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Russia claims ISIS on the ropes after 60 airstrike bombings in 72 hours

Tyler Durden
Zero Hedge
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 10:15 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
One question that's been asked repeatedly over the past thirteen months is why Washington has been unable to achieve the Pentagon's stated goal of "degrading and defeating" ISIS despite the fact that the "battle" pits the most advanced air force on the planet against what amounts to a ragtag band of militants running around the desert in basketball shoes.

Those of a skeptical persuasion have been inclined to suggest that perhaps the US isn't fully committed to the fight. Explanations for that suggestion range from the mainstream (the White House is loathe to get the US into another Mid-East war) to the "conspiratorial" (the CIA created ISIS and thus doesn't want to destroy the group due to its value as a strategic asset).

The implication in all of this is that a modern army that was truly determined to destroy the group could likely do so in a matter of months if not weeks and so once Russia began flying sorties from Latakia, the world was anxious to see just how long the various rebel groups operating in Syria could hold up under bombardment by the Russian air force.

The answer, apparently, is "less than a week."

On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense said it has conducted 60 bombing runs in 72 hours, hitting more than 50 ISIS targets.

According to the ministry (Facebook page is here), Islamic State fighters are in a state of "panic" and more than 600 have deserted.

Here's what happens when the Russians locate a terrorist "command center":


Comment: Russian MP burns US coalition: Americans spent year bombing Syrian desert, not ISIL

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Bullseye

Turkish military assault on Kurdish city of Silvan kills 17 PPK members


RT
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 07:03 UTC
Silvan tanks
© www.rt.com
Tanks patrol Kurdish city of Silvan.
At least 17 members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed in a Turkish military assault on the city of Silvan, which has a mainly Kurdish population, reports say. The Istanbul police department together with teams from the anti-terrorism branch launched the operation at 05:00 local time (02:00GMT), Dogan News Agency said.

Helicopters and armored vehicles have reportedly been deployed in at least three of the city's neighborhoods. Ankara introduced a curfew in several areas of the city at 07:00 local time (04:00 GMT), according to media reports.

Witnesses on Twitter said they heard intensive gunfire and heavy artillery and posted photos and videos showing military vehicles rumbling through deserted streets of the city. A building reportedly caught fire following hits from Turkish Army artillery, reports on social media said.

The city of Silvan (population 43,000) was the site of clashes between Turkish forces and members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in August 2015. The PKK, founded in 1978, has been fighting Turkey since 1984. It is considered as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and NATO.

Comment: Tensions in Turkey escalated in July, when Turkey launched a military campaign against the Kurdistan Workers' Party in northern Iraq. Silvan is located in the southeastern part of Turkey above the border between Syria and Iraq.

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Bad Guys

US Lieutenant General goes on record claiming rise of ISIS was 'a willful Washington decision'


RT
Mon, 10 Aug 2015 14:12 UTC
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn
© Gary Cameron / Reuters
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn
The US didn't interfere with the rise of anti-government jihadist groups in Syria that finally degenerated into Islamic State, claims the former head of America's Defense Intelligence Agency, backing a secret 2012 memo predicting their rise.

An interview with retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), given to Al Jazeera's Mehdi Hasan, confirms earlier suspicions that Washington was monitoring jihadist groups emerging as opposition in Syria.

General Flynn dismissed Al Jazeera's supposition that the US administration "turned a blind eye" to the DIA's analysis.

Comment: Yes, Washington uses terrorists to do their dirty work. Another big question is: Will US-manufactured ISIS attack Americans on US soil?

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USA

US exceptionalism: Why Afghanistan is going to fall to the Taliban again

Ryan Grim
The Huffington Post
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 17:20 UTC
Image
© Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Doctors Without Borders staff huddle together after a U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2015.
Last week, the Taliban began the process of retaking Afghanistan, starting with the northern city of Kunduz. The U.S. and Afghan governments have since been battling to recapture it -- a fight that included the U.S. bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed at least 12 medical staff, along with at least seven patients, on Saturday.

The Taliban has since charged that Afghan intelligence purposely gave the U.S. the hospital's coordinates. Even the possibility that such an accusation is true -- and the duration of the sustained attack suggests that something unusual happened -- points toward the reason that Afghanistan is headed back toward Taliban control: The government is thoroughly corrupt, and the U.S. has been unwilling to take measures to address the situation. While a handful of civilian and military leaders identified corruption as an existential threat to the country, the problem remains unsolved.

Comment: More evidence of the US exceptionalism spreading "freedom and democracy".

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Cow Skull

Genocide: NATO deliberately destroyed Libya's water infrastructure

Nafeez Ahmed
The Ecologist
Thu, 14 May 2015 22:22 UTC
water

Deprived of piped water supply by NATO's bombing of critical infrastructure, a man in post-invasion Libya fills up a bottle of water from a muddy puddle. Photo: British Red Cross.
The military targeting of civilian infrastructure, especially of water supplies, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, writes Nafeez Ahmed. Yet this is precisely what NATO did in Libya, while blaming the damage on Gaddafi himself. Since then, the country's water infrastructure - and the suffering of its people - has only deteriorated further.

Numerous reports comment on the water crisis that is escalating across Libya as consumption outpaces production. Some have noted the environmental context in regional water scarcity due to climate change.

But what they ignore is the fact that the complex national irrigation system that had been carefully built and maintained over decades to overcome this problem was targeted and disrupted by NATO.

During the 2011 military invasion, press reports surfaced, mostly citing pro-rebel sources, claiming that pro-Gaddafi loyalists had shut down the water supply system as a mechanism to win the war and punish civilians.

