Free Republic

The reason Russia is possibly building a new airbase on the Turkish border inside Syria became clearer today as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Turkey could enter the war on the side of the anti-Assad forces who Russia has been primarily targeting. The Syrian government made major gains against the Sunni opposition in recent weeks as the Syrian city of Aleppo looked to fall from the opposition’s control. Turkey has repeatedly urged the American-led coalition against ISIS to do more to help the anti-Assad forces. “We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq,”...

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian rebels battled for their survival in and around Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Thursday after a blitz of Russian airstrikes helped government loyalists sever a vital supply route and sent a new surge of refugees fleeing toward the border with Turkey. The Russian-backed onslaught against rebel positions in Aleppo coincided with the failure of peace talks in Geneva, and helped reinforce opposition suspicions that Russia and its Syrian government allies are more interested in securing a military victory over the rebels than negotiating a settlement. After two days of what rebel fighters described as the...

Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing violence in the war-torn country have amassed on the Turkish border, with more compatriots also expected to head toward the frontier. The increased refugee flow from northern Syria amid the conflict in Syria’s Azaz and Aleppo regions – two strongholds of the Syrian opposition – reached the Turkey border on Feb. 5 as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said they expected around 70,000 refugees, including Turkmens, to flock to the Turkey-Syria border. Around 10,000 refugees have already been placed in tent cities on the Syrian side of the border, having reached the region after...

Wed Feb 3, 2016 4:18am EST Lavrov: Russia won't stop Syria strikes until 'terrorists' defeated Russia will not stop its air strikes on Syria until armed groups, such as al Qaeda's wing there, are defeated, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia should stop bombing opposition forces in Syria now that U.N.-led peace talks have started. "Russian strikes will not cease until we really defeat terrorist organisations like Jabhat al-Nusra. And I don't see why these air strikes should be stopped," he said at a news conference in...

Shortly before Syria peace talks begin, Turkey infiltrates Syria By MAAYAN GROISMAN \ 01/20/2016 17:26 Eyewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS fighters, which raises the question of possible collaboration between ISIS and Turkey. In what appears to be a well-planned strategic move committed in light of the upcoming Syria peace talks, a large number of Turkish forces crossed the border and entered the Syrian town of Jarablus on Tuesday, according to Turkish media reports. Eyewitnesses to the incursion reported that the Turkish forces have not encountered any resistance from ISIS...

President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan said on Friday that Turkey will not allow Russia to build a base in northern Syria. President ErdoÄŸan was asked by reporters after the Friday prayer of what he thinks about claims that Russia will build a base in Northern Syria. ErdoÄŸan said that Turkey is aware that there are around 100 Russian soldiers deployed in northern Syria. ErdoÄŸan said that the PYD terror organization, which is known to be supported by Russia, is no different than the Daesh terror organization. "There is no difference between them. We will also talk with Mr. Biden about this...

ISIS massacres 300 and kidnaps at least 400 including women and children during attack on government-held city ISIS have abducted at least 400 civilians including women and children after capturing new territory in an assault on Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. Activists from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they believed ISIS rounded up the civilians following an attack on the north of the city. 'After their attack on Deir Ezzor yesterday, IS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the Al-Baghaliyeh suburb it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city,' the...

The Iran-backed Shia terrorist group Hezbollah has lost an estimated 1,300 to 1,500 soldiers, more than one-third of its force, while fighting against rebels and the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria on behalf of dictator Bashar al-Assad, according to Israeli experts. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, another 5,000 Hezbollah jihadists have been wounded, analysts reportedly said.

Senior US Security Sources: Syria's Main Missile and Chemical Weapons Facility at Homs Blown up in Mysterious Explosions on March 24. North Koreans Among Tens of Engineers and Technicians Killed in Underground Plant. Factory Manufactured Scud-C and Scud-D, Liquid and Solid Fuels, Chemical Warheads, Oxidizers. Syrians Suspect Israeli Undercover Saboteurs Struck in Reprisal for Syrian Military Intelligence Aid in Terrorist Hit against Galilee Highway on March 12 - Or US Reprisal for Free al Qaeda Transit through Syria. Israeli Air Force Chief Halutz: Odds on Second Front Opening up in North Higher than Contemplated Few Months Back. Continuing Shelling and...

Syria rebels begin leaving Homs under truce deal AFP By Maher Al Mounes 2 hours ago Homs (Syria) (AFP) - Syrian rebels began evacuating the last opposition-held district in Homs on Wednesday, paving the way for President Bashar al-Assad's regime to take full control of the country's third-largest city. Hundreds of Syrian rebels and civilians were leaving the Waer district under a rare local ceasefire agreed with the regime at the start of December. Some 2,000 rebels and their families will abandon Waer in Homs -- once dubbed the "capital" of Syria's revolution -- to travel to other opposition-held areas,...

