Syrian Civil War (Graphic Photos/Vid Not Allowed)

[Hindustani78]

11:03
Time of Russian servicemen's return to Hmeimim, Tartus bases depends on pace of Syria's liberation from militants - Shamanov

 

[500]

In the beginning of June Assad aka Khamenai forces (who are not terrorists despite daily war crimes against civilian population) broke truce in Daraa and began massive shelling and offensive. During 15 days of non stop bombing and shelling they did not achieve anything beside dead hezbies and destruction, especially in Palestinian camp:

Almost certainly they will break new truce as well.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1116541/world

IRBIL: The Iraqi Army and tribal fighters have dislodged Daesh from the Al-Waleed border crossing into Syria, an Iraqi military statement said on Saturday.

The capture of Al-Waleed removes Daesh militants from the vicinity of a US base located on the other side of the border, in Syrian territory.

Aircraft from the US-led coalition and the Iraqi Air Force took part in the operation, the statement said.
Al-Waleed is close to Tanf, a strategic Syrian border crossing with Iraq on the Baghdad-Damascus highway, where US forces have assisted Syrian fighters trying to recapture territory from Daesh.

US forces have been based at Tanf since last year, in effect preventing Iranian-backed forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad from receiving heavy weaponry from Iran by using the main highway between Iraq and Syria.

The involvement of Iraqi tribal fighters in the operation to dislodge the militants from Al-Waleed is another indication that Iran will not yet be able to use the highway.

Pro-Assad forces in Syria, mainly comprising Iraqi Shiite militias, last week reached the Iraqi border north-east of Tanf, potentially preventing the US-backed opposition fighters from taking more territory from Daesh alongside the border area with Iraq.

In Mosul, where a US-backed offensive against Daesh on Saturday entered its ninth month, the militants have been squeezed into an enclave on the western bank of the Tigris river.

Daesh also controls territory along the border with Syria and urban pockets west and south of Mosul. In Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, made up predominantly of Kurdish fighters, have seized territory to the north, east and west of Raqqa, Daesh’s Syrian bastion.

Daesh snipers are shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, as part of a tactic to keep civilians as human shields, it said.

Iraqi government forces regained eastern Mosul in January, then a month later began the offensive on the western side that includes the Old City, a dense maze of narrow alleyways where fighting is mainly done house by house.
The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared in a speech from a historic mosque in the Old City three years ago, covering parts of Iraq and Syria.

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed Baghdadi in an airstrike in Syria last month, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were skeptical.

About 200,000 people were estimated to be trapped behind Daesh lines in Mosul in May, but the number has declined as government forces have thrust further into the city.

 

[mike2000 is back]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1116541/world

IRBIL: The Iraqi Army and tribal fighters have dislodged Daesh from the Al-Waleed border crossing into Syria, an Iraqi military statement said on Saturday.

The capture of Al-Waleed removes Daesh militants from the vicinity of a US base located on the other side of the border, in Syrian territory.

Aircraft from the US-led coalition and the Iraqi Air Force took part in the operation, the statement said.
Al-Waleed is close to Tanf, a strategic Syrian border crossing with Iraq on the Baghdad-Damascus highway, where US forces have assisted Syrian fighters trying to recapture territory from Daesh.

US forces have been based at Tanf since last year, in effect preventing Iranian-backed forces supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad from receiving heavy weaponry from Iran by using the main highway between Iraq and Syria.

The involvement of Iraqi tribal fighters in the operation to dislodge the militants from Al-Waleed is another indication that Iran will not yet be able to use the highway.

Pro-Assad forces in Syria, mainly comprising Iraqi Shiite militias, last week reached the Iraqi border north-east of Tanf, potentially preventing the US-backed opposition fighters from taking more territory from Daesh alongside the border area with Iraq.

In Mosul, where a US-backed offensive against Daesh on Saturday entered its ninth month, the militants have been squeezed into an enclave on the western bank of the Tigris river.

Daesh also controls territory along the border with Syria and urban pockets west and south of Mosul. In Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, made up predominantly of Kurdish fighters, have seized territory to the north, east and west of Raqqa, Daesh’s Syrian bastion.

