Syria and its Russian ally accused Israel on Monday of carrying out a deadly dawn bombing raid on a military airbase, as global outrage mounted over an alleged poison gas attack outside Damascus.
Pope Francis took advantage of midday prayers before some 50,000 people to condemn the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, citing “terrible reports” of dozens of dead, including women and children.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and Russian President Vladimir Putin convened in Ankara this week, discussing ways to end the ongoing Syrian civil war while isolating the United States from the region.
The Bashar Assad regime is preparing an offensive to retake southern Syria and the Syrian Golan Heights from rebel groups and has reportedly placed tanks and heavy artillery inside the demilitarized buffer zone on the country’s border with Israel.
BEIRUT — The most powerful Syrian rebel faction on the fringes of Damascus began abandoning its stronghold in the once rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta on Monday, opening the way for government forces to secure full control of the area, after seven years of revolt.
President Donald Trump appeared to have caught the State Department and Pentagon by surprise when he teased the imminent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria on Thursday. Few would dispute the president’s claims of tremendous progress against the Islamic State since his inauguration, but ISIS has not been completely destroyed, and the United States has other security concerns in the war-torn country.
RICHFIELD, Ohio — US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that US forces would pull out of Syria “very soon” and lamented what he said was Washington’s waste of $7 trillion in Middle East wars.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert had some fun at the expense of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad during a press briefing on Thursday. Nauert needled the Syrian strongman for behaving like an ordinary head of state, even as his brutal operation in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta grinds to its bloody conclusion.
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad visited soldiers in the siege stricken area of Eastern Ghouta on Sunday as his forces reportedly appear to be on the verge of reclaiming the area.
The Islamic State terrorist group published photos on its Telegram account showing “child soldiers” executing Afghani soldiers who were purportedly captured by IS during fighting in the Nanajahar region in Afghanistan.
This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Silence from North Korea puts Kim-Trump summit in doubt Concerns grow of humanitarian disaster in Afrin, Syria, as Turkey’s forces enter Syrians
U.S. Army Officer and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster had harsh words for Russia and Iran on Thursday at a discussion at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the ongoing civil war in Syria, saying it is time for “consequences” for the two supporters of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
WASHINGTON, DC — The Russian- and Iranian-assisted regime of Bashar al-Assad is winning the civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands in Syria since 2011, suggested the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, stressing that toppling the dictator is not part of the American mission in the conflict-ridden country.
Kurdish and Arab fighters have abandoned the U.S.-backed fight against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) to help their friends and families repel a Turkish offensive reportedly assisted by Syrian rebels seeking to take revenge on the Kurds.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly weighed additional military action in Syria in response to dictator Bashar al-Assad’s continued use of chemical weapons.
Contents: The Ghouta ‘ceasefire’ turns into a Syrian army scam to steal humanitarian aid; Syria says close to defeating Jaysh al-Islam in Eastern Ghouta
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday his forces must push on with their campaign to retake the besieged enclave of Eastern Ghouta from rebels, despite mounting international calls to end the bloodshed.
TEL AVIV — The Islamic State has released propaganda photos showing the execution of a man south of Damascus named Moussa Badawi, who was accused of cooperating with a rival organization called Ahrar al-Sham.
The Syrian government has reportedly begun a land invasion of the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, following a brutally intense two-week campaign of airstrikes and artillery bombardments that killed hundreds of people.
Contents: Moving sharply left, South Africa calls for potentially disastrous land reform; Julius Malema and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) movement
Contents: Russia’s ‘humanitarian pause’ in Syria turns into farce on first day; Report: North Korea is selling chemical weapons supplies to Syria; Areas of control in Syria and Iraq
Polygraph.info, a website produced by U.S. government-funded Voice of America News and Radio Free Europe, has published leaked audio recordings it claims to be of Russian mercenaries complaining about their humiliating defeat at the hands of American forces in Syria.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a ceasefire resolution for Syria on Saturday, but the bombing of the Eastern Ghouta suburb near Damascus continued, with at least 24 more deaths after the resolution was passed.
Fresh regime air strikes and heavy clashes shook Syria’s rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Sunday, despite a UN demand for a ceasefire to end one of the most ferocious assaults of Syria’s civil war.
MOSCOW — Russia has tested over 200 new types of arms in Syria during its campaign in support of President Bashar al-Assad, a senior lawmaker said Thursday, as Moscow was accused of taking part in airstrikes against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.
Contents: Syria, Russia, Iran conduct full-on mass extermination of civilians in Eastern Ghouta; Russia rejects 30-day ceasefire in United Nations Security Council; North Korea insults South Korea with selection of Kim Yong-chol head of Olympics closing ceremony
The Syrian government’s SANA news outlet reports that unspecified “popular forces” supporting dictator Bashar al-Assad have arrived in the northern province of Afrin, currently under invasion by the Turkish military.
Not only is the Trump administration tough on Russia, but its toughness is also a function of a hard-headed strategy to diminish Russian power in Syria and throughout the Middle East.
TEL AVIV – The nuclear deal gives Iran “a highway to a nuclear arsenal” and has only served to bolster the Islamic Republic’s aggression across the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday to U.S. Jewish leaders in Israel.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is reportedly acting more visibly upon what it refers to as “the axis of resistance” by mobilizing its growing network of terrorist proxies throughout multiple Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Syria, in light of a recent incident between Iran and Israel.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s bloody efforts to stamp out the remaining rebel enclaves near Damascus resulted in what observers are describing as the wholesale massacre of civilians on Monday and Tuesday, with a bombing campaign that deliberately targeted seven hospitals and killed over a hundred people, including at least 20 children.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Tuesday that the Turkish military would invade and “besiege” the heart of Afrin city Syria “in the coming days,” threatening to turn “Operation Olive Branch” into a devastating urban conflict.
TEL AVIV – There are 10 Iranian military bases in Syria, two of which are close to the border with Israel, that are training militias from the Assad regime for a future war with Israel, an analyst for an American think tank said in an article published Monday.
HAMOURIA, Syria — A heavy bombardment killed at least 100 civilians, 20 of them children, in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on Monday, as regime forces appeared to be preparing for an imminent ground assault.
The government of dictator Bashar al-Assad confirmed on Monday that it would send Syrian military troops into Afrin to fight against the Turkish military, which invaded the northern province last month.
Contents: Special prosecutor Robert Mueller issues farcical indictment of Russian trolls; How the Russian trolls do their jobs; Russian trolls are Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons; Comparing Russian trolls to Chinese hackers
TEL AVIV – Wielding a fragment of an Iranian drone downed in Israel last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Tehran not to “test Israel’s resolve.”
Tehran has reportedly promised to grant permanent residency to Iran-recruited Afghan Shiite militiamen coerced into combating armed groups in Syria seeking to remove dictator Bashar al-Assad, including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).
TEL AVIV – Israel fears there may be a chemical spillover into its territory from neighboring Syria, a classified cable from the Foreign Ministry says, adding that there would be a harsh response if such a scenario were to occur.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah’s actions pose a threat to the security of Lebanon and have a destabilising influence in the Middle East, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday.
