Free Republic

Syrian forces backed by Hezbollah militants from Lebanon are said to have made significant advances against rebels after heavy Russian air strikes. Government gains are being reported in Idlib, Hama and Latakia provinces. Russia says its aircraft carried out more than 60 missions over Syria in the past 24 hours, and that the Islamic State group was its main target. But the Russian strikes appear to have impacted heavily on rebels fighting both the government and IS. The main battlefront is currently close to the key highway that links the capital Damascus with other major cities, including Aleppo, and President...

As relations between the West and Russia steadily deteriorate, Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots have been given the go-ahead to shoot down Russian military jets when flying missions over Syria and Iraq, if they are endangered by them. The development comes with warnings that the UK and Russia are now "one step closer" to being at war. RAF Tornada pilots have been instructed to avoid contact with Russian aircraft while engaged in missions for Operation Shader - the codename for the RAF's anti-Isis work in Iraq and Syria. But their aircraft have been armed with air-to-air missiles and the pilots...

A Saudi Arabian official has reportedly disclosed that the Sunni kingdom sent Syrian rebels a new batch of one of the most effective weapons for battling against the Assad regime this week. BBC correspondent Frank Gardner tweeted that a Saudi official confirmed the delivery of 500 TOW antitank missiles to the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The FSA is currently being squeezed from all directions by the Syrian military, Russian airstrikes, and competition from jihadist fighters, including ISIS. The delivery of the TOW missiles — which have also been provided by the CIA — will increase the capabilities of the FSA...

A Russian air force jet has been shot down by Turkish forces after it strayed into the country's airspace, according to unconfirmed reports. Eyewitnesses reported a large explosion in Huraytan, northern Syria, as three fighter jets were sighted flying overhead, the Express said. A Turkish-based journalist tweeted that three Turkish planes were responding after radar locked on to some "mysterious" MiG-29 jets, which are a similiar model to those used by Russian forces. The news comes after Turkey scrambled F-16 fighter jets last weekend after a Russian MiG-29 crossed into Turkish territory near the town of Yayladagi, in Hatay province,...

Rssian air strikes are a source of hope for Syrians, according to the Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo. The Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo has welcomed Russia's military action in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad. He said Russian President Vladimir Putin "serves the Christians' cause", according to Al-Arabiya. He did however recognise that Putin was also protecting Russia's own interests in the campaign of air strikes in that began at the end of last month.

NEW DELHI: In what could be a game-changing arms acquisition, India is planning to acquire the new-generation Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems that can destroy incoming hostile aircraft, stealth fighters, missiles and drones at ranges of up to 400-km. Sources say the defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by Manohar Parrikar, will "soon" take up the proposal moved by the IAF to purchase around a dozen S-400 long-range systems from Russia. "The project is at an initial stage at present. But it will be a government-to-government contract when it is finalized, with the S-400 systems being inducted over several...

U.S. President Barack Obama tried to convince the King of Saudi Arabia to coordinate actions in the oil market to reduce world oil prices, the main source of Russia's export revenues, and "punish its behavior" in Crimea. Experts estimate that if the prices are reduced by as little as 12 dollars per barrel, the Russian Federation will lose $40 billion in revenue. There has been a precedent, because this is precisely how the USSR collapsed. Before Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. media was discussing options of "punishment" for Russia with sanctions for its "behavior in Crimea." The first...

Russian General Staff calls SCO to pool efforts against threats from Afghanistan Military & Defense October 08, 18:54 UTC+3 The emerging military-political situation in Central Asia [ ...] indicate that the SCO member states’ joint efforts to negate the regional security threats [ ...] are badly needed, official said MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS-DEFENSE/. The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should pool their efforts in order to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a tool for aggravating the situation in Central Asia, Sergei Istrakov, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said at an international conference on Afghanistan...

So how is this going to fair with the idea that Russia is “Magog’ and is to invade Israel (Ezekiel 38) when reality is that Israel is going to be assisting and helping Russia in its crushing of ISIS in Syria? What is coming out of Israel is disproving all these hordes who think that Russia is using Syria as a pretext to eventually invade Israel. According to the Israeli media itself: Israel will provide Russia with intelligence information about opposition sites in Syria to facilitate Moscow’s military operations, Channel 2TV has reported. The Israeli network said that a senior...

