News from the Syrian front

At least three Israeli airstrikes hit Syrian army on Golan Heights

Israel has launched at least three airstrikes against positions of the Syrian army on the Golan Heights.

The UK-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that the strikes hit a town in Syria’s southwestern province of Quneitra on the Syrian side of the plateau, near the border with the Israeli-occupied part of the strategic region.

The Israeli military confirmed that the strikes hit two Syrian military posts, near the provincial capital of Baath City, but it said that it used artillery fire.

There is still no immediate report of possible casualties and the extent of damage inflicted by the strikes

SYRIAN ARMY ADVANCES THROUGH DAMASCUS-HOMS ROUTE

Syrian Arab Army forces push Jaish al-Islam and al-Nusra Front militants from the routes linking Damascus and the city of Homs. 

Somebody fights, somebody flees

Acording to the local reports, the Syrian troops took controlf of the hills overlooking the Eastern Ghouta region east of Damascus, pushed  the Jaish al-Islam terrorist group from there. Positions on the top hills allow to maintain supply routes in the sector.

The fight also has been going in the town of Harasta located in the area of Damascus. Pro-Assad sources reports that “scores of terrorists were killed and dozens more fled during the operations in the two areas”.

In Aleppo province Syrian forces have been continuing to fight against al-Nusra Front militants. 120 terrorists were reportedly killed there.

‘British’ female jihadists urge opening new ISIS front in Libya

Three female jihadists believed to be from the UK are urging Western Muslims to join them in helping to open a new front for Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in North Africa. The women are believed to have been living in Libya since the summer.

The three women, who are native English speakers, have been monitored by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) think tank for months, the Guardian reports.

They have been actively using social media to try to persuade IS sympathizers to come to the war-torn North African nation. They say that because increased security along the Turkish border has made it harder to join the militant terrorist group in Syria, moving to Libya is now the best option.

US On The Ropes: China To Join Russian Military In Syria While Iraq Strikes Intel Deal With Moscow, Tehran

Zero Hedge,

27 September, 2015

Last Thursday, we asked if China was set to join Russia and Iran in support of the Assad regime in Syria. 

Our interest was piqued when the pro-Assad Al-Masdar (citing an unnamed SAA “senior officer”), said Chinese “personnel and aerial assets” are set to arrive within weeks. To the uninitiated, this may seem to have come out of left field, so to speak. However, anyone who has followed the conflict and who knows a bit about the global balance of power is aware that Beijing has for some time expressed its support for Damascus, most notably by voting with Russia to veto a Security Council resolution that would have seen the conflict in Syria referred to the Hague. Here’s what China had to say at the May 22, 2014 meeting: 

For some time now, the Security Council has maintained unity and coordination on the question of Syria, thanks to efforts by Council members, including China, to accommodate the major concerns of all parties. At a time when seriously diverging views exist among the parties concerning the draft resolution, we believe that the Council should continue holding consultations, rather than forcing a vote on the draft resolution, in order to avoid undermining Council unity or obstructing coordination and cooperation on questions such as Syria and other major serious issues. Regrettably, China’s approach has not been taken on board; China therefore voted against the draft resolution.

In other words, China could see the writing on the wall and it, like Russia, was not pleased with where things seemed to be headed. A little more than a year later and Moscow has effectively called time on the strategy of using Sunni extremist groups to destabilize Assad and given what we know about Beijing’s efforts to project China’s growing military might, it wouldn’t exactly be surprising to see the PLA turn up at Latakia as well. 

Sure enough, Russian media now says that according to Russian Senator Igor Morozov, Beijing has decided to join the fight. Here’s Pravda (translated): 

According to the Russian Senator Igor Morozov, Beijing has taken decision to take part in combating IS and sent its vessels to the Syrian coast.

Igor Morozov, member of the Russian Federation Committee on International Affairs claimed about the beginning of the military operation by China against the IS terrorists. "It is known, that China has joined our military operation in Syria, the Chinese cruiser has already entered the Mediterranean, aircraft carrier follows it," Morozov said.

According to him, Iran may soon join the operation carried out by Russia against the IS terrorists, via Hezbollah. Thus, the Russian coalition in the region gains ground, and most reasonable step of the US would be to join it. Although the stance of Moscow and Washington on the ways of settlement of the Syrian conflict differs, nonetheless, low efficiency of the US coalition acts against terrorists is obvious. Islamists have just strengthened their positions.

As Leonid Krutakov told Pravda.Ru in an interview, the most serious conflict is currently taking place namely between China and the US. Moscow may support any party, the expert believes, and that is what will change the world order for many years.

Clearly, one has to consider the source here, but as noted above, if Beijing is indeed set to enter the fray, it would be entirely consistent with China's position on Syria and also with the PLA's desire to take a more assertive role in international affairs. 

Meanwhile, it now looks as though the very same Russian-Iran "nexus" that's playing spoiler in Syria is also set to take over the fight against ISIS in Iraq, as Baghdad has now struck a deal to officially share intelligence with Moscow and Tehran. Here's CNN:

Iraq says it has reached a deal to share intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria in the fight against ISIS militants.

The announcement on Saturday from the Iraqi military cited "the increasing concern from Russia about thousands of Russian terrorists committing criminal acts within ISIS."

The news comes amid U.S. concerns about Russia's recent military buildup in Syria and would appear to confirm American suspicions of some kind of cooperation between Baghdad and Moscow.

We'd be remiss if we failed to note the significance here. The entire narrative is falling apart for the US, as Russia and Iran are now moving to transform the half-hearted Western effort to contain ISIS into a very serious effort to eradicate the group. Recall that just a little over a week ago, Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani essentially accused the US of intentionally keeping Islamic State around so that the group can continue to advance Washington's geopolitical agenda by serving as a destabilizing element in Syria. According to the Pentagon, Soleimani's visit to Russia (which, you're reminded, violated a UN travel ban and infuriated opponents of the Iran nuclear deal) was "very important" in terms of accelerating the timetable on Russia's inevitable involvement in Syria. It is of course Soleimani who commands the Shiite militias battling ISIS in Iraq. Now, it appears that in addition to the cooperation in Syria, he has managed to secure a Russian-Iran partnership for Tehran's Iraqi operations as well. Here's GOP mouthpiece Fox News:

Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders have set up a coordination cell in Baghdad in recent days to try to begin working with Iranian-backed Shia militias fighting the Islamic State, Fox News has learned. 

Western intelligence sources say the coordination cell includes low-level Russian generals. U.S. officials say it is not clear whether the Iraqi government is involved at the moment. 

Describing the arrival of Russian military personnel in Baghdad, one senior U.S. official said, "They are popping up everywhere." 

While the U.S. also is fighting the Islamic State, the Obama administration has voiced concern that Russia's involvement, at least in Syria, could have a destabilizing effect. 

Moscow, though, has fostered ties with the governments in both Syria and Iraq. In May, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi flew to Moscow for an official visit to discuss potential Russian arms transfers and shared intelligence capability, as well as the enhancement of security and military capabilities, according to a statement by the Iraqi prime minister's office at the time. 

Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani also was spotted in Baghdad on Sept 22. He met with Shia militias backed by Iran; intelligence officials believe he met with Russians as well. 

And here is ISW:

What appears to have happened here is this: Vladimir Putin has exploited both the fight against ISIS and Iran's need to preserve the regional balance of power on the way to enhancing Russia's influence over Mid-East affairs which in turn helps to ensure that Gazprom's interests are protected going forward. 

 Thanks to the awkward position the US has gotten itself in by covertly allying itself with various Sunni extremist groups, Washington is for all intents and purposes powerless to stop Putin lest the public should sudddenly get wise to the fact that combatting Russia's resurrgence and preventing Iran from expanding its interests are more imporant than fighting terror.

In short, Washington gambled on a dangerous game of geopolitical chess, lost, and now faces two rather terrifyingly disastrous outcomes: 1) China establishing a presence in the Mid-East in concert with Russia and Iran, and 2) seeing Iraq effectively ceded to the Quds Force and ultimately, to the Russian army

Report: 30,000 Foreign ISIS Recruits in Syria

Border Crackdowns Not Keeping Recruits From Getting to Caliphate

Anti-war,

17 September, 2015

With the US and its coalition launching a growing war against ISIS last year, a lot of talk has gone into efforts to try to restrict the flow of money and fighters into the self-proclaimed “caliphate.” Despite a lot of very public efforts to crack down on these borders, however, the flow of fighters is picking up, not slowing down.

