West Asia News and Discussions (YEMEN, gulf)

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 24 Nov 2015 13:22

increasingly smelling like the gulf_bandits goats are cooked

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Nov 2015 14:27

confirmation that it was a turkish aam. the turks claim they warned the jet a few times over 10 mins.

Wapo:
BEIRUT — Turkish military aircraft shot down a Russian jet Tuesday after Turkey says it violated its airspace near the border with Syria.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Nov 2015 14:29

I guess the Rus will just have to ship in a few smerch and tochka units to pound the border 'safe zones' then.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 24 Nov 2015 14:39

the S400 shipment was to warn turkey/nato...

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 25 Nov 2015 10:21

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/19472/

Over 20 Saudi-led mercenaries were killed and 70 others were injured as the Yemeni army and popular committees frustrated their attempt to advance towards al-Omari military camp in Taiz province, according to battlefield sources.

The Yemeni forces also bombarded a Saudi warship on Mocha coast in Taiz.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 25 Nov 2015 13:20

The Moron-of-Camhas shown awful servility in recent times,when XI Gins visited the UK and now prostrating and prostituting British foreign policy to vested interests.Perhaps he too has ambitions of boarding the lecture circuit as Tony B.Liar has done and reap rich rewards for cravenly licking Arab backsides.

Cameron is letting oil-rich Gulf bullies dictate his foreign policy
Ken Macdonald
Fearful of missing out on lucrative arms deals, the UK has betrayed the last vestiges of the Arab spring with its review of the Muslim Brotherhood
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... rotherhood

Of all the things the government might wish to encourage around the world, now more than ever, democracy and its accompanying dignities should be high on the list. And certainly there was praise in Downing Street when four years ago, amid jubilation and a stunningly high turnout, the Arab spring brought free and fair elections to Egypt. This was a distant cry from the present-day horrors of Islamic State and its visitations of violence across borders: surely the polling booths were no threat to western city streets.

The Muslim Brotherhood-inspired government that followed this festival of voting showed its inexperience and did too little to build broader support, particularly with liberals. Yet it easily avoided the criminal abuses of power and violence that have characterised military dictatorship in Egypt since Gamal Abdel Nasser – and it had the considerable merit of being elected, in a region where that was a remarkable distinction. So it was no surprise that senior members of the ruling Freedom and Justice party were lauded guests in London, even visiting Chequers to break bread with David Cameron in his country home.
UAE told UK: crack down on Muslim Brotherhood or lose arms deals
Read more

It wasn’t to last. The silence characterising London’s and Washington’s response to the military destruction of Egypt’s democracy in 2013 may have smelt more of complicity than disapproval, but worse was to follow. The prime minister was not only disinclined to speak up for his former dinner guests in their time of need; he was about to turn on them himself.

Any examination of the thuggish new military government could wait. Executions, mass shootings and show trials were put to one side as Cameron ordered a hostile UK government review into the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities in Britain, just months after tanks had forced its elected government from office. Egyptian generals, saved only by state immunity from being prosecuted for crimes against humanity, might be honoured guests in London, but the deposed ministers of an overthrown democracy were not.

British policymakers, it seems, were not in the mood to indulge these inexperienced, even inept, new democrats. And we may be sure that other, less tenderly minded players in the region noticed.

Any lingering puzzlement at the prime minister’s behaviour was emphatically dispelled when the Guardian recently revealed documents exposing the price tag likely to have attached to any alternative British policy that stood for democracy or failed to demonise victims of the military violence that destroyed it.

These documents made clear that suggestions from its detractors that the Muslim Brotherhood review was just a cynical device to ingratiate Downing Street with nervous allies in the Gulf weren’t just paranoia, as the government repeatedly claimed. In fact, the truth was cruder: principles, the sheikhs had made clear, would cost money.

Senior UAE figures explicitly threatened that, unless the British turned decisively against the Muslim Brotherhood during its period in government billions of pounds worth of arms deals would be lost. And, as Paddy Ashdown told the BBC yesterday, it took just a phone call from the Saudis to persuade the prime minister to launch his review “almost off the top of his head”.

It would be naive to dispute that an argument exists for Britain’s arms industry, as an export asset, to be protected and sustained. Morality and international comity are not always easy companions and our alliances in the Gulf have real strategic value. But in allowing himself to be bundled into quite such an ugly corner Cameron may have confused the wider national interest with the passing satisfaction of bank transfers. He may have passed too much control over our Middle East policy to despots addicted to cruelty.

Certainly, in the light of the unspeakable horrors in Paris, for Britain to have selected for special treatment and condemnation the only mass political movement in the Arab world to have sought legitimacy through suffrage seems a singularly tragic error.
PM should order inquiry into funding of jihadism, Paddy Ashdown says

In making it, the prime minister may have rubbed up against parts of the British state possessed of much finer instincts than his own. Sir John Jenkins, the former UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who led the review, is not so supine in the face of oil-rich tantrums. He has reportedly declined to find that the Muslim Brotherhood represents a serious security threat in the UK at least – and he will not be bullied into tempering his view.

Most probably it is this unwelcome conclusion that has caused repeated postponements to a prime ministerial announcement railing against Islamists in our midst, so keenly anticipated by securocrats, to follow hard on the review. Instead, having foolishly agreed to humour Britain’s friends in the Gulf by traducing participants in a democratic experiment that the oil kingdoms were certainly right to fear, Cameron may now be reluctant to announce substantial measures against the Muslim Brotherhood for fear of provoking their lawyers into bringing a judicial review to force the publication of a report whose unhelpful conclusions he would prefer to keep hidden.

