If you’re able, and if you like our content and approach, please support the project. Our work wouldn’t be possible without your help: PayPal: southfront@list.ru or via: http://southfront.org/donate/ or via: https://www.patreon.com/southfront
Around 100 heavily armed Al-Nusra fighters were spotted arriving in the border region between Syria and Turkey, the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation reported, citing sources in Kbana, a village in the Latakia province. The terrorists’ reinforcements came amid the Syrian Arab Army advances in the province. The government forces have captured the village of Ayn Issa and made attempts to take control of several high points that overlook the militant stronghold of Kbana: Ruwysat al-Joz, the Zyiqat mountain and hill 1112. If the SAA is able to seize the control of these strategic high points, the liberation is a matter of time.
Heavy clashes erupted in South Aleppo last night when Al Nusra and allied Jihadist groups seized from pro-government forces the village of Zeitan. Following a series of heavy firefights, the loyalists were able to re-take this village. Separately, heavy clashes were in Khalsah. Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were participating in the clashes against Jihadists there.
Rumors are growing that Germany is set to deploy special operation forces in Northern Syria in order to assist the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces that has laid a siege on the strategic ISIS-controlled city of Manbij. Reports look realistic amid a series of deployments by different Western states.
The US built a base in an abandoned airport in the Syrian Kurdish region Hasakah in 2015 and American troops have been participating in clashes against ISIS near Manbij since May 2016. France’s Defense Ministry admitted the presence of its special forces on the ground in Syria on June 9. French troops have reportedly built a military base near the city of Kobane and are participating in clashes with ISIS along with SDF and US units. Meanwhile, UK special forces operating on the front line alongside rebels in Syria near the Jordanian border. They participate in direct clashes, provide training and manage of the opposition group, called “New Syrian Army.”
Thus, it’s confirmed that 3 Western states have deployed forces in Syria and the one is under the question. All these forces have been deployed and now they operate in the Arab country without any request or authorization from the Syrian government. Such situation could easily lead to a partial occupation of the Arab country when the anti-ISIS operations are finished.
If 100 troops are spotted getting ready to cross from Turkey….why not take care of them as soon as they cross?
There is a delay between they moment when they cross and the moment when it’s known.
And also Russia is asked by the” American and Western partners” not to attack their “assets”. And Russia, as always, fulfills their wish as a show of unilateral and never returned good will.
This is a nice theory. But do you have a proof that Al Nusra isn’t a target of the Russian military grouping?
The partial withdrawal is a perfect example of unilateral and never returned goodwill. Americans are playing to win. I don’t understand what Russians hope to achieve. If one wins, the other is defeated. And this time Americans will make sure Russia will stay defeated. No mercy.
Good question. The SAA and allies are stretched thin with the siege of Aleppo and the bid for Raqqa. The Russians won’t bomb targets if civilians are going to be injured. They leave that to ground troops. Also the Russians ‘take a long time to saddle up but ride very fast’. They are collecting evidence against Turkey as an ISIS collaborator and watching what is going on with the illegal western assault. When they have their ducks in a row, they’ll use what they know as leverage and/or approach the appropriate global organization to file complaints etc. One roadblock is the refusal of the US to allow their ISIS assets from being declared terrorists by the US and mixing the ‘moderates’ in with hardcore Al Nusra. This is in contravention to the UN of terrorist groups. The Russians will quietly collect and present overwhelming evidence and eventually the matter will be resolved.
“…When they have their ducks in a row, they’ll use what they know as leverage and/or approach the appropriate global organization to file complaints etc…”
All the global organizations are western-controlled, Carol. Whatever intel Russia has or will have will hardly ever be publicly disclosed. Russia undoubtedly lets the U.S./ZATO know on occasion what she knows, but she has always held intel close to the chest. Disclosure may sometimes serve a diplomatic purpose, but it’s very unlike Russia to cry or complain to any international organization. It’s useless anyways – what western puppet in the U.N. is ever going to act on anything? The global media is largely western controlled/owned as well, so ‘exposing’ some ZATO misdeed in the news isn’t going to have much of an impact.
