Syrian Civil War (Graphic Photos/Vid Not Allowed)

[Dr.Thrax]

While rebels advance in Idlib and Hama, ISIS attacks them in Aleppo killing dozens.

Whats more interesting CC which bombs ISIS like crazy in Raqqa and Hasaka is totally passive against them in Aleppo.

Coalition would rather see Syria divided rather than help rebels. They know rebels won't play into their interests in the future, and by not helping they're reducing future US influence in Syria to little to none.

 

[Hussein]

Suleimani pics strike again:

Right guy is Suleiman Hilal al-Assad. He was not killed himself for a change but he murdered a SAA colonel for no reason.

Indeed he killed the colonel in front of his kids ... and for a stupid reason (car driving)
it seems it couldn't be otherwise that Suleiman Hilal al-Assad is now asked to come to justice (will be judged for this crime). this is the good point of this story if they really judge this retard.

 

[500]

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Rebels have launched a ground offensive against Fu'ah and Kufraya enclaves (which include some other minor villages.) Tunnel bomb already happened.

Pounding positions within the enclaves with a D-30:

All regime held bases, villages, and checkpoints liberated by Jaysh al Fateh:

In Idlib:
Zezyoun Power plant.
Zaydiyeh Village
Frikka Village
Tall Awar and its village
Tall Khattab
Tall Shiekh Yaseen
Mushayrifah Village & Tall Mushayrifah
Sla' al Zuhour Village
Marj al Zuhour Village
Kufayr Village
Al 'Alawiyan Checkpoint
Ma'amil alma'krouna Checkpoint
Al-manshar Checkpoint
Al 'Abri Checkpoint
Frikka Bridge Checkpoint
Houses Checkpoint
In Hama:
Qarqur Village
Qarqur Base & its hill
Msheek Village
Ziyarah Village
Al-Tanmiyah Base
Tall Wisat Village
Mansoura Village
Mansoura Grain Silos
Khirbet Naqous Village
Zazyoun Dam Checkpoint

That makes 26 areas of projection of control taken over by Jaysh al Fateh. Not bad at all. Death toll for regime was somewhere between 50-75. 8 vehicles captured by Jaysh al Fateh including 3 tanks. Also when Jaysh al Fateh completely take over the Ghab Plain (which is coming soon, the "Tiger's forces" ran like the cats they are, "The Tiger" himself was injured), that means entirity of Latakia and Hama will be open. Obviously wise decision would be to focus on Hama, Homs, and Aleppo first, but also apply light pressure on the coast (bombardment of regime bases and such.)

In other news, JaN pulled out of front lines with ISIS in North Aleppo, clear indication that Turkish intervention will be happening. FSA units replaced them. While this was happening, Daesh launched an attack on Umm al Hawsh village with 2 massive VBIEDs & an offensive to follow up, the village fell to Daesh with around 50 FSA casualties. Meanwhile, the ISIS frontline with Assad near Shiekh Najjar is quiet.

 

[500]

SAA colonel murdered by Assad's cousin:

Cousin is still at large.

 

[Madali]

Indeed he killed the colonel in front of his kids ... and for a stupid reason (car driving)
it seems it couldn't be otherwise that Suleiman Hilal al-Assad is now asked to come to justice (will be judged for this crime). this is the good point of this story if they really judge this retard.

If Assad is smart, he can use this incident to his own advantage. First of all, he should come out, and strongly condemn the incident, hold a large funeral for the colonel (don't know if this is already done or not), and show his support base and army that he is 100% (not even 99%) on the side of the colonel. This will certainly make raise him in people's eyes.

However, if he is wishy-washy, soft, can't decide, then it will become a major black point on him. In this stage, his army is much more important than his extended family.

Bashar is a good peace time president, but he is not up to standards as a war president. He doesn't make quick and brave decisions. He takes his sweet time with every decision and by that time, it is too late.

---

Oh and by the way, I was just reading on Bashar's older brother, Bassel, who was supposed to be the successor but he died in a car crash,
Bassel al-Assad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does anyone who has indepth knowledge on Syria tell me what they think about Bassel? That is, what if he hasn't died and was President?

He looks cooler,

 

[Yazp]

Those of you who think the YPG and Kurds are "ethnically cleansing "Arabs, take a look at this video.

