Regional geopolitics

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

SYRIAN MILITARY RECAPTURES DISTRICT IN ALEPPO FROM ISLAMIC STATE

13:29, 19 Nov 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Syrian army forces have recaptured the Al-Jamiliyah neighborhood in
northwestern city of Aleppo from Islamic State, Press TV reports.

The seizure occurred on Wednesday, the Lebanon-based Arabic-language
al-Mayadeen satellite news network reported.

Meanwhile, in another development on the same day, ISIS elements
transferred heavy weapons and Christian families from the town of
al-Shaddadah, located in Syria's northeastern province of Al-Hasakah,
to the city of Deir Ezzor.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group,
also reported that ISIS militants and their families are leaving
their command base in Syria's northern city of Raqqa and moving to
the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

There are further reports saying that French and Russian forces have
intensified their strikes on positions held by ISIS in Raqqa following
the November 13 attacks in the French capital city of Paris, which
left 132 people dead and over 350 others injured.

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/11/18/438222/Syria-Daesh-Aleppo-Hasakah-Raqqa

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/11/19/syrian-military-recaptures-district-in-aleppo-from-islamic-state/

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Syria crisis: Massive Russian air strikes on 'IS targets'
BBC


Russia says it has intensified its air raids on what it calls "terrorist" targets in Syria and raised to 69 the number of its aircraft there.
But President Vladimir Putin said the current level of attacks was not enough to defeat so-called Islamic State (IS).

Russia said it fired cruise missiles for a fourth day against IS targets. The long-range missiles were launched from Caspian Sea warships.
Some missiles hit IS in strategically important Deir al-Zour, reports say.

The IS-held town in eastern Syria lies between the IS self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa and territory that the jihadists also control in neighbouring Iraq.
Deir al-Zour province is also rich in oil.

The Russian military says it fired 18 cruise missiles on Friday, destroying seven "Islamist" targets in Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces.

Col Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for US Central Command, said the Russian air strikes in recent days targeted more IS areas, including the group's oil infrastructure.
But he added that "the majority of Russian air strikes are still against moderate Syrian opposition forces, which is clearly concerning, and those strikes are in support of the Syrian regime" of President Bashar al-Assad.

Russian Su-34 bomber at Hmeimim airbase in Syria, 6 Oct 15Image copyrightAP
Image caption

A Russian Sukhoi Su-34 bomber at Hmeimim airbase in Syria

Russian cruise missiles launched on 20 Nov 15 (pic: Russian Defence Ministry)Image copyrightAP



Russia says it fired 18 cruise missiles on Friday, destroying seven IS targets
'Revenge for our dead'

A monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Syrian and Russian warplanes conducted 50 bombing raids in Deir al-Zour province - Russia's most intense assault there to date.

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that in the Russian defence ministry video soldiers can be seen writing messages on the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft - phrases like: "This is revenge for our dead" and "This is for Paris".

Map showing Russian and coalition air strikes in Syria

In four days of heavy bombing against IS, the ministry said, more than 100 cruise missiles were launched and more than 800 "terrorist" targets destroyed in Syria.
Mr Putin said Russia still faced a lot of work. He expressed hope that the next phases would "produce the expected result", but did not clarify what those phases would be.
Later the president's spokesman told the BBC there was no talk of putting troops on the ground in Syria.

IS said its jihadists based in Sinai brought down a Russian Metrojet airliner in Egypt last month. Russia concluded that it was a bomb that blew up the plane, killing 224 people, nearly all of them Russians.

Russia's air campaign in Syria began on 30 September. It fired its first cruise missiles in the conflict on 17 November.

Turkey warns Russia

Meanwhile, Turkey has warned Russia that it must immediately stop bombing "civilian Turkmen villages" in Syria, close to the Turkish border.
The Russian ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry to hear the protest.

Turkey warned that bombing villages populated by the Turkmen minority could lead to "serious consequences".

