Levant crisis - III

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 07 Dec 2016 21:01

Israel fires several missiles near Damascus

The Syrian regime has accused Israel of launching surface-to-surface missiles targeting the Mezzeh airbase near Damascus early Wednesday morning, causing damage but no casualties.

According to a military source quoted by Syria’s SANA state media “The Israeli enemy launched at 3:00 am Wednesday a number of surface-to-surface missiles from inside the occupied territories to the west of Tall Abu al-Nada (hill) that landed in the surroundings of al-Mezzeh Airport west of Damascus.”

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Confl ... cus-474672

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 07 Dec 2016 21:06

The Mezzeh airbase is military airport and home to the headquarters of the Syrian air force intelligence service and its prison.
Israel PM in April said 'Hezbollah continues to be our enemy number one' .

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:14

The Circle book is being made into a movie - a good take on the western social media/cloud/MSM complex and their 'advocacy' based journalism, not to report but to guide and shape events

https://www.wired.com/2016/12/the-circle-trailer/

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:24

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:25

i guess the plan is to kill most of the rats before any deal is made. this area is 3km x 3km at the most.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:29

map is outdated some 16 hours old but gives some idea of the playing field . bab al nayrab has entirely fallen and tigers have met the saa units on citadel side

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:30

SyrianMilitaryCap. ‏@SyrianMilitary 17h17 hours ago
Urgent: huge numbers of civilians are getting out from #EastAleppo through Bustan-Al Qasser crossing point.
1 reply 53 retweets 62 likes

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:31

/Tweets From Aleppo\ Retweeted
maytham ‏@maytham956 17h17 hours ago
Civil and cargo flights will start to take-off from / arrive at the international airport of #Aleppo within 2 days..
Book your tickets now!

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 21:37

al klasah and al fardoss heavy fighting ongoing tonight.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Dec 2016 22:22

Fauh and Kafraya are close enough to idlib town to be called suburbs....fully 40km out from Aleppo. there is no way the SAA can quickly reach that place to save its people from the coming massacre .... best bet is capture as many rebels alive as possible and make the green bus ticket conditional on UN and red crescent being allowed to evacuate all the citizens of these 2 enclaves and move them out. OR make some about to surrender enclave like Ghouta deal conditional on these two towns being also let go in the reverse direction.

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 08 Dec 2016 01:17

Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called on Wednesday for an immediate five-day ceasefire for the evacuation of civilians and wounded, but gave no indication they were ready to withdraw as demanded by Damascus and Moscow.

Reuters UK

IndraD · Post by **IndraD** » 08 Dec 2016 01:22

Girl Posting to Twitter From Aleppo Gains Sympathy, but Doubts Follow
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/world ... .html?_r=0

Antigovernment activists and doctors working in eastern Aleppo have corroborated, through Skype and WhatsApp, that Bana and her mother are who they say they are. But Bana’s Twitter account has also drawn an inordinate number of trolls and voices sympathetic to the Syrian government and its Russian backers, who assail Bana as a fraud.

But in an era of internet hoaxes, fabrications and the increased use of fake news around the world to further political agendas, Bana’s Twitter account has also raised some questions of veracity and authenticity

Coming from NYT itself ...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 04:17

Blast from past. .glowing headline about obl

https://mobile.twitter.com/agitpapa/sta ... 4787760128

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:10

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 09:24

At end of this war, when the action shifts to Idlib, Turkey (zinki sponsors) will have to pay the price for their sins. This is my prediction. Erdogan and his erdofags will meet their comeuppance. & it will be sudden, he will by then not be beholden to the EU warmongers as well be 'out of favor' with the US of warmonkeys. Till that time comes he will be delusional and keep uttering insanities.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:27

angry aleppo rebel vents on the euphrateshield crowd who left aleppo to the dogs

https://twitter.com/iadtawil/status/806356787913953280

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:30

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Defaul ... sCatID=352

An Iranian-made unmanned drone was used in an attack on a Turkish military camp in northern Syria on Nov. 24, killing four soldiers, a senior Turkish official has told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Turkey identified the drone as Iranian-made, but it was still not identified whether Hezbollah, the Quds Force or another Shiite militia group in Syria had used it, said the official, who spoke on anonymity.

FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, accompanied by National Intelligence Agency (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan, paid a surprise visit to Tehran early on Nov. 26, where the Turkish delegation discussed “issues regarding ISIL and counter-terrorism” with Iran and also raised the issue that their findings on the attack on Turkish soldiers in Syria indicated that an Iranian-made unmanned drone was used, the official also said.

