File image.
The Russian military has wiped out a field command post belonging to the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade “Magura” of Kiev forces near the settlement of Korovintsy in the Ukrainian region of Sumy.
Video footage posted to social networks on April 23 showed multiple pinpoint strikes on the field command post. The devastating attack was reportedly carried out with Iskander-M tactical ballistic missiles and Tornado-S guided artillery rockets.
As a result of the strikes, two communication antennas, three communication and command vehicles, and five motor vehicles were destroyed. A total of 65 Ukrainian troops were also killed or wounded, including 40 signal officers.
The main armament of the Iskander-M system, the 9M723 missile, is said to have a range of nearly 500 kilometers. The highly-maneuverable missile can be armed with different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead, a fuel–air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, an earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions.
The missile is guided by a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system. It can be also equipped with an optical seeker with a digitized scene-mapping area correlator system for terminal guidance.
Meanwhile, the 9М542 rocket fired by the Tornado-S system is guided by a GLONASS-aided inertial navigation system and has a maximum range of up to 120 kilometers. The rocket is typically armed with a cluster munitions warhead or a high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
The Russian military launched a major offensive in the Russian region of Kursk, which neighbors Sumy, last month. Kiev forces were expelled from the region as a result. Currently, an unknown number of Ukrainian troops are trapped along the region’s border and the Russian military is developing its offensive into Sumy.
In recent weeks, Russian missile and drone strikes inflicted heavy losses on Kiev forces in Sumy. The strikes targeted everything from troops, to vehicles and large gatherings.
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very soon, a solemn parade will be held in moscow to commemorate the 80th anniversary of victory in the great patriotic war. traditionally, the heads of foreign states have been invited to moscow. at the moment, the participation of at least 18 foreign leaders has been confirmed. incl. xi, lula , modi, fico, vusic among others
syria’s stolen daughters: the hts campaign to enslave alawite women in post-assad syria, the mass abduction and sexual enslavement of alawite women under sharaa’s rule mirrors the darkest atrocities of isis – yet is met with global silence. since december, when the former al-qaeda affiliate, hayat tahrir al-sham (hts), toppled the government of bashar al-assad, syria has witnessed a chilling wave of mysterious kidnappings of young women, predominantly from the alawite community.
just watch and eat popcorn. ukraine will sink nato and the western faggots. they are too deep into this lost project, sunk cost disorder. big dumb egos cannot admit defeat. i cannot wait for eu to collapse. europe needs to be crushed and carved up by everybody. neanderthals do not learn, all they know is endless war. i think a hiroshima bomb needs to be dropped on brussels
evidence continues to emerge that these women, primarily from the alawite religious sect, have been abducted and taken to live as sex slaves in idlib governorate, the traditional hts stronghold, by armed factions affiliated with the new syrian government. shockingly, the mass kidnapping and enslavement of alawite women now being carried out by hts-affiliated factions mirrors the enslavement of the thousands of yezidi women by isis during the 2014 genocide in sinjar, iraq.
the activist who spoke out in a now deleted facebook post, hiba ezzedeen, a syrian activist from idlib, described her encounter with a woman she believes was captured and taken to the governorate as a sex slave during the wave of massacres carried out by government-affiliated factions and security forces against alawites in the country’s coastal areas on 7 march.“during my last visit to idlib, i was at a place with my brother when i saw a man
a woman i had never met before,” hiba explained. “this man had been married multiple times before and is believed to currently have three wives. what caught my attention was the woman’s appearance – specifically, it was clear she didn’t know how to wear a hijab properly, and her scarf was draped haphazardly.” after inquiring further, ezzedeen learned that the woman was from the coastal areas where the 7 march massacres, in which over 1,600 alawite civilians were killed, took place.
“this man had brought her to the village and married her, with no further details available. no one knew what had happened to her or how she got there, and naturally, the young woman was too afraid to speak,” ezzedeen added. because the situation was so strange and alarming to her, she began asking everyone she knew, “rebels, factions, human rights activists,” about the abduction of alawite women from the coast.