It would be damning irony indeed if the prime minister’s sole achievement in this demeaning affair was to give Whitehall a lesson in the emptiness of appeasement.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 26 Nov 2015 10:55

HRW & Amnesty condemn Saudi airstrike on Yemeni factory with UK-made missile - Nov 26, 2015

The NGOs estimate that over 2,000 civilians have been killed since the Saudi Arabian coalition began an aerial assault on its neighbor on March 26.

vijaykarthik · Post by **vijaykarthik** » 27 Nov 2015 11:41

Did anyone pass it on yet?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestief ... good-news/

In Yemen War, Mercenaries Launched By Blackwater Head Were Spotted Today -- Not Good News

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 27 Nov 2015 11:45

CaMoron's bumchums plan mass slaughter of humans shortly!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 50631.html
Saudi Arabia executions: Kingdom to behead 50 men convicted of terrorism offences despite threat of Shia revolt
Impervious to international opinion, the desert kingdom is poised to execute more than 50 people, three of whom were under 18 when their alleged crime took place. All because of a power struggle within the ruling family

Bill Law
8 hours ag

Saudi authorities appear set in the next few days to carry out a series of beheadings across the country of more than 50 men convicted of terrorism offences. Among those facing execution are three young men who were juveniles when they were arrested.

The publication earlier this week of an article in the newspaper Okaz, which has close links to the Saudi Ministry of the Interior, has convinced families of the accused and concerned human-rights organisations that the executions are imminent.

Sources have said that the plan is to behead the men in several cities across the kingdom, most likely after Friday prayers.
Sister of artist sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia appeals to King

Already this year Saudi Arabia has carried out at least 151 beheadings but these would be the first that deal with allegations of terrorism. Last year a total of 90 were executed but none were for terrorism offences. It is believed that seven of the condemned men are Shia from the region of Al-Awamiyah in the oil-rich Eastern Province. Saudi Shia have long protested over discrimination and mistreatment by the Sunni central government.

A leading Shia cleric, Sheikh Nimr al Nimr, arrested in a shootout with security forces in 2012, is among those thought to be facing execution.

The mothers of five Shia released a letter on Wednesday alleging that their sons, three of whom were juveniles at the time of their arrest, were subjected to torture while in custody. The letter says: “We affirm that our children did not kill or wound anyone. The sentences were based on confessions extracted under torture, trials that barred them from access to defence counsel and judges that displayed bias towards the prosecution.”

Baqer al Nimr, the older brother of Ali al Nimr and a nephew of Sheikh Nimr, told The Independent his brother was 17 and a juvenile when he was detained in February 2011. “Ali is a smart kid, he likes to play football, he is a photographer. He wasn’t political, he was just asking for his rights, for the rights of the Shia.”
Read more

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Saudi Arabia executions now at 'unprecedented rate'
Saudi Arabia executes man on same day Charles arrives

Six months after the arrest, he saw Ali in jail. “I could see his nose was broken and I asked him what happened. He said ‘they punch everybody in here’.” Ali’s mother told Baqer that when she had first seen her younger son “she saw a lot of bruising on his face, she told me she didn’t recognise him”.

Saudi authorities consistently dismiss such claims.

Sevag Kechichian, Amnesty International’s researcher on the Middle East and North Africa, said: “Denials are absolutely not enough when there is clear evidence that points to the contrary.”

He called for a thorough and impartial investigation of the torture allegations: “These executions should not happen. Amnesty International is against the death penalty in all circumstances.”
Where most executions were carried out in 2014

Last month, the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, said he did “not expect [Ali] al Nimr to be executed”, indicating the decision would be a victory for British diplomacy, after the UK was criticised for its links with the Saudi government. Campaigners have called on the British Government to take a more proactive stance in raising human rights issues with the kingdom.

A group of UN experts and the European Parliament have also urged Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of Ali al Nimr. The timing of the executions, should they be carried out, has much to do with a power struggle going on between Mohammad bin Nayef, the Interior Minister and crown prince, and Mohammad bin Salman, Minister of Defence, deputy crown prince and favoured younger son of King Salman.

For several years, the 30-year-old Mohammad bin Salman has served as his ailing father’s gatekeeper – the king is believed to be suffering from dementia. But since the king ascended to the throne in January his son has amassed vast new powers. In addition to his appointment as Defence Minister, he serves as chief of the royal court, and chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs.

The Shia public will not be fooled and if the executions go ahead there will be a Shia revolt
London-based Saudi, Saad al Faqih

Saad al Faqih is a Saudi critic of the ruling family living in London. “Mohammad bin Salman has taken everything,” he said, adding: “Mohammad bin Nayef wants to make a statement. He wants to be seen as very strong by killing 52 people in one go.”

Mr Faqih says that Okaz would not have gone ahead with the article without clear guidance from the Ministry of Interior: “If Okaz published, it is authentic. They would not have been allowed to publish without the express permission of Mohammad bin Nayef.” He described the condemned men as “pawns in a political game”.
29-saudi-execution.jpg
A man waits to be executed in Saudi Arabia. The desert kingdom is poised to put more than 50 men to death in the next few days (Ruddi Christensen)

Included among those facing execution are said to be supporters of al-Qaeda and Isis. Mr Faqih believes that Mohammad bin Nayef wants to claim there is no sectarian motive to the executions by including those convicted of belonging to Sunni terrorist organisations with the Shia.

