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Assad regime did battleground deals with Isil, sources tell Sky News
Syrian regime forces gather at a palace complex on the western edge of Palmyra after retaking it from Isil Credit: REUTERS/REUTERS
Sky News claimed last night to have evidence that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was actively colluding with the Syrian government to limit its losses.
Documents backed by interviews with Isil defectors were said to show that the Assad regime’s recapture of Palmyra was actively facilitated by the jihadists, who were allowed to pull out their heavy weapons and withdraw.
Sky News based its claims on further analysis of a leak of 22,000 Isil documents earlier this year.
Among them are what it says are agreements to exchange oil and fertiliser with the regime, and other signs of collusion between Isil and President Bashar al-Assad.
One of the documents gives an Isil fighter safe passage through checkpoints "until he reaches the border with the Syrian regime to exchange oil for fertiliser", according to Sky News.
Another is an order to "withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province", reportedly issued shortly before the Assad regime retook the city.
It has long been known that before the Syrian uprising the regime’s intelligence operatives co-operated with Isil’s predecessor movement in Iraq.
Opposition groups and western governments have claimed that the regime continued to encourage the rise of Isil and have done deals with the group as a way of weakening the moderate opposition to its rule.
A new study released on Monday suggests the group is carrying out more suicide bombings on civilian targets and other mass attacks as it tries to bolster its faltering position in both Iraq and Syria.
Mass attacks rose sharply in the first three months of the year in Syria and Iraq, according to the military consultancy IHS.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-sky-n/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Leaked documents, defectors reveal ISIS, Assad regime schemed together
In this Thursday, April 14, 2016 photo, A Syrian soldier walks next to the damaged Lion of Al-Lat statue outside the museum with some broken pieces lying next to it at the entrance of the museum in the town of Palmyra in the central Homs province, Syria. (AP)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Leaked secret documents and witness accounts of ISIS defectors revealed that the militant group and the Syrian regime have been colluding with each other in deals, the London-based Sky News reported Monday.
Sky News made the revelation after it received new letters in addition to the massive haul of 22,000 ISIS files handed over in March. The news outlet said the authenticity of the latest documents is “impossible to verify” but all previous leaks have proved to be genuine.
In one of the new letters, which are copies of handwritten orders sent from ISIS’s headquarters, show a deal to hand back the ancient city of Palmyra in south-central Syria to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The letter written shortly before the Syrian army recaptured Palmyra in early April after the city was occupied by ISIS for months, had some of its excerpts saying: “Withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province.”
The northern city of Raqqa is ISIS’s stronghold in Syria.
One of the letters obtained by Sky News.
ISIS defectors also confirmed this.
The defectors told Sky News that Palmyra was handed back to government forces by ISIS as part of a series of cooperation agreements going back years.
One of the defectors also claimed that ISIS was not only coordinating movement of its militants with the Syrian regime but also with the Russian airforce.
Arrangements to evacuate some areas by ISIS forces before the Syrian army attacked were also made.
Oil trade
Other deals include a request for a safe passage for a driver through ISIS checkpoints “until he reaches the border with the Syrian regime to exchange oil for fertilizer,” one letter showed.
The defectors claim this trade agreement between the two sides was going on for years.
Some of the defectors Sky News spoke to openly admit their prior allegiance to ISIS and admit that they only left because of internal disagreements with some of the militant group’s leadership but in reality they remain devoted to the militant group’s basic tenets.
The documents show that ISIS was also training its foreign militants to attack Western targets for much longer than security services had suspected.
Last Update: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 KSA 16:52 - GMT 13:52
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...eveal-ISIS-Assad-regime-schemed-together.html
Syrian regime forces gather at a palace complex on the western edge of Palmyra after retaking it from Isil Credit: REUTERS/REUTERS
- Richard Spencer, Middle East editor
Sky News claimed last night to have evidence that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was actively colluding with the Syrian government to limit its losses.
Documents backed by interviews with Isil defectors were said to show that the Assad regime’s recapture of Palmyra was actively facilitated by the jihadists, who were allowed to pull out their heavy weapons and withdraw.
Sky News based its claims on further analysis of a leak of 22,000 Isil documents earlier this year.
Among them are what it says are agreements to exchange oil and fertiliser with the regime, and other signs of collusion between Isil and President Bashar al-Assad.
One of the documents gives an Isil fighter safe passage through checkpoints "until he reaches the border with the Syrian regime to exchange oil for fertiliser", according to Sky News.
Another is an order to "withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province", reportedly issued shortly before the Assad regime retook the city.
It has long been known that before the Syrian uprising the regime’s intelligence operatives co-operated with Isil’s predecessor movement in Iraq.
Opposition groups and western governments have claimed that the regime continued to encourage the rise of Isil and have done deals with the group as a way of weakening the moderate opposition to its rule.
A new study released on Monday suggests the group is carrying out more suicide bombings on civilian targets and other mass attacks as it tries to bolster its faltering position in both Iraq and Syria.
Mass attacks rose sharply in the first three months of the year in Syria and Iraq, according to the military consultancy IHS.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...-sky-n/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Leaked documents, defectors reveal ISIS, Assad regime schemed together
In this Thursday, April 14, 2016 photo, A Syrian soldier walks next to the damaged Lion of Al-Lat statue outside the museum with some broken pieces lying next to it at the entrance of the museum in the town of Palmyra in the central Homs province, Syria. (AP)
Staff writer, Al Arabiya English Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Leaked secret documents and witness accounts of ISIS defectors revealed that the militant group and the Syrian regime have been colluding with each other in deals, the London-based Sky News reported Monday.
Sky News made the revelation after it received new letters in addition to the massive haul of 22,000 ISIS files handed over in March. The news outlet said the authenticity of the latest documents is “impossible to verify” but all previous leaks have proved to be genuine.
In one of the new letters, which are copies of handwritten orders sent from ISIS’s headquarters, show a deal to hand back the ancient city of Palmyra in south-central Syria to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The letter written shortly before the Syrian army recaptured Palmyra in early April after the city was occupied by ISIS for months, had some of its excerpts saying: “Withdraw all heavy artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns from in and around Palmyra to Raqqa province.”
The northern city of Raqqa is ISIS’s stronghold in Syria.
One of the letters obtained by Sky News.
ISIS defectors also confirmed this.
The defectors told Sky News that Palmyra was handed back to government forces by ISIS as part of a series of cooperation agreements going back years.
One of the defectors also claimed that ISIS was not only coordinating movement of its militants with the Syrian regime but also with the Russian airforce.
Arrangements to evacuate some areas by ISIS forces before the Syrian army attacked were also made.
Oil trade
Other deals include a request for a safe passage for a driver through ISIS checkpoints “until he reaches the border with the Syrian regime to exchange oil for fertilizer,” one letter showed.
The defectors claim this trade agreement between the two sides was going on for years.
Some of the defectors Sky News spoke to openly admit their prior allegiance to ISIS and admit that they only left because of internal disagreements with some of the militant group’s leadership but in reality they remain devoted to the militant group’s basic tenets.
The documents show that ISIS was also training its foreign militants to attack Western targets for much longer than security services had suspected.
Last Update: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 KSA 16:52 - GMT 13:52
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...eveal-ISIS-Assad-regime-schemed-together.html
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