Russia will certainly act on their intelligence, but I would be surprised to see them whimpering to any international organizations – they just don’t do that.
The Russians have made effective use of the UN regarding Syria. Rather than waiting for the US to submit their list of ‘moderates’ they got the UN to put many of the US protected groups in Syria on the list. This publicly puts the US in the wrong for protecting and supporting them. The UN may not have done anything, but that translates into real political pressure that has limited US ambitions and actions. The Russians have convened meetings to draw up the Minsk accords (with other European nations) regarding Ukraine. They have created a framework for de-escalating hostilities and to begin to rebuild the political structure. Clearly it’s the US that is goading the Kiev government to continue hostilities. Every time there is a successful cease fire, Joe Biden flies in with a pile of money and things go south BUT the Minsk Accords provide a structure to analyze and address the problems….to know who is doing what they should not and what needs to happen to move forward. I admire they way they have gone about building a peace structure in Syria even while fighting is still going on. A hundred and thirty five groups have joined the cease fire. That’s a powerful counterweight to the destructive force of Daesh. It will be in place long after Daesh have folded their tents and gone. Truth does have an impact. Over time, drip drip drip and suddenly things do change. History is nothing but change. Permanence is an illusion.
The West/NATO/Israel do not act in good faith, nor do they care if there is evidence against them. They have put crosshairs on themselves in Syria, as they are there illegally.
You are forgetting Turkey, Iran, KSA, Qatar and I doubt your inclusion of Israel.
Israel is trying to stay outside of this mess as they dislike, distrust all participents and cannot gain anything anyhow. They would, I presume, just want them to kill themselves of and afterwards to be a destroyed as to be unable to be a threat for the next generation. Oh, and they would like for a, or several, independant kurdistans.
Israel is the mother of all bitches…
You are familiar with bitches?
The west is obviously shifting it’s support to Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the New Syrian Army (NSA) and it makes sense from a western perspective. The SDF and NSA have been the most effective groups within the opposition at retaking ISIS territory (and hence denying it to the SAA). However ideologically these groups are very different, the SDF wants a secular-democratic-federal system for Syria (as is being implemented in Northern Syria) while the NSA want a centralized Islamist state.
Actually the SAA and allies, together with Russian air support have been the most effective fighters against Daesh. The Western powers have another agenda…the partition/destruction of Syria. Their main focus is slow down the successful Syria, Russian alliance.
You are 100% right my friend.
I second that, you are absolutely correct Carol.
Actually, the SAA hardly fought with IS up till say some 9 months ago as IS concentrated early on on taking over other islamist groups and attacking the kurds.
Only the capture of Palmyra shook up the SAA and even then it took the SAA months before starting to really fight IS.
That would be incorrect. “The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army “(SAA) (Arabic: الجيش العربي السوري al-Jaysh al-’Arabī as-Sūrī), is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces”. The government forces in Syria have never fought with ISIS. Only the folks backed by the US/EU and corrupt princely Arab states fight with Daesh.
DeirezZor? Palmyra? The south Aleppo corridor? The drive on Raqqah?
I specified within the opposition. I also wasn’t supporting their actions I was just describing their strategy.
The misconception that the Kurds are the only ones who can hold ground against ISIS is false., and a dis-service to the brave hero’s from the SAA and Hezbollah. Usually this ‘line’ is parroted by ill-wishers of Syria. Except for Kobani., the Kurds act like vultures and swoop down when ISIS is usually committed to other fronts against the SAA and Co.
Hi hi, up till a few months ago the SAA never fought IS as they were concentrating on the rebels and JAN and their friends in the south, the west and north west, all places without IS. Only at DeirezZor were confrontations between IS and SAA.
Palmyra was taken over by IS with hardly a fight and as for Hasakah city, IS beat the SAA and had to be saved by the YPG and later SDF.
You are free to spout nonsense but a little bit of subtlety is better if you do not want to expose yourself as a troll.
What about Al-Shadadi? What about the 40% of the SDF who are Non-Kurds (Arabs, Turkmen, Syriacs, Yazidis), what about the 90+ villages liberated in just a few days and the surrounding of Manbij. The SAA should work with the SDF to eliminate Islamism from Syria and create a Secular federal Democracy. If the Syrian government forces left Hasakah city they could be redeployed elsewhere while the SDF liberates Northern Syria. Instead you see them bitc
about Ypg liberating ISIS territory.
I agree with you on the SDF.
I disagree with you on the NSA. It is, at this time, a rather small local islamist militia and they haven’t really done anything except to liberate a small, almost deserted, border post and even for that they needed support from UK and US.
Most effective group? Nice joke.
I’m not joking, although perhaps I’m taking western media without enough salt. I was lead to believe these were well-trained special forces types with allot of really good weaponry from the west who had captured large amounts of territory from ISIS in South and South-Eastern Syria. I realize almost nobody lives there, but in sheer geography they look large based off the maps.
There are some article on the internet to be found about them. Once you read those, you find that they are relatively well armed, very small, maybe a hundered or a little more fighters, and very shaken because of a suicide attack by IS that killed many of them. Justvdays ago they were bombed by either Assad of RuAF.
They are supposed to be the nucleus of a new force but lack training capacity, which the UK might provide.
Furtheremore, they are very isolated with no local resources so everuthing must be shipped, which will become more difficult once they become larger.
NSA want a centralized Islamist state.
In other words, they are indistinguishable from Daesh. They are “effective” because they take territory from ISIS simply by having ISIS fighters change their uniforms.
They’re not identical. They’re different groups competing with each other for the same cause. That’s about it. Their ideology of sharia-law, sectarianism, theocracy and medievalism is the same. Frankly I enjoy seeing them shoot each other.
“…The US built a base in an abandoned airport in the Syrian Kurdish region Hasakah in 2015…”
Rmeilan was an unused agricultural dirt airstrip with a small shack, not an airport. The U.S. did contract out locals to extend the strip and build a berm around part of it (done as shown in the CNN video, but nobody has since posted pictures of any buildings, tents or anything else there. There may be some, but we don’t know. The current runway is reportedly 4000′ – enough for fixed-wing military cargo aircraft – but the locals have only given accounts of helicopter traffic in and out. The location is minutes from the Iraqi border by air.
“…French troops have reportedly built a military base near the city of Kobane…”
Arab media reported that they were doing something at Mushtannour (Mishtenur) Hll Military Base. http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36.868429&lon=38.368764 Not much of a developed base in the past – it’s a strategic hill with a large, flat top about 200m x 500m suitable for helicopter operations. The only structures there previously were some trailers or small buildings around the radio towers on the northern edge of the top. There was an unimproved earthen berm bulldozed around the periphery. No pictures or accounts from locals about any activity there on social media.
If there were plans to build an actual airstrip near Kobane, they would not find a site on/near Mishtenur Hill. This is well within Turkish artillery range (<5km) so I doubt they would build anything too permanent. The closest site to Kobane probably suitable for a fixed-wing air base is probably the SDF-occupied SAA Brigade 93 Base next to Ayn Issa, about 40+km from the Turkish border.
Sound reasoning in my opinion.
I doubt the french would want to build an airbase within Syria though a small base for special forces with a helipad is something they might like. Turkish artillery would not matter as it is highly unlikely Turkey would target a small Natobase in another country outside of Turkey. It would be a potential act of war.
Their u go the anglo-zionists plan B by force. How sickening these cabalist r and we the sheeple in the west just let it all happen . How Orwellian the times r. I still think Damascus along with its Allies Russia and Iran and let us not forget Hezbullah and the Chinese (silently but deadly) have a few jokers and aces up their sleaves. The western narrative of events has slowly but surely been falling apart I myself dont think to many folk out there in the west r believing the western MSM compost anymore .
I feel your frustration. I have been advocating that Iran drop 4-5 Divisions of Republican Guards and end this mess once and for all. The Chinese are opportunists, nothing more from them. But this pussy-footing needs to stop. Just roll up the acres asap.