The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have deployed a notable force for an operation against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) in the province of Idlib.
According to pro-government sources, the operation will involve the SAA, the Tiger Forces, the National Defense Forces (NDF), the 4th Armoured Division, the 8th Armored Division and the 11th Armored Division. In the first stage, the military will allegedly launch two simultaneously advances in northeastern Hama and southern Aleppo in order to retake from militants the area west of Khanasser.
In the Beit Jinn pocket in southern Syria, the SAA and the NDF recaptured Tal Al-Bayda from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
It looks that the Beit Jinn pocket and the area west of the Khanasser highway will be the two key areas of the SAA operations in the near future.
S-400 and Pantsir-S anti-aircraft weapon systems will remain in Syria despite the recently announced withdrawal of Russian forces, Viktor Bondarev, former Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces and Chairman of the Defense, and Security Committee of Russia’s Federation Council revealed on December 13.
Russia is not going to reduce its anti-aircraft capabilities in the country. Some number of helicopters, warplanes and military personnel will also remain involved in the ongoing anti-terrorist efforts.
The Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) are preparing to launch a military operation against a new terrorist group called the “White Flags” in northern Iraq. According to the PMU, the terrorist group operates in the mountainous area around the Shiite-Turkmen city of Tuz Khurmatu. The White Flags had conducted several hit and run attacks against the PMU’s Turkmen units there the last few months.
Some Iraqi sources claimed that the White Flags is a new name of al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Al-Islam, a radical Kurdish Islamist group formed in 2001. Other sources said that the group nothing more than a Kurdish armed group previously known as “the Kurdish Popular Resistance”.
Some experts speculated the White Flags are just a proxy tool of the Kurdistan Regional Government, which is aiming to destabilize the areas retaken by the Iraqi Army from KRG’s armed forces in November. However, these claims still have to be confirmed.
“S-400 and Pantsir-S anti-aircraft weapon systems will remain in Syria despite the recently announced withdrawal of Russian forces”
Of course. Hopefully the airbase in Deir Ezzor that is currently undergoing substantial repair and upgrade construction will be fitted with S-400 and Pantsir as well.
http://russia-insider.com/en/israeli-saudi-clash-iran-syrian-soil-pretty-much-inevitable/ri21940
Worth a read ….and worth some thoughts.
First Deputy Chairman of the Russian upper house Committee on Defense and Security Frants Klintsevich said on Saturday that training new military formations in the Syrian province of Al Hasakah by US instructors is being carried out in order to counter Russia, which is considered by Washington as the main geopolitical rival.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria said that the US instructors were training new armed groups of the New Syrian Army composed of various terrorist groups, including Daesh at the refugee camp in Al Hasakah.
“Almost the same thing the United States was doing in 1980s during the war in Afghanistan, when they trained terrorists and incited them against the Soviet Union. It seems like the time has stopped for the United States. Today’s Russia, like the Soviet Union 30 years ago, is regarded by them as the main geopolitical rival, in a fight with whom all means are acceptable,” Klintsevich said, as quoted by his press service.
Comment above is quoted from:
US Training New Militants to Counter Russia in Syria – Lawmaker
https://sputniknews.com/world/201712161060065039-us-trains-militants-russia/
Both my intro and concluding remarks disappeared in a javascript glitch and I didn’t catch it before posting.
Suffice it to say, this news further confirms trump rhetoric about better relations with Russia was bs to sucker a few more voters while on the campaign. He is no different from the rest of israel’s colonial quislings selected to run their enforcer colony.
Su-30 pilot who covered Putin’s plane in Syria: Jets were ‘heat traps’ for possible enemy missiles
https://www.rt.com/news/413423-putin-su30-heat-traps-syria/
“In this case, the task was to meet [the Russian President’s plane] and escort it to the landing strip,” a pilot named Yury told a Rossiya 1 correspondent at the Russian Khmeimim airbase in western Syria. “One of the tasks was to hereby cover it with ourselves, roughly saying,” he added.
According to the ace, the Su-30SM jets were a sort of “heat traps” for missiles that could’ve been fired at Putin’s plane. “The temperature of the exhaust gases of the (Su-30SM) plane is much higher” than of presidential Il-96-300PU, he said. “We were flying at maximum capacity because our planes have different speed and it was that we were protecting the presidential plane from both sides with ourselves,” the pilot added.
The president thanked the airmen for their courage during his annual Q&A session on Thursday.
“The pilots, those guys, I watched them. They were not just flying nearby – during landing, they descended to be flying below our plane,” Putin said. “I am thankful to them and want them to hear and know that.”
Very clear that the threat from israeloamerican special ops using sa missiles in an attempt to down Putin’s aircraft was considered a very real possibility. While many in the zionazified west still flog the dead horse about trump being sincere about better relations with Russia, the Russians themselves are not buying it.
