Obama’s Syria Plan Teams Up American and Russian Forces

If CENTCOM and USA SF are conducting FID with their Kurdish terrorist proxy PKK/YPG...the 3 groups of Arab fighters that gave PKK an "Arab multicultural aspect which is what CENTCOM has been claiming "disappeared today" ......

WELL that "Arab fig leaf" just crossed over to the Arab Sunni side and joined the FSA/Turkish Jarablus operation......

NOW CENTCOM and USA SF must ask themseleves do they continue to support a purely Kurdish PKK.YPG (PKK is a US/EU named terrorist group) OR simply go home????

After 2 days of tensions, Liwaa al-Tahrir defected from #SDF and joined #FSA's Euphrates Shield in #Jarablus.

Liwaa al-Tahrir leader (SDF/#FSA): "We fought with #YPG 3 years to liberate North #Syria, now they want to end us".

Liwaa al-Tahrir, Liwaa Thuwar al-Raqqah and Sanadid are the only Arab groups in SDF, and they did not fight the FSA.

Syria: Unconfirmed reports saying that Liwaa al-Tahrir (SDF/#FSA) leader trying to flee to #Turkey after #YPG attempts to arrest him.

Liwaa al-Tahrir leader (SDF/#FSA): "Syrian Democratic Forces (#SDF) is supposed to be for all Syrians, but it seems #YPG is against this".

Liwaa al-Tahrir leader (SDF/#FSA): "#YPG ended the food supply to Sanadid group, and now trying to end us and Liwaa Thuwar al-Raqqah".

Looks like in the end CIA had the better understanding about what was going on inside Syria than did CENTCOM/Obama WH...

Information concerning the current heavy rebel offensive aimed straight at Hama.....AND for those SWJ readers/commenters who do not want to believe Russian troops are not fighting in Syria....they have been since November 2015.......

Taken from the Syrian thread today....APPEARS The famous German Desert Fox Rommel has been reincarnated as the Syrian rebels....

OUTLAW 09 posted

The manpower ratio in the Hama battle was between 1:5 to 1:10 in favor of pro-#Assad forces.
Determination is everything in that war ...

CrowBat response.....

I'm not sure if the manpower ratio was that high: the regime's side of this frontline is held by what is officially called '11th Armoured Division'. This is actually the HQ of the former 11th Armoured Division, controlling two 'brigade-like' formations (officially designated as the 66th and the 87th) consisting of IRGC-recruited & trained 'NDF battalions', that are actually militia of the SSNP.

In essence, these are Christian militias from north-western Hama, corsetted by whatever was left of the 11th AD after this was smashed in Idlib, in spring 2015.

'However'... While the 87th Brigade is including no less but three armoured and two infantry battalions, the tank battalions in question were down to about 20 vehicles each already by the time Russians rushed them into that offensive in October-November last year, in which they were decimated (mind the famous 'tank-slaughter' in northern Hama, back then). Similarly, the 66th Brigade is only about 1,000 strong.

Although the '11th' should still have its (depleted) artillery regiment, other units of that 'division' - such like the 47th Brigade or the 555th (Reserve) SF Regiment - were re-deployed elsewhere already in December last year.

That was one of major reasons why the second line of defence (the one about 9-15km north of Hama, and running, roughly, in west-to-east direction) is protected by elements drawn from the Russian 28th, 32nd, and the 34th Motor Rifle Brigades, and the 810th Marines Brigade.

Insurgents and Jihadists might have pitted as many as 4,000 own combatants against them. And the JAA blasted the way open by at least one massive VBIED, causing such a panic, that some of defenders are still running away, four days later.

So, I would say the balance of forces is quite equal, actually.

...or at least it was - until the regime began hauling all the additional gangs of its 'Volkssturm' into the area, two days ago (supposedly, they should now come under the command of Brig Gen Sohail 'Tiger' Hassan)...

...or at least until the Jaysh al-Izza, Jaysh an-Nasr, and Jund al-Aqsa (meanwhile reinforced by contingents from the Central Division, Faylaq ash-Sham and Ajnad ash-Sham) run into Russians, of course.

BTW, the latter is the probable reason for rumours about Russians 'offering ground troops' (to IRGC-controlled 'loyalists'). Namely, I guess, Moscow needs an 'excuse' to officially get its army involved in ground fighting (of course, actually, this is involved in ground fighting at least since battles in NE Lattakia, in November last year).

EDIT: for better understanding of what am I talking about here, below a map prepared back in November last year, and based on a Russian 'military map', officially released by Keystone Cops in Moscow (see: 'MOD'). It's a 'lil bit obsolete' by now, because some of mentioned units are not there any more, but essences of the 'loyalist' defence system in northern Hama are still the same.

...this is almost as when Rommel advanced in direction of Alexandria, after the VIII Army lost nerves at Marsa Matruh, back in July 1942...

Namely, after reports that the regime forces fled from the town Maa’rdis and the factions advance to about 11 km away of Hama city, there are meanwhile reports about the military telecom base atop Jebel Zain al-Abideen coming under 'heavy shelling' (by insurgents).

Mind: this is a dominant feature about 5km otuside of Hama (city limits).

Guess, somebody will have to rush plenty of (exhausted) forces from Aleppo, then even three battalion groups of the Russian Army might not be enough to stop this (all provided they're still where they used to be as of March-April this year).

Otherwise, Jaysh al-Izaa, Jaysh an-Nassr, Jund al-Aqsa & CO KG Gesmbh are going to drive all the way down to Hama...

This particular battle in Syria over the last 48 hours again proves that true Syrian boots on the ground IE Arab Sunni not Kurds is the answer to remove both Assad and IS....AND this battle had absolutely no CAS support from anyone....the Arab Sunni's provided their own artillery, infantry and armor.....

The manpower ratio in the Hama battle was between 1:5 to 1:10 in favor of pro-Assad forces.
Determination is everything ......

THIS again proves that irregular forces fighting for a flag and nation can overcome larger mercenary paid forces......AND now we see why Iraq is having problems with their own army.....

BTW...that attacking force was an equal balance between Syrian Salafist and Syrian moderate groups led by FSA.....each providing what their own specialty was...whether infantry, armor, artillery/rockets, TOWs and or Russian ATGM teams....

Obama's Iran policy has effectively underwritten the Syria conflict, writes @JSchanze

http://nypost.com/2016/08/30/team-ob...rian-refugees/

Quote:

State Department spokesman John Kirby sang the praises of President Obama’s Syria policy on Monday. And boy, was he tone deaf.

Kirby tweeted out proudly: “Today we reached [Obama’s] goal of welcoming 10k of the most vulnerable refugees fleeing the Syria Conflict . . .” He also lauded this purported milestone in a statement that appears on the State Department Web site.

Never mind that this accounts for less than 1 percent of all 4.8 million externally displaced Syrian refugees since the conflict began. The real issue here is that the White House Syria policy has been an unmitigated dumpster fire.

The death toll in Syria has exceeded 400,000 and it’s still climbing. Internally displaced Syrians total 6.6 million.

The Obama administration could’ve stopped the bloodshed early on. In late 2012, the president declared that the use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime would constitute a “red line” prompting American action. Yet when Assad’s army carried out a chemical-weapons attack the following year, he prevaricated and ultimately demurred.

To be clear, he didn’t need to lead the country to war. He could’ve imposed a no-fly zone or created safe havens. He did neither.

Sickeningly, Obama later said of this decision, “I’m very proud of this moment.”

In a recent interview, Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon offered an explanation for the president’s 180. He noted that both Iranian and US officials warned Obama that if he took action against the Assad regime, it could scuttle his ongoing nuclear diplomacy with Iran, Assad’s patron.

The president’s decision to stand down opened the door for the regime’s continued slaughter of the Syrian people, which included the use of additional chemical weapons, the introduction of crude “barrel bombs,” mass starvation, ethnic cleansing and other unspeakable acts of brutality.

