Levant crisis - III

[Singha]

Dabiq is now under the boots of turkish paid bandits

[Singha]

Within Syria‏ @WithinSyriaBlog
Replying to @WithinSyriaBlog
HTS linked Telegram channel just confirmed launching Grads on Jableh and Hemiem AB


19h
Within Syria‏ @WithinSyriaBlog
Replying to @SPQR_XXI
they used 30mm guns actually

20h
Within Syria‏ @WithinSyriaBlog
Replying to @WithinSyriaBlog
it's confirmed Russian Pantsir-S1 intercepted 3 Grad rocket fired from west #Idlib targeting Jableh city

[Singha]

Hymenim is right outside jableh.
Goog earth shows 11 fencers 11 frogfoot 4 platypus and 4 flankers parked when pic was clicked plus helis

It has both pantsyr and s400 onsite

[Singha]

Akp hounds have stabbed 3 kurds who went to vote in referendum at turkiye consulate Brussels

[Singha]

Southfront

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, in 2016 alone, about 2,500 tons of humanitarian aid were delivered to Deir ez-Zor with the help of the landing platforms. As representatives of the Red Cross told media, by the beginning of March, volumes of the cargoes had already reached 3,500 tons. Now, the intensity of humanitarian flights has increased even more.

Meanwhile, the situation in Deir ez-Zor will remain extremely difficult in the near future. On March 28, Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy said that terrorists of the Islamic State (IS) group continue to arrive to the area from Iraq. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, for the last week alone, at least 800 militants had fled without obstruction from Mosul to the direction of the Syrian border

[Singha]

looking at this french map, still plenty of isis activity in the supposedly secured ramadi-fallujah belt.

[Austin]

Looks like Saudi are running out of ideas nothing seems to work in Yemen so they hired a Pakistani Janral

Retired Pakistani general to command Saudi-based force

http://www.janes.com/article/69160/reti ... ased-force

Pakistan's defence minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, has confirmed that General (rtd) Raheel Sharif has been appointed as the commander of a Saudi Arabia-based multinational force.

Widely credited in Pakistan for leading the campaign against Taliban militants in the North Waziristan region, Sharif retired as chief of army staff in November 2016.

The announcement on 26 March ended months of speculation following reports in March 2016 that Saudi Arabia had offered him the position as commander of the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism: an initiative announced by Riyadh in December 2015 that now involves 41 countries.

While no details have been released about how the alliance will function, Pakistan's confirmation that it will be commanded by Sharif indicates it will have a permanent command staffed by retired officers.

A senior Pakistani government official told Jane's on 28 March that Islamabad will not oppose other retired military personnel from being employed by the force. However, the official said this clearance did not imply that Pakistan is making "any commitment" to contribute serving troops to the force.

Islamabad has so far rebuffed Riyadh's requests to make a contribution to the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, a move that would undermine Pakistan's relations with neighbouring Iran, which supports the Yemeni rebels.

[Austin]

Looks like Paki are the last bastion of Saudis they provide them with manpower and nuclear weapons

[Singha]

his force consists of merceneries from colombia, sudan and somalia mainly. maybe under his leadership, recently retired PA troops can also go and make some money.

[Singha]

out of work EpShield jihadis heading back to latakia for another go, a attack on west aleppo was repulsed today:

BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:25 A.M.) – The rebel forces that took part in Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Aleppo are reportedly heading to government front-lines in order to aid their jihadist allies fighting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

According to a military source in Damascus that cited Russian drone footage, many of the rebel fighters from Operation Euphrates Shield have left northern Aleppo after the conclusion of this base.

The military source added that with the large influx of jihadists in western Aleppo and northern Latakia lately, it is very likely that these militants came from the northern countryside of Aleppo.

[Singha]

BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:50 A.M.) – The Russian Navy fired several cruise missiles off the coast of Latakia on Thursday, targeting Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham’s positions in the northern part of this mountainous province.

Russian cruise missiles reportedly struck several sites along the Latakia-Idlib axis on Thursday, causing significant damage to the jihadist defenses near the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham stronghold of Jisr Al-Shughour.

According to a local source in Latakia, the cruise missile strikes could be heard from as far away as the provincial capital and southern city of Jableh, where the Russian Air Force is stationed.

