ISIS update 7/22/2016..Syrian opposition asks US-led coalition to halt strikes after mass civilian casualties reports
Russian bombers strike ISIL targets near Syria’s Palmyra
Syrian War Report – July 22, 2016
Syrian air force launches barrage of airstrikes against jihadists in Ghouta
Syrian army captures Hurayrah in Wadi Baradah – Damascus CS
Syria, Aleppo, Mallah Farms – Syrian Army Tiger Forces During Clashes W/ JAN & Zinky Movement
Syria in Last 24 Hours: Terrorists Sustain Heavy Losses in Army’s Offensive in Hama
The Syrian army and popular forces continued their military operations against the terrorist groups in Hama province, and killed scores of militants over the past 24 hours.
The ISIL Takfiri terrorists sustained heavy losses and casualties in Hama.
The Syrian army also inflicted heavy losses on the terrorist groups in other key province across Syria.
Hama
The Syrian army backed by the popular forces killed and drove out Takfiri terrorists from more important territories in the Central province of Hama.
In the Northern parts of Hama, the Syrian forces could liberate Petrol region in the Southeastern side of Aqareb town.
The army and Hezbollah units also managed to win back control of al-Salem and al-Waqe’a near the Petrol oil region.
The Syrian troops also made the terrorists withdraw from the countryside of Aqareb town and purged al-Tout heights of the terrorist groups.
During the operations, tens of militants were killed and injured.
The ISIL’s attempts to break the army’s first defense line in the Eastern parts of Salamiyah city in Hama province failed after air force warplanes entered the scene.
The Syrian air force airstrikes destroyed several military vehicles and ISIL bases in the region and the army forces could repel the terrorist group’s heavy offensive against their bases in the Eastern parts of Salamiyah.
Residents of the nearby villages also joined the army to defend their homes and created a security belt around the Eastern parts of Salamiyah.
Dara’a
The Syrian army units targeted the fortifications and gathering centers of al-Nusra Front terrorists East of Khazan al-Karak in Dara’a al-Balad area in Dara’a city, killing a dozen of them and destroying their weapons and ammunition.
An army unit killed members of al-Nusra terrorist group as they were involved in monitoring operations, while 20 more terrorists were killed or injured in army operations in al-Nazihin Camp and al-Matahen in Dara’a al-Balad.
The army also eliminated a gathering center of al-Nusra terrorists in al-Dahdah Farm and in the Eastern quarter of Busra al-Sham city. A mortar position and several rocket launchers were destroyed in the operations.
The Syrian army forces also destroyed a position for the terrorist groups, along with the weapons and equipment inside it, in the West of Tal al-Za’atar on al-Yadouda road in the Western countryside of Dara’a province.
Homs
Field sources in Palmyra (Tadmur) reported heavy clashes between the Syrian army and the ISIL terrorists near Arak oil field, the Eastern parts of al-Sawwama region, silos and the hills of Northeastern Palmyra in Homs province.
“The army and its allies targeted the ISIL terrorists’ positions and gathering centers in Palmyra by artillery fire and airstrikes which killed several non-Syrian ISIL members and destroyed tens of military vehicles, some of them equipped with machine guns and other equipment,” the sources said on Thursday.
The Syrian and Russian warplanes in a series of attacks targeted the ISIL supply routes near al-Sakhanah region, al-Sha’er oilfield, al-Mahasa, Habra Sharqiyeh and Habra Gharbiyeh and the Eastern parts of Palmyra, they added.
Also the Syrian air force launched airstrikes against the terrorists’ positions in Talbiseh city in the Northern parts of Homs which inflicted damages on their weapons and equipment, the sources said.
Meantime, the Syrian air force attacks on the terrorists’ positions in the villages of Habra Sharqiyeh and Habra Gharbiyeh, East of Homs city, killed tens of militants and smashed their vehicles and equipment.
Six armored vehicles equipped with machine guns belonging to the ISIL Takfiri terrorists were destroyed by the Syrian air force.
Also, dozens of the ISIL Takfiri terrorists were killed as army airstrikes hit their positions East of Tadmur and in the surroundings of Mahassa in Eastern countryside of Homs province.