This is a lie.

But truth, after all, is the first casualty of war - especially for mainstream media journos who can't be bothered to fact-check the claims of people they interview in war zones, while under pressure from editors to produce copy that doesn't rock too many boats.

Comment: "Massive humanitarian emergency." That was the plan. Mission accomplished. This is what Putin meant when he said everything the U.S. touches turns into a Libya.

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SOTT Logo Radio

Behind the Headlines: Russia eclipses US as global superpower


Sott.net
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 18:00 UTC
Sott Talk Radio logo
This week on Behind the Headlines your regular hosts, Joe Quinn and Niall Bradley, are once again joined by 'The Truth Perspective' host, Harrison Koehli.

Putin's Russia shocked the world, and Western elites, with their lightning fast move to fight ISIS in Syria. Caught off guard, the American empire is further demonizing Putin and Russia in the process in a desperate bid to save face. But they don't have a leg to stand on. From the shredded tatters of democracy on US soil to the transparent joke of a foreign 'War on Terror', decades of imperial hubris have left them wide open to having the entire facade crumble. The resurgence of Russia has exposed the man behind the curtain, and the US has nowhere to go but down.

But what's the real deal in Syria and the wider Middle East? Why is it so important to Russia to defend Assad and why has the West turned on Assad like they turned on Gaddafi?

For the answers to these questions and more, join us this Sunday October 4th 2015, 2-4pm EST - 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:15:00

Download: MP3

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Coffee

Obama's Western alliance is crumbling around his feet

Eric Zeusse
Washington's Blog
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
Image

EU Is Abandoning U.S. on Overthrowing Assad

Obama Cannot Defeat Assad without EU's Help

EU Also Rejects Obama's TTIP & TISA Demands

Obama's Presidential 'Legacy' Heads to Failure

Europe is being overrun by refugees from American bombing campaigns in Libya and Syria, which created a failed state in Libya, and which threaten to do the same in Syria. Europe is thus being forced to separate itself from endorsing the U.S. bombing campaign that focuses against the Syrian government forces of the secular Shiite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, instead of against his fundamentalist Sunni Islamic opponents, the jihadist groups (all of which are Sunni), such as ISIS, and Al Qaeda in Syria (al-Nusra).

Comment: By now it has become clearer - even to US vassal states that have had long-time alliances - that to make almost any kind of political, economic, or military agreement with the US - is a sure guarantee of being cheated and left to twist in the wind.

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Smiley

Russian MP burns US coalition: Americans spent a year bombing Syrian desert, not ISIL


Sputnik
Fri, 02 Oct 2015 16:05 UTC
syria
© AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis, File
The United States spent a whole year bombing the desert instead of hitting terrorist targets in Syria, the head of the Russian parliament's international affairs committee wrote on Friday.

"[Senator John] McCain accused us of striking out at US-trained insurgents... However, since they have either run away or joined al-Qaeda, hitting them is a mission impossible," Alexei Pushkov wrote on his Twitter account.

In an interview with France's Europe 1 Radio Pushkov said that the Russian aerial campaign in Syria would take three to four months.

"The US-led coalition spent a whole year pretending they were striking ISIL targets but where are the results of these strikes?" Pushkov wondered.

The White House had earlier said that the Russian air forces was targeting areas in Syria where ISIL militants were nowhere in sight.

Besides, John McCain, chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, said that he could "absolutely confirm" that Russian air strikes had hit Free Syrian Army recruits who had been armed and trained by the US, a claim that was later denied by the Pentagon.

Comment: The curtain is falling, the mask is slipping -- all thanks to Putin's Russia: Obviously, the U.S. was not serious about defeating ISIS. And that raises a whole lot of damning questions. What other possible conclusion can there be?

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Star of David

Fears of new intifada remain after Israel launches Palestinian clampdown


RT
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 14:43 UTC

Israel is under pressure to take action after two people were killed and two others, including a two-year-old toddler, were wounded in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City on Saturday evening. A few hours later a 15-year-old Israeli was stabbed near Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.

RT's Paula Slier reported that the Israeli military is already carrying out retaliatory measures against Palestinians in the West Bank.

At least a dozen Palestinians were arrested in the early hours of Sunday morning following a raid by the Israeli Defense Forces in Nablus, which is one of the largest cities in the Palestinian West Bank, she said.

Comment: This unrest has been festering for several weeks now. Something is brewing in Jerusalem:

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Airplane Paper

Russian jets blast 10 terrorist targets in last 24 hrs (VIDEOS)


RT
Sun, 04 Oct 2015 14:25 UTC
russian jet
© Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti
9 out of 10 jihadi nutjobs agree: Russian jets are a lot scarier than American ones!
Russian fighter jets have attacked 10 Islamic State targets in Syria in their latest airstrikes, destroying arms depots, training centers and infrastructure, Defense Ministry says. In the last 24 hours, Russian military aircraft have performed 20 sorties.

Armored Sukhoi Su-25 ground-support fighter jets have attacked a jihadist training center in Idlib province, also destroying a workshop producing suicide belts, according to the newly-released Defense Ministry report.

Three depots with munitions, arms and material assets have been eliminated with pinpoint strikes. As a result of direct hits from KAB-500 air bombs, installations and munitions have been taken out.


Comment: One wonders, of course, how long before a raft of ISIL terrorists surrender and start blowing the whistle on Obama and the gang? After just 3 days of airstrikes, ISIL is already on the run: Russia destroys over 50 ISIS targets in 3 days, crippling terrorists' combat capabilities

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