Daesh snipers are shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, as part of a tactic to keep civilians as human shields, it said.

Iraqi government forces regained eastern Mosul in January, then a month later began the offensive on the western side that includes the Old City, a dense maze of narrow alleyways where fighting is mainly done house by house.
The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared in a speech from a historic mosque in the Old City three years ago, covering parts of Iraq and Syria.

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed Baghdadi in an airstrike in Syria last month, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were skeptical.

About 200,000 people were estimated to be trapped behind Daesh lines in Mosul in May, but the number has declined as government forces have thrust further into the city.

Interesting, seems U.S backed forces in Syria and Iraq are making good progress.

 

[OldTwilight]

Iran lunched a missile attack on terrorists in syria

 

[NoOne'sBoy]

US just shot down a syrian jet

 

[WaLeEdK2]

ISIS airforce? Protecting their moderate head choppers?

 

[Hindustani78]

IN this April 30, 2017, file photo provided by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) shows fighters from the SDF looking toward the northern town of Tabqa, Syria. The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement that a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian government SU-22 on Sunday, June 18, after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. The shootdown was near the Syrian town of Tabqa. | Photo Credit: AP
http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...owning-syrian-fighter-jet/article19103703.ece

A top Russian diplomat on Monday condemned the United States for shooting down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet the previous day as an act of “aggression,” while U.S.-backed opposition forces on the ground warned Syrian government troops to stop their attacks or face retaliation.

The U.S. military confirmed a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian SU-22 on Sunday, after it dropped bombs near the U.S. partner forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces. SDF fighters are aligned with the Americans in the campaign against the Islamic State group.

Russia has been a staunch supporter of Syria’s beleaguered President Bashar Assad and has been providing an air cover for his offensive against IS since 2015.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, in comments to Russian news agencies, compared the downing to “helping the terrorists that the U.S. is fighting against.”

“What is this, if not an act of aggression,” he asked.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-backed opposition fighters said Assad’s forces have been attacking their positions in the northern province of Raqqa and warned that if such attacks continue, the fighters will take action.


Clashes between Syrian troops and SDF would escalate tensions in the country and open a new front line in the many complex battlefields of the civil war, now in its seventh year. Clashes between the Kurdish-led SDF and Syrian forces have been rare and some rebel groups have even accused them of coordinating on the battlefield.

The clashes come as both sides are fighting against the Islamic State group, with SDF fighters now focusing on their march into the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS.

Government forces have also been attacking IS in northern, central and southern Syria, seizing 25,000 square kilometers (9,600 square miles) and reaching the Iraqi border for the first time in years.

SDF spokesman Talal Sillo said the government aims to thwart the SDF offensive to capture the city of Raqqa. He said government forces began attacking SDF on Saturday, using warplanes, artillery and tanks in areas that SDF had liberated from IS.

Mr. Sillo also warned that if “the regime continues in its offensive against our positions in Raqqa province, this will force us to retaliate with force.”

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s war, said government forced captured from IS on Monday the town of Rasafa, expanding their presence in Raqqa province.
**

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...militants-a-wider-warning/article19103400.ece

A still image taken from a footage shot on Sunday and broadcasted on Iranian Television IRINN, purports to show missiles being fired from Iran into eastern Syria. IRINN/ via Reuters | Photo Credit: Reuters

It adds new tensions in a region already unsettled by a long-running feud between Shia power Iran and the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Iran’s ballistic missile strike targeting the Islamic State group in Syria served both as revenge for attacks on Tehran earlier this month and a warning that Iran could strike Saudi Arabia and U.S. interests in the Mideast, an Iranian general said on Monday.

The launch, which hit Syria’s eastern city of Deir el-Zour on Sunday night, appeared to be Iran’s first missile attack abroad in over 15 years and its first in the Syrian conflict amid its support of embattled President Bashar Assad.

It adds new tensions in a region already unsettled by a long-running feud between Shia power Iran and the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as a campaign by Arab nations against Qatar.

It also raises questions about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which already said it put Iran “on notice” for its ballistic missile tests, will respond.

Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force in charge of the country’s missile program, said it launched six Zolfaghar ballistic missiles from the western provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdistan. State television footage showed the missiles on truck missile launchers in the daylight before being launched at night.

The missiles flew over Iraq before striking what the Guard called an Islamic State command center and suicide car bomb operation in Deir el-Zour, over 600 km away. The extremists have been trying to fortify their positions in the Syrian city in the face of a U.S.-led coalition onslaught on Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.

Activists in Syria said they had no immediate information on damage or casualties from the strikes, nor did the Islamic State group immediately acknowledge it. The Guard released black-and-white footage it said came from a drone showing the strikes, a column of thick black smoke rising into the sky after the attack.

The Guard described the missile strike as revenge for attacks on Tehran earlier this month. Five Islamic State-linked attackers stormed Iran’s parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on June 7, killing at least 18 people and wounding more than 50. That Islamic State assault, the first to hit Iran, shook residents who believed the chaos engulfing the rest of the Middle East would not find them.

But the missiles sent a message to more than just the extremists in Iraq and Syria, Gen. Ramazan Sharif of the Guard told state television in a telephone interview.

“The Saudis and Americans are especially receivers of this message,” he said. “Obviously and clearly, some reactionary countries of the region, especially Saudi Arabia, had announced that they are trying to bring insecurity into Iran.”

The Zolfaghar missile, unveiled in September 2016, was described at the time as carrying a cluster warhead and being able to strike as far as 700 km away.

That puts the missile in range of the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command in Qatar, American bases in the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

The missile also could strike Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. While Iran has other ballistic missiles it says can reach longer distances, Sunday night’s launch appears to mark the longest strike it has launched abroad. Iran’s last foreign missile strike is believed to have been carried out in April 2001, targeting an Iranian exile group in Iraq.

Iran has described the Tehran attackers as being “long affiliated with the Wahhabi,” an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. However, it stopped short of directly blaming the kingdom for the attack, though many in the country have expressed suspicion that Iran’s regional rival had a hand in the assault.

Emboldened Sunni Arab states backed by Mr. Trump have hardened their stance against Iran. Since Mr. Trump took office, his administration has put new economic sanctions on those allegedly involved with the program. However, the test launches haven’t affect Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Sunday’s launch also carried religious undertones.

The Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called the launch “Operation Laylat al-Qadar,” referring to the night Muslims believe the Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. That’s believed to fall in the last 10 days of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, now underway. The name of the missile, Zolfaghar, is also the name of the sword used by Imam Ali, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and his successor, according to Shia belief.

Israel also remains concerned about Iran’s missile launches and has deployed a multilayered missile-defense system over fears of potential Iranian attacks. When Iran unveiled the Zolfaghar in 2016, it bore a banner printed with a 2013 anti-Israeli quote by Ayatollah Khamenei saying that Iran will annihilate the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa should Israel attack Iran.

Israeli security officials said on Monday they were studying the missile strike to see what they could learn about its accuracy and capabilities. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to reporters.

 

[Hindustani78]

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201706191054763888-russia-syria-downing-aircraft/
Russia will not automatically destroy any aerial objects in the areas of its Aerospace Forces’ actions in Syria, the decisions will be made on individual basis, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Committee on Defense and Security Frants Klintsevich told Sputnik on Monday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that any aircraft and drone in the area of Russian Aerospace Forces’s operations on Syria would be tracked by the air defense systems as aerial targets. Moreover, Russia halted all interactions with the US within the framework on the memorandum of incident prevention in Syrian skies. The move came following the US-led coalition's downing of a Syrian army's jet near Raqqa.

"The decisions will be made in each case individually, the targets will not be attacked automatically. But in case of aggressive acts from the United States, these actions will be strictly stopped by the Russian Aerospace Forces," Klintsevich said.

On June 18, the Syrian army said that the US-led coalition had brought down its aircraft in southern Raqqa countryside when it was fulfilling its mission against Daesh.

Later, the coalition confirmed the information saying that it shot down the Syrian government forces' Su-22 aircraft as it had allegedly been bombing in an area where US-backed rebel forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were stationed, south of Tabqa in the Raqqa province. The US-led coalition called its attack on the Syrian army's jet "collective self-defense," adding that it contacted the Russian military to de-escalate the situation after the incident.