However, Çavuşoğlu denied that they discussed the aerial attack in the meeting in Tehran. “Our visit to Tehran had nothing to do with the plane. We went there for a fourth round of discussions that aimed to find ways to precede peace in Syria. We discussed how a cease-fire could be reached, to send humanitarian aid and the necessary steps needed to be taken if there is a cease-fire. But it was not about the drone,” daily Habertürk quoted Çavuşoğlu as saying on Dec. 6.

Syrian Army does not possess drones: Russia

In a phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov. 26, the second conversation between the two leaders in 26 hours, Russian sources told the Hürriyet Daily News that “both parties have reached a consensus that the attack was carried out by an unmanned drone.”

Moscow informed Ankara that the drone did not belong to them, and the Syrian Army did not possess such an aircraft. The U.S.-led coalition forces also informed Moscow that the drone did not belong to them either, sources added.

“It’s not clear whom the drone belongs to,” the source said, adding that both presidents agreed that their military officials would work to the reveal the origins of the aircraft.

Çavuşoğlu told a Lebanese media outlet on Dec. 3 that Russia did not “directly reject” that the regime forces might be responsible for the attack, “but they said the Syrian regime’s aircraft do not have the firepower, and did not possess unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.”

“There are various opinions on this issue and there is a kind of blame game going on. Russia is clearly affirming that they did not do it. But, there are many other elements in the region. After thorough investigations, we will be able to say who the perpetrator was, so now is not a good time to accuse any country,” he stated.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Dec. 1 that neither Syria nor Russia carried out the attack on the Turkish soldiers in northern Syria on Nov. 24.

“In the air strike, assessed to have been carried out by the Syrian regime forces, three of our heroic soldiers were killed and 10 soldiers were wounded, one severely,” the Turkish Armed Forces said in a written statement on Nov. 24 on the attack that occurred near the northern Syrian city of al-Bab.

In an interview with the state-run TRT on late Dec. 1, government spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş addressed the possibility of an involvement of an unmanned drone in the attack.

“There are records of aircraft flying there at that time… It seems that some groups uncomfortable with the operation [Euphrates Shield], are involved in this incident. It’s known that terrorist groups also have unmanned drones in the air. It will eventually be revealed,” Kurtulmuş said in a press conference on Nov. 28, adding that they had “recordings of aircraft, planes or unmanned drones” in the region.

On Aug. 24, the Turkish Armed Forces launched the Euphrates Shield operation in Syria with Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters to clear the country’s southern border of both the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) forces, which Ankara considers as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Ankara-backed FSA fighters have moved within two kilometers of al-Bab with the aim of taking the city from ISIL. The strategic city of al-Bab, meaning “the gate” in Arabic, in the northern Aleppo province, is one of ISIL’s few remaining strongholds and is a route to ISIL-held Raqqa and Syrian rebel-held Idlib.

Regime forces, while continuing their offensive to capture the eastern part of Aleppo from the Syrian opposition groups, is currently advancing toward al-Bab as well.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:31

in 4 months the well funded and well paid euphrates shield mercs with turkish fire support and SF units have not even managed to secure ab-bab or make a move on manbij. this despite rather lackluster opposition from ISIS and SDF who are busy in their other fights.

this indicates even their turkish masters do not want to achieve anything quickly but keep these 1000s of rats tied down on a "skill development" and "bench project" away from Idlib(bombed mercilessly by the russians) and aleppo.

chankian move by macho putinji and neo-machiavelli erdoganji

ofcourse there are wandering skeptics and buddhijeebis who do not believe in the grand plan , even if they sat on it

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:40

Hamza Hemze حمزة‎ ‏@sergermedx 13h13 hours ago
Over 300 Turkmen families brought by Turkey from Tel Afar in Iraq are relocated in Kurdish villages near Azaz town in Northern aleppo.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:44

civilians evacuated from marjeh district

https://twitter.com/MIG29_/status/806640789287763968

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:53

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5d9_1481151489

battle of police hill - probably suqur al sahra

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 09:56

this large group of Ru loyalist chechens is allegedly going off to fight in syria as govt "guests"/mercs
could be a private initiative by some warlord who is moscow-pasand
they look like well equipped para types with maroon berets

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b22_1481127878

their home ground would be the mountains of latakia and north Idlib - similar climate and terrain...the jihadi shishani units also prefer living there.

