Syrian Civil War (Graphic Photos/Vid Not Allowed)

[Hindustani78]

Wed Aug 26, 2015 11:28am EDT
Related: World, Turkey, Syria
ANKARA
Syrian FSA commander dies in attack in southern Turkey| Reuters



A commander from the rebel Free Syrian Army died in a bomb attack on his car in the southern Turkish province of Hatay on Wednesday, a news agency and two insurgent sources said.

The rebel leader was named by all sources as Jamil Raadoun, the commander of Sukour al-Ghab, one of several groups fighting under the FSA banner. Raadoun had survived a similar attack in Turkey in April.

The privately-run Dogan news agency said he died after explosives were detonated on his vehicle.

Two Syrian rebel sources confirmed the death. Residents said the blast outside Raadoun's home in the southeastern town of Antakya, near the Syrian border, shook nearby apartment blocks.

Hatay province Governor Ercan Topaca said the attack might be linked to "a dispute between Syrian opposition groups", state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Raadoun, who defected from the Syrian army early on in the four-year-old civil war, had been in Turkey for about a year, Topaca said.

Osama Abu Zayd, a spokesman for the FSA, said Raadoun's brigade has fought against both Islamic State group militants in the northern province of Aleppo, and against Syrian government forces in central Idlib and Hama provinces.

"It is one of the brigades which the West classifies as moderate, but did not get training," Abu Zayd said, although he added that it had received military support from countries which oppose President Bashar al-Assad, including anti-tank missiles.

Turkey and the United States are working on plans for joint air strikes in northern Syria in support of FSA rebels, part of an operation to push Islamic State fighters from a strip of territory running along the Turkish border.

Western states, alarmed by the rise of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and Islamic State, have been reluctant to support Islamists in Syria's four-year war, instead backing factions grouped loosely under the banner of the FSA. However, these factions have been increasingly eclipsed by Islamist groups.

A first group of rebels trained in Turkey by U.S. instructors has already deployed to Syria, but some of them were kidnapped within weeks by the Nusra Front.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters last Friday that a second group of rebel fighters trained in Turkey could be deployed to Syria within weeks.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Suleiman Khalidi in Amman; Writing by John Davison in Beirut; Editing by Jonny Hogg and Raissa Kasolowsky)

 

[Antaréss]

#Hama: Jaysh Al-Fat'h is Still Advancing in Al-Ghab Plain

Summary :
Hadi Al-Abdullah is speaking from Al-Mansoura village, he says Jaysh Al-Fat'h has retaken some villages and will make their way to Joureen which is 3 kilometers away from Khirbat Al-Naqous.

The following villages were taken by Jaysh Al-Fat'h :
- Tal Wasit
- Al-Mansoura
- Khirbat Al-Naqous
- Al-Qahira
- Al-Msheek
- Al-Ziyara

The following villages are still SAA-held :
- Al-Hakoura
- Joureen
- Na'our Joureen
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#Iran: An 'Oppressed Adviser' was Killed in Syria

Name: Hashim Shareefi
Nationality: Afghan or Iranian (the flag)

Source (Farsi): Dana.ir
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Two-days truce has started in Al-Zabadani (Reef Dimashq) | Al-Fou'a and Kafrayya (Idlib).
- Da'ish launched an ape-attack on Mari' (Aleppo).
- Rebels are clashing with the regime forces in Bashkoy (Aleppo).

 

[Al Bhatti]

August 26, 2015

Afghan resident Mohammad Shafi Karimi (centre) poses for a photograph with friends in Ghazni before leaving to fight in Syria, where he was killed. The fate of two brothers from Kabul, one grievously wounded, the other killed fighting in Syria, spotlights Iran’s covert but active recruitment of Afghan refugees to buttress President Bashar al-Assad’s steadily depleting forces. Shiite Iran, Assad’s key military and financial patron, denies enlisting Afghan mercenaries to fight alongside Syrian forces in the four-year conflict against opposition Sunni rebels that has left more than 240,000 people dead and millions displaced.

Iran enlists Afghan refugees as fighters to bolster Syria’s Al Assad
Some Afghan refugees are being coerced by Iran to fight, others lured with money and residency rights

The fate of two brothers from Kabul, one grievously wounded, the other killed fighting in Syria, spotlights Iran’s covert but active recruitment of Afghan refugees to buttress President Bashar Al Assad’s steadily depleting forces.

Iran, Al Assad’s key military and financial patron, denies enlisting Afghan mercenaries to fight alongside Syrian forces in the four-year conflict against opposition rebels that has left more than 240,000 people dead and millions displaced.

But interviews with Afghan fighters and relatives of combatants killed in Syria point to a vigorous — and sometimes coerced — recruitment drive of Shiite Hazara refugees by Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps propping up Al Assad’s floundering regime.

Tears well up in Jehantab’s rheumy eyes as she recalls the haunting parting words of her husband, 35-year-old Haider, when he called two months ago from Tehran: “I am going to Syria — and I may not come back.”

