RT's Murad Gazdiev has been reporting on the ground in Latakia, covering the airbase from which Russia is launching airstrikes, to the towns and villages liberated by Syrian force with Russian air cover. His latest report features the other side of the equation: Syria's internally displaced people. See his report on the internal refugees being housed and cared for in Latakia province.

A US military vehicle has allegedly forced its way into the hospital in Afghanistan which was devastated by US airstrikes two weeks ago. The move was an unwelcome surprise for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) which operates the site.

Members of a joint investigation team from the US, NATO and Afghan government were aboard the heavy military vehicle, Reuters reported citing a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) statement on Thursday.

"Their unannounced and forced entry damaged property, destroyed potential evidence and caused stress and fear for the MSF team," the group said, adding that the investigators had previously promised they would notify the organization of any actions involving MSF personnel or assets.

NATO's spokesperson in Afghanistan said the incident was being "reviewed."

More and more US officials are coming out against the Obama administration's Syria policy. Former defense secretary Robert Gates has been gone so far as to call it "nuts."

Turkey said its warplanes shot down a drone Friday near its border with Syria, underscoring heightened hostility in the region's increasingly crowded airspace.

The aircraft was warned three times to turn back before being fired on by Turkish jets patrolling the border, the Turkish military said in a statement. It gave no further details on the drone or its origins.

Russia, which sent military aircraft into Syria last month, said none of its planes in Syria was hit. But the United States suspected that Turkish fighters targeted a Russian drone, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The incident occurred during a period of escalating tension along the Syrian border since Russia began an air campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad two and a half weeks ago.

Turkey, a NATO member, has accused Russia of intentionally violating its airspace on two occasions since then. The incidents have drawn sharp rebukes from Turkey's NATO allies.

"Our aircraft performing patrol duty on the border fired and shot down the aircraft," the Turkish military statement said. It said Turkey acted "within the rules of engagement."

The drone went down near the village of Deliosman, in Kilis province, Turkish media reported. The province borders Syria's Aleppo province, where Syrian government forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched a new offensive Friday.

Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu said the drone crossed the border and flew nearly two miles into Turkey before it was shot down. Some of the wreckage was examined, and photos of the downed drone were circulated by Turkish media outlets.


The wreckage resembled that of a small Russian-made Orlan 10 reconnaissance drone, reported the Aviationist, a blog specializing in military aviation.

The United States, Russia and Syria operate drones in the border region.

In Moscow, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said no Russian aircraft had been shot down.

"All the airplanes of the Russian aviation group in the Syrian Arab Republic have returned after accomplishing their combat tasks," Konashenkov said.

"Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terrorism."- Barack Obama, 15^th February 2013.

Even to those who do not watch closely it has to be apparent that Washington's vast disinformation machine is finally out of control, seriously awry, or desperate.

The latest foray in apparent media manipulation was the claim (1) by US "anonymous sources" that four Russian missiles targeting terrorist groups in Syria, landed in Iran.
US Administrations are serial repeaters of untruths. However talking of stray missiles after bombing a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan under a week before - when coordinates of the buildings had been confirmed to US authorities again just prior to the attack - then changing the story as to how it happened four times in less days, is skating on wafer thin ice.

As Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of MSF and former French Foreign Minister wrote:

"Targeting a red cross drawn on the roof of a hospital is ... unacceptable ... a line has again been crossed." Demanding an independent investigation he stated: "It is a war crime." (Guardian, 9^th October 2015.)

Former US Senate candidate, Mark Dankof, speaking to Iran's Press TV regarding US claims of stray missiles in Iran believes a full-blown psychops operation towards Russia is underway. (2) President Putin's Ministers stating that all terrorists terrorizing the people of Syria are targets - thus including the US backed ones - might be the reason.

Dankof points out:

" ... two anonymous US officials (are) a basis for this claim, who in turn are quoting unspecified, uncorroborated, and unverified 'military and intelligence information.' " (3)

Moreover: "This is laughable ... and underscores the blizzard of lies spun by the American government, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council, and Turkey, about what has been going on in Syria, and who is clearly responsible for the 250,000 Syrian deaths, one million wounded, and 9.5 million displaced citizens of that country", he added.

As the balance of forces is slowly but surely shifting in favor of Novorossia, the UAF has been reduced to siege mentality of sorts due to the shortage of personnel and modern equipment. Mariupol, in particular, has been turned into a "fortified zone", although the fortifications themselves, leave a lot to be desired.

