Free Republic

Turkey’s latest intervention in the Syria conflict appears to reflect a 180-degree shift in its policy of backing Al Qaeda-linked takfiris and a range of largely fundamentalist insurgents, as well as the Saudi-sponsored Syrian opposition with the aim of bringing down President Bashar Assad. Last weekend, Turkish tanks, armoured vehicles and troops gathered in the western sector of the border between Turkey and Syria and exchanged fire with Al Qaeda’s Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham, a coalition headed by Jabhat Fatah Al Sham (formerly Jabhat Al Nusra). Ankara is deploying Syrian insurgents belonging to the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), allegedly,...

Turkey and Russia are aggressively conspiring against U.S. interests in Syria. That's my takeaway from the joint press conference on Thursday, between Presidents Erdogan and Putin in Turkey. First off, on Syria, Putin stated that Turkey and Russia have agreed to a cease-fire in Syria's north-eastern Idlib province. That statement might sound positive, but with Idlib the last major holdout of the Sunni rebellion fighting the Assad-Putin-Iran axis, Putin's words suggest that Erdogan is about to cut-off the rebel supply lines from Turkey. As I warned last December, Russia's endgame has always been the annihilation of the rebels in Idlib....

Israeli jets have reportedly targeted a suspected chemical weapons factory in western Syria. The Syrian National Army said four IAF warplanes hit a military site in Hama province, near Masyaf, in the early hours of Thursday morning, killing two soldiers and causing massive damage. It is believed the site was linked to the sarin gas attack in April, which UN investigators said was the work of the Syrian government. The UN confirmed the chemical attacks in Khan Sheikhoun, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians and prompted a US missile attack, were perpetrated by Assad regime forces. Israel...

Syria confirms: Israel targeted military facility killing two-Opposition forces say four Israeli planes hit plant in Masyar-Incident comes amid massive Israeli drill, weeks after outgoing air force chief admits Israel targets Hezbollah convoys. The Israeli military struck Thursday a chemical arms plant in Syria, foreign media reports claimed. The Syrian army general command confirmed in a statement the attack on what they called a military facility, and said that two people were killed and extensive damage was caused. Israel refused to comment on the reports. A Syrian military statement said that at 2:40 A.M. Israeli warplanes struck the site from...

The Obama administration likely hid information about Iran illicitly ferrying militants into Syria on commercial aircraft in order to promote the landmark nuclear deal and foster multi-billion dollar business deals with Tehran's state-controlled airline sector, according to lawmakers and other sources familiar with the matter. The Washington Free Beacon first disclosed last week that congressional leaders are calling for an investigation into Iran for using its state-controlled air carrier, Iran Air, to ferry militant fighters into Syria, where they are taking up arms in defense of embattled President Bashar al-Assad. Photographs provided to Congress show Iran using Iran Air to...

North Korea shipments to Syria chemical arms agency intercepted: U.N. report UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country's chemical weapons program were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained. "The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile...

Two North Korean shipments to a Syrian government agency responsible for the country's chemical weapons programme were intercepted in the past six months, according to a confidential United Nations report on North Korea sanctions violations. The report by a panel of independent U.N. experts, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month and seen by Reuters on Monday, gave no details on when or where the interdictions occurred or what the shipments contained. "The panel is investigating reported prohibited chemical, ballistic missile and conventional arms cooperation between Syria and the DPRK (North Korea)," the experts wrote in...

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump was shown a disturbing video of Syrian rebels beheading a child near the city of Aleppo. It had caused a minor stir in the press as the fighters belonged to the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, a group that had been supported by the CIA as part of its rebel aid program. The footage is haunting. Five bearded men smirk as they surround a boy in the back of a pickup truck. One of them holds the boy’s head with a tight grip on his hair while another mockingly slaps his face. Then, one of...

[Editor’s Note: Below is Thomas Joscelyn’s testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee’s Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry into the United States. The hearing is titled, “The Terrorist Diaspora: After the Fall of the Caliphate.” A version with footnotes will also be posted.] Chairman Gallagher, Ranking Member Watson Coleman, and other distinguished Committee Members, thank you for inviting me to testify today concerning foreign fighters and the threat some of them pose to the U.S. and Europe. The fall of Mosul and the likely fall of Raqqa won’t be the end of the Islamic State. The group has already...