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This powerful attack by the Russian Navy was in response to the rocket assault on the Hmaymim Military Airbase that was conducted by the jihadist rebels earlier this week.

[Singha]

close up look at the fearsome meteorit mine clearing vehicle
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=725_1412914119

#like button

[Singha]

yesterday was the 2nd attempt to attack hymenim ab with grad rockets. the earlier one last week the grads fell short. yesterday they must have ranged it in, as the pantsyr 30mm cannons reported took down 3.

the russians are going to play rough in idlib and west aleppo for sure. they are going to carpet bomb whatever they like and nobody but erdogan will care and even he cannot complain too loudly.

d-day is coming

[Austin]

his force consists of merceneries from colombia, sudan and somalia mainly. maybe under his leadership, recently retired PA troops can also go and make some money.

Hope not , You bet their next assignment will be KASHMIR

[Austin]

close up look at the fearsome meteorit mine clearing vehicle
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=725_1412914119

#like button

Must be a horrible place to fight with snipers at every nook and corner .......Hell is the Right Word

[Singha]

Ruins of jobar probably

[IndraD]

Singha saab
I have a Sy colleague in department and he tells me SAA has done very well. Sy may look like moth eaten on map, but most of areas occupied by IS is sparsely populated. 80% population of Sy is under control of SAA & Assad.
Even Raqqa is very small compared with Aleppo which was the prize catch.
Further acc to him most in Damascus believe US is behind IS. No one trusts Unkil in that area. Not Sy, Not Iraqis (whose Shite led govt & army is at war with IS), and certainly not Turks.

[Singha]

also, about 75% of the oil and gas fields are under assad's control or soon to be (north palmyra, east homs, deir azzor are pending or hanging on until relieved) . the kurds have some in hasakeh. the EpShield thugs have no oil/gas in north aleppo and idlib.

[chetak]

let's see if these dumb nuts amrekis actually have the gumption to go against the saudis

twitter

US amb to UN @nikkihaley confirms shift in US policy: defeating ISIS is priority, not removing Syrian Prez Assad

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/n ... ity-236710

[Singha]

assad and kurds have the oil and gas . idlib and north aleppo has no oil gas. so there will be a incentive for kurds and assad to settle matters and resume a normal trading relationship once dust settles

[Singha]

palmyra and deir azzor are the junctions of many pipes apart from being rich in POL. that is why assad is hanging in there at all costs.

the eastern homs shaer and maher fields below the middle green pipe he will get shortly

[Singha]

Amaq shows pix of secret isis training in yemen

https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article ... ral-yemen/

Looks like eastern yemen is fertile soil for next isis to emerge from under benign saudi protection.

[UlanBatori]

By the time this tamasha is over, the Armenian ghosts of D-e-Z will have the slight satisfaction of being reduced to a minority by those of the momeen. Plus the total destruction of the city down to rubble.

[Singha]

BREAKING: 150-200 Da'ish terrorists who entered from #Syria have been killed by #Iraq's Air Force in the Ba'aj area southwest of #Mosul. https://t.co/YD7DPwyKb8

[Singha]

Had come to break siege of tal afar
High value emirs or big boss might be holed up there

[Singha]

Al masdar

DAMASCUS, SYRIA (11:50 P.M.) – Russia’s Military Police troops were reportedly deployed to the Christian city of Mahardah in northern Hama countryside amid increasing threats of a massive attack by jihadi groups in the region.

Maharda, located 25 km to the north of Hama, has come under a swelling risk of being swept by jihadi rebels in nearby villages and towns following the recent battles in northern Hama.

Reports came in that unknown numbers of the Russian Military Police have entered Mahardah, accompanied by snipers who were deployed to the eastern outskirts of the city

[Singha]

Saa has reached arak gas fields east of palmyra but not started the fight for it yet.

[Singha]

Saa east aleppo front has slowed to crawl. I think they are happy to let sdf fight for tabqa and raqqa and capture it.

Kurds will withdraw north once done. Arab fighters of sdf units will stay and assad will have to negotiate with them post war..this he would have to do even if saa took raqqa ...you just cannot ignore 15000 armed tribal units. The usa wont find it easy to manage these 20 smaller militias vs a unified ypgj

So he is letting it be and conserving his powder for idlib and west aleppo.

