Syrian Civil War: News #5

NEW MAP: #SAA repelled short lived insurgent offensive in #Hama Governorate. #Syria

https://mobile.twitter.com/PetoLucem/status/693472961622380544






#Map Al-Sa'an front, Northeast Hama: Syrian Army captured 2 villages thus securing Western Al-Sa'an

https://mobile.twitter.com/Souria4Syrians/status/693467480778481665

Ivan Sidorenko ‏@IvanSidorenko1  14 hours ago
#Syria #SAA SyrianArabArmy #SyrianArmy New Photo that a SAA Soldier Made for me  


Ivan Sidorenko ‏@IvanSidorenko1  3 hours ago
#Syria #DeirEzZor #SAA #SRG #SyrianRepublicanGuard Brigadier General Issam Zahreddine & his son Yaroob Zahreddine


^ They linked up only few months back after/during his son's birthday.

Another good video by ANNA on offensive by SAA's Suqur al-Sahra/Desert Falcons. Sadly no proper english translation.

Pics from this years in Latakia
https://twitter.com/IvanSidorenko1/status/693677066089271296

JohninMK wrote:Think this might be the same video that was put up a couple of pages ago by Dima as post 693 but has now been deleted by Youtube.

Quite a good quality video, it shows a T-72 being hit pretty near the turret/body joint on the side by an RPG. If you slow it down you can see it as a red dot. In the background coming out of a building is either a support soldier or an attacker on foot who moves towards the tank at the same moment as the rocket hits it. There is a flash of flame that goes out fairly quickly with little apparent damage to the tank and the guy at the back ducking back into cover. The gun barrel moves right at the end as the film stops, maybe the cameraman thought the next round might head his way. Looks like a lucky day all round.

https://twitter.com/Malcolmite/status/693541205477609472

The video I posted earlier was different which was a TOW shot If i remember it. I forgot to save that video and now its gone. The above video you posted is different area where there is building alongside the tank where as the one I posted had vegetation around it and the anti-tank missile hit the tank below the turret, probably the skirting area.

Iran Sending Afghan Refugees to Fight in Syria

by Noor Zahid, Mehdi Jedinia January 29, 2016

Iran has sent thousands of undocumented Shi'ite Afghan refugees to Syria to fight alongside forces of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard forces in support of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sources in Iran and Afghanistan told VOA.

Thousands of Afghans from Iran are in the "Fatemiyon Brigade," the second largest group of foreigners fighting for Assad in Syria. Western media estimate their numbers at between 10,000 and 12,000.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Friday that some Afghans are sent against their will. Iran has said Afghans are going to Syria voluntarily.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is also fighting for Assad in Syria, recruits Afghans with promises of Iranian citizenship and improved living standards for their families.

"Iran has not just offered Afghan refugees and migrants incentives to fight in Syria, but several said they were threatened with deportation back to Afghanistan unless they did [complied]," Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Afghan fighters are paid between $400 and $600 per month, said Phillip Smyth a researcher at the University of Maryland and author of the blog 'Hezbollah Cavalcade.' Some Afghans are pulled from prisons to go fight in the battlefields of Syria, Smyth said.

"In other cases, undocumented Afghan [Shi'ite] refugees are threatened with jail time if they don't serve," he said.

Roughly three million Afghans live in Iran. Most settled there after fleeing war and conflict in their homeland. Many Afghans in Iran lack basic rights and live without a formal status. About 950,000 are classified as refugees.

Afghans in Iran sent to Syria come mainly from Qum and Mashhad – centers for a majority of the Afghan diaspora.

Iranian sources told VOA that Afghans are being sent to the Syrian frontlines to defend the Zeinab Shrine, a holy site for Shi'ite Muslims.

Syrian rebel commanders say they face Afghan fighters throughout the country.

"Their presence has been stronger than ever," said Islam Alloush, spokesman for the Army of Islam, the main opposition force in eastern Damascus.

"But they are mainly based in Aleppo," he told VOA. "They have units around Damascus. The regime relies on them because it is running out of manpower."

The commander of Iran's Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, has paid visits to the Afghan brigade in Syria, according to Iranian media reports, and took pictures with some of its members.

