On November 17th, the Syrian Army (SAA) and its allies regained control of al-Safa after the collapse of ISIS defense in the area. An SAA source told SouthFront that heavy rain had destroyed most of the fortifications and hideouts of the terrorist group during the last few days. The remaining terrorists fled towards the eastern Homs desert. The state news agency SANA confirmed that the SAA had made significant gains and that the highest positions in the are under army control.
On the same day, heavy clashes between ISIS militants and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke out around the strategic town of Hajin in the middle of the Euphrates valley. The SDF said that it had killed 20 ISIS terrorists during the attack.
Additionally, pro-government as well as opposition sources reported that US-led coalition airstrikes had killed more than 40 civilians, half of which reportedly children. The US-led coalition increased its aerial strikes in the Euphrates Valley to assist the SDF, which is still unable to deliver a devastating blow to ISIS there.
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) announced that its units in the western province of al-Anbar struck ISIS fighters in the Syrian town of al-Baghuz al-Fawqani in Syria. Kassem Musleh, commander of the PMU’s operation in the region said that the PMU had reinforced its positions along the Syrian-Iraqi border. The move was a response to the increased ISIS activity in the US sphere of responsibility on the Syrian side of the border.
On November 18th, SANA reported that the SAA foiled another infiltration attempt by opposition members in the northern Hama countryside. The terrorist groups were infiltrating from the direction of al-Bouaida and Ma’ar Keba at the same time. According to SANA, the SAA opened fire and launched bombardments inflicting heavy losses to the militants.
SAA forces shelled militant positions in the towns of al-Tamanah, Aziziya and Jarjnaz in the southern Idlib countryside. Pro-government sources said that it was a response to an attack by Wa Harid al-Muminin militants in northern Lattakia, which left 18 Syrian soldiers dead.
On November 16th, militants from the “Wa Harid al-Muminin” operations room targeted positions of the SAA in the areas of al-Harishah and Mazra’at Waridah in the southwestern Aleppo countryside with an armed drone.
On the same day, the al-Mayadeen TV correspondent in Syria Dima Nasir said that the SAA and its allies are preparing for a limited military operation in Idlib, in response to the repeated violations of the Russian-Turkish deconfliction agreement.
Besides this the situation within the opposition-held area in Idlib also remains unstable. On November 17th, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants attacked a headquarters of al-Qaeda affiliated Horas al-Din in the town of Harim in the northern Idlib countryside and clashes with several French militants who were hiding inside it. According to Syrian opposition sources, 5 French militants were killed in the clashes, while 45 more are besieged inside the base.
President Vladimir Putin has announced a change of Russian policy in Syria after disclosing it to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they met in Paris on November 11. Netanyahu has reported in Israel that what Putin said was “very important”.
With Netanyahu, Putin was not accompanied by Russian officials and the interpreter was an Israeli. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting was a “short talk”, but gave no other detail. The Kremlin website did not report it at all. The Kremlin press office refuses to clarify why Putin and Netanyahu met with only Netanyahu’s interpreter present.
The next day, on the president’s return to Moscow, the Kremlin website reported that Putin informed the members of the Security Council “about several of his brief meetings on the sidelines of the events in Paris”. The Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other senior officials had not accompanied Putin to Paris, so the Monday meeting was their first opportunity to hear what had been said.
http://johnhelmer.net/putin-meets-netanyahu-without-minders-reverses-il-20-facts-defends-israel-attack-again/
Russian Envoy to UN Calls for Probe into Coalition Airstrikes East of Euphrates
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201811201069948432-usa-syria-coalition-strikes-investigation/
“Indiscriminate airstrikes by the US-led coalition against the Daesh terrorist group to the east of the Euphrates River should be thoroughly probed, Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said in a Security Council meeting.
“Closer attention should be focused on reports from the Syrian side about indiscriminate coalition airstrikes in the east of Euphrates which claimed dozens of lives,” Safronkov said on Monday. “These need to be investigated.”
On Saturday, the SANA news agency reported that the coalition’s airstrikes hit the al-Buqa village near the town of Hajin in the province of Deir ez-Zor leaving 40 civilians dead.
