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ISIS update 11/18/2015..ISIL militants are fleeing Raqqa
Paris Attacks: Aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle sets sail to triple airstrikes capacities on Syria
France Air Force carries out fresh raids against ISIL in Syria’s Raqqah
Russia’s Mediterranean Fleet launches cruise missiles at ISIL
Russian Cruise Missile Filmed Flying Over Head In Aleppo
Recently Launched Major Russian Aerial Operation In Syria
Putin tells Russian navy in Mediterranean to work with French
Russia, France agree to boost military cooperation against Daesh
France intensifies airstrikes on IS group targets in Syria
Russian Airstrikes destroy ISIS oil refueling plant and fuel tankers
Assad forces advance near Aleppo with Russian Air Force cover
Heavy Clashes in Aleppo & East Ghouta
Syrian Arab Army and National Defence Forces establish control over Rashwan hill in North Lattakia
Syria: RuAF Tu-160, Tu-95MS, Tu-22M3 Conducting Airstrikes over Syria
SAA/NDF/RuAF Operations in Western Outskirts of Palmyra
Iraqi army pressing ahead to liberate ISIL-held city of Ramadi
Iraqi F-16 CAS Filmed From The Ground By Iraqi Special Forces
U.S. air strikes target Islamic State near Ramadi
‘No Deal With West on Assad’ – Russian FM Sergei Lavrov
‘Cameron promoting forces behind Daesh’
Stock prices of arms and surveillance product manufacturers skyrocket after Paris attacks
Nigeria: Explosion in Yola Nigeria kills dozens
Patrick J. Buchanan
Among the presidential candidates of the Republican Party and their foreign policy leaders on Capitol Hill the cry is almost universal:
Barack Obama has no strategy for winning the war on ISIS.
This criticism, however, sounds strange coming from a party that controls Congress but has yet to devise its own strategy, or even to authorize the use of U.S. military force in Syria.
Congress has punted. And compared to the cacophony from Republican ranks, Barack Obama sounds like Prince Bismarck.
The President’s strategy is to contain, degrade and defeat ISIS. While no one has provided the troops to defeat ISIS, the U.S. is using Kurdish and Yazidi forces, backed by U.S. air power, to degrade it.
And recent months have seen measured success.
The Kurds have run ISIS out of Kobani, captured much of the Turkish-Syrian border, and moved to within 30 miles of Raqqa, the ISIS capital. Yazidis and Kurds last week recaptured Sinjar in Iraq and cut the highway between Mosul and Raqqa.
The terrorist attacks in Paris, the downing of the Russian airliner in Sinai, the ISIS bomb that exploded in the Shiite sector of Beirut, are ISIS’s payback. But they could also be signs that the ISIS caliphate, imperiled in its base, is growing desperate and lashing out.
Yet consider the Republican strategies being advanced.
In Sunday’s Washington Post, Mitt Romney writes:
“We must wage the war to defeat the enemy. … [Obama] must call in the best military minds from the United States and NATO … and finally construct a comprehensive strategy that integrates our effort with the Kurds, Turks, Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians.”
The Kurds excepted, Gov. Romney ignored all the forces that are actually fighting ISIS: Russians, Hezbollah, Iran, Bashar Assad, the Syrian army.
Mitt urges instead an alliance of countries that have done next to nothing to defeat ISIS.
The Turks are instead hitting the Kurds in Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The Saudis are bombing the Houthis in Yemen, not ISIS in Raqqa. The Egyptians are preoccupied with their own homegrown terrorists.
“Now is the time, not merely to contain the Islamic State,” says Mitt, “but to eradicate it once and for all.” But why did he not mention Russia, Iran, Assad and Hezbollah, all of which also wish to eradicate ISIS?
We partnered with Stalin in WWII. Is Vladimir Putin an untouchable?
Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham want U.S. ground troops sent into Syria and Iraq. But as Turkey has an army of 500,000 next door and Assad’s army would happily help wipe out ISIS, why not let Arab and Turkish boys do the fighting this time?
“America must lead,” is Jeb Bush’s mantra, and he wants U.S. boots on the ground and a no-fly zone over Syria.
“We should declare war,” says Bush.
Why then does Bush not call up Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and dictate the war resolution he wants passed?
And whom does Jeb propose to fight? Why declare a no-fly zone when ISIS has no air force? Does Bush plan to shoot down Syrian planes flying over Syria and Russian planes flying in support of Assad?
