Syria report - 10/21/2015

ISIS negotiating with Al-Nusra Front to join forces against Syrian Army – Russian military

RT,

21 October, 2015

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday its intelligence had overheard Islamic State commanders talking to Al-Nusra Front about uniting forces against the Syrian Army.

The Russian Air Force eliminated 83 militant targets in 46 sorties in the last 24 hours, bombing terrorist groups in five Syrian provinces, destroying camps, warehouses, vehicles and workshops, the MoD’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said in a briefing on Wednesday.

The airstrikes hit targets of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Nusra Front in the provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Deir al-Zor, Hama, Idlib and Latakia.

“An airstrike by a Sukhoi Su-25SM ground-support fighter jet group eliminated a large compound of Al-Nusra Front [Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria] near the city of Khan-Shaykhun, together with all infrastructure, arms depots and vehicles,” he said.

The spokesman said that another Al-Nusra Front installation, a workshop producing radio-controlled improvised explosive devices and explosives storage site, was destroyed near the city of Aleppo.

“Following a precision airstrike conducted with guided bombs, the explosives stored in the installation detonated, eliminating the installation along with two trucks loaded with tens of tons of explosive materials,” Konashenkov added.

Konashenkov also told journalists that IS militants are in talks with members of other terrorist groups, including Al-Nusra Front, to unite their forces against Syrian government troops.

“Communications eavesdropping has intercepted information about the beginning of the talks between commanders of large battalions of Al-Nusra Front and warlords of Islamic State to form an allied force to counter offensive conducted by the Syrian government forces,” Konashenkov said

Al-Nusra Front and IS have been at loggerheads since February 2014, when the terrorist groups started infighting that resulted in bloody clashes.

The MoD spokesman reported that direct airstrike eliminated a number of militant leaders holding a meeting in the vicinity of the town of Sarmin in Idlib province.

“Last night the drones registered nine SUVs with mounted machine-guns arriving at the scene. A Sukhoi Su-34 bomber attacked the installation with a guided KAB-500 air bomb, which wiped the target out with everything that was inside,” Konashenkov said.

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A command-and-observation post of IS positioned atop of a mountain was eliminated by a Sukhoi Su-24M bomber in Idlib province.

Also in Idlib province, another Su-24M eliminated a concealed arms depot near the town of Jisr al-Shugur.

Konashenkov stressed that all aircrafts of the Russian task force in Syria have successfully returned to Khmeimim Airbase in Latakia having completed their combat assignment.

Konashenkov also said that retreating jihadist groups have turned to tactics of massive mine-laying. The militants actively rig with explosives abandoned dwelling houses and objects of civilian infrastructure, equipping bombs with remote detonation units.

“Many of such thoroughly-hidden explosive devices have countdown timers, set to blow up in a certain period of time, which in some case could be several weeks,” he noted, explaining that in such a way the jihadists hope to stage terror acts after the civilian population return to their homes and recovery works begin.

Since the beginning of the anti-terror operation in Syria on September 30, Russian warplanes have eliminated well over 830 terrorist targets

London refuses to share ISIS target information with Moscow’ – Russia’s envoy to UK

The UK has refused to assist Russia with data on ISIS targets in Syria, Russia’s ambassador to Britain has said. London follows Washington in its decision not to share intelligence data with Russia, despite the US’s signing of an agreement on airstrikes.

Britain has declined to cooperate with Russia’s military campaign against Islamic State (formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, insisting on keeping its intelligence data regarding terrorist installations there classified, Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Alexander Yakovenko told Rossija 24 TV channel in an interview on Wednesday.

Qatar Threatens Military Intervention in Syria

Qatar who has been a major sponsor of jihadist groups fighting in Syria for years, now is actively considering a direct military intervention in the country, according to its officials.

Sputnik,

21 October, 2015

Throughout Syria’s bloody civil war, the government of Qatar has been an active supporter of anti-government militants, providing arms and financial backing to so called "rebels." Many of these, like the al-Nusra Front, were directly linked to al-Qaeda. That strategy has, of course, done little to put a dent in terrorist organizations in the region.

But as Russia enters its fourth week of anti-terror airstrikes, Qatar has indicated that it may launch a military campaign of its own.

"Anything that protects the Syrian people and Syria from partition, we will not spare any effort to carry it out with our Saudi and Turkish brothers, no matter what this is," Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah told CNN on Wednesday, when asked if he supported Saudi Arabia’s position of not ruling out a military option.