[Singha]

Isis elements now stranded in east homs and sukhanah deserts are launching attacks on tabqa but beaten off. Tabqa town under siege

There is nothing but few small villages and desert from tabqa to deir azzor. Movements are easy to track with drones

[Bhurishravas]

Cross posting
https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terro ... -in-spring

As Euphrates Shield comes to an end, Erdoğan says Turkey will launch new anti-terror ops in spring

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday that Turkey is now preparing for new anti-terror operations elsewhere in the region against terrorist groups after completing the first stage of Operation Euphrates Shield.

[Singha]

He could start in ankara and istanbul lol

[Philip]

Baghdadi supposed to have escaped Mosul.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 65251.html
Xcpts:

st
Isis used 17 suicide car bombs 'to help leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi flee Mosul'
Endgames: Inside Iraq In a last dispatch from Iraq, Patrick Cockburn speaks to a Kurdish official who says Isis were jubilant to have their leader leave Mosul where the group faces defeat - but when the jihadis are gone there are fears about how the territory they once-held will be divided

Patrick Cockburn In Irbil
Iraqi boys walk on a destroyed street in a neighborhood recently retaken by Iraqi security forces during fighting against Islamic State militants on the western side of in Mosul AP
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis and self-declared Caliph, escaped from the siege of Mosul two months ago when the road to the west was briefly re-opened by a fierce counter attack by Isis fighters, according to a senior Kurdish official.

“Isis used 17 suicide car bombs from Mosul and some of their units from Syria to clear the road leading out of Mosul for a few hours,” said Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, in an interview with The Independent. He says that he and other Kurdish leaders believe that Isis would only carry out such an elaborate operation, in which they suffered heavy casualties, in order to bring al-Baghdadi to safety.

The escape took place after the fall of east Mosul and before the Iraqi security forces began their final attack on Isis-held west Mosul on 19 February. Mr Hussein says that Isis “brought 300 of their fighters from Syria and it was a very fierce fight.” The only possible escape route out of Mosul for Isis is to the west, through territory held by the Hashd al-Shaabi Shia militia who were forced to retreat, enabling Isis briefly to gain control of the road.

“I believe myself that they freed al-Baghdadi,” says Mr Hussein saying that the Isis unit from Syria returned there immediately and monitoring of Isis radio traffic showed that they were jubilant that they had carried out a successful operation. Al-Baghdadi, who became leader of Isis in 2010, is the movement’s iconic leader who led it to a series of spectacular victories including the seizure of Mosul in 2014. His death or capture would be a further body blow to the movement, which has lost much of its territory in Iraq and Syria.

Mr Hussein said that he expected Isis to survive after the fall of Mosul, where its fighters still hold the Old City which the UN says has a population of 400,000. “But I don’t think they will survive as a state,” he said. He expects Isis will revert to being a guerrilla-type organisation carrying out terror attacks but without its previous resources. Despite its current implosion, it still has sanctuaries in different parts of Iraq and Syria where it can try to regenerate itself.

A serious problem in Iraq is that there is no political plan for sharing power or running the regained territory after the fall of Mosul and the defeat of Isis. Mr Hussein said that Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, is expected in Irbil on Tuesday to see the status of the anti-Isis campaign for himself. Mr Kushner arrived in Baghdad on Monday, accompanying the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, and saw the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

When Mr Kushner does arrive in Irbil, he will find a situation which is bewilderingly complex even by the standards of Iraqi politics, and poses questions that may prove insoluble. When the offensive against Isis started on 17 October last year, it followed a military agreement between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi central government whereby the Kurdish Peshmerga would play only a limited military role, taking part of the Nineveh Plain east of Mosul. But there was no political agreement on how long term security can be provided to the mosaic of different parties, militias, sects and ethnic communities living in and around Mosul.

Mr Hussein says that there was no political plan for post-Isis Mosul put forward last year, because it would have raised divisive issues that might have prevented a military campaign against Isis. It is unclear who will hold power in Mosul in the long term or what will happen to Kurds and Christians who were forced out of the city. A short drive across the Nineveh Plain reveals political and sectarian rivalries and hatreds stopping any return to normality. There is not much sign of the Iraqi army and most checkpoints are manned by the Hashd al-Shaabi, often recruited from the Kurdish speaking Shia minority known as the Shabak.