 

[Ahmed Jo]

If Assad is smart, he can use this incident to his own advantage. First of all, he should come out, and strongly condemn the incident, hold a large funeral for the colonel (don't know if this is already done or not), and show his support base and army that he is 100% (not even 99%) on the side of the colonel. This will certainly make raise him in people's eyes.

However, if he is wishy-washy, soft, can't decide, then it will become a major black point on him. In this stage, his army is much more important than his extended family.

Bashar is a good peace time president, but he is not up to standards as a war president. He doesn't make quick and brave decisions. He takes his sweet time with every decision and by that time, it is too late.

---

Oh and by the way, I was just reading on Bashar's older brother, Bassel, who was supposed to be the successor but he died in a car crash,
Bassel al-Assad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Does anyone who has indepth knowledge on Syria tell me what they think about Bassel? That is, what if he hasn't died and was President?

He looks cooler,

Just as you said, bashar is wishy washy and can't decide, while Bassel on the other hand had been by his father for a long time and saw how he ruled. Basically he would've ruled in the same way as hafez which is to not give the people even the chance to revolt. The Internet and TV sattelites would still be heavily restricted. Imagine a North Korea in the Arab world but with a more regionally active regime.

 

[Solomon2]

ISIS abducts 230 civilians in central Syria

In this Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014 photo, a woman looks on at the mortars exploding close by in Kobane, Syria. (AP)

Friday, 7 August 2015
The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in a central Syrian town hours after it captured it, a monitoring group said on Friday, the same day the U.N. approved a resolution aimed at identifying perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in the war-torn nation which have killed hundreds.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were taken on Thursday in the town of Al-Qaryatain, which ISIS jihadists had captured late Wednesday.

“Daesh kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, during a sweep through Al-Qaryatain,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, using another name for ISIS.

Many of the Christians had fled from Aleppo province, in Syria’s north, to seek refuge in Al-Qaryatain.

He said those abducted were wanted by ISIS for “collaborating with the regime,” and their names were on a list used by the jihadists as they swept through the town.

Families who tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the jihadists, he said.

Al-Qaryatain lies at the crossroads between ISIS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in the Qalamun area.

It had a pre-war population of 18,000, including Sunni Muslims and around 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

According to a Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from Al-Qaryatain, the town’s Christian population has dropped to only 300.

In May, masked men abducted Syrian priest Jacques Mourad from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in Al-Qaryatain, near the ISIS-captured ancient city of Palmyra.


Mourad, who was known to help both Christians and Muslims, was preparing aid for an influx of refugees from Palmyra.

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Rebels have launched a ground offensive against Fu'ah and Kufraya enclaves (which include some other minor villages.) Tunnel bomb already happened.

Pounding positions within the enclaves with a D-30:

All regime held bases, villages, and checkpoints liberated by Jaysh al Fateh:

In Idlib:
Zezyoun Power plant.
Zaydiyeh Village
Frikka Village
Tall Awar and its village
Tall Khattab
Tall Shiekh Yaseen
Mushayrifah Village & Tall Mushayrifah
Sla' al Zuhour Village
Marj al Zuhour Village
Kufayr Village
Al 'Alawiyan Checkpoint
Ma'amil alma'krouna Checkpoint
Al-manshar Checkpoint
Al 'Abri Checkpoint
Frikka Bridge Checkpoint
Houses Checkpoint
In Hama:
Qarqur Village
Qarqur Base & its hill
Msheek Village
Ziyarah Village
Al-Tanmiyah Base
Tall Wisat Village
Mansoura Village
Mansoura Grain Silos
Khirbet Naqous Village
Zazyoun Dam Checkpoint

That makes 26 areas of projection of control taken over by Jaysh al Fateh. Not bad at all. Death toll for regime was somewhere between 50-75. 8 vehicles captured by Jaysh al Fateh including 3 tanks. Also when Jaysh al Fateh completely take over the Ghab Plain (which is coming soon, the "Tiger's forces" ran like the cats they are, "The Tiger" himself was injured), that means entirity of Latakia and Hama will be open. Obviously wise decision would be to focus on Hama, Homs, and Aleppo first, but also apply light pressure on the coast (bombardment of regime bases and such.)