Syrian government forces backed by Russian aircraft launched a ground offensive on the mainly Turkmen villages in Bayir Bucak, north-west Latakia province, on Thursday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.

The Turkish government is vehemently opposed to President Assad, while Russia says its air campaign is justified because Mr Assad has requested it.

[londontsi]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Syria crisis: Massive Russian air strikes on 'IS targets'
BBC




Turkey warns Russia

Meanwhile, Turkey has warned Russia that it must immediately stop bombing "civilian Turkmen villages" in Syria, close to the Turkish border.
The Russian ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry to hear the protest.

Turkey warned that bombing villages populated by the Turkmen minority could lead to "serious consequences".

Syrian government forces backed by Russian aircraft launched a ground offensive on the mainly Turkmen villages in Bayir Bucak, north-west Latakia province, on Thursday, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.

The Turkish government is vehemently opposed to President Assad, while Russia says its air campaign is justified because Mr Assad has requested it.

LOL

To do what ?

If the Turkomen are on the wrong side they will be hit.

Shouldn't have taken long to work it out.
.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Acting on secret Obama-Putin Syria deal, Moscow’s air strikes focus first on rebels, next on ISIS
Debka

The secret deal for a political solution for the Syria conflict reached by Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya over the weekend has radically changed and intensified Russia’s air strike tactics in the last 24 h ours.
For the first time since the intensified Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war in the last week of September, Russian air force planes took off Tuesday, Nov. 17 for attacks on Syrian rebel and ISIS targets, from a home base, the Morozovsk airbase in the southern Rostov district. Until now, the Russian bombers had taken off from Hmeymim airbase near Latakia.
Also for the first time, they lofted Tupolev Tu-160 and Tupolev Tu-95 bombers. The Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack is a long-range strategic bomber and the biggest combat aircraft in the world, while the Tu-95 Bear is a huge strategic bomber with four turboprop-powered engines that is also used to launch missiles.
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that that the entry of these heavy bombers marks an increase in the frequency of the attacks and in the firepower used by Russia against the rebels and ISIS. Together with the firing of advanced Russian Kalibr cruise missiles at targets in Syria – also for the first time on Tuesday - these changes substantially escalate the Russian military effort in Syria.
Western sources take these changes to mean that Putin is driving hell-bent to settle accounts with the Islamic State after the downing of the Russian plane over Sinai on Oct. 31, and that he will coordinate this effort with French President Francois Hollande, who is due in Moscow in the coming days.
However, DEBKAfile reports that the new, stepped up Russian aerial offensive is fact bringing forward certain - not necessarily jihadist - Syrian rebel groups as Moscow’s priority targets, with ISIS only in second place.
In their 30-minute conversation on Sunday, Nov. 15, our sources reveal, Obama secretly accepted most points of Putin’s plan for a political resolution of the Syrian conflict (first revealed by DEBKA Weekly earlier this month), with the exception of the point relating to Bashar Assad’s future.
The White House and the Kremlin consequently announced a joint decision on a cease-fire in Syria to be followed by UN-mediated negotiations between the rebels and the Assad regime.
The first point of the Russian blueprint called for intensified air strikes by the US and Russia against rebel groups refusing to enter into these negotiations in order to force them to toe the line.
As a result of the deal between the two presidents, 75 percent of Russian attacks in Syria Tuesday were aimed against various rebel groups (around Hama and Aleppo), and only 25 percent against ISIS (at its Raqqa headquarters) and Al-Nusra Front targets.
Obama agreed to Russian expanding its air campaign to this end for at least three weeks. It was also decided that Russia would beef it up with another 25 heavy bombers and addition warplanes.
Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Russia released the findings of its investigation into the downing of a Russian airliner on October 31 in the Sinai Peninsula that caused the deaths of all 224 passengers and crew.
Putin and the heads of the Russian intelligence community have concluded that the destruction of Metrojet Flight 9268 soon after takeoff from Sharm El Sheikh was the result of a bomb planted on board by terrorists. Egypt quickly rejected the conclusion, claiming there was no proof of it whatsoever. But thes conclusion led Putin to offer an unprecedented $50 million reward for information leading to the capture of those who planted the bomb.
According to our counterterrorism sources, Russian intelligence chiefs are convinced that certain top Egyptian military and security service officers know exactly who was responsible. The enormous reward was offered to draw them out and tempt them to break ranks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi’s dogged resistance to the charges of a terrorist hand at work behind the Russian air disaster. After all, 50 million dollars must be hard to resist.

