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Syria claimed that its counteroffensive successfully pushed back insurgents attempting to advance toward the strategic city of Hama, while opposition forces reported capturing additional Syrian soldiers and Iran-backed militants in intense clashes. This latest flare-up in Syria's civil war follows recent gains by insurgents, including the capture of large areas in the northern city of Aleppo and towns in the southern part of Idlib province. The conflict between President Bashar Assad's government and armed opposition forces, which seek to overthrow him, has claimed an estimated half-a-million lives over the past 13 years. According to Syrian state media SANA, government forces,...

LLast week, apparently catching the world by surprise, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels launched a surprise offensive against government-controlled positions in northwestern Syria. Within 72 hours, incredibly, they had expelled Assad’s troops from large swathes of Aleppo. HTS’s triumph restored a rebel presence to Aleppo for the first time in eight years and paved the way for the unfreezing of the Syrian Civil War. Predictably, Russian fighter jets – supporting their ally, Assad – responded by bombing rebel-held areas of Aleppo and Idlib. Iran-aligned Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun militias also joined the fight on the dictator’s behalf. Regardless of what...

Russia and Iran have rushed to the aid of an embattled ally as the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad announced a counteroffensive against rebel groups that have scored stunning advances in the past 48 hours. Russian warplanes hit rebel-held targets in the northwest region of Idlib on Sunday as Iran’s foreign minister made an emergency trip to Damascus to demonstrate support for the Assad regime. Syrian jets also hit rebel-held areas of the cities of Aleppo and Idlib which have fallen to the insurgents’ lightning advance. The moves were a sign of the deep shock delivered to Mr. Assad,...

The Syrian military rushed reinforcements to the country’s northwest and launched airstrikes on a major city Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized the country’s largest city of Aleppo in a surprise offensive in recent days. The insurgency, led by jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched their campaign on Wednesday with a two-pronged attack on Aleppo and the countryside around Idlib, before moving toward neighboring Hama province. On Sunday, government troops created a “strong defensive line” in northern Hama, according to Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as they attempted to stall the...

Abu Ali, 09/28/2024, 10:41 am.. Idlib, Syria. On the signs it says: Thank you Netanyahu. Now the head of the criminal Bashar Assad. Thank you Netanyahu. Warmed the hearts of Syrian children.

The remains of motorcycle which was reportedly targeted in a drone attack on the eastern edge of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, early on June 28, 2022. The U.S. military said it carried out a "kinetic strike" targeting a leader of the Hurras al-Din jihadist group, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, in the Syrian province of Idlib. Omar Haj Kadour/AFP via Getty Images U.S. forces killed a senior terrorist leader in an airstrike in Syria on Monday, according to military officials. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said the target of the strike, Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, was a senior leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist...

President Barack Obama lied when he said his administration would retaliate if Syria used chemical weapons and claimed he "would promise something and do the opposite", setting the Middle East back 20 years, a former top Saudi official has claimed. Bandar bin Sultan, who served as the head of Saudi intelligence and later as the Saudi ambassador to the United States, lashed out against Obama in a wide-ranging interview with the Independent Arabia, a newly launched publication in London. He said that the late Saudi King Abdullah told Obama in their last phone call that “I did not expect that...

U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned the Syrian government it should not see the impending U.S. military withdrawal from the country as an invitation to use chemical weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump said in December that U.S. troops had succeeded in their mission to defeat Islamic State militants and were no longer needed in the country. The announcement, which took officials in Washington and allies abroad by surprise, contributed to Jim Mattis’ decision to resign as U.S. defense secretary and prompted concern that Islamic State could stage a comeback.

UKRAINE-RUSSIA LATEST: https://t.co/IeMjCns7Gu🔷 Russians reportedly bringing bio-chem weapon suits into Ukraine🔷 Evidence mounting that Russia's attacks will result in war crimes🔷 U.S. says task force targeting sanctioned Russian oligarchs is 'up and running' pic.twitter.com/Ua8SWqJrhX— ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2022

President Vladimir Putin has promised government backing for Islamic religious education in Russia, in a bid to stave extremism and cater to Russia’s large Muslim community. Up to 20 million Muslims make up Russia’s second-largest religious minority. Thousands of young radicalized Russians have travelled to Iraq and Syria to join jihadist fighters in recent years, making the country the largest source of foreign fighters in the war-torn region. At a meeting with Islamic religious figures on Wednesday, Russia’s president pledged “undoubted support” for a "revival of Islamic education in Russia," the state-run TASS news agency reported. “Traditional Islam is an...