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 10:03

Syrian soldiers stand on top of the citadel waving Syrian flag

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 11:02

well the TT is here to check for freeloading travellers...this is the mil governor of aleppo from govt side

The 'Nimr' Tiger ‏@Souria4Syrians 11h11 hours ago
Major General Zaid Saleh: "jihadists will only leave East Aleppo under conditions set by the Syrian Government".

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 11:04

4 sorry looking rats who have got a few slaps and punches
https://twitter.com/Souria4Syrians/stat ... 8230438912

The 'Nimr' Tiger ‏@Souria4Syrians 12h12 hours ago
4 jihadists belonging to different terrorist groups operating in east Aleppo have surrendered, 1 admitted shelling W.Aleppo & Shiekh Maqsoud

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 11:05

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 11:12

western media has suddenly turned fair and balanced

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/12 ... d=tw-share

Syria: Thousands of Aleppo's Displaced Pack Market Shelter
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDEC. 3, 2016, 2:12 P.M. E.S.T.

JIBREEN, Syria — Azza Haj Hussein held out for four years in war-ravaged eastern Aleppo, moving from one bombed-out home to another and surviving mostly on bread, crushed wheat and rice for four months under a suffocating government siege.

The 27-year-old mother of four recalls days when the family of six had to squeeze themselves into a tiny bathroom to seek shelter from airstrikes that shook the ground beneath them. On Tuesday, troops marched into their neighborhood, placing them on buses headed to government-controlled western Aleppo as rebel defenses crumbled.

She is now among some 3,000 families who have taken refuge in a market that has been turned into a shelter for the thousands who have fled east Aleppo over the past week. In some cases, more than a dozen people are staying in one room where water is scarce despite the municipalities' work to improve conditions.

On Saturday, relief agencies and Russian troops were busy distributing hot meals, clothes and sleeping bags to help the displaced cope with the shelter's harsh conditions and the cold weather. Paramedics went from one house to another to vaccinate children of up to five-years-old against polio and women between the ages of 15 and 50 against tetanus.

Aid agencies say that more than 30,000 people have fled rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo that have been under a tight siege since July. Over the past two weeks, government forces launched an offensive in which they regained control of nearly half the areas that had been held by insurgents since the city was contested in July 2012.

The incursion by government forces is the deepest push into Aleppo yet, and military officials say the government is determined to regain control of all parts of the city in what would mark the biggest victory for President Bashar Assad since the crisis began in March 2011.

Aleppo is Syria's largest city and once commercial center and if captured by troops would be a turning point in the conflict putting the country's four largest cities and the coastal region back under state control.

During the four-month siege, residents relied mostly on stored food such as lentils, crushed wheat, rice, and small amounts of bread. Most of the besieged residents had no access to fruit and vegetables once brought into the city from the countryside.

"Our life here is much better than what we have passed through there," said the veiled Hussein as she waited in line to receive sleeping bags for her family. "There was hunger, bombardment and fighting. We were hiding in our homes until the army reached us."

"We were living in a house that was shelled. We went to another that was struck as well," she added, "Almost every house I went to got hit. When the shelling was intense I used to hide in the bathroom with my husband and children."

Hussein says what breaks her heart most is that the war has deprived her two sons and two daughters of an education. With one approaching the age of ten, she says they can only recite the alphabet.

In the Jibreen shelter, which consists of hundreds of ground floor shops turned into rooms, thousands of men, women and children roamed the area to collect food or other goods. Some stood in front of their rooms smoking, as children played in the mud from three days of heavy rain. Small children wore flip flops without socks despite the cold weather.

When an aid worker arrived with cans of juice the children surrounded him, each reaching out for their share. On the other side of the shelter, alongside several Russian army buses, soldiers distributed food parcels in white bags marked with the Russian and Syrian flags. Written on the parcels — in Arabic and Russian: "Russia is with you."

The Russians also set up a portable kitchen in which the displaced stood in line with white plastic plates to receive a hot meal of rice and meat.

Jadouh Najah, 45-years-old, smiled after bringing his full plate close to his nose and smelling it. "The food here is excellent. We had nothing to eat there," said the man who wore a traditional red-and-white checkered headdress.

Mohammed Kurdieh, who is in charge of vaccines at the Aleppo municipality, said that over the past few days they have vaccinated 4,000 children against polio, 900 women against tetanus and 700 other children with different vaccines. He added that children who were malnourished were given high-energy biscuits.