“The Shia public will not be fooled and if the executions go ahead there will be a Shia revolt,” Mr Faqih added.

Baqer al Nimr says that if his brother and the others are beheaded, he hopes there will be no violence. “We do not want to be held responsible for any blood,” he said.

For now, though, his thoughts are with his kid brother. “I taught him how to ride a bike and now he is in solitary confinement and every time they open the door he must be thinking, ‘Is now the time that they have come to kill me?’”

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 27 Nov 2015 12:21

"Fools step in where angels fear to tread"."Those who have not learnt the lessons of (their) history are doomed to repeat it"
But who can expect CaMoron to behave in un-buffoonery fashion?
As said before,CaMoron is desperate for his moment in the sun.He knows that Russia and Putin will not leave until they feel that the job is finished in good measure-to destroy ISIS. Therefore,rushing to bomb ISIS now,hanging onto the coattails of Putin CaMoron thinks will allow him to declare like Dubya Bush later on ,"mission accomplished",and declare a famous British victory! He and his spindoctors will then try and rewrite history so that ballads may be sung henceforth in true English style all in praise and remembrance of CaMoron-the-Great,the ISIS slayer!

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 50601.html
Air strikes in Syria: David Cameron's strategy can only repeat our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan
Britain should not be fighting such a dangerous antagonist without a better knowledge of the battlefield

David Cameron’s plan for joining the war in Syria is a worrying document, full of wishful thinking about the political and military situation on the ground. It is a recipe for repeating past failures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, by misjudging the strength of potential enemies and allies alike.

Mr Cameron presents a picture of what is happening in Syria and Iraq that reflects what the Government would like to be happening. If he and those responsible for carrying out British policy truly believe these views, then we are in for some nasty surprises.
Read more
How David Cameron set out his case for war in Syria

It is important to know if Isis is getting stronger or weaker in Iraq under the impact of more than 5,432 air strikes, 360 of them by British aircraft, carried out by the US-led coalition. The RAF has launched 1,600 missions, showing how difficult it is to target a guerrilla force from the air and it will face the same problem in Syria.

Mr Cameron says that with coalition air support, Iraqi forces have halted Isis’s advance and “recovered 30 per cent of Iraqi territory”. In reality, the situation is much worse. Isis captured Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, in May, routing the Iraqi army despite strong air support from the US. The territory it has lost is peripheral to its core areas in Mosul and along the Euphrates. The strongest anti-Isis forces in Iraq are the Shia militias backed by Iran, which the coalition does not support with air power.

PM: Bombing Syria is necessary

In Syria, allies on the ground are going to be the armed opposition who are supposedly fighting both Isis and Bashar al-Assad. These forces are dominated by the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, a Sunni hard-line group allied to Nusra. The one place where the “moderates” had some strength was in the south where they launched a much-heralded offensive called “Southern Storm” this summer, but were defeated.

Let's Bomb Isis. It can't do any harm.
Cameron warned bombing Syria is a knee-jerk reaction to Paris attacks
David Cameron under fire over 'magical' 70,000 Syrian moderates figure
Britain in 'top tier' of Isis targets, says Cameron
David Cameron sets out case for airstrikes against Isis in Syria

Mr Cameron’s explanation of his strategy is peppered with references to “moderates” whom he wisely does not identify because their existence is shadowy at best. It would, indeed, be very convenient if such a powerful group existed, but unfortunately it does not.

Mr Cameron’s Government does not seem to have taken on board that it is intervening in a civil war of great complexity and extreme savagery. There is a supposition that, if Assad were to depart, there could be a transitional Syrian government acceptable to all Syrians. A more likely scenario is that the departure of Assad would lead to a collapse of the state and the triumph of Isis and the self-declared caliphate.

Britain may only be contributing minimal forces to the war against Isis, but it should not be fighting such a dangerous antagonist without a better knowledge of the battlefield.

habal · Post by **habal** » 27 Nov 2015 13:36

Israel to Open First Diplomatic Mission in Abu Dhabi

Foreign Ministry director visits United Arab Emirates' capital to finalize opening of mission, officially accredited to renewable energy agency IRENA, after years of discussions.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 27 Nov 2015 16:01

Doubt it, UAE rulers will be under attack if they open an embassy.

Shanu · Post by **Shanu** » 27 Nov 2015 19:58

I have a confusion.. Is there any truth in the news of Colombian mercenaries getting UAE citizenship. I can understand these Blackwater guys being paid in dollars for their job in Yemen, but giving non-Muslims permanent residence in the Holy Arab land is a bit too much, don't you think. Or are the Gulf monarchies so desperate that they are willing to kill Shias and stuff the space up with Christians?