The Sunni Arab population of Mosul has been traumatised by the six month siege, which is far from ended and is destroying a large part of the city. Mr Hussein says that it was a serious mistake in the planning of the Mosul operation to believe that Isis would be defeated quickly or the population might rise up against the jihadis. “There was an idea in Baghdad that there would be an uprising against Isis,” says Mr Hussein. The optimistic conviction that this would happen, and over-confidence about how quickly Isis could be defeated, led to the government telling people in the city to stay in their houses, a miscalculation that is leading to heavy civilian loss of life.

Mr Hussein does not doubt that Isis will eventually be defeated in Mosul. But, unless there is an agreement about what to do next, he says the “logic of war” will take over and everybody will hold onto territory they have already taken. Driving around government-held east Mosul there is a noticeable lack of local police or any other security forces to replace elite military detachments. like the Counter-Terrorism Service, that have moved into west Mosul to fight Isis there.

In the plains around Mosul, insecurity is even greater with many towns and villages, recaptured from Isis last year, still deserted. The Christian town of Qaraqosh, for example, retaken from Isis at that time, remains empty and without electricity or fresh water. Yohanna Towaya, a local Christian leader, says the community “will not go back unless they are guaranteed protection by the KRG and the Baghdad government.” He says that “two or three Christian families are leaving KRG each day for Lebanon or Australia.” Everywhere there are predatory militias on the payroll of different masters staking their claim to power, money or land , something which exacerbates the deep distrust felt by all communities in northern Iraq towards each other.

[UlanBatori]

McCain and his Moderate ISIS minions accuse Assad of zapping kitten shelters with nerve gas - again.

[Kati]

World
Syria’s Civil War Produces a Clear Winner: Hezbollah
Maria Abi-Habib,The Wall Street Journal Sun, Apr 2 8:31 PM PDT
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Few wars have seen such a tangle of combatants as Syria’s, from obscure and morphing rebel groups to Russians, Turks, Kurdish and Iraqi militias. From the chaos, one clear winner is emerging.

Returning to his ancestral Syrian town of Qusayr after years away, a man named Mohammed discovered a new militia patrolling the neighborhood. Patches on the men’s camouflage uniforms called them the Islamic Resistance of Syria. Their identity became clearer when he found a notice on his house claiming it for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

“Many houses have been confiscated with notices that they’ve been reserved for this or that family,” Mohammed said.

Hezbollah, founded in the early 1980s to fight Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, became involved in the civil war next door to protect its patrons in Damascus and a supply line of Iranian weapons. After years of growing engagement, including training thousands of mostly Shiite Muslim fighters and beginning to provide social services, Hezbollah is today stronger, more independent and in command of a new Syrian militia that its officials say is ready to be deployed to other conflicts in the region.

Hezbollah now fights alongside Russian troops, its first alliance with a global power. It was Hezbollah that devised the battlefield plan for Aleppo used by Syrian and Russian forces last year, according to Arab and U.S. officials who monitor the group.

Bassem Mroue/Associated Press A Hezbollah fighter in Syria stands by the group's yellow flag.
Thanks to money and arms from Tehran, Hezbollah now stands almost on a par with Iran as a protector of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, and as a sponsor of Shiite fighting forces in Syria.

“It’s hard to see people rising through Syrian intelligence or military ranks without the blessing of Hezbollah or the Iranians,” said Andrew Exum, until January a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.

With its growing might, this arch-foe of Israel, a group long labeled terrorist by the U.S., has gained a modicum of international recognition. It participated in negotiations sponsored by Russia following the rout of rebels from Aleppo. When China’s special envoy to Syria visited Lebanon in December, he carved out time to see Hezbollah’s foreign-relations chief.

Even before the Syrian civil war, Hezbollah had evolved beyond its guerrilla-group origins into a business and political enterprise that holds positions in Lebanon’s government and runs social programs such as schools and clinics. Now it is poised to capitalize on what many Middle East analysts expect will be an eventual end to the Syrian war that leaves Mr. Assad in power. Syria will have $180 billion of war-reconstruction needs, by a World Bank estimate. Hezbollah has experience at that. After a 2006 conflict with Israel, the group efficiently organized the rebuilding of battered Beirut suburbs.