The decision also served as a green light for Iran to upgrade its involvement in Syria. Thousands of Iranian troops, advisers and fighters from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force (a designated terrorist organization) are now fighting in Syria. This also includes hundreds of fighters from Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias, not to mention thousands of fighters from the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the administration’s Iran policy has effectively underwritten the Syria conflict. The return of an estimated $100 billion in escrowed oil funds, along with the highly controversial provision of $400 million in cash and an additional $1.3 billion in interest (both tied to previously frozen funds), has made it easier for Iran to continue to fund the Syrian regime. And this doesn’t even include the billions of dollars Iran has reaped through other US and European sanctions relief.

Not surprisingly, the slaughter of Sunni Syrians and the emergence of an empowered Iran inspired a surge of jihadist groups into Syria. There was an early moment when the Obama administration could have backed moderate fighters, and many of the president’s advisers exhorted him to do so. But he made a deliberate decision to not threaten Iran’s “equities” in Syria.

With little to no support from the West, the relative moderates were soon eclipsed by extremists. With the rise of the Islamic State, even al Qaeda suddenly seemed less genocidal by comparison. The Islamic State has since gravitated well beyond Syria, having conquered territory in Iraq, Libya and Egypt, and launching a spate of terrorist attacks in Western cities from Brussels to Orlando.

The Syrian war now includes Russia fighting alongside the Assad regime and Iran. In fact, Moscow just gave Iran advanced S-300 missile defenses and Russian jets recently flew sorties from Iran to bomb Assad’s enemies. The Obama administration has bristled at Russia’s intervention, but done little more.

Turkey also bristled at Moscow’s intervention and even shot down a Russian jet fighter last November. But now, this NATO ally has made peace with Putin, and has since made the plunge into Syria. Except the Turks aren’t fighting the Islamic State. They’re fighting the Kurds. In other words, we’ve entered yet another bloody phase of this war.

The sheer complexities of the conflict will inevitably prompt some to say the president was wise to limit US involvement. But it was the president’s decisions that invited this mess.

With cities flattened and casualties mounting, Syria can only be described as a nightmare. When this administration takes a victory lap for a meaningless benchmark, it deliberately distracts from the atrocities that continue to occur on its watch.

Unquote:

Seems CENTCOM and the Obama WH in their selection of the YPG to be their "favorite" proxy in Syria overlooked this very fine point........APPEARS to prove that both failed to notice that a tiger never loses it's stripes........

Polat Can: once in the mountains with the PKK, now leads America's favorite anti-terrorists
http://bit.ly/2byTvD3

Obama and CENTCOM have taken us back to the 60s when Che was beating the bushes and PLO/PFPL and RAF were on the war path in the ME and Europe...."one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"

One Man’s Terrorist …

By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on August 30, 2016

Quote:

Over the last twenty-four hours, as fighting has escalated between Turkey and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), in northern Syria, an YPG/PYD operative has taken to Twitter to protest. Polat Can is the PYD’s representative to the American-led international coalition ranged against the Islamic State (IS), and his missives have sought to inform the coalition who and what terrorism is, which can be broadly summarized as: the Turkish government. Can himself, however, might easily be considered a terrorist since he is an allegedly-former member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a registered terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, and Turkey.

Polat Can was the PYD’s spokesman before taking up his current post after the U.S. began using the PYD as its primary anti-IS instrument inside Syria after the Kobani battle.

Turkey’s relationship with the anti-IS coalition has been troubled, primarily because of the PYD’s involvement (more below), but in the early morning of 24 August the Turks intervened directly in northern Syria to help a consortium of mainstream rebels drive IS from Jarabulus.

The timing of Turkey’s intervention was determined by an IS suicide bombing in Gaziantep on 20 August, but the intervention intended to serve the dual purpose of degrading the IS threat and forestalling the PYD creating a contiguous statelet all along her border. There have since been clashes between Turkish and allied forces with the PYD, and Turkey has launched still-controversial airstrikes against PYD positions.

This was Can’s first tweet last night:

Polat Can 1

To say the rebels Turkey backed in taking Jarabulus “no different from ISIS” is ridiculous. Most of them vetted by the U.S. and under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) brand.

This morning Can added:

Polat Can 2

While Turkey has not supported IS, she has pursued policies that mean IS is stronger now than it otherwise would be. The reticence to be more aggressive against IS is largely a function of the government having other priorities, rather than any desire to see IS remain. There is little appetite in Turkish public opinion for greater involvement in Syria, and the U.S.-enabled expansion of PYD-held areas on Turkey’s border was seen as more threatening, not least because it is more durable. The world will accept a PYD statelet; it will not accept IS’s statelet. The U.S.’s refusal to act against Bashar al-Assad, whom the Turks wish to see toppled, likewise took precedence for a long time. This distance with Washington, experienced by many regional allies, is the cause of many of the more destructive decisions.

Can’s lecture on “eliminating terrorism,” however, is audacious. Can was a member of the PKK, and his being one of the founders of the YPG is not a testament to his moving on but to the PYD’s nature. The official U.S. position is that “the YPG is not connected to the PKK,” but this is unsustainable upon even a cursory look at the facts.

The PYD was set up in 2003 by the PKK as its Syrian branch under the control of its transnational political structure, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK). The PYD claims that it only draws inspiration from the PKK’s founder, Abdullah Ocalan (“Apo”), and his ideology, “Democratic Confederalism,” but has no material link to the PKK. In reality, the PKK is not only in political but physical control of the PYD/YPG.

Several thousand PKK fighters moved from the Qandil Mountains to Syria in 2011-12, likely initially under a deal with their old ally in Damascus to sow dissent in the anti-Assad ranks, and then to fortify the PYD-held areas once the regime drew back from them. There are certainly many more PKK operatives in YPG ranks now, many of them Syrians from the time the PKK was an instrument of the Assad regime against Turkey and was allowed to widely recruit in the country, though a recent visitor to northern Syria said the presence of Turkish PKK troops was visible in many areas.

The PYD-regime relationship is complicated but overall very clearly more conciliatory than confrontational, even with recent events in Hasaka City. The regime has retained a considerable presence in PYD-held areas that has only recently been challenged, but the reliance of the PYD on regime services remains. The regime has also not engaged in wholesale aerial bombardment of PYD-held areas, as it has rebel-held areas, an indication that just as the regime saw benefit in IS holding territory, so it is with the PYD.

It was alleged in 2012 that Fehman Hussein (Bahoz Erdal), one of the triumvirate that leads the PKK, was leading the military wing of the PYD. Hussein was reported to have been killed in Syria in July. Hussein is probably alive and also probably in Syria. Hussein is additionally accused of leading the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), which gives the PKK deniability for the more gruesome terrorist attacks in Turkey.

In short, if you believe the PYD and the PKK are unconnected, there could very well be beachfront property in Chad in your future.

The PYD’s nature will sometimes be conceded, but its local focus will be highlighted as a mitigating factor. There are two problems with this. One, as Sam Heller has pointed out, is the troubling parallel it raises with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda in Syria, which has now rebranded itself as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS) to further its local integration—and al-Qaeda’s agenda. Second, it ignores the unguarded statements of PYD members, who are clear that the PKK’s transnationalism is at best paused: they are starting with Syria but Turkey specifically is next and then all Kurdish-majority areas. In just the last few hours, a pro-PYD journalist, Hussein Omer, has reported that the PKK will begin a wave of attacks inside Turkey if she continues confronting the PYD in Syria, and a PKK leader, Duran Kalkan (Selahattin Abbas) has publicly threatened the same.

Given this, Turkey’s extreme anxiety about a PYD-run statelet on its border looks less irrational—it is not some racist, anti-Kurdish vendetta, but a security concern that any Turkish government, of any ideological character, would share. Same with the annoyance Ankara felt when Brett McGurk, the U.S. representative to the anti-IS coalition, met publicly with Polat Can in northern Syria.