Has Jeb, like his brother, not thought this through?
If we declare a no-fly zone over Syria, or establish a “safe zone,” we risk war not only with Syria, but Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.
None of these allies of Assad will meekly stand aside while we take military action to deny the Syrian regime and army the right to defend itself and survive in its war against ISIS, al-Nusra and other assorted jihadists and rebels.
Having invested blood and treasure in Assad’s survival, and securing their own interests in Syria, they are not likely to submit to U.S. dictation. Are we prepared for a war against both sides in Syria?
Who would fight Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Syria alongside us?
Yet New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is ready to rumble.
“Well, the first thing you do is you set up a no-fly zone in Syria, and you call Putin, and you say to him, ‘Listen, we’re enforcing a no-fly zone, and that means we’re enforcing it against everyone, and that includes you. So, don’t test me.’”
And if Russia violated his no-fly zone? “Then you take him down,” said Christie, meaning we shoot down Russian jets.
But what vital interest of ours has ever been so engaged in Syria as to justify a major war in the Middle East and a military clash with a Russia with a nuclear arsenal as large as our own?
In any war it is usually wise to enlarge the roster of one’s allies and reduce the roster of enemies. If ISIS is the implacable enemy and must be annihilated, we should welcome all volunteers.
As for those who decline to fight, but claim a veto over whom we may ally with, we should tell them to pound sand.
If Putin wants to enlist in the war against ISIS, sign him up.
Patrick J. Buchanan
COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM
Syrians in Raqqa tell of ‘insane nights’ of air strikes
French defence officials say that, for the second time in less than 24 hours, fighter jets have targeted Raqqa, the de-facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria.
Ten Rafale and Mirage 2000 fighters carried out the raid early in the morning, dropping 16 bombs, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, as France hits back at ISIL in retaliation for Friday’s Paris attacks that killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.
“Both targets were hit and destroyed simultaneously,” the ministry said.
“Conducted in coordination with US forces, the raid was aimed at sites identified during reconnaissance missions previously carried out by France.”
On Sunday, the French defence ministry said 30 air strikes destroyed an ISIL training camp and munitions dump in Raqqa.
However, a media activist in Raqqa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that French air strikes had targeted abandoned ISIL bases in the suburbs of the city where there are no civilians or ISIL fighters.
“It has been two insane nights. Abandoned ISIL posts were targeted at the entrance of the city, along with ISIL checkpoints and several other points. Electricity and water have been cut off as supply lines were hit too.
“We can confirm that there were no civilians killed or injured in the latest French air strikes.
“People are horrified and everyone here lives in fear. We are sure that several ISIL fighters at the checkpoints were killed in the air strikes.”
The Pentagon said that over the past few days it had also bombed ISIL posts in Iraq and Syria.
On Monday, the US-led coalition’s warplanes struck ISIL targets in Raqqa and several posts were destroyed, the US defence department said on its website.
France is part of the coalition, which was launched in September 2014, but conducted its first air strike in Syria only in September 2015.
‘Raqqa is devastated’
The Syrian activist in Raqqa said that in the past few days Russian air strikes had caused the most destruction.
“Last week, Russian air strikes destroyed one of the main bridges in the city in addition to the national hospital. Most hospitals in the city have been destroyed in Raqqa,” he said.
“Russian air strikes have resulted in so much destruction. If these countries wanted to bomb the heartland of ISIL, they could have done so. But they still have not targeted the group’s most important bases.
“This is what we do not understand. The targets bombed by French warplanes were mostly abandoned by ISIL fighters.
“The US, Russia and France are all bombing Syria. How many more countries want to bomb us?
“Raqqa is devastated. Raqqa has endured the unbearable and we live in fear under ISIL’s dictatorship.
“A lot of people fled the the city. In fact, most refugees heading to Europe are from Raqqa. That is how desperate they are to leave here. People are fed up here and just want to live normal lives.
“Our lives are all under threat. ISIL controls every aspect of our lives and we are not allowed to expose the truth.
“Not everyone who lives in Raqqa approves of ISIL. I am a citizen of Raqqa and I refused to leave my hometown just like many others did.
“What the world needs to know is that we live under ISIL control on the ground, and constant air strikes from the sky. We are trapped,” the activist said.
Separately, the anti-ISIL group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered said on Sunday that overnight air strikes hit a stadium, a museum, several clinics, a hospital and a governmental building.
