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The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and ISIS are still fighting for the city of al-Qaryatayn in the province of Homs. On October 18, the SAA retook the railway station north of it. On October 17, ISIS claimed that 20 SAA members were killed in clashes in the city’s vicinity.
According to local sources, the SAA has still not started a direct storm of the city because ISIS uses local civilians as human shields.
In Deir Ezzor province, the SAA has advanced against north of the provincial capital, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. According to pro-government sources, all villages there are now under control of government troops. However, these reports still have to be confirmed by photos or videos.
On October 18, the Republican Guard’s Gen Issam Zahreddine was killed in an IED explosion during the operation against ISIS in Saqr Island northeast of Deir Ezzor city. Zahreddine was one of the most prominent Syrian generals and a hero of the battle for Deir Ezzor. He had been leading government troops defending the city from ISIS terrorists over the past years. Under his command, local government troops kept control over the military airbase and a part of the urban area until the unblocking force reached the city and broke the ISIS siege in September 2017.
On the same day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee accused the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance of hindering efforts of the US-led coalition against ISIS during the battle for Raqqa city.
“This eminent victory by the global coalition and our brave servicemembers comes at a high cost, particularly to the Syrian Democratic Forces who suffered many casualties as they fought to liberate their own country from the oppression of ISIS,” she said adding that “Unfortunately, the Syrian regime and its supporters hinder the efforts to liberate Raqqa. Instead of focusing on fighting ISIS, the pro-regime forces attacked our partners and attempted to block them from liberating the Syrian people from the brutality of ISIS.“
Huckabee also added that the US remains “committed to supporting stabilization efforts and local security forces in liberated areas through a political transition in Syria.”
During the Obama administration, the words “political transition” meant that the US is seeking to overthrow Assad and to enforce the rule of the “moderate opposition” [accidentally linked to al-Qaeda] in Damascus. Right now, it is not clear what the Trump administration means when it uses these words.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) media wing announced that the US Special Envoy for the US-led coalition Brett McGurk claimed during a meeting with the SDF-linked Raqqa Civil Council that the “Syrian regime will never have a foothold in Raqqa.”
The American rhetoric definitely show that Washington is going to use the SDF and the SDF-held area as a foothold for own diplomatic and, in the worst-case scenario, military actions in the expected standoff against the Damascus government and its allies in post-ISIS Syria.
Look, watch this Southfront report and ***think***. 50% of people on our side probably get it- but at least 50% do not- and still think there is some ‘good’ in the operation of the West. That naive 50% still gets all their ‘deep’ information from Deep State media sources- all of which are zionist controlled. That 50% think, for instance, if all the ‘grown up’ media that covers political issues says that Trump is going to attack N Korea, then there is a real chance of Trump doing this.
Today the DailyBeast- one of the new hyper zionist internet ‘news’ outlets- laughingly proclaimed that increasing numbers of American businesses are disowning one of Russia’s few commercial successes in the West- the Kaspersky anti-virus software suite. Slashdot- once a hub for technical ‘nerd’ stories- but now a major demonising entity targeting Russia- linked the story. In the comment- for Slashdot is a ‘comment’ service- every comment explaining why Russia is the devil itself was given a ***five*** score (the comment promotion mechanism there).
Remember when certain people told you not to worry about sanctions on Russia because “they’d be over by christmas”? And later when this ‘prediction’ turned out to be hopelessly incorrect, proclaimed that sanctions are actually ‘good’ for Russia? Now we are seeing the otherside of official sanctions- societal disinvestment in every aspect of the Russian external economy. While the USA and Tony Blair tries to make boycotting the vile racist state of Israel a crime across the West, the same duo are doing excatly that to Russia and Russian interests.
Ah- some of our side say (very very foolishly)- Russia has ‘friends’ outside the West. Well ***no***! Russia has ‘fair-weather’ friends as we say in english- friends who ‘love’ Russia while Russia gives them ‘gifts’. And in its turn, in insane foreign policy, Russia gives no real commitment to any alliance- as Iran is going to find out to her cost.
Kaspersky bent over backward to avoid its fate, turning the other cheek, refusing to identify the activities of the West’s security agencies on user machines, and offering to turn over all of its source code to the NSA and GCHQ. The usual tactic of Russia trying to do business on its knees- as we see in Israel with the Russian visit this week. And speaking of Israel- it was Israel that ‘proved’ that “dirty Putin” was using Kapersky to ‘spy’ on the West. That is how much of a ‘true friend’ Israel is to Russia.