Raqqa
The Syrian warplanes continued airstrikes against ISIL positions in al-Tabaqa region in Western Raqqa, killing several terrorists.
The attacks destroyed the ISIL’s command center and the terrorist group’s military vehicles in the two cities of Raqqa and Tabaqa.
Aleppo
The Syrian army with the support of pro-government forces repulsed terrorists’ attack on army’s defense lines in Aleppo province, a military source said.
The joint attack of the al-Nusra Front terrorists, Nour al-Din al-Zanki Movement and Faylaq al-Rahman militants was repelled by Syrian army forces in an area around the Castillo road in the Malaah farms in Northern Aleppo and ended in large casualties for the terrorists, the source said.
He added that the army and resistance forces could also seize a tank and a military vehicle belonging to the terrorist groups.
Also, in al-Malaah farms in Northern Aleppo the Syrian forces launched an ambush against the terrorists and destroyed a tank, a suicide car and 5 military vehicles of militants.
The heavy missile and artillery attacks by the Syrian army and its allies also made terrorists of the so-called Northern Group to withdraw from Handarat camp.
Meantime, the Nour al-Din Zanki militants have mounted checkpoints and embankments in Castillo and Malaah regions to prevent other terrorist groups’ members from escaping the Syrian forces’ heavy attacks.
The Syrian army and popular forces made eye-catching advances in Ithriya-Marina road in Southern Aleppo by conducting precision operations and retook control of Syriatel communication tower and the surrounding areas.
During the surprise attacks, tens of ISIL terrorists were killed and wounded.
While the Syrian forces are trying to make secure the Southern regions of Aleppo and decrease the threat of the ISIL terrorists’ presence in the bordering areas with Hama province, some reports said that the ISIL seeks to launch heavy attacks against the army positions in Ithriya-Khannaser road and Hama’s bordering regions to cut the supply route of resistance forces in Aleppo and stop their operations in the region.
Syrian opposition asks US-led coalition to halt strikes after mass civilian casualties reports
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The New Middle East: Exit America Enter Russia | Zero Hedge
Is the genie finally out of the bottle?
A myriad of seemingly unrelated events and loose ends are converging in a manner that points in the direction of a huge win for Russian diplomacy in the Middle East, and we only need to connect the dots to see this scenario unfolding.
What dots, one might ask?
Henry Kissinger made it law for America to protect Israel. In his shuttle diplomacy trips in the lead up to the Camp David agreement, Kissinger has basically removed the USSR from the position of a superpower and a key partner on the negotiating table between Arabs and the Israelis and reduced its role to zilch. The ensuing dismantling of the USSR and the emergence of the so-called “New World Order” meant that Israel was to maintain its military superiority.
However, with the rise of Axis of Resistance in general and Hezbollah in particular, Israel’s technical military edge proved unable to provide Israel with any real security. As a matter of fact, it seems to have done just the opposite. Israel has never ever been under the kind of existential threat that it faces now, with an estimated hundred thousand Hezbollah missiles, if not more, poised to hit Israeli targets as far as Eilat.
And because America had been such a biased supporter of Israel for so long, it has lost its stature as a non-partisan arbitrator and mediator. In reality therefore, whilst America tried as hard as possible to enable Israel to impose its own peace, under its own terms, in practice, it has not been able to provide Israel with any peace under anyone’s terms.
Off to Syria.
Syria has been deadlocked in a war for more than five years. The Russian intervention that commenced in late September 2015 took the conflict, for the first time, into a direction in which the Syrian Government and its allies gained the clear upper hand.
Then, and in the height of the military operation, and seemingly just a tad before achieving and declaring victory, Russia suddenly declared a major pullout and eventually a ceasefire. Many questions were raised, and even the staunch and extremely savvy ally of Russia, Hezbollah chief Nasrallah himself has questioned publicly in a recent speech the rationale behind the Russian stand and asked: ”Who has benefited from the ceasefire?” Nasrallah was obviously referring to the fact that Al-Nusra Front and other groups have taken advantage of the ceasefire to bolster their positions and even to gain some territory in some regions.