Paramedics sought out children under the age of five years to administer a polio vaccine orally, marking their thumbs with paint to avoid repeated doses.

At the entrance of the shelter, two trucks belonging to the U.N. refugee agency carried 1,500 sleeping bags and another one thousands of packages of long cotton underwear for men and women to keep them warm during Aleppo's harsh winter. People stood line to collect them.

"We were under pressure by all means, psychological and financial. The gunmen were trying to prevent us from leaving until the army came," said 36-year-old Amina Rwein, who fled with her husband, seven daughters and three sons.

"We came under fire from the gunmen as we were leaving and the army hit the minaret from where the sniper was shooting, and then we crossed," she said.

Y. Kanan · Post by **Y. Kanan** » 08 Dec 2016 11:53

Does there seem to be a general belief among Iraqis that the US has been stringing them along, refusing to use its vast firepower against ISIS and thus getting so many thousands of Iraqis killed over the past few years? Or a general belief that the US created ISIS in the first place? Or do Iraqis pin most of that blame on Saudi, Qatar, etc? Just curious as we don't hear much about what the Iraqis think of all this as no one seems to care.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 12:00

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha 17h17 hours ago
Hassan Ridha Retweeted Hassan Ridha
5 IS emirs have reportedly defected from Raqqa & fled to Idlib, among them is Bilal al-Shawash who was a Tunisian commander in Nusra

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 08 Dec 2016 12:08

Y. Kanan wrote:Does there seem to be a general belief among Iraqis that the US has been stringing them along, refusing to use its vast firepower against ISIS and thus getting so many thousands of Iraqis killed over the past few years? Or a general belief that the US created ISIS in the first place? Or do Iraqis pin most of that blame on Saudi, Qatar, etc? Just curious as we don't hear much about what the Iraqis think of all this as no one seems to care.

ISIS certainly received funding & clerics from gulf region, european jihadi networks, recruits from all over -- but its initial elite core seems to be former saddam era baath elites in govt, army and tribal sheiks who lost saddam, and found radical islam as their next play on power. in the initial chaotic years after OIF and then american withdrawal, the baghdad govt was also ineffective and corrupt and so the sense of abandonment of sunnis and corrupt local governorates was used by the ISIS to project itself as a honest broker and better ruler of the Sunnis than the "rafidhi shias" of baghdad and karbala who consorted with the "safavids" and "persians".

the remnants of the sunni insurgency morphed into ISIS.

I dont believe the ISIS in iraq received any US support, but they did nothing much to train up the iraqi armed forces to face this new threat until belatedly much later when ISIS had taken over half the country and were knocking on doors of baghdad. I think they wanted iraq to teter on the verge of collapse and then help to keep them dependent and teach them a lesson for consorting with iran,

then came the syrian project and the CIA found a use for ISIS+all 100s of groupings to tear the country apart and depose Assad. in this Turkey and Jordan also joined the project.....

problem is its hard to define these days what is the "US" - GOTUS has been out of control for a while and army(Pentagon), SOCOM, CIA, SD all follow their own agendas in collaboration with different sets of allies domestic and foreign. Obama was worse than MMS in controlling these asuric impulses.

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 12:42

british hand in cookie jar

only this jar has blood laced cookies

The founder of White Helmets has been awarded the “Order of the British Empire” at Buckingham Palace:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/region ... -1-7715077

pathetic form by brits, there is no more a british empire just like there are no more white helmets.

last white helmet fell while he was being wheeled in crippled into the last hospital in aleppo, which was bombed by barrel bombs.

It's over brits.

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 12:48

Russian Spesnaz operating in Aleppo on a special mission to take out militant leaders and sow panic amongst the terrorists.

https://southfront.org/russian-special- ... a-reports/

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 12:49

Russian soldier with the desert hawks

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 08 Dec 2016 12:56

Soon it will be called the OBP."Order of the British Pimp-ire"!

That's about all Britain can perform these days.

