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Russian air cover allows Syria army advance in 'vast offensive'

Maya Gebeily with Bryan McManus
Yahoo News
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 14:51 UTC
Syrian army offensive
© Agence France-Presse
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), shows Syrian army units and pro-government forces deploying at an undisclosed location in western Syria on October 8, 2015
Regime troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah and Russian air strikes advanced Thursday in western Syria in a "vast offensive" against rebels, as NATO voiced alarm at Moscow's escalating military activity in the country.

Russia has dramatically stepped up its nine-day-old air war against foes of President Bashar al-Assad, with heavy bombing by warplanes and cruise missile strikes from the Caspian Sea.

A US official said four Russian missiles launched at Syria from warships Wednesday had crashed in Iran, but that was denied by Moscow.

A Syrian military source told AFP that regime forces had advanced in a key mountain range.

"They have seized most of the hilly region of Jeb al-Ahmar," which overlooks the strategic Sahl al-Ghab plain to the east and Assad's coastal stronghold of Latakia to the west, the source said.

The plain has been the focus of a months-long offensive by a rebel alliance including Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, Al-Nusra Front.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, confirmed that regime forces had advanced in the area.

Comment: Russia has made its position clear: If it talks like a terrorist, and walks like a terrorist, it will be bombed. No delicate distinctions here.

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Play

South Front Syria Military Review: Syria launches mass offensive on terrorist-held villages and regions


South Front
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 14:32 UTC
south front
On October 8, Chief of the General Staff of the Army and Armed Forces, Gen. Ali Abdullah Ayoub officially announced that the Syrian armed forces had started a large-scale assault aimed at retaking several key cities and regions from terrorist forces after a week-long bombing campaign by Russia targeting the jihadists. A day earlier, SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence reported that Syrian forces start full-scale offensive. The main aims are the Hama-Homs axis and to lift the ISIS siege of the Kuweries Military Airport.

Today, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) with the National Defense Forces (NDF) conducted a large-scale offensive at the terrorist-controlled towns of Kafr Zita, Qala'at Al-Madayq, Latmeen, and Al-Lataminah in the Hama Governorate. The Free Syrian Army, CIA-backed Liwaa Suqour Al-Ghaab, Sham Legions, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham militant groups oppose the Syrian forces there.

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Dollars

Obama (un)officially throws in the towel in Syria


Moon of Alabama
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 13:28 UTC
Obama sad
The last MoA dispatch on Syria concluded:
The U.S. lost the game. It should take up the Russian offer or leave the table.
Despite the bickering from the usual neocon suspects the Obama administration is taking that advice and officially throws the towel:
Mr. Obama's advisers say there is little they can do to change the situation in the near term. Proposals are being drafted for meetings in coming days, but Mr. Obama has made clear he is not willing to confront the Russians and risk an escalation, nor does he have a broad new strategy to resolve the conflict or defeat the Islamic State.

"There isn't a solution at this point that they're going to get done on their watch," said Michael McFaul, a former White House adviser to Mr. Obama who later served as ambassador to Russia before returning to Stanford University. "They're just going to contain it."
The Obama administration is, for now, giving up on official "regime change" training ops in Syria and is unlikely to go for more intense fighting against the Islamic State. But that is only the official position. Unofficially, we can safely assume, the CIA and various shady Pentagon entities will continue their mischief in Syria and in Iraq.

But thanks to the Russians, it is now for all to see that the U.S. was never serious about fighting the Islamic State or about reigning in al-Qaeda and other Jihadis in Syria. While the U.S. has flown a total of 137 air attacks in Syria in some thirteen month the Russians delivered 148 airstrikes within just one week.

Comment: The official program to recruit and train jihadis in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc. was always a joke. Statements that only "4 or 5" of these guys were still actively fighting ISIS are slightly misleading. The point was never to have a truly 'successful' program. Most likely, the plan all along was to have these guys 'defect' to Al-Qaeda's Nusra Front or other similar groups. So while the program is in the process of being re-tooled and revamped because of its 'lack of success', the damage has already been done. Now it's just a matter of seeing how much more damage the U.S. can do in Syria.

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Quenelle - Golden

Countries destroyed by the US are turning to Russia for help


Sputnik
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 12:12 UTC
nato afghanistan

NATO troops in Afghanistan
Iraq and Afghanistan, which once were "liberated and democratized" by the US, are now reaching out for help from Russia in fighting ISIL terrorists. Moscow is ready to help but only in response to an official government request, Il Giornale reported.

"The balance of power has changed in the Middle East," the article read.

After the Iraqi War in 2003, the country became a protectorate of Washington. However, now Baghdad is turning away from its "liberator" and is turning to Russia.

