Russia conducts 'massive' Syria strikes

[Stratford57]

Iraqi MP: “During last 8 months ISIS has managed to sell what’s worth 800 million dollar worth of oil in the black market of Turkey” (0.54 of the video below):



Also Turkey has been constantly violating Greek air space and seems not to expect the Greeks to shoot Turkish aircrafts:

Dec, 1: Six Turkish F-16 fighter jets violated Greek air space over the Aegean Sea on Tuesday, the National Defense General Staff (GEETHA) said in a statement.

According to GEETHA, a formation of six aircraft entered the Athens Information Region between Lesvos and Chios at 3.01 p.m. before splitting into two groups.

Four jets flew over the island of Fourni between Samos and Chios at 3.25 p.m. while the other two flew over Makronisi and Anthropofagoi islets before flying over Agathonisi.

Turkish jets violate Greek air space | Kathimerini

Data recorded by the Greek military has shown that Turkish aircraft violated its claimed airspace 2,244 times in 2014. By October of this year, Turkish aircraft had made 1,443 intrusions with the financially-weakened Greek military stuggling to respond.

Turkish Jets Violated Greek Airspace Over 2,000 Times Last Year [Infographic]

 

[Vikrant]

Syrian government officials said on Tuesday they had agreed on a deal for opposition fighters to withdraw from the last insurgent-held area of the city of Homs with their weapons as part of a local ceasefire agreement.

Sources told Reuters earlier on Tuesday that Syrian and United Nations officials had been meeting in Homs, a major battleground on Syria's north-south highway, to try to finalize a deal following a ceasefire in the city's Waer district.

It was not immediately clear whether representatives of armed groups had been directly participating in the meeting. Reuters was unable to immediately contact insurgents in the area following the announcements by Syrian officials.

Homs Governor Talal al-Barazi told state news agency SANA that negotiations had taken place with "special committees" for reconciliation.

A previous agreement between the rival sides in 2014 in Homs led to Syrian rebels withdrawing from the Old City and neighboring districts after being besieged by Syrian government forces.

There have been a number of local ceasefire deals and attempts to secure them in parts of western Syria this year in the absence of a national solution to the nearly five-year conflict which has killed some 250,000 people.

"We are now waiting for the logistical preparations that will contribute to the successful implementation" of the deal, said Ali Haidar, minister for national reconciliation.

"What is more important than the details is that the process starts to build trust with those who are willing to exit. Then there will be procedures for the safe and secure exit and this will build trust with local people in Waer," he added.



POCKETS OF CEASEFIRES

The Syrian army and allied militia launched a major ground offensive north of Homs city after Russia, main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, started carrying out air strikes in support of the Syrian army and allied fighters two months ago.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that there may start to be pockets of ceasefires in parts of Syria, freeing opposition groups from Russian bombings.

The Waer agreement also includes efforts to settle "the status of militants who wish to hand in their weapons and to return to their normal lives," a statement from the governor's office said.

Syrian state media said gunmen from the armed groups would start leaving Waer from next week with their families.

A source involved in Syria peace negotiations told Reuters before the deal was signed that the proposal had been on the table for several months. Around 10 days ago, the source said, the government signaled its willingness to the United Nations to sign it officially.

The deal would also allow humanitarian assistance to reach the district, the source said.

A spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Syria mediator, Staffan de Mistura, declined to comment.

The Homs negotiations follow the stalling of a separate plan aimed at halting fighting between rebels and government forces near Damascus.

Last month a powerful Syrian rebel group said it was studying the proposal put forward by an international mediator for the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area.

In late September, Iran and Turkey, which back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, helped bring about local ceasefires in the town of Zabadani near the Lebanese border and in two villages in northwestern province of Idlib.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/01/us-mideast-crisis-syria-homs-idUSKBN0TK4TN20151201#iRL5OJHoTp15mz51.99

 

[Stratford57]

LIPETSK, Russia, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, captain of the Russian Su-24 fighter jet downed by Turkey near the Syrian-Turkish border, was buried on Wednesday at his hometown of Lipetsk, some 450 km southeast of Moscow.

Prior to the burial, around 10,000 Lipetsk dwellers, standing in long queues under a heavy snowfall, bade farewell to the pilot at the city's cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and later at the local culture center. The people were saying: "It's a shame that a pilot was killed not in a fight and was killed dishonorably, abaft, foully."
Killed Russian Su-24 pilot buried at hometown - Xinhua | English.news.cn

RIP, Oleg Peshkov, another Russian hero...

Also on Dec.2 Russia has presented proof of Turkey’s role in ISIS oil trade.

^ The routes of alleged oil smuggling from Syria and Iraq to Turkey

Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov also mentioned that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled oil coming from Iraq and Syria.
Russia presents proof of Turkey’s role in ISIS oil trade

 

[Vikrant]

^ This whole thing has such an eerie similarity to Crimean War.

 

[Vikrant]

It looks like both Israel and Turkey are hell bent on securing their spoils (stolen oil from Syria).