The Russian Defense Ministry called the attack "cynical" and "de facto an act of aggression" against a UN member state.

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1117151/middle-east
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IGRC) said it launched a series of missiles into Syria on Sunday in revenge for deadly attacks on its capital that were claimed by the Daesh group.

The missiles were fired from western Iran across the border into Deir Ezzor province, in northeastern Syria, targeting what the IGRC called “terror bases.”

The IGRC said, in a statement published on its Sepahnews website, that the missiles were “in retaliation” for the June 7 attacks on Tehran claimed by Daesh.

“Medium-range missiles were fired from the (western) provinces of Kermanshah and Kurdestan, and a large number of terrorists were killed and weapons destroyed,” the statement said.

It said the attack targeted “a command base.... of the terrorists in Deir Ezzor,” Syria’s oil-rich eastern province.
On June 7, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked the parliament complex and the shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing 17 people.

The Daesh group claimed responsibility.

The IGRC vowed to avenge the bloodshed.

The Islamic republic of Iran is a key ally of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad, alongside Russia and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement of Lebanon.

Iran has sent to Syria military advisers as well as thousands of “volunteer” fighters recruited among its own nationals as well as the Shiite communities in neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan since Syria’s conflict broke out in March 2011.

According to a report published in March, some 2,100 combatants sent by Iran have died in Syria and Iraq.

 

[Deleted]

A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet © Ryan U. Kledzik / Reuters

At least 12 civilians have reportedly been killed after US coalition jets struck a number of targets in a village next to the Syrian-Iraqi border, eyewitnesses on the ground told SANA news.

According to the report, the US-led anti-Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) coalition has launched a series of air raids on Sunday night in Syrian Hasakah governorate. In one of the strikes, the jets struck Tel Hayr village near the Syrian-Iraqi border, killing 12 people, all belonging to one family, according to the Syrian SANA news agency’s sources.

Last week, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria revealed that more than 300 civilians have died because of US-led air strikes in and around the city of Raqqa alone since March.

“We have documented the deaths caused by the coalition air strikes only and we have about 300 deaths, 200 in one place, in al-Mansoura, one village,” said Karen Abuzayd, an American commissioner on the panel. Meanwhile, the UN Commission added that over 160,000 were forced to flee their homes.

The US-led coalition has repeatedly been accused of bombing civilian targets in Syria, mainly in the Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor Governorates, where Washington is actively supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces. In one instance, at least 35 civilians were killed by US-led airstrikes in Deir-ez-Zor province in late May, when bombs hit the market and a four-story building in the city of Mayadeen.

In early June, in its latest assessment of civilian casualties, the Pentagon admitted that “at least 484 civilians have been unintentionally killed by Coalition strikes since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve,” in both Iraq and Syria.

The official number, however, seems much lower than the death tolls estimated by human rights organizations and monitoring groups, which have noticed an increase in the US strikes in Syria in May.

“Likely civilian fatalities from Coalition airstrikes in Syria rose by 30 percent in May, amid rising concern from international agencies and human rights groups at the rising toll. Throughout the month, Airwars researchers tracked 118 claimed Coalition casualty events in Syria alone,” UK-based journalist-led transparency project Airwars said last week.

Reports of the latest strike follow the shooting down of a Syrian SU-22 warplane by a US F/A-18E Super Hornet on Sunday in the countryside around Raqqa.

Moscow condemned the US-led coalition’s attack on the Syrian government military jet as an act of aggression and accused Washington of aiding terrorists.

The Russian Defense Ministry also halted cooperation with its US counterparts in the framework of the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria following the attack on the Syrian plane.

Source: RT (Russia Today)
goo.gl/F3FC6k

 

[500]

Iran fakes video of ballistic strike:

 

[[TR]AHMET]

https://www.facebook.com/

 

[Banglar Bir]

Huge advances by Syrian army transform Syrian war
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS

Though the Western media is barely reporting the fact, the last few weeks have witnessed a total transformation of the Syrian war.

