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Thursday, 20 October 2016

Turkey and US Consolidate Terror Assets from Iraq to Syria

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM | 18.10.2016 |

Turkey and US Consolidate Terror Assets from Iraq to Syria

This week Western news media were full of reports on the “epic” battle for Mosul where US-backed forces are supposedly set to defeat the Islamic State terror group besieging the northern Iraqi city.

There is little doubt that the Iraqi army aided by Iranian Shia militia and Kurdish Peshmerga are intent on routing the militants from Iraq’s second city, which has been under a reign of terror since June 2104.

But the intentions of other protagonists are decidedly more dubious. The US is providing air strikes supposedly to aid the ground forces penetrating Mosul, as are NATO members France and Turkey. Turkish air strikes on the city have reportedly begun despite objections from the Iraqi government, which is urging Ankara to stay out of the battle.

The Iraqi authorities have a long-running dispute with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government since Turkish military invaded northern Iraq last year, claiming that it had a deal with Baghdad to train Arab militias to fight the Islamic State (IS, also known as Daesh). Baghdad insists it gave no such permission and has time and again reiterated demands for Turkish troops to withdraw from its territory, but to no avail.

Far from withdrawing, Erdogan is pointedly ignoring the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi, asserting that his troops will march on Mosul. The launch of air strikes by Turkey serves to emphasize Erdogan’s determination to shape the battle for the city.

With typical bluster, Erdogan dismissed the Iraqi premier as nothing more than an “administrator of a Shia army”, and added: “If we say we want to be both at the table and in the field, there is a reason.”

As Hurriyet newspaper reported, Erdogan’s ambitions are more about gaining military and administrative control over Mosul in conjunction with the Syrian city of Raqqa, rather than liaising with the Iraqi government to eliminate IS.

Erdogan also stridently called on the US to side with Turkey in its ambitions rather than with Iraq. Addressing Washington, he said: “Do you have a NATO partnership with Iraq? No. Then you can’t put us in a position of preference against Iraq.”

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed concerns that jihadi extremists could flee from Mosul into neighboring Syria, presenting a greater challenge to the Syrian-Russian campaign to defeat terror groups there. Lavrov said that Russia would exercise military force to stop this from happening.

Intriguingly, Lavrov added: “The city [Mosul] is surrounded, but not completely. I do not know why. Possibly, they’ve just failed. It is to be hoped they just failed, and not were reluctant to do so.”

It is notable that in previous US-Turkish assaults on IS-held towns there have been unconfirmed reports of large numbers of the jihadists being covertly afforded safe passage out of harm’s way. This has been suspected of happening in US-backed offensives on Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, and in the northern Syrian town of Manbij.

As the offensive on Mosul gets underway, there are similar suspicions that the US, Turkey and Saudi military objective is not about crushing the IS hold-outs, but rather evacuating these mercenaries from the city.

Said Mamuzini of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraq believes that up to 7,000 militants belonging to the IS will be given safe passage out of Mosul to reconsolidate with other jihadist mercenaries already in Syria.

This of course negates Washington and Ankara’s official claims of fighting against IS. But it is fully consistent with the critical assessment that the US and its allies have all along been covertly sponsoring various terror groups to wage a war for regime change in Syria. The latter being a strategic ally for Russia and Iran in the pivotal Middle Eastern region.

Across Syria and Iraq there are three main strongholds remaining for al Qaeda-associated terror groups, whether they go by the name of IS, Jabhat al Nusra, Ahrar al Shams, Jaysh al Fatah or some other nom de guerre. These terror bases are Aleppo city in Syria, Mosul in Iraq and positioned roughly halfway between those two sites is Raqqa located in central Syria.

It seems significant that as Syrian and Russian forces bear down on the militants besieging the eastern quarter of Aleppo that Washington and its allies have escalated a media campaign decrying “war crimes” in order to halt that offensive. This has been accompanied by vociferous efforts from the US, Britain and France to implement no-fly zones around Aleppo. This all strongly suggests that the Western powers are trying to extricate their proxy insurgents from the Aleppo crucible.

More than coincidently, it seems, while the drama of Aleppo has been underway, the Turkish and US military launched a major campaign in August to effectively annex large swathes of northern Syria, due east from Aleppo and stretching nearly 100 kms back to the city of Jarablus on the Euphrates, proximate to the Turk border.