"If a military intervention will protect the Syrian people from the brutality of the regime, we will do it," he added, according to Qatar’s state news agency QNA.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was fast to warn the Middle Eastern monarchy that such a move would be a disastrous mistake with serious consequences.

"If Qatar carries out its threat to militarily intervene in Syria, then we will consider this a direct aggression," he said, according to al-Mayadeen television. "Our response will be very harsh."

Still, Attiyah stressed that Qatar is also considering a more diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria.

"We do not fear any confrontation, and thus we will call for dialogue from a position of strength because we believe in peace and the shortest path to peace is through direct dialogue," he told CNN.

In its own campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, Moscow has repeatedly stressed that maintaining the legitimate Syrian government is the only way to stabilize the region. Foreign intervention in toppling Middle Eastern governments is largely to blame for the rise of IS in the first place, and support for "moderate" rebels only fuels that chaos.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian parliamentary speaker Valentina Matvienko stressed that Moscow and Damascus are open to expanding diplomatic dialogue with other interested parties.

"We will be glad if this dialogue will be joined by other participants, because there is no military solution to the conflict [in Syria]," she told reporters

Russian Air Force Saves the Day Again at the Deir Ezzor Airport: ISIS Suffers Over 50 Casualties

On Wednesday morning, the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) launched another powerful assault on the Deir Ezzor Military Airport’s outer parameters, targeting the southeastern gates that are protected by the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the 17th Reserve Division and the 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard.

Unlike yesterday, ISIS successfully made it to the Deir Ezzor Military Airport’s southeastern gates without the use of a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED); this was due to the absence of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF) from this battle on Wednesday.

With intense firefights mounting at the southeastern gates, the senior military officers from the 17th Reserve Division called on the Russian Air Force to assist the embattled soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army in beating back the encroaching enemy combatants from ISIS.

No more than one hour later, the Russian Air Force’s SU-24 fighter jets came roaring into the Deir Ezzor Governorate to succor the Syrian Arab Army soldiers at the military airport; this proved extremely effective, as ISIS was at the mercy of their attackers due to their lack of cover against the airstrikes.

According to a military source from the 137th Brigade, the Russian Air Force and the Syrian Arab Army killed well-over 25 enemy combatants, while wounding an estimated 40 other militants.

The source added that the Syrian Arab Army was able to beat back the terrorist group’s attack before night on Wednesday, marking the third time in three days that ISIS has failed to infiltrate into the Deir Ezzor Military Airport.

Elsewhere, the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Brigade – backed by the Shaytat Tribesmen and National Defense Forces (NDF) – clashed with ISIS inside the village of Al-Muri’iyah, where the aforementioned terrorist group attempted to recapture the Al-Muri’iyah Farms – they were unsuccessful after sustaining over 30 casualties.

U.S. Accuses Russia of Bombing the Moderate Rebels in Homs While They Behead Syrian Soldiers

Photos have surfaced from the Rastan and Al-Houla Plains of northern Homs that contain graphic footage of moderate rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) hoisting the severed heads of several deceased soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and civilian-led “National Defense Forces” (NDF).

The pictures show the U.S. backed moderate rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army posing with severed heads that they mutilated after a firefight in the Homs Governorate’s northern countryside; this area is the target of the Syrian Arab Army’s latest large-scale offensive inside the country.

Two weeks ago, the Russian Federation was accused of specifically targeting the moderate rebel fighters supported by the United States Government and their allies from the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar; however, the Russian Government asserted that these targeted militants were not “moderates” at all, but rather, Islamists affiliated with the notorious terrorist organization “Al-Qaeda.”

The Russian Federation has maintained that they are specifically targeting terrorist groups inside Syria and that they have no intentions of attacking groups that are combatting the likes of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).

It appears that these moderate rebels inside the Homs Governorate are not “moderate” at all; especially, with their heinous crimes they videotape and post with sectarian commentary that is directed at the Syrian Alawi (minority sect of Islam) and Shia Muslims.

Media speculation rife over Russia’s operation in Syria

From day one of Russia's air campaign in Syria the media has accused Moscow of not just bombing terrorist targets, and of causing civilian casualities. RT's Gayane Chichakyan takes a closer look.

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