Instead of the public statements of support it was looking for, Kiev gets calls for restraint.

In the immediate aftermath of the Crimean incident in an article I wrote a few days ago I said that there would be ritual statements of support for Ukraine from the Western powers, but that these would be balanced by private calls to Ukraine for restraint.

In the event the most surprising fact about the Crimean incident is that there have not even been the ritual statements from Western governments of support for Ukraine that I expected. On the contrary Western governments have publicly said virtually nothing about the incident. A meeting of the UN Security Council did take place on Thursday to discuss the incident, but the meeting took place in closed session so scarcely anything is known about it. By contrast the calls for restraint I said would be made by the West to Ukraine in private are being made in public as well.

Six Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers have hit Islamic State positions outside the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor, destroying command centers, ammunition depots, and numerous tanks, while decimating the terrorists' manpower, the Defense Ministry said.

"[The bombers] which took off from a Russian air base have conducted a concentrated airstrike with high-explosive munitions on IS in areas located southwest, east, and northeast of the city of Deir ez-Zor," the ministry's Sunday statement said.

The airstrike destroyed two Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) command centers, six large ammunition depots, two tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, seven SUVs with mounted machine guns, and also decimated the terrorist group's manpower.

The Tu-22M3s bombers (NATO reporting name Blinder) were covered by Su-30SM and Su-35S fighter jets operating from Khmeimim air base, and all of the warplanes returned safely, the ministry added.

A disturbing new video released by the Iraqi Defense Ministry celebrating the liberation of Qayyarah by Iraqi Air Force and the US-led Combined Joint Task Force for Operation Inherent Resolve shows the airborne drop of incendiary munitions in potential violation of international law.

Troubling video issued by the Iraqi Defense Ministry show the country's air force dropping incendiary munitions from an airplane on the villages of South Qayyarah as part of the campaign to liberate the territory from the control of Daesh terrorists.

Initial reports from on the ground freelance reporters indicate that the munitions were dropped by either the Iraqi Air Force or by the US-led Joint Task Force for Operation Inherent Resolve planes although the former seems more likely with video footage appearing on the Iraqi Defense Ministry's YouTube page.

Of course, not. No more than she was able to think beyond the moment of her own Satanic triumph when she learned on air that Gaddafi had just been raped to death with a bayonet by her loyal terrorists and proclaimed: "We came. We saw. He DIED."

The way she laughs so demonically. Does she not seem possessed?

Hillary doesn't care what death and destruction and immense human suffering may result from her terrorists' actions. She thinks only of how big is her bayonet.

The armed opposition groups in Syria declared that thousands of militants in the Southern parts of the country are willing to reconcile with the Damascus government, the Arabic-language media reports said on Saturday.

A provincial council affiliated to the militant groups in a statement admitted that 25,000 militants are looking for reconciliation with the Syrian government forces in Southern Syria, al-Mayadeen TV channel reported on Saturday.

The statement by the 'Council for Men of Knowledge in the Levant' has accused the terrorist commanders willing to compromise with the Syrian army of treason.

It has given the militant commanders in Southern Syria three days to withdraw from al-Mouk Operations Room (which operates under the Saudi, Qatari, the US and Jordanian spy agencies), the television added.

As the Syrian Arab Army and Syrian government make more significant advances in restoring security to northern Syria's Aleppo and its population, war-propagandizing human rights groups posing as neutral, and Western media (and Gulf counterparts like Al Jazeera) churn out recycled and debunked accusations anew.

According to these compromised US government and Soros-funded NGOs and much of the corporate media, there is only one "last" pediatrician and a scarce number of doctors left in Aleppo. They are, of course, referring solely to the terrorist-occupied regions of Aleppo (eastern and some northern quarters) and even then ignore the reality that the Syrian government continues to pay the salaries of doctors in terrorist-occupied areas, including eastern Aleppo.

As the clock ticks down to the US presidential election in November, it also ticks down on an opportunity to end the five-year war in Syria which has cost over 300,000 lives and displaced half of Syria's population. As the Syrian Army and its allies completed the encirclement of Aleppo, opening up humanitarian corridors in partnership with Russia to afford civilians and "rebels" — provided they laid down their arms — the opportunity to leave safely and be provided with humanitarian assistance, we could be forgiven for believing we can see the end of this abhorrent war on the horizon. However in recent days, the Jaysh al-Fateh coalition, heavily featuring the rebranded and very well equipped Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, led counter attacks which breached the siege lines, although they have failed to as yet open up secure routes for new supplies, fighters and weapons, as well as to launch further counter attacks.

Meanwhile, the polls fluctuate on who is the favourite between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to become the next US president, and we can't yet confidently predict who will be the Commander in Chief presiding over the Syrian conflict and therefore what policy changes may occur. The wild fluctuations see Clinton ahead by a massive 15 points, 48 to 33 percent, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll, yet less than 48 hours later a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll has Clinton holding a narrow 42-39 percent lead. Clinton's infatuation with war causes huge consternation, not least over what she may bring to the table on the war in Syria.

One thing is clear: Clinton is the favourite, and we should all prepare for what awaits us with Clinton as the leader of the "free world." Clinton has a readymade band of neocon war hawks waiting in the wings, not hard to find in a US political establishment dominated by neocons with a thirst for war and conquest. This cabal jockeying for position in her prospective administration does not bode well for the Syrian conflict, or for relations with Russia. Let's examine some of the candidates and their boastful record of war mongering and Russophobia.

Russia's rocky relationship with America had many opportunities to reach detente, if not outright friendship. Still, despite Putin's best attempts to bring Russia in on the war against Islamic Terrorism, America's response has been frosty at best.

This is because the Anglo-Zionist's vendetta against Russia has trumped any and all consideration of the advantages that cooperation in the war on terror could have provided for America.

One could make the same comparison with Syria.

Now, even with the threat of Islamic terror and takeover looming in Europe, there is still nothing but war drums being beat against Russia for their stand in Syria to support the legitimate and secular government of Bashar Al-Assad.

Russia is just one country that America seems to be hell bent on destroying. Syria is another. The United State continues to fund Islamic terror with attempts to depose Assad and throw yet another Middle-Eastern country into chaos and open the door for Islamic fundamentalists to take power. All while the United States is seemingly at war with terrorism abroad.

Revolution is closer than you think...

Following Angela Merkel's earlier calls for German CEOs to hire refugees, and as Martin Armstrong notes, Germany has raided its healthcare funds to support the refugee crisis...

The government passed a law that allows them to take 1.5 billion euros from the liquidity reserve of the public health care fund (10 billion euros in total, paid by all members and additionally by the taxpayer) and to give that money to refugees / asylum seekers.

What would you call this? Insane?

We thought a reminder of the tensions that are bubbling under the surface in Germany.

As VoxDay noted appropriately, Germany's elite is going to get a well-deserved one soon as German President Joachim Gauck was booed and attacked in the streets of Sebnitz, Saxony after he blurted out the following unbelievbable statement:

"The elites are not the problem, the people are the problem.

The Twitter account of Guccifer 2.0, the hacker who claimed responsibility for leaking a trove of Democratic National Committee documents, was suspended less than 24 hours after dumping fresh sensitive DNC data.

On Friday, the hacker wrote a blog post taking credit for a fresh leak from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He published an excel spreadsheet containing the mobile phone numbers and email addresses of every Democrat in the House of Representatives, as well as passwords to DCCC files to substantiate his claim.

The hacker, who had actively been using Twitter to publicize his leaks, has since had his account suspended.

WikiLeaks claims that the suspension was related to the publication of the DCCC documents.