Indeed, Turkish forces occupying Jarablus have begun erecting the national flag of Turkey on public buildings, much to the consternation of the Syrian government which has denounced it as a violation of its sovereign territory.

All the while, Turkey and the US have claimed that the northern Syrian operations are aimed at “cleansing” the area from IS terrorists. But more troubling are reports that the militants whom Turkey in particular has been mentoring during these operations are indistinguishable from IS in terms of brutish ideology towards any local people deemed to be “infidels”.

In the Turk-led capture this week of the northern Syrian border city of Dabiq, the Western media portrayed this as a “liberation” from IS terrorists. But it was evident from France 24 news footage that the new gun-toting militants were shouting out Islamist slogans. Syrian sources say that the residents are fearful of having to live under yet another reign of terror as before.

There are also reports of Turkish military forces this week firing artillery at the Syrian villages of Sourkeh in Efrin district and Deir Ballout, causing civilians, women and children to flee, and prompting Syrian sources to comment that Turkey is actually mounting a campaign of “ethnic cleansing”.

This is important context to underscore the wider implications of the battle at Mosul. It could be a case of all jihadist safe corridors leading to Raqqa.

Turkey and the US have been mulling military plans for several weeks now to extend their northern Syrian security curtain down to Raqqa. This concurs with what Erdogan was boasting about this week when he indicated that the US-backed offensive on Mosul should be integrated with broader plans to militarily take Raqqa.

If the jihadist mercenaries can be shunted safely into Raqqa from either Aleppo or Mosul, they would then be able to consolidate there under the safety of a Turkish and US de facto no-fly zone if the latter NATO forces do actually proceed with plans to take Raqqa, as Erdogan bragged about.

Moreover, because of the US-Turk annexed territory straddling the Syrian borders, the jihadists sheltered in Raqqa would once again be plugged into a Turk lifeline as never before, and therefore be able to live to fight another day.

Russia needs to make sure Aleppo falls with no terrorist breakout; and, as Lavrov hinted, Moscow must make sure too that there is no influx of jihadists from Mosul into Syria. Russia should also demand that Turkey and the US do not take any steps towards a military takeover of Raqqa, as Erdogan is calling for.

That battle, in the future, to clear illegally armed insurgents from their final bastion in Raqqa should be the prerogative of the Syrian army and its trusted allies.

NIAN CUNNINGHAM

Former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages

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Clinton Emails Reveal Direct USA Sabotage Of Venezuela

Source

By Telesur,

man voting on elections in venezuela in front of flag

As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton led a team committed to delegitimizing the politics of the late Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

While Hillary Clinton publicly welcomed improved relations with Venezuela as secretary of state, she privately ridiculed the country and continued to support destabilization efforts, revealed her emails leaked by WikiLeaks.

In 2010, Clinton asked Arturo Valenzuela, then assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, how “to rein in Chavez.” Valenzuela responded that, “We need to carefully consider the consequences of publicly confronting him but ought to look at opportunities for others in the region to help.”

His answer was in line with the U.S. embassy strategy in 2006, also revealed in WikiLeaks intelligence cables: “Creative U.S. outreach to Chavez’ regional partners will drive a wedge between him and them,” said the confidential cable from the embassy. “By refusing to take each of Chavez’s outbursts seriously, we frustrate him even more, paving the way for additional Bolivarian miscalculations. We also allow room for other international actors to respond.”

Spain was among the countries willing to help the U.S. in its subversive foreign relations strategy. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passed on a message from the administration of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in 2012 expressing intentions “to re-orient Spanish foreign policy so that it can work with the U.S. in Latin America, especially on Venezuela and Cuba … As a transition in Cuba and something significant in Venezuela (and possibly the Andes) loom, a stronger working relationship between the U.S. and Spain could be very helpful.”

When keeping an eye on regional meetings, Clinton was especially concerned with Venezuela. Responding to a United Nations statement against the coup in Honduras in 2009—that she supported—Clinton shifted the attention to Venezuela: “Ok—but have they ever condemned Venezuela for denying press freedom?” she wrote to Deputy Chief of Staff Jake Sullivan.

He responded “I highly doubt it. And that is just the tip of the iceberg,” to which Clinton wrote, “Ah, the proverbial iceberg.”

Clinton was cautious not to respond to all of Hugo Chavez’s “antics,” but her staff insisted that Venezuelan politics were a threat to U.S. interests.

