Free Republic 1st Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $58,647
72%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 72%!! Thank you everyone!! God bless.

Keyword: syriawar

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • To confront Iran in Syria, Israel may have to defy Russia

    12/04/2018 12:05:19 PM PST · by CondoleezzaProtege · 10 replies
    Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec 4, 2018 | Charles Bybelezer
    Russia has completed an elaborate air defense system in Syria that curbs the operational capabilities of both the United States and Israel, according to a report by the Washington- based Institute for the Study of War. The deployments throughout the conflict-ravaged country include variations of the advanced S-300 and S-400 systems in addition to other cutting-edge technologies. Moscow long ago exported such systems to Syria, however, they remained under the control of its own army. Only after the accidental downing in September by Syrian forces of a Russian reconnaissance plane, an incident the Kremlin blamed on Jerusalem which minutes earlier...
  • Putin dials back the rhetoric against Israel after downing of spy plane but still vows action

    09/19/2018 4:02:11 PM PDT · by SleeperCatcher · 9 replies
    Great Power War ^ | 9/19/18 | USA Features
    Putin’s dialing down of the rhetoric is an effort to mask his intentions. He — Russia — still has the same foreign policy interests in Syria as he did before the plane was shot down, and those aren’t going to change anytime soon. When journalists asked him about the much more hostile statement of his Defense Ministry, which also vowed a retaliatory response, Putin stated clearly that it was “fully coordinated” with him (of course it was). He defined what ‘retaliatory’ meant. “The retaliatory measures will be directed above all to boosting the security of military men and installations in...
  • Israeli missiles strike near Damascus airport, says Syrian state media

    09/16/2018 10:15:08 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 9 replies
    The Guardian ^ | Sat 15 Sep 2018 18.29 EDT
    “The missiles, suspected to be Israeli, destroyed an arms warehouse near the Damascus International Airport,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. He had no immediate information on casualties. Israel has vowed to prevent Iran, which is a main backer of Syria’s government, from gaining a foothold in neighbouring war-torn Syria. Earlier this month, Israel acknowledged having carried out more than 200 strikes in Syria over the past 18 months, mainly against Iranian targets. It has also admitted to striking Syria to prevent what it says are deliveries of advanced weaponry to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, an armed movement backed by Iran...
  • Why did Putin disregard his Turkish partner? (Turkey, Russia, Iran summit)

    09/10/2018 9:29:08 AM PDT · by Texas Fossil · 18 replies
    Al-Monitor ^ | September 10, 2018 | Cengiz Candar
    The trilateral summit in Tehran between the presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia was one of the most unusual parades of international diplomacy yet. It was televised live. Let’s remember the scenes: All who watched it saw how Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blundered and how Russian President Vladimir Putin ridiculed him. Then it was a rare — if not unique — case of international diplomacy where a trilateral partnership considered detrimental to the interests of the West displayed signs of failure on a burning international issue.What has had the West — the transatlantic security system — worried for some time is NATO-member Turkey’s partnership...
  • Turkey reinforces military in Syria's Idlib after ceasefire call fails

    09/12/2018 10:25:32 AM PDT · by Navy Patriot · 6 replies
    Yahoo Noose ^ | September 12, 2018 | Orhan Coskun and Suleiman Al-Khalidi
    Turkey is reinforcing its military posts inside Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib, Turkish and Syrian rebels sources say, seeking to deter a government offensive which it says would unleash a humanitarian disaster on its border. President Tayyip Erdogan has warned that an assault by the army and its Russian and Iran-backed allies on Idlib, home to around 3 million people, will uproot hundreds of thousands in one of Syria's last rebel strongholds. Already hosting 3.5 million Syrians - the world's biggest refugee population - Turkey says it cannot absorb more victims of the war and has accused the West of...
  • Syria's Assad approves gas attack in Idlib despite warning, report says

    09/10/2018 4:20:00 AM PDT · by familyop · 32 replies
    Fox News ^ | September 10, 2018 | Edmund DeMarche
    President Bashar al-Assad has approved a gas attack in the Idlib province, which is the country’s last rebel stronghold, a report on Sunday said...The Wall Street Journal reported that the international pressure did little to sway Assad, who benefits from support from Russia and Iran. The report said Assad has approved the use of chlorine gas...Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a “total annihilation of terrorists in Syria,” while Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke of “cleansing the Idlib region of terrorists.”
  • John Kerry: US 'Paid a Price' for Not Enforcing Obama's 'Red Line' in Syria