Revolutionary Guards Quds Force's notorious chief Qassem Suleimani severely injured in clashes south of Aleppo For nearly 5 years the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force’s notorious chief Qassem Suleimani has been spearheading Iran’s full-pledged support for the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. This shadowy figure has been the symbol of Tehran’s infamous plots in Syria, and reports have also indicated Suleimani was running the show and issuing orders to senior Syrian generals and political officials, and at times, even Assad himself. Enjoying the full support of and reporting only to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Suleimani had unimaginable authority in Syria. That...

This video brilliantly explains Syria's four-year civil war became so complicated, as we teeter on the edge of becoming militarily involved in it for the first time. Taking us from the first protests against Assad's regime in early 2011, the Vox video explains how different factions emerged over time and the war evolved into a confrontation between regional powers as well as the US and Russia. Next time someone argues for or against whether we should bomb Islamic State in Syria as if it's straight forward, suggest they watch this.

In Turkish media it emerges that Turkey's support for ISIS jihadists in Syria comes from the highest level of power in the country - the President and the government. Today's Zaman, which is controlled by the Gülen movement, writes that President Recep Erdoğan has admitted that the Turkish intelligence service, MIT, has smuggled weapons to ISIS in Syria. In a speech on November 24, to an assembly of teachers, the president said, according to the newspaper: "You know of the treason regarding the MIT trucks, don't you? So what if there were weapons in them? I believe that our people...

Moscow/Beirut (dpa) - One hundred and sixty Russian citizens fighting for the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria have been killed, a Russian deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, amid stepped-up international military action in the war-torn country. "At the present time, there are more than 25,000 foreign terrorist militants fighting under the banner of Islamic State, including from Arab countries, Europe, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States [a bloc of post-Soviet republics]," Oleg Syromolotov said, quoted by state news agency TASS. He added that 2,719 Russian citizens had gone to fight for the Islamist militia in Syria. "One...

(AGI) Ankara, Nov 11 - The Turkish government is preparing to send 10,700 soldiers to Syria in mid-December to fight ISIS and create safe areas for displaced people in the north of the country, reported pro-government daily Yeni Safak. The newspaper said that Ankara will present a document analysing the situation in Syria and will include a request for funds to the great powers at the G20 summit in Antalya over the weekend. Ankara's aim would be to reverse the course of the military campaign against the jihadists and the migrant crisis. The plan provides for the entry of troops...

The conflict in Syria has drawn in major global powers, some supporting and some opposing President Bashar al-Assad. The Assad family has ruled Syria for more than four decades, but how did they rise to power? Hafez al-Assad was the architect of modern Syria. Following decades of coups and counter-coups in Syria, Hafez used the network he had built in the posts of Commander of the Syrian air force and Minister of Defence to seize power in 1970. To maintain his position, Hafez created a system of divide and rule and personalised his power to such an extent that it...

MANAMA, Bahrain – The United States is ramping up its support for Syria's opposition with a pledge of nearly $100 million in fresh aid. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the additional assistance Saturday at the Manama Dialogue security conference in the Gulf island nation of Bahrain.

In an interview with Spanish newspapers that was published October 31st, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon condemned U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad be removed from office, and Moon said: “The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people.” The U.N. Secretary General is here implicitly blaming all of this - lots of blood and misery - on U.S. President Obama, and on the “many Western countries” who ally with him and have joined with him in demanding regime-change in Syria. The position of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been, and is, to the...

IDF units on Mount Hermon, which borders Syria, are preparing to encounter Iranian-backed terror attacks, a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. According to the source, units operating under the command of the Mount Hermon territorial Brigade have been training to respond to a "combined terror attack" that could involve border bombs, rockets, an attempted kidnapping of soldiers, and possible anti-tank missile fire. "There is someone who gets up every morning and asks, how can I carry out an attack on Israel? Most of the time, they run into great difficulties," the source said. He stressed that...

In order to deter the Syrian and Russian Air Forces inside the East Ghouta (collection of farms) region of rural Damascus, the U.S. backed moderate rebels from “Jaysh Al-Islam” (Army of Islam) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have placed kidnapped Alawite women in cages to protect themselves from airstrikes. The U.S. backed Syrian Opposition’s social media activists posted the photos of the six kidnapped Alawite women on Twitter, adding their extra commentary that included sectarian insults to degrade the helpless women and taunt the Syrian President Dr. Bashar Al-Assad. This is not the first time that the U.S. backed...