An email advising how to spend USAID funds strongly suggested refraining from backing leftist states like Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba because the money “could undermine real democratic development to hand over ‘ownership’ to populist centralizers.”

Clinton should use language like “‘local ownership’ in a nuanced way” to avoid having her words “used against her by demagogues and kleptocrats,” said the email. Any funds channeled into such unreliable states, it added, must be accompanied by “(h)uman behavioral changes.”

International aid to Venezuela was siphoned off, but broadcasts to counter local “propaganda” were amplified.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors—which runs the Marti stations, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—requested more funding in a 2010 email forwarded to Clinton to “combat the public diplomacy efforts of America’s ‘enemies,’ which he (chairman Walter Isaacson) identifies as Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China.”

The BBG, with a US$700 million annual budget—now increased to over US$750 million, though not because of Clinton—was “facing increased competition from other governments’ forays into international broadcasting … including Venezuela’s teleSUR.”

A month later, when the board was facing cuts, Cuban-born Florida Senator Ileana Ros-Lehtinen suggested focusing resources on high-priority countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador.

“Let the fun begin—and let’s keep going w(ith) our plans,” responded Clinton.

Another leaked email from Stratfor described the BBG as “responsible for the radio and TV aggressions against Cuba,” which received its own category of state funding of nearly US$40 million. The board separated from State Department control in 1999, officially becoming an independent agency. “Congress agreed that credibility of U.S. international broadcasting was crucial to its effectiveness as a public diplomacy tool,” according to Congress’s 2008 budget on foreign operations.

While giving the cold shoulder to Venezuela, Clinton was cozy with Latin American players that opposed the country’s leftist politics.

Her counselor and chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, forwarded her a recommendation for Mari Carmen Aponte to be appointed as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador. Aponte, noted the email, “has consistently fought Cuba and Venezuela’s efforts to gain influence in Central America and as a result of her negotiating skills, the U.S. and El Salvador will open a new, jointly-funded, electronic monitoring center that will be an invaluable tool in fighting transnational crime.”

She won the appointment and later became assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Clinton also drew fire for saying, “We’re winning!” when the Venezuelan opposition won a majority of seats in parliament in 2015 and for serving as secretary of state while the National Security Administration regularly spied on Venezuela.

The original source of this article is telesur

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Asma al-Assad: “It is the West dividing our children in this conflict, they are all innocent and they are all a loss to Syria” ~ [Full Video Interview Speech in English]

Syrian Free Press

The western world is dividing Syrian children according to the political views of their parents, Asma Assad, the Syrian First Lady, said in a rare interview. She said the mainstream media only concentrated on those stories which matched their policy.

“Why was the fate of the children in Zara [village] not given the same media coverage as the tragedies of Aylan and Omran?” Asma Assad asked.
Reuters then reported that no civilians were hurt, but the locals told RT that the terrorists “killed elderly people, took children and women as captives”.

“The western media decided to focus on these tragedies because it suited their media agenda. It is actually the West dividing our children in this conflict according to the political beliefs of their parents. Aylan was a Syrian child irrespective of what his parents believed as was Omran and the other innocent children in the Zara village massacre”, Asma Assad told Rossiya 24.

“These are all children, they are all innocent children and they are all a loss to Syria irrespective of which side of the conflict we support. And as a Syrian, I am personally saddened by the loss of every single child, whether it is Aylan or Omran or the many, many others, whose names did not reach western headlines”,she added.

Asma al-Assad and President Bashar Hafez al-Assad have three children: Hafez, Zein and Kareem. (read more)

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Syrian War Report – October 19, 2016: Russia Sets Up Outpost to Fight ISIS Terrorists Deploying from Iraq

150 Ahrar al-Sham members evacuated from Bustan Al-Qasir Neighborhood of Aleppo city under the deal with Moscow and Damascus. There are no doubts that this incident will weaken the terrorists’ positions in the area and create a precedent for further withdrawal of militants from the city.

Over 30 ISIS terrorists were killed in air strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Arab Air Force in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor on October 18. The air power supported the Syrian army’s operations against ISIS in the area of the Deir Ezzor airbase. Syrian troops also attacked ISIS units near the Panorama checkpoint. Air strikes on ISIS targets were also reported in the areas of al-Huweijeh al-Sakar, al-Sina’ah, al-Jafreh and al-Mura’yeh. In total, some 45 air strikes were delivered.