Maybe the PKK should be taken off the terrorism list. Maybe the PYD’s authoritarian governance, which inter alia regards information put out without the approval of the PYD Media Center as “an attempt to deliver information to terrorists,” and its dubious methods of warfare, are just prices we have to pay to defeat IS. Maybe providing political extremists with weapons to fight jihadists that they use against NATO partners and other assets like Syrian rebels should come with some kind of penalty.

There are trade-offs on all points, and supporting the PYD to keep IS out of Kurdish-majority areas is clearly necessary, not least because the PYD have ensured there is no other option. But honesty about the PYD is the starting point analytically, even if political front-groups and legal obfuscation is required operationally.

PYD fighter captured by Faylaq al-Sham, 28 AUG 2016. Patch is a picture of PKK's Abdullah Ocalan ("Apo"), reads: "Apo the Leader".

It should be recognized that while Turkey has taken a dark turn, internally and with some deeply problematic allies and proxies in Syria, this current round of chaos was something Ankara tried hard to avoid. Since June 2015, Turkey tried diplomatically to have the U.S. restrain the PYD’s maximalism, and the PYD serially violated these agreements with no U.S. sanction, even when the PYD employed Russian airstrikes to attack U.S.-supported rebels. Manbij was the final straw and after the White House slow-rolled again earlier this month—either to prevent the operation altogether or to keep the U.S. out of it—Turkey acted alone to enforce her red lines.

The flare-up was inevitable once it reached this point, but the U.S. could have arrived at a sensible PYD-Turkey modus vivendi—and prevented this intervention, whose complications it now decries—had it heeded the concerns of its ally earlier. Still, the U.S. has ratified Turkey’s fait accompli and the situation appears to be stabilizing—albeit with the PYD now making moves from Efrin.

In the meanwhile, the irony can be savoured that the U.S. ignored her own laws against terrorism to invite a PKK operative into a counter-terrorism coalition, and he then accused her allies of being terrorists.

Who in CENTCOM and the Obama WH plus the entire NSC...WHO failed to sit down and completely read all the written works of Khomeini from the 60s up to 1979 on what he called "revolutionary Islam"...it was clearly and concisely explained.....SO who missed that small critical point WHEN Obama fully tilted to Iran as the coming regional hegemon???

WHO missed the term "Green Crescent" often used by Khomeini when talking about "revolutionary Islam".....

That single decision maybe the worst FP decision ever made by a sitting US President in the ME in the last 70 odd years....a looming Sunni Shia war cannot be the legacy that Obama/Rhodes/Kerry wanted for historians to study...

BECAUSE that is exactly what Obama/Rhodes/Kerry have put into motion....

How is that great Obama/Rhodes/Kerry Syrian FP of "doing nothing stupid" working out in the face of years of experience with Iranian "revolutionary Islam" as designed by Khomeini and further supported by Khamenei...and the soon to be named replacement for Khamenei....

WHO did not see this coming needs to take a long vacation in the ME and catch up on "real Politik".....

http://www.voanews.com/a/iran-launch...s/3485547.html

Iran's Launch of Shia Army Threatens to Escalate Sectarian Tensions

Quote:

The Iranian government's launch of a "United Shia Liberation Army" is sending signals that Tehran wants to expand its political and military role in Middle East conflicts along sectarian lines, analysts say.

"Using a sectarian Shi'ite identifier with the title of the new army will inflame sectarian tensions in the region," Talha Abdulrazaq, a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute, told VOA. "Iran is asserting itself as a regional or even an imperialistic power."

The new force, announced Thursday by a veteran military commander who leads Iranian forces in Syria, is designed to fight in Arab countries and would recruit heavily from non-Iranian Shi'ite Muslims across the region.

In an interview with Mashregh news agency, Mohammad Ali Falaki, a leader in the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard's (IRGC), said the focus of the new force would center on three fronts — Yemen, Syria and Iraq. He said the IRGC already leads Shi'ite dominated forces in Syria comprising fighters who come from Pakistan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

"The forces that belong to this army are not Iranians only. In any place where there is a fight, we organize and recruit local people of the area," said Falaki, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq worker who retired but then returned to command Iranian-led forces in Syria.

Declaring war, analysts say

By forming a sectarian army, Tehran is declaring a war on its regional neighbors — such as Sunni-dominated countries like Saudi Arabia who have long been at odds with the Iranian regime over religion and politics — and preaching its ideology to Shi'ites across the globe, analysts say.

"It is an announcement that they are basically declaring that they are going to continue to use foreign fighters to spread sectarian violence, extremism and terrorism across the region," Abdulrazaq told VOA in a phone interview

The Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) countries, headed by Saudi Arabia, has accused Iran of inciting sectarian violence and conflicts in the region, including Iran's backing of Shi'ite Houthi rebels in war-torn Yemen. Saudi Arabia has not commented publicly on the Iranian move.

"Tehran and Riyadh have locked horns for months now and this could be a muscle-flexing gesture by Iran, giving a signal to Saudis that Iran might use all of its potentials in that fight," said Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East affairs expert in Washington.

‘Exacerbate the conflict’

Houthi rebels are at odds with the Sunni-dominated Yemeni government. The Houthis have been seeking greater rights for the Shi'ite minority in Yemen and already receive support from Iran.

"The formation of such an army would only exacerbate the conflict in Yemen. Houthis are one of the most organized groups in the Yemeni war and any additional support would empower them on the ground," Cairo-based Yemeni affairs analyst Maysaa Shuja Aldeen told VOA.

Iran would also widen its influence in the Syrian war, where Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah have been fighting for years in support of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Iran has allegedly sent thousands of Afghans living in Iran to the Syrian front lines and has recruited Pakistani nationals as fighters.

"Iranian commanders lead the battles in defending the Damascus regime. Syrians and other fighters from Lebanon and Afghanistan are fighting under their command," Sardar Kazemi, an Afghan fighter who defected from Syria and sought refuge in UAE, told VOA.

In Iraq, the Iraqi's People's Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd Shaabi, is supervised by Qasim Soleimani — an IRGC commander, according to Yasser Haidari, a former Iraqi provincial government adviser, who went against Iranian involvement in Iraq.

A larger Iranian-led force in Iraq will also likely inflame regional tensions, analysts say.

"Putting a new badge on this army as an independent army from IRGC with wider goals … could be more than a provocative act to Saudis and other Sunni states in the region and could be in line with Iran's further ambitions in the region," Nafisi said.

So far, though, Iran's announcement is short on specifics and, in the long run, may amount to little more than posturing on Iran's part, some analysts say.

"Saudi Arabia and the region's Sunni states are fully aware of Iran's foreign agenda," Abdulrazaq said. "The GCC countries are not going to be surprised by this announcement. … They would not do anything more than what they are already doing to counter Iran's regional ambitions."
Unquote

REMEMBER the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry Iran Deal was designed to do two things.....

1. support moderates...which it has not

2. allow Iran to expand as a regional actually the only regional hegemon...AND that is working it seems....

This is the Syrian ground reality that the Obama WH OR CENTCOM simply does not understand nor wants to fully understand.....as it defies the rational thinking Obama.....AND apparently CENTCOM as well

Crazy in #Hama yday ...
If one thing unites moderates and islamist extremists, it's #Assad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy4VuMjBVls …

He makes the shaved guy with the Victory sign and the spooky guy with the Schahāda flag fight together, no matter their differences.

EVEN MORE Kerry/Lavrov Geneva "clarity" hard at work....

Syria's #Assad running out of men. #Russia send soldiers to man checkpoints. 80-100 arrived yesterday in #Aleppo
First reported yesterday via social media...