The Afghan units have been trained in Lebanon-based camps run by Hezbollah and fight alongside the Lebanese militant group in Syria, researcher Smyth said. Most of them reportedly receive anywhere from 10 days to one month of preliminary training in Mashhad and in southern outskirts of Tehran prior to their deployment to Syria, Iranian sources told VOA.

Reports indicate that Afghan casualties in Syria are mounting as Iranian-backed fighters have become a major ground force for the Assad regime.

Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who tracks Syrian war casualties, told VOA that more than 200 Afghan fighters have been killed in Syria since September 2012.

"They are lured in to sacrifice their lives for a few hundred dollars," Mujtaba Jalali, an Iranian-born Afghan photographer from Mashhad who covered the public funerals of Afghan fighters, told VOA.

The families of Afghans who serve in Syria receive benefits in Iran.

"This is a very good gateway for some Afghan refugees to put their step into a new life if they come back alive," a Tehran-based Afghan who lost his brother in the Syria fighting told VOA on the condition of anonymity.

"In our case, my brother sacrificed himself for his family," he said. "My mother can now receive medicine for her ill heart and the rest of family gained Iranian valid documentation."

Iran's Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs offers financial help, spiritual support, and medical expenses for the families of Afghan casualties. But Human Rights Watch said in its report on Friday that compensation is arbitrary. The Afghan government says it is investigating reports of Afghans fighting in Syria.

Qayyum Sajjadi, a Shi'ite parliament member in Afghanistan, says the harsh socioeconomic circumstances that Afghan refugees face in Iran force them to participate in regional conflicts.

"These youths in Iran are sent to Syria where they either die or get captured by opposition groups," Jamaluddin Sayyar, head of the provincial council in Afghanistan's Kunar province, told Radio Liberty.

Human Rights Watch said that Iran must stop using Afghans to fight in Syria.

"Iran should be offering greater protection to Afghan refugees, not coercively recruiting them to fight for Assad," HRW's Bouckaert said in a statement.

Blah, blah blah, Iran sending refugees to fight in Syria, Turkey doing the same since the start of the conflict. The fun thing is that we have the reports since 2012 that refugees are being paid 4/500 USD a month to go and fight in Syria, yet HRW doesn't seem cool reporting it...

KoTeMoRe wrote:Blah, blah blah, Iran sending refugees to fight in Syria, Turkey doing the same since the start of the conflict. The fun thing is that we have the reports since 2012 that refugees are being paid 4/500 USD a month to go and fight in Syria, yet HRW doesn't seem cool reporting it...

How dare you.

No deep state in Turkey, that country has all but supported the peace process in Syria, borders are sealed, no fighters use their country/airports to cross over to IS/Syria. No IS oil imports, no profit from the war goes to Turkey. Also there's no war in Kurdistan in Turkey, it's freedom-hating folks spoiling the party with some firecrackers.

That 3 billions euro cash they got off EU? Tents and medicine. Nothing to see there.
MKE ammo boxes at hands of AQ groupies? Lies, photoshop, etc.

HRW is a US propaganda shock force. Their job is to lubricate US engineered regime change and invasions in the name of
"human rights and democracy". HRW lies about supposed crimes of US designated enemies and systematically ignores the
crimes perpetrated by US sponsored regimes. HRW does not see any evidence of massive human rights violations in Ukraine
even though the Kiev regime indiscriminately shells Donbas civilians and people are arrested and sent to multi-year prison terms
because they dare to criticize the Kiev regime. Kiev regime brown shirts repress any civic protest that does not fit the
Kiev regime agenda. HRW also saw no wrong doing in the Odessa massacre in 2014 where dozens of protesters were herded
inside the Trade Union building and shot and burned alive.

HRW also observed no wrong doing in 2008 by the Saakashvili regime as it staged an artillery and MLRS barrage on Tskhinvali in the
middle of the night. Instead of caring about the 2000+ civilian deaths due to a war crime by the US-aligned regime in Tbilisi, HRW
went on a wild goose chase trying to accuse Russia of using cluster bombs. It was pointed out that the cluster bomb canisters
were clearly Israeli and it was the Tbilisi regime that was using cluster bombs. Of course, no follow up was done once this information
came out.

Sorry guys i will be away for a while, to much work to do, cant manage all of it, but my Twitter account is regularly updated @Ald_Aba

More illegal crossing on Syria Turkey border.





and so called refuge camps that was bombarded yestrday

Excellent work Aldin_Aba


Btw,

Elijah J. Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai  2 hours ago
Tomorrow my article: How Russia upgrade & refurnished custom-made 9 Syria/n MiG-29 called Fulcrum MiG-29SMP &more.

