Syria than Assad have them, and above all they’d rather see Syria, and nearly any other country worldwide you could name, broken up into little squabbling bits than unified and effective. Heck, they’d do it to France or Germany if they could get away with it. The US foreign policy establishment seem to be on the literal-minded side; they think “Divide and Rule” means physically cutting countries into sub-units. I have to admit it works fairly well, in a way. I mean sure, when they do that they don’t get to be in charge of anything that’s functioning, because the results are a violent dysfunctional mess. But violent dysfunctional messes don’t have foreign policies that could challenge a hegemon.
On second thought, although it’s true that I personally very much enjoy the satire in these recent sitreps, it might be better to stop preaching to the choir here?
If these sitreps would just stay factual without sarcasm/satire, and demonstrate the military discipline of simply reporting the actual facts without taking sides, then these sitreps when shared could probably impact a broader audience positively.
Anyway, thanks for the laughs! :)
The question is how best to reach the people who know little or nothing. Generally, they are not going to bother with the details because if they did, they would not be know-nothings. What people like that do, is they look at the meta-data. Meaning that, if people are laughing at the utterly stupid and ridiculous MSM lies, then the know-nothings get the message that the MSM lies are ridiculous, or at least that some people strongly think so. And that’s a good thing.
We send the wrong meta-message when we appear to take the MSM seriously. If we watch the MSM, then we are saying, whether we want to or not, that the MSM must be worth watching and that we take it seriously.
You can also say it’s all a pack of highly poisonous lies designed to fool and enslave your, and that the truth cal be found outside the MSM. Suggest some of the better websites you actually take the time to browse.
We need more humor and to keep a sense of perspective.
Agree on both points.
So, did Mr. Bashpour die, or not? Is he a real person?
I don’t like these sitreps that mix fact, fiction and satire. It’s hard enough for me to understand what’s going on without a trusted source suddenly acting like MSM, mixing fact and fiction. I guess I’ll stop reading SF if this continues. I don’t see the humor in criminal regimes murdering Syrian families. I don’t appreciate calling Assad’s government an oppressive regime, and calling the terrorist US a democratic entity. It’s not funny. It’s not funny in any way at all. Syrian blood is not to laugh at.
When you openly mock them and laugh at them, then they lost: they lost the control of the narrative and lost control of your mind. You are free.
Yes pdb – a real person and yes, killed in action.
“A senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has been killed near Aleppo in north-west Syria, it has been reported by Iran’s state media. Asghar Bashpour was a close aide of General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated by the US last month.”
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200204-soleimani-aide-killed-in-syria/
I agree 100% that US, France and UK should accept all Idlib freedom fighters. In fact I would like too see these three countries flooded with such much needed benevolent and competent workforce. If only could be tens of millions of them.
Considering a couple of countries supported one in recently and was studying postgraduate something or other in France until some monitoring group pointed out his real history…..seems like the “import “system is already being tried out……
I detest this sarcasm that has suddenly appeared in South Front – I wish they would just tell the news truthfully
Was the speaker in this video by any chance Polly Boyko (of RT fame)? A truly magnificent performance, combining intelligent criticism with needle-sharp biting satire.
The original guy from southfront had a very ironic tone that would go well with this……bit like is it Ruslan Ischenko or the other one with a similar name…..southfront was advertising for helpers a few weeks ago eg english speaking commentators…….
More of the sarcasm. I can dig it because it adds an emotional release to rational arguments against the nefarious actions of quite evil malefactors. But not everybody gets it, in fact some get confused over whose and what actions are being condemned, so it’s best to blatantly telegraph the sarcasm, if not overtly label it as “satire.”
The kind of people who wouldn’t recognize it as sarcasm probably don’t read Saker anyway, so no real worries.
I find this very wrong. Words have power. At least they should make it clear that it is sarcasm. I stop reading this until it comes back to truthful reporting. After all the struggle is between the forces of falsehood and truth
“After all the struggle is between the forces of falsehood and truth”
Yes, words have power! :|
Like I said, on second thought it’s probably better for Southfront to stick with that dignified military discipline of truthful reporting. Sticking to the facts and just praying that readers will draw their own correct conclusions.
If Southfront becomes routine satire, they might lose readership and credibility?
BUT I LOVE SOUTHFRONT!!! Great job, guys.
(reminder: Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the new heavy sarcasm in the Southfront sitreps!)
“To demonstrate solidarity with the Idlib peace activists, US diplomats, including Mike Pompeo and Kelly Craft, should wear white helmets and carry little black flags during all briefings and events related to the conflict in Syria.”
I agree, they should.
Canthama BTL SyrPer #308608 with a few more details from the Apart-Hate regime missile attack into Syria last night.
https://www.syrianews.cc/israel-bomb-outskirts-of-damascus-shortly-after-midnight/
Also on SyrPer BTL #308613 wi the latest mopping up operations against NATZO’s Turkish-backed Muslim Brotherhood AlQaida terrorists. Few predicted this historic turnround a few years ago; it will go down in military textbooks as a classic of combined resistance, resolve, arms, alliances and diplomacy.
Syrian Army Captured Saraqib. Netanyahu ‘N Erdogan To The Rescue
https://southfront.org/syrian-army-captured-saraqib-netanyahu-n-erdogan-to-the-rescue/
“Right on cue, while the Syrian Army was storming Saraqib, the Israeli Air Force delivered a wide-scale strike on targets in the countryside of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and in the province of Daraa. The Al-Kiswa area, Marj al-Sultan, Baghdad Bridge and the area south of Izraa were among the confirmed targets of the attack.
Syria’s State media claimed that the Syrian Air Defense shot down most of the Israeli missiles before they were able to reach their targets. Pro-Israeli sources claim that the strikes successfully hit Iran-related targets destroying weapon depots and HQs of Iranian-backed forces. The Israeli leadership once again officially confirmed its participation in the club of terrorism supporters in Syria.”