The intensification of air raids in eastern Syria came amid reports that ISIS terrorists are massively fleeing from the Iraqi city of Mosul to Syria. Sources in the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) say The US-led coalition’s warplanes avoid to bomb military convoys of the terrorist group moving from Iraqi to Syria.

We recall, over dozen of villages have been liberated in the Mosul countryside since the start of the battle for this strategic city by the Iraqi forces, supported by the US-led coalition. 5,000 soldiers of the Special Forces, mainly American, support the Iraqi Security Forces, the PMU and the Kurdish Peshmerga in the ongoing operation on the ground.

The modern course of events shows that ISIS is not going to conduct massive counter-attacks until the Iraqi forces have not reached Mosul. The main clashes will likely take place during the storm of the city itself.

Experts argue Washington is using this time to allow ISIS terrorists redeploy from Iraq to Syria where the terrorists would use fresh reinforcements to intensify operations against the Syrian government in the provinces Deir Ezzor and Homs.

Moscow has reportedly responded to this threat, reconstructing the T-4 Military Airport in eastern Homs. The Russian military had already used the airport as a forward staging post for its helicopter gunships during the operation in Palmyra and the nearby areas. However, the airfield was damaged with ISIS attacks later.

If the reconstruction is confirmed, the T-4 will become an important outpost that will allow the Syrian army and the Russian Aerospace Forces to counter the growing ISIS threat in eastern Syria.

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The Real Purpose Behind the “Liberation” of Mosul?

When Mosul falls, Isis will flee to the safety of Syria. But what then?

The entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington

By Robert Fisk

October 18, 2016 “Information Clearing House” – “The Independent“- Syria’s army and Hezbollah and Iranian allies are preparing for a massive invasion by thousands of Isis fighters who will be driven out ofIraq when Mosul falls. The real purpose behind the much-trumpeted US-planned “liberation” of the Iraqi city, the Syrian military suspect, is to swamp Syria with the hordes of Isis fighters who will flee their Iraqi capital in favour of their “mini-capital” of Raqqa inside Syria itself.

For weeks now, Western media and the American experts it likes to quote have been predicting a Stalingrad-style battle to the death by Isis inside Mosul – or a swift victory over Isis followed by inter-sectarian Iraqi battles for the city. The UN is warning of massive refugee columns streaming from a besieged city. But the Syrians – after witnessing the sudden collapse and evacuation of Palmyra when their own army retook the ancient Syrian city earlier this year – suspect that Isis will simply abandon Mosul and try to reach safety in the areas of Syria which it still controls.

Already, Syrian army intelligence has heard disturbing reports of a demand by Isis in towns and villages south of Hasaka – a Syrian city held by regime forces and Kurds in the north of the country – for new electricity and water supplies to be installed for an influx of Isis fighters from Mosul. In other words, if Mosul falls, the entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington. When the Iraqi city of Fallujah fell to Iraqi army and militia forces earlier this year, many Isis fighters fled at once to Syria.

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who sent thousands of his men to fight (and die) in the struggle against Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, said in a speech marking the Ashura commemorations last week that the Americans “intend to repeat the Fallujah plot when they opened a way for Isis to escape towards eastern Syria” and warned that “the same deceitful plan may be carried out in Mosul.” In other words, an Isis defeat in Mosul would encourage Isis to head west to try to defeat the Assad regime in Syria.

These suspicions have scarcely been allayed by a series of comments from American generals and US military sources over the past few weeks. The newly appointed US commander in the region, Lt Gen Stephen Townsend – heading what the US has presumptiously called ‘Operation Inherent Resolve’ – has said that not only Mosul but the Syrian city of Raqqa would be captured “on my watch”. But who exactly does he think will capture Raqqa? The Syrian army still intends to fight on to Raqqa from its base on the the Damascus-Aleppo military road west of the city after an attempt earlier this year which was abandoned for political rather than military reasons. Russia apparently preferred to concentrate its firepower on other militias, especially Nusra/al-Qaeda, which both Moscow and Damascus now regard as being far more dangerous than Isis.

Both have noticed how Nusra – which changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, the “Support Front for the People of the Levant”, in the hope of escaping its al-Qaeda roots – is increasingly referred to by both Western politicians and journalists as “the rebels”, along with a plethora of other militia outfits fighting the Syrian regime. An unidentified US general was quoted last month expressing his concern that Iraqi Shia forces might seize the town of Tal Afar on the Iraqi-Syrian border in order to trap Isis fighters inside Iraq – and thus prevent their flight into Syria. Isis itself is reported to have abandoned Tal Afar several days ago.