[Artashes]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Debka files mentions Russia is now also utilizing two long range bombers from Russian territory, namely the TU160 (black jack or white swan) and the TU95 (bear). I'm surprised they failed to mention #3 ... The backfire bomber. It's not as big as the swan but is a very large and highly capable strategic supersonic bomber.

[londontsi]

Re: Regional geopolitics

State of emergency, blackout in Russia’s Crimea after transmission towers in Ukraine blown up

https://www.rt.com/news/323012-crimea-blackout-lines-blown-up/

.... Earlier on Friday, unidentified saboteurs damaged two of Kherson’s four electricity transmission towers,
prompting Crimean authorities to issue warnings of possible power cuts.

However, when local Ukrainian repairs crews attempted to reach the site, they were blocked by Crimean Tatar activists
and Right Sector militants, who proclaimed they were taking the area “under protection,” TASS reported.....

.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Massive Russian blanket air bombardment is flattening Raqqa
21/11/15
Debka

Russia has launched a merciless blanket air campaign, backed by Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, for the object of wiping the Islamic State’s Syrian center of Raqqa off the map, DEBKAfile’s military sources report.
Western and Middle East sources tracking the campaign since Friday, Nov. 20, report that at least 75 air sorties have been conducted and are systematically razing the town of 200,000 inhabitants 160km east of Aleppo, district by district, irrespective of civilian town dwellers.
Moscow wants the entire Middle East and Muslim world to see the price exacted for launching a terrorist attack on Russia after the downing of the Metrojet airliner that killed 224 people over Egyptian Sinai on Oct. 31. Russian bombers and cruise missiles rained death and destruction on the ISIS administration center after the jihadists claimed responsibility for that disaster and published photos of a soft drink can claimed to have been rigged as a bomb for blowing the plane up.
When the Russians are done, the town will be a pile of rubble, an intelligence source told DEBKAfile.


The Russian defense ministry ran photos Friday of Russian technicians loading bombs on the Tupolev 95 bombers (dubbed “Bears” in the West). Ground crews marked the bombs “For ours,” and “For Paris.”
Last Tuesday, our military sources first revealed that the Tupolev’s were taking off from Morozovsk air base in the Rostov district of southern Russia instead of from the Russian military enclave outside the Syrian town of Latakia.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported Friday that 15 Syrian oil facilities seized by ISIS had been destroyed this week and 525 of their trucks, costing the jihadists $1.5 million a day in revenue.
As for casualties, the published figure of 600 jihadists killed in one day is probably far below the real figure. Our sources report that the Islamist terrorists’ death toll most probably runs into thousands with many more injured.
To sustain the hectic tempo of its aerial war, Moscow has doubled the number of bombers assigned to Syria from 34 two weeks ago to 69 by Saturday, Nov. 21.
Our military sources add that this augmented air power allows the Russians to expand their targets to other parts of Syria. On Friday, they renewed sorties against Syrian rebel forces holding the southern town of Deraa near the Jordanian border


