Free Republic

... If Syria’s largest city is surrounded by government troops, the strategic situation in Syria could change very rapidly for the worse, not only for Syrians, but also for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—and for the Obama Administration, which has banked heavily on the crumbling peace talks to end five years of civil war and an expanding presence for ISIS amid the chaos. The encirclement would also be a major strategic advance for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has drawn his forces in Syria, but has also been helping the Assad regime conduct more focused military operations under a two-month...

Washington has jumped at the opportunity to provide massive amounts of weapons to Syria's so-called moderate rebels amid the ongoing ceasefire; it seems that the White House is not bothered by the fact that half of its arms have found their way into the hands of al-Qaeda, Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams note. Rebel fighters from the First Battalion under the Free Syrian Army take part in a military training on June 10, 2015, in the rebel-held countryside of the northern city of Aleppo The Syrian ceasefire is hanging in the balance, former Republican congressman Ron Paul and political analyst...

Are North Koreans fighting in Syria? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. By Adam Taylor March 25 This week, representatives of Western-backed Syrian opposition delegation in Geneva told Russian state media that President Bashar al-Assad had a surprising new ally on the Syrian battlefield: militia units from North Korea. "Two North Korean units are there, which are Chalma-1 and Chalma-7," Asaad az-Zoubi, head of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) to Syrian peace talks in the Swiss city, reportedly told Tass news agency on Tuesday. In any other context, the presence of soldiers from the internationally isolated and geographically distant...

North Korean Soldiers Assist Assad in the War Against the Syrian People. 7/20/2015 At 09:21 AM Activists and eyewitnesses confirmed that 5 buses full of fully armed Korean soldiers were seen in the capital Damascus, heading towards Jobar and Eastern Ghouta. It's not the first time Assad has used korean, not to mention the Shiite and Asian militias, fo fight in his side, Many media sources confirmed that korean soldiers from what is called Tshulima units has been assigned as Assad's personal details two years ago, after the large advance opposition forces achieved inside the capital Damascus. Tshulima special unit...

Hindsight is 20-20 and examining events from the perspective of what could have or should have happened is usually an exercise in futility.Except when the stakes are high and the path that wasn't taken could have altered our current history.We've known for years that the CIA was urging President Obama to arm the largely secular Free Syrian Army in 2012 to give them a chance to overthrow President Bashar Assad of Syria. This was before Syria's use of chemical weapons, before the Islamic State broke away from al-Qaeda, and before the refugee situation that led to a mass exodus from...

The United States said Thursday it was "appalled" by Syrian government air strikes Thursday that killed more than 30 people - including children - in a key rebel bastion east of the capital of Damascus. The raids took place in Deir Al-Assafir, a town in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta, one of the areas in Syria where a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia has been in place since February 27. "The United States is appalled by aerial strikes March 31, reportedly by the Assad regime, on a school and hospital in the Damascus suburb of Deir...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said it would not be difficult to agree on a new government including opposition figures, but his opponents responded on Wednesday that no administration would be legitimate while he remained in office. Assad, bolstered by military victory in the desert city of Palmyra, was quoted by Russia’s RIA news agency as saying a new draft constitution could be ready in weeks and a government that included opposition, independents and loyalists could be agreed. While the distribution of portfolios and other technical issues would need to be discussed at Geneva peace talks, which resume next month,...

Russia helped annihilate the jihadis after Putin made a U-turn over his ceasefire decision. And with the help of Russia airstrikes the Syrian army had been gaining ground for several days. Putin's men hit 158 targets and annihilated more than 100 militants, according to the Russian ministry of defence. Military sources said the army have “full control” of the city known for its beautiful archeology. Syrian officials yesterday released pictures showing helicopters and tanks blasting ISIS targets. The sick terror cult seized the Unesco World Heritage site in May last year and smashed two 2,000-year-old temples and detonated dynamite blasting...

“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us, they can’t defeat us,” President Obama told reporters in Argentina on Wednesday. “They’re not an existential threat to us,” he said. A few sentences later, he described climate change as a “major” problem. […] “And so it’s important for the U.S. president and the U.S. government to be able to work with people who are building and who are creating things and creating jobs and trying to solve major problems like climate change…” At the same news conference, Obama thanked the Argentine president for supporting the Paris climate change agreement. It is worth remembering...

ISIS may face its most serious military challenge — a squeeze on two fronts in the coming weeks from the east and the west. After almost two years of controlling the city of Mosul in Nineveh province, ISIS faces a grim prospect of encirclement and destruction if the combined Iraq-US offensive launched today succeeds in its initial missions. So far, as the Associated Press reports, the liberators have the momentum: The Iraqi military backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on Thursday launched a long-awaited operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, a military spokesman said.In...

