Bharat Rakshak

Spinster wrote:

udaym wrote:So what does KSA get in return?

Russia Could Propose Saudi Arabia Arms Contracts Worth $10Bln

Assad head on a platter
Or

Assad enjoys walks along the river Moskava also a dacha in Urals

The fact that the pilot's last communication, from 30,000 feet, reported a malfunction in the airplane's wireless devices and that he asked for an emergency landing indicates that the airplane may have been in the process of being hacked externally through its satellite wireless connection. It is interesting to note that the report of the "malfunction in the wireless devices" has not been published in a single U.S. newspaper or media outlet.

Secondly, the fact that this was the pilot's last communication is significant. Even if the plane had stalled, as it seems to have done, and fallen from 30,000 feet, the pilot still would have had several minutes to communicate with air traffic controllers in Cairo - unless his communications link had been cut, which appears to be the case.

Viktor Yung, a director general of Metrojet, said, "from the moment since the events took a tragic turn, the crew became incapacitated," adding, there was not "a single attempt to get in touch (with air traffic control) and report the situation on board."

NO MAYDAY

Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority reported that no Mayday signal was sent from the plane and that communication with the aircraft was normal until the aircraft disappeared from radar. This is a very telling piece of information because it indicates that the normal communication channels with the cockpit crew had been cut before the plane was remotely hijacked and sabotaged.

Last contact with the flight from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbing to 30,875 feet, after which it showed erratic altitudes and speed indications. Last altitude recorded was 27,925 feet at a speed of just 62 knots. Apparently, the plane had lost all engine power. The fact that the last altitude recorded by Flightradar24 was 27,925 feet indicates that the plane's ADS-B transponder stopped functioning - or was turned off at that point.

An official in the Egyptian Air traffic control has told local reporters that the last communication with the pilot of the Russian plane was while he was flying at 30 thousand feet. The pilot complained of malfunction in the wireless devices and he asked for an emergency landing at the nearest airport.

And now, the 50 immortals

But first the Special Forces deployed to northern Syria — Obama’s 50 immortals — need to fulfill their mission. Say one name: Kuweyres. Everything depends on what happens in Kuweyres, a military airbase.

Here are the facts on the ground. The SAA, at least for now, has secured its all-important supply route to Aleppo. What they’re aiming for next – supported by Russian air strikes – is much more complicated; cut off for good the resupply routes from Turkey for the gaggle of Salafi-jihadis/”moderate rebels.”

Arguably the only local “capable” force for this mission is the Syrian Kurd YPG. But to solidify their position, the YPG need to build a strong link between Kobani and the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

And guess why they can’t do it; because the Pentagon is telling them to strike south instead, towards Raqqa, ISIS/ISIL/Daesh “capital.” And Turkish intelligence – which controls the resupply corridor – warned the YPG they will be bombed to oblivion if they try to expand their northern Syria base.

So the YPG needs protection to keep moving. It won’t come from Ash’s people. And the Russians are far away, with no boots on the northern Syrian ground.

The SAA though is only a few kilometers away from Kuweyres. It will be a nasty battle. But if they capture the military air base, they get the perfect hub for Russian and Syrian jets to protect the YPG as they close the gap between Kobani and Afrin.

The Pentagon well knows the Russians have made a deal with the Syrian Kurds; the SAA, with as much Russian support as possible, takes Kuweyres; the YPG advances towards Afrin; and the Russians keep the Turks in check. Without this chain of crucial events, it will be virtually impossible for the “4+1” – Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah – to cut off the Turkish-enabled resupply corridor for the myriad Salafi-jihadi/”moderate rebel” gaggle.

And here’s where Obama’s 50 immortals come in. They have been sent to the YPG command to “assist” them in not fulfilling the deal. What else is new? It makes more sense for Ash’s boys to work side-by-side with Ayman al-Zawahiri’s goons. The Pentagon and al-CIAaeda; what could possibly go wrong? Gotta keep the global war on terror (GWOT) as much an endless war (remember Rumsfeld?) as possible. Now that’s a good reason to stop whining.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army, popular forces and Hezbollah forces, backed up by Syrian and Russian air forces, lifted the two and a half-year-long siege of Kuweires military airbase after killing hundreds of ISIL terrorists on Tuesday, as unconfirmed reports said the groundbreaking victory was gained under the leadership of Iran's renowned Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani.
The Syrian troops and Hezbollah forces rolled into the Kuweires airport at the end of their daylong last phase of massive operations.