Reports surface today that President Trump has cancelled the 2012/2013 covert CIA program giving weapons to ISIS and al-Qaeda in Syria.  [Washington Post Link] Various news organizations frame the issue as cancelling the program to “arm the moderate opposition to Bashir Assad”.  However, those news reports are entirely false. We know the Obama administration was arming ISIS as part of the larger Syria strategy because Secretary of State John Kerry went on record admitting the Obama Syrian strategy was actually to arm ISIS and extremist Islamic groups (al-Nusra) against Assad. We also know Secretary Kerry was being truthful in that media-hidden, albeit recorded, admission because CTH specifically...

The United States reacted angrily Wednesday after Turkey's state news agency disclosed the locations of American military posts in northern Syria, a move the Pentagon warned could put lives at risk. The Anadolu Agency (AA) published a report Monday detailing the 10 US military facilities' whereabouts and, in some instances, the number of special operations forces working there. Pentagon spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway said the release of sensitive military information exposes coalition forces to "unnecessary risk."

President Trump cancelled the CIA’s secret program to arm and train Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad — a move critics called a gift to Russia, a new report said Wednesday. “This is a momentous decision. Putin won in Syria,” a US official who supported the program told The Washington Post. The program to arm moderate Syrian rebels began under the Obama administration in 2013 and was continued under Trump until now. Officials told the paper that phasing out the covert program was a way to improve relations with Russia and President Vladimir Putin, who strongly...

The U.S. and Russia struck a deal for a cease-fire in southwest Syria, according to reports, marking a major breakthrough in the six-year civil war as President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first face-to-face meeting. Details were sketchy but the cease-fire was scheduled to take effect Sunday at noon Damascus time, The Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials. The deal reflects a new level of involvement by the U.S. in Syria’s civil war. Mr. Trump had previously stepped up U.S. actions with airstrikes against chemical weapon stashes of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Jordan and Israel...

BREAKING: AP learns that US, Russia prepared to announce cease-fire in southwest Syria starting Sunday.

On a morning when you would have expected the Morning Joe panel to be all about Trump’s CNN wrestling tweet, a Washington Post editor/columnist painted an amazingly positive portrait of the president’s actions in Syria. WaPo’s David Ignatius has just returned from a week in Syria. He was almost apologetic in prefacing his remarks: “I’m going to say something that in some ways is sympathetic to Trump.” He then proceeded to say that he was told by top US commanders that “the most daring and decisive” attack in the battle of Raqqa would not have happened if it hadn’t been...

AP - Link only

Several military officials were reportedly caught off guard by a White House statement Monday night that indicated Syria was engaged in "potential preparations" for a new chemical attack, The New York Times reported.... ...The reported lack of communication between military channels also appeared to be corroborated by a BuzzFeed News report that cited five defense officials who said they did not know of the details regarding a potential chemical attack, and were not aware of the White House's plans to release a statement. Shortly after the White House statement was released, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations,...

The Syrian army is threatening to respond to Sunday's Israeli mortar attack on the Quenitra area following the explosion of mortar shells on the northern Golan Heights. The army issued a statement.........

... "The [Golan] separation line was created in 1974 with Israeli and Syrian agreement and it was for many years the most quiet border Israel had. Now, if on the other side of the divide you don't have an entity that respects agreement on the separation line because its policy is to not agree with Israel on anything, that Israel doesn't exist, than this is something Israel need not and should not tolerate," Halevy stressed. Israel signaled this in January 2015 when an airstrike against two cars on the Syrian side of the Golan killed six Hezbollah fighters and a...

Full Title.............................American fighter jet shoots down armed Assad drone that was 'threatening' US troops - as tensions escalate days after Russia threatened to shoot back after F-18 shot down Syrian fighter jet................................CNN reports the drone dropped several weapons it was carrying near a position where coalition personnel are training and advising partner ground forces in the fight against ISIS. The armed pro-regime Shaheed-129 UAV was shot down by a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle at approximately 12:30 a.m. after it displayed hostile intent and advanced on Coalition forces,' according to a statement issued by Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition fighting...