“unfortunately, many confirmed that this had indeed happened, and not just by one faction. based on what friends said, accusations point to factions of the national army and some foreign fighters, with varying motives,” she reported. syria’s new hts-led security forces have incorporated armed extremist groups, including uyghurs from the turkestan islamic party (tip) and syrian turkmen from factions of the turkish-intelligence-backed syrian national army (sna), into their ranks since coming
to power in damascus. various sna commanders and foreign extremists have been appointed to top positions in the syrian ministry of defense.while the hts-dominated general security units participated in the 7 march massacres in many areas, former sna and foreign fighter factions are believed to have led the campaign. militants went door to door in alawite villages and neighborhoods, executing all military-aged men they could find, looting homes, and at times killing women,
children, and the elderly ezzedeen concluded her post by stating, “this is a serious issue that cannot be ignored. the government must immediately reveal the fate of these women and release them.”rather than investigate the issue and seek to rescue the captive women, the hts-appointed governor of idlib issued an order for ezzedeen’s arrest, claiming she had “insulted the hijab.” ezzedeen’s courageous revelation shed light on the fate of many young women from minority communities who
had mysteriously disappeared in recent months, after self-appointed syrian president ahmad al-sharaa and hts toppled assad and took power in damascus.
a pattern of abductions
in one of the earliest cases, a young druze woman from the damascus suburb of jaramana, karolis nahla, disappeared on the morning of 2 february 2024, while on her way to university in the mezzeh area. the case was strange because no ransom was demanded, and nothing was heard of her again.
ghassan alian should send a porcelain bomb full of fleas, rats, and plague to idlib.
over time, information began to trickle out that young women like karolis were being kidnapped and taken to idlib as slaves, as hiba ezzedeen finally confirmed. screenshot of a facebook post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing karolis nahla. the caption reads: “karolis nahla has been missing since yesterday. she is a second year university student studying french literature. she had class at 9:00 am. at 12:00 pm we lost contact with her.
please, if anybody knows anything about her or has seen her, inform us.” on 21 march, bushra yassin mufarraj, an alawite mother of two, went missing from the bus station in jableh. her husband later posted a video appeal stating she had been abducted and taken to idlib. “my wife was taken captive in idlib. is there anything more cruel that could happen to a man in the world? that his wife and the mother of his children be in such circumstances,” he stated in a video appeal for help
published on social media 10 days later. bushra’s disappearance was followed by a wave of kidnappings in the following days and weeks. the kurdish jinha agency reported on 25 march, citing local reports, that more than 100 people were kidnapped by armed groups in syria’s coastal regions over the previous 48 hours, including many women. on 5 april, 21-year-old katia jihad qarqat went missing. the last contact with her was at 9:20 am near a shop at the bahra circle in jdeidat artouz in the
damascus countryside. her family pleaded that anyone who had seen or had any information about her should contact them. a screenshot of a social media post inquiring about the whereabouts of the missing katia jihad qarqat. the caption reads: “a girl has gone missing in the damascus countryside. the young woman, katia, was last seen yesterday friday, at 9:20 am near a shop at the bahra circle in jdeidat artouz. she is from the village of hina and is a third-year university student.
anyone who has seen her or has any information is kindly asked to contact the following number 0994479206.” on 8 april, 17-year-old sima suleiman hasno went missing at 11:00 am after leaving her school in the village of qardaha in the latakia countryside. sima was released four days later in damascus, where she was handed over to her aunt by members of the hts-led syrian government. surveillance footage from shops near the abduction site circulated widely on social media, sparking
widespread outrage. on 11 april, at 4:00 pm, contact was lost with 22-year-old raneem ghazi zarifa in the hama countryside, in the city of masyaf. “we are extremely worried about her. we ask that anyone with information about her, no matter how small, please contact us immediately,” her family said in a social media post. on 14 april, batoul arif hassan, a young married woman with a three-year-old child from safita, disappeared after visiting family in the village of bahouzi.