In the wake of Tuesday’s deadly terrorist attack in Brussels, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade called the Obama administration’s strategy against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) “a complete failure.” “Days after Belgian law enforcement captured alive ISIS terrorist Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspected ringleaders of the deadly Paris attacks, terrorists retaliated in Brussels by launching a series of explosions at the airport and train station. Thirty-four civilians are dead and 170 are injured,” Rep Ted Poe (R-TX) said in a statement Tuesday hours after blasts rocked a terminal of the...

Google in 2012 sought to help insurgents overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to State Department emails receiving fresh scrutiny this week. Messages between former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's team and one of the company's executives detailed the plan for Google to get involved in the region.

Russia can ramp up its military presence in Syria “in hours” if need be, Vladimir Putin has said in an apparent warning to anyone considering taking advantage of his decision to withdraw forces from the country. Mr. Putin made the comments as he addressed more than 700 servicemen who have completed tours of duty in the Kremlin on Thursday afternoon. […] The comments are bound to fuel suspicions about the true nature of the Russian withdrawal in Western capitals. Despite declaring the mission over, Mr. Putin has previously made clear that substantial garrisons will remain in Syria at the Hmeymim...

Al-Qaeda militants swept through a rebel-held town in northern Syria in a display of dominance Sunday, arresting U.S.-backed fighters and looting weapons stores belonging to the Free Syrian Army. The militants belonging to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front along with allied jihadists have been moving to exert their authority over rebel-held areas in Idlib province since a partial ceasefire to the country’s five-year conflict took effect two weeks ago, extinguishing patriotic demonstrations and sidelining nationalist militias. …

A group of United Nations' member-states on Thursday elected the Assad regime to a leadership post of a special committee dealing with decolonization, sparking protests from a human rights group that had earlier urged U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to intervene. At a meeting in New York, the committee's newly-elected chairman, Venezuelan ambassador Rafael Ramirez, asked the member-states whether there were any objections to putting forward Syrian ambassador Bashar Ja'afari as its "rapporteur" for the coming year. Hearing no objectives, Ramirez declared Ja'afari -- as well as three nominated vice chairmen, the representatives of Cuba, Sierra Leone and Indonesia -- "elected...

Assad has done some bad things in his day. There is no doubt about that. What choice did he have? The Alawaites are a tiny minority group (12%) surrounded by a sea of intolerant radical Sunni Arabs. He has made deals with horrible people. As an Israeli, I know this all too well. At the same time, I can take a step back and understand that the Middle East is a tough place and tough places call for tough measures. As I mentioned above the Alawites are a 12% minority. Most of their neighbors consider them pagans who worship the...

Russia has ramped up its air war in Syria—big time. And it’s starting to show. Relentless and indiscriminate, Moscow’s bombing runs have devastated military and civilian strongholds and cleared a path for Syrian regime forces to counterattack against ISIS militants and rebels. Five months after the first Russian warplanes slipped into Syria to reinforce the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin’s air wing near Latakia—on Syria’s Mediterranean coast in the heart of regime territory—has found its rhythm, launching roughly one air strike every 20 minutes targeting Islamic State militants, U.S.-backed rebels and civilians in rebel-controlled areas.

Russia's envoy to the U.N. on Friday warned long-term ally President Bashar al-Assad over his vow to retake all of Syria, saying he faced dire consequences if he did not comply with Moscow over the peace process. 'Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically and now also militarily,' Vitaly Churkin told Kommersant newspaper, referring to an international agreement to cease hostilities sealed in Munich last week. 'Therefore we would like Assad also to respond to this,' he said, adding that the Syrian leader's stance 'is not in accord with the diplomatic efforts that Russia is making.'

The United States is coming under increasingly bitter criticism for its perceived lack of leadership over Syria as the country's brutal civil conflict heads toward new levels of intensity. Washington appears unable or unwilling to prevent its ally Turkey from bombing Kurdish fighters inside Syria, its critics say. And it has done little to rein in Russia's mounting military involvement on behalf of Bashar al-Assad. President Barack Obama, at a summit in California, said "this is not a contest between me and Putin." "The real question we should be asking is what is it that Russia thinks it gains if...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday backed a call from Turkey for a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, saying it would alleviate the situation of displaced Syrians. "In the current situation it would be helpful, if there could be such an area, where none of the parties are allowed to launch aerial attacks, that is to say, a kind of no-fly zone," she told the daily Stuttgarter Zeitung, when asked about opening up such areas to host people fleeing fighting in the war-torn country. Merkel's call came on the same day that the Luftwaffe (German air force) confirmed Russian...