The group told Al Jazeera that no civilians were hurt or injured in any of the latest French air strikes.
“Of course we do not like to see people afraid of air strikes and explosions, but we support any actions that will take ISIL out of Raqqa,” the group said on its Twitter account.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said activists reported hearing explosions in Raqqa resulting from air strikes. The activists’ network said no civilian death toll has been recorded due to the strikes
Intelligence sources disclosed on Wednesday that ISIL militants are fleeing the Syrian city of Raqqa in hundreds to save their lives after sustaining heavy casualties in the Russian airstrikes and long-range cruse missile attacks form its Mediterranean fleet.
The sources said that the Russian fighter jets have stormed the strongholds of the ISIL militants in Raqqa in recent days in numerous attacks.
Meanwhile, the Russian military launched airstrikes against the ISIL stronghold in Raqqa with cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea.
On Tuesday, the France’s Le Monde newspaper, citing a French official, said that the Russian military has launched airstrikes against the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa in Syria with cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea.
The information that Russia struck the ISIL positions in Raqqa was also reported by a senior French government source.
US officials also confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow conducted a significant number of strikes in Syria using both sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers.
In the meantime, different sources said that the French fighter jets carried out many sorties over the ISIL positions in recent day and targeted them heavily with scores of bombs and missiles in reprisals for the Paris terror attacks by ISIL.
Also on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande told the French parliament’s emergency meeting in Versailles that the French nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will leave the port of registration on November 19 to join the operation in Syria.
URGENT: ISIL Releases Photo of Bomb That Brought Down Russian Plane
Military Source Strongly Denies Rumors about Fall of Deir Hanna in Syria’s Lattakia
Hundreds of Hezbollah Fighters Join Syrian Army to Launch Palmyra Liberation Operation
URGENT: Syrian Army, Hezbollah Win Back More Lands in Aleppo Countryside
EXCLUSIVE: Strategic Al-Rashwan Heights in Lattakia Now under Syrian Army’s Control
Militants Admit Large Casualties in Dara’a Clashes with Syrian Army
Syria: ISIL Retreats from Hasakah to Raqqa And Then to Deir Ezzur
The ISIL terrorists retreated from a city in the Southern parts of Hasakah province as Syrian army and popular forces, backed by Russian and Syrian airstrikes, continue to strike heavy blows at the militants.
According to the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television, ISIL terrorists are moving their families and heavy weaponries from the city of al-Shadadi in the Southern countryside of Hasakah to Deir Ezzur.
Hasakah is a region in Northeastern Syria mostly populated by the Kurds. The Kurdish and Arab fighters have recently pushed the terrorists out of the Northern parts of the region.
Following similar heavy strikes in the Southern parts of the province by the Syrian forces, the ISIL terrorists were forced to retreat furthern to Raqqa, the so-called capital of the ISIL terrorist group. But after the start of heavy airstrikes by the Russian and French air forces in the last few days, the ISIL is again on the move to retreat further to deploy its central command in Deir Ezzur.
Intelligence sources disclosed on Wednesday that ISIL militants are fleeing the city of Raqqa in hundreds to save their lives after sustaining heavy casualties in the Russian airstrikes and long-range cruse missile attacks form its Mediterranean fleet.
The sources said that the Russian fighter jets have stormed the strongholds of the ISIL militants in Raqqa in recent days in numerous attacks.
Meanwhile, the Russian military launched airstrikes against the ISIL stronghold in Raqqa with cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea.
On Tuesday, the France’s Le Monde newspaper, citing a French official, said that the Russian military has launched airstrikes against the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa in Syria with cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea.
The information that Russia struck the ISIL positions in Raqqa was also reported by a senior French government source.
US officials also confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow conducted a significant number of strikes in Syria using both sea-launched cruise missiles and long-range bombers.
In the meantime, different sources said that the French fighter jets carried out many sorties over the ISIL positions in recent day and targeted them heavily with scores of bombs and missiles in reprisals for the Paris terror attacks by ISIL.
Also on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande told the French parliament’s emergency meeting in Versailles that the French nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will leave the port of registration on November 19 to join the operation in Syria.
ISIL Militants Fleeing Palmyra after Disclosure of Syrian-Hezbollah Forces’ Imminent Operation
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2015/11/isis-update-11182015isil-militants-are.html