The latest reports suggest thatsome 30,000 ISIS recruits have arrived in Syria from the rest of the world just in the past few years, doubling the number of fighters the group has to command in the last year, during a time when military officials have been claiming “progress” in wiping the group out.

These fighters are coming from all over the place, 100 different countries in all, and at least 250 of them are said to be from the United States. Western nations, particularly in Western Europe, have long been a fertile recruiting ground for ISIS.

The report is expected to be affirmed by an upcoming US Congressional inquiry on the travel of foreign fighters, which is said to conclude that the efforts to stop Americans from joining foreign terrorist groups have “largely failed.”

This is just one of  many different efforts to weaken ISIS, including airstrikes, arms shipments, and rebel training efforts. These too aren’t going particularly well, and indeed the indications are that the limited signs of “success” were so non-credible that they’ve spawned a whole separate Pentagon inquiry into efforts to sugarcoat intelligence reports.

The battle through the eyes of Eugene Poddubny. The Syrian army is trying to recapture the suburbs of Damascus

Бой глазами Евгения Поддубного. Сирийская армия пытается отбить пригороды Дамаска

Vesti.ru,

27 September, 2015

What is happening in Syria, most of the territory already captured by terrorists?Government army continues to struggle. It is the only power on earth that does this.

Government forces in Syria trying to seize the initiative and to push the militants of various radical groups from Damascus. This is the beginning of a large-scale operation in a residential area of the capital of the country. Islamists seized the Haraszti long ago, but are now threatening to cut off Damascus from HOMS — the third largest city in Syria. Moreover, not releasing the Haraszti, the military will not be able to take in the environment of the state Duma — the largest satellite town of Damascus and a stronghold of the radicals.

At the forefront is a consolidated group, the brigades of the national-defense — militia, gunners and tank crews of the Syrian Armed forces — and special forces group, which covers the upcoming, corrects the fire from heavy weapons, detects snipers and observers of the enemy.

Summary the group begins preparations for the offensive. The artillery hits. Sniper shoots at the dug-out. Action, realizes that a sniper sees him, and quickly goes to the underground shelter. Observers of Islamists — on the front line. Government forces have superiority in heavy arms, but the insurgents are well-trained to minimize losses during the artillery attack.

With the bird's eye view one can see the position of the radicals. Here, the dugouts, under the road underpass. To bring down the tunnels, airplanes almost continuously bombing this territory. And the pilots don't miss.

The main attack begins at night. Humam — commander of the local militia. Soldiers from his units in the dark approach to the radicals as close as possible and to gain a foothold. The voltage limit.

"The men will go to the pool the two groups. The main thing is to cover them from heavy machine guns to snipers helped to this point didn't allow the bandits to raise their heads from the trenches. Then my boys will be able to come close, they won't notice, and they will bury in the ground so mines not got," says Humam.

Once the unit is pushed, the enemy opens fire. The darkness light up the flash of tracer bullets and explosions. The militants are trying to act for preemption, however, shoot in the blind. The soldiers of the detachment forces acabaron go ahead, digging. Abroad they were able to take. In the morning a counter-attack, but there are ready.

Apparently, the militants received reinforcements. Islamists are trying to come closer to open fire on one of the positions from small arms. The tanks begin to shoot continuously. A few cars beat high explosive, it also operates a anti-aircraft gun. After the ends ammunition, tanks change. The militants do not allow to maneuver. Here the decisive role played by special forces soldiers — battle them at a glance.

The important thing now is to constantly hold the initiative to cut the communications of the militants in Damascus. They use the fact that control a large territory, relocating the reserves. If you deprive them of this opportunity, the bandits will not be able to resist.

But it is not clear how long government forces will be able to attack in the East of Damascus. The Islamists can try to stop the attack, simply struck in other parts of the front, to pull the reserves of the government forces from the outskirts of the Syrian capital

First Syria, now Iraq - Russia is preparing for major war against ISIS

SPEISA

27 May, 2015

Russia has partnered with both Syria, Iraq and Iran to combat IS, and has now opened a military center in Baghdad.

