Syrian War: News #20

@ISOS

Turkey policy from start was contradictory. This probably means different political actors with different aims. We simply have to find the right people there. Hitting transports will kill drivers and operators. These could be US military. The yank warmonger will cry out for revenge. Meaning further commitment to Syria. More big Bucks for them. Our aim is to help them leave. Not stay. They are struggling to justify staying. That is why we get today another announcement. That they hit Baghdadi . Again!  They have to justify their presence. Tell the world they are useful. Surprising how many times they hit Baghdadi. Or took out ISIS book keepers. They seem to know exactly where these poor book keepers are. What have they got against ISIS accountants?

Yanki go home.

Isos wrote:They took their infiltrated man back home  

Sky News Breaking
@SkyNewsBreak
·
3h
Reports suggest leader of Islamic State Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has been killed in a raid conducted by the U.S. military in northwest Syria

Location, jihadi controlled Idlib:

Optimus Trump confirms it, Bagdadi is dead

One USA K9 was injured in the ops, best wishes and speedy recovery:

“Russia treated us great. They opened up, we had to fly over certain Russian areas, Russian-held areas,” the president said. “Iraq was excellent. We really had great cooperation. And you have to understand, they didn’t know what we were doing and where we were going exactly. But the ISIS fighters are hated as much by Russia and some of these other countries as they are by us.”

Mr. Trump also said Turkey was “terrific” in its assistance, and that U.S. forces flew over Turkish-held territory en route to al-Baghdadi’s compound in the Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

According to Russian MoD no western air operations in Idlib in the last few days.

The real situation in northeast Syria and why the US Military/3 Letter Agencies ignore the orders of the Commander in Chief.


https://ria.ru/20191026/1560247607.html

Translation:

MOSCOW, October 26, 2019 – RIA Novosti – The Russian Ministry of Defense has published satellite intelligence images, showing American oil smuggling from Syria.

According to the ministry, the photos confirm that “Syrian oil, both before and after the routing defeat of the Islamic State terrorists in land beyond the Euphrates river, under the reliable protection by US military servicemen, oil was actively being extracted and then the fuel trucks were massively being sent for processing outside of Syria.”

Image 2: Daman oil gathering station, Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 42 km east of Deir ez-Zor, August 23, 2019.

Here, in a picture of the Daman oil gathering station (42 kilometers east of the Deir-ez-Zor province), taken on August 23, a large amount of trucks were spotted. “There were 90 automotive vehicles, including 23 fuel trucks,” the caption to the image said.

In addition, on September 5, there were 25 vehicles in the Al-Hasakah province, including 22 fuel trucks. Three days later, on September 8, in the vicinity of Der Ez-Zor, 36 more vehicles were recorded (32 of them were fuel trucks). On the same day, 41 vehicles, including 34 fuel trucks, were in the Mayadin onshore area.

Image 3: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Al-Hasakah province, 8 km west of Al-Shaddadi, September 5, 2019.
As the official representative of the Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov noted, the Americans are extracting oil in Syria with the help of equipment, bypassing their own sanctions.

Igor Konashenkov: “Under the protection of American military servicemen and employees of American PMCs, fuel trucks from the oil fields of Eastern Syria are smuggling to other states. In the event of any attack on such a caravan, special operations forces and US military aircraft are immediately called in to protect it,” he said.

According to Konashenkov, the US-controlled company Sadcab, established under the so-called Autonomous Administration of Eastern Syria, is engaged in the export of oil, and the income of smuggling goes to the personal accounts of US PMCs and special forces.

The Major General added that as of right now, a barrel of smuggled Syrian oil is valued at $38, therefore the monthly revenue of US governmental agencies exceeds $30 million.

Image 4: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 10 km east of Mayadin, September 8, 2019.
“For such a continuous financial flow, free from control and taxes of the American government, the leadership of the Pentagon and Langley will be ready to guard and defend oil fields in Syria from the mythical ‘hidden IS cells’ endlessly,” he said.

According to Konashenkov, Washington, by holding oil fields in eastern Syria, is engaged in international state banditry.

The reason for this activity, he believes, “lies far from the ideals of freedom proclaimed by Washington and their slogans on the fight against terrorism.”

Image 5: Gathering of vehicles in Syria, Deir ez-Zor province, 14 km east of Mayadin, September 8, 2019.
Igor Konashenkov: “Neither in international law, nor in American legislation itself – there is not and cannot be a single legal task for the American troops to protect and defend the hydrocarbon deposits of Syria from Syria itself and its own people,” the representative of the Defense Ministry concluded.

