Syrian Civil War: News #2

sepheronx wrote:Ugly Croation Famas knockoff.

Actually VHS just reminds alot of Famas, shares very little with it. Had pleasure inspecting it myself few years ago while it was still not introduced in active service. Its using short stroke piston system for cycling and it has many quite unique features, tho it has little to thanks to Croatian army for that since it was basically private venture. It borrowed small solutions from few weapons like Ultimax 100, Scar Light, FAMAS even AK but overall its quite unique. What i like about it myself is fire selector even tho most of the people hate it coz its next to the trigger, but i found it quite convinient.

Some early warning for citizens before offensive.

Iran troops to join Syria war, Russia bombs group trained by CIA

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, a sign the civil war is turning still more regional and global in scope.

Russian warplanes, in a second day of strikes, bombed a camp run by rebels trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the group's commander said, putting Moscow and Washington on opposing sides in a Middle East conflict for the first time since the Cold War.

Senior U.S. and Russian officials spoke for just over an hour by secure video conference on Thursday, focusing on ways to keep air crews safe, the Pentagon said, as the two militaries carry out parallel campaigns with competing objectives.

"We made crystal clear that, at a minimum, the priority here should be the safe operation of the air crews over Syria," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

Two Lebanese sources told Reuters hundreds of Iranian troops had reached Syria in the past 10 days with weapons to mount a major ground offensive. They would also be backed by Assad's Lebanese Hezbollah allies and by Shi'ite militia fighters from Iraq, while Russia would provide air support.

"The vanguard of Iranian ground forces began arriving in Syria -soldiers and officers specifically to participate in this battle. They are not advisers ... we mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more," one of the sources said.

So far, direct Iranian military support for Assad has come mostly in the form of military advisers. Iran has also mobilized Shi'ite militia fighters, including Iraqis and some Afghans, to fight alongside Syrian government forces.

Moscow said it had hit Islamic State positions, but the areas it struck near the cities of Hama and Homs are mostly held by a rival insurgent alliance, which unlike Islamic State is supported by U.S. allies including Arab states and Turkey.

Hassan Haj Ali, head of the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal rebel group that is part of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters one of the targets was his group's base in Idlib province, struck by about 20 missiles in two separate raids. His fighters had been trained by the CIA in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, part of a program Washington says is aimed at supporting groups that oppose both Islamic State and Assad.

"Russia is challenging everyone and saying there is no alternative to Bashar," Haj Ali said. He said the Russian jets had been identified by members of his group who once served as Syrian air force pilots.

The group is one of at least three foreign-backed FSA rebel factions to say they had been hit by the Russians in the last two days.

At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference Moscow was targeting Islamic State. He did not specifically deny that Russian planes had attacked Free Syrian Army facilities but said Russia did not view it as a terrorist group and viewed it as part of a political solution in Syria.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/02/us-mideast-crisis-russia-syria-idUSKCN0RV41O20151002

Assad allies, including Iranians, prepare ground attack in Syria: sources

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad answers questions during an interview with al-Manar's journalist Amro Nassef, in Damascus, Syria, in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA on August 25, 2015.  REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad answers questions during an interview with al-Manar's

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria in the last 10 days and will soon join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes, two Lebanese sources told Reuters.

"The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advances by the Syrian army and its allies," said one of the sources familiar with political and military developments in the conflict.

"It is possible that the coming land operations will be focused in the Idlib and Hama countryside," the source added.

The two sources said the operation would be aimed at recapturing territory lost by President Bashar al-Assad's government to rebels.


It points to an emerging military alliance between Russia and Assad's other main allies - Iran and Hezbollah - focused on recapturing areas of northwestern Syria that were seized by insurgents in rapid advances earlier this year.

"The vanguard of Iranian ground forces began arriving in Syria: soldiers and officers specifically to participate in this battle. They are not advisors ... we mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more," the second source said. Iraqis would also take part in the operation, the source said.

Thus far, direct Iranian military support for Assad has come mostly in the form of military advisors. Iran has also mobilized Shi'ite militia fighters, including Iraqis and some Afghans, to fight alongside Syrian government forces.

Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, has been fighting alongside the Syrian army since early in the conflict.


The Russian air force began air strikes in Syria on Wednesday, targeting areas near the cities of Homs and Hama in the west of the country, where Assad's forces are fighting an array of insurgent groups, though not Islamic State, which is based mostly in the north and east.

An alliance of insurgent groups including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and powerful Ahrar al-Sham made rapid gains in Idlib province earlier this year, completely expelling the government from the area bordering Turkey.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-mideast-crisis-syria-iranians-exclusi-idUSKCN0RV4DN20151001

Another interesting piece of propaganda by White Helmets.

Source: https://twitter.com/SyriaCivilDef/status/634758927998128129

"Photos reportedly of militants at Hatay Airport, Antakya after fleeing from Russian airstrikes in Syria"

Naturally these could be just any bearded guys out there but again "reportedly".

Source: https://twitter.com/IraqiSuryani1/status/651479764885225472

Design of simple "Barrel bombs" used by "regime" in Syria.