“Hezbollah is well-positioned to make a lot of money” from Syrian reconstruction, said Matthew Levitt, director of the Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, a veteran of the Treasury and State departments.

U.S. and Israeli officials have watched the growth of Hezbollah with concern, worried it could draw on its Syrian recruits to pressure Israel from a new front along the Golan Heights, captured by Israel 50 years ago. In March, Hezbollah announced the formation of a Syria-based “Brigade for the Liberation of the Golan” devoted to wresting the heights back for Syria.

“Israel knows that what has happened in Syria has changed Hezbollah, which has developed from not just defending against Israel, but attacking it,” said a senior official from an alliance of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. “It has now developed traditional and nontraditional means of war. It fights like a guerrilla army but also like a conventional one.”

Israel hasn’t waited for a Hezbollah attack in the Golan, sending aircraft to strike Iranian shipments of sophisticated arms to Hezbollah.

Premier Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump during a February U.S. visit that Hezbollah’s expanded arsenal also endangers American warships in nearby waters, said diplomats briefed on the meeting.

The U.S. is well aware of Hezbollah’s expanding capabilities and will continue working closely with partners in the region to address threats the militant group poses, a State Department official said, adding that disrupting Hezbollah’s terrorist and military capabilities was a top U.S. priority.

Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Wall Street Journal Visitors to the Hezbollah Resistance Museum in Mleeta, Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s new clout is adding to fears among Gulf states that Iran’s power also is growing, drawing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to agree to work with Israel. Their focal point is now Yemen, where Mr. Trump has agreed to provide a Saudi-led alliance with stepped-up U.S. military assistance to counter the Houthis, who were trained by Hezbollah and supported by Iran. The Gulf states, in turn, have tentatively agreed to try to bring the Palestinians to the negotiating table with Israel.

Hezbollah’s role has implications for eventual postwar arrangements in Syria, given how its religious influence will likely compete with the secular politics of the Assad regime. Before the war, that government was improving relations with Saudi Arabia and once even considered a peace treaty with Israel. The improved ties have broken down, with the Saudis supporting Syrian rebel groups. Diplomats in the region say any normalization of relations after the war ends, likely with Mr. Assad still in power, will be even more difficult given Hezbollah and Iran’s newfound clout in Syria.

Hezbollah has helped the Assad regime survive partly by propping up its undisciplined military, which is plagued by corruption and defections. In Syrian villages retaken from rebel control, Hezbollah fighters have been seen holding Syrian soldiers by the wrist or collar and forcing them to return appliances or furniture looted from homes.

Syrian civilians say Hezbollah fighters sometimes openly disrespect Syrian troops on battlefronts, a stark change from its previous deference. Cars with blacked-out windows and Lebanese license plates screech up to Syrian checkpoints, the Hezbollah commanders inside refusing to get off their phones during identification checks or to answer questions posed by their Syrian allies.

When Russia and Syria wanted to put priority on retaking Islamic State’s capital of Raqqa last year, Hezbollah, along with Iran, insisted the focus instead be dislodging rebels from Aleppo to force them to the negotiating table, according to Mr. Exum and a Hezbollah official.

The strategy worked. The rebels evacuated Aleppo and agreed to participate in Russian-sponsored political negotiations now taking place in locations outside Syria.

When formed in the 1980s, Hezbollah was trained by Iran’s Quds Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that manages Iranian clients across the region. Hezbollah gave Lebanon’s disenfranchised Shiite community political power and won its loyalty by providing free schooling and health care in addition to protection.

Militarily, it remained a guerrilla force, better at launching rockets from the bushes than spearheading offensives on urban centers—until Syria’s civil war began in 2011. After wading in to protect its Iranian arms flow, Hezbollah stepped up its military commitment to counter Sunni extremists such as Islamic State, which regards Shiite Muslims such as Hezbollah as infidels. Hezbollah expanded its arsenal by gaining access to Russian and Syrian weapons under the cover of the civil war’s chaos.

mahmoud zayyat/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Fighters from Hezbollah carry the coffin of a comrade killed in Syria.
Shipments from Iran gave the Lebanese group precise and powerful armaments that it previously lacked, such as Russian-made Yakhont missiles, said a former State Department official. Cooperation with Russia on the battlefield further increased the flow of weaponry.

“Russian stocks are open to Hezbollah,” said a Hezbollah official who travels frequently to Damascus. “Our fighters eat and sleep alongside theirs and we’re sharing everything, always.” While an end to Syria’s civil war could change the dynamics, Middle East analysts generally think Hezbollah’s expanded access to weapons is secure.

Damascus was once considered a Hezbollah proxy master, but Western diplomats say the Lebanese group is carving out its own zones of influence across Syria by training local fighters. They include Shiites and Alawites, the latter being adherents of a branch of Shiite Islam that includes the Assad family.

Western diplomats estimate the number of these fighters loyal to Hezbollah’s command, which Hezbollah calls al-Ridha Forces, and known locally as “Hezbollah in Syria,” in the tens of thousands. Hezbollah officials say it is lower. Hezbollah’s presence in Syria stretches 250 miles from the northern tip to the south, longer than the length of Lebanon.

Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to both Iraq and Syria, said the autonomy Hezbollah enjoys in Syria arises partly because “Iraq is more important for Iran in many ways than Syria is,” while to Hezbollah, next-door Syria is more important.

Messrs. Crocker and Exum said Hezbollah’s strategy in Syria mirrors the Lebanese group’s involvement in Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion. At that time, Hezbollah provided training inside Iran to Iraqi Shiite militiamen. Iran relied on Arabic-speaking Hezbollah officers to bridge a language gap that Iran’s Farsi-speaking Quds Force couldn’t overcome. A collateral result was to seed a Hezbollah social influence in parts of Iraq that persists.

In Syria, Hezbollah is playing for lasting political and social influence, Western and Arab diplomats say. The group has broadened its mandate from countering Israel to fighting Sunni extremist groups across the region to protect religious minorities—not only Shiites but also Christians. It has begun replicating inside Syria the social programs that brought it loyalty and political success at home.

Hezbollah has created a Syrian branch of its Imam al-Mahdi youth movement, a Boy Scouts-type group whose Facebook page shows videos of children getting coloring books, saluting at military parades and somersaulting over fire pits. Part of the idea is to funnel young people to Hezbollah-sponsored local fighting groups and to the larger ranks of Syrian civilians—accountants, hairdressers and farmers—who maintain a fierce dedication to what they call the resistance.

Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Wall Street Journal Hezbollah has formed a Syrian branch of its youth movement.
Among Hezbollah supporters in Syria, deference to the Damascus regime is eroding. Photos on the walls in Syrian towns show dead fighters, described as martyrs, against a backdrop of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei. There are few photos of Mr. Assad.

Coffins of Syrians who fought with Hezbollah used to come home draped with both Syria’s flag and Hezbollah’s bright yellow banner showing a green hand holding up a rifle. Over the past year, they have started arriving with just the Hezbollah flag.

In Qusayr, the Syrian town where Hezbollah has confiscated homes for its supporters, Hezbollah militants held a military parade in November showcasing antiaircraft systems and tanks. “To host a military parade commending yourselves in another country is as bold as you can get,” said a former State Department official. “It’s telling your masters ‘We’re here now.’ ”

The boldness carries over to the negotiating table in talks to decide Syria’s fate. Hezbollah has dangled offers to Syrian rebel groups weary of fighting. A pending deal with one called Saraya Ahl Alsham, in the southwest Syrian town of Qalamoun, would allow people who fled to return with a promise of protection from Syrian government prosecution or conscription. Hezbollah has said it would guarantee the agreement.

“Hezbollah is in charge of the whole region, and they control everything here,” said Abu Ishak, a spokesman for Saraya Ahl Alsham. Tweaking an Arabic proverb to describe the Syrian regime’s absence from the negotiating table, he said, “Hezbollah designs it, and the Syrian regime wears it.”