Sounds like knees are knockin in the ME and Saudis offered to go and ask for something... The visit of the Saudi official to Moscow against the backdrop of Russia's anti-terrorist operation in Syria, which Saudi Arabia remains vehemently opposed to, may indicate Riyadh's willingness to compromise with Moscow. Saudi Arabia hopes to change Moscow's attitude towards the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, promising strategic partnership and multi-billion-dollar projects. Noteworthy, Saudi Arabia remains one of the most ardent opponents to Bashar al-Assad. -

Social media users said there was a large explosion in Huraytan, northern Syria. The Russian Embassy in London was not available for comment. The Turkish military has blasted a Russian jet out of the sky after it violated its airspace, according to unconfirmed reports. Social media users said there was a large explosion in Huraytan, northern Syria. The Russian Embassy in London was not available for comment. Last week Turkey said its jets had intercepted a Russian fighter in its airspace and the prime minister threatened to shoot down any plane that strayed in future. Two Turkish F-16s forced the...

WASHINGTON — A mysterious Russian military satellite parked itself between two Intelsat satellites in geosynchronous orbit for five months this year, alarming company executives and leading to classified meetings among U.S. government officials. The Russian satellite, alternatively known as Luch or Olymp, launched in September 2014 and seven months later moved to a position directly between the Intelsat 7 and Intelsat 901 satellites, which are located within half a degree of one another 36,000 kilometers above the equator. At times, the Russian satellite maneuvered to about 10 kilometers of the Intelsat space vehicles, sources said, a distance so close that...

Chechnya’s macho leader Ramzan Kadyrov is the most loyal of Vladimir Putin’s regional heads, at least in theory. The central street of the captial, Grozny, is called Putin Avenue, and the lampposts lining it are adorned with the Russian tricolour. Putin’s portrait looks down from dozens of buildings across the city, and Kadyrov’s Instagram account, his main method of communication with the outside world, is full of protestations that he is a “foot soldier”, supremely loyal to Russia’s great leader. But recent events, especially the murder of Boris Nemtsov in Moscow, have led to renewed debate over whether the Kremlin’s...

President Barack Obama got “feisty” during an interview about Russian President Vladimir Putin, as one CBS News anchor put it. In the interview, set to air Sunday on “60 Minutes,” Obama immediately pushed back from reporter Steve Kroft’s line of questioning about America’s leadership around the world, particularly in the Middle East. “A year ago, when we did this interview, there was some saber-rattling between the United States and Russia on the Ukrainian border,” Kroft said. “Now it’s also going on in Syria. You said a year ago that the United States, America leads, that we are the indispensable nation....

“Probably 60 to 80 percent of the arms that America shoveled in have gone to al-Qaida and its affiliates,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma.

Buried beneath low mounds of earth, facing Mecca, lay Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian refugees who drowned this summer in the Aegean Sea trying to reach Europe in flimsy inflatable boats. Scanning the area, Christos Mavrakidis, a somber, hardened man who looks after one of the main cemeteries on Greece's Lesbos island, listed the years of other deaths: "2013, 2014, 2015." Now there is no room left in the narrow plot of land in the pauper's section of St. Panteleimon cemetery, close to where the colonnaded tombs of wealthy Greeks are built in the classical Greek style, and flowers adorn lavish...

From comments to video "Putin has stepped in to put everyone in their place. To maintain Assad in power in Syria, remove the US sphere of influence in ME and Ukraine and to stop the US Israel alliance's plan to destroy ME nations and send millions of refugees into Europe. Putin is so smart and so smooth. He is stopping the one world order boys in their tracks."

U.S. drivers can look forward to $2 gas later this year, thanks in part to the Iran nuclear deal announced Tuesday. Gas may only dip a few cents when the Iranian oil first starts to flow again, but by September drivers could see big savings. "Once we get past Labor Day, we should see gas falling by 10 to 15 cents a month," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst with the Oil Price Information Service. "By December a lot of places are going to see gasoline at $2 or less." Iran hasn't been able to sell oil to the United...

April 13, 2015, Monday TurkeyÂ’s Islamists betrayed Uyghurs, damaged ties with China Turkey's relations with China that were upgraded to a strategic partnership in 2010 were dealt a significant blow a year later when increasingly assertive political Islamists in the Turkish government started playing a game of proxies with the Uyghurs of Chinese nationality as part of their short-sighted vision of a regime change in their southern neighbor, Syria. This sudden turn of policy with respect to China's Xinjiang region, shaped at the highest level of the government with chief Islamist Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan setting the bar, has been a...

Nine cities in states across the US have pressed for resolutions to recognize October 12 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day rather than Columbus Day. Eight of those cities passed resolutions in the last two months and three adopted a resolution just this week. The City Council of Albuquerque, New Mexico voted six to three on Thursday to recognize October 12 as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a new proclamation:“Albuquerque recognizes the occupation of New Mexico’s homelands for the building of our City and knows indigenous nations have lived upon this land since time immemorial and values the process of our society...