"Rebels",aka western backed mercenaries and spl forces trapped in Aleppo must be bailed out like the ISI/Paki scum who were caught in Afghanistan. Why the Israelis have to shell the Syrians one doesn't know.Perhaps Bibi needs a diversion from the huge sub scandal he's embroiled in which threatens to unseat him. It's great to see them beg for mercy,something that they never showed the Syrian govt. forces. Putin,ASsad,the Iranians and their allied forces ,have achieved a magnificent military victory. Russian airpower and Syrian-Iranian forces on the ground have ground ISIS to dust in Aleppo.
The so-called "sole superpower" in the world with all the desert despots and their trillions of money could neither topple Assad or ISIS.Their bankrupt status ,both mil and financial is now evident for the whole world. But the cruellest cut of all has come from Donald Trump who has openly said that "there would be no more regime change" henceforth as US policy.The bonhomie between Trump and Putin if it remaisn and grows,will see many of the world's hotspots cool down.But will the vested interests in the US allow Trump to do so? Remember what happened to JFK.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... s-withdraw

Syria: Assad loyalists take Aleppo's Old City as rebels plead for ceasefire
Pro-government forces are closest they have ever been to seizing entire city as rebels beg for five day ceasefire to allow civilians to leave

Smoke over Aleppo during fighting between Syrian regime forces and rebel fighters earlier this month. Photograph: Youssef Karwashan/AFP/Getty Images
Martin Chulov in Beirut and Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul
Wednesday 7 December 2016
Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have ousted rebel groups from Aleppo’s Old City as an increasingly battered opposition pleaded for a five day ceasefire to allow remaining civilians to be evacuated. *(They really mean themselves!)

The advances were the most significant of the past week and edged the fighting in Syria’s second city towards a final showdown in neighbourhoods where it all began for the besieged rebel groups four and a half years ago. Bashar al-Assad’s forces, backed heavily by militias that have been instrumental in shifting his fortunes in the war, are now the closest they have ever been to seizing the entirety of east Aleppo – a city central to the fate of the war.

The battlefield advances came as the US, Britain, France, Italy and Canada released a statement condemning both Russia and Syria for the “humanitarian disaster taking place before our very eyes” in Aleppo. There was no immediate response from either country, both of whom had rebuffed earlier demands for a ceasefire while vowing to crush the remaining opposition and claiming that any lull would allow rebels to regroup.

The Old City had remained a centre of gravity for the opposition since its fighters, a combination of Aleppo locals and residents of the surrounding countryside, overran security forces in July 2012. Its proximity to Syrian army positions and the ancient Citadel that stands at its heart had made it less of a target for Russian and Syrian jets that have bombed much of the rest of east Aleppo into ruins in preparation for the ground offensive.

The advance, which has been led by Iraqi groups and Hezbollah from Lebanon, both backed by Iran, has laid waste to much of the Old City’s approaches and cut off opposition routes to elsewhere in the east, which has seen fierce fighting this week. Up to 75% of east Aleppo is now under the control of loyalist forces, who say they could claim the rest of the city within one week.

The conquered areas are a crumbling mess of largely uninhabitable neighbourhoods of 4-6 storey apartment blocks, which have collapsed on to the roads beneath them. The damage is worst at the eastern edges of the city, from where the ground offensive was launched. Towards the centre, where the Old City and Citadel stand, destruction is less obvious, but even there, shops and homes have crumpled in the face of concussion waves from enormous explosions, as well as direct hits.

The battle for eastern Aleppo in maps: how rebel territory is shrinking

As their fortunes diminished, opposition leaders again refused regime demands that they abandon Aleppo, insisting that they remain as guarantors of the safety of civilians who have stayed behind. Rebel fighters have bunkered down in the hull of what was once Syria’s industrial heartland, forming underground basements in husks of apartment blocks, and running the war by the light of car batteries.

“What Aleppo has witnessed in the past five months is nothing short of a war of extermination against its civilian population,” the opposition leadership said in a statement. “Hundreds of innocent young men have been detained and their future is uncertain. Women, who have been hardest hit by the realities of the siege, have been raped in despicable acts of revenge.

“Civilians should either be protected, or evacuated to a safe area, where they will not be under the mercy of Assad and his henchmen.”

Some rebel factions acknowledged that they were considering abandoning the city, which was at the time of its seizure meant to have been an epicentre of the push to oust Assad as leader. How to flee, if such a decision is made, remains a dilemma, with no roads open to the north or south, and the east remaining a stronghold of the forces that are attacking them. Humanitarian corridors, except two into west Aleppo, have been killing zones for the past three months, rebel groups say.

The rebellion, which started as a revolt against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, spawned by popular uprisings across the Arab world, has waned elsewhere in Syria, leading to increasing calls for a managed political settlement.