The center is a joint center for Russia, Syria, Iraq and Iran, to exchange information in the fight against the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the center is located in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and it will be a gathering place for military representatives from the four countries.

The plant will reportedly also be used to coordinate military operations against IS, the jihadist group that has taken control of large areas of Iraq and Syria over the past year.

The Russians have recently equipped the Syrian government with fighter aircraft and other military equipment, which has caused worries in the West.

The Iraqi military confirmed Saturday night the collaboration in a statement.

- The cooperation happens after increased Russian concern about the thousands of terrorists from Russia, who is performing criminal acts with Daesh, the report says, where IS referred to by another name.

Russia supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and is pushing for that Damascus should be part of the global effort against IS, which the United States refuses to accept.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the UN General Assembly, where it is expected that he will advocate for a collective effort against the extremist group.

Putin will also have talks with US President Barack Obama in connection with his visit to New York. Earlier in the week, sources stated to Bloomberg that the Russians are planning to go to war against IS in Syria - with or without the US on board.

Ilja Rogatsjov, spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, followed up by saying that Russia "theoretically" could join the US-led military coalition that is fighting against the jihadists.

- But it must be done within the right conditions, said Rogatsjov.

Obama has been criticized for being too little decisive about the conflicts in the Middle East. It is expected that Secretary of State, John Kerry, soon will present a new plan for a political solution in Syria.

And when Obama and Kerry plan for another failed political solution with radical nutters, Putin plans to simply blow them way.

Iran sent 4000 Special Forces to Syria

Blogfactory.uk

27 September, 2015

Washington’s decision to arm Syria’s Sunni Muslim rebels has plunged America into the great Sunni-Shia conflict of the Islamic Middle East, entering a struggle that now dwarfs the Arab revolutions which overthrew dictatorships across the region.

For the first time, all of America’s ‘friends’ in the region are Sunni Muslims and all of its enemies are Shiites. Breaking all President Barack Obama’s rules of disengagement, the US is now fully engaged on the side of armed groups which include the most extreme Sunni Islamist movements in the Middle East.

The Independent on Sunday has learned that a military decision has been taken in Iran to send a first contingent of 4,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against the largely Sunni rebellion that has cost over 240,000 lives in four  years.  Iran is now fully committed to preserving Assad’s regime, according to pro-Iranian sources which have been deeply involved in the Islamic Republic’s security, even to the extent of proposing to open up a new ‘Syrian’ front on the Golan Heights against Israel.

In years to come, historians will ask how America – after its defeat in Iraq and its humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan – could have so blithely aligned itself with one side in a titanic Islamic struggle stretching back to the seventh century death of the Prophet Mohamed. The profound effects of this great schism, between Sunnis who believe that the father of Mohamed’s wife was the new caliph of the Muslim world and Shias who regard his son in law Ali as his rightful successor – a seventh century battle swamped in blood around the present-day Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kerbala – continue across the region to this day. A 17th century Archbishop of Canterbury, George Abbott, compared this Muslim conflict to that between “Papists and Protestants”.

America’s alliance now includes the wealthiest states of the Arab Gulf, the vast Sunni territories between Egypt and Morocco, as well as Turkey and the fragile British-created monarchy in Jordan. King Abdullah of Jordan – flooded, like so many neighbouring nations, by hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees – may also now find himself at the fulcrum of the Syrian battle.  Up to 3,000 American ‘advisers’ are now believed to be in Jordan, and the creation of a southern Syria ‘no-fly zone’ – opposed by Syrian-controlled anti-aircraft batteries – will turn a crisis into a ‘hot’ war.  So much for America’s ‘friends’. (4000 troops)

Its enemies include the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Alawite Shiite regime in Damascus and, of course, Iran. And Iraq, a largely Shiite nation which America ‘liberated’ from Saddam Hussein’s Sunni minority in the hope of balancing the Shiite power of Iran, has – against all US predictions – itself now largely fallen under Tehran’s influence and power.  Iraqi Shiites as well as Hizballah members, have both fought alongside Assad’s forces.