Heavy clashes were underway around the Kuweires airport since early this morning and the Syrian army was defusing ISIL's minefield before they could reach their friends in the base.

There are unconfirmed reports from the battlefield about witnessing Iran's Major General Qassem Soleimani leading the battle.

Sources from both sides of the war said General Soleimani was the top field commander and has been leading the CentCom of the Syrian army-NDF-Hezbollah at least for the last two days.

FNA is unable to confirm or reject these reports independently.

(Syrian forces praising God after victory in Kuweires)

The Syrian army, the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Hezbollah combatants, backed up by Russian warplanes, launched the last round of their over one-month-long joint operations against the ISIL terrorists' positions in Eastern Aleppo near the Kuweires airbase this morning, and won full control over the strategic Aleppo-Raqqa Highway.

The attack started from multiple directions and ended up in cleaning up several villages from ISIL. Hundreds of the ISIL militants were killed or wounded in this morning operations.

In the next stage, Syrian and Russian Air Forces massively targeted the last strongholds of the ISIL militants around the Kuweires airbase.

In addition to the Syrian and Russian airstrikes, the artillery and mortar units of the army also shelled the ISIL strongholds to weaken their defense lines as much as possible to lay the ground for the combatants of Hezbollah, the army soldiers and the National Defense Forces to launch the final phase of their joint operations to lift the nearly 2.5-year-long siege on Kuweires airbase.

Intelligence sources said hundreds of ISIL militants were fleeing the Kuweires region to safer areas to save their lives after suffering heavy casualties in the joint massive attack of the Syrian Army and Hezbollah with the Russian air backup.

After cleaning the region, the pro-government troops had to defuse a minefield planted by the ISIL before they could reach the gates of airbase.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists have besieged the Kuweires airbase for over 2.5 years now, but the base itself is under the Syrian army's control.

Hundreds of Syrian forces are under a tight siege at the airbase as a result of the occupation of vast areas surrounding the airport by the terrorists.

The Syrian army's helicopters supply foodstuff and other needs to the Syrian troops defending the airport.

Russia and Iran-backed offensive helps regime break Isil's two-year siege on Syrian airbase

Regime troops reached the Kweiris airbase, state television says, where almost 1,000 soldiers were trapped

By Louisa Loveluck
7:40PM GMT 10 Nov 2015
Syria’s army has broken Isil's two-year siege on an airbase in eastern Aleppo, marking the first major success for a military campaign backed by Russia and Iran.

State television said on Tuesday that regime troops had reached the Kweiris airbase and were in the process of securing it.
Almost a thousand soldiers had been trapped on the base, surviving through air drops of food and munitions.

Kweiris was home to the first jets used by the Syrian regime to target anti-government protesters in July 2012. But under siege it had become a morgue for soldiers who died on the base, prompting rare protests in a key regime stronghold, Tartus, that demanded the bodies were brought home.

An AFP photographer at the scene on Tuesday said soldiers had broken through Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) lines west of the base and reached the troops inside.

Syrian and Iranian troops backed by Iraqi militia launched a major offensive to reach Kweiris last month, backed by Russian air strikes.

Moscow intervened militarily in Syria’s war at the end of September, launching hundreds of air strikes against rebel groups fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and backing regime offensives on half a dozen fronts across the country.

These have mostly stuttered as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have poured in anti-tank and other heavy weapons in support of vetted rebel groups.

The recapture of the airbase marks the first major victory of this campaign, and banishes the looming spectre of a massacre. Isil had taunted personnel there with threats of slaughter, sending leaflets to remind them of the fate of hundreds of soldiers executed when the extremist group overran another air base, Taqba in Raqqa province, last year.