So even as Russia returns Syria to the Syrian people, those that suck on the teat of the West’s news media will ‘know’ that Russia’s activities in Syria have been entirely ‘evil’. Putin will take back Raqqa as well, ‘thinking’ this will wrong-foot the USA. But Raqqa will simply be out of the press by then.
When Putin planned a great celebration in Aleppo to mark its liberation, a troop of Russian military musicians was flown to the city. Well that was the plan, but Britain brought down the plane and murdered everyone on board. Putin, as always, hid this act of terrorism from the Russian people- recall how he tried to do the same with the recent bombing of the Egyptian jet until too much evidence appeared in public for Putin to continue the charade (in that case the terrorists posted the video of the plane exploding on day one- I saw it- but Putin actually had his people troll outlets claiming the footage was ‘fake’)
My point is that Putin’s stategy of accomodating the West and Israel leaves Russia totally open to well organised acts of terror by the West. Britain killed one of Syria’s most senior generals a day back in the kind of operation Britain is famous for. But Putin was happy for the blame to fall on random wahhabi no-hopers.
Syria now faces sabotage, massive car bombs, and continuous assassination because Putin chooses to crawl to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey- and the Deep State smells fatal weakness in this strategy. No-one in the region fears Russia. And 50% of people on our side think it is ***good*** that no-one fears Russia. That it is ‘nice’ not to be feared.
The worst propagandists thus go buck-wild on all things Russian, and the heat of anti-Russian sentiment across the planet rockets. A quiet innocent man constantly demonised becomes a ‘monster’ in the minds of the majority. This is a sad fact of life. True evil must be fought by a good that is seen to smack true evil in the face over and over and over again. Think ‘The Batman’ principle. Why do people attach to such fictional icons of good? Because of how doing good is portrayed.
***This*** is how a non-servile Russia would be dealing with Israel today. Putin would announce that all weapons of mass destruction must be removed from Israel ***immediately*** and that any politician justifying Israel having nukes while saying the Iranians must never have them is a racist horror cut from the same cloth as Hitler.
The weakness of the neo-liberals is hypocrisy. Look at the Weinstein issue. A left wing jew who spent his life raping and abusing women, actively protected by other left wing zionists. Israel is hypocrisy in motion- and can be taken down using that fact. But Putin protects the jewish state because it is jewish. He is stupid enough to think that because Israel jews regularly provide the West’s military ‘secrets’ to Russia, Russia gains something useful by protecting Israel. Well every piece of ‘secret’ information Russia gets from its jewish ‘traitors’ is already chosen and controlled by NSA and GCHQ agents.
You want to ***really*** hurt the Deep State, then you destroy the regimes in Israel and Saudi Arabia- and eliminate the sick racist murderous nature of those nations. Convert Israel to a secular palestine (which Russia could do within a year) and convert Saudi Arabia to a modern secular arab nation (which Russia could do within a year) and the Deep State would be ruined for probably at least the next 100 years.
» Putin would announce … that any politician justifying Israel having nukes while saying the Iranians must never have them is a racist horror cut from the same cloth as Hitler. «
Hitler had an edge on you in calling the nuke hoax a “Jewish bugaboo” even before it was launched.
And if Putin were cut from the same cloth as Hitler, you might get at least some samples of the behaviour that to your chagrin Russia does not exhibit.
I could say I’m disappointed, too, (many people have a romanesque desire to see Good smash down on Evil for justice and punishment), but I keep trusting that Putin knows 100% what he’s doing and chooses the best path, even though it does not appear to be the most glorious path. What matters is that he is successful, and so far he is, there’s simply no denying this fact.
Once again SouthFront confirms my thinking on the US plot to partition Syria using Raqqa as a major part of it. Just how the Syrian/Iranian/Russian coalition “could” have missed that plot by the US and countered it is beyond comprehension.The “handwriting” was clear to anyone that knows how the US works.Only either weakness,or blindness can explain it.But if they are too weak to stop a major part of the US plan. Or know so little of US intentions to be able to see them when they are staring them in the face.That bodes badly for the future of reuniting all Syria under the government.
When does push come to shove with the SDF and their US backers? Will Russia back up the SAA?