Gurus, please enlighten.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 28 Nov 2015 11:11

The butler to the royal house of Saud,and ace a*se-licker of Bedou backsides,CaMoron ,may like his predecessot Tony B.Liar attain the dubious distinction of being labeled by history,today and tomorrow,as yet another British war criminal.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 52166.html

.
UK could be prosecuted for war crimes over missiles sold to Saudi Arabia that were used to kill civilians in Yemen

Advisers to the Foreign Secretary step up legal warnings that the missile sales may breach international humanitarian law
James Cusick Political Correspondent |

Saudi Emir of Mecca, Prince Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz welcomes David Cameron to the Saudi city of Jeddah in 2012 Getty

Britain is at risk of being prosecuted for war crimes because of growing evidence that missiles sold to Saudi Arabia have been used against civilian targets in Yemen’s brutal civil war, Foreign Office lawyers and diplomats have warned.

Advisers to Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, have stepped up legal warnings that the sale of specialist missiles to the Saudis, deployed throughout nine months of almost daily bombing raids in west Yemen against Houthi rebels, may breach international humanitarian law.

Since March this year, bombing raids and a blockade of ports imposed by the Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Gulf states have crippled much of Yemen. Although the political aim is to dislodge Houthi Shia rebels and restore the exiled President, Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed, with schools, hospitals and non-military infrastructure hit. Fuel and food shortages, according to the United Nations, have brought near famine to many parts of the country.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other NGOs, claim there is no doubt that weapons supplied by the UK and the United States have hit Yemeni civilian targets. One senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) legal adviser told The Independent: “The Foreign Secretary has acknowledged that some weapons supplied by the UK have been used by the Saudis in Yemen. Are our reassurances correct – that such sales are within international arms treaty rules? The answer is, sadly, not at all clear.”

The aftermath of an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on Sanaa on 13 July; 1.5 million people have been displaced

Although the Department for International Development recently received assurances from the Saudi government that it did not want a famine to develop on its doorstep, there is concern within the FCO that the Saudi military’s attitude to humanitarian law is careless. Officials fear that the combination of British arms sales and technical expertise used to assist bombing raids on Yemen could result in the UK being hauled before the International Criminal Court on charges relating to direct attacks on civilians.

Another government lawyer warned: “With Britain now expected to join the United States and France in the war on Isis in Syria, there will be renewed interest in the legality of the assault in Yemen. It may not be enough for the Foreign Secretary to simply restate that we have yet to carry out any detailed evaluation [of UK arms used in the bombing of Yemen].”

The legal adviser said: “Yemen could be described as a forgotten conflict. Inside the Foreign Office a course-correction is seen as crucial. It is a proxy war, with the Saudis believing Iran is behind the Houthi rebellion.”

Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International’s arms trade director, told The Independent: “There is a blatant rewriting of the rules inside the FCO. We are not supposed to supply weapons if there is a risk they could be used to violate humanitarian laws and the international arms trade treaty – which we championed. It is illogical for Philip Hammond to say there is no evidence of weapons supplied by the UK being misused, so we’ll keep selling them to the point where we learn they are being used.”

Most of Saudi’s weapons are supplied by the United States. With help from the UK, the US is also offering logistical support, airborne refuelling, with a specialist Pentagon-approved team providing intelligence on targeting. This month the Obama administration authorised a $1.29bn (£858m) Saudi request to replenish stocks of specialist missiles, a move seen by critics as an effort to assuage Saudi anger over the US-brokered nuclear deal with Iran, the kingdom’s key regional rival.

In July, Britain authorised the transfer of Paveway IV missiles from the RAF to Saudi Arabia. The MoD approved a switch in positions on an order book from the arms manufacturer, Raytheon UK.

The contract, worth close to £200m, secured the supply of hundreds of the air-launched missiles to the Saudi air force over the next two years. The Raytheon precision weapons are used by both the RAF and its Saudi counterparts on Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets, supplied by BAE Systems. The order switch ensured that the Saudi arsenal, depleted through multiple daily bombing raids on Yemen over the past nine months, would not be exhausted.

This week both Amnesty and Human Rights Watch issued new evidence, based on their own field research, which they said showed that a factory in the Sanaa governate that was not involved in any military production, was destroyed by a UK-made cruise missile.

David Mepham, the UK director of HRW, said a GM-500 air-launched missile made by the UK firm Marconi had destroyed the factory and left a civilian worker dead. He said this was only the latest “multiple well-documented case of violations of the laws of war by the Gulf coalition in Yemen. UK ministers have consistently refused to acknowledge this”.

Doubts within the FCO over the legality of the British contribution to the Saudi war in Yemen have echoes of the debate in the run-up to the Iraq war. In 2003 Elizabeth Wilmshurst, an FCO deputy legal adviser, resigned after questioning the legality of joining in the invasion of Iraq without a defined resolution from the UN.

The photos Saudi Arabia doesn't want seen
A Government spokeswoman said:

"We do not recognise those comments but HMG takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. We rigorously examine every application on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. Risks around human rights abuses are a key part of our assessment.

"The MoD monitors alleged International Humanitarian Law (IHL) violations, using available information, which in turn informs our overall assessment of IHL compliance in Yemen. We regularly raise our concerns with the Saudis, and have repeatedly received assurances of compliance with IHL. It is important that transparent investigations are conducted into all incidents where it is alleged that IHL has been breached, and we are offering advice and training to the Saudis to demonstrate best practice and to help ensure continued compliance with International Humanitarian Law."

Asked by The Independent whether the UK government regarded relations with the Saudis as too important to risk by asking awkward questions about the bombing of Yemeni civilian targets, another FCO adviser responded: “There are many Elizabeth Wilmshursts around here at the moment. Not all are being listened to.”