“’Very few fighters survive Syria’s brutal conflict’, he told me,” said Jehantab, swaddled in a white scarf and sitting with three young children on the floor of her Kabul home.

Haider, she said, was lured by the monthly salary of $700 (Dh2,571) — a tidy sum for a labourer with no combat experience — and the promise of an Iranian residency permit, an attractive inducement for refugees who otherwise live in constant fear of deportation.

“I begged him: ‘Don’t go, don’t kill yourself for money’,” said Jehantab, who asked to be identified only by her first name in order not to jeopardise her chances of getting the permit.

Haider’s premonition came true — a few days after he left, an Iranian official informed his relatives, also refugees in Tehran, that he had been killed in battle.

Haider was part of a growing wave of jobless young Afghans seeking shelter in neighbouring Iran from decades of turmoil and war tearing their country apart, only to be ensnared in another conflict.

“In terms of how they are recruited, deployed, and utilised in Syria, many Afghan Shiite fighters have suffered the fate of being used as cannon fodder,” said Phillip Smyth, an expert on Shiite militant groups, who estimates there are 2,000 to 3,500 Afghans currently fighting in Syria.

“Some are coerced to fight, others promised residency papers for their family, and a small salary. It demonstrates Iran’s exploitation of Afghan Shiite refugees.”

The Iranian embassy in Kabul said it rejects allegations that Tehran is enlisting Afghan refugees as “completely baseless”.

But in a video posted online apparently by anti-Al Assad rebels last year, a dazed and bloodied Afghan militiaman is seen confessing that he was an illegal immigrant in Iran, where authorities offered him $600 a month to fight in Syria — or face deportation.

It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the video.

But some Afghans like 27-year-old Mohammad have joined the fight to protect their sect, in particular the defence of the golden-domed Sayyeda Zainab, a prominent Shiite shrine located in a Damascus suburb.

A construction labourer in Tehran, he said he was flown with dozens of other Afghan fighters to Damascus seven months ago on a civilian plane after a week-long weapons-training course.

Part of the all-Afghan Fatemiyoun brigade, named after the daughter of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the guerrilla said he fought alongside Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shiite militia from Lebanon.

“Iran has no combat troops in Syria but the command is in their control,” Mohammad said in Kabul, pulling up his shirt to reveal a sutured shrapnel wound.

He said one firefight near Damascus with Daesh fighters desperate to achieve “martyrdom” in battle left 19 of his Afghan colleagues dead.

“[Daesh] is a common enemy of Iran and Afghanistan,” said Mohammad, who asked his last name be withheld. “This is a holy war.”

The rise of Fatemiyoun and other Iran-backed forces made up of Iraqis, Lebanese and Pakistani Shiites underscores Al Assad’s growing reliance on foreign mercenaries as rebels ramp up attacks on Damascus.

In a rare admission in July, Al Assad, who has faced a series of recent battlefield losses, acknowledged a manpower shortage faced by his government’s army amid growing deaths and defections.

Back in Jehantab’s home, Haider’s cousin, Zahra, consoled her and quietly fumed over his death “in a war that isn’t ours”.

“Going to Syria is like signing up for a suicide mission,” Zahra said in a phone call to Hussain, Haider’s brother who also volunteered to fight in Syria, where he suffered a deep shrapnel wound to his stomach.

“I’m OK. There were 300-400 of us [Afghans]. Many died, I survived,” Hussain said in a frail voice from a hospital bed in Tehran just before he was about to be wheeled into surgery.

“I hear you plan to go back? Don’t do that. Find work in Iran,” Zahra told him.

“There’s no work in Iran,” Hussain said.

As the line went dead, Zahra’s face dropped in her hands.

“Afghan lives have no value — both inside and outside Afghanistan,” she said.

Iran enlists Afghan refugees as fighters to bolster Syria’s Al Assad | GulfNews.com

 

[bdslph]

good IRAN

 

[Ahmed Jo]

https://twitter.com/x/status/636944529879228416

(Pic in tweet)

 

[Hussein]

Iran enlists Afghan refugees as fighters to bolster Syria’s Al Assad | GulfNews.com

they are some but most are volunteers .
indeed there are a lot of propaganda in gulf news and many local newspapers since everyone knows a lot of jihadis come from KSA and GCC countries. they try to blame so people forget . bit like 9/11 with most saudis .

in fact if you had a little knowledge of life in Iran , Afghans are not very much fund of Iranians , most of them.
for many reasons, like they forget easily Iran helped them, and pride . what i mean it is for majority ,quite the opposite then, of Afghans don't want to serve an Iranian political line. especially sacrify their lifes.
but lot of them have hated talibans , suffered from their actions, and everybody knows the roots of talibans are similar to the roots of the IS ... coming especially from the teachings of saudis .

 

[Serpentine]

Just saw a video where 'moderate' Ahrar al Sham terrorists beheads a wounded ISIS terrorist, after beating him in the face with foot.