---

Syrian state media reported on Friday that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out an airstrike around midnight against a convoy of four trucks transporting Scud missiles near Al-Katifa, north of Damascus. The army forces were those of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has strong relations with Hezbollah and frequently provides them with weapons and missiles. Syrian media claimed the jets had arrived in Syria via Lebanon and were unmanned. Hezbollah actively supports Assad in his fight against rebels trying to overthrow him. A fuel truck was also hit in the strike.

If true, this would indicate that Israel continues to operate in Syria despite Russian military presence and their advanced S-400 air defense system. In addition, there are unconfirmed reports that Israel has struck sites in Syria five times in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, at the Galilee Conference in Acre, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that Israel still operates in Syria.


Read more at IAF Carries Out Airstrike in Syria Despite Russian Missiles - Breaking Israel News | Israel Latest News, Israel Prophecy News

 

[Vikrant]

Bunker buster:

Ibrahim Joudeh on Twitter

 

[waltky]

Russia not doin' much about ISIS...

Few Russian strikes in Syria are against Islamic State, U.S. official says
Sat Jan 9, 2016 - Only a third of Russia's air strikes in Syria are targeting Islamic State and its imprecise attacks are forcing the population to flee, fuelling Europe's refugee crisis, a senior U.S. official said on Saturday.

Of the 5,000 air strikes carried out by Russia since it began its air offensive in Syria on Sept. 30, about 70 percent hit rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, rather than supporting the efforts of the U.S-led coalition, the official told reporters in Brussels. Rescue workers and rights groups say Russia's bombing in Syria has killed scores of civilians at busy market places and in residential areas. Russia denies this.

The Kremlin launched its air strikes saying it wanted to help Assad, its main Middle East ally, defeat Islamic State and other militant groups. "We are not convinced of what the Russian intentions are," the official said on condition of anonymity. "For a while, very few strikes were going against ISIL and after a lot of public condemnation they turned a number of strikes against ISIL," the official said, referring to Islamic State, the militant group that controls territory in Syria and Iraq.

Residents help an injured man in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria​

The U.S. official said Russia used fewer precision-guided munitions than the United States and its allies. "The Russian strikes that are not precise cause me great concern because I think there is an indirect correlation to the refugee flow," the official said. "It is not just the pressure it is putting on NATO and the EU, it is also the humanitarian cost," the official said.

Amnesty International said last month that Moscow's actions had violated humanitarian law. Amnesty estimates at least 200 civilians were killed by Russian air strikes between Sept. 30 and Nov. 29, which Russia denies. Russia's Defence Ministry has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, saying it takes great care to avoid bombing residential areas. Syria's civil war which began in 2011 has driven 4.4 million Syrians into neighboring states from where many are trying to reach Europe.

Few Russian strikes in Syria are against Islamic State, U.S. official says

See also:

Iraqi air force conducting 60 percent of sorties, PM Abadi says
Sat Jan 9, 2016 - More than 60 percent of sorties against Islamic State in Iraq are carried out by the nation's air forces and about 40 percent by the U.S.-led coalition, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday.

Iraq’s army last month scored its first success against Islamic State when it recaptured, with air support from the coalition, the city center of Ramadi. Until then, it was the Iran-backed Shi’ite militias that were leading the fight against the hardline Sunni militants.

Speaking at a ceremony in Baghdad broadcast live on state TV, Abadi said Iraq still needed foreign assistance for air cover, training and armament, but not for ground operations. Abadi renewed his call for Turkey to withdraw troops deployed in the region of Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq which has been under Islamic State control since 2014. "This is a frank invitation to Turkey our neighbor to pull out its forces from Iraq," he said. "We will deploy every effort permitted by our rights and international law to make them leave," he added.

Turkey deployed around 150 troops last month at the Bashiqa base, where it is training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State, citing heightened security risks.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkish troops repelled an Islamic State attack on the base, killing 18 militants, adding that this incident vindicated the presence of the protection force. The Iraqi army later denied that any clash happened recently between Turkish forces and the militants.

Iraqi air force conducting 60 percent of sorties, PM Abadi says

 

[Bleipriester]

Russia not doin' much about ISIS...

Apparently, it is more than what the US-led coalition did to ISIS within one and a half year.

Medias crying about "rebels" being targeted ignore that they share the same ideology with ISIS and commit the same crimes. They are Al-Qaeda. Big hypocrisy to make a difference between Sunni terrorists and Sunni terrorists, the more so as the Coalition´s harm done to ISIS cannot be verified as ISIS was permanently on the offensive until the Russians came.

"MP Majid al-Ghraoui, the member of the Security and Defense Committee in the Parliament, said: “The information that has reached us in the security and defense committee indicates that an American aircraft dropped a load of weapons and equipment to the ISIS group militants at the area of al-Dour in the province of Salahuddin.”

He added, “The committee will set a meeting within the next few days to follow up on that incident,” pointing out that, “This incident is continuously happening and has also occurred in some other regions.”
American aircraft dropped weapons to ISIS, says MP - Iraqi News