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Israeli Aircraft Struck Syrian Troops while syrian Repelling Terrorists’ Attack in Golans

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A source on the ground told RIA Novosti that the Syrian government forces have been repelling a massive Nusra-Front terrorists’ attack in the Golan Heights when they were struck by the Israeli Air Force in the area.

“The [Syrian] army repelled a massive al-Nusra Front attack on the city of Baath in the Quneitra province [bordering the Golan Heights]. The army took up the fight with terrorists. The attackers have suffered losses. [Syrian] aviation and artillery helped repel the attacks,” the source told RIA Novosti.

According to the source, a Israeli Air Force helicopter launched a strike on the Syrian army in Baath at the moment of the al-Nusra Front offensive.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the Israeli Air Force attacked the Syrian government forces’ tanks and artillery positions after 10 projectiles fell on the Israeli-controlled part of the Golan Heights.

According to Al Mayadeen channel citing a source, at least two Syrian soldiers were killed in the airstrike.

The majority of such incidents are described by the Israeli military as accidental overspills during clashes between the Syrian government forces and opposition groups.

The Golan Heights, internationally recognized as Syrian territory, was seized by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. In 1981, the Israeli parliament voted to annex two-thirds of the region. The United Nations has repeatedly stated that Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights is illegal, calling for it to be returned to Syria.

Source: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201706241054948125-israel-syria-army-golans/

Russia fires cruise missiles at Islamic State in Syria, doesn’t inform US

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russia,syria,cruise missiles

This picture, taken on October 18, 2016, shows the Russian warship BSF Nikolay Flichenkov 152 on its way to the eastern Mediterranean port of Tartus in Syria. (Via AFP)

Russian vessels deployed to the Mediterranean have fired cruise missiles at Daesh targets inside Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry says.

The missiles were fired from two Russian warships and a submarine at targets inside the western Syrian province of Hama on Friday, it said.

“As a result of the surprise mass missile strike, command points were destroyed and also large stores of weapons and ammunition of the IS (Daesh) terrorists in the area of Aqirbat in the Hama Province,” the ministry said.

It added that Russian planes then carried out aerial strikes that “destroyed the remainder of the IS fighters and their facilities.”

Russia has also been conducting an aerial bombardment campaign against terrorist positions in Syria on a request by Damascus.

Russia has been conducting cruise missile strikes and aerial attacks against terrorist positions in Syria on a request from the Syrian government.

Russia ‘nearly 100 percent certain Baghdadi has been killed’

Meanwhile on Friday, Viktor Ozerov, the head of the defense committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, said Russia was almost 100 percent sure that the leader of Daesh, Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed in an airstrike carried out by the Russian Air Force in Syria last month.

“I think this information is close to 100 percent [in certainty],” Interfax quoted Ozerov as saying. “The fact that Islamic State [Daesh] has still not shown him anywhere also adds to our confidence that al-Baghdadi has been killed.”

On Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry had said it was “highly likely” that Baghdadi, had been killed. Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Sputnik news agency that the information about Baghdadi’s likely death was now being verified through “various channels.”

The Friday statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said that Turkish and Israeli militaries “were informed in a timely manner of the missile launches through communication channels” but made no mention of the United States.

Russia has suspended communications with the US, which used to be carried out via a hotline set up to prevent accidental military confrontations over Syrian airspace. The US is present in Syria as part of a coalition that purports to be fighting Daesh but that has not received permission from Damascus.

The suspension of the military contact came after a US warplane hit a Syrian Su-22 aircraft with a missile last Sunday. The US claimed that it had targeted the plane “in collective self-defense of coalition-partnered forces” in the city of Taqba in northern Syria.

Moscow says Washington had failed to inform it about the hit. A day later, the Russian Ministry threatened to treat aircraft with the coalition “as air targets” if they flew in areas west of the Euphrates River.

The Pentagon responded by saying it would “defend” itself and “our partners if threatened.”