The world is yet to believe that almost all those fighting against Assad in Syria are the same as ISIS. Only because they don't reveal their true nature in fear of world wide backlash and cutting of their funds from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (major supporters of terrorists in Syria) and also the west, doesn't mean they are not like ISIS inside. But they will eventually have to reveal their hideous side, they have done some of it by now.

God knows what they do in Syria with cameras off.

 

[Bratva]

Just saw a video where 'moderate' Ahrar al Sham terrorists beheads a wounded ISIS terrorist, after beating him in the face with foot.

The world is yet to believe that almost all those fighting against Assad in Syria are the same as ISIS. Only because they don't reveal their true nature in fear of world wide backlash and cutting of their funds from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (major supporters of terrorists in Syria) and also the west, doesn't mean they are not like ISIS inside. But they will eventually have to reveal their hideous side, they have done some of it by now.

God knows what they do in Syria with cameras off.

With the same strawmen argument (or the same brush with which you are painting), same thing can be said about Assad army,hezbollah and other syrian militias that they are same as Shabhihaa (inserting rest of your attributes here)

 

[soldier of Putin]

same thing can be said about Assad army,hezbollah and other syrian militias that they are same as Shabhihaa (inserting rest of your attributes here)

There is no more shabiha. Shabiha has been incorporated into National Defense Force much like Maidan rioters has been incorporated into the newly revived National Guard.

 

[Dr.Thrax]

Just saw a video where 'moderate' Ahrar al Sham terrorists beheads a wounded ISIS terrorist, after beating him in the face with foot.

The world is yet to believe that almost all those fighting against Assad in Syria are the same as ISIS. Only because they don't reveal their true nature in fear of world wide backlash and cutting of their funds from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (major supporters of terrorists in Syria) and also the west, doesn't mean they are not like ISIS inside. But they will eventually have to reveal their hideous side, they have done some of it by now.

God knows what they do in Syria with cameras off.

Under Islamic law, it is permissible to *massacre* Khawarij. You see, that is if you understood Islamic law.
ISIS are the main reason why Assad didn't fall quickly and won't fall in near future, they made mostly territorial gains vs rebels in 2014 and forced them to fight a 2 front war. In 2013 rebels were getting assassinated left and right by ISIS. Now you're telling me they wouldn't be pissed off at that?
You see, rebels execute ISIS members, they don't torture.
Meanwhile, I have a video of regime fighters setting a man's hair and fire and then stabbing him to death. He was a civilian.

 

[soldier of Putin]

IS kills two generals in Iraq, advances in Syria - Yahoo News

 

[Madali]

Under Islamic law, it is permissible to *massacre* Khawarij. You see, that is if you understood Islamic law.
ISIS are the main reason why Assad didn't fall quickly and won't fall in near future, they made mostly territorial gains vs rebels in 2014 and forced them to fight a 2 front war. In 2013 rebels were getting assassinated left and right by ISIS. Now you're telling me they wouldn't be pissed off at that?
You see, rebels execute ISIS members, they don't torture.
Meanwhile, I have a video of regime fighters setting a man's hair and fire and then stabbing him to death. He was a civilian.

All rebels, believe their are applying Islamic law and fighting "Khawarij". You think you are right and some other idiot sitting somewhere else thinks he is right and the only thing is sure, is that you guys caused mayhem in a stable country, that is destabilizing the region.

But all this are Big Thoughts, ignore it and continue believing that your rebels are going to make Syria into a democratic, all inclusive Islamic Utopia.

 

[Dr.Thrax]

All rebels, believe their are applying Islamic law and fighting "Khawarij". You think you are right and some other idiot sitting somewhere else thinks he is right and the only thing is sure, is that you guys caused mayhem in a stable country, that is destabilizing the region.

But all this are Big Thoughts, ignore it and continue believing that your rebels are going to make Syria into a democratic, all inclusive Islamic Utopia.

Well you still are supporting your "shia utopia" Iran aren't you?
We actually have empirical evidence to prove ISIS are Khawarij, according to the Qur'an, hadith, and scholarly thought. But you ignore all of that just like you ignore evidence of Assad's brutality.

 

[Madali]

Well you still are supporting your "shia utopia" Iran aren't you?
We actually have empirical evidence to prove ISIS are Khawarij, according to the Qur'an, hadith, and scholarly thought. But you ignore all of that just like you ignore evidence of Assad's brutality.

No, I don't envision a Shia Utopia because I'm neither shia nor frankly, religious. Every religious person in the world thinks they have "evidence" that makes them right.

 

[soldier of Putin]

No, I don't envision a Shia Utopia because I'm neither shia nor frankly, religious. Every religious person in the world thinks they have "evidence" that makes them right.

I'm not religious either, but to claim ISIS folks are Khawarij as @Dr.Thrax does is just silly IMO. Please learn who Khawarij are.

Khawarij - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia