Bharat Rakshak

Four Su-35s deployed in Syria ( check pictures in link )

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/1710222.html

To prevent any stupidity on the part of Turks.

yeah, those camps were at the border but not for IDPs. But exclusively for turkmen & FSA rebels, R&R and forward ammunition depot.

The Turkish economy is in a real recession

Turkish resorts are expecting a gloomy summer as Russians (and many others) go elsewhere.

Turkey’s Economic Precipice

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “Justice and Development Party,” best known by its Turkish acronym AKP, was a breath of fresh air when it came to power after the November 2002 elections. In the five years before the AKP assumed power, Turkey’s currency devalued from around 200,000 to just over 1.7 million lira against the dollar. The Turkish public blamed the incumbents for a banking crises in November 2000, and then a currency crisis when, on a single day in February 2001, the Turkish lira lost one-third of its value. Incumbent parties bickered and corruption scandals swirled around them. The AKP cultivated an image of cleanliness and piety, even as Erdoğan, its leader and, from February 2003, prime minister, had more than a dozen corruption cases hanging over him from his tenure as mayor of Istanbul. Regardless, the AKP was pragmatic. It focused on the economy first and foremost. In the first two years of AKP rule, the currency stabilized and actually strengthened against the dollar. Some of this stability was the result of new technocrats taking a fresh look at the economy and proposing solutions which previous political paralysis prevented, but Turkish budgetary authorities and many established journalists privately suggested some of the AKP’s accomplishments rested upon an influx of so-called “Green Money,” provided by interests in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and used as an off-books slush fund by Erdoğan and his team.

It may be déjà vu all over again in Ankara. In hindsight, it appears some of the economic credit the AKP claimed had less to do with their specific policy and was more the result of the demographic dividend. In other ways, Erdoğan sacrificed long-term instability for short-term gains that bolstered his and the AKP’s popularity. After ruling Turkey for more than a decade, however, Erdoğan can no longer deflect blame upon his predecessors. The buck stops with him. Turkey’s economy is fragile. While debt to GDP ratio suggests Turkey is on firm ground, it masks tremendous private debt — up more than 3,000 percent on average over the first seven years of AKP rule. In practice, this means that Turks are over-extended and cannot pay back loans. Many Turks have taken out bank loans in order to pay interest on previous loans, but the specter of rising interest rates suggests a slow motion train wreck in the making. Indeed, many more conspiratorial-minded Turks suggest that Erdoğan fanned the flames of the Gezi protests in 2013 after then-President Abdullah Gül had calmed the situation in order to be able to blame Turkey’s economic downturn upon his opposition.

In the two years since, the Turkish Lira has been on a steady and increasingly steep decline. Between May 2013 and February 2014, the currency lost near one-third of its value relative to the dollar. Since February 2014. In the first five months of 2015, the currency lost an additional 20 percent of its value. Earlier this month, it hit another record low.

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In Turkey, Bond Market Contraction Is More Bond Market Collapse

Additions to the $45 billion Turkish Eurobond market are on hold as banks scale down their lending forecasts and turn to cheaper forms of funding. The finance industry accounts for almost three-quarters of the Turkish Eurobond market.

If banks don’t issue it means that, in Turkey, the bond market contraction predicted for this year by JPMorgan Chase & Co. for emerging markets more closely resembles a collapse.

Record Exodus

Foreigners sold a net $7.7 billion of Turkish government securities in 2015, a record for any 12-month period.
.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... t-collapse

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Stiglitz at Davos Blasts Turkey's Blacklisting of Professors

You can’t become a knowledge economy by going after your brightest minds.

So says Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, speaking after Turkey’s highest education authority last week announced an investigation into more than 1,100 academics. They had signed a petition calling on the government to redouble efforts for peace in the southeast, where for months the military has been fighting an insurgency in largely Kurdish cities.

The petition was signed by international academics, including Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Judith Butler of the University of California, Berkeley, and faculty members at Turkey’s top universities. By the end of the week, professors in Turkey were subject to police raids, several had lost their jobs and at least a dozen were detained, according to press reports.

That pressure will have a "chilling effect," according to Stiglitz, who said he intends to raise the issue when he meets Turkish officials at the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Brain Drain?

"This will lead to an exodus of academics," said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York. In Davos, he said in a phone interview, policy makers are focusing on how to arrest a slowdown in some of the world’s biggest economies. "One of the ways you do that is by becoming an innovation economy. How can you achieve that without academic freedom?"

The crackdown on universities reflects increasing government influence over Turkey’s military, law enforcement, media and judiciary. It’s accelerated since Recep Tayyip Erdogan became president in 2014 after serving as prime minister for more than a decade.

Turkey’s government is "sending a clear message that dissent on key matters is not tolerated," Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Intelligence in London, said by e-mail on Jan. 15. "By conflating dissenting remarks with terrorism and security, the government is able to minimize and sideline any critical view and actually sustain support for its crushing down on freedom of the media and speech."

Terrorist Listing

Erdogan Tuesday repeated his view that the "so-called" academics were supporting terrorism and siding with the PKK, whose fight with the Turkish state has escalated, bringing urban warfare to southeastern cities.

Those who stand with "mass murderers" have "committed the same crime," Erdogan said on Jan. 15, calling on Turkey’s judiciary and universities to take action against academics who signed the letter.

The office of the Turkish prime minister didn’t immediately respond to requests for a response to Stiglitz’s comments.

Priority Questions

Erdogan has devoted airtime to the dissenting academics in each of the public addresses he’s made since a bomb blast blamed on Islamic State killed 10 people in central Istanbul earlier this month. While Turkey is at the epicenter of challenges that are topping the Davos agenda -- the migration crisis, the fight against Islamic State, the slowdown in emerging markets -- it’s undermining itself with a focus on "fake" issues, Stiglitz said.

"In the context of the turmoil in the Middle East, the broad sentiment here is one of criticism for Turkey’s actions, when the priority should be dealing with ISIS," said Stiglitz, formerly chief economist of the World Bank.

That’s hurting the image of Turkey, a NATO member and the Middle East’s largest economy, he said: "Ten years ago it was viewed as a new model for progressive, Islamic parties in the region. Now no one’s saying that."

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*** TURKISH AIR FORCE ON ORANGE ALERT***

Turkish pilots given authorization to shoot down any Russian plane that is flying in "Turkish air space".

- Turks accuse the Russians of "violating" their air space.

Erdogan has warned of consequences.

Once Deir ez Zor pressure is off and the sh1ts are queing to get into Houristan all along that road, General Vodkov may decide to close the Turkish border and a few terrorist camps/truck assembly points from inside Turkey. The Su-35s seem to be preparation for that.

Freeing Palmyra and Raqqa becomes a whole lot easier if the flow of arms and supplies from Turkey is stopped. As the road becomes harder to traverse, the Raqqa and Palmyra Chief Terrorists may decide to do a disappearing act.

VBIEDs must be in short supply if they are using up Pakis in just street fighting.

Spoke too soon about VBIEDs. They are saving them for such holy purposes as inflating Shia mosques.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35454359

Arab lady uses the baton of truth to slap some sense into some fool anchor on Arab TV, who gives the standard arab-islamist whining about ISIS not being an arab responsiblity

link

Syrian civil war: Could Turkey be gambling on an invasion?
Kurdish forces, close to sealing the border, must beware - President Erdogan is unpredictable

Turkey now faces military developments in northern Syria that pose a much more serious threat to its interests than that brief incursion into its airspace, even though Ankara made fresh claims yesterday over a new Russian violation on Friday.

The Syrian war is at a crucial stage. Over the past year the Syrian Kurds and their highly effective army, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), have taken over half of Syria’s frontier with Turkey. The main supply line for Islamic State (Isis), through the border crossing of Tal Abyad north of Raqqa, was captured by the YPG last June. Supported by intense bombardment from the US Air Force, the Kurds have been advancing in all directions, sealing off northern Syria from Turkey in the swath of territory between the Tigris and Euphrates.

The YPG only has another 60 miles to go, west of Jarabulus on the Euphrates, to close off Isis’s supply lines and those of the non-IS armed opposition, through Azzaz to Aleppo. Turkey had said that its “red line” is that there should be no YPG crossing west of the Euphrates river, though it did not react when the YPG’s Arab proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), seized the dam at Tishrin on the Euphrates and threatened the IS stronghold of Manbij. Syrian Kurds are now weighing whether they dare take the strategic territory north of Aleppo and link up with a Kurdish enclave at Afrin.