The US-based Military Times online magazine (which, as the saying goes, is “close” to the Pentagon) has argued that General Townsend, who has a mere 5,000 US troops on the ground in both Iraq and the far north of Syria, must “pursue Isis into Syria, where the US has few allies on the ground” – which is quite an understatement – while Townsend himself is talking of “a long, difficult fight” for Mosul. He has also referred to a “siege” of Mosul. These are the dire predictions in which the Syrians do not believe

Assad’s own army, with its 65,000 fatalities in a battle that has now lasted five years, has already been bombed by the Americans at Deir Ezzor at a cost of at least 60 dead – Washington described this as a mistake – and is now preparing to challenge the huge influx of Isis fighters which could cross the border after the collapse of Mosul. Nasrallah himself made an intriguing allusion to this in his speech. He suggested that if Isis forces are not defeated by the Iraqis themselves in Mosul then the Iraqis – presumably the Iraqi Shia militia which are one of the spearheads of the government army – “will be obliged to move to eastern Syria in order to fight the terrorist group”

Given the possibility that Syrian troops and their Russian allies may have to confront this same group, it’s little wonder that they are trying to conclude their capture of eastern Aleppo – whatever the cost in lives – before the fall of Mosul.

Click for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.

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Hezbollah Leader explains how US still using ISIS & Al-Qaeda in Syria – English Subs

Via The Saker

October 19, 2016

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Wednesday, 19 October 2016

The Real Purpose Behind the "Liberation" of Mosul?

When Mosul falls, Isis will flee to the safety of Syria. But what then?

The entire Isis caliphate army could be directed against the Assad government and its allies – a scenario which might cause some satisfaction in Washington

By Robert Fisk

Click for Spanish, German, Dutch, Danish, French, translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.

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Very high risk of false flag operation in Kiev!

October 19, 2016

The Leader of the DNR, Alexander Zakharchenko, was interviewed yesterday on the most watched talk-show on Russian TV, “Evening with Vladimir Soloviev” and when asked by the host whether the local accomplices who had made such a murder possible had been identified, he only replied “the investigation is still ongoing”. This short exchanges illustrates a couple of interesting things:

First, even though there are some who don’t want questions to be asked, these questions reappear everywhere, even on prime time TV in Russia.

Second, while Zakharchenko did, of course, blame the Ukie secret service SBU, he did not reject the notion that there were local accomplices either. All he said was “the investigation is continuing”. I bet you that this issue – local accomplices – will continue to plague the DNR leadership until and unless they come up with some credible explanation for what happened.

Third, the Russian blogger Anatolii Sharii made an excellent and very funny video yesterday about those who criticized him for asking the tough questions. Here is what he said in a video entitled “nobody forbade not to think” (with English subtitles):

All I can say is that I fully agree: if somebody prefers not to think – great! But please don’t censor others for using their brains.

Now, let’s turn to a very dangerous consequence of the current situation.

One one hand, we have the murder of a very popular military leader of the DNR and on the other, we know have the Leader of the DNR, Alexander Zakharchenko, on record making direct threats to retaliate against Ukrainian officials and especially SBU leaders. Here is what said (with English subtitles):

And yesterday, during the talk show with Soloviev, Zakharchenko went as far as to say that his forces are ready to liberate Kiev.

Now put yourself in the position of an Ukronazi leader or, better, into the position of the Kiev CIA station chief: you don’t want Minsk-2, what you want it war with Russia. Is the solution not obvious?

Organize a horrible terror attack in Kiev, say a car bomb in front of the SBU building in Kiev during rush hour, just to make sure to get a maximal number of civilians, and then blame it all on Zakharchenko and the DNR leaders, of course! And by the time the entire “civilized world” (aka the US and its NATO puppets) will denounce the latest “Russian atrocity”, launch a massive attack on Novorussia and say that the DNR forces have attacked “just as Zakharchenko predicted they would”.

Friends, this is very very bad. I cannot blame Zakharchenko for his words, he has just lost a close friend and he is understandably upset, but the fact is that this all starting to look extremely dangerous.