In other news, JaN pulled out of front lines with ISIS in North Aleppo, clear indication that Turkish intervention will be happening. FSA units replaced them. While this was happening, Daesh launched an attack on Umm al Hawsh village with 2 massive VBIEDs & an offensive to follow up, the village fell to Daesh with around 50 FSA casualties. Meanwhile, the ISIS frontline with Assad near Shiekh Najjar is quiet.

I hope FSA groups deal with those villages and their people the same way Iranian stooges dealt with Zabadani. Keep their people inside and continue shelling them until all houses are leveled to the ground, all Iranian stooges areas should be dealt with this way.

 

[Serpentine]

I hope FSA groups deal with those villages and their people the same way Iranian stooges dealt with Zabadani. Keep their people inside and continue shelling them until all houses are leveled to the ground, all Iranian stooges areas should be dealt with this way.

It's funny how you have finally put off the mask and started to show your true face after the whole Yemen issue. I tried to do it in past years, but now you helped me much by doing it yourself.

The same person who was shedding crocodile tears over Syria for years is now desperately wishing to see 40,000 civilians be shelled to their death. I think it is good so everyone here can see your faces and what you represent.

Unlike Zabadani where no civilians live anymore and bunch of rats are hiding in buildings and streets (about a thousand), there are 40,000 civilians in those 2 towns. (And we offered a safe exit to those rats if they stop fighting, but they refused because of their stupid conspiracy reasons).

Although, that doesn't mean civilians in Fu'ua and Kafraya aren't killing rats. Since yesterday, they have sent 2 dozen terrorists to hell and destroyed 3 armored vehicles and tanks.

In response, brave Sunni fighters shot unguided rockets on town, killing 4 civilians including one baby and 2 women.

 

[Ahmed Jo]

@Dr.Thrax what group does "الفرقة 30 مشاة" belong to? FSA, yes, but beyond that? Are they Islamists? An overview of them would be appreciated.

 

[500]

@Dr.Thrax what group does "الفرقة 30 مشاة" belong to? FSA, yes, but beyond that? Are they Islamists? An overview of them would be appreciated.

These are 60 clowns trained by Pentagon and mostly captured by Nusra. So called "moderate rebels".

 

[Solomon2]

Inside Syria: Kurds Roll Back ISIS, but Alliances Are Strained
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI AUG. 10, 2015

HASAKA, Syria — Green drapes were drawn against the sun, cloaking the room where members of a Syrian Kurdish militia huddled around walkie-talkies, assiduously taking down GPS coordinates.

Talal Raman, a 36-year-old Kurdish fighter, worked on a Samsung tablet, annotating a Google Earth map marked with the positions of the deserted apartment buildings and crumbling villas from where his colleagues were battling Islamic State fighters south of this northern Syrian town. He pinpointed in yellow the positions where his men were hunkered behind a wall, and highlighted in red the coordinates of a building next to a mosque where Islamic State fighters had taken cover.

“Our comrades can see the enemy moving at the GPS address I just sent you,” he wrote in Arabic to a handler hundreds of miles away in a United States military operations room. Then he waited for the American warplanes to scream in.

The strike that ensued soon after blasted a crater at exactly the coordinates provided by the Kurdish fighter. It left a circle of bodies, including one of an Islamic State fighter who died slumped over his AK-47. An urgent message came in from the coalition war room: “Please confirm our comrades are O.K.?”

The tight coordination of American air power with the militia, known as the Y.P.G., from the Kurdish initials for People’s Protection Units, has dealt the Islamic State its most significant setbacks across an enormous strip of northern Syria near the Turkish border in recent months.

Now, the United States air campaign is poised to expand, aided by a deal with Turkey to allow American aircraft to fly bombing missions from bases closer to the border.

Yet at a time when the militia, the Americans’ most effective ally inSyria, would otherwise be celebrating the increased help, its members are sounding a note of worry. That is because Turkey is making some moves of its own.

Until last month, Turkey had resisted calls to do more to support the fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, mindful that it might further Kurdish ambitions to eventually carve out an independent state. The Kurds, who number roughly 30 million and are spread out over Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, have been described as the world’s largest ethnic group without a homeland.