This pillbox would be marvelously useful...during World War I. But not against an opponent capable of using tank guns and artillery.

And since you can't have trench warfare without trenches, they too play a large role in Ukraine's defense strategy.

No doubt because the money was stolen. UAF's Prosecutor General Anatoliy Matios is continuing his crusade against corruption in the military.

There is no such thing as "moderate opposition" in Syria, French academic Thomas Flichy de la Neuville told Sputnik, adding that it is Bashar al-Assad who is now representing the people of Syria.

French historian Thomas Flichy de la Neuville, professor of International relations in Saint-Cyr's military academy and researcher in the Roland Mousnier Centre calls attention to the fact that there is no such thing as "moderate opposition" in Syria, if there was any it would have been nevertheless suppressed by radicals.

"Russia's involvement in the Syrian conflict is not aimed at strengthening the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It is a part of a clear diplomatic strategy which envisages the eradication of the Islamic State, or at least its containment. In order to halt ISIL's advance Russia can count only upon the Islamic State's deadly enemies, such as Iran and Syria. I believe that one should not muddle Syria's domestic issues with Russia's geopolitical objectives," Neuville told Sputnik.

Washington, D.C. - An anonymous whistleblower within the U.S. intelligence community provided a cache of classified intelligence documents to The Intercept, which revealed the extremely dysfunctional nature of the American drone warfare/targeted assassination program.

The eight-part investigation, which included documents, analysis, slides, and visuals, was released on Thursday as "The Drone Papers," by The Intercept.

The insightful reporting by The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill and fellow investigative journalists analyzed and explored the manner in which drone strikes have been carried out by the U.S. in Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, and Afghanistan; ultimately questioning the legitimacy and legality of these extrajudicial killings.

Obsessed with competition against Russia in Syria, the US disregards real problems in the Middle East - souring relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia moving towards collapse

In the first half of this month, the American political consciousness radically shifted, as with the Eurasia/Eastasia switcheroo from Orwell's 1984. At almost unimaginable speed, Russia beat out the Caliphate to once again top America's list of bad guys. In fact, compared to Russia's evil ambitions, the Caliphate is no longer even a threat. It hardly exists!

Who would have thought?

In June 2014, when it seemingly came out of nowhere to take Mosul, the second city of Iraq, the Caliphate was portrayed in American media as a national emergency—that is, for America, not just Iraq.

Most Americans had never even heard of ISIL, ISIS, IS, or whatever is the name du jour. (I call it the Caliphate, a name that won't change despite any number of silly acronym changes.)

Then all of a sudden, overnight, it was all we heard about.

Defense Secretary Hagel spoke of it as an unprecedented, emergency threat, sort of like communism but worse. A few months later, speaking to the UN, President Obama said it was right up there with Russia and Ebola as a fundamental danger to humanity. CNN's notorious war cheerleader, Wolf Blitzer, spoke of almost nothing else for months. And excitable policemen on the border claimed that it was coming up from Mexico, much like that old lady calling in to report Japanese warships on the Mississippi in 1941.

The US and its allies would like to see Russia's military operations in Syria go horribly wrong as Russia's success heralds a crushing defeat for Western regime-change machinations. It would also signal the balance of power shifting away from US hegemony.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter darkly predicted that Russia would suffer blowback from its intervention in Syria with acts of terrorism being committed on "Russian soil."

Within days for Carter's pointed warning, Russian authorities arrested a jihadist cell in Moscow plotting terror attacks. This week, the Russian embassy in Damascus came under fire from two mortar shells - an attack which Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov quickly condemned as an act of terrorism.

It might be assumed that Washington has taken some nefarious satisfaction over what appears to be a harbinger of the terror blowback Carter warned of.

From the outset of Russia's aerial bombing campaign against terror groups in Syria, beginning on September 30, Washington and its Western allies have sought all possible ways of discrediting and derailing the intervention. US President Obama poured scorn saying "it was doomed to fail," while Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron labeled the Russian move as "a grave mistake" on the part of Putin.

This week, European Union foreign ministers amplified American claims that Russian air strikes are targeting "moderate rebels" and called on Moscow to halt its operations unless they are specifically against Islamic State and other "UN-designated terror networks." The credibility of American and European claims about Russian air strikes is, of course, highly questionable.

But the point here is that it is becoming glaringly obvious that Washington and its allies want to make as much trouble for Russia's military intervention in Syria. Why is the West going out of its way to thwart Russia's intervention?