Rebels in northern Homs countryside are preparing for SAA offensive which is to be supported by Russian air strikes.

Militarov wrote:

Rebels in northern Homs countryside are preparing for SAA offensive which is to be supported by Russian air strikes.

What imbeciles, they're painting targets on their back with those armored columns lol!

magnumcromagnon wrote:

Militarov wrote:

Rebels in northern Homs countryside are preparing for SAA offensive which is to be supported by Russian air strikes.

What imbeciles, they're painting targets on their back with those armored columns lol!

Yeep... But i dont blame them, even some "real" armies could still learn stuff from Serbians and their performance from 1999. when its about equipment placement, dispersion and movement of units.

Militarov wrote:

Design of simple "Barrel bombs" used by "regime" in Syria.

They just had to include the "dropped by Russian-made attack and transport helicopters."

Ivan the Colorado wrote:

Militarov wrote:

Design of simple "Barrel bombs" used by "regime" in Syria.

They just had to include the "dropped by Russian-made attack and transport helicopters."

That is basically mandatory by all means Each Holywood movie needs a villan xD

Sustained MRLS Artillery strike (not sure of location)...the explosions seem to me, too large to be from Grad (122mm)

Somehow I don't think this will be splashed across the world's press' This is a 'proper' source of information, not social media.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The US congress armed the Islamic State (ISIL) extremists by providing weapons to the "moderate" opposition, former CIA counter terrorism officer and Senate Foreign Relations Committee senior investigator John Kiriakou told Sputnik.

The FSA is an armed Syrian opposition faction, considered "moderate" by western countries, fighting the Syrian army loyal to President Bashar Assad since the beginning of the civil war in 2011. In 2014, the US Congress allocated $500 million to create FSA force of more than 5,000 men by the end of 2015.

"They [the FSA] didn’t help at all: supporting them only made matters worse. Most of the US arms that were sent to them only found their way into the hands of the Islamic State. Congress paid for the arming the Islamic State" Kiriakou said. According to him, ISIL forces in Syria had been able to capture and use modern US equipment from the FSA just as their counterparts in Iraq enjoyed the use of huge quantities of US equipment they had captured from fleeing US-trained Iraqi forces.

The US idea of "a liberal, democratic freedom-loving, peace-loving opposition," an alternative to Syrian President Assad, was just nonsense, Kiriakou said. The US should have stayed out instead of making the situation worse, he added.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151007/1028130762/US-congress-arms-ISIL-in-syria-via-moderate-opposition.html#ixzz3ns01VQje

JohninMK wrote:Somehow I don't think this will be splashed across the world's press' This is a 'proper' source of information, not social media.

Actually they've reported how most of the "moderate" rebels have mostly switched sides since crossing the border (together with their weapons), it's just since the Russian intervention happened so quickly, they're struggling to come out with a coherent response.

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Regarding that artillery video I posted above, some people on the Runet think it might be a TOS-1 Buratino...you can see the rocket launched at 02:40....it seems too close to be a regular MRLS

Cyberspec wrote:


Regarding that artillery video I posted above, some people on the Runet think it might be a TOS-1 Buratino...you can see the rocket launched at 02:40....it seems too close to be a regular MRLS

I agree that it's a bit close for Smerch, tho Smerch have been seen at Latakia and Buratino no closer than somewhere in northwest Iraq. Video is at Hama and the uploader is writing that it is Russian forces, but of course that is propaganda. About six Buratino were sold to Iraq, so I don't see any reason why they could not also have been sent to Syria in secret. It's quite possible that Syrian soldiers could have been training with Buratino in Russia for months.

In Dilok, Turkey, police seized materials dedicated to Daesh/ISIS money forging. Apparently design as previously reported was made in Mosul or Raqqa, but actual templates were forged in Taiwan. There are two forging templates here for golden 5 Dinars and silver Dirham.

Source: http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/antepte-iside-ait-para-baski-kaliplari-ele-gecirildi-1446764/?utm_source=sm_tw&utm_medium=free&utm_term=post&utm_content=antepte-iside-ait-para-baski-kaliplari-ele-gecirildi-1446764&utm_campaign=turkiye

Seems the MLRS strikes on Hama are in fact Smerch as can be seen in this spectacular view. I have to use the translator for Arabic so may not properly understand. However, a comment under the video complains that "Russians" are using internationaly banned cluster weapons, and of course burning people alive in a cage is ok....... The comment under that one is in Russian and says "Fucking shred them"

Khepesh wrote:Seems the MLRS strikes on Hama are in fact Smerch as can be seen in this spectacular view. I have to use the translator for Arabic so may not properly understand. However, a comment under the video complains that "Russians" are using internationaly banned cluster weapons, and of course burning people alive in a cage is ok....... The comment under that one is in Russian and says "Fucking shred them"

9M55K cargo rockets with 9N235 frag submunition then.

Syrian military launches counteroffensive araound Hama and Idlib

zg18 wrote:Syrian military launches counteroffensive araound Hama and Idlib

Yeah and it already has started with TOW's on T's/ not good.

American backed terrorists fire ATGM at Syrian army tank. I think ISIL will soon crack and run tho