In as much as the Russian intervention in its speed, accuracy and effectiveness has stunned the world, especially NATO, so did the pullback and ceasefire. Why did President Putin suddenly decide to scale down the military offensive, was a question that many analysts asked and tried to make speculations about.
Short-sighted analysts, especially those who love to hate Russia, found in this a golden opportunity to lash at Russia and accuse President Putin of backing off and letting Syria down. But would Putin truly back down after he had put his global political reputation on the line? Was he really expecting the Americans to come clean and work with him on identifying who is who on the ground? Would he back off after Russian lives were lost both in Syria and in the tragic jetliner crash in Sinai, and which was done in retaliation to Russia’s military action in Syria? Would Putin risk being seen in a negative way by his own people after he had risen to the level of a rescuer and hero? Last but not least, would Putin leave Turkey, and Erdogan specifically, “unpunished” after Turkey deliberately downed a Russian plane and killed its pilot?
The collective and individual answer to all of the above questions is a categorical NO. So why did Putin do it then? There seemed to be no clear answer; at least not for a while.
And of course, we cannot mention Turkey without allowing the train of events to stop at the Turkish station for a very thorough analysis.
In my analysis of the failure of “War On Syria”, which effectively began to take shape over the last two years or so, and especially after the emergence of Daesh, I had been reiterating that different elements of the “Anti-Syrian Cocktail” who were bundled together, united only by their hatred for Syria and her President, have realized that they were unable to have their collective dream materialized. They thus resorted to pursuing their own individual dreams and/or to implement some contingency plans. In that context, among other things, Daesh declared mutiny on its former allies and captured oil fields in order to be able to self-finance.
When Erdogan looked at Daesh, he could see a double-edged sword. And irrespective of politics, Erdogan’s fundamentalist ideology is not very different from that of Daesh, and according to this doctrine, putting everything else aside, Daesh members are regarded as brethren. Furthermore, the fact that Daesh and the Kurds were in conflict was something that Erdogan could not ignore. Erdogan’s fear of the Kurdish factor is very high, and the fact that America was helping some Kurdish factions has angered Erdogan to an extreme. America cannot be a friend of Turkey and the Kurds at the same time, Erdogan has said on many occasions, both directly and indirectly.
At the same time, America was growing very frustrated with Erdogan, and in turn, played its own cat and mouse game within the Daesh-Kurdish-Turkish triangle; favouring any side at a time that was convenient and suitable for its agenda.
But for Erdogan, the issue was becoming very critical. Turkey is now under attack with a string of explosions going off here and there; some purportedly perpetrated by Kurds and others by Daesh. Not only has Erdogan’s gamble in Syria failed, but he has brought the conflict home; at least partially, and the economic boom and the “zero problems” policy that crowned his early years of power were all getting eroded by the quagmire that Erdogan found himself in.
To make it worse for Erdogan, after he downed Russia’s Su-24 in November 2015, he was expecting NATO’s support, but NATO’s response was clear and brief. He was told that he needed to sort out his own problems with Russia.
He tried to use the refugees as a trump card, but this could not go far enough. Apart from the few billion dollars he was given by the EU, which is in relative terms a petty bribe, Erdogan was unable to even clinch Turkey’s longtime aspiration of becoming an EU member.
Erdogan found himself cornered, abandoned, under attack, facing severe Russian sanctions and an economic slump. He needed an exit strategy; an exit from trouble and into a totally new era.
In the meantime, Israeli PM Netanyahu made an unprecedented number of trips to Moscow. Why? Many asked.
The dust has not even began to settle yet, but there are markers that indicate that we are about to see a huge shift in Middle Eastern politics, conflicts and alliances.
We are now hearing formal Turkish statements accusing the USA of plotting the recent failed coup attempt. Turkey has even imposed a lockdown on Incirlik airbase, a NATO airbase, in which America stock piles nuclear weapons, and has even cut off power supplies to the base. This is tantamount to declaring mutiny on NATO. When Erdogan said that the coup was a “gift from God” to cleanse the army, he might as well have also said that it was a gift from God for him to show his resentment to the USA.