Australia Suspends Syrian Airstrikes Over Russia, U.S. Tensions

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Australia Suspends Syria Air Strikes

A Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18F Super Hornet at an air show. Australia’s decision to back out of the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria follows Russia’s warning that it would track American and coalition aircraft in the country as targets. PHOTO: IAN HITCHCOCK/GETTY IMAGES

By Ben Kesling

BAGHDAD—Australia has suspended air operations in Syria amid escalating tensions between Washington and Moscow after Russia threatened to track American and coalition aircraft in the war-torn country as targets.

“As a precautionary measure, Australian Defense Force strike operations into Syria have temporarily ceased,” a statement from the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The American ally’s decision to back out of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria comes hours after the U.S. shifted some of its own flight patterns in the country to minimize risks, following Russia’s warning on Monday that it would use air defense systems or Russian pilots to track flights west of the Euphrates.

The current tensions between the U.S. and Russia, which back opposite sides in the Syrian conflict but are also fighting Islamic State in the country, began Sunday when an American jet fighter shot down a Syrian regime warplane after it targeted U.S.-backed Syrian fighters who were leading the assault on Islamic State’s de facto capital, Raqqa.

Russia, allied with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, responded to the U.S. strike with threats to cut official lines of communication that are meant to prevent midair mishaps and to treat U.S.-led coalition planes as “targets.” It, however, stopped short of threatening to shoot them down, giving some U.S. officials hope that the situation won’t worsen.

“ADF personnel are closely monitoring the air situation in Syria and a decision on the resumption of ADF air operations in Syria will be made in due course,” Australia’s defense ministry said in the statement. It will continue its mission in neighboring Iraq, the statement added.

The U.S.-led coalition has stepped up its operations to push Islamic State out of its strongholds in Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. Australia has deployed six warplanes, as well as an aerial tanker and an airstrike control aircraft, to the region to support the fight against the extremist group.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-suspends-syria-air-strikes-over-russia-u-s-tensions-1497956784?mod=e2tw

Assad, allies to prevail in Syria, drive US out: Ex-US envoy

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Assad, allies to prevail in Syria, drive US out: Ex-US envoy

Former US ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford

A former American ambassador to Syria says the Syrian government and its allies, including Iran, will ultimately frustrate attempts by the United States to influence Syrian matters and will drive the US out of the Arab country.

Robert Ford, who served as the US’s envoy to Syria under former US president Barack Obama, made the remarks in an interview with the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday.

He said the US was, first of all, mistaken in giving support to the opposition in Syria back in 2011 and demanding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. Ford said he knew that that expression of support would encourage certain elements of the opposition to take up arms and expect a US invasion against Damascus, which he said would not be forthcoming.

Ford also said that the US would not defend the Kurdish forces it has been supporting so far in case the Kurds engaged in clashes with the Syrian forces.

“[The US] will not defend the Kurds against Assad’s forces,” the former US envoy said. “What we’re doing with the Kurds is not only politically stupid, but immoral.”

“Syrian Kurds are making their biggest mistake in trusting the Americans,” he added.

The US has been backing a mainly Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Ford also said that, given the strong support being offered by Iran and Russia to the Syrian government, the “game was finished” for US plans to overthrow Assad or compete with what he said would be Iran’s success in the country.

“The Iranian position will advance,” Ford said.

“Assad won, I mean he’s the victor, or he thinks so,” he added. “Maybe in 10 years, he will retake the entire country.”

Syria has been gripped by unrest since 2011, when militancy first began in the country. Foreign states opposed to President Assad have since then been funding and providing weapons to anti-Assad militants, among them thousands of paid foreign terrorists dispatched to help force Assad out of power.

The Syrian government, however, has been fighting that militancy back, aided in that battle by advisory military support from Iran and Russia. Moscow has also been conducting an aerial campaign against terrorist positions in the Arab country on a request by Damascus.