A day earlier, the Pentagon’s head, Mark Esper declared that the United States is studying the situation in the Deir ez-Zor region and intends to strengthen its positions there in the near future “to ensure the safety of oil fields.”

  What many fail to realize is each and every serving member of or 'contractor' for United States of America, Federal Republic of Germany, France, UK, Holland, Poland, Ukraine, Spain and Italy armed forces is in direct violation of the military rules and regulations promulgated in the individual country's published and publicly available rules and regulations for serving military member's conduct and actions since none of the aforementioned countries have been invited to enter the Sovereign State of Syria by the Syrian Government nor have any of the aforementioned countries either declared war on Syria nor have any 'permissions' been granted by either United Nations or NATO to do so.

  Whilst I completely understand the current state of affairs in The World, one never knows when the worm will turn and there is always the distinct possibility of a repeat of the Nuremburg War Crimes Trials of the late '40's. Many heinous crimes against humanity have been committed not only against Syria but also against Serbia, Libya, Irak and Kosovo. Perhaps the headsman is patiently waiting for his turn to act on the platform for all to see.

GarryB wrote:Like I said... time to test out these suicide drones... an ideal testing ground for them... target the trucks and the oil storage areas... it will cost rather more in stingers and defence ammo than it will in any attacks...

Publicly announcing what they are doing... a few posts on wikileaks of these guys names and addresses would be a great protest by wikileaks for the treatment of Assange too...

Perhaps a no fly zone or two...

Russia led the way in destroying oil trucks last time. I am sure they are itching to do it again. Knock out 20-40 trucks and threaten to do it again and the truckers would soon get the message.

If the SyAF actually did it then it would just be them destroying their own oil infrastructure to prevent its oil being stolen. Not sure who could object to that.

Lots of US columns coming back into Syria; armour, air power, the lot - and they've been returning to the bases they left, which Russia did not occupy. No protest from Russia or Syria, everything seems to be coordinated. SAA reinforcements continously heading to front-line; they have several thousand there by now including tanks, artillery, infantry, border guards and so on. Also some Hezbollah militias and Palestinians. SAA light infantry, local council militias and SDF have been consistently skirmishing with TSK and their allied Islamist groups for the past 2 weeks. There was a large column of Russian reinforcements (a few dozen trucks; nothing heavy) a couple of days ago. And several hundred Russian MPs in NE Syria with light vehicles to keep the peace in cities and along highways; operating together with local councils and the SDF internal security service.

Russian Air Force was active today over NE Syria. They're still racing to get the local airstrip operational so they can bring in air defence systems and other assets I'd imagine. Helicopters have already landed there a week back.
Who knows what they'll be deploying tommorow. Tommorow evening is when the deadline for withdrawal of the SDF runs out.

On the Idlib front the SAA has poured in tons of firepower and the bulk of their army basically, they're being supported by the RuAF.

In North Aleppo you have a Kurdish insurgency group which has made significant progress in liberating Afrin (perhaps with Russian SF help), as well as a considerable amount of SAA mechanized units.

There's the S-400 in Serbia operating, the S-400 in Egypt. Together with S-400 in Latakia, Crimea and S-300 in Armenia, as well as BSF and Meditteranean flottila. Su-35s in Latakia, MiG-29s in Armenia, Su-30SMs in the Crimea and a bunch of aircraft in general in the Southern Military District. Turkey's airspace is hemmed in from all sides.

The Turkish S-400 meanwhile is still not operational and manned by Russian specialists.

Well I kind of see where this is going. Erdogan gave the US an ultimatum to withdraw, they did, and then they let him fall into the trap of Saddam Hussein; even worse as he's now fighting a proxy war with Russia.
You don't pose an ultimatum to a superpower when you're a country like Turkey, never mind alienate and piss off all the others too.
He's a pariah and no-one in the Security Council will defend him. Whole Middle East thinks he's a madman; from Iran to Israel. Whole of Europe. Even managed to piss off India and China over Kashmir and East Turkestan respectively. Trump has just been trolling Twitter and the media this whole time. Well to be fair, Trump did warn him by Twitter too, and even sent him a nicely-worded letter.

It'll be a signal to the Kemalists to remove Erdogan from power and withdraw all their people from Syria. They can leave the terrorists behind if they want.

Well perhaps it's an optimistic scenario. Russia has no way to dislodge this Erdogan from Syria without proxy war.

But the lack of UN Security Council meetings and general quiet is suspicious to me.

Syrian_MC
@Syrian_MC
We were seconds away from hearing about a military plane being shoot down over North #Syria

And? Whose?

auslander wrote:And? Whose?