The full extent of suffering inflicted on Yemen’s population by the war has been laid bare by a series of independent assessments. The aid charity Médecins Sans Frontières describes Yemen as a “country under siege” in a new report. The UN’s next humanitarian assessment of Yemen is expected to state that close to 5,000 civilians have been killed and almost 25,000 wounded since the beginning of the bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels.

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The UN estimates that 21 million people now lack basic, life-sustaining services, and more than 1.5 million of them have been displaced from their homes. Unicef estimates that as many as 10 children a day are being killed, with six million people facing food insecurity. The World Food Programme says most Yemeni provinces are now classified as only one level below a full famine crisis.

Frances Guy, a former British ambassador to Yemen, described the famine and the humanitarian situation as “tragic”. She added: “We should also be talking about Yemen in the context of security, asking where is the next place that Isis will go? The answer is Yemen. Because of the instability caused by the bombing, we have helped created the next space for Isis after Syria. This is where they will retire to.”

There are fears that both Isis and al-Qaeda’s Yemeni franchise, Aqap, are taking advantage of the instability caused by the bombing campaign to expand their influence within the country.

kit · Post by **kit** » 28 Nov 2015 14:39

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/ ... HMvJV8G.97

can make it to Ripleys believe it or not !

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 16:34

Israel Qatar ksa uae are in same camp vs Iran shia iraq and hezbollah

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:08

This seems to be 400% Berkeley-Stanford:

S-400 radar is also capable of discriminating moving objects on the ground, such as cars or military vehicles at a distance of 600 kilometers.

How is that? Flat Earth theory?

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:14

Drone's eye view of Islamist attack near Aleppo.
So the Islamists also operate drones, obviously. The only counter is lots of airborne resources, to take out these pests. Look how fast those vehicles move across rough terrain!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:19

Syrian army advances against Islamic State east of Aleppo: Syria state TV http://reut.rs/1Q4enNY
(from Syrian state TV as reported by Reuters) IOW liars twisting lies...

headline flashed on state TV said the army had captured the two villages of Kaskis and Akula and wide areas of agricultural land, seizing tunnels and fortifications built by the jihadists, and were demining areas mined by the group.

The villages are about 60 km (40 miles) east of Aleppo.

The highway mentioned in the report runs southeast from Akula to the west of the Euphrates river. The road passes through Islamic State-held Tabqa on its way to Raqqa, which is 150 km (90 miles) from Akula.

The Syrian government and its allies have also made gains against Islamic State to the southeast of Homs.

They are also waging offensives against non-Islamic State insurgents in western regions of Syria, gaining ground in the northwestern province of Latakia and to the south of Aleppo, while losing territory in Hama province.

(Writing by Tom Perry)

Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/28/us-m ... ICSfUi7.99

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:28

ARA News: Islamist terrorists impede army progress; claim attack on missile base

ALEPPO – Syrian regime’s army forces, supported with a Russian air cover, launched Friday a large-scale military operation in an attempt to retake the villages and towns held by opposition fighters in the southern countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria, military sources reported.

The regime mobilized its troops several days ago in the southern fighting front of Aleppo. ..Opposition had been able to repel the army’s advance so far, inflicting it with painful losses in soldiers and equipment.

Speaking to ARA News in Aleppo, Mustafa Suleiman, a spokesliar for Aleppo’s rebels, said the pro-regime forces set up fierce attacks on several locations of the armed opposition in the southern countryside of Aleppo.

“The regime’s broad operation was preceded with heavy rocket bombardment on headquarters of the pests in the towns of Khalsa, al-Hamira and al-Iss,” he added, pointing out “Fierce clashes broke out between the Sultan Murad Brigade, Thuwar al-Sham and the Army of Conquest on the one hand, and the regime’s army and allied troops on the other hand.”

“Our fighters were able to destroy the regime’s missile base of Kornet at the hill of al-Iss,” Suleiman told ARA News.

The rebels have also destroyed a machine gun (23 caliber mm) along with a tank on the fighting front of al-Hamira with TOW missiles, according to the same source.

The source confirmed that the pro-regime helicopters dropped four barrel bombs on the towns of Khan Toman and Zirba in the southern countryside of Aleppo. No reports of civilians casualties.

Over the past two days, several villages and towns fell to the rebels in Aleppo’s southern suburbs, but the Syrian army forces are trying to cut off the opposition’s supply routes in a bid to regain control of the points lost in the region.

Reporting b: Taim Khalil

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:30

Old Report: 1 year ago?

Reconstruction in Homs - WITHOUT HALLIBURTON?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 17:30

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 17:33

Al-Eis and ICARDA is where they want a solid grip on the M5 highway. scene of fierce fighting.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:39

US urges Turkey to seal off border with Syria

.... would need an estimated 30,000 turkeys to do this.

The Obama administration is urging Turkey to ensure Islamic State (BONATO_IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria receives no supplies through the Turkish border, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources in Washington. The request involves sealing off part of the frontier between the western Turkish town of Kilis and Jarabulus in eastern Syrian.
“The game has changed. Enough is enough! The border needs to be sealed,” the WSJ cited a senior Obama administration official as saying in a message from the US government to Turkey. “This is an international threat, and it’s all coming out of Syria and it’s coming through Turkish territory.”