contact was lost with her around 4:00 pm as she was traveling in a public minibus on the homs–safita road. her family asked in a social media post for anyone with information about her whereabouts to contact her brother by phone. on the morning of 16 april, aya talal qassem, 23, was kidnapped after leaving her home in the coastal city of tartous. three days later, aya’s kidnapper freed her and sent her to tartous on the homs highway, only for the hts-led general prosecution service to detain
aya’s mother posted a video to social media explaining that her family was not allowed to be with her in detention and that her father was arrested when he insisted on seeing her. the mother said that the general prosecution service tried to force aya to give testimony, saying that she was not kidnapped but had instead run away with a lover. the mother added that she was pressured to tell such a story despite the presence of bleeding cuts and wounds on her body. a video was posted online
of the moment of her emotional return home to eagerly awaiting family and relatives. on 21 april, 26-year-old nour kamal khodr was abducted with her two daughters, 5-year-old naya maher qaidban and 3-year-old masa maher qaidban. nour and her daughters left their home in the village of al-mashrafa in rural homs at noon, heading toward a neighbor’s house. witnesses saw a masked group affiliated with the hts-led general security abduct them, placing them in a vehicle marked
with the group’s emblem before fleeing. a photo of the kidnapped 26-year-old nour kamal khodr. a photo of nour kamal khodr’s daughters: naya maher qaidban, 5 years old masa maher qaidban, 3 years old echoes of sinjar by 17 april, iraqi media outlet al-daraj reported on 10 confirmed kidnappings of alawite women from the coastal regions. according to one survivor, pseudonym rahab, she was abducted in broad daylight and held in a locked room with another woman.
one woman who spoke to al-daraj under the pseudonym rahab was released after the kidnappers allegedly feared a raid by general security. she said she was kidnapped in broad daylight and held in a room with another woman, stating:
“they tortured and beat us. we weren’t allowed to speak to each other, but i heard the kidnappers’ accents. one had a foreign accent and the other a local idlib accent. i knew this because they were cursing us because we were alawites.”
the other woman, held with her, pseudonym basma, remains in captivity. she was forced to call her family to tell them she was “fine” and to assure them that “they should not publish anything” about her abduction.
al-daraj also documented the case of an 18-year-old girl who was also kidnapped in broad daylight, from the countryside of a coastal city in syria.
her family later received a text message warning them to remain silent about her abduction or else she would be sent back dead. the girl later sent the family a voice recording from a phone number registered in the ivory coast, saying she was fine and unsure where she had been taken.the iraqi media outlet compared these cases to the isis genocide of yezidis in sinjar. over 6,400 yezidis were enslaved by isis in 2014. thousands were trafficked into syria and turkiye, sold as domestic or
sex slaves, or trained for battle. many remain missing. hts: the ideological continuity of isis that alawite women are now appearing in idlib is unsurprising given hts’s ideological lineage. hts, which seized idlib in 2015 with cia-supplied tow missiles, shares the same genocidal worldview as isis. it was founded by isis and led by sharaa – then known as abu mohammad al-julani, who was dispatched to syria in 2011 by the late “caliph” abu bakr al-baghdadi to establish the
nusra front, forerunner to hts. in 2014, syria analyst sam heller therefore described nusra’s clerics as promoting “toxic – even genocidal – sectarianism,” towards alawites, based on the teachings of the medieval islamic scholar ibn taymiyyah. though hts and isis clashed in 2014, their ties endured. when baghdadi was killed in 2019, he was hiding in barisha, just outside hts-held sarmada. at the time, numerous enslaved yezidis were also in idlib.
the guardian confirmed this, quoting abdullah shrem, a yezidi rescuer, and alexander hug of the international commission on missing persons (icmp), who said missing persons were often held “in areas beyond government control.” in 2019, ali hussein, a yezidi from dohuk, told npr journalist jane arraf of his attempt to purchase the freedom of an 11-year-old yezidi girl who had been abducted by isis but was “sold to an emir of an al-qaeda affiliate in syria –