He doesn't want to share more info. But the way he talk about that in the comments makes me think a pair of su-35 locked on something.

And today US send some fighter escort in the north to escort ground units.

flamming_python wrote:Well perhaps it's an optimistic scenario. Russia has no way to dislodge this Erdogan from Syria without proxy war.

But the lack of UN Security Council meetings and general quiet is suspicious to me.

This whole thing (for Russia) seems to be about Idlib and Idlib alone

And you are right, lot is being done under the table

Russia seems to be taking Euphrates seriously as a ''border'' at least in near to mid term

They haven't' been rushing to overstretch themselves in the Kurdish areas even after USA packed up and are preferring to have locals sort it out among themselves (Syrians, Kurds, Turks...)

They do seem eager to set up shop in that airbase which makes sense, it's too good to pass up especially if it just fall in your lap

S-400 in Serbia is on temporary assignment but others you mentioned are a go

But Idlib is definitely main event

USA too the opportunity to grab the big PR cake with Bagdadi so with that wrapped up I think that pest removal crews will soon get green light

Washington Post ladies and gentlemen



Just google ''austere scholar'' if you don't believe me...

PapaDragon wrote:

flamming_python wrote:Well perhaps it's an optimistic scenario. Russia has no way to dislodge this Erdogan from Syria without proxy war.

But the lack of UN Security Council meetings and general quiet is suspicious to me.

This whole thing (for Russia) seems to be about Idlib and Idlib alone

And you are right, lot is being done under the table

Russia seems to be taking Euphrates seriously as a ''border'' at least in near to mid term

They haven't' been rushing to overstretch themselves in the Kurdish areas even after USA packed up and are preferring to have locals sort it out among themselves (Syrians, Kurds, Turks...)

They do seem eager to set up shop in that airbase which makes sense, it's too good to pass up especially if it just fall in your lap

S-400 in Serbia is on temporary assignment but others you mentioned are a go

But Idlib is definitely main event

USA too the opportunity to grab the big PR cake with Bagdadi so with that wrapped up I think that pest removal crews will soon get green light

Idlib is on hold for the right time, if you've noticed.

And the right time is when Russia and the US (or Russia alone, but I rather suspect the US will be just as eager to come) take their forces into the 'safe zone' that lies on Syrian territory and has no legal meaning. Just some scribbles he drew on the map where he decided ethnic cleansing was going to be. He was so eager, he even showed it off at the presser pre-meeting in view of the cameras.

At that point Turkey will be the one given an ultimatum, and it will be to leave Syria. Erdogan has dug his own grave. It's not about international norms, its about not stepping onto the feet whose toes even are bigger than you are in whole. And not just one foot.

After that the next stop will be to depose him and replace him with someone sane. If that's not possible, then he can stay in Turkey.

GarryB wrote:Everybody seems to be pointing at Erdogan and saying he is mad and out of control...

Seems to me that he has created a situation where the US had to leave... they weren't going for any other reason.

AFAIK the new buffer zone is to be patrolled by Turkish AND Russian soldiers so this is not some Annexation of Syrian territory by Turkey... it is them creating a place they can dump their refugees from Syria and presumably abandon them and let either ISIS or Assad take them on in terms of an economic and a political burden.

Russia is not going to want turkey and the US/west to just leave all of a sudden... that would leave a vacuum they are likely not prepared to fill yet... an orderly transfer of control makes more sense for Assad and Russia and Turkey.

Everyone is playing his own game. The way I see it, the US and Russia both let him work himself into a hole. The US was happy to let him, Russia was happy to let him. They co-ordinated their response - their immediate answer to the UN Resolution was a joint-rejection of it. Erdogan posed an ultimatum to one and engaged in a proxy war with the other. Hence why Russia and America are now sharing the same territory, using the same airspace and are staying out of each other's way. Erdogan however continues to be in Russia's way of restoring Syrian territorial integrity.