Or is Russia going to bow out of this sort of confrontation? After all the horrors of this war, it is hard to imagine that Syria will allow these people to just come in at the last moment and take over their territory. Yet it is also insane for the US to essentially dare Russia to act militarily against US forces.
Sanity has not, however, been a hallmark of the neocons running US policy.
Very mixed stories at the moment checking the usual media….Russia has agreed bufferzone with Israel in Golan,no Iran or Hezbollah presence….another that Israel is attacking SAA there……another that Russia and Syria are in negotiation with USA backed SDF for coopration re political settlement in post isis Syria…does that include Raqaa where very recently USA said it was “theirs”…..
HTS hands over a base to Turkish troops…various other southfront,theduran, reports…….maybe so much is happening too fast (including possibilities of speculation and rumour) or a cohesive overview but hope there is one soon ….as well as the daily regular news regarding SAA progress……
The US of Israel can mouth off all it wants but every inch of Syria will be retaken by the Syrians and its allies for all the Syrian people. The US of Israel can go to hell. It has caused horrendous pain, suffering and death on this planet. The US people are ok. Its the mob in the WH that are deranged. It wont be long until they are sent on their way just like they were in Korea, Vietnam and other nations that kicked their arrogant arses. The Iraqis too will boot the bastards out. It is just a matter of time. Anywhere they go they cause mayhem. They are a sick land of despots murdering their way from one corner of the globe to the other in order to take the wealth of each land and give it to their greedy bosses, Israel. It is the way. But what goes around comes around. Payback time is soon, especially for the stolen land of Palestine with Israel’s name on it.
“The US people are ok.”
No, they are not “ok”……or they never would have tolerated psychopaths taking over much of their society and goverment. They are ill with ignorance, cowardice and mind control.
They are potentially OK, (and that’s wild eyed optimism to some cynics…..) if their ills are cured.
I think the process of realizing the fact of the illness and the need for remedies has started, but there’s a long, long way to go…….
One is doing them no favor, by giving them a pass, IMHO.
They are supposed to “be” the government………..and most decided “not to be”…………. in tragic imitation of Hamlet.
It seems that the US backed terrorists are like chameleons, they can change their “colour” from one day to the next as in “ISIL is bad so let’s call ourselves something else” something that has the word “democracy” in it for example –
“A tribal leader in Eastern Syria said in late September that hundreds of ISIL militants joined the SDF amid intensifying tension between the Syrian Army troops and the US-backed SDF in Deir Ezzur province.”
“US Colludes with ISIL to Stop Syrian Army Advances in Deir Ezzur”
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960726001154
The lack of US coherence and ability to fight is certainly encouraging, especially as the SAA plan the liberation of NE Syria towards Hasakah in an area where the US has bases.
The Iraqis now at the Syrian border following the kurds retreat is also a great benefit.
US needs to get the hell out of Syria altogether and Russia should be leading an international campaign for full financial reparations to be paid by the US and it’s gang to Syria and indeed all the countries they have criminally ruined.
That may seem far fetched right now but I believe it can happen. President Assad was not supposed to survive to accuse his transgressors but he has.
Oh just you wait till UK/France have to pay for wrecking Libya.
Yes that’s right, noone forgot that one.
The populace will pluck Sarkozy/Cameron like chickens.
Was there ever any doubt, at least among intelligent non brainwashed, that US was using Kurd factions in order to divide Syria?
Nor should there be doubts of Regime Change as US mission.
The fact of a very large and still improving permanent air and ground force military base staffed with its own military and State Dept. Personnel , should clue in US will constantly fan flames of innsurection until their mission is complete.
Also one should not be surprised if in future Israeli Air Forces use such a base and it’s infrastructure as safe staging for Attacks upon Iran’s plants in Syria and as allies when they, US and Their allied UAE decide to attack Iran.
Finally: SAA liberates Syrian biggest oilfield, the Omar field from retreating ISIS. All other oil and gas fields will follow soon. It is that simple.
ISIS is defeated, and the Kurds (hopefully) have learned from the catastrophic overnight collapse of idiot Barzani’s Iraqi Kurdistan and will start negotiating with the Syrian government over its future autonomy in earnest.
Zion’s never ending clown show: US Special Operation Forces sporting YPG insignias.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Syricide/status/921212174697140229/video/1