Civilians were being steadily bussed to regime-held west Aleppo on Wednesday, with hundreds more displaced by fighting that has already driven thousands out of their homes in recent weeks. More than 30,000 people are reported to have crossed the frontline that has separated both sides, with more than 500 military-aged men taken by Syrian troops from conquered neighbourhoods, or at checkpoints. Unicef estimated that 51% of the recent refugees were children.

Aid groups also backed ceasefire calls. The International Rescue Committee said: “Medical evacuations would be a lifeline for the 400 gravely ill and seriously injured people in urgent need of treatment. The UN must be allowed to oversee a ceasefire that also guarantees the first food and medicine deliveries to enter east Aleppo since it was besieged in July, as well as fresh staff to relieve the small number of doctors and nurses providing medical care of a quarter of million people. There must not be any military preconditions attached.”

East Aleppo’s few remaining physicians said they can no longer treat patients. A blitz by Russia and the Assad regime has destroyed all of east Aleppo’s hospitals over the last two months, when systematic attacks on the city’s healthcare system intensified.

The latest offensive seized the M10 hospital in the Sakhour neighbourhood of the east, which had been heavily damaged by airstrikes. Staff had managed to use some rooms for basic treatment in between attacks, but have not been able to perform complex surgeries for much of the past month.

“We are completely paralysed and cannot treat anyone,” said one doctor. “We are suffering what we have to suffer under this vicious campaign and this extermination and invasion. The civilians are worried and horrified, everyday people are getting displaced from one street to the next.”

Aleppo’s unrelenting misery has exposed the powerlessness of the international community to stop the suffering and Monday’s statement marked a rare attempt by global leaders to collectively shift debate about the conflict outside of the UN Security Council, where permanent members Russia and China have blocked measures aimed at Assad over the past five years.

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 12:58

last night Russian air defense intercepted an Israeli missile over Tartus around 2:45 in the morning explosion heard all over Tartus

@WithinSyriaBlog everyone in Tartus heard the explosion ,only now I was able to get info from eye witness who saw the explosion in the sky

one of the RuNavy Ships fired the air defense missile

it looks like Israel used an EXTRA ground to ground guided rocket in it’s attack on Al-Mazzah AB in #Damascus last night

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CzEYvjvW8AI_ACZ.jpg

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 13:04

It seems EXTRA is just a rocket propelled Long range artillery shell & the Russians can even target that. wow .. friggin Wow

what are the chances that BSF can get a few of these and we lob them into rawalpindi GHQ at various suitable ocassions.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 08 Dec 2016 13:11

What missile system was used? Good demo by the Russians of their capabilities and that they're now top dog in the Middle East...along with the Iranians.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 08 Dec 2016 13:29

The bullsh*t from the West to be taken as Gospel truth,while the facts on the ground are ignored.Truly as the wise American Indians said ,the "Paleface speaks with a forked tongue"

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syr ... 51656.html

his is why everything you’ve read about the wars in Syria and Iraq could be wrong
It is too dangerous for journalists to operate in rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Mosul. But there is a tremendous hunger for news from the Middle East, so the temptation is for the media give credence to information they get second hand

Patrick Cockburn in Beirut @indyworld
Friday 2 December 2016 11:15 BST

Syrian rescue workers and residents try to pull a man out from under the rubble of a building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Salhin in the northern city of Aleppo AFP
The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there are reportedly some 600 civilian dead over a month.

Despite these similarities, the reporting by the international media of these two sieges is radically different.

In Mosul, civilian loss of life is blamed on Isis, with its indiscriminate use of mortars and suicide bombers, while the Iraqi army and their air support are largely given a free pass. Isis is accused of preventing civilians from leaving the city so they can be used as human shields.

Contrast this with Western media descriptions of the inhuman savagery of President Assad’s forces indiscriminately slaughtering civilians regardless of whether they stay or try to flee. The UN chief of humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, suggested this week that the rebels in east Aleppo were stopping civilians departing – but unlike Mosul, the issue gets little coverage.

One factor making the sieges of east Aleppo and east Mosul so similar, and different, from past sieges in the Middle East, such as the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982 or of Gaza in 2014, is that there are no independent foreign journalists present. They are not there for the very good reason that Isis imprisons and beheads foreigners while Jabhat al-Nusra, until recently the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is only a shade less bloodthirsty and generally holds them for ransom.

