Free Republic

Back in October, we previewed the “promised” battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city prior to the war. By the time Russia began constructing an air base at Latakia, the city - which is immensely important both from a strategic and psychological perspective - was controlled by a hodgepodge of rebels and militants including al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, and ISIS. As we noted four months ago, if Russia and Hezbollah manage to recapture the city, it would effectively restore the Assad government in Syria even if the east of the country is still controlled by Islamic State. In many ways,...

Moscow places S-400 'Growlers' in Syria's Latakia base, in an escalation that places Ben-Gurion Airport within range. Russia has revealed in photographs that it has deployed a highly advanced anti-missile system in western Syria, that is capable of downing planes taking off in Tel Aviv. The S-400 anti-missile system, known to NATO as the SA-21 "Growler," was shown to be stationed in the Latakia Airbase on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean Sea in photographs released by the Russian military, reports the Daily Mail on Thursday. In the past there have been Arab media reports of Israeli airstrikes in Latakia...

The recent arrival of the Russian Marines and Air Force to the Syrian port-city of Tartous has generated a significant amount of interest around the world, as the possibility of Russia’s direct military intervention becomes the focal point of the war on ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham). [....] Instead, the Russians appear to have a contingency that involves another world power that was absent from the U.S. led Anti-ISIS Coalition: China. On Tuesday morning, a Chinese naval vessel reportedly traveled through Egypt’s Suez Canal to enter the Mediterranean Sea; its destination was not confirmed. However, according to a...

When Zero Hedge first reported ten days ago that Russian troops, in their bid to support the Assad regime in its ongoing confrontation with various ISIS, Al Nusra, and other US-supported groups in what has become the proxy war of 2015 (one which even comes with thousands of refugees for dramatic media impact) had been quietly massing in Syria and have set up a forward operating base near Damascus, there were those who were openly skeptical. Then, just a few hours ago, Bloomberg finally confirmed that "top officials were scheduled to meet at the National Security Council Deputies Committee level...

Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad. The anonymous officials say Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for up to 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving the Syrian port city of Latakia. Russia has also requested the rights to fly over neighbouring countries with military cargo aircraft during September, according to the reports. The claims, which will raise fears that Russia is planning to expand its...

Iran has sent 15,000 fighters to Syria to reverse recent battlefield setbacks for Syrian government troops and wants to achieve results by the end of the month, a Lebanese political source has told The Daily Star. The militia force, made up of Iranians, Iraqis and Afghanis, the source said, have arrived in the Damascus region and in the coastal province of Latakia. The source said the fighters are expected to spearhead an effort to seize areas of Idlib province, where the regime has suffered a string of defeats at the hands of a rebel-jihadi coalition. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander...

Weakened by years of war, Syria's government appears ready for the country's de facto partition, defending strategically important areas and leaving much of the country to rebels and jihadists, experts and diplomats say. The strategy was in evidence last week with the army's retreat from the ancient central city of Palmyra after an advance by the Islamic State group (ISIS or IS)... Syria's regime labels all those fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad "terrorists," and has pointed to the emergence of ISIS and Al-Nusra as evidence that opponents of the regime are extremists. Since the uprising against Assad began in...

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state-run TV says the leader of the powerful al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra has been killed. The one-line report, which could not be immediately confirmed, says Abu Mohammad al-Golani was killed in the coastal province of Latakia. It did not say when or give other details. Opposition groups had no immediate comment on the report.

Syrian rebels have killed a top intelligence officer in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, Syrian state media said on Thursday, according to AFP... Jamaa was head of military intelligence in the province, where the regime has been battling armed opposition fighters seeking to overthrow President Bashar Al-Assad. State media gave no immediate details on where in the province Jamaa was killed or how, but jihadist forums said he died during clashes with jihadist fighters in the city of Deir Ezzor. Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights NGO, said initial reports suggested Jamaa had been...

Salim Idris, commander of the Free Syrian Army... said the attack on the rebel enclaves around the capital on Aug. 21 was ordered as pressure mounted on Assad -- even from his own supporters -- for a reprisal to the Aug. 8 attack, in which rebels fired rockets at his motorcade as it rolled through the Malki neighborhood of Damascus, headed to a local mosque for prayers marking the end of Ramadan. Assad is not believed to have been in the motorcade at the time of the rocket attack, but the brazen assault on the president's own doorstep had a...