=============================


First Iranian fighter jets over Syria alongside Russian bombers
22/11/2015
Debka


A series of videos apparently leaked by the Russian Defense Ministry reveal the presence of Iranian F-14 and MiG -29 fighters in Syrian skies for the first time. They were shown by “The Aviationist,” Italian magazine, escorting heavy Russian bombers, including the Tupolev TU-160, the heaviest, fastest and most destructive bomber ever built, on missions no more than 150 km from Israel’s northern border.
The ageing F-14s, built in the 1970s by American aviation giant Grumman, were originally sold to Iran when the Shah was in power and taken over by the reorganized Iranian air force after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Upgraded many times, the F-14s now feature state-of-the-art avionics, weapons and navigation systems, procured byTehran despite the strict UN embargo on their sale to the Islamic Republic.
Dozens of these upgraded warplanes, upgraded with intelligence-collection and tracking systems, have begun operating in Syrian air space near the Israeli border, under the pretense of escorting the Russian bombers. Iranian eyes in the sky are therefore studying the frontier area and gather valuable intelligence on Israel’s air defenses. Normally, if Iranian warplanes had turned up in Syrian air space, the Israeli Air Force would have fought them off and shot them down, but by flying alongside Russian bombers they are protecting themselves against Israeli action.


As DEBKAfile reported on Saturday, November 21, Russian air and missile attacks are systematically destroying Raqqa, the ISIS capital in Syria, without consideration of civilian casualties. The Russian general staff is now gearing up to embark on an unprecedented assault on rebel and ISIS strongholds, a blitz involving hundreds of simultaneous sorties by warplanes and bombers, as well as cruise missile attacks from planes and warships in the Mediterranean and the Caspian Seas.
High-altitude surveillance planes as well as low-altitude drones, fitted with imaging and targeting systems that will send live video and images to the command center in Moscow, will provide an umbrella for the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally manage the multilayered military coordination between Russia and Iran when he visits Tehran on Nov. 23, accompanied by top military officers.

[Artashes]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Notice the consistent reporting of civilians killed by Russian airstrikes. Now note the paucity of reports about civilians killed by USA/cohorts bombing campaign.
The west is in an active smear campaign against any and all Russian activities.
In the last 15 years, who do you think has caused more civilian collateral damage (deaths) , USA/cohorts or Russia?
Such pathetic behavior by the leaders of the free world (lol)+ tears.
I trust Britain ,France,USA,soody,yahoody. How about you?

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

SYRIAN ARMY ADVANCES ON ALEPPO PROVINCE

13:17, 23 Nov 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Photo: AFP 2015/ GEORGE OURFALIAN

The past 24 hours have seen the Syrian Army's ongoing advance on
Islamic State militants in Aleppo province, where Syrian forces,
backed by Russian airstrikes, have taken back a number of villages,
Sputnik News reports.

The Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces, supported by Russian
and Syrian airstrikes, have managed to liberate an array of villages
from Islamic State militants in Aleppo province, where the jihadists
suffered heavy losses, according to the Iranian news agency FARS.

A number of the ISIL militants' strongholds and ammunition depots in
Shamer village and the city of al-Bab were reportedly destroyed by
Syrian warplanes, leaving dozens of militants killed or wounded.

Additionally, the Syrian fighter jets launched a series of airstrikes
on the militants' positions in the villages of Abu Jaloul, Jub al-Kaf
and Tibeh in Aleppo, inflicting heavy losses on the jihadists.

Additionally, the Syrian bombers staged airstrikes against the ISIL
Takfiri terrorists near Rasm al-Abd, Deir Hafer and Najara, leaving
many of them dead or injured.

In a separate development, Russian Air Force warplanes bombed the
ISIL-held Jirah Airbase in the eastern part of Aleppo province,
killing dozens of militants.

According to sources, it was the first time since the beginning of
the Russian air force's aerial operation against ISIL in Syria that
the Islamic State positions inside and outside of the Jirah airbase
had been heavily bombarded by Russian fighter jets.

Sources said that the Russian airstrikes on the Jirah airbase may pave
the way for the Syrian army's massive ground operation, which is aimed
at liberating the third key airbase in the country after Kuweires and
Marj al-Sultan airbases in Aleppo and Damascus provinces, respectively.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/11/23/syrian-army-advances-on-aleppo-province/

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151123/1030564062/syria-army-offensive-aleppo.html#ixzz3sIxp8CMP