Click to see the full-size map
On February 25, the Turkish Army and its proxies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) captured the strategic town of Maydan Ikbis northwest of Afrin city and the villages of Benderlik and Kusani around it, according to sources linked to the Turkish-backed FSA. FSA fighters allegedly killed 40 members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) during their advance.
Meanwhile, Turkish sources reported that Turkish Air Force (TAF) warplanes had conducted several airstrikes on the YPG’s positions in the outskirt of Afrin city and in the center of the Jandaris district, west of it.
From its side, the YPG announced that its fighters had repelled a large attack by the Turkish Army and its proxies on their positions in the Shara district north of Afrin city. YPG fighters killed 35 Turkish Army soldiers and FSA fighters there, according to the YPG press.
Furthermore, the Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported that YPG fighters had conducted a hit and run operation against the Turkish Army and its proxies in the city of Azaz east of the Afrin area. YPG fighters targeted a position of the Turkish-backed FSA with an ATGM.
The Turkish Army and its proxies will likely expand their operations in the Sheikh al-Hadid district west of Afrin city in the upcoming days in order to open a route from the Euphrates Shield-held area in the northern Aleppo countryside to Idlib governorate. Earlier, the Turkish Army was able to open a route between its positions in the districts of Bulbul and Rajo north and northwest of Afrin.
Any news about Tel Rifaat reclaimed by the SAA?
https://southfront.org/syrian-army-enters-two-villages-south-of-tell-rifaat-following-ypg-withdrawal-report/ and https://southfront.org/kurdish-forces-to-hand-over-tell-rifaat-town-to-syrian-army-media/
So nothing new, I read these ones.
It’s moving at a fast pace and details that go online are usually delayed. Simply because it is a war zone. What is your interest in that particular front if I may ask.
Retake every inch of Syrian Soil for the legitimate government.
The entire Tel Rifaat region should be seized by the Syrian government forces.
The Kurd’s commanders have decided so late that Turkish invaders have killed so many Kurds and have taken one dozen villages. This will happen in the East Syria too because Washington want to keep whole land including Oil and Gas fields with himself. Washington are not fighting for Kurds but for own interests. Therefore, Kurds will not get anything from Trump regime and also they have commited treason against Syria. Therefore Kurds are great losers.
they can fight but in politics Kurds are greta loosers…maybe because they have corrupt leaders
I have no problem with Kurds but just I surprise to their leaders. I think either US have kept them hostage or they are really brainless. Now they are not only threat for their own Kurds but for those Syrian Arabs that they have conscripted them for fight against Turkey. Now in Syria who take care of Kurds Turkey? No, US? No. If instead of Assad there was another Syrian leader, to be honest today these all Kurds would be in hell because they have committed treason.
This look bad for further occupation of Syria. I don’t know how Syria can stop all these games and opportunism against the country. Enemies are to rich and slimy.
SAA should use their air defence on this front, they don’t have to worry about the Tigers or other prominent force being on that front, NDF/YPG can deal with the Turks.
Wow, the Israelis are far better land fighters then the Kurd’s. The Kurds have been all media hype for 30 years. But when it comes down to it, they were all huffing and all puffing. 150,000 Kurdish fighters against 8,000 ISIS fighters a few years ago and Kurds lost Kobani to ISIS, the US had to save it for them. Kurds can greatly outnumber an enemy, but still cannot pull victory in open warfare without hiding behind civilians. https://www.sott.net/article/286840-The-siege-of-Kobani-Obamas-coalition-of-the-disingenuous-at-work
The idea that the IDF is a force to be reckoned with comes from the wars Israel fought in the 1960’s. Back then many in the IDF had survived WWII, and were pretty gnarly. Today the IDF is made up of rich American/European/Australian kids, who join the IDF for some adventure. The 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, that was stopped by a handful of Hezbollah showed how far the IDF had fallen. Today, it’s the Syrians and Lebanese that are gnarly, the next 6 day war will see the total defeat of Israel.
Israel survived the 6 days war because of a foul up on the egypt/syria side: Egypt pulled out without telling the Syrians…
http://www.voltairenet.org/article199753.html
Jim Mattis refutes the « Fake News » from Israël and NATO
by Thierry Meyssan
The Atlantist Press has been claiming for years that President Bachar el-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people. Except that according to US Secretary for Defense, General Jim Mattis, this is fake news. Like Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons, this story, which has been occupying the columns of newspapers for the last five years, is pure war propaganda.
VOLTAIRE NETWORK | DAMASCUS (SYRIA) | 19 FEBRUARY 2018
FRANÇAIS ESPAÑOL DEUTSCH ITALIANO عربي РУССКИЙ PORTUGUÊS
This should have been headline news in all the Western news outlets. But only Newsweek mentioned it [1]. During his Press conference on 2 February, Secretary for Defense General Jim Mattis indicated that while he « thought » that Damascus had used chemical weapons against his own people, no-one in the Pentagon has ever provided the slightest proof.
The journalist, who knows General Jim Mattis personally, heard him declare, off the record, his aversion for the myth of Syrian chemical weapon. He offered him the opportunity to repeat his claim, this time in public. Here is the transcript of this conversation (published a little late).