To make it all worse, there are now clear signs that the Obama Administration has decided to double-down (yet again!) in Syria and that their oh-so-subtle plan is to bomb Daesh out of Mosul to force them to enter Syria and join the fight against the Syrians and the Russians. Just in time to deny the Russians their victory in Aleppo (or so, at least, do the Americans hope). And, of course, the bombs falling on Mosul are “democratic” and “humanitarian”, so the press has nothing to say about it. Only Russian bombs are “inhumane” and otherwise horrible.

So if the AngloZionists have decided to double-down in Syria, is it not likely that they have also decided to double-down in the Ukraine? Create a nice little war just on time for Hillary to beat Trump who is, after all, a well-known “Putin ally”, right?

I consider that the risks of a CIA-SBU organized false flag in the Ukraine (probably Kiev) are right now at a maximum and the risks of an Ukronazi attack on Novorussia very high.

The Saker

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USA regime change and war against Syria, disguised as a war against ISIS

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The US is not fighting ISIS in Syria. Together with its ally Saudi Arabia it is using ISIS and other Wahhabi terrorist groups like Jabhat Al-Nusra to wage a war of aggression against Syria so that it can take control of Syria and gain possession of the resources of the Middle East.

We may as well start with the US-led “anti-ISIS” coalition airstrikes on the Syrian Arab Army’s positions in the Thardeh Mountain in Deir El-Zour.

These airstrikes were an act of aggression against the Syrian Arab Army, which has been fighting terrorists from the beginning, whether these groups go by the name of the ‘Free Syrian Army’, ‘Al-Nusra Front’, ‘Fath al-Sham’, or what has now become the biggest phenomenon since the Taliban: ISIS.

This act of aggression was not just a violation of the ceasefire. It was an act of direct help for the terrorists, for ISIS above all.

The Thardeh Mountains are strategically important for the defence of the Queries Airbase. Their fall would also open up all of Deir El Zour to terrorist control. From there ISIS can spread into other areas of Syria.

US bombing of Syrian Arab Army positions was intended to give ISIS air cover for an offensive intended to enable it to expand across Syria.

The US not only bombed Syrian military positions. It also bombed bridges in Deir El-Zour province. It did so in the knowledge that the bridges were the terrorists’ escape route to Iraq.

After the bombing of the bridges this escape route has been closed. Terrorists who want to escape Syria for Iraq can no longer do so. They have to stay in Syria and wreak their havoc here, draining the power of the Syrian Arab Army and its Russian allies.

The blood of our Syrian soldiers and martyrs in Deir el-Zour has yet to dry. Yet instead of being ashamed of its lies the US claims it is “fighting ISIS.”

On the other side of the country there is Aleppo. This has now become the centre of world attention. However not all parts of Aleppo are receiving equal attention. Only eastern Aleppo – the part where al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria) runs things – does so.

The US laments the failure of the ceasefire. Of course it fails to say it was never committed to the ceasefire in the first place.

The US rushed to accuse the Syrian Arab Army and Russia of targeting a humanitarian convoy which was in “rebel”-held territory, despite the fact that Russian videos show no Syrian or Russian jets were there. The US together with Britain and France called on the UN Security Council to treat this as a war crime and to impose a no-fly zone over Syria.

The party which should be asking the UN Security Council for an emergency meeting to end the aggression against it is Syria, just as the party which should be tried for war crimes is the US – first and foremost for bombing Syrian soldiers in the Thardeh Mountains with full intent and knowledge when a ceasefire was in place.

The US and its allies claim to be concerned about a humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Aleppo. Their real concern is not for Aleppo or its people. It is for their terrorist proxies there. Should the Syrian government finally liberate eastern Aleppo it would be a shattering blow for the US’s ambitions in Syria. Their concern is not for Aleppo. It is just cover for supporting the terrorists.

It is also a way of threatening Russia and Syria with the possibility of military conflict with the United States if they do not bend to its demands.

Most people long ago fled the Al-Nusra controlled eastern part of the Aleppo for the rest of Aleppo, which is protected by the Syrian military. However some citizens have not been able to flee.

This is because the terrorists stopped them doing so, so that they can use them as human shields. Of course we do not hear one word about that in the Western media or in the halls of the UN Security Council.

Take what Steffan De Mistura, the U.N. envoy, said in a direct appeal to the al-Nusra leaders in eastern Aleppo

“If you decide to leave with dignity, and with your weapons, to Idlib or anywhere you wanted to go, I personally, I’m ready, physically, to accompany you”

What is this if not an admission of the sort of criminals these “rebels” are, and not by the way just in eastern Aleppo but throughout Syria?