The US has called particular attention to a small part of the border between Jarabulus and Cobanbey, which is being used extensively by IS to transfer munitions and other supplies from Turkey to Syria, and foreign fighters in both directions.

A Pentagon official told the WSJ that cordoning off a section of the border would require the deployment of approximately 10,000 additional turkeys, while a “broader humanitarian mission” would demand a 30,000-strong turkey force.

“There’s no local, capable, motivated force that is prepared to clear this area at this time,” the WSJ cited a senior US defense official as saying. “There are two sides to every border. If Turkey is motivated to seal their border, there is nothing that’s stopping them from using their gobbler forces to do so,” the official said.

Big turkeys say some steps in this direction are already being taken, although they believe the number of turkeys necessary for the task is exaggerated, according to the WSJ.

Turkey has a 640,000-strong gobbler force, estimated to be the eighth largest in the world, and Ankara is said to want to control things on their own terms.

“Turkey is determined to clean Daesh (Arabic acronym for Islamic State) from the 98 kilometers of border between Kilis and Jarabulus,” a senior Turkish government official said as cited by the WSJ. “There is no need to receive any kind of warning or advice from anyone, including our US partners.”

“Just closing down the border would not be enough to solve our problems and would not address Turkey’s demands,” a Turkish official said.

In July, President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed in principle about a ground operation in Syria. It was understood that the forces on the ground would be Turkish-backed rebel groups consisting of Syrian Arabs and Turkmens, while the US would provide air support to the operation. Ankara also expected the US Air Force to maintain a no-fly zone over northern Syria, to protect rebels from the Syrian Air Force.

However, once Russia moved in and began a counter-terrorist operation of its own in Syria in late September, the US-Turkey plan to conduct a ground operation with rebel forces was scrapped.

After the attack of a Turkish F-16 fighter jet on a Russian Su-24 bomber on Tuesday, the Russian task force in Syria was enhanced with S-400 Triumph long-distance air defense complexes that cover most of Syria’s territory.

Both the American and Turkish air forces halted their strikes on Syrian territory around the time Russia deployed S-400 systems to the Khmeimin airbase, from where it stages its own incursions against (washington-supported, Moderate Gentle Democratic) Islamic State.

READ MORE: No US airstrikes in Syria since Russia deployed S-400 systems

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:46

From Singhaji's fav. source PetoLucem: Situation bad north of Idlib - what is the role of the turkeys in this? seems close to their border.
I would think Putinski would be happy to catch in the open and pulverize the JAN (Al Nusra?) and any turkeys, hain? Probably trigger another desperate intervention by the Flying Turkeys, getting an F-16 to 'land' inside Syria?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 17:49

https://twitter.com/metesohtaoglu/statu ... 8814715904

turkey has deployed its flagship KORAL radar ew system on the border with syria

http://www.armyrecognition.com/idef_201 ... 51509.html

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 17:52

UlanBatori wrote:From Singhaji's fav. source PetoLucem: Situation bad north of Idlib - what is the role of the turkeys in this? seems close to their border.
I would think Putinski would be happy to catch in the open and pulverize the JAN (Al Nusra?) and any turkeys, hain? Probably trigger another desperate intervention by the Flying Turkeys, getting an F-16 to 'land' inside Syria?

thats a March26 map. since then the Govt got chased out of both Idlib and Jisr al Shugur.

Turkeys so called buildup is a clever ploy to "fight ISIS" by attacking the YPG!!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 17:53

Oops! PL seems to have stopped that whole line there.

Nov. 28: Loy.sources:#SAA forces have entered Aqulat 'Aqulah village in eastern #Aleppo countryside. #Syria

Who controls Aleppo now? ISIS or Pro-Democracy Moderate Islamist terrorists?

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 28 Nov 2015 18:35

Oh, sorry! Got mixed up between Levant dhaga and Yemen dhaga.

Yagnasri · Post by **Yagnasri** » 28 Nov 2015 19:38

UlanBatori wrote:Drone's eye view of Islamist attack near Aleppo.
So the Islamists also operate drones, obviously. The only counter is lots of airborne resources, to take out these pests. Look how fast those vehicles move across rough terrain!

I wonder which vedio game they have lifted for this vedio.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 28 Nov 2015 19:50

Aleppo west south north is nusra and co.
East is isis.

Shanu · Post by **Shanu** » 29 Nov 2015 10:37

Continuing on the trend of growing IS satellite units, here is the latest news coming out of Libya.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/ ... l#comments

Iraqi commanders have been arriving from Syria, and the first public beheadings have started. The local radio stations no longer play music but instead extol the greatness of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

When the Libyan arm of the Islamic State first raised the group’s black flag over the coastal city of Sirte almost one year ago, it was just a bunch of local militants trying to look tough.

Today Sirte is an actively managed colony of the central Islamic State, crowded with foreign fighters from around the region, according to residents, local militia leaders, and hostages recently released from the city’s main prison.

As the Islamic State has come under growing military and economic pressure in Syria and Iraq, its leaders have looked outward.

“Contingency planning,” said a senior Defense Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence. Western officials involved in Libya policy say that the United States and Britain have each sent commandos to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence on the ground. Washington has stepped up airstrikes against Islamic State leaders.

