Syrian War Report – July 19, 2018: SDF’s Political Wing Seeks To Normalize Relations With Damascus
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On July 18, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that their members, backed up by the US-led coalition, had captured 1,100km2, which included sixteen villages, from ISIS in the provinces of al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor.
According to the SDF, four ISIS members were killed and four others were captured during the advance. One SDF member reportedly died. Additionally, the SDF captured a pickup truck, two heavy machine guns, a RPG-7 launcher, mines and ammunition. The provided numbers show that ISIS had shown almost no resistance to the advancing US-backed force.
A day earlier, on July 17, Ilham Ehmed, co-chairperson of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), a political wing of the SDF, announced that the SDC will open offices in the provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia and in the capital of Damascus in the near future in a move allegedly aimed to propel negotiations between the SDF/SDC and the Damascus government.
The announcement came a day after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Putin in Helsinki on July 16, during which the discussed the situation in Syria and other important topics.
Meanwhile, militants in the southern Syrian city of Daraa handed over another batch of weapons to the Syrian Arab Army. This batch included three T-55 battle tanks, two BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, four so-called “Hell canons”, several heavy machine guns and ammunition.
A reconciliation agreement in the area was reached on July 14 and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) restored control of the city. Since then, militants have been surrendering their weapons there.
A local reconciliation deal was also reached in the town of Nawa, northeast of Daraa city. According to pro-government sources, units of the SAA have established control of key hills around the town by July 19 and militants have started preparing to hand over their weapons.
Earlier a series of firefights between the SAA and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham took place in Nawa. However, a more moderate part of militants was able to expel Hayat Tahrir al-Sham from the area.
Russia has established a center for receiving, relocating and accommodating refugees in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on July 18. The center will monitor the return of displaced persons and Syrian refugees from foreign countries to their homes. It will also be involved in humanitarian aid deliveries and will assist the Syrian government in restoring healthcare and human services.
As the conflict in most of Syria comes to an end of its hot phase, humanitarian operations and the ability of the Damacsus government to restore a peaceful life across the country will become important factors impacting the prospects of a possible political solution of the entire conflict.
The superior humanitarian ethos of Dr.Assad’s government has been a great military advantage against NATZO and NATZO’s Rambo attitude to war. Far from Operation Inherent Resolve (one of those operations that kill the patient) bringing peace and reconstruction, the victims of US bombing in Raqua are lying unburied. NATZO boasts that its GNP is a dozen times greater than that of Russia, and probably a thousand times greater than that of Syria. Pity it can’t put that money to better use than the wholesale manufacture and liberal distribution of instruments of death and destruction. Besides the Syrian govt Russian troops have distributed hundreds of tons of food and medicine in the liberated areas of Syria; the NATZO countries (10 times richer as they boast) “not a grain of wheat, not a drop of medicine”.
From Canthama:
“Since the East Ghouta, eastern Qalamoun, northern Homs and Daraa/Qunyetra victories [of Syria and its Allies against NATZO and its mercenaries], up to this moment over 100 tanks were recovered and some 150 armoured vehicles, Howitzers and other heavy equipments were also recovered and hundreds of light pick ups and artillery pieces were surrendered. Besides, the amount of weapons recovered have been staggering; the word on the street is that there are not enough warehouses to safely store them all.”
“On July 18, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that their members, backed up by the US-led coalition, had captured 1,100km2, which included sixteen villages, from ISIS in the provinces of al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor”
This is pure propaganda — ISIS is a US proxy army thus nothing was captured. Given? Gifted? Uniforms swapped? Either way, the SDF is lying.
“A day earlier, on July 17, Ilham Ehmed, co-chairperson of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), a political wing of the SDF, announced that the SDC will open offices in the provinces of Hama, Homs, Latakia and in the capital of Damascus in the near future in a move allegedly aimed to propel negotiations between the SDF/SDC and the Damascus government.”
The only thing that needs propelling is the US…out of Syria. The sooner that happens the quicker the SDF can start engaging in self-dissolution. They are collaborators and traitors that the Damascus government will, of course, treat fairly — once they stop colluding with, say, the Zionist aggressor.
The SDF colluded with USA have captured 1.100 km2 AND captured just 4 terrorists and killed another 4!!!. This is not credible. They do not know how to lie.
US Rushes to Withdraw White Helmets as Syrian Army Advances in South – Reports
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201807201066533562-white-helmets-south-syria-evacuation/
“The US and its allies have ramped up plans to evacuate hundreds of members of the White Helmets and their families from southern Syria’s Quneitra governorate as Syrian forces continue to clear the area from anti-government forces, US officials have told the AP.
Two anonymous US officials said to be familiar with the evacuation plans noted that the US and its British and Canadian allies were leading the operation to evacuate members of the NGO out of Syria to neighboring countries, and then on to Western European countries including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and possibly Canada.
Planning for the operation was said to have been accelerated after last week’s NATO summit. The evacuation is expected to take place from the small area of militant-controlled land left between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, near a disengagement line which Tel Aviv set up in 1974 after the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
The US temporarily froze $200 million in funding for so-called ‘stabilization programs’ involving Syria earlier this year amid President Trump’s talk of withdrawing from Syria once Daesh (ISIS/ISIL)* was defeated, but went ahead with the release of $6.6 million for the White Helmets last month. Damascus issued a scathing criticism of the US decision, accusing Washington and its allies of supporting a group which serves as a “blatant embodiment of US, French, British and other states’ support for various kinds of terrorism witnessed in Syria since 2011.”
Earlier, military sources speaking to Sputnik Arabic warned that their monitoring of the group led them to conclude that they may be preparing a new false flag chemical attack amid the Syrian army’s advance.
Damascus and Moscow accuse the group of being a propaganda arm for the Nusra Front terror group**, and have provided extensive evidence and witness testimony of the group’s propensity for staging fake attacks. In April, the US, France and Britain launched missile strikes against multiple targets around Syria, justifying them using ‘video evidence’ of an alleged chemical attack in Douma provided by the White Helmets. Subsequent investigations have shown that the video was a fake.”