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/syria/...eppo-1.1887139

August 30, 2016

Russia to send ground troops to Syria’s Aleppo

It would be the first deployment of Russian military personnel outside its military base on the Syrian coast

Quote:

Beirut: Russia has put forth the unprecedented suggestion of deploying ground troops in Syria for the first time since the Russian Air Force joined the Syrian war last September in an effort to bolster its ally Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

The offer, submitted to the UN for approval, would be the first deployment of Russian military personnel outside the Hmaymeem military base on the Syrian coast.

BUT WAIT...Russia sent troops before the UN could even answer their proposal...Russia really does not care what the UN says when it comes to Syria

The troops would be used to support government troops currently fighting in Aleppo, but it is not clear how many Russian boots would be sent.

Their main focus would be to man military checkpoints, surveillance centres and intelligence units on the Castello Road at the entrance of the ancient city.

Aleppo, once coined the industrial capital of Syria, is now largely in ruins, as the brunt of the Syrian war has been focused on the city which has been divided between government and opposition forces since 2012.

Opposition forces are currently fighting to break a government imposed siege on the city aimed at choking out the last remaining rebel forces.

Russia wants its troops to control the humanitarian corridors, bringing in UN aid to both rebel-held eastern Aleppo and government-controlled western Aleppo.

The Syrian opposition is against the proposal. It wants aid to come in through the Ramouseh district in southwest Aleppo which is controlled by the Free Syrian Army.

When Russia joined the war in September, it promised its mission would be short and swift, but a call for ground troops signals a more entrenching position in the country.

With the support of Russian war planes, Syrian government troops were able to retake the ancient city of Palmyra from Daesh, along with 12,000 square metres of countryside in Latakia, Aleppo and Hama.

While Russia said its entry in the war was to defeat Daesh, it has largely focused its efforts on striking Al Nusra Front and other Turkish-backed rebel groups who, in their view, are terrorists.

Moscow has helped facilitate supervised talks between the Syrian army and Kurdish militias in Al Hasaka last week. They were also involved in securing a deal for rebels to evacuate the strategic town of Daraya, south of Damascus.

The Russians have also been heavily involved in revamping and upgrading the military airports of Hmaymeem on the Syrian coast, T4 in Palmyra, and Kuweires, all three of which have been put at the disposal of the Russian Army.

All three have been placed under the disposal of the Russian Army. President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to put full weight behind the government in Damascus during his address at the UN General Assembly last September.

In October he gave a televised address, saying that the operations have been planned in advance, as early as March 2015.

He added that his goal in Syria was “stabilising the legitimate power” and “creating conditions for political compromise”.

His foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has been heavily involved in brokering Syrian peace talks in Geneva since last January.

During 11 months of battle, the Russian Army has lost one jet, which was shot down by the Turkish Air Force last November.

That single incident triggered a political and economic confrontation between Moscow and Ankara, reportedly costing the Turkish economy $10 billion n lost trade with Russia.

The dispute was settled after Recep Tayyip Erdogan made an official apology earlier this summer, ahead of a high-profile meeting with Putin in St Petersburg on August 9.

As a result of that summit, the Russians started accommodating Turkish worries in Syria, namely vis-a-vis Kurdish ambitions of statehood on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Putin promised to eradicate the Kurdish project in exchange for letting his troops and the Syrian Army overrun the city of Aleppo. Last week, the Kremlin was silent over the Turkish Army’s invasion and occupation of the Syrian border city of Jarablus, where it was fully liberated from Daesh. Reciprocating, Putin severed his ties with Syrian Kurds and nudged government troops to bomb their positions in the north-eastern city of Al Hasaka.
Unquote

NOW we fully see the Kerry/Lavrov Geneva "clarity" hard at work.....AND there is no joint operations ongoing between the US and Russia?????

REMEMBER the Russian Ambassador to Syria stated publicly "Assad had no intentions in attacking Aleppo"....AND Kerry "trusts" Lavrov over and over and over......

Perfect example of the much MSM heralded Kerry Geneva press conference term "clarity" which was reached with Russia.....SO this must be the much heralded "clarity" Kerry spoke about....

Sarmin, Hamdiya, Binish, Marshamarin, Saraqib, Marat al-Nouman, Jarjanaz, Idlib city, Kafroumeh, Jisr al-Shugour all hit w/ incendiary bombs

Continuous bombardment thought to be phospurus targeting Idlib, Saraqeb & Jisr al-Shugour

Idlib More footage from afar of the fires blazing in Jisr al-Shugour due to Russian airstrikes w/ incendiary bombs
https://youtu.be/1CTlLYERKfU

Idlib Happening now: Russian jets bombing Jisr al-Shugour with incendiary munitions
https://youtu.be/sActV0ESh7Y

This isn’t #Vietnam 1972 but #Syria 2016 where #Putin_Assad burn children with #napalm and incendiary bombs before the eyes of the world

YET Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH say nothing....as if it never happened and the UNSC is proving just how useless it has become when an aggressor state can veto anything actions voted on against it or it's war crimes/genocide partner....

While they are completely they last global tour at the taxpayers expense "Rome is literally burning to the ground" on their watch....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.0ff79e74486b

The disastrous nonintervention in Syria
Physical, human and political damage on an unprecedented scale.

By Anne Applebaum August 29 at 7:25 PM 

Quote:

I do not know what would have happened if, three years ago Monday, David Cameron, the British prime minister, had not foolishly held and lost a vote on intervention in Syria in the House of Commons. Perhaps if he had paid more attention, seemed more interested and told his colleagues to come home from vacation, he might have succeeded. Perhaps an intervention would have followed. Perhaps it would have helped end the conflict — or perhaps it would have failed.

We will never know. But we do know what happened instead. Britain withdrew support for a mission intended to halt the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator. Spooked by the House of Commons vote, President Obama also changed his mind. On the morning of Aug. 30, 2013, Secretary of State John F. Kerry called for action: “History is full of leaders who have warned against inaction, indifference, and especially against silence when it mattered most.” By the next day, however, the president declared that all plans for a strike were off. The French, caught off guard, didn’t want to do anything alone, so they too withdrew — regretfully. “It was a great surprise,” the French prime minister told the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg. “If we had bombed as was planned, I think things would be different today.”

I repeat: Maybe a U.S.-British-French intervention would have ended in disaster. If so, we would today be mourning the consequences. But sometimes it’s important to mourn the consequences of nonintervention too. Three years on, we do know, after all, exactly what nonintervention has produced:

Deaths. Estimates of war casualties range from about 155,000 to 400,000, depending on who is counted. This month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had registered a total of 14,711 dead children. Since the Islamic State created its caliphate in Syria, an estimated 2,350 civilians have been executed by the group. Life expectancy in Syria has dropped from almost 80 to 55.

Refugees. According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there were 4.8 million registered Syrian refugees as of Aug. 16. There are thought to be an additional 2 million refugees who remain inside Syria but are displaced from their homes. Three-quarters of those who have fled their homes are women and children. Most own nothing except what they are wearing. To give some perspective, the refugee crisis caused by the Yugoslav wars in the early 1990s produced 2.3 million refugees, a number then considered to be the worst refugee crisis since the 1940s. The Syrian crisis is three times larger.

In a brief statement Sunday, Jan. 31, Secretary of State John Kerry called for the continuation of Syrian peace talks in Geneva and for immediate steps to increase food aid and other humanitarian assistance to Syrians. (U.S. Department of State)

Physical destruction. The ancient cities of Aleppo, Bosra and Palmyra are irreparably damaged. Damascus is badly damaged. Infrastructure — roads, bridges, factories — across the country has been destroyed. Schools and hospitals have been leveled. Only last month, the Syrian government bombed four makeshift hospitals and a blood bank in Aleppo.