    09/04/2018 3:12:00 AM PDT · by JonnyFive · 25 replies
    Fox News ^ | 09/03/18 | Fox News Insider
    Former Secretary of State John Kerry said former President Barack Obama should have followed through on his infamous "red line" warning to Syria, and the United States "paid a price" as a result of Obama's inaction. Obama vowed in 2012 that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime used chemical weapons on civilians, it would be a "game changer" for U.S. military involvement in Syria. But Obama failed to enforce the promise a year later when hundreds of Syrians were killed in a sarin gas attack, and he instead brokered a multi-nation deal in which Assad pledged to remove his chemical...
  • Syrian war: UN warns Russia, Iran and Turkey against battle in Idlib

    08/30/2018 9:51:28 AM PDT · by raiderboy · 7 replies
    Guardian ^ | August 30, 2018 | Guardian ,AP, Reuters staff
    UN Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, told reporters on Thursday there was a high concentration of foreign fighters in Idlib, including an estimated 10,000 terrorists, but it would be better to set up humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians than rush into a battle that could prove to be a “perfect storm”. A source told Reuters that Russia’s ally, the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, was preparing a phased offensive in Idlib. On Thursday the Kremlin called Idlib a hotbed of terrorists and said not tackling the problem was not a good option.
  • Russia to hold Mediterranean naval drills as Syria tensions rise

    08/30/2018 8:58:04 AM PDT · by McGruff · 7 replies
    The Jerusalem Post ^ | August 30, 2018 | REUTERS
    Russia's Ministry of Defense said on Thursday it would hold a major naval exercise in the Mediterranean Sea from Sept. 1 to Sept. 8, the TASS news agency reported, a move that coincides with rising tensions between Moscow and Washington over Syria. Russia has this month been actively expanding its naval forces in the Mediterranean, part of what a Russian newspaper on Tuesday called Moscow's largest naval build-up since it entered the Syrian conflict in 2015. TASS cited the defense ministry as saying that 25 warships and submarines and 30 planes, including fighter jets and strategic bombers, would take part,...
  • Russia seeks US help to rebuild Syria

    08/03/2018 4:08:24 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 37 replies
    Reuters ^ | August 3, 2018 | Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed
    Russia has used a closely guarded communications channel with America's top general to propose the two former Cold War foes cooperate to rebuild Syria and repatriate refugees to the war-torn country, according to a U.S. government memo. The proposal was sent in a July 19 letter by Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian military's General Staff, to U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Russian plan, which has not been previously reported, has received an icy reception in Washington. The memo said the U.S. policy was only to support such efforts if there...
  • Israel claims the Syrian civil war is effectively over — and President Assad is back in control

    08/03/2018 11:06:10 AM PDT · by Navy Patriot · 42 replies
    CNBC ^ | August 2, 2018 | Sam Meredith
    Israel claimed Syria's long-running civil war had effectively come to an end Thursday and predicted the Golan Heights frontier between the two countries would be much quieter over the coming months. Syrian President Bashar Assad has sought to restore central rule in several southwestern areas of the country in recent weeks, with a particular focus on reclaiming Golan Heights — an area of strategic and political significance for both Damascus and Jerusalem. "From our perspective, the situation is returning to how it was before the civil war, meaning there is a real address, someone responsible, and central rule," Israeli Defense...
  • First Win for Trump-Putin Summit: Agreement to Restrain Iran in Syria

    07/18/2018 6:58:20 PM PDT · by Jim Robinson · 18 replies
    Breitbart ^ | July 18, 2018 | Joel B. Pollak
    President Donald Trump has been criticized by the media and by Beltway politicians of both parties for his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday. But the summit has already produced a very significant win: namely, agreement to avoid a war in the Middle East by restraining Iran in Syria. As Breitbart News columnist Caroline Glick noted last month, it was crucial that Trump confront Putin over Syria, because Russia was about to allow Iranian and Hezbollah soldiers, dressed in Syrian uniforms, to move into southwestern Syria along the border with Israel and Jordan.
  • Syrian Government Appeals for Refugees to Return, Help Rebuild Country

    07/06/2018 1:54:00 PM PDT · by ATOMIC_PUNK · 16 replies
    BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government on Tuesday called on refugees to return, saying it has successfully cleared large areas of “terrorists.” The rare appeal reflects the government’s growing confidence after more than seven years of war. While officials usually appeal to Syrians abroad to return during television appearances and interviews, this is the first formal appeal broadcast on official media. Syrian government forces, with crucial support from Russia and Iran, recently retook large areas near the capital, Damascus, and are waging a new offensive in the south that U.N. officials say has displaced more than 270,000 people. The U.N....
  • Syrian Christians Face a Grim Dilemma