Until the liberation of eastern Aleppo in December the Syrian war was being fought mainly in western Syria along a narrow stretch of Syria’s Mediterranean coast in a grinding war of attrition between the Syrian army and various Turkish backed Jihadi groups all of which were led ultimately by Al-Qaeda.

The intense pressure of this war obliged the Syrian army to withdraw from most of eastern Syria in order to protect the main centres of Syria’s population and power in the cities along the coast. The resulting vacuum in eastern Syria was filled initially by various Jihadi groups, but ultimately by ISIS, which in 2015 gained essentially undisputed control of this area, save for the isolated city of Deir Ezzor.

Al-Qaeda’s defeat in December in Aleppo, and the rout of its offensive from Idlib province into Hama province in April, has left the Syrian government in control of all of Syria’s big cities – Damascus, Aleppo, Hama and Homs – whilst Latakia Province and its capital have always been firmly controlled by the government. Though Al-Qaeda still has a presence in some areas in the countryside near Damascus, and is still firmly in control of Idlib Province, these areas are now covered by the agreements reached between Russia and Turkey in December, supplemented by further agreements reached by Russia, Iran and Turkey in May, which set up the so-called ‘de-confliction areas’ in these territories.

This combination of Al-Qaeda defeats and peace agreements means that the war of attrition in western Syria is at an end, and that the Syrian army there for the moment at least has won.

In saying this it is important to say that fighting between the Syrian army and Al-Qaeda in western Syria has not come entirely to a stop. Bitter fighting still continues between the Syrian army and Al-Qaeda in southern Syria, especially in the bitterly contested town of Dara’a, where the original uprising against the Syrian government started in 2011. Al-Qaeda still from time to time launches several raids on western Aleppo. People everywhere in Syria, including in the safest regions which are most securely under the government’s control, have to face the daily threat of terrorist attacks.

Nonetheless the agreements reached between the Turks and the Russians in December, and between the Turks, the Russians and the Iranians in May, have generally held.

This has allowed the Syrian army, sections of which have been extensively re-trained and re-equipped by the Russians, to take the battle to ISIS in the east in a serious way, for the first time since the organisation took over central and eastern Syria in 2014 and 2015. Western commentators once claimed that the Syrian army and the Russians were leaving ISIS alone. This was never true, but following the Syrian army’s recent advances into central and eastern Syria this claim has become completely unsustainable.

The first fruit of the stabilisation of in the west was the second liberation of Palmyra from ISIS in March 2017. However since then events have quickened at an accelerating rate, with a whirlwind advance by the Syrian army eastward from Aleppo to Rusafa in the north, and an equally dramatic advance in the south, bringing the Syrian army for the first time in years to the Iraqi border.

The speed of these advances has no previous precedent in the Syrian war. In 2014-2015 ISIS did accomplish equally rapid advances over comparable distances. However with the Syrian army having withdrawn from eastern Syria these advances were largely unopposed. By contrast the Syrian army’s advances over recent weeks have been sustained even in the face of fanatical resistance from ISIS.

This is not the result of some general collapse of ISIS in eastern and central Syria. Whilst the Syrian army has advanced at a blistering rate, US backed Kurdish forces in the north have been making extremely slow progress in their war against ISIS, which is supposed to end with the capture of Raqqa.

Compare for example the continued failure of the Kurdish militia to take Raqqa despite having launched their US planned and US backed offensive to capture Raqqa as long ago as November 2016 (“Operation Wrath of Euphrates”) with the latest rapid advances in Raqqa Province of the Syrian army

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA), spearheaded by the elite Tiger Forces, has seized more than 1,400 square kilometers of territory from ISIS in the province of Raqqah. In addition to this, several key oil and gas extraction and refinery sites have been liberated. Lastly, the Syrian Army also expanded their zone of control over the Ethriyah-Raqqah road including two key junctions in the Tabaqah area; this move opens the door to further advances into central Syria from the north by pro-government forces.