Destabilization of the region. The vast majority of the refugees are in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, where they put an enormous economic and political burden on poorer, frailer states. A fifth of the residents of Lebanon are Syrian refugees, numbers that may upset the delicate political balance there. Riots have broken out in refugee camps in Jordan. In Turkey, the side effects of the Syrian war also include the exacerbation of tensions with the Kurdish minority and other groups inside the country, as well as high rates of crime, smuggling and unrest along the border. Turkey, a NATO member, has been drawn further into the conflict: If the Islamic State attacks Turkey, there may have to be a NATO response.

Destabilization of Europe. Thanks in part to the war in Syria, hundreds of thousands of refugees have sought to reach Europe by boat across the Mediterranean or by foot across the Balkans. UNHCR reckoned in May that more than 2,000 people — from Syria as well as Africa — had drowned in 2016 alone, more than had died in the same period in 2015. Islands off the coast of Greece and Italy are overwhelmed. The European Union’s unwillingness or inability to control the flow has helped further undermine its institutional credibility.

Rise of xenophobia across the West. The spectacle of hundreds of thousands of people walking and sailing into Europe has also launched an unprecedented wave of xenophobia. Elections in Austria and Poland have been partly swayed by anti-refugee rhetoric, which also played a part in the Brexit vote in the U.K. Far-right and nationalist parties in Hungary, France, Germany and Italy are successfully using fear of Syrian refugees to gain support. So is the Donald Trump campaign in the United States.

To sum up: Physical, human and political damage on an unprecedented scale; ongoing security threats; the renewed stirrings of fascism. Maybe those are better than the alternative that seemed so unpalatable to the British Parliament and the American president. But it’s hardly an outstanding success.
UNQUOTE

BUT WAIT these results are EXACTLY what the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH wanted when they fully turned to Iran as the coming regional hegemon and then created their great Syrian/IS strategy of "doing nothing stupid".......in order to support that move.....all supported by spinning Congress and the American people....

NOW is the time for the Obama WH to step up and openly and publicly ask Putin..."just what the hell are you doing mobilizing for a full scale war AND do not think we are not following every step you take during these non OSCE registered snap exercises of over 450,000 personnel"?

BUT WAIT....still silence out of this WH.......

Dear @NATO @SHAPE_NATO @USArmyEurope @USNavyEurope etc. Sincerely hope you are keeping a very close watch on Russian reserves mobilization.

On the list of Cold War serious Soviet pre war invasion indicators held in the hands of Indications and Warnings teams (I&W) was this single point that triggered immediate alarm bells back in DC.......and NATO would go up automatically in alert status..

BUT you will know things are serious when UAF starts intercepting the voice communications of Russian tank/troop commanders within ONE kilometer of the Ukrainian border to Russia....OR spot military movement exactly on the border WITH no comms....THEY saw the same exact moves in the Russian 2014 invasion that the US called an "incursion"....

NOW things are starting to get serious....really serious....and not a single word, utterance, comment out of any western Intel Service...who should he watching this like hawks...especially after blowing not having seen the development of the Crimea annexation coming....

Unconfirmed: #Ukraine's Military commissariats ordered to prepare for urgent mobilization
https://ria.ru/world/20160829/1475500382.html …

Ever notice just how the Russians define a word and then just how Kerry defines the same exact word....."clarity".....which both used in Geneva this week talking about their alleged "break through"....for a ceasefire???

This defines just how the Russians define "clarity" meaning all Arab Sunni's are "terrorists" including women and children...YET Kerry does not seem to disagree with the Russian FM......

ANOTHER definition of Russian "clarity".....
Also in #Huraytan the #AssadPutin air strikes continue.
No problem anymore it seems ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOMtY-UinlM …

AND again his time without yesterday's use of napalm......
Meanwhile in #Waer, #AssadPutin aim to repeat the #Daraya scenario.
Bombing people away ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHbLvAv1d-4 …

Unbearable crimes by the #AssadPutin air force in #Rastan (besieged #Homs prov.) today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiZBFxQ9MNc …

Did everyone notice the quick slight of hand by both Kerry and Lavrov at Geneva .....both talked about "possible ceasefire and humanitarian aid deliveries" ...and as they talked the Russians continued their deliberate killing of civilians.....just as in eastern Ukraine where Russia stated there "might be a ceasefire on 31 August" all the while there was suppose to already be one called Minsk 2.....which Russia has never complied with just as it has not complied at all with the Syrian CoH....

REMEMBER this week VP Biden "told" in an official fashion that the YPG/SDF had to give up Manbij and move eastward.....back to the Eurphates.

BUT WAIT......

Well, the language that can be heard here (video is showing two ATGM hits on a TSK's M60A3) is clearly Kurdish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCCju3WOOYY

...which means that, contrary to what the WH is claiming, the PYD/YPG didn't 'withdraw east of Euphrates'...

SO does CENTCOM now pull it's SOF advisors out of YPG/SDF.....???

In Daraya, Assad destroyed "a small exemplary model for the future of Syria".
http://bit.ly/2c4RzSF

Darayya is also known for women participation and leadership, in protests, civil activities and awarenss

Darayya has a christian minority which participated in protests. Sign:"Why not a Christian woman as president?"

When the revolution started in 2011, Darayya set an example for nonviolence and creativity in peaceful tactics

Darayya is a wound that won't heal in Syrian society for decades.But its story will be inspirational for many Syrians & non Syrians

This must be the Kerry "clarity" he spoke about at the recent Geneva press conference......but maybe the Russians have a far different definition of what exactly "clarity" means........

Graphic: Al Waer #Homs hit by barrel bombs and incendiary barrel bombs today.
https://youtu.be/uIqz2gT4cyc

Incendiary in this case was actually a form of "napalm"......and it's use is against civilians in this case children is considered a war crime......

Waar neighborhood is under brutal fire. Napalm & air strikes pound the city. Children's flesh melted (GRAPHIC)

What a complete farce the US/Russian Geneva talks were yesterday....and yet nothing is said by western MSM.......

Right now the ground reality is being driven by what Bismarck called "settling the dispute by blood and iron"....

Russian Mission UN
✔ @RussiaUN It's necessary to announce launching direct round of talks betw. Gvt and whole spectrum of opposition in #Syria ASAP

MFA Russia
✔ @mfa_russia #Lavrov: Russia and US confirmed necessity of an urgent resumption, start of political process involving all #Syria'n sides |

HOW can Russia who is completely involved as a "belligerent party" be even involved?.....as they are still deliberately targeting civilians with cluster and incendiary munitions, bombing markets and hospitals and using starvation as a weapon???????

BUT WAIT...here is the Russian excuse to still keep deliberating targeting and killing civilians and yet Kerry says not a single counter comment does he??????

MFA Russia
✔ @mfa_russia #Lavrov: There can be no full-fledged ceasefire in #Syria without separation of opposition from terrorists http://tass.com/politics/896183

BUT WAIT neither in eastern Ukraine nor in Syria HAS Russia ever held to a single ceasefire...even those they claim they call for...AS witnessed in their 88 Minsk 2 violating attacks yesterday against UAF..

YET Kerry just keeps on talking, and talking, and talking, and talking..........

2014....Obama...."we will judge Putin by his actions not his words"....

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER ABOUT SYRIA
Darayya 2011: Church bells ring as protestors mourning Zaher Mobayed chant "unity, freedom, Islam and Christianity."
https://youtu.be/ik1iCeYBn_U
KEEP this in mind when the western MSM writes that Syrians are nothing but flaming jihadists.....

REMEMBER it has been the total lack of Obama actions and no actions by the entire West that has driven secular and moderate Syrian rebels who started in 2011 a peaceful protest movement into the arms of the Salafists who are at least fighting for Syria......against Assad and IS.....

Syria Statement of #FSA "Southern Front" about #Daraya (belonging to)
http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u...&id=5af7409aee …

Direct result of the "do nothing stupid" Syrian FP of the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH.......

Daraya will always be the symbol of our revolution. Don't ask why they surrendered but ask how they resisted & survived all these years

No 1 came when Daraya pleaded for help. Shame on all of us & the cowards in the south. It's us who should be asking for forgiveness not them

Daraya civilians (who regime said never existed) will be evacuated to Sahnaya & Ma'araba tomorrow, rebels will follow the day after to Idlib

On this day 4 years ago (25 August 2012), regime forces massacred 700 civilians in #Darayya

Darayya is lost. The besieged city fought off regime elite forces of 4th Division for 4 years. 1000s of Assadis were killed at its walls.

This reminds me of the Ukrainian unit called Cyborgs who fought in the Donetsk International Airport totally surrounded longer than Stalingrad before being overrun by Russian Spetsnaz using poison gas....AND the West said nothing about it's use......

A reminder of how it started in #Daraya & what it became
https://diary.thesyriacampaign.org/d...mes-the-world/ …

'The town that shames the world'

Syria #Damascus suburb of #Darayya 2005 - 78,763 residents - today 0
Now occupied by #Assad-forces after 3 years siege & 15.000 airstrikes

The Obama "Syrian red line" comes back to haunt him.......

bellingcat @bellingcat
The Syrian government's use of chlorine barrel bombs has been confirmed by the OPCW/UN, here's the latest incident https://www.bellingcat.com/uncategor...ans-in-aleppo/ …

Chlorine barrel bombs aren't someone quickly throwing a chlorine cylinder out a helicopter, it's a chemical weapon they refined and improved.

BREAKING: US says impossible to deny that Assad has 'repeatedly used' chemical chlorine weapons against his own people

U.N.: 130+ alleged cw/toxic agent attacks, inc mustard, sarin, VX & chlorine, in Syria bet Dec, 2015, Aug, 2016.
http://atfp.co/2bxvpHF

BUT WAIT...Russia/Putin certified that Assad had no further Sarin, VX and or mustard CWs/agents left in Syria so was Ptuin lying to the US...?????

Putin now suddenly pivots back to Ukraine to distract from his current Syrian failures which are getting worse not better in the last 48 hours.....

Shoigu: during readiness check Russian troops will be deployed on South-Western direction ASAP
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/25-augu...an-troops-will … via @KFM936

Shoigu: armed forces training to defend Russia's interests amid growing threats to its security
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/25-augu...te-training-to … via @CapYossarian

Russia declared battle readiness of Southern, Western and Central military district, airborne units, airforce
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/25-augu...ck-of-southern …

Russian snap military exercises on 25 August - military districts+all airforce+all airborne units+Northern fleet

There were serious doubts that Russia could attack Ukraine, - not enough forces(need 500000, not the currently deployed 100000)

SO are all the 500,000 needed now for an invasion of Ukraine now being placed on snap alert which means fully fueled and armed....

IF this development had been watched by a US Indications and Warnings Team in Berlin during the Cold War of say the early 80s...FIVE of the SIX critical red flag indicator triggers for a Russian/Soviet invasion WOULD have already caused major warnings going to the WH....via CIA/DIA.....DoD.....

FIVE are already triggered.......

1. Central-western-south, possible 75-80% of all troops. 560k total, with 350-420k able "to relocate"
2. all Russian VDV airborne units have been placed on snap alert as has the entire RuAF
3. Initially a slow stepped reservist call up has been started and now widened...
4. movement of more troops towards the Ukrainian border have been seen....
5. aggressive tone now out of the Russian MoD and Putin since Putin failed to get any concessions out of the West to force Ukraine to comply to his wishes on Minsk 2....

NOW the SIXTH trigger is in play.......

Numbers-Stations.com @Spy_Stations
Full Combat Readiness in three military districts, Russian Northern Fleet, Air Force, and other military formations
https://twitter.com/mod_russia/statu...08141781581824 …

Numbers-Stations.com ‏@Spy_Stations
Three command messages from Squeaky Wheel in two hours
STANDS NOW at five command messages

Pip and Squeaky wheel stations usually sends Dlya test reception messages every day, but when needed sends monolith (command) messages.

THIS is not a small issue that is brewing inside Russia and must be intently watched over the next 48 to 72 hours.....as that is per the Russian doctrine when they would be going IF they are going to invade.....as you cannot forever hold troop on combat alerts for extended periods of time.....

THIS is key:
Troops should be deployed in 24 hours.
https://twitter.com/mod_russia/statu...09581409292288 …

IMPORTANT.....this was ordered by Putin himself and was no Russian National Security Council decision and open statement after one of their meetings....

Минобороны России
✔ @mod_russia Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov is ordered to inform foreign military attaches of the #UnannouncedInspection

BY THE WAY...this snap exercise was not registered as required by OSCE rules when exercises exceed a certain manpower strength and that would trigger the ability for foreign military observers WHICH Russia is not allowing....

BTW....this is also designed to impress the G20..and for US/France/Germany....to force Ukraine to comply with Putin's wishes for what he wants them to implement which is not in the Minsk 2 agreement....and to distract from the simple fact Putin has not fulfilled a single point in Minsk 2.....

Biden warns Kurds not to seek separate enclave on Turkish-Syrian border
http://wpo.st/3r4u1

This is an interesting development as the Kurds have been "playing" the US first after the Saddam CW use, then the NFZ over Kurdish areas onto pushing the US set "green line" separating Kurdsih areas from Arab Sunni areas in Iraq that the Kurds kept pushing to their advantage and the disadvantage of the Iraqi Sunni's....TO the YPG "convincing both the CIA and CNTCOM that they are not "tied directly to PKK" which everyone else knows they are......

NOTICE just how quickly they shifted what Biden openly stated to them...do not move further and to withdraw westward.....to mean only for the SDF and BUT the SDF just kept right on attacking FSA and taking more territory.

At some point there will be either a Turkish or US AF bomb in their midst that will finally "get their attention"......

Well well ... from our "best and only friends" to the west's new opponents in only one day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmxekIF6KHc …
BTW...the statements in the video come from the US supported Kurdish proxy SDF....which is largely manned by YPG fighters WHICH is somehow in the Obama WH totally overlooked......

BUT WAIT....WHO in the US government, CIA and or CENTCOM truly believed the figment of one's imagination that the PKK "lost it tiger stripes ie flipped from being a Stalinist leftie terror group" to being a "freedom loving/peaceful fighting for one's independence group" NEEDS only to look at their logos and flag evolution since 1979....AND needs to recheck their own brain.......

BUT WAIT that is the much aligned "open source analysis".....that is not worth much in the intelligence tech world.....

America's foremost ground proxy in war against ISIS all but declaring war on Turkey. Tell me how this ends well.

Iran in Damascus, Russia in Lattakia, Afghan/Iraq in Aleppo, USA in Hasakeh, France in Kobani, Turkey in Jarablus

You do have to love the ME sometimes: US is helping Turkey fight ISIS and contain US-backed YPG. Now also giving air support to Ahrar.

SYRIA: Longer statement by a source at the Syrian FM condemning 'breach of sovereignty' by #Turkey
http://sana.sy/en/?p=86277

Vice President Joe Biden calls on Syrian Kurdish forces to move back across the Euphrates River.

THIS was the verbal agreement between Erdogan and Obama when the Turks "allowed" SDF which actually was the YPG take Manbij......

Key #Syria units involved:

Faylaq al-Sham
Jabhat al-Shamiya
Nour al-Din al-Zinki
Sultan Murad
13th Division
Suqor al-Jebel
Jaish al-Tahrir
Hamza Division
Jaish al-Nasr
Mutassim Brigade
Ahrar Tel Rifaat
Liwa al-Fateh
Ahrar al-Sham is also involved (confirmed by source) in the #Jarablus offensive, though more quietly than other FSA/vetted groups.

Turkey jets, artillery & SOF
- US jets, drones & SOF
- FSA units

All involved in offensive on #ISIS in Jarablus.