    06/30/2018 1:39:14 PM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 13 replies
    Providence Mag ^ | 2018 | Philippe Nassif
    Assad’s cleverly crafted narrative has for years gained acceptance from some DC policymakers, religious freedom communities, and Christian activists that my organization, In Defense of Christians, operates among. That is, he portrays himself as the protector of Syria’s Christians and other religious minorities, such as the Druzes, Yezidis, and his own Alawites, to name a few. In the face of the Islamic State scourge and many other Islamist rebels who despise Christians and other minorities, Assad was right. Christians were better off living in government-controlled areas and have stuck by, reluctantly, to his regime. But the narrative has quickly crumbled...
  • Israel rushes to secure its border and 'prevent entry of refugees' as 120,000 Syrians flee [tr]

    06/29/2018 12:23:19 PM PDT · by C19fan · 11 replies
    UK Daily Mail ^ | June 29, 2018 | Iain Burns
    Israel is rushing to secure its northeastern border after the latest onslaught from Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad drove 120,000 people to flee their homes. A war monitoring group said today that most of the refugees are heading towards the border with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. A senior Israeli minister said refugees gathering at the Golan frontier must be prevented from crossing into Israel.
  • Cutting off Iran’s 'road to the sea' in Syria

    06/19/2018 11:26:06 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 8 replies
    Jerusalem Post ^ | June 19, 2018 | Seth J. Frantzman
    In the background of the strike stands Iran's attempt to construct a network of friendly forces stretching from Iraq through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2016, pro-western sources in Iraq warned that Iran was building just such a conduit. In December 2017, The New Arab reported that convoys of unmarked vehicle had passed into Syria from Iraq through checkpoints manned by the Hashd al-Shaabi, the mostly Shi'ite militias that are known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). These militias play a complex role, forming one of a patchwork of similar groups that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has enlisted to...
  • Pro-Assad Alliance Beginning to Crumble in Syria

    06/13/2018 9:23:26 AM PDT · by CondoleezzaProtege · 20 replies
    Gulf News ^ | June 12, 2018 | Mustafa Karkouti
    Recent developments indicate a possible turnaround of events in the hotly contested Syrian war zones because of rethinking process of how best to achieve the aim of containing Iran. This seems to be imminent because of apparent cracks in the Russia-Iran alliance that has been shoring up Al Assad’s regime for the last three years at least. Two other players, namely Turkey and the US, have apparently reached what seems to be a workable level of understanding to coordinate their activities in the heavily Kurdish populated parts of Syria, particularly in Manbij area. Recent reports suggest that the US and...
  • Sen. Mike Lee pushes back against Trump administration’s claim it had authority for airstrikes

    04/16/2018 12:31:20 PM PDT · by jazusamo · 85 replies
    The Washington Times ^ | April 16, 2018 | Sally Persons
    Sen. Mike Lee issued a statement Monday criticizing the Trump administration for not seeking congressional authority before launching airstrikes in Syria. “No President of the United States, no matter party or political ideology, has the authority to unilaterally start a war. While the president has the authority under the War Powers Act to respond when the U.S. is under attack or in imminent danger, such circumstances did not exist with regard to Syria,” Mr. Lee, Utah Republican, tweeted.
  • Airspace Over Syria Cleared for Attack

    04/11/2018 5:11:06 PM PDT · by Helicondelta · 152 replies
    thesun.co.uk ^ | April 11, 2018
    A HEAVY flight of US-led coalition warplanes have reportedly been seen flying over the Iraqi border as a nerve gas counter attack looms. Flight data shows planes being diverted from Syrian airspace as a 48 hour clearance was reportedly ordered by the US military
  • There Are Some Problems With Gas Cylinders Videos Used By White Helmets As Evidence Of Douma Attack

    04/12/2018 6:28:10 AM PDT · by Basket_of_Deplorables · 85 replies
    Southfront ^ | 4/11/2018 | Southfront
    While horrible photos (link 18+) of people allegedly killed in the April 7 Douma attack rapidly became widely known after they had been released by the White Helments, there was something ignored by the media. Besides the photos of the dead bodies, Douma “media activists” also released videos showing two compressed gas cylinders, which had allegedly been used by “the Assad regime” to conduct the chemical attack on Douma. These videos raise some questions.... ------------snip---------- So, the questions: Why the cylinder#1 is undamaged if it has been dropped by a helicopter? Why the cylinder#1 is closed? Why the bed under...