The suddenness and rapidity of the entire offensive has come as an absolute surprise for all observers of the Syrian War. In particular, the offensive has not only served to further accelerate the already fast decline of ISIS being witnessed in 2017, but now serves to block any further operations the US-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) might have had planned to expand into central Syria via Tabaqah and seize key oil and gas infrastructures which litter central areas of the country.

These whirlwind advances reflect an underlying reality of the Syrian war, which is almost never discussed.

The two most powerful military forces in Syria for most of the war (until the coming of the Russians) have been the Syrian army and Al-Qaeda. ISIS and the Kurdish militia are no match for either, and the only reason ISIS managed to expand so rapidly in 2014 and 2015 was because the Syrian army and Al-Qaeda were too busy fighting each other to confront it.

Now that the Syrian army does not have to fight Al-Qaeda in its heartlands in western Syria – at least for the moment – it is having little difficulty defeating ISIS wherever it encounters it.

These Syrian army advances are transforming the political map of Syria. Whereas only a few months ago most Syrian territory had fallen out of the control of the Syrian government, that is rapidly becoming no longer the case.

With two powerful columns of Syrian troops now converging on the eastern city of Deir Ezzor – one from Rusafa in the north, the other from Palmyra in the centre – there is now a real prospect that all of central Syria stretching all the way from the Mediterranean to the Iraqi border will soon once more be under the control of the Syrian government.

Should that happen the Syrian government’s opponents, far from being credible challengers for power in Syria, will be confined to enclaves in various parts of Syria: a US controlled enclave around the isolated garrison of al-Tanf in the south, a Turkish controlled ‘safe zone’ in the north west, Idlib province in the west, and a large Kurdish area adjoining Turkey in the north east.

With the Syrian government in control of most of Syria’s territory and population, it will be increasingly difficult to deny its legitimacy, and should this situation arise then it will soon start to have a serious bearing on the course of the negotiations in Astana and Geneva.

The situation in Syria is still not stable. The two Syrian military columns converging on Deir Ezzor have powerful enemies on their flanks: the US in the south and potentially the Kurds in the north. Intervention by either of these would however risk confrontation with Russia, whose Special Forces and advisers are accompanying the columns, and whose air force is providing them with air support. Frankly I don’t think that will happen.

A far greater risk is that the unstable peace in western Syria will break down, and that Al-Qaeda will be reactivated, and will try to take advantage of the Syrian army’s advance eastward to capture territory in the west.

That would however require the support of Turkey, which has been badly burnt by its involvement in the Syrian war, and which is becoming increasingly concerned by US support for the Kurds in the north.

On balance, though any policy which depends on Turkish President Erdogan abiding by the agreements he has signed is fraught with risk, I think self interest in the end will win out, and that the precarious peace in western Syria will hold.

If so then the war in Syria may indeed be moving towards its end.

President Assad has said repeatedly, even in what were for him his darkest hours, that his intention was to bring all of Syrian territory back under the Syrian government’s control.

Once that attracted disbelief and incredulity in the West. Suddenly it does not look so unlikely..
http://theduran.com/huge-advances-syrian-army-transform-syrian-war/

 

[500]

As expected Assad and Khamenai gangs again broke truce in Daraa. Results were grim for them however:

This is why they fail despite 100 times more fire power and swarms of foreign mercenaries:

Today they attack encircled East Ghouta (also under truce).

 

[Asghar1234]

Terrorists have become rabid after Trump support for ISIS:

Material damage caused by terrorists’ shells on Damascus and its Countryside

21 June، 2017

Damascus, SANA – Terrorist groups on Wednesday targeted residential neighborhoods in Damascus, causing material damage only in a new violation of the Russian de-escalation memorandum in Syria.

A source at Damascus Police Command said that two mortar shells fired by terrorists landed in al-Baramkeh and al-Sabe’a Bahrat neighborhoods in Damascus, causing material damage to public and private properties.

In a similar statement, a source at Damascus Countryside Police Command told SANA that armed groups fired 8 rocket shells on Harasta residential suburb, causing only material damage.

On Tuesday, four people got injured in terrorist attacks with mortar and rocket shells fired by armed groups on the residential neighborhoods of al-Kabbas, al-Abbasyeen and Kafar Souseh in Damascus.