Russia’s Defense Ministry suspends interaction with Pentagon over Syria

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Russia suspends interaction with Pentagon over Syria Russia’s Defense Ministry has suspended interaction with the Pentagon within the framework of the  bilateral memorandum across Syria, after the US  shot down Syrian warplane, RT reported quoting the Ministry.

On July 19, it halted cooperation in the framework of the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria.

The ministry has demanded a thorough investigation by the US military command into the incident with the Syrian government military jet, with the results to be shared with the Russian side.

“In the areas of combat missions of Russian air fleet in Syrian skies, any airborne objects, including aircraft and unmanned vehicles of the [US-led] international coalition, located to the west of the Euphrates River, will be tracked by Russian ground and air defense forces as air targets,” the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

Russian Warplanes Foil Islamic State Attack in Deir ez-Zor, Eliminate 180 Terrorists

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Russian Warplanes Foil islamic state Attack The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that the Russian warplanes have foiled a massive State Attack attack on the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor earlier in June.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian reconnaissance means recorded Daesh units preparation to break through the defenses of the Syrian government troops deployed in Deir ez-Zor.

“In the beginning of June, the Russian Armed Forces’ group in the Syrian Arab Republic recorded via UAVs the preparation of Daesh terrorist group’s units to break through the defensive lines of a garrison of the government troops blocked in the city of Deir ez-Zor.”

Russian warplanes have eliminated two top Daesh field commanders and some 180 terrorists in Syria during aerial operations on June 6 and 8.

Moreover, the Russian Aerospace Forces also destroyed 16 units of terrorists’ automotive and armored vehicles and an ammunition depot during the air raids.

“As a result of preemptive airstrikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces on June 6 and 8, [two] Daesh field commanders… were eliminated. Moreover, about 180 militants, 16 automotive vehicles and armored vehicles, one artillery gun, four command points,and an arms and ammunition depot were destroyed.”

Syrian government forces control over a half of Deir ez-Zor, which has been besieged by Daesh militants over three years. The Syrian forces continue an offensive aimed at lifting the siege and creating supply lines for the city’s residents. Presently, the only means of delivering supplies to the city is by air.

Source: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201706171054724395-russia-daesh-commanders/

Iraq seizes key crossing near Syria from Islamic State

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Iraqi forces have seized from Islamic State one of the official border crossings between the country and Syria, thus choking a key supply line feeding the Islamic State terrorist group.

Al-Waleed, which together with two other passageways links Iraq and Syria, came under government control on Saturday, Reuters reported.

The advance took place as the Syrian government and its allies are hemming the terrorists in on the other side of the border.

Al-Waleed is close to the al-Tanf crossing on the common border, which is the key to the Baghdad-Damascus Highway and also links up to the main Baghdad-Amman route.

Daesh seized al-Waleed in May 2015, almost a year into its deadly terror campaign in Syria and Iraq. It used the bridgehead to expand its grip there to the entirety of the common border.

Syrian forces are, meanwhile, advancing toward al-Tanf, where the US forces have been based since last year on a mission to train anti-Damascus militants.

Back in May, a US-led coalition, which has been purportedly fighting Daesh in Syria since 2014, struck a convoy of Damascus-allied forces that was moving towards al-Tanf. The forces, however, regrouped afterward and continued their advance.

On Wednesday, the US Army relocated a new truck-mounted, long-range missile launcher from Jordan to al-Tanf.

Turkey Sends CHP Deputy Berberoğlu To Jail Over Story On MİT Trucks Carrying Weapons To Syria

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Over Story On MİT Trucks Carrying Weapons To SyriaA high criminal court in İstanbul on Wednesday handed down a prison sentence of 25 years to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu over a report on for ‘leaking state secrets’ in the Syria-bound National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks case. Former journalist and CHP deputy Berberoğlu was sent to prison immediately after the ruling was announced.

The decision was made by the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court. Berberoğlu was convicted of revealing state information that was supposed to remain secret for the purpose of political and military spying. Berberoğlu, who became the first CHP lawmaker to be handed prison time, was accused of providing daily Cumhuriyet with video purporting to show Turkey’s intelligence agency trucking weapons to Syria.