Noam Raydan and Rory Jones contributed to this article. More From The Wall Street Journal
Cities See a 'Bright Flight'
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 52000.html
How to Win a Real-Estate Bidding War

[Singha]

Irgc and hezbollah might lead one of the prongs of the idlib and west aleppo endgame offensive. Qassem suleimani photo in hama has been released to media

[Austin]

Rebel warehouse with chem weapons hit by Syrian airstrike in Idlib – Russian MOD

https://www.rt.com/news/383522-syria-id ... -chemical/

The Syrian Air Force has destroyed a warehouse in Idlib province, where ammunition dump containing chemical weapons was being produced by militants before being delivered to Iraq, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman has said.

The strike, which was launched midday Tuesday, targeted a major rebel ammunition depot east of the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

The warehouse was used to both produce and store shells containing toxic gas, Konashenkov said. The shells were delivered to Iraq and repeatedly used there, he added, pointing out that both Iraq and international organizations have confirmed the use of such weapons by militants.

The same chemical munitions were used by militants in Aleppo, where Russian military experts took samples in late 2016, Konashenkov said.

The Defense Ministry has confirmed this information as “fully objective and verified,” Konashenkov added.

According to the statement, Khan Sheikhoun civilians, who recently suffered a chemical attack, displayed identical symptoms to those of Aleppo chemical attack victims.

At least 58 people, including 11 children, reportedly died and scores were injured after a hospital in Khan Sheikhoun was targeted in a suspected gas attack on Tuesday morning, Reuters reported, citing medics and rebel activists. Soon after a missile allegedly hit the facility, people started showing symptoms of chemical poisoning, such as choking and fainting. The victims were reportedly also seen with foam coming out of their mouths. While the major Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, and other pro-rebel groups put the blame on the attack onto President Bashar Assad’s government, the Syrian military dismissed all allegations as propaganda by the rebels.

We deny completely the use of any chemical or toxic material in Khan Sheikhoun town today and the army has not used nor will use in any place or time, neither in past or in future," the Syrian army said in a statement.

The Russian military stated it did not carry out any airstrike in the area either.

However, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, commenting on the incident, was quick to point to the Syrian government as a culprit, saying that it bears responsibility for the “awful” attack.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed Mogherini, accusing the Syrian government of perpetrating the attack calling it “brutal, unabashed barbarism.” He argued, that besides the Syrian authorities, Iran and Russia should also bear “moral responsibility” for it.

[Philip]

The West/BBC is already painting it as an attack by the Syrian regime and is clamouring for war crimes invetigations. Where has the British Bullsh*t Corporation clamoured for a war crimes investigation into the recent Iraqi bombing ,acknowledged by the US where,over 230 people,including children were killed? Western hypocracies exposed in these reports from the battlefield.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 46011.html
Air strikes on Isis-held Mosul 'leave 230 civilians dead', reports local media
US Central Command says it is researching reports of extensive loss of civilian life in third such alleged incident in recent weeks

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/a ... 54968.html
UN: Alleged Mosul chemical attack amounts to war crime
Investigation urged into possible use of toxic agents as Iraq hospital chief says he is certain chemical gas was used.

(*War crimes call here only because it was perpetrated by ISIS!)

[Bhurishravas]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39500946

Iraqi civilians killed as IS militants attack Tikrit.

This is likely to continue all over iraq and Syria for many years at least.
IMHO, there will be ethnic cleansing two-ways to clearly divide Shia and Sunni areas in middle east. Orcs dont believe in harmoniously living together.

[nam]

Cross posting
https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terro ... -in-spring

Stuff that we have been feed about TFTA photos of Turkish forces, TFTA Leos, F-16s,"best infantry", second largest NATO army ya da ya da. ... to fight against rag tag daesh they hide behind paid militias !

Nor were they able to put in enough men, TFTA Leos getting hit sitting on hill tops and F-16s nowhere to be seen!

The only performance has been artillery shelling unarmed civilians in Syrian towns. No wonder the Pakis look up on them as God.


And we have IA. 60 years of day in day out Infantry driven COIN... not even a uffff yet. We are really privileged.

[Singha]

syrians are enlarging their perimeter in deir azzor...some sections of ISIS have probably moved out in two directions

Al baaj in iraq to try and help high value leaders escape Tal afar with feinting attacks on the PMU
to fight in Tabqa and nearabouts.