Comment: Compare and contrast Russian and American involvement in the region:

True humanity: Russia cancels airstrikes on ISIS when civilians are present

VS:

Western warmongers killed 1.5 million Muslims in 'war on terror'

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Bad Guys

US should work with Russia in Syria, but instead they continue to threaten world's nuclear powers


Paul Craig Roberts
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:50 UTC
America Uncle Sam
© AFP 2015/ Filippo Monteforte
Washington's impulsive use of power is a danger to America and to the world. Arrogant Washington politicians and crazed neoconservatives are screaming that the US must shoot down Russian aircraft that are operating against the US-supplied forces that have brought death and destruction to Syria, unleashing millions of refugees on Europe, in Washington's effort to overthrow the Syrian government.

Even my former CSIS colleague, Zbigniew Brzezinski, normally a sensible if sometimes misguided person, has written in the Financial Times that Washington should deliver an ultimatum to Russia to "cease and desist from military actions that directly affect American assets." By "American assets," Brzezinski means the jihadist forces that Washington has sicced on Syria.


Comment: Brzezinski has called for Obama to retaliate against Russia if they continue taking out Western assets. Maybe guys like Brzezinski should just get used to not being on 'top of the world' anymore.


Brzezinski's claim that "Russia must work with, not against, the US in Syria" is false. The fact of the matter is that "the US must work with, not against Russia in Syria," as Russia controls the situation, is in accordance with international law, and is doing the right thing.
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Bad Guys

Solving the "mystery" of ISIS' Toyota army

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 12:01 UTC
ISIS Toyota
© Unknown
The US Treasury has recently opened an inquiry about the so-called "Islamic State's" (ISIS/ISIL) use of large numbers of brand-new Toyota trucks. The issue has arisen in the wake of Russia's air operations over Syria and growing global suspicion that the US itself has played a key role in arming, funding, and intentionally perpetuating the terrorist army across Syria and Iraq.

ABC News in their article, "US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks," reports:
U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world's second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group's propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is "supporting" the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

Comment: After decades of being the 'reality creators' the Western elite just can't handle being shocked back to reality by Putin. Also see:

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Star of David

Israel bans Palestinian men under 50 from entering Al-Aqsa mosque


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 12:22 UTC
Image
© Baz Ratner / Reuters
Israel has reintroduced a ban barring worshipers under 50 from entering the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for Friday's prayers. The Temple Mount site, considered a major holy place in both Islam and Judaism, has been the center of growing tensions lately.

The move has been announced by Israeli police as part of larger measures focusing on tightening security in the Old City.

"It has been decided to limit the age of worshippers allowed entry to the Temple Mount to men over 50," police said in a statement on Thursday. "Entry of women of all ages will be allowed."

The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem has become a flashpoint of the escalating conflict in past weeks. It is the third-holiest site in Islam and Judaism's holiest site.

Earlier on Thursday, Benjamin Netanyahu barred members of parliament from paying visits to Al-Aqsa in a bid to reduce tensions, though Muslim members of the Knesset have already said they will not comply with the edict.

Comment: This decision seems counterproductive. Banning Palestinian men under 50 from going to a Muslim holy site is only going to further inflame and increase tensions. It seems like everything the Israelis are doing is intended to escalate, not deescalate tensions.

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Bad Guys

$500 million program ends to train Syrian rebels, Obama administration reports


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:56 UTC
Image
The Obama administration has ended the Defense Department's $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing officials. This comes as an acknowledgment of the program's failure to produce ground forces capable of battling ISIS.

Comment: Notch up another failure to the Obama administration.

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Heart

True humanity: Russia cancels airstrikes on ISIS when civilians are present


ITAR-TASS
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 12:16 UTC
Image
© TASS
Russia has more than once cancelled the planned strikes on the Islamic State (IS) militants as they were hiding among the civilian population, chief of the main operations directorate of Russian army's General Staff Andrei Kartapolov said on Wednesday.

"We've more than once had to cancel the planned strikes on the militants only because the terrorists, to all appearances, getting information about the planes' taking off were leaving their bases and camps. They were hiding, as a rule, in populated localities and near religious sites," Kartapolov told a briefing.

He said that Russia was not targeting facilities in populated localities.

Kartapolov also said that Russia had proposed to the partners to exchange the IS facilities' coordinates, however, there has been no response to the proposal.

"It means that either our partners have no such coordinates or they for some reason don't want us to make strikes on the IS facilities. The reason for this remains unclear to us so far," Kartapolov said.
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Eye 2

True to their values: U.S. rejects call for independent investigation of their bombing of Afghan hospital


Sputnik
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 12:05 UTC
kunduz
© AP Photo/ Médecins Sans Frontières
The United States rejects calls for independent international investigation into the bombing of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan after the group had demanded one, US State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Wednesday.

"The Secretary [of Defense Ashton Carter] prefers the Defense Department to investigate this. The Secretary has the utmost trust and confidence in the Defense Department's ongoing investigation," Kirby said.


Comment: Sure, he might. But that's not the point. No one else has the "utmost trust and confidence" in what will most likely be a DOD whitewash.

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