Refugees in US-Held Area in Syria Appeal to Moscow, Damascus for Help – Source
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201712171060072879-refugees-syria-help-russia/
“Syrian refugees living in the al-Rukban camp on the Jordan-Syria border have appealed to Russian and Syrian authorities for help due to the extremely difficult humanitarian situation caused by the actions of the US military, a source familiar with the matter told Sputnik.
According to the source, the negotiations between the Russian and US militaries also addressed the proposal of the Syrian government to relocate refugees from al-Rukban to Damascus, Homs and Deir ez-Zor provinces that are under the control of the government’s forces.
He noted that thanks to Russia’s initiative to assist in humanitarian convoys, the Syrian authorities had agreed to ensure the delivery of assistance to fellow Syrians in al-Rukban, but only in the event of cargo being fairly distributed.
In early November, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria accused the United States of establishing a training camp near the al-Rukban refugee camp to forge a new “moderate opposition” out of various militia groups.
In late November, Russia proposed to the US military stationed in al-Tanf to jointly ensure the safety of humanitarian aid deliveries to refugees. The US-led coalition agreed but claimed that it had not received confirmation that the Syrian authorities were ready to let convoys pass.
Earier this week, the head of the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation Lt. Gen. Sergei Kuralenko said that Russia was still awaiting a response from the US forces on coordination to ensure the security of humanitarian aid deliveries to the refugees.”
The usual bs from the trump regime.
Latest developments:
Militants Block Refugees Leaving Syria’s al-Rukban Camp – Source
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201712191060129065-militants-refugees-block-camp/
“Militants of illegal armed groups blocked roads and forbade refugees from leaving the al-Rukban camp, located in the US zone of influence on the Syria-Jordan border, a source familiar with the situation told Sputnik.
“Quwwat Shahid Ahmad Abdu militants installed roadblocks in the al-Tanf region and are not allowing refugees to leave the al-Rukban camp, who are trying to leave the US-controlled 55 –kilometer zone,” the source said.
Back in October, the Russian Defense Ministry accused the US of establishing a training camp for militants near al-Rukban to create a new “moderate opposition,” slamming Washington’s move as “a war crime,” since it prevented the Syrian government from setting up a safe corridor for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to refugees.
Last week, the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria accused the US-led coalition of using another refugee camp in the region, the al-Hasakah, as a base for training militants.
According to the Russian ministry, a new armed group called the “New Syrian Army” is being forged under the supervision of US instructors from the Special Operations Forces. The US instructors allegedly announced that after the end of the training course the groups would be sent to southern Syria to fight against government troops.”
The zionazis are obviously continuing their war against Syria by any means they can.
Implausible Denials: The Crime at Jabal al Tharda. US-led Air Raid on Behalf of ISIS-Daesh against Syrian Forces
https://www.globalresearch.ca/implausible-denials-the-crime-at-jabal-al-tharda-us-led-air-raid-on-behalf-of-isis-daesh-against-syrian-forces/5623056
“On 17 September 2016 a carefully planned US-led air raid on Jabal al Tharda (Mount Tharda), overlooking Deir Ezzor airport, slaughtered over 100 Syrian soldiers and delivered control of the mountain to DAESH / ISIS. After that surprise attack, the terrorist group held the mountain for almost a year, but did not manage to take the airport or the entire city. US-led forces admitted the attack but claimed it was all a ‘mistake’. However uncontested facts, eye witness accounts and critical circumstances show that was a lie. This article sets out the evidence of this crime, in context of Washington’s historical use of mercenaries for covert actions, linked to the doctrine of ‘plausible deniability’.
Syrian eyewitness accounts from Deir Ezzor deepen and confirm this simple fact: the US-led air raid on Syrian forces at Jabal al Tharda on 17 September 2016 was no ‘mistake’ but a well-planned and effective intervention on behalf of the terrorist group ISIS (DAESH in Arabic). After days of careful surveillance a devastating missile attack followed by machine gunning of the remaining Syrian soldiers helped ISIS take control of the strategic mountain, that same day.
Mercenary forces – like ISIS and the other jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria – were a staple of US intervention during the early decades of the cold war, deployed in more than 25 conflicts, such as those of the Congo, Angola and Nicaragua. Whatever their claimed aims and ideologies, they allowed for the ‘multiplication’ of US power and were associated with the doctrine of ‘plausible deniability’, where the ‘formal’ denial of the mastermind role in covert operations minimised damage to domestic public opinion and international relations (Voss 2016: 37-40). That doctrine was discussed during the 1976 Church Committee hearings into CIA covert operations (especially assassinations and coups) and resurfaced during the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s (Hart 2005; Dorn 2010). The key idea behind the doctrine is to be able “to use violence without directly incriminating the [contracting out] regime” (Ron 2002). The use of terrorist proxy armies in Iraq and Syria, both overtly and covertly supported by US forces, is thoroughly consistent with this history.”
Very detailed analysis of this american war crime.