Washington’s excuse for its new Middle East adventure – that it must arm Assad’s enemies because the Damascus regime has used sarin gas against them – convinces no-one in the Middle East.  Final proof of the use of gas by either side in Syria remains almost as nebulous as President George W. Bush’s claim that Saddam’s Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. (4000 troops)

For the real reason why America has thrown its military power behind Syria’s Sunni rebels is because those same rebels are now losing their war against Assad.  The Damascus regime’s victory this month in the central Syrian town of  Qusayr, at the cost of Hezbollah lives as well as those of government forces, has thrown the Syrian revolution into turmoil, threatening to humiliate American and EU demands for Assad to abandon power.  Arab dictators are supposed to be deposed – unless they are the friendly kings or emirs of the Gulf – not to be sustained.  Yet Russia has given its total support to Assad, three times vetoing UN Security Council resolutions that might have allowed the West to intervene directly in the civil war.

In the Middle East, there is cynical disbelief at the American contention that it can distribute arms – almost certainly including anti-aircraft missiles – only to secular Sunni rebel forces in Syria represented by the so-called Free Syria Army.  The more powerful al-Nusrah Front, allied to al-Qaeda, dominates the battlefield on the rebel side and has been blamed for atrocities including the execution of Syrian government prisoners of war and the murder of a 14-year old boy for blasphemy.  They will be able to take new American weapons from their Free Syria Army comrades with little effort. (4000 troops)

From now on, therefore, every suicide bombing in Damascus – every war crime committed by the rebels – will be regarded in the region as Washington’s responsibility. The very Sunni-Wahabi Islamists who killed thousands of Americans on 11th September, 2011 – who are America’s greatest enemies as well as Russia’s – are going to be proxy allies of the Obama administration. This terrible irony can only be exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adament refusal to tolerate any form of Sunni extremism.  His experience in Chechenya, his anti-Muslim rhetoric – he has made obscene remarks about Muslim extremists in a press conference in Russian – and his belief that Russia’s old ally in Syria is facing the same threat as Moscow fought in Chechenya, plays a far greater part in his policy towards Bashar al-Assad than the continued existence of Russia’s naval port at the Syrian Mediterranean city of Tartous.

For the Russians, of course, the ‘Middle East’ is not in the ‘east’ at all, but to the south of Moscow;  and statistics are all-important. The Chechen capital of Grozny is scarcely 500 miles from the Syrian frontier.  Fifteen per cent of Russians are Muslim.  Six of the Soviet Union’s communist republics had a Muslim majority, 90 per cent of whom were Sunni.  And Sunnis around the world make up perhaps 85 per cent of all Muslims.  For a Russia intent on repositioning itself across a land mass that includes most of the former Soviet Union, Sunni Islamists of the kind now fighting the Assad regime are its principal antagonists. (4000 troops)

Iranian sources say they liaise constantly with Moscow, and that while Hezbollah’s overall withdrawal from Syria was to be completed soon – with the maintenance of the militia’s ‘intelligence’ teams inside Syria – Iran’s support for Damascus will grow rather than wither.  They point out that the Taliban recently sent a formal delegation for talks in Tehran and that America will need Iran’s help in withdrawing from Afghanistan.  The US, the Iranians say, will not be able to take its armour and equipment out of the country during its continuing war against the Taliban without Iran’s active assistance.  One of the sources claimed – not without some mirth — that the French were forced to leave 50 tanks behind when they left because they did not have Tehran’s help.

Not from Syria.Putin is getting support from throughout Europe

Germans chant 'Putin to Berlin, Merkel to Siberia!' at Dresden Rally in Germany

China Joining Russia In Syria While Germany Prepares to Leave NATO In Advance of World War III

OSNetDaily,

27 September, 2015

By Dave Hodges

David Ochmanek, who, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, stated on Monday that “Russia’s future looked to be increasingly integrated with the West.” That statement is no longer true. In fact, not only is Russia a growing threat to United States security, a series of Pentagon war games has revealed that the United States cannot defeat a Putin led Russia, given the present set of circumstances.