– Question : Is there any proof that chlorine weapons were used – proof of chlorine weapons?
– Jim Mattis : I think so.
– Question : No, I know, I heard you.
– Jim Mattis : I believe they have been used several times. And that, as you know, is a rather specific category, that’s why I ruled out sarin as being something different – yeah.
– Question : So there is credible proof that sarin and chlorine …
– Jim Mattis : No, I don’t have any proof, not specifically. I don’t have proof. What I’m saying is that other groups on the ground, NGO’s, soldiers on the ground, have said that sarin was used. So we’re looking for proof. I have no proof, either credible or non-credible.
Source : “Media Availability by Secretary Mattis at the Pentagon”, Press Secretary, Departement of Defence, February 2, 2018
At the beginning of the war, the Syrian Arab Republic asked the UNO to come and investigate the use of chemical weapons by the jihadists. The inspectors found nothing convincing. But in August 2013, the states who were supporting the project by the Muslim Brotherhood reversed the accusation and claimed, on the sole basis of information from Mossad Unit 8200, that the Syrian army had just massacred approximately 1,500 civilians in the Ghouta with a mixture of gases, including sarin.
Attesting to the good faith of Syria, Russia proposed that it join the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. Working together, Moscow and Washington destroyed the totality of Syrian chemical weapons and the precursors (which is to say the substances necessary for the manufacture of such weapons).
However, the accusation of the use of these weapons has not ceased. Even though the Pentagon itself had supervised their destruction, the Atlantist Press persisted in pretending that the Syrian Arab Army was using them. Certain medias, like the Anglo-Saxon Bellingcat (whose director is an employee of the Atlantic Council) [2] or the French Le Monde [3] have become professional repeaters of this Fake News.
To put an end to the rumour, a joint system of enquiry was set up by the UNO and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). After having organised, from New York and Vienna, a vast compilation of information, this authority refused to go and check the information on-site, and even refused to take samples. Tension increased at the Security Council, where anyone could note the influence exercised by the number 2 of the UN administration – neo-conservative Jeffrey Feltman [4] – over US ambassador Nikki Haley. Finally, we counted as many as five Russian vetos against the Western lies on this subject alone [5].
At the moment of the Khan Cheikhoun affair, the United States claimed, straight-faced, that they had proof of Syrian responsibility – proof that, according to General Mattis, had never existed – and punished Syria by bombing the base at Cheyrat.
Secretary for Defense Robert McNamara admitted that the United States lied in order to launch and pursue their war against the Vietnamese people. His successor Colin Powell admitted he had lied to the Security Council in order to launch the war against the Iraqi people. And so on … But they all confessed after having spilled blood and after having left their official functions. None of them faced criminal charges.
Just as in US commercial law, US leaders can go bankrupt, fail to reimburse their creditors and reboot their businesses from zero as if nothing had happened.
For the first time, an incumbent Secretary for Defense has denounced the lies of Israël, his own administration, and NATO. Although he was careful to present himself as being convinced of Syria’s guilt, his declaration refutes the justifications for the Israëli bombing in Syria, allegedly to destroy chemical weapons. For his colleagues Rex Tillerson and Nikki Haley, his stand is irrevocable. It sounds a warning to the 23 Ministers of Foreign Affairs who, on 23 January, once again accused Syria of using chemical weapons [6] – these are Ministers who have spoken in favour of « democracy » in the Levant… on the sole condition that Bachar el-Assad refrains from presenting himself for a Presidential election he could win.
Thierry Meyssan
Translation
Pete Kimberley
Source
Al-Watan (Syria)
[1] “Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Poison Gas on His People”, Ian Wilkie, Newsweek, February 8, 2018.
[2] Brown Moses, whose real name is Eliot Higgins, also participates in the association Propaganda or Not?, which accuses various sources, including the Voltaire Network, of being instruments of the Kremlin. Cf. “The NATO campaign against freedom of expression”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 5 December 2016.
[3] Based on a crudely false résumé, this daily accuses the Voltaire Network of being untrustworthy. Cf. “The truth about « fake news »”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 16 January 2018.
[4] “Germany and the UNO against Syria”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan (Syria) , Voltaire Network, 28 January 2016.
[5] “At the UNO – US inability to admit reality”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 21 November 2017.
[6] “International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons”, Voltaire Network, 23 January 2018.
TLDR
You’ll notice the West AND Russia are giving Turkey the same free hand to murder ‘militants’ in Syria who have never harmed Turkey as they both give Israel a free hand to murder ‘militants’ in Gaza who have never harmed Israel.
You are seeing true evil in motion- but a form of true evil that always plagues Mankind. And Putin is as much a supporter of this form of true evil as Trump. And this evil corrupts Putin, as the Deep State knows it must, and makes Putin’s ability to frustrate the greater plans of the Deep State much weaker that it could be.
In history the kurds are always treated this way. The kind of victimhood world jewry LIES about having fallen on jews across the ages (INNOCENT jews were NEVER significantly persecuted at any period- but tribal jews who used significant social evil against other tribes did sometimes come out on the losing side of a battle).