Elijah J. Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai  2 hours ago
#Russia Imposed a new rule of engagement in the Turkish border with Syria and abolish the 1998 agreement. More in my article tomorrow.

https://twitter.com/EjmAlrai/status/693811955899961344

News in.

The Syrian army is just 4 kilometers away from thermal power plant, it seems our cauldron is indeed in the quick making!

Courtesy of our friend Petro Lucem.



NSFW! Possible Video showing SAA tiger forces advancing upon the Thermal Power Plant. Allegedly the guy with the AK & UBGL in the first video is Soheil al Hassan, 'al Nimr' (the Tiger) (Tiger forces comander). - NSFW!

Shadåw wrote:News in.

The Syrian army is just 4 kilometers away from thermal power plant, it seems our cauldron is indeed in the quick making!

Courtesy of our friend Petro Lucem.

https://i.imgur.com/m26QZ4F.jpg

NSFW! Possible Video showing SAA tiger forces advancing upon the Thermal Power Plant. Allegedly the guy with the AK & UBGL in the first video is Soheil al Hassan, 'al Nimr' (the Tiger) (Tiger forces comander). - NSFW!

Yes. Looks like it. Thay have to create such cauldrons in other sectors also by securing the entire area bordering Turkey.

If the thermal plant is still operational and supplying the city, the Tiger forces may be moving in very slowly so as to avoid damage to the facility.



There are few things to be done and I guess they are already doing. Once the border is secured, SAA will have to man it and so does the already liberated areas. But SAA cant be everywhere and here the need arise for a supplementing force which is as capable as SAA and free up/lessen the burden on SAA hands. So a good paramilitary force need to be there and in my view the numerous NDF units that have been created has to be converted to a permanent paramilitary unit to secure the Syrian state and help SAA to concentrate on the borders.

Aldin_Aba wrote:Sorry guys i will be away for a while, to much work to do, cant manage all of it, but my Twitter account is regularly updated @Ald_Aba

Thanks for your impressive work. Will follow your account on Twitter.

Ult has posted some info about it in other topic, put I think it should make an appearance here.

https://www.rt.com/news/330858-turkey-shells-syrian-territory/

The Russian Defense Ministry has presented video evidence it says shows Turkish military shelling Syrian territory using heavy artillery positioned close to the border.

Syria’s General Staff has provided its Russian counterparts with video footage of deployment of self-propelled large caliber artillery vehicles at a Turkish frontier post, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said at media briefing on Monday.

Syrian opposition groups have also provided video evidence of the Turkish military shelling Syrian territory, he added.

higurashihougi wrote:Ult has posted some info about it in other topic, put I think it should make an appearance here.

https://www.rt.com/news/330858-turkey-shells-syrian-territory/

The Russian Defense Ministry has presented video evidence it says shows Turkish military shelling Syrian territory using heavy artillery positioned close to the border.

just wonder what will the answer be. If Russian/Syrians answer eliminating Turkish aggressors then all western Goebbels out+lest that  Syrians and Russia attacked  peacefully Turks.

GunshipDemocracy wrote:

higurashihougi wrote:Ult has posted some info about it in other topic, put I think it should make an appearance here.

https://www.rt.com/news/330858-turkey-shells-syrian-territory/

The Russian Defense Ministry has presented video evidence it says shows Turkish military shelling Syrian territory using heavy artillery positioned close to the border.

just wonder what will the answer be. If Russian/Syrians answer eliminating Turkish aggressors then all western Goebbels out+lest that  Syrians and Russia attacked  peacefully Turks.

Maybe the solution would be to provide Smerch MLRS fire at a greater distance.

Fresh from Petro:

Elijah J. Magnier ‏@EjmAlrai 4hours
#Russia and #Syria Air Forces carried hundreds (Yes 100s) of attacks in northern reef #Aleppo on Bashqoi front. Big ops. #Syria.

Probably this came after the Turks opened up their artillery in support of their terrorists groups? Seems like both happened alomst the same time?

PapaDragon wrote:
Fresh from Petro:

I assume no large offenses are being made in the centre of the city in order to preserve the infrastructure and avoid more civilian casualties.