Turkish artillery is warding off #YPG from #Jarablus.

#Turkey says any YPG move across the Euphrates will = “necessary measures.”

Jarablus not completely liberated yet, but rebels entered the city within a few hours. Gee, how is this anti-ISIS op not like the rest?

Now let's play a game, boys and girls. How badly infiltrated was ISIS in Jarablus by Turkish-backed Arab proxies?

One of the most significant anti-ISIS battles took fewer than 9 hours. Led by US, Turkey and FSA groups.

Kurds thought the US was building them a state in Syria. Now they'll see Biden's comment as the latest in a long line of American betrayals.

Consider how much time was wasted in US foot-dragged and strong-arming. Groups US jets helped take Jarablus could have been helped earlier.

Appears that while the Obama WH has problems with understanding Erdogan...AT least he holds to his own declared "red lines"...he has been signaling them for the last six months and the US continued to basically ignore them thinking Erdogan would "accept" the Us supported Kurdish YPG/SDF/PKK moves....

Well their "red line" was finally crossed and the Turks have moved into Syria early this morning ....

Turkey is saying the operation is to open "corridor" for moderate rebels -- early morning in Syria. https://twitter.com/CNNTURK_ENG/stat...88754813460480 …

While CNN Turk has been stating this is also an air coalition operation against IS...until now there is no indication of US AF aircraft involved in attacking IS positions....

NOR do we know exactly what the Russian and Assad AFs will do now that the Turkish AF is actively attacking IS positions SOMETHING neither the Assad and Russian AFs were really doing anyway for the last months.

ACTUALLY this move may defacto establish a as the US CENTCOM defines it...."a Syian/Russian Exclusion Zone" over Aleppo....

Obama missed repeated chances to shape the Syrian "political battlefield" since 2012, he repeatedly passed using the smokescreen of "doing nothing stupid"....his legacy will be forever tied to his failure in Syria and eastern Ukraine....

Obama got what we wanted..the regional local actors stepping up and taking charge instead of the US being involved...well now the Salafists, UAE, Qatar, Turkey and KSA are tackling the Shia regional hegemon problem head on.....

The warning via CNN of a "land corridor" to moderate rebels was not a small warning to Russia and Assad.....it was though a major warning to the US as well......as they did absolutely nothing to protect Aleppo....

Ukrainian Gen Prosecutor published talks of Putin aide Glazyev as a proof of Russian invasion in Ukr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSi2pT1d8Ho …
http://liveuamap.com/en/2016/23-augu...aine-published …

And Syria and eastern Ukraine are not connected.......

BREAKING: "We will use our air power as needed" to protect US personnel & partners operating in #Syria: Pentagon

MORE: "We're going to defend our ppl on the ground”... "the Syrians should be aware of that" via communications with #Russia

Strongly worded statement against Syrian bombardment of YPG (and possible US SF). "Our people" doesn't apply to US-backed FSA groups, though

WHY is that???????

Might in fact explain why the Obama WH has such a reluctance to confront Putin and Iran in Syria...REMEMBER this was written in 2013.....THREE years ago.........

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@WSJSolomon: Iran threatened to pull out of nuclear talks if U.S. started hitting Assad forces in Syria

Michael Weiss
✔ @michaeldweiss As I noted at the time, Syria was the 'invisible rider' on the nuke deal:
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commenta...er-on-the-deal …

Quote:
Much has been written about the technical points of the P5+1 interim agreement that authorized international sanctions relief in exchange for a slowdown (but not cessation or cancellation) of Iran’s nuclear program. Much attention has also been paid to the anatomy of the deal, with an intense focus on secret Oman-based negotiations the Obama administration held with the Iranians as early as eight months ago. However, the details about breakout capacity, inspections regimes, and the dollar amount of actual sanctions relief have distracted from the invisible rider on this accord, which is Western acquiescence to Iran’s gradual takeover of Syria.

As analysts Mike Doran and James Glassman have written, the six-month nuclear deal may now be used to retroactively explain President Obama’s seeming incoherence in responding to nearly three years of a grave humanitarian catastrophe. At minimum, 110,000 people have been killed and many millions more Syrians internally or externally displaced, all while the Obama administration has recused the United States from getting involved in what the President termed “someone else’s civil war,” knowing that Russia and Iran had no such compunctions.

This is a policy for which he has been roundly criticized, not least by the majority of his own cabinet through well-timed leaks to American broadsheets. Obama’s failure to arm the anti-Assad rebels when they were still moderate and carried expectations of US help; his refusal to publicly disclose intelligence about the Assad regime’s dozen or so “small-scale” chemical weapons attacks even when other Western countries were angrily doing so; his improvised establishment, and then neglect, of a “red line” on large-scale chemical attacks – all this makes sense in the context of pursued rapprochement with Iran. “Rather than merely being feckless,” Doran and Glassman write, “the administration may actually have a long-term plan, and this initial nuclear deal is only a tactic in a broader strategy. The overall aim is a strategic partnership with Iran because the administration sees that country as the only island of stability in a sea of chaos and violence.”

This is the direst assessment that can be made of the White House’s intentions at Geneva, and conclusions that derive therefrom are quite cynical. Yet there’s some evidence to support Doran and Glassman’s thesis.

For one thing, although the administration still clings to vaguely democratic talking points about supporting the Syrian opposition and demanding Assad’s removal from power, it has not prevented Iran’s inheritance of the regime’s security detail, the breathtaking extent of which has never once been publicly articulated or condemned by Obama. True, the US Treasury Department sanctioned a handful of IRGC and Hezbollah figures for their involvement in Syria – not a hard thing to do when both groups had already been heavily sanctioned by the US – but the rhetorical fixation of this administration has always been on the composition of the rebels, specifically its jihadi quotient. When the bulk of the anti-Assad forces in Syria were still either defectors from the regime or civilians who had taken up arms to defend themselves, Hillary Clinton was comparing them to Hamas or saying she didn’t know who they were or saying that arming them might benefit al-Qaeda. (We now know she didn’t agree with this schizophrenic analysis and supported gun-running to the Free Syrian Army, as did almost every other relevant secretary or intelligence chief in the administration.)

Even the supposed realpolitik of White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, who, according to The New York Times, “suggested that a fight in Syria between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda would work to America’s advantage,” was belied by the fact that the CIA shared intelligence with Hezbollah informing it that al-Qaeda-linked groups were planning terrorist attacks in the Party of God-dominated districts of south Lebanon "as well as other political targets associated with the group or its allies in Syria." For McDonough’s let-them-kill-each-other prescription to work, salafi cells in Tripoli or Qara must have also been tipped off by Langley about pending Hezbollah operations against them. Somehow I doubt that ever happened.

Since September of this year, there’s also been another not-so-hidden administration motive for ceding greater control of Syria to Iran: the US-Russia chemical weapons disarmament plan, which resulted in the first UN Security Council resolution passed on the Syria carnage while also re-legitimizing Assad as a necessary Western partner in overseeing the destruction of the regime’s stockpiles of nerve agents. The deadline set for full disarmament is well into next year, at which point Assad will almost certainly still be in power. To remove the stockpiles, either the regime or a third party will need to provide them with safe conduct out of the war-ravaged country on roads that are either in rebel hands or are constantly being interdicted by rebels. The chances of American forces being deployed to Damascus and Aleppo for this undertaking are slim to none. Nor is anyone stupid enough to believe that Jabhat al-Nusra or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham will refrain from attacking dangerous convoys of toxins because of a piece of paper inked in New York. So built right into the chemical accord was a necessary, if unwritten, guarantee that the regime retain or regain control of major highway systems throughout the country. This clearly is not a job for the inept and depleted Syrian Army to carry out on its own. But, as the CIA and the White House surely know, it doesn’t do anything on its own anymore.