So even as Turkey agreed to join the fight against the Islamic State, it immediately began bombarding the mountain camps of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K., an insurgent group in Turkey and Iraq that is allied with the Y.P.G.

The Turkish deal with the United States sets up an “ISIS-free” bombardment zone along a 60-mile strip of the border region that features another exclusion: At Turkey’s request, it is also explicitly a zone free of the Kurdish militia, even though the Kurds had begun advancing toward the area to start battling the Islamic State there.

Despite cooperating with American forces for months, the Syrian Kurds are now starting to worry that their success might not outweigh Turkey’s importance to the United States.

“There is only one group that has consistently and effectively battled ISIS in Syria, and that is the Y.P.G.,” said Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the militia who says it has grown to include 35,000 soldiers, about 11 years after its start as a self-defense force in a single town. “Opening another front in the region — as Turkey has by attacking the P.K.K. — will make the forces fighting ISIS weaker,” Mr. Khalil said. “Which in turn makes ISIS stronger.”

Cale Salih, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the author of numerous articles on Kurdish affairs, summed up the unease over the deal with Turkey this way: “If it comes at the price of the relationship with one of the few effective partners on the ground in Syria, it doesn’t seem to make sense.”

American officials have always had to step carefully when cooperating with the Kurdish militia in Syria because of its links to the P.K.K., which is widely listed as a terrorist group. American officials have acknowledged cooperating with the militia in general terms. In an emailed response to questions, however, the Pentagon would not confirm whether the militia was calling in airstrike coordinates, saying only that it was working with Syrian Kurds as well as other groups.

The United States and members of the militia take pains to note that it is not the same group as the outlawed P.K.K. But on the ground in northern Syria, the connective tissue is hard to miss. Framed portraits of Abdullah Ocalan, the founder of the P.K.K. and champion of Kurdish autonomy, can be seen hanging in the offices and headquarters of the Y.P.G. militia. Fighters wear pins bearing his image. In Hasaka, Islamic State fighters who are captured on the battlefield end up on gurneys in a hospital adorned with a wall-size portrait of Mr. Ocalan, who has been imprisoned since 1999.

“It’s a nonsensical situation where you have P.K.K. fighters who are called ‘terrorists’ if they happen to be on the Iraq or Turkey side of the border,” Ms. Salih said. “Yet if the same fighter crosses into Syria, he is now ‘working with the coalition in the battle against the Islamic State.’ ”

Kurdish Y.P.G. forces have seized territory from the Islamic State along the border with Turkey, building a nearly contiguous Kurdish-controlled area. The proposed “ISIS-free” zone would also prevent further Kurdish advances.

There is growing evidence that large numbers of these fighters are directly joining the fight in Syria, too. Bulent Aliriza, the director of the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, estimates that thousands have crossed from Turkey to join the Kurdish militia in Syria in fighting the Islamic State, making the distinction between the two groups even more vague.

As it has captured territory from the Islamic State, the Kurdish militia has rapidly expanded its territory in northern Syria by more than a third, now controlling more than 11,000 square miles — a ribbon of land roughly the size of Maryland. Across the border, Turkish officials have watched the Kurds’ gains with unease. And the growing cooperation between the United States and the militia has only heightened Turkish concerns, Mr. Aliriza said.

That cooperation took off last October, when the Islamic State almost overran the border town of Kobani, cutting off a unit of Kurdish fighters. A senior Syrian Kurdish official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence details, said he had traveled to Erbil, in northern Iraq, in October to meet with United States military commanders. After much negotiation, he said, the Americans agreed to airdrop 27 pallets of weapons and ammunition, supplied by Kurdish officials in neighboring Iraq.

Y.P.G. fighters provided the Americans with GPS coordinates of a site in Syria, and approximately 20 metric tons of supplies floated down before dawn on Oct. 19. “And it started from there,” said the official, who explained how that first exchange evolved to include coordination of airstrikes, allowing the militia to take back Kobani, followed by victories in Tal Abyad and, in recent days, most of the province of Hasaka.

All the political complications are troubling to Mr. Raman, the radio operator who spends his days behind the green drapes sending in airstrike coordinates. His tools include nothing more than a walkie-talkie, a Samsung tablet and a cellphone, on which he has a screen saver of Mr. Ocalan’s face.