Developments in the next few months may determine who are the long-term winners and losers in the region for decades. President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are advancing on several fronts under a Russian air umbrella. The five-year campaign by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s to overthrow Assad in Damascus, by backing the armed opposition, looks to be close to defeat.

Turkey could respond to this by accepting a fait accompli, conceding that it would be difficult for it to send its army into northern Syria in the face of strong objections from the US and Russia. But, if the alternative is failure and humiliation, then it may do just that. Gerard Challiand, the French expert on irregular warfare and the politics of the Middle East, speaking in Erbil last week, said that “without Erdogan as leader, I would say the Turks would not intervene militarily [in northern Syria], but, since he is, I think they will do so”.

Erdogan has a reputation for raising the stakes as he did last year when he failed to win a parliamentary majority in the first of two elections. He took advantage of a fresh confrontation with the Turkish Kurds and the fragmentation of his opponents to win a second election in November. Direct military intervention in Syria would be risky, but Mr Challiand believes that Turkey “is capable of doing this militarily and will not be deterred by Russia”. Of course, it would not be easy. Moscow has planes in the air and anti-aircraft missiles on the ground, but Putin probably has a clear idea of the limitations on Russia’s military engagement in Syria.

Omar Sheikhmous, a veteran Syrian Kurdish leader living in Europe, says that the Syrian Kurds “should realise that the Russians and the Syrian government are not going to go to war with the Turkish army for them”. He warns that the ruling Kurdish political party, the PYD, should not exaggerate its own strength, because President Erdogan’s reaction is unpredictable.

Piece Talks in Syria

The Syrian Army and its allies have encircled and killed the terrorists in Darayya, striking several neighborhoods under the control of Ajnad Al-Sham and Al-Nusra Front (Syrian Al-Qaeda group).

According to a military source in the Syrian capital of Damascus, the Syrian government Forces have already seized a number of building blocks near the 4 Seasons Hotel, while also advancing 200 meters west of the Masjid Bilal Al-Habshi in the Darayya Association District.

The terrorist groups of Ajnad Al-Sham and Al-Nusra Front are currently surrounded by the Syrian army at both Darayya and Mo’adhimiyah, with no roads linking these two major cities together in order for the militants to exchange supplies and send reinforcements.

The army has laid a siege on Darayya, but has not yet started a similar move to surround the strategic city of Mo’adhimiyah as it has proposed to the Ajnad Al-Sham and the Free Syrian Army militants to lay down army and surrender peacefully. The militants have 2 days left to accept the terms, FNA reported.
- See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1784687#sthash.utO6DW05.dpuf

The ISIS attacks on Dier Ez Zor are on including one strike today

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isi ... ils-again/

ISIS offensive in northwestern Deir Ezzor fails again SYRIA - by Leith Fadel on 31/01/20164:56 pm

On Sunday morning in the northwestern countryside of the Deir Ezzor Governorate, the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham” (ISIS) launched another large-scale offensive at the Al-Baghayliyah District near the western bank of the Euphrates River, targeting the Al-Jazeera University campus, Al-Rawad Hill, and the Firat Al-Sham Hotel for the 3rd time in 4 days.

The aforementioned terrorist group began their assault by storming the imperative hilltop of Tal Al-Rawad, where they were confronted by their old foes from the Syrian Arab Army’s 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard at the northern perimeter.

For three hours this morning, the Syrian Arab Army’s 104th Brigade and the ISIS terrorists battled for Tal Al-Rawad; however, once again, the aforementioned terrorist group was routed from this strategic hilltop after failing to break-through the Syrian Armed Forces’ 1st line of defense.

According to a military source from the 104th Brigade, ISIS lost another field commander during this battle for Tal Al-Rawad in the Al-Baghayliyah District.

The source added that the terrorist leader was identified as “Abu Hadhefah Al-Maghrabi” (Moroccan) – he possessed an identification card that was issued to him from the so called “Caliphate”. Firefights are still ongoing north of Tal Al-Rawad; however, the primary ISIS attack has failed – they are now attempting to withdraw in order to evade the Syrian Army’s artillery.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isi ... ils-again/ | Al-Masdar News

So these tanks, and ones in the Damascus suburb video above, don't have the fancy superstructures.

The triple suicide bombing near the shrine of the grand daughter of the Prophet in Sayyida Zainab district of Damascus has been claimed by ISIS. The attack killed mostly Sunni Syrians who were IDPs and living in the area near the shrine. It is possible that the self exploding variety where sleeper cells living amidst the IDPs.

45+ people are dead with more than 110 injured.

https://www.rt.com/news/330764-damascus ... tack-isis/

UlanBatori wrote:So these tanks, and ones in the Damascus suburb video above, don't have the fancy superstructures.

I saw images of super structure tanks posted from battle of Darayya in Damascus province

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha now2 minutes ago
#SAA armoured vehicles in Daraya #Damascus

ThiruV wrote:Arab lady uses the baton of truth to slap some sense into some fool anchor on Arab TV, who gives the standard arab-islamist whining about ISIS not being an arab responsiblity

link

That is a good video. I think even if 25% of the Arab population started to think like her, 75% of the Arab problems will be solved.

More likely that this lady will be killed for speaking out the truth -- bloodthirtyness of the islamist arabs is entirely too predictable for their barbarity and deviousness and protection of these traits in society, ostensibly to protect their religious beliefs from being shaken.

Uploaded Jan24, 2016 claiming the bombings to be from countryside of Damascus

Uploaded Jan23, 3016;

Russian bombing of turkey-syria border checkpost from where most of the oil is smuggled out of Syria. Considering the casualties in Merc, should be someone inside the core.

PS: Some of the videos posted ( actually this entire thread) are not for light hearted. Pl excise caution.

On going intense battle at Deir ez Zor by Maj Gen Issam Zehreddine's forces:

As folks commenting on the video point, the Merc has german license plates. That is interesting.

This car (plate starting with KN) is registered in Constance (Konstanz), Baden-Württemberg

link

Three terrorist bombings kill 45 people in al-Sayyeda Zainab, near Damascus - Jan 31, 2016

Terrorists detonated the car bomb at the bus station in Koua Soudan area, and after people gathered to help the injured, two suicide bombers with explosive belts blew themselves up at the site, the source explained to military source.

Al-Jaafari: The Syrian people’s interest is the compass for our delegation in Geneva - Jan 31, 2016

Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, head of the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic to the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, said Sunday that the interest of the Syrian people is the compass for the delegation in Geneva and must be the compass for dialogue.

Al-Jaafari added in a press conference in Geneva “Our delegation believes that any political solution to the crisis in Syria can’t be achieved without the presence of a serious party to the dialogue process.”

He made it clear that the text of the international resolution no. 2254 and that of the invitation addressed to the Syrian government have not been respected, referring to the opposition delegation’s delayed attendance at Geneva, which he said was a sign of “lack of seriousness and responsibility”.

There is an accumulative political process to start with, and to speak of preconditions means that those sides are coming to the meeting to undermine it, said al-Jaafari.

“We want to implement what was previously agreed on. We don’t want to start from scratch as that would be a waste of time at the expense of the Syrian people’s pains,” he added. { as expected Western ploy was to cooperate on talks, get a breather from Russian attacks, and then reneg on the talk promise later. The way in which everyone falls for these basic tricks embolden the westerns to never abandon these tricks and they continue to wield it }

Syria’s delegation, he noted, stressed to the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura its readiness to work for finding a solution to end the crisis as long as there are parties with a serious will to work to that effect.

“We have proved our good intentions and the government’s positive attitude towards any international UN effort to find a solution, but the problem has always been with the other party,” said al-Jaafari.

The other party, in case they are serious and keen to have the crisis solved, should come to Geneva with a national agenda in line with the resolution no. 2254 and the two Vienna statements, he added.

“No one up till the present moment knows who the other party is, and there hasn’t been a final list of the participants so far,” said al-Jaafari

He clarified that the UN still does not have a final list of the participants from the other party, pointing out that there are regional, Arab and international sides who try to take things back to square one through insisting on imposing one party.

Some parties and countries are repeating the same mistake that occurred in Geneva 2, he added.

“When the Security Council resolution states that the broadest possible spectrum of the position be brought together by the Syrians themselves, and this resolution is being violated, then it means that there are some who want to impose a fait accompli by selectivity and double standards,” said al-Jaafari.

He said the failure to reach a list of the terrorist organizations and opposition groups was because this task has been entrusted to two countries { I thought Jordan is the only country to have been given the task of preparing the list and we commented on this decision before - It is funny choice but could be Russian gambit to cause division within the enemy camp } that are not neutral, adding that the absence of such a list is a key gap that needs yet to be bridged.

Considering the casualties in Merc, should be someone inside the core.

Lots of tire damage! About a week's worth of Pentagon Action Reports.
So this was all on the periphery of the strikes - no serious damage to buildings. May have been a helicopter flyby, to have killed the Merc driver? The video ends b4 they get to the main areas (several) where the thick smoke is coming....

[quote="Satya_anveshi"]On going intense battle at Deir ez Zor by Maj Gen Issam Zehreddine's forces:
SAji:
This has been posted numerous times, at least from ~ Jan 1. Same video

http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2016/01 ... sh-pkg.cnn

Man! Nice bus! Beirut-Raqqa, returning empty. "Planes buzz the bus, airstrikes some distance away common, sniper fire is a worry, can't pin it down. No one returns (except hopefully the driver)".

Al-OBamic Excuse #57,325 for being ineffective against NATO-backed ISIS:

Russia Is Exploiting Syria's Kurds And U.S. Frustrations To Complicate The Fight Against ISIS

"These talks started in a very troublesome manner with the Kurds not being there," said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based analyst who monitors the Syrian Kurds. "Kurds being the pioneers of the fight against ISIS, having lost more than 4,000 fighters, were sure they were going to be invited."

Michael Werz, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who just returned from a major Kurdish conference in Brussels, told The Huffington Post the current view among some in the PYD is, "we know that the Russians are going to betray us, but they’re the only ones actually lobbying for us to be part of the Geneva talks."

"'We are the only secular fighting force, we are the only movement giving freedom to women, and the United States doesn’t even stand up to the Turks when it comes to participating in the peace negotiations," Werz added in his summing up of Kurdish sentiment. "'Nobody is publicly supporting us, so what are we supposed to do?'"

The popularity of that thinking is a problem for Washington because it could bolster distrust among Syrian Kurds already nervous about their fledgling relationship with the U.S.

American ally Turkey dislikes the PYD because of its links to the PKK, a Kurdish militant organization battling the Turkish state. That's been a key reason why it did not have direct talks with the U.S. until recent years. (Turkey and Russia have their own tensions, which makes this a point of sympathy for Moscow and the Kurds.) The PYD also has strained ties with many of thenon-extremist Syrian Arab rebel groups that the West has supported since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in 2011. The Arabs see the PYD as too tolerant of brutal Syrian president Bashar Assad, a Russian ally who has an uneasy truce with the Kurds, and oppressive of Arabs in areas the Kurdish fighters now control.

Their U.S.-supported stand in Kobani and eventual anti-ISIS campaign out of that town helped them connect the two in northeastern Syria, shown in the map below. Yet Afrin, in the northwest, remains apart -- separated by a long stretch of ISIS-controlled territory on the Syrian-Turkish border and a slim corridor that Sunni Arab rebel groups hold.

"The Afrin region's situation is getting worse day by the day, with food and medicine shortages and internally displaced people," Civiroglu, the Kurdish affairs analyst, told HuffPost. He said the siege-caused suffering around the region, home to hundreds of thousands of people, has made the Kurdish militia, the YPG, more focused on pushing through to it.

If it succeeds, that offensive will leave Turkey with its biggest Kurd-related nightmare yet: a long, contiguous YPG and PYD-controlled border, which it describes as terrorists on par with ISIS.

Shrine Of Grand Daughter Of Prophet Mohamed (Zainab) In Damascus Fair Game In Inter Ummah Tussle
Bomb attacks near Hazrat Zainab's shrine in Syria kill 50, wound 110

DAMASCUS: At least 50 people were killed and 110 wounded on Sunday in three bomb blasts near the revered shrine of Hazrat Zainab (RA) outside the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said.
State news agency SANA said the first blast was caused by a car bomb that detonated at a bus station near the shrine.
It said two suicide bombers then detonated their explosive belts when people gathered at the scene.

Govt sources in Syria say that ISIS has claimed responsibility for this act on their website
So, nothing seems to be "sacred" anymore, in the tussle for which version of Malsi should lead the Ummah

ISIS may be going down there "Must take them with us" list since the rout is gathering speed elsewhere.

Once they are defeated in Syria, Iraq is a rout - encircled by Kurds, Russians, Syrians and Iranians.

Then it's all down to Libya. I think Bhesht is sort-of forced to hit them in Libya, because Egypt cannot have ISIS next door, and the Eyetalians will also scream.

lines in sand dunes matter little in africa. consider the entire sahel and maghreb even west africa upto cameroon-nigeria and east into kenya as the sandbox. its twice the size of west europe and even massa with its massive resources can hardly monitor who comes, goes there.

so look beyond libya...its just a label for a box of sand

https://twitter.com/Souria4Syrians/stat ... 1943958528

video that maps out the spread of area under ISIS over time

russia has reportedly deployed 4 Su35BM into latakia base..these would most likely provide some cover for the huge battle that is forthcoming in north aleppo and near the turkish border crossings.
more of these might arrive shortly...as they are primarily A2A focussed and ACM specs rival the eurofighter.

lot of IED and VBIED to and fro going on between rival rebel parties in Idlib and aleppo. SAA is not remotely in that region so it has to be some rival faction.

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha 9h9 hours ago
#JN emir Abo Islam Mashoon survives assassination attempt by an IED on road between Balshoon - Al-Rami in #Idlib CS

the general aleppo offensive by SAA-hez seems to have finally started! ... heavy shelling being reported

Ivan Sidorenko ‏@IvanSidorenko1 31m31 minutes ago
#Syria #Aleppo Fronts Experiencing Clashes/Artilley Now Are Zorba / Duwayr al-Zeytoun / Mallah / Saif al Dawla / Bustan Al Qasr / Kallaseh

--
"tiger forces" out of kuweires are also creeping up on a important thermal power plant in the east.

Ivan Sidorenko ‏@IvanSidorenko1 8h8 hours ago
#Syria #Aleppo #EasternAleppo #SAA #NDF 1.5 KM from Power Plant and 10 K M from Sheikh Najjar & 12 KM from Al Bab

armies from all unlikely corners continue to converge on minas tirith...

sputnik news:

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry is considering sending troops to fight Daesh militants in Syria at the request from President Petro Poroshenko, a UK newspaper cited its source in the Ukrainian government as saying Sunday.

ISIL terrorist group has released images showing its members use an FN-6 portable air-defense system against the Iraqi army

ISIL Militant Admits to Buying Arms in Ukraine, Sending to Syria Via Turkey
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Ukraine’s potential military support of the US-led international coalition operating in the Middle East will be discussed during US Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s visit to Ukraine this week, the Independent said.
"We have prepared a range of options for our support against Isis [Daesh] including in Syria, which could include troops. It could result in potential clashes with Russians," the outlet quoted the source as saying.


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/military/2016020 ... z3ysmUkbfX

they have recaptured the famous crusader castle in Homs around 65km from damascus
https://twitter.com/bm21_grad/status/693822510366867457

that place has changed hands multiple times

confirmation of iranian C130

^^ finally some cool khan technology put to good use lol though without the permission of the king lion.

now with sanctions off, can Iran obtain OEM support for its F-14 and C-130? they also have two oldest in-service 747-200 in the world.

the tomcat is one of the most beautiful fighters ever made...a man's plane..a growling plane...unlike the metrosexual hornet.

heavy fighting near aleppo thermal plant...tall smoke pipes in background

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ-189iW0AAAXxF.png
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ-1_P4WYAEBFER.png

gen zahreddine with his son yaroob
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaB5okiWcAA3MlP.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CaBhXLqWAAALyQL.jpg

caliphate cub child soldiers in hama fighting off a berm
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ_jKG5WcAEb1nY.png

SAA and Hezbollah it seems have started a massive offensive in western Aleppo from Zerbeh to north western parts. Troops from both sides had been moving in for long in these parts.

Early morning the SAA arty opened up followed by RuAF airstrikes in the area.

SAA is any way pushing against ISIS in Eastern Aleppo towards the Thermal Power plant where they are barely 04 kms away.

Also expected within this week is the final push to capture Kinsaba in Lattakia.

Some fresh areas captured yesterday in Eastern Ghouta, Damascus plus a village captured South West of Sheikh Miskeen, Daraa by SAA.