The ‘pragmatic’ play currently underway is the age old ‘breaking’ of the kurdish will- the mass murder of young and old kurdish alphas who are in danger of fronting kurdish aspirations for independence in the near future. A few short months ago these same kurds being hunted down like dogs by the turks were receiving DIRECT military assistance from the USA. Pay attention, people. This is what your masters think of you ‘slaves’.
Putin is NOT the good guy in Syria. He forced Russia to stay out while Britain, France, America, Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia laid waste to as much of Syria as possible with their ‘wahhabi’ revolution. Then when Syria laid in ruins, Putin stepped in to eliminate the wahhabi gangs and enjoy a perfect live fire testing ground for the Russian military. A win for Russia. A win for Russia’s stated ally, Israel. A win for Russia’s stated ally, Saudi Arabia. And an extraordinary loss for the ordianary people of Syria.
You may not care- for Syria is yet another nation too insignificant to really count. But by doing the work of the zionist and wahhabi horrors, Putin has brought the Iran War that begins WW3 that much closer. The masters of the Deep State, being a perfect demonic evil, know exactly what is needed to lead Mankind to a planetary suicide.
Starlight, you are so right! What so many people miss out on, is that Syrian conflict has far reaching effect, It is those in the immediate areas that fight die and struggle to survive, but not those away from carnage. Men sit in thousand dollar suits, unless they want to out macho, jacket off shirt and tie, with manicured hands and expensive cologne, they see nor feel, nor smell the chaos of war, as they smilingly agree as too limits their interest will be found, not of the people’s on the pretty colored map. Interest of national financial leaders in nations close by, and those from thousands of miles away.
The friend of my enemy is my enemy, USA is the enemy, and the Kurds declared themselves a friend of the USA. Getting Turkey to kill the Kurds is the most risk free option, because the US needs Turkey, and won’t go running to the UN, or bomb Ankara.
Russian interests are not identical to Syrian interests. All wars are about money, there is no moral imperative.
dutchnational : “It’s a win !! It’s a win !!”.
Delusional people don’t they are stupids even if you tell them.
I don’t understand why people don’t make the right move directly. It was obvious that USA was using kurds to topple Assad ans steal ressources of Syria.
But kurds chose to betray Assad and go with USA to create a country where they even don’t live. Now, they ask Assad for help. The irony is that YPG fight SAA to take Afrin.
So, I don’t know. Maybe think of a strategy intead of jumping into the cliff and then improvise.
It was Barzani that arranged the deal with the US, he has been a US asset for many years. The US has allowed him to acquire many billions of dollars, at Iraq’s expense. He resigned and has dropped out of sight since he betrayed his people. He will probably end up living in a mansion in the US eventually.
https://twitter.com/AfarinMamosta Here on this channel i see many hits from Kurds,sure they are not so good as Huthis but still trying
YPG launched an attack against the invading Turkish army and their jihadist mercenaries and claim to have killed numerous invading soldiers.
Images will be published shortly.
Lets see who is right
Those corrupt zionist Shabbas Goy kurdish leaders may have to leave for ther mansons, sports cars, hookers, drugs, and banks accounts in Switzerland sooner then they thought and too bad for those Kurds left behind in Syria to die for a greater, racist, supremacist, Israel.
This guy is Putins ally:
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9f6_1393289511
Thief with thief.
Still, the Syrian government, not to speak of Russia, Iran or even the US… or anybody else, are glaringly absent. Morally, if the Kurds can fight off Turkey, the land is theirs to claim alone.
Kurds, toe to toe with Turkish army in open field? they can win? Come on man, wake up
For those who are wondering, the soldiers that went to Afrin to fight with the kurds are not SAA forces but rather “Pro-goverment” national militias. The SAA had offered to send SAA forces to Afrin but the kurds declined because the SAA wanted control of the town. Now, reports suggest that the kurds will agree to hand over Manbij to the SAA. Russia allowed Turkey to conduct this operation so they can force the kurds to hand over territory. Turkey will not fight the SAA. This has been blown out of porpotion.
“Pro-government” militias are SAA, they are paid for by Assad. They are Syria’s national guard.
No they are not… they are like me and you. Maybe they get a few bob or some equipment, but in most cases they are just normal folks, others of course are paid mercenaries.
Yes they are, they are members of the NDF which is modeled on the Iranian Basij. When they are activated they are paid a regular wage. With the high unemployment in Syria it is fairly easy to find recruits who also enjoy other state privileges provided for life. Their training is short but the officers and NCOs are flown to Iran and trained by the IRGC. For them it is a full time job.
Right cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT2bWjq13cw
I haven’t seen much of dutchnational lately. I can only deduce that that means that things are going really bad for the Kurds. Cause if they were doing well he’d be posting it all over the comment sections.
How’s that Kurdish vote for independent autonomy working. Remember oh ye Kurds we(US) are behind you… way way behind you. Uh yeah like left you swinging in the wind behind you. You’ve been played, but don’t feel like idiots, we screw everyone we “ally” with. Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.