At least 45 Syrian refugees killed by regime missile while trying to flee Aleppo
These are the two groups that dominate the armed opposition in Syria as a whole. In Aleppo, though only about 20 per cent of the 10,000 fighters are Nusra, it is they – along with their allies in Ahrar al-Sham – who are leading the resistance.

Unsurprisingly, foreign journalists covering developments in east Aleppo and rebel-held areas of Syria overwhelmingly do so from Lebanon or Turkey. A number of intrepid correspondents who tried to do eyewitness reporting from rebel-held areas swiftly found themselves tipped into the boots of cars or otherwise incarcerated.

Experience shows that foreign reporters are quite right not to trust their lives even to the most moderate of the armed opposition inside Syria. But, strangely enough, the same media organisations continue to put their trust in the veracity of information coming out of areas under the control of these same potential kidnappers and hostage takers. They would probably defend themselves by saying they rely on non-partisan activists, but all the evidence is that these can only operate in east Aleppo under license from the al-Qaeda-type groups.

It is inevitable that an opposition movement fighting for its life in wartime will only produce, or allow to be produced by others, information that is essentially propaganda for its own side. The fault lies not with them but a media that allows itself to be spoon-fed with dubious or one-sided stories.

For instance, the film coming out of east Aleppo in recent weeks focuses almost exclusively on heartrending scenes of human tragedy such as the death or maiming of civilians. One seldom sees shots of the 10,000 fighters, whether they are wounded or alive and well.

None of this is new. The present wars in the Middle East started with the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which was justified by the supposed threat from Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Western journalists largely went along with this thesis, happily citing evidence from the Iraqi opposition who predictably confirmed the existence of WMD.

Some of those who produced these stories later had the gall to criticise the Iraqi opposition for misleading them, as if they had any right to expect unbiased information from people who had dedicated their lives to overthrowing Saddam Hussein or, in this particular case, getting the Americans to do so for them.

Much the same self-serving media credulity was evident in Libya during the 2011 Nato-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

Atrocity stories emanating from the Libyan opposition, many of which were subsequently proved to be baseless by human rights organisations, were ra
The Syrian war is especially difficult to report because Isis and various al-Qaeda clones made it too dangerous to report from within opposition-held areas. There is a tremendous hunger for news from just such places, so the temptation is for the media give credence to information they get second hand from people who could in practice only operate if they belong to or are in sympathy with the dominant jihadi opposition groups.

It is always a weakness of journalists that they pretend to excavate the truth when in fact they are the conduit rather than the originator of information produced by others in their own interests. Reporters learn early that people tell them things because they are promoting some cause which might be their own career or related to bureaucratic infighting or, just possibly, hatred of lies and injustice.

A word here in defence of the humble reporter in the field: usually, it is not he or she, but the home office or media herd instinct, that decides the story of the day. Those closest to the action may be dubious about some juicy tale which is heading the news, but there is not much they can do about it.

Thus, in 2002 and 2003, several New York Times journalists wrote stories casting doubt on WMD only to find them buried deep inside the newspaper which was led by articles proving that Saddam had WMD and was a threat to the world.

Journalists and public alike should regard all information about Syria and Iraq with reasoned scepticism. They should keep in mind the words of Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria. Speaking after he had resigned in frustration in 2014, he said that “everybody had their agenda and the interests of the Syrian people came second, third or not at all”.

We have to accept that Assad will win in Syria
The quote comes from The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East by Christopher Phillips, which is one of the best informed and non-partisan accounts of the Syrian tragedy yet published. He judiciously weighs the evidence for rival explanations for what happened and why. He understands the degree to which the agenda and pace events in Syria were determined externally by the intervention of foreign powers pursuing their own interests.

Overall, government experts did better than journalists, who bought into simple-minded explanations of developments, convinced that Assad was always on the verge of being overthrown.

Phillips records that at a high point of the popular uprising in July 2011, when the media was assuming that Assad was finished, that the long-serving British ambassador in Damascus, Simon Collis, wrote that “Assad can still probably count on the support of 30-40 per cent of the population.”

The French ambassador Eric Chevallier was similarly cautious, only to receive a classic rebuke from his masters in Paris who said: “Your information does not interest us. Bashar al-Assad must fall and will fall.”

habal · Post by **habal** » 08 Dec 2016 13:44

Philip wrote:What missile system was used? Good demo by the Russians of their capabilities and that they're now top dog in the Middle East...along with the Iranians.

EXTRA missile

http://www.imi-israel.com/home/doc.aspx?mCatID=66186