De Mistura’s call is actually criminal and absurd. Would any other country ever agree to allow terrorists to leave one part of the country to go to another? Would it have the full approval of De Mistura if it did? Would any other country in the same position not use all the means in its power to destroy the terrorists and protect its citizens?

Ask Mr. Hollande how they deal with just one terrorist in France; how many bullets did French security use to shoot down just one terrorist last year in Toulouse?

The civilians in eastern Aleppo the West pretends to care about and about whose humanitarian catastrophe we hear so much, are not the victims of Russia or of the Syrian government, which is trying to rescue them. They are the victims of al-Nusra and of the other terrorists backed by Saudi Arabia who are using them as human shields.

Which brings us to Saudi Arabia. Let us consider what Saudi Arabia is doing to Yemen where the Yemeni people are under brutal Saudi airstrikes aimed at schools, hospitals, cemeteries, and weddings. There are no UN Security Council emergency meetings to condemn Saudi atrocities in Yemen, or to stop the Saudis killing the Yemeni people; just as you will never hear Western leaders say in the UN Security Council that it is the Saudis who are the puppet-masters of the terrorists and the source of the Wahhabi ideology of ISIS and of every other terrorist Islamist group in the world.

So far as the West is concerned its policy is “Let Arab Kill Arab” so that it can march on to its new Cold War in the Middle East, a war that is not so cold for us, the people who live there.

Mrs. Clinton does not even hide the fact. Wikileaks has revealed her straightforward gloating about it in a spirit of “Let them kill and be killed”.

Meanwhile the Western media runs a daily stream of anti-Muslim propaganda intended to justify the endless aggressions against the Palestinians and other Muslims and Arabs.

The real godfathers of the terrorists, the real Wahhabists, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, are allies of the West and Israel, though only in secret in the case of the latter. However the reality of their alliance with Israel is exposed daily by their actions.

First and foremost this is by their terrorist war against the Syrian people and the Syrian Arab Army, even whilst Israel seizes Palestinian lands, drives Palestinians from their homes, and builds more and more illegal settlements on Arab and Palestinian land.

Though the Saudis constantly declare their concern for Islam, where is their concern for the al-Aqsa mosque? What do they do about it? Their silence and their failure to act shows where their true allegiance is.

The US is fighting a war for the resources of the Middle East. It is not a war fought for democracy or for freedom or for the people living there. If you think it is then just look at who stands besides the US when it talks about “democracy in Syria” and “democracy in the Middle East”: Saudi Arabia, the US’s ally and friend, the greatest autocracy and the most monstrous tyranny in the whole Middle East and in the Arab and Muslim world.

Syria is the point in the Middle East where the gas and oil pipelines meet. It enjoys a key strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean. The Arab and Russian oil and gas industries would be greatly affected if the US and its Wahhabist allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar ever achieved control of Syria. It is for this reason that Qatar, the US, Israel, and Turkey, are all united against Syria.

Beyond Syria are Lebanon and Gaza, also with important gas resources, and Libya and Egypt.

This is the true reason for the US wars in the region. This is why the US and its allies constantly agitate for military action in Syria, itch to bomb Syrian airbases, and seek to protect the Wahhabi fighters and let them spread all across Syria until it is utterly destroyed.

The only ones who are really fighting terrorists in Syria, and who are fighting them on behalf of all humanity, are the Syrian people and their army, the Syrian Arab Army, and its allies: Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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Hezbollah Bids Farewell to Martyrs Hmede, Aff

Funeral of Martyrs Hmede and Affe

Hezbollah and crowds bade on Tuesday farewell to two of his martyrs, commander Hatem Hmede and mujahid Jalal Affe, in Beirut’s Dahiyeh where they were laid to rest in Rawdat Shahidayn cemetery.

Commander Hmede and mujahid Affe embraced martyrdom while fighting the terrorist groups in Syria.

Hezbollah official Sheikh Mohammad Yazbek led the funeral prayers and the martyrs’ corpses were greeted by a number of the Resistance fighters who stressed their determination to follow their path.

Head of Hezbollah executive council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine delivered a speech in which he stressed the Resistance’s determination to pursue achieving victories despite all sacrifices.

Source: Al-Manar Website

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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