The BBC recently investigated confiscated Iranian documentary footage showing IRGC soldiers acting not just in an “advisory” capacity in Syria, but engaged in actual battlefield operations and commanding Iranian-trained militias. According to Philip Smyth, an expert on Khomeinist fighting forces in Syria, “Lebanese Hezbollah has been a prominent conduit used by the IRGC to execute operations. They have acted as field commanders and as core forces – smaller and more elite groups, often ideologically stronger and better trained. These fighters are the forces which rally larger groups of fighters. The National Defense Forces [a group of multinational Shiite militias trained and financed by Iran] and other militia groupings are now better trained, organized, and have been executing a number of key operations against rebel forces throughout the country.” In a recent evolution of their role, Smyth said, the National Defense Forces now even provide infantry support for the Syrian military.

Tellingly, even before the final touches on the interim nuclear agreement were made, the US endorsed Iran as a credible partner in relieving the very humanitarian suffering it has helped to inflict on Syria’s civilian population. As my Foreign Policy colleague Colum Lynch reported on November 22, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Iran began holding their own secret negotiations at the French mission in Geneva on the sidelines of the P5+1 talks aimed at allowing UN aid convoys access to the worst-off areas of the country. (Previously, all aid had to be run through the regime, which would either steal it or only distribute it to loyalist populations).

Well, some of the most blighted places in Syria today are the Damascus suburbs where mass starvation and disease are rampant. The National Defense Forces have been at forefront of the siege of East Ghouta, which the rebels are now furiously trying to break, as well as acting as accomplices to the months-long, state-imposed terror-famine of Moadamiyah, a town in West Ghouta. Evidently, Assad has just consented to allow UN trucks to cross the Syrian borders of Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, but not Turkey, south of which lies the largest stronghold of “terrorists.” The linkage between the Iran deal and this belated act of magnanimity is meant to be obvious to all, but it was also Damascus and Tehran’s Machiavellian gambit of putting atrocities on the table at Geneva alongside spinning centrifuges.

Indeed, both Assad and Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah welcomed the P5+1 nuclear deal, which they would not have done if they thought that it spelled a reduction of Iran’s footprint in Syria rather than an enlargement. On November 24, The New York Times also cited White House aides who said that Obama was amenable to the possibility of turning the deal into the “opening act in a more ambitious engagement with Iran that might give it a role in Syria, Afghanistan, and other trouble spots,” though the aides stipulated that this would “depend on factors that are out of America’s control, like moderates gaining on the ground in Iran.”

There are no moderates in the IRGC or Hezbollah, which already have an expansive role in Syria. Nor will “hardliners” in Iran, such as IRGC-Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani, ever consent to abandoning Assad or the nation they consider just another province of Iran. The aides’ stipulation reads like a tacked-on rationalization for a fait accompli.

The much-delayed Geneva II conference on Syria, now scheduled for January 22, thus promises to be quite an interesting affair. So far, the regime has categorically ruled out Assad's ouster as Western fantasy and the actual rebels on the ground – as opposed to their irrelevant spokespersons abroad – have said that whatever happens, they will not abide by a ceasefire during the talks.

CONTINUED.....

Obama in 2014....."we will judge Putin by his actions not his words"......

ALSO there has never been a clear and concise expalantion as to why Obama during his "Rose Garden" walk changed his mind about his own declared "red line" over the killing of 1400 Syrian civilians including women and children by Assads CWs.....

EVEN his and Rhodes own interviews tap danced around thses topic nicly by the way.....

This is a very dangerous move by the US Kurdish proxy SDF....as FSA is in the process of attacking it as well as al Bab......

Will lead to a direct confrontation with FSA and Turkey......

Jarablus Military Council announced by groups within the Syrian Democratic Forces.

AND it did not take long for the Turkish "red line flag to be waved".....

BREAKING: Turkey PM says creation of any Kurdish entity in northern #Syria 'unacceptable' - @AFP

.@vvanwilgenburg confirms Turkey is firing artillery at US-backed Manbij military council. 'Probably warning shots.'

BREAKING
#Turkey artillery heavily bombarding #Manbij military council bases in #Manbij and northern #Sajur river.

Turkey launches artillery strikes on IS, Kurdish PYD in north #Syria: TV @AFP

Another Obama/Rhodes/Kerry "spun Syrian myth" that has utterly no basis in reality....all designed to "do nothing stupid"....

Syrian army/air force hasn't carried out any air strikes against YPG kurdish militias attacking #Hasakeh in the past72hours

It seems there is a defacto no fly zone enforced by US lead coalition though Syrian officials refuse to confirm it

BUT based on the "do nothing stupidity" of the Obama WH.....

"A #NoFlyZone would endanger us & the whole Middle East"
"It's technically impossible"
"It's too dangerous"

Just another day in the Russo Ukrainian war and the Assad opposition against everyone it seems...

From Syria just this morning and that is about a third of the running reports from this war....for just today

AssadPutin forces attack the most densely populated areas in #Rastan, #Homs prov.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VNC-wx6Xrg …

After many fails in 1070-Artillery Base, pro-Regime forces increasingly trying to advance on S. #Aleppo front: Qarassi-Amiriyah-Mahrouqat.

Douma minutes ago.
Terrible #WarCrimes by the #Assad air force.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLN6dAAqrco …

Poor Iraqi mercenaries south of #Aleppo
The have no idea where the front &#FSA positions are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivOh6SaJG2o …
Position was hit from their backside...as they assumed the rebels were in front of them....compass was not working it appears....

Air strikes on peaceful #KhanShaykhun led to a bloodbath among civilians videos are coming in soon from this deliberate strike against civilians

Summer time is crop shelling time by #AssadPutin forces.
Agricultural land near #Lataminah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvTgd1GY5jw …

Besieged #Homs province this morning.
Heavy air strikes on several towns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pq8mCPW38s …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye_Av0x8Dhw …

Putin about Syria: "It's hard to imagine a better exercise [for the Russian forces]."

AND the Obama FP is what again....????...."to do nothing stupid".....

REMEMBER these are Obama's own words....."we will judge Putin on his actions not his words"...2014...

So exactly why is he and Kerry attempting to "appease Putin" at every turn from eastern Ukraine over the INF violations to Syria?????

The sounds of the Russian military and her mercenaries complying with the Minsk 2 ceasefire......

Dokuchaevsk: sounds of "ceasefire" overnight into August 16, 19, 20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wEcI...ature=youtu.be …

Examples in visual and audio of the US/Russian sponsored Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) which still in fact applies to virtually all of Syria and those so called Russian "regime of silences"....

Hell-like #Assad bombings on #Daraya today ... as always, unchallenged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5ZS8fl_TJw …

Assad's jets fly attacks on civilians in #TerMaela today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME1ovFpY8Ho …

Several meters long missile hits #TerMaela.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc36gjVKjyg …

Another video of the attack.
Seems to be a parachuted bomb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDYXo2ZkNxA …
#TerMaela

"All warfare is based on deception.If your enemy is superior,evade him.If angry,irritate him.(...)if not:split and re-evaluate."-SunTzu

BUT again "doing nothing stupid" is also good......

Obama//Kerry "lied to again".....what happen to that so called "red line".....?

Charles Lister
‏@Charles_Lister
An extensive UN investigative report is due out soon on #Syria’s CW use. It is expected to accuse #Assad of repeated CW use since 2013.

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
The OPCW (tasked w. implementing #Assad CW destruction) has also discovered 4 "undeclared chemical agents" in #Syria (major violation)

Charles Lister ‏@Charles_Lister
But suffice to say, #Russia is expected to veto any resulting recommendation (from OPCW or CW Investigation) for UN action on #Assad.

BUT WAIT...did not Russia celebrate with an official announcement that ALL CW weapons and agents HAD been eliminated in Syria and Assad was "compliant"????????

So who lied.....Assad and or Putin or BOTH??????