The Islamic State has already established exclusive control of more than 150 miles of Mediterranean coastline near Sirte, from the town of Abugrein in the west to Nawfaliya in the east. The militias from the nearby city of Misrata that once vowed to expel the group completely have all retreated.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 29 Nov 2015 13:05

So the Pro-Democracy Color Revolution Ayrab Spring replaced Gaddafi and Sad-dam with ISIS. Must be jumping for joy in the Pentagon.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 30 Nov 2015 15:56

so as someone i heard on the radio said recently - you create a vacuum after the russians leave afghanistan and create al-qaeda, you create a vacuum after al-qaeda is hammered and you get daesh... and if you hammer daesh you'll get spawn of daesh/boko-haram/blah blah...

actually what you need to do is dismantle wahhabism

panduranghari · Post by **panduranghari** » 30 Nov 2015 18:17

Lalmohan ji,
Its best if we dont call ISIS as daesh. Why help taqqiyya?

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 30 Nov 2015 19:22

daesh is not a favourable term, it is a derogatory term in arabic, which is why it is used by the arabs who are against them

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 30 Nov 2015 21:46

Proper term is Barack Obama's Pro-Democracy Moderate Western-Backed Saudi-Funded Turkey-Supported Oil-Stealing Islamic Rapist Terrorists
That would be BOPDMWBSFTSOSIRT, but it is too long

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 30 Nov 2015 22:15

The greenest of the green

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 01 Dec 2015 02:47

World | Mon Nov 30, 2015 7:11am EST
Related: World, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Three Saudi border soldiers killed in attack from Yemen
ABU DHABI
Three Saudi border soldiers were killed after exchanging fire with "enemy elements" trying to cross the border from Yemen to attack two watch towers, Saudi Arabia's official SPA news agency said on Monday.
The attack occurred on Sunday evening in the Harath district of Jizan, the SPA said.
Saudi Arabia has been fighting Houthi forces in Yemen for eight months and has led a coalition of Arab states in a military campaign to drive the group from the capital Sanaa.
Several dozen soldiers from the kingdom have been killed in clashes along the country's long, rugged border with Yemen.
Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/30/us-y ... RuCvcff.99

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 01 Dec 2015 15:17

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/n ... lers[quote] Hiding in plain sight: inside the world of Turkey's people smugglers

Thousands of refugees are continuing to board boats to Europe everyday despite the worsening winter weather
Refugees board dinghy in Turkey
Migrants and refugees board a dinghy to travel to the Greek island of Chios from Çeşme in Turkey on 9 November.
Patrick Kingsley in Izmir
Sunday 29 November 2015 15.23 GMT

At Emre’s boat shop in central Izmir, one of Turkey’s main ports, you can’t turn around without bumping into a pile of inflatable rubber boats. On this day there are 16 stacked in beige boxes, all numbered with the same inscrutable code, SK-800PLY, and all newly delivered from China. If Emre’s maths is right, all of them will be discarded on a Greek beach within a couple of days. For Emre’s shop is where you can buy boats that take refugees to Europe – and where they are still being sold at a rate of nearly a dozen a day.

“In the summer we were selling more,” Emre tells a potential Syrian customer. “But right now we’re still selling six of the cheaper boats every day, and five of the more expensive ones. How many do you want?”
Turkey putting Syrian refugees 'at serious risk of human rights abuse'
Read more

European officials met with their Turkish counterparts on Sunday, in a bid to persuade Turkey to do more to stem Europe’s greatest wave of mass migration since the second world war. Despite the worsening weather, another 125,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Greece from Turkey in November – about four times as many as during the whole of 2014. And the biggest proportion probably passed through this quarter of Izmir.

Smuggling happens in plain sight here – leave Emre’s shop, turn right up Fevzi Paşa boulevard, one of Izmir’s main drags, and the signs of the smuggling economy are everywhere. “On the left are the hotels where the smugglers house their clients,” says Abu Khalil, a smuggler who wanders down the street with the Guardian. “And on the right are the insurance shops.” This is where the passengers deposit their fees, which are then released to the smugglers when word comes that they have reached the Greek coast.

Street vendors sit on the pavement, selling party balloons to refugees – not to celebrate with, but to act as watertight cases during the sea crossing. Many shops on the street now sell lifejackets, at least as a sideline. One kebab shop has a dozen for sale, including little ones for children, and there are even a couple in a shop that specialises in police uniforms. But it is the shoe and clothes shops that are really cashing in, with some now pushing lifejackets as their main product.

“We only sell two or three pairs of shoes a day,” says one shop assistant on Fevzi Paşa boulevard. “But we’re still selling between 100 and 300 lifejackets. In the summer sometimes it was a thousand – the factories couldn’t keep up.”

The blatant nature of the smuggling trade in Izmir has led the perception that Turkey turns a blind eye to illegal departures from its western shoreline. Turkey not only bars most Syrians from legal work, giving them little incentive to remain in the country, but officials appear to do little to stop their movement. The hotels and shops near Fevzi Paşa boulevard are squeezed between two police stations that lie less than a kilometre apart – and yet police only sporadically respond to a phenomenon that occurs close to their doorstep.

There is a similar sense of permissiveness in Çeşme, the coastal town west of Izmir that acts as the springboard for smuggling trips to the Greek island of Chios. Taxi drivers in Çeşme are wary of taking passengers to the departure points themselves, for fear of being arrested for smuggling, but on the approach to the beaches concerned the Guardian found they were unguarded and accessible to all.