For the last several years, Russian security services have driven Islamist radicals and others out of the North Caucasus and other regions of the Russian Federation under paid of jail or death to fight for ISIS in Syria, Israeli expert Avraam Shmulyevich says. Now that the last redoubts of the Islamic State in that country have fallen, these same services, exploiting Chechens in Syria, have begun to extract these same people back to Russia, an action that strongly suggests, the president of the Israeli Eastern Partnership Institute says, that Moscow plans to make use of them elsewhere – and may...

Almost 450 extremists from various nationalities arrive to Idlib to fight against Russian troops, after leaving Syria and passing through Turkey.Close to 450 extremist Arab and foreign nationals have arrived in Ukraine from Idlib to fight against Russia's forces, less than only three days after they left Syria, passing through Turkey.Relatives of extremists that have arrived in Ukraine told Sputnik that senior fighters from terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (the rebranded version of Jabhat Al-Nusra, i.e Al-Qaeda) have held a number of meetings with senior leaders in the Turkistan Islamic Party group and Ansar Al-Tawhid and Hurras al-Din groups, and...

Chechen Residents: Dozens of Those Killed in Battle in Ukraine Have Been Delivered to the Republic. Local residents say that several dozen residents of Chechnya, who took part in the fighting in Ukraine and died in the Donetsk region, have been brought back to their homeland in the last few days, giving numbers from 35 to 40-45 dead. The Republic’s security agencies declined to comment on these reports, writes a correspondent for Caucasian Knot. Caucasian Knot has reported that, following the change of power in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, clashes broke out in the towns of...

A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' has been unleashed in Ukraine to detain or kill a set of specific Ukrainian officials. Each soldier was reportedly given a special 'deck of cards' with Ukrainian officials' photos and descriptions on them, a Moscow Telegram channel with links to the security establishment reported. The list is of officials and security officers suspected of 'crimes' by the Russian Investigative Committee, the report added. It came as Ukraine's president admitted he is 'target number one' for Russian assassins in his capital, while his family is 'the number two goal' for Putin's hitmen. The Chechen...

The warlord who runs Chechnya held a rally of an estimated 10,000 fighters who could be dispatched to Ukraine to take part in the invasion. The servicemen gathered in the Chechen capital, Grozny, after Friday prayers in a show of strength by Ramzan Kadyrov, an erstwhile separatist rebel who became one of President Putin’s most loyal henchmen. Addressing the uniformed men, Kadyrov, 45, said that fighters would serve in the “hottest spots in Ukraine”, and that he could muster 70,000 volunteers. Video showed the Muslim fighters standing in serried ranks in a central square and crying in unison: “Allahu Akbar!”...

A squad of Chechen special forces 'hunters' has been unleashed in Ukraine to detain or kill a set of specific Ukrainian officials. Each soldier was reportedly given a special 'deck of cards' with Ukrainian officials' photos and descriptions on them, a Moscow Telegram channel with links to the security establishment reported. The list is of officials and security officers suspected of 'crimes' by the Russian Investigative Committee, the report added.

In Gostomel area on Saturday, Ukrainian troops defeated a special unit of the Russian Guard of Chechnya. This information was confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. It is reported that during the defeat of the unit, General Magomed Tushaev, commander of the 141st motorized regiment of the Chechen National Guard, was killed. This was confirmed by a captured fighter from this unit. According to a source in the Ministry of Defense, “the National Guard of Ukraine and the Alpha special unit are now dealing with the rest of the unit with small arms already.”

MOSCOW, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Saturday that Chechen fighters had been deployed to Ukraine and urged Ukrainians to overthrow their government. In a video posted online, Kadyrov boasted that Chechen units had so far suffered no losses and said Russian forces could easily take large Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, but that their task was to avoid loss of life.

In the area of Gostomel on Saturday, the Ukrainian army defeated a special unit of the Rosgvardiya of Chechnya. This information was confirmed to Interfax-Ukraine by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the censor reports.No. It is reported that during the defeat of the unit, general Magomed Tushaev, commander of the 141st motorized Regiment of the Rosgvardiya of Chechnya, was destroyed. This was confirmed by a captured soldier of this unit. According to a source in the Ministry of Defense, "the National Guard of Ukraine and the Alpha special unit are already dealing with the remaining small arms."

Ukraine landed a significant blow on Russia Saturday after it killed a large group of bloodthirsty Chechen special forces dispatched to assassinate the country's president Volodymyr Zelensky. The armed group - famed for their barbaric violence and human rights abuses - were obliterated after their convoy of 56 tanks was blown to smithereens by Ukrainian missile fire on the second day of the Chechens' deployment. It is unclear how many died - but the number is likely to run into the hundreds. Among those wiped out was Chechen general Magomed Tushaev. He was commander of the 141th motorized national guard...