He sees himself as a partner of the Western pilots flying warplanes overhead — just as he sees the P.K.K. as his militia’s partner in the fight against the Islamic State. “If the Turks bomb the P.K.K., they’re in effect helping ISIS,” he said.

Here in northern Syria, the battle against the Islamic State looks like this: Units of Y.P.G. fighters driving pickup trucks and minivans flying the group’s yellow banner amass at the front, which is fluid and in some places is leaping forward by as much as one mile every day. The Kurds’ uniforms feature Marpat digital patterns, a type of camouflage pioneered by the United States Marines, reproduced in a factory here using local cotton and sewn by Kurdish tailors, officials said.

Each fighter is assigned to a platoon of about 30 members. In keeping with Mr. Ocalan’s philosophy of gender parity, women are present in large numbers on the battlefield, and portraits of female martyrs adorn almost as many billboards and lamp posts as those of their male colleagues.

It was a female commander who led the battle that unfolded inside a group of empty apartment blocks in the town of Hasaka last week. Black pools of melted plastic and tar lined the road to the area, marking where Islamic State suicide bombers had detonated their belts. At a nearby traffic circle, a crane operator was trying to lift an old Soviet-designed T-55 tank recently recovered from Islamic State fighters.

The road turned to dirt, passing abandoned multistory buildings, their walls a Swiss-cheese pattern of holes left by machine-gun fire. Several streets in, a mosque with a green dome shared a wall with a building from which a unit of Y.P.G. fighters began taking heavy fire.

Just after 10 p.m. on July 30, a Kurdish fighter radioed the coordinates of the building to Mr. Raman. According to the log of the exchange, a few minutes passed before the fighter called again to say he had sight of a group of Islamic State fighters.

In his relay station, Mr. Raman and his partner jotted down the coordinates: 36 degrees, 28 minutes, 23 seconds north latitude; 40 degrees, 44 minutes, 58 seconds east longitude. They noted the location on a digital map on their tablet computers, as well as in a spiral notebook, decorated with a picture of a smiling baby.

Then they sent the grid via chat to their handlers in the American operations room.

At 10:12 p.m., the coalition sent a message asking for confirmation that the Kurdish militia was still taking fire from the location. Mr. Raman answered that it was, before asking: “Is there a fighter jet overhead?”

“Yes, and they’re preparing to strike,” his counterpart replied.

At 10:23, the operations room sent a Google Earth map, showing a large, yellow circle approximately 100 yards to the north of the Islamic State target. The official instructed Mr. Raman to tell his men to retreat to the circle. “Make sure our comrades are in the yellow, O.K.?” the official wrote in Arabic.

At 10:34, he stressed: “Can you confirm that they’re inside the yellow? Because the pilot is waiting.”

The countdown began at 10:38 p.m., immediately after Kurdish fighters radioed Mr. Raman to say that their colleagues were in the safe zone.

“3 min.,” said the first message from the coalition.

“1 min.”

“30 sec.”

Then: “Strike,” and a request to confirm that Kurds nearby had not been hurt.

Just after midnight, he received one last message saying that the coalition’s aircraft had counted nine bodies.

Later the next day, when New York Times journalists went to the scene of the blast, the mosque was still partly standing, though with part of its dome missing. The GPS coordinates of the strike site exactly matched what Mr. Raman sent to the coalition war room. A spokesman for the coalition declined to identify the specific coordinates, saying only that coalition planes had conducted seven airstrikes that day on Islamic State targets near Hasaka.

The bodies of the Islamic State fighters lay around the eight-foot-deep crater. There were nine in all, some wedged under slabs of concrete. One wore a camouflage vest. Another died within reach of his rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

Bullet casings littered the ground like confetti.

Anne Barnard contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Eric Schmitt from Washington.

 

[Ahmed Jo]

Trouble in paradise: Regime loyalists ranting at SAA soldiers retreating from front lines with Jaish Al Fateh to Joureen military base. For non-Arabic speakers, they're saying something like "mashallah mashallah, tough guys you are, real tough guys! Leave your weapons here! Hurry up. If you want to go the base leave your weapons here."
جرذان الأسد الهاربين أمام جيش الفتح إلى معسكرجورين - YouTube
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Zabadani main square, before and after.