The Turkish government rejects these criticisms. It says police have arrested more than 200 major smugglers since 2014 and have turned back nearly 80,000 of their passengers – even as the country hosts about 2.2 million Syrian refugees, more than any other nation in the world. “At this point, we are doing everything in our power to stop the flow of refugees and prevent additional casualties,” said a Turkish government spokesman, in an email to the Guardian. “In our experience, however, the main issue is that refugees are willing to try again and again if they are caught.”

The refugees crisis on the Greek island of Leros

The numbers bear out this last point. The flow of refugees has fallen since October, when up to 10,000 were leaving for Greece every 24 hours, but it still remains high. After a few days’ lull due to bad weather, the daily departure rate almost hit the 5,000 mark again last week, according to Greek government data.

Smugglers say this is down to two things. “The main reason is the explosion of the war,” says Abu Khalil, the smuggler in Izmir, who is a Syrian Kurd. Like many others, he argues that recent Russian airstrikes in rebel-held parts of Syria have made the situation even less liveable.

The second factor is that those affected now also find it cheaper to leave. Two smugglers said the cost of a seat on an inflatable boat to Greece has fallen from $1,200 in September to $900 a fortnight ago, and finally $800 in recent days. “People who didn’t have the money before, they can come now,” says Abu Khalil, an Arabic pseudonym that means “Khalil’s father”.

Some passengers, like the family of Alan Kurdi, start from Bodrum, a smaller Turkish resort town to the south, best known in Europe for its hotels and beaches. Others are driven all the way from Istanbul but it’s simpler to start from Izmir and Bodrum, which involve shorter drives to the places where the smugglers launch their boats. The beaches nearest Bodrum are the gateways to the Greek islands of Kos, Leros and Kalymnos. Those who end up in Chios, Samos and Lesbos – the choice is left to the smuggler, rather than the passenger – will have left from Istanbul or Izmir.

The latter city is no stranger to refugees. In 1922, thousands of Izmir’s Greek residents fled to the harbour, after Turkish troops re-took the previously Greek-held city and a week-long fire burnt much of it down. For days, western ships moored just off the shore refused to rescue them.
YouTube footage of the Great Fire of Smyrna (as Izmir was then known)

Today, people find it far easier to leave the city. The warren of streets that surrounds Fevzi Paşa boulevard is full of brokers sidling up to scared Syrians, easily identifiable by their backpacks and apprehension, and offering them trips to Greece. Once a deal is struck, they are hustled into shabby hotels that the smugglers often block-book for this purpose. Late at night, the smugglers arrange for trucks and buses to drive them for a few hours through the darkness to the relevant shore. Sometimes this is a hellish trip that sees people squashed into former cattle trucks. Sometimes the process is far less arduous and they just take public transport.

Different smugglers describe different working practices, but each network operates in broadly the same way. There are the brokers, like Abu Khalil, who must find the 40 or 50 passengers needed to fill each boat and keep them entertained in the hotels until it is time to go. Then there are the drivers who bring them to the shore, and the workmen who deliver the rubber boats and engines and assemble them at the departure points.
Libya's people smugglers: inside the trade that sells refugees hopes of a better life
Read more

If the network smuggles mainly Syrian passengers, then the network will likely be staffed by Syrians, usually working for a Syrian boss. But that boss will also need Turkish partners, such as the landowners who control the beaches from which the boats leave. Typically, these landowners will work with several networks and will take a significant cut of their profits. Their complicity is crucial to the smugglers’ success.

“You can’t just leave from any place, so I would say the Turkish guy is the major player in the process,” says Abu Khalil. “Without him, the trips would not take place.”

A smuggler from another crew says his group rents beaches from several different landlords, to give themselves the options of sending people to several different Greek islands or changing locations at the last minute if the police suddenly arrive. “We keep an eye on the points, and once we see one is clear, we use it,” says Mohamad, a Syrian smuggler. “Nothing is haphazard and everything is planned.”

Each network makes vast profits, although their accounting differs from group to group. Mohamad sets out his accounts as follows: in peak season, a boat of 40 passengers paying $1,200 per person brought in a turnover of $48,000. The brokers would take between $75 and $300 of each payment, leaving at least $36,000 for the rest of the group. During the September peak, the most expensive boat cost $8,500 and the engines cost $4,000, although prices have since fallen. The mechanics and the driver collectively need another $4,000, while hotel rooms for the refugees collectively cost about $500 a night. The beach owners are paid in different ways but often charge a 15% levy on every passenger’s fee – meaning that they pocket about $6,000 per boat.
Trading in souls: inside the world of the people smugglers
Read more

At the end, the lead smuggler is left with at least $13,000. If he undercuts his brokers and also squeezes onboard another 10 passengers, he could end up doubling his profit, so many cram in 50 passengers rather than the promised 40, and send the boats out without enough fuel. Migrants who get cold feet on the beach sometimes report that they are forced onboard at gunpoint.

But still, people keep coming. Despite the worsening weather, and despite the fallout from the Paris attacks, at least one of which is thought to have involved someone who took a boat from Turkey, thousands are still leaving shores near Izmir every day.

To Abu Khalil, it is obvious why. Most Syrians cannot work legally in Turkey, while the war is getting worse in Syria. “We know about what happened in Paris but we are desperate,” he says. “And we have no other option.”

Abu Khalil would know. In the coming days, he will finally try to get to Europe himself.[/quote]