A group of Syrian pro-government fighters walk in the village of Sheikh Ahmad near the Kweyris military air base, east of the Syrian province of Aleppo
A group of Syrian pro-government fighters walk in the village of Sheikh Ahmad near the Kweyris military air base, east of the Syrian province of Aleppo Photo: AFP

But the victory was bittersweet, coming as the regime’s coastal heartland of Latakia suffered one of its bloodiest attacks since the beginning of Syria's conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said that at least 23 people were killed and another 40 wounded in two explosions.

The blasts hit two separate areas of the city, one from rocket fire and the other either from a rocket or a planted explosive device, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Home to many members from Mr Assad’s Alawite sect, Latakia has been spared much of the pain of a war which has killed over a quarter of a million people in four and a half years.

Russia’s intervention is understood to have been prompted by fears that rebel forces were pushing towards the area.

Why is Russia bombing Syria? Russia says the strikes are to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). But most of their first strikes have been against non-Isil groups who are opposed to President Assad’s regime.

Why would Russia bomb non-Isil groups? Russia’s spokesmen are sometimes vague - referring to Isil and terrorists in the same breath. By “terrorists” they mean the same as President Bashar al-Assad - anyone part of the armed opposition. And it so happens that the gravest threat to the regime’s core areas comes from non-Isil rebels.

What is Russia’s position on President Assad? President Putin says he believes the survival of the Assad regime is very important. This is why it make sense for Russia to target non-Isil groups, who pose the greatest threat to the Syrian regime, first.

Are the non-Isil groups being bombed terrorists? They cover a spectrum of opposition groups: from an alliance called Jaish al-Fatah - Army of Conquest - to "moderate” brigades backed and even, according to one account, trained, by the US. Jaish al-Fatah is made up of hardline groups that include Jabhat al-Nusra, which is aligned to al-Qaeda, so they are formally designated by the West and the United Nations as terrorist.

What will happen next? All eyes are watching to see whether these bombing raids are followed up by a ground offensive.

‘US not interested in defeating ISIS’

Sharmine Narwani
Published time: 9 Nov, 2015 12:20

The US is not interested in defeating ISIS but would want to control its movements to create a geopolitical balance on the ground and provide the US-led coalition with leverage at the Vienna talks, said Middle East geopolitics analyst Sharmine Narwani.

RT: There are more than 60 countries in the coalition fighting against Islamic State. How hard is it for the US to keep them all united?

Sharmine Narwani: I think the US is playing loose with international law. To start off with, this coalition is illegitimate. The reason to have signed up 60 countries is more to create some kind of cover, some kind of legitimacy for these illegal operations in Syria. The main struggle is probably with the key Arab members of the coalition who were the starting members of the coalition - five Persian Gulf countries and Jordan included - because they have quite disparate objectives from the US.

READ MORE: ‘US-led coalition disjointed in fighting ISIS as some members have own plans’ – Iraq's ex-PM

RT: How many countries in the coalition are actually contributing to its goals?

SN: That is a very interesting point, because even though there are 60 countries listed in the coalition, there are only 11 who have contributed in Syria. There are two groups: like I mentioned, the Arab states – I call them the Sunni states, because they provide some kind of Arab Sunni legitimacy for the Americans; the other states are the UK, the US and France – three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Canada and Australia.

What is interesting about this is – of those five Western countries it is only Canada that stepped in relatively early, when things kicked off last year. It was the US mainly with the Arab States, and the UK, France and Australia have only come in the last three months, as well as Turkey, who is a new entrant in this coalition of 11, not 60.

RT: It's been more than a year since the US-led bombing campaign started. Why has the coalition failed to prevent ISIS from seizing new territory?

SN: Again, interesting that Turkey is a new entrant in this coalition of 11 bombing Syria. It only came on board around I think two months ago, in August, when it launched strikes against ISIL. Now, about a month ago we, after Turkey launched its airstrikes, were looking at still only about three airstrikes against ISIL – the rest were against Kurdish targets. So Turkey is an example of another Sunni state in this coalition of 11 that has disparate objectives from the US. So Turkey’s interest may be on the Kurdish issue, but for instance, in the other Arab Sunni states - their interests diverge from the Americans, because they are interested in regime change in Syria, whereas the Americans have taken a back seat on that in recent months. So it is very, very hard to keep this coalition together, because there are no common objectives among its 11 partners.


Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Ocotber 8, 2014. © Umit Bektas

Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Ocotber 8, 2014. © Umit Bektas / Reuters

RT: What are the reasons, do you think the coalition is breaking apart? How can the coalition increase the efficiency of its actions?

SN: I see the coalition breaking apart or being redundant for two reasons. One is the lack of common objectives among the 11 actors participating in the coalition, but the other is more in lines with military strategy in fighting any war or conflict, anywhere. We’ve heard this over and over again in the Syrian conflict – you need a coordination of air force and ground power. The US-led coalition does not have this. Part of the reason it doesn’t have this is because it entered Syrian air space and violated international law in doing so against the wishes of the Syrian government. So it cannot coordinate with the Syrian government who leads the ground activities, whether it is the Syrian army or various Syrian militias that are pro-government; or Hezbollah – a non-state actor from Lebanon; or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their advisory capacity. The Russians of course do enjoy that relationship, so their airstrikes are not only both valid and legal, but also useful – a coordinated effort to target ISIL and other terrorist organizations.

RT: Do you think the US doesn’t have real intentions to fight ISIS, and that is the main reason of instability of its coalition?

SN: Absolutely. The US-led coalition has failed in attaining goals to defeat ISIS, not just because it cannot lead a coordinated military effort in air, land and sea in Syria, or because it lacks legality, or because the member states of the coalition have diverging interests. But I think the US interest as well has to be called into question. I mean: does the US want to defeat ISIS? I would argue very strongly based on what we’ve seen in the last year that the US is not interested in defeating ISIS. The US is interested in perhaps controlling ISIS’ movements, so that it helps to create a geopolitical balance on the ground that will provide the US government and its allies with leverage at the negotiating table. So they don’t want ISIS to take over all of Syria [because] that poses threats to allies in the region. They don’t want ISIS and other terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and others, and the various coalitions they have formed to lose ground, because at the end of the day the only pressure there are going to be able to apply on the Syrian government and its allies is what is happening on the ground. And they need something; they need advantage on the ground that they can take with them to the negotiating table in Vienna.

Paul wrote:What is going on with the Chechen shock troopers. They are the elite of the Deash. They will need to be carefully conserved to fight for another day. But the Russians cannot let them get away. So where will they hide next? I can think of one likely place.....

“This airfield had been surrounded by ISIS [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist group] for two years,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, said in a daily briefing. “Intelligence on the locations of the terrorist fire positions and support points around Kweires was provided by the Syrian opposition and cleared by the communication center in Baghdad.”

Spinster wrote:Syria is the New Angola of 1970 80s, In Angola SU US PRC and Portugal via NATO screwed the people.

Singha wrote:well YIP you have been AWOL for a while too...

One of the main points of focus when world powers gather in Vienna this weekend for talks about post-war Syria will be to agree upon a list of terrorist groups so as to determine whom to include in future negotiations.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond predicted a lot of "horse trading" in compiling the list, but said virtually everyone, including the United States, is likely to end up with some allies on the list who they have to sever ties with.

Hammond predicted Saudi Arabia to fight hard against the inclusion of some Sunni Islamist factions, like Ansar al-Sham, which the Saudis have financed for years.
Turkey is likely to lobby for the inclusion of the Kurdish YPG, which is already recognized as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. However, the YPG is backed by the United States and Russia, who will likely object to banning one of the key opponents of Islamic State in northeast Syria, Antiwar.com reported.
Another US ally that might be excluded from talks is the faction of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that operates around Hama and Idlib, which has been fighting alongside al-Qaeda.
The standoff over the terrorist list comes on top of the disagreements that remain on the future of President Bashar Assad. Russia and Iran are open to the possibility of Assad remaining in power, which the United States, Great Britain and their Persian Gulf allies oppose.

habal wrote:singha, looking once more at map, it is evident that daesh controls only those territory which is important to laying a pipeline from qatar to turkey.

Iranian, Afghani, and Iraqi paramilitary fighters arrive to the Kuweires front alongside Hezbollah. Major operations expected.