On Thursday, the Syrian news agency SANA reported that 23 civilians were killed in coalition airstrikes in Deir ez-Zor. According to the news agency, the strikes targeted the residential areas of the villages of Bu-Badran and al-Sousa.
The coalition regularly carries out airstrikes in the Syrian eastern province. On November 9, media reported that 26 civilians, including women and children, were killed in an airstrike by the coalition on the city of Hajin.”
“Mysterious Helicopters” Continue To Evacuate ISIS Members From Battlefields Across Middle East
https://southfront.org/mysterious-helicopters-continue-to-evacuate-isis-members-from-battle-fields-across-middle-east
“There have been sporadic, but regular reports of “mysterious helicopters” extracting ISIS militants from battlefields in the Middle East.
Most recently, on November 13th, Syria’s official news agency SANA cited an anonymous source claiming that US-led military helicopters conducted an operation in the village of al-Suwayda in Hasakah province near the border with Iraq. They reportedly rescued several members of ISIS and transported them to an unknown location.
Between November 10th and 11th, an alleged US-led aircraft landed in the outskirts of al-Susah in Deir Ezzor province and took away three ISIS members.
Earlier, on October 7th, SANA also cited residents of the town of al-Shaafah who claimed that American helicopters evacuated ISIS commanders from the Abu Kamal area of Deir Ezzor province to an undisclosed location.
SANA also reported that on September 22nd the US-led coalition carried out an air landing operation in the outskirts of al-Mrashde village located in the pocket where ISIS militants spread in the southeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, transferring a number of ISIS commanders.
On August 23rd, TASS reported that Russia recorded flights of mysterious helicopters supplying weapons to ISIS units active in Afghanistan.
“We would like to once again point to the flights of unidentified helicopters in northern Afghanistan, which deliver weapons and ammunition to local ISIL units and Taliban members cooperating with the group. In particular, the Afghan media and local residents say that such helicopters were seen in the Sar-e Pol Province,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
On March 19th, SANA cited an anonymous source who claimed that three US military helicopters had evacuated suspected ISIS commanders from northeastern Syria. Reportedly the helicopters landed between the villages of al-Jissi and Kalu, 2 km south of the Tal Hamis township in the Qamishli District of al-Hasakah province.
In late February, Syrian media reported that US helicopters had transported ISIS commanders and their family members to Sabah al-Khair, about 20 km south of al-Hasakah, where US forces have been accused of establishing a terrorist training base.
According to SANA on December 29th, 2017 US helicopters evacuated the ISIS commanders from the Deir Ezzor province to al-Hasakah province in northeastern Syria. Sources say this is the second time the US evacuates ISIS terrorists.
In May 2017, anonymous local Syrian sources revealed that, US military helicopters evacuated a number of ISIS terrorist group commanders out of their stronghold in Syria’s Raqqa taking them to an undisclosed destination.
In May 2017, Mohammad Zahir Wahdat, governor of Afghanistan’s northern Sar-e Pol province also claimed that unmarked military helicopters had touched down briefly in a known militant stronghold. Stationed Afghan Security Forces could not take pictures because it happened at night.”
I wonder how many of these evacuees were mossad and CIA?
“Mysterio-US” more like it.
Is this just re-positioning the ‘moderate’ pawns b4 their fall; or a quiet ‘Saigon’ evac of the usual ‘super hero’ suspects back to their ‘clark kent’ desk jobs in some nondescript bureaucracy somewhere closer to home?
America’s secret love of Islamic terrorism is coming out of the closet more and more.
The Leader of the Jihadist … my bad… Free World is heroically coming to the rescue of its beloved Islamic terror assets so as to redeploy them elsewhere against other targets.
Syrian Army seizes Israeli-made explosives left behind in Al-Quneitra (photos)
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-seizes-israeli-made-explosives-left-behind-in-al-quneitra-photos/
“According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the military found a large cache of weapons and mines, some of which were Israeli-made, at the bottom of Lake Al-Hurieya alongside the barbed wire with the occupied Israeli Golan.
SANA’s reporter in Quneitra said that a diving team from the competent authorities extricated a significant amount of weapons and IEDs that were left behind by the rebels .
The reporter added that the uncovered weapons included Malutka rockets , hellfire missiles, artillery shells, tank munitions, and machine guns that were thrown out by the militants in the Lake Al-Hurieya area.”