We also hear of counter-rumours that Erdogan has staged the failed coup in order to cleanse the military from elements that are not loyal to him. Whilst this scenario cannot either be confirmed or discounted, Erdogan is not mincing either his words or his actions with his NATO boss the USA.
It is important to note here that in the last few weeks, Erdogan and Netanyahu made up, and furthermore, the Turkish-Russian relationship was normalized. Erdogan has been seen to be making a turn, and perhaps a U-turn in regard to his policies in Syria, but for what ends?
For anyone to make a decisive win in Syria, the city of Aleppo holds the key. Whoever takes full control of Aleppo will win the war. The Syrian-Russian coalition has the upper hand to win the battle of Aleppo, but at what civilian cost? The other way to win it is to bring Erdogan down to his knees; and this seems to be what has happened. If Erdogan seals Turkey’s borders, the terrorists will be doomed.
If we were to connect the above main dots, ignoring many other minor dots which do not need to be discussed individually, we can only see a Middle Eastern Russian-brokered masterplan coming to fruition.
What puts Russia in the position to be able to muster such a plan is the fact that Russia is highly respected and is on fairly good terms with all major players. After mending relationships with Turkey, Russia is now on very good terms not only with Turkey, but also with Syria, Israel and Iran. The foolhardy foreign American policies in the Middle East have turned America into a force that cannot be trusted even by its own allies.
Putin is adamant on fighting terrorism. Whether he is able to do this or not is another story, but strategically speaking, he knows well that the military fight against terrorism cannot be won, let alone properly conducted, if other players in the region are in a state of conflict.
According to this analysis, we are on the verge of seeing a Russian plan unfolding, a plan that will not only form a foundation for ending the “War On Syria”, but also one that will seek an Arab/Israeli settlement.
The plan will have to be based on a win-win situation for all parties involved. The Saudis (and Qataris) will be the only losers. They will probably be left out in the cold and hung to dry. No one really wants to or needs to appease them any longer. Their clout is shrinking, and so are their resources. If anything, the war on terror, if it takes form under a Russian umbrella, may need to confront Al-Saud’s sponsorship to the spread of religious radicalism.
The avalanche of events has started, and as the USA is being shown the exit door by its closest allies, Russia is coming in as the only power that has the ability of resolving long standing niggling issues and cleaning up America’s mess.
Turkey carries out air strikes against Kurdish militants in Iraq.
Britain to send more troops to Iraq
DM: ISIL Controls Less Than 10 Percent of Iraq’s Territory
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi announced that the ISIL terrorists are in control of no more than 10 percent of Iraq’s territory.
“The ISIL had over 40 percent of Iraq under its control, but the terrorist group is now only in control of less than ten percent of our country’s lands,” al-Obeidi said.
He pointed to the Iraq’s joint military forces’ advances in Nineveh province, specially the city of Mosul, and said, “The Mosul liberation operations should be accompanied by precise aerial backup and intelligence support.”
Military sources said on Sunday that Iraqi army’s engineering unit managed to build a floating bridge on the Tigris River to connect al-Qayyara and al-Makhmur strategic regions to each other.
The Iraqi army’s floating bridge was mounted on Haj Ali village to the East and Ajhala village to the West.
The Iraqi news sites reported that building the bridge on the Tigris river in such short time was regarded a big achievement.
The floating bridge in Mosul liberation operations will pave the way for the Iraqi army to take control of other parts of Mosul.
Syrian Army Wins Back Key Village in Northwestern Damascus Countryside
Syrian Soldiers Continue to Advance against Militants in Aleppo Countryside
Syrian Army Launches Fresh Anti-Terrorism Offensive in Eastern Damascus
Russian Fighter Jets Hit Al-Nusra Defense Lines Hard in Aleppo
Syrian Army Forms New Anti-ISIL Popular Force in Deir Ezzur
Syria: Rifts Widening among Terrorist Groups in Idlib Province
ISIL Suffers Major Losses in Syrian Army Offensives in Hama Province
Russian Fighter Jets Intensify
Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2016/07/isis-update-7222016syrian-opposition.html