But as far as I'm concerned he is out of control and has breached tolerable norms. And if everyone else thinks so too.. well, that's good news.
It's not within us as a society to collaborate with the plans of fascist regimes. It's one thing when it's tribal or feudal socities acting barbaric; but when it's a major industrialized state it becomes a huge problem. When Israel colonizes Palestinians - it's deplorable, but we're not the world police. Here though Erdogan is asking us to acquise to his scheme on Syrian territory, which is impossible.
You make it sound humane but to me it's ethnic cleansing and a 19th century policy of colonization. He's going to deposit there those families that are loyal to him, and essentially create a zone of influence on Syria's border and a potential Jihadist breeding ground. This will prevent Syrian development. If he's serious about such plans. If he's not - then it's time to say so, withdraw, let refugees back in, and investigate all crimes done.
Intelligence services and diplomats may co-operate with every sort of government for expediency or whatever, but after the solution that he declared, and then started to implement - he's no longer acceptable. Nor do I find his rhetoric about developing nukes particularly appealing, whether its empty bluster or not.
I would rather have a reliable Kemalist or liberal Turkey that's faithful to NATO and stays out of the Middle East and doesn't create terrorists there.. then someone who does do that but gives a few arms deals and the nebulous promises of a Eurasian Union or whatever.
At the end of the day with any sort of Turkey, we will have common economic interests - pipelines, trade and so on. It's not the end of the world if this dickhead ends up at a warcrimes tribunal.

And I'm not for a moment naive enough to think that regime change in Syria was Erdogan's idea. Of course it was the same cronies that were crying about Trump winning the elections. I'm sure Trump would like to see evidence tying them to regime change efforts in Syria more than anyone.

Will the US seek to influence events in Syria with their troops near the oil fields and next to our own bases? Possibly, but they're not the biggest concern at the moment. If they're attacking targets in Jihadist-held territory then that does not harm Syria's interests.

GarryB wrote:it is them creating a place they can dump their refugees from Syria and presumably abandon them and let either ISIS or Assad take them on in terms of an economic and a political burden.

They can create a humanitarian corridor to SAA held territory if that's what they want.
The fact that they've just taken over some cities, emptied them of unsavory minorities suggests otherwise

SeigSoloyvov wrote:Welp either Ero cannot control his armed dogs because they are not obeying that Turkish-Russian deal, they are still advancing in some areas and have openly clashed with Syrian troops.

OR

He is playing Putin telling him sweet nothings in his ear while telling his proxies to keep going.

Last time his proxies were keeping it up it ended horrifically for them and several Turks in the vicinity

Also, this is not just Putin's show, you are sticking with that videogame reality a bit too much

The kurds are not protected by Yanks against Turkey. The kurds are not protected by Turkey. Therefore the kurds must turn to Russia / Syria to protect them. They must join political process. Join Syrian army. Disband SDF. OR loose homeland and become refugee.

ELINT News
@ELINTNews
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1h
#BREAKING: Syrian soldiers captured by Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria during clashes- monitor

nomadski wrote:
The kurds are not protected by Yanks against Turkey. The kurds are not protected by Turkey. Therefore the kurds must turn to Russia / Syria to protect them. They must join political process. Join Syrian army. Disband SDF.  OR loose homeland and become refugee.

There is no OR

No-one will lose their homeland because no-one will accept Erdogan's plans for it and his trampling of Syrian sovereignty.
It's Syrian territory. Responsibility of the SAA by definition. If SDF doesn't want to fight, no-one forces it to. But at the moment its more than willing.

US has made itself useful by restarting air operations at its facilities in NE Syria and has begun capturing ISIS leadership figures; all residing in Turkish-occupied or Turkish-aligned rebel held territories where they are protected by the Turkish military (which the SAA nor SDF are any match for).

The first raid from these facilities was against al-Baghdadi in north Idlib, 4km from the Turkish border - where not only was he eliminated and 10 others, but Trump also emphasised the information they grabbed.

Since then:

Rojava Network
@RojavaNetwork
Head of SDF Press, Mustafa Bali:

-An airborne operation in Jarablus and the capture of ISIS Senior terrorist of Iraqi origin

-In addition to targeting ISIS senior members, SDF has launched multiple raids to capture some ISIS members
12:38 AM · Oct 29, 2019·Twitter Web App

Rojava Network
@RojavaNetwork
+++On 28th October, SDF intelligence has captured an Turkish-backed terrorist cell in #Manbij and seized  large quantity of explosive materials and weapons coming from the controll area of #Jarablus, turkish occupied area.

Matthew Petti
@matthew_petti
Replying to
@matthew_petti

@NicholasAHeras
and
@Charles_Lister
BREAKING: Syrian Democratic Council representative @sinam56
just confirmed to me that the #SDF and the US military conducted counter-#ISIS operations with air support in #Afrin and #Jarabulus, both #Turkey-held territories. Updates to come...

Basically, they're collecting evidence for Erdogan's upcoming tribunal

Jarablus, for those who don't know - borders SDF/SAA held Manbij, and is protected by the Turkish military; which neither force is a match for



Looks like a nice, quaint, elegant, Middle Ages shithole