Cumhuriyet daily had reported in May 2015 that  trucks allegedly owned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) were found to contain weapons and ammunition that were headed for Syria when they were stopped and searched in southern Turkey in early 2014.

When the MİT truck story first broke in 2015, it produced a political firestorm in Turkey about the role of the Turkish spy agency in arming rebel factions in Syria and prompted an investigation into Cumhuriyet daily journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who published the report.

They were first jailed while facing trial on spy charges for publishing footage purporting to show the MİT transporting weapons to Syria in 2014. Later, the two journalists were released pending trial.

When Dündar later published a book titled “We Are Arrested,” he mapped out the details of the news story on May 27, 2015, saying that a leftist lawmaker brought the information to him. Upon that new revelation, the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a new investigation and examined Dündar’s phone calls during the days leading up to the publication of the story.

The prosecutor’s office detected a phone conversation between CHP deputy Berberoğlu and Dündar on May 27. A new indictment was drafted for Berberoğlu.

The Turkish government has accused followers of the Gülen movement in the judiciary and security institutions of illegally ordering the search, claiming that the trucks were carrying “humanitarian aid to Turkmens” in Syria.

The court first gave a life sentence to Berberoğlu on charges of ‘revealing the information of the state that should stay secret for the purposes of political and military spying.’ But the court subsequently reduced the sentence to 25 years. The court also said the lawmaker would be stripped of his political rights following the announcement of the decision.

In his first remarks after the ruling, Berberoğlu said those who created such a victimization should be ashamed of themselves. Berberoğlu, who was present at the hearing, was taken to the police station on the court premises to be imprisoned in İstanbul’s Maltepe district.

Following the court’s decision, it was reported that the CHP held an emergency meeting, after which party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to make an official statement. Meanwhile, the CHP deputies quit a plenary session in parliament to protest Berberoğlu’s arrest.

After the meeting the CHP made a call on Wednesday to take to the streets in Ankara on Thursday to protest the arrest of Enis Berberoğlu. Media reports said the CHP would launch a march from the capital city Ankara to İstanbul.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s headquarters, CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu stated that he would be in Ankara’s Güvenpark at 11:00 a.m. with a banner in his hand reading “justice.”

“We will start our march in Güvenpark at 11 a.m. tomorrow,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “We want justice,” he said. “Until democracy and justice comes to this country.” Kılıçdaroğlu also stressed that those who ordered the arrest of Berberoğlu will be trapped under that decision,

“[Berberoğlu] has been sentenced to 25 years in prison without any evidence. What kind of a mentality or law is that? We never accept that. Those who made that decision will be trapped under it,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters at the party’s headquarters.

“We living a process that the real criminals are not put on trial but the innocent are tried and jailed,” he added.

“The imprisonment of our lawmaker is a bitter example showing that the judiciary is under the complete control of the executive organ,” CHP deputy chairman Engin Altay also told reporters outside İstanbul’s Çağlayan courthouse.

“If judges make their decisions thinking ‘how can I please the dictator, how will my rulings make the dictator look at me sympathetically to the point that the dictator advances me [in my career]?’ then God damn such justice. This decision is a move to intimidate everyone who is not happy about the AKP. It is also a move to intimidate a society that says ‘let democracy march,’” Altay said.

Making a statement at the İstanbul Courthouse, CHP deputy Barış Yarkadaş said Berberoğlu had given a short speech after the court announced its ruling.

“What we have gone through is like a cartoon. We are like the actors in that play. We are in a comedy. Those who gave this sentence to me should know I can go to jail, I can get out of jail, I can serve my sentence, do it for my homeland. May our homeland live long. I will continue my judicial struggle. I will get out of jail in a short time, but those who gave me this sentence will be convicted in the eyes of history,” Yarkadaş quoted Berberoğlu as saying.
In the meantime, CHP deputies left a parliamentary session on Wednesday in protest of Berberoğlu’s arrest.

Cumhuriyet’s Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, was also present at the hearing on Wednesday, while the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, Can Dündar, did not attend as he left for Germany last year. “It is a decision to obstruct journalism,” Gül told reporters outside the court.

The court ruled to separate Berberoğlu’s file from that of Dündar and Gül, who are accused of ‘intentionally and willfully aiding an armed terror group.’ The court, which did not render a verdict for Gül and Dündar, saying their trials would continue.

Berberoğlu is a former journalist, who started his career at business daily Dünya in 1981. In his long journalism career, Berberoğlu also worked for Cumhuriyet, CNN Türk and Radikal. He also served as Hürriyet daily’s editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2014.  Berberoğlu was elected to the CHP caucus during an extraordinary meeting on Sept. 5-6, 2014. He was subsequently appointed as the party’s vice-chairman responsible for relations with the media on Sept. 14, 2014, by Kılıçdaroğlu.

Turkey is the leading jailer of journalists in the world. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 265 journalists are now in jails as of June 14, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 242 are arrested pending trial, only 23 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 105 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey.

Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the coup attempt. (SCF with turkishminute.com) June 14, 2017

Part of Armenian humanitarian aid transported to Damascus, Syria

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Armenia, aid, syriamenia,aid,syriaPart of the humanitarian aid shipped to Syria as a result of the assignment given by the President of Armenia, and in accordance with the agreement reached between Armenian and Russian Defense ministries, was transported to Syria’s capital Damascus.

Armenia’s defense ministry said in a release that humanitarian aid for civilians affected by the conflict in Syria and consisting mainly of food and clothing, was unloaded in the territory of Damascus St. Sargis Armenian Church.

According to the source, Armenian Embassy to the Syrian Arab Republic and the Armenian community members are set to facilitate the distribution of the aid.

Armenia’s Ambassador Arshak Poladyan during the unloading, has noted that Armenian community of Syria is a traditional and well-established community with its various institutions, while Syrian-Armenians enjoy positive reputation in the Arab Republic.

“The initiative of delivering a humanitarian aid as assigned by the President of Armenia even further strengthens the development of Armenian-Syrian brotherly relations,” the Ambassador has noted.

To remind, the June 8 shipment is the third phase of humanitarian aid sent to Syria. The first airplane had departed for Latakia from Yerevan, in February of this year.

US-backed SDF announces start of Raqqah operation

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US-backed SDF,The so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed alliance of mostly Kurdish and Arab militants, says it has launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah, the Takfiri terror group’s main stronghold in northern Syria.

Talal Sillo, a SDF spokesman, said the operation had begun the “great leap” towards Raqqah in coordination with the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

“We declare today the beginning of the great battle to liberate the city of Raqqa, the alleged capital of terrorism and terrorists,” Sillo told a news conference held in northern Syria. “Morale is high and military readiness to implement the military plan is complete.”

They have been advancing towards the city since last November, and have just forced their way into the city near the Turkish border.

The country’s official Syrian Arab News Agency said civilians had started to flee the city in boats via the Euphrates River ahead of the SDF push.

It also said as many as 12 people, including women and children, had been killed on Monday night in airstrikes by the US-led coalition, which has been pounding alleged Daesh targets in Syria since 2014 without succeeding in eliminating the group.

Daesh seized Raqqa earlier that year, when it started its campaign of bloodshed and destruction against Syria.

The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 21 people had been killed in the Monday night airstrikes. It said they were likely carried out by the coalition.

Syria has steadfastly objected to the US-led operations as Washington did not seek Damascus’ approval in launching the offensive.

Meanwhile, warplanes belonging to Russia, which has been helping Syria in its counterterrorism operations since 2015, have been reportedly targeting the Daesh terrorists trying to flee Raqqah.

The United States has also been overseeing and sourcing a constant flow of arms and other supplies to Syrian militants, including those of the SDF, which is against the Damascus government.