Since launching the surprise assault at dawn on Sunday, the mainly Islamist rebel brigades led by two al Qaeda-linked groups have captured half a dozen villages on the northern edges of the Alawite mountain range, the activists say. The rebel strike into Alawite territory and their capture of a military airport north of Aleppo mark two major gains for Assad's foes after months of setbacks during which they lost ground around the capital Damascus and the central city of Homs. Combined with a steady fightback in the southern province of Deraa, they highlight the challenge Assad faces in trying to...

An attack two weeks ago that destroyed an advanced Russian missile shipment delivered to Syria’s Assad regime should also serve as a warning to Iran – and to those complacent Western diplomats who have (dangerously in my view) reconciled themselves to the idea of allowing Iran to go nuclear and then trying to contain it. For it seems that the July 5 attack on an arms depot near the Syrian naval base of Latakia, which has been attributed to Israel, came not from the air (as CNN and the New York Times reported last weekend) but from under the water....

REUTERS/Baz Ratner New reports of strikes on Russian anti-ship missiles near the port of Latakia, Syria, seem to indicate another possible Israeli strike, Reuters reports. This would be the fourth such strike this year.From Reuters:Rebels described huge blasts - the ferocity of which, they said, was beyond the firepower available to them but consistent with that of a modern military like Israel's.Israel has not confirmed or denied involvement. The Syrian government has not commented on the incident, beyond a state television report noting a "series of explosions" at the site.As has been the trend, Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the strikes.Israel...

PLO official accuses Syria of crimes against humanity Syrian government forces attack port city for 4th day; Palestinian refugees flee camps in area; villages near Homs reportedly under attack. An assault by Syrian security forces on a Palestinian refugee camp in the coastal city of Latakia amounts to a crime against humanity, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization said. "The shelling is taking place using gunships and tanks on houses built from tin, on people who have no place to run to or even a shelter to hide in," Yasser Abed Rabbo, the PLO secretary general, told Reuters....

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, put himself on a direct collision course with Washington yesterday after sending in tanks to crush anti-government protests in his country's main port city. Armoured vehicles rolled into the palm-lined streets of Latakia, on Syria's Mediterranean coast, less than 24 hours after the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, issued a direct warning to Mr Assad to "immediately stop the violence". By yesterday afternoon, phone lines and internet lines to Latakia had been largely cut off, but activists said spoke of "intense" gunfire rocking city for at least an hour and a half during the...

Western intelligence agencies believe that Iran will provide funding for "a multi-million-dollar military base" in Syria, according to a report published Saturday in a British newspaper. According to the Daily Telegraph, the deal would assist with the development of an Iranian military compound at Syria's Latakia airport to be completed by the end of next year. The agreement will open a supply a route that will allow Iran to transfer military hardware to Syria. Furthermore, the report says, teams of Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers are to be stationed at Latakia on a permanent basis, where they will coordinate arms shipments...

The Obama administration is pushing for a formal censure of Iran and Syria at the United Nations over an arms-smuggling case (which) highlight(s) the risks that Iranian weapons shipments pose to regional stability. The move .... could impede the ability of Iranian shipping firms to deliver arms to militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories, U.S. and other Western officials said. SNIP "The fact that Iran is smuggling arms isn't new. What's new is that they got caught in the act," said a European official working on Iran. "We now have the evidence." The...

The minister was answering questions from listeners to the Israeli Broadcasting Service’s Farsi program Monday night, Aug. 27. Avigdor Lieberman said Israel is extending aid to those opposition organizations which are proving effective. He is therefore the first member of the Israeli government to expose the clandestine war gaining ground between Israel and Iran in recent weeks, say DEBKAfile’s sources. The also disclose that ten days ago, Iran alerted Shiite militias under their control in Iraq to a report that the Israeli Mossad intelligence service had delivered long-range shoulder-borne, anti-air and anti-tank missiles to PJAK, the Iranian Kurdistan Free Life...

In early June, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Moscow's decision to establish naval bases in the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia. The Russian Defense Ministry officially denied the report, even though more than one source confirmed it. As part of the plan, the port of Tartus would be transformed into a naval base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet when it is away from the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol. The Russian plan involves the installation of an air defense system with S-300PMU-2 Favorit ballistic missiles. The missiles have a range of 200 kilometers (124 miles), allow a larger warhead...

Cyprus halts Syria-bound ship A ship suspected of carrying illicit cargo from North Korea to Syria has been impounded by port authorities in Cyprus and its crew arrested while police search the cargo, the head of maritime security at the port of Limassol said on Thursday. "It was stopped because it was initially suspected of carrying weapons for Syria ... We had information from Interpol and action was taken on it," Fokas Riris, head of port facility security in Limassol said by telephone from Cyprus. "All 15 crew have been arrested and are being questioned by police, all government agencies...