Pentagon War Games Spells Bad News for the U.S. Military

The Pentagon, along with other Defense Department planners, have come to a frightening realization. The U.S. military routinely comes up on the losing end of any conflict with Russian troops, Foreign Policy (FP) reported Monday. Russian superiority is not limited to any one theater of action. America’s ineptitude spans the entire globe.

The present analysis is simultaneously following along  two track. One set of scenarios has focused in on what the U.S. could do as part of NATO, if Russia were to launch an offensive against an alliance member(s).  The other scenario examined what actions the U.S. could hypothetically take outside the NATO sphere of influence. Both plans scenarios focuses on Russian incursions into the Baltic States, as this is the most likely scenario.

In addition, planners are not focusing solely on traditional warfare but on so-called “hybrid” tactics Moscow used to infiltrate and take Crimea in the Russian take over of the are.  Accompanying this scenario include the use unaffiliated operatives and forces, manufactured protests and, of course, elements of cyberwarfare, where the U.S. is woefully weak.

David Ochmanek, who, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, ran that office at the time. “Russia’s future looked to be increasingly integrated with the West.” After eight hours of playing war game, which followed a variety of  scenarios, “The conclusion was that we are unable to defend the Baltics.” Game over, this is the end of NATO.

Let us not forget that Obama continues to gut the U.S. military with sequestration-related force cuts that will cut Army troops by 40,000, as well as reductions across the board at the Pentagon. In the aforementioned war games, the logistics become even more frightening. Since we have fewer and fewer troops to deploy as a preventative action, deploying US troops to the Baltic would take 30-60 days and Russia would have taken a lot of territory by that time. The end result conclusion of these war games is that the US cannot prevail against Russia.

Meanwhile Back In the Real World

The United States has already been checkmated in Syria. Russia has already gained a firm military foothold in the Middle East and as the reader will soon discover, China is sending some of its military in support of Russia’s effort in Syria as part of a newly forming BRICS coalition being put together to ostensibly destroy ISIS. The real purpose of these moves is designed to have China and Russia take over the Middle East. These events should not come as any surprise as China and Russia have openly announced their hostility toward the United States for the past three years.

How serious are the Chinese and Russians at standing up to the imperialistic United States? Considering that both Chinese President Hu and Major General Zhang Zhaozhong have threatened the United States with nuclear war if they invade Iran, the prudent opinion says that this is the newest version of the “Axis of Evil’s” line in the sand, and it has been clearly drawn. While many eyes are on Ukraine, the real prize and the key to the solvency of the BRICS is Iran and its willingness to accept gold for oil payments. Protecting Syria is the first line of defense, because all roads to invading Iran and ending the threat to the Petrodollar run through Syria. And America’s worst nightmare, a joint Middle Eastern military partnership between Russia and China, is about to become a reality.

Arab Media Outlet Reporting Chinese Troops On the Way to Syria

China-CV-16-Liaoning-aircraft-carrier

 

In a potentially stunning development, the Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi, (AKA) The Arab Source, is reporting that a Chinese warship recently passed through the Suez Canal three days ago,  and is headed to Syria to assist the Russians military fight against ISIS. The news source refers to ISIS as “US proxies trying to overthrow the al-Assad government”.

This news comes on the heels of the recent arrival of Russian military personnel which arrived at the Syrian port-city of Tartous. This is a potentially catastrophic development given the fact that the US admits to having Special Operations Forces on the ground in Syria as well and soon-to-be presence of the Chinese military to Syria provides more insight into their contingency. The foundational structure, which will comprise the elements of World War III are nearly in place. Syria will be the flash point for World War III, followed by a Russian invasion of the Baltic states. Some has suggested that the Russians are borrowing from a page in the US military strategy and they are beginning to build a coalition of forces in Syria. In other words, Russia will not be confronting ISIS alone. This is similar to the US plan of forming a “coalition” of forces.

Germany, France and Italy’s Motivation to Leave NATO

Germany just threw its support of Putin putting boots on the ground in Syria to fight the CIA created ISIS. Germany is on the edge of leaving NATO. The United States has responded with shipping its most modern nuclear weapons to Germany last week. If NATO is on the rocks, and that almost certainly appears to be the case, the U.S. has a very narrow window from which to launch an attack upon Russia to counter its moves in Syria, its growing threat to the Baltic states and its newly forming partnership with Germany which serves to undermine NATO. This is clearly what the shipment of nuclear missiles to Germany, this week, and this increases the possibility that the war will be a case of happening sooner, not later.

The eventual defection of Germany, France and Italy is easy to foretell. This is a case of a picture, or in this case, an energy map, is worth a thousand words.

 

All Russia has to do is to turn off the natural gas shipments this winter and Europe will freeze and NATO will disappear.

To anyone possessing an IQ above room temperature, this map is the road map to the destruction of NATO. Key NATO allies are being held hostage by Putin through energy blackmail. If NATO was to survive, the time to have attacked Russia was last Spring, but I believe that this ship has sailed with Russia’s military buildup in Syria along with China’s support.

Conclusion

Can you imagine, you just opened your contacts list on your phone and all of friends and business associates are gone. This is what is happening to the United States.

The following scenario now seems likely. Russia and Chinese forces eventually confront American Special Operation forces in Syria. Russia and China gain a strong military foothold in the Middle East. The US scrambles to respond. 

However, Russia attacks Eastern Europe and focuses its might on the Baltic states. China takes advantage of the crisis and attacks Taiwan and simultaneously, North Korea sends a million men across the DMZ and occupies Seoul within 72 hours. Does the US respond with nuclear weapons. The Pentagon has undoubtedly run this war game and they are not about to tell us how bad the United States is going to lose.

MEDIA: RUSSIAN MARINES AND IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDSMEN BUILD A PROTECTORATE IN WESTERN SYRIA

South Front,

17 September, 2015

This article is undergirded by a fundamental assumption: Russian military forces started to participate in the Syrian conflict actively. On the other hand, it’s profitable for Arab media to speculate over this fact because such reports raise up morale of the Syrian forces and frighten terrorists.

Originally appeared at Almasdarnews

The recent arrival of Russian military personnel to the Syrian port-city of Tartous has allowed for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the civilian-led “National Defense Forces” (NDF) to concentrate their military units to a number of different fronts outside of the Syrian Government stronghold of Latakia.

With much of the SAA and NDF units deployed to more volatile fronts, the Russian Marines and Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) have relieved their positions by installing military checkpoints inside the cities of Slunfeh (east Latakia Governorate), Masyaf (east Tartous Governorate) and Ras Al-Bassit (Latakia coastal city).

According to a senior officer in the Syrian Arab Army, at least 2,800 soldiers from the Special Forces have been redeployed from their base at Slunfeh; this allowed for the Russian Marines and Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen to build fortifications around this mountainous city that overlooks the Al-Ghaab Plains.

The Russian Marines and IRG replacing the Syrian Army in Slunfeh is imperative for two reasons:

1. The Islamist rebels would have to go through Slunfeh if they wanted to cross into Latakia from the Al-Ghaab Plains – meaning, they will have to go through the Russian and Iranian defenses.
2. Their presence in east Latakia is a clear warning to the Islamist rebels that Latakia is off limits for their military endeavors. Ras Al-Bassit is another important site; however, not because it is in any-kind of danger, but rather, due to the fact its the 4th Mechanized Division’s headquarters in northern Syria (main HQ is in Yafour, Damascus).

The Russian Marines and IRG stationed at Ras Al-Bassit will likely travel back and forth to the predominately Armenian city of Kassab on the Syrian-Turkish border – another warning to the Islamist rebels that this area off limits.

Finally, there is Masyaf in east Tartous; this city is the National Defense Forces’ headquarters, as it houses the largest number of militiamen (est. 12,000-16,000) in Syria.

East of Masyaf are the predominately Christian cities of Al-Sqaylabiyah and Mhardeh; these two cities have been under attack by the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra”; however, the civilian militiamen inside these two cities were able to fight off every attack.

Once again, the Russians and Iranians form this protectorate around Masyaf to deter any Islamist rebels from entering the Tartous Governorate.

Whether or not the Islamist rebels harbor these military aspirations is unknown; but they have been given a fair warning by the Iranians and Russians to not expand west.