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Syrian Kurds accuse Turkey of aiding sarin gas delivery to rebels after fresh chemical attacks

March 10, 2016

Syrian Kurds accuse Turkey of aiding sarin gas delivery to rebels after fresh chemical attacks

Published time: 10 Mar, 2016 01:09 Edited time: 10 Mar, 2016 02:18

Source: Syrian Kurds accuse Turkey of aiding sarin gas delivery to rebels after fresh chemical attacks — RT News

In an interview with RT, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia accused Turkey of providing a clear transit route for the chemical weapons that were deployed against them near the city of Aleppo on Tuesday.

READ MORE: ISIS shelled Kurdish-controlled Iraq village with ‘poisonous substances’ – governor

Read more

Aleppo, Syria © Hosam Katan

Syrian Kurds say jihadists used phosphorus in chemical attack in Aleppo

Syrian anti-government militants “took advantage of the ceasefire” to launch attacks against a Kurdish-controlled area near Aleppo in northern Syria, Redur Xelil told RT. The attackers targeted a civilian district of what was once Syria’s biggest city, and has since become a key battleground. According to Xelil, the shells emitted an “unnatural smell” and “yellow smoke” upon impact, indicating that chemical weapons were involved.

“Our sources inside the rebel groups have confirmed that toxic substances were used. We also have verified information that sarin gas was delivered to them from Turkey. All signs point to the fact that these factions were using banned weapons, but we cannot access the launching area, as it is located on the front between the Turkish and rebel forces,” Xelil told RT by Skype from Rojava in Syria.

Kurdish deputies in the Turkish parliament have previously accused Ankara of supplying Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other jihadist groups inside Syria with chemical weapons, which are used both in their fight against the Syrian government and to pin responsibility for their deployment on the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Tuesday’s attack, which also involved phosphorus, did not result in any severe casualties.

“This attack was a failure, but this doesn’t mean that there won’t be another one. We are convinced the enemy has improvised shells containing phosphorus and sarin gas,” said Xelil.

READ MORE: Who’s behind alleged Aleppo chemical weapons attack?

Last month, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) accused IS of using chemical weapons against Kurdish forces throughout 2015. Reports emerged on Wednesday revealing that the jihadist group had launched a new chemical attack on the Kurdish village of Zaza in northern Iraq, in which more than 40 civilians suffered chemical burns and lung damage.

 

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IS Registration Forms Identify 22,000 Jihadis

March 10, 2016

IS Registration Forms Identify 22,000 Jihadis Thousands of documents detailing phone numbers and family contacts are handed to Sky News by a disillusioned convert to the group.

Source: IS Registration Forms Identify 22,000 Jihadis

See video,s in original article

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

Tens of thousands of documents, containing 22,000 names, addresses, telephone numbers and family contacts of Islamic State jihadis, have been obtained by Sky News.

Nationals from at least 51 countries, including the UK, had to give up their most personal information as they joined the terror organisation.

Only when the 23-question form was filled in were they inducted into IS.

A lot of the names and their new Islamic State names on the registration forms are well known.

Abdel Bary, a 26-year-old from London joined in 2013 after visiting Libya, Egypt and Turkey.

He is designated as a fighter but is better known in the UK as a rap artist.

His whereabouts are unknown.

:: Who Are The Britons In The Islamic State Files?

Another jihadi named in the documents, now dead after being targeted in a drone strike, is Junaid Hussain, the head of Islamic State’s media wing who along with his wife former punk Sally Jones, plotted attacks in the UK.

Her whereabouts are unknown.

Reyaad Khan from Cardiff, who also entered in 2013, is also among those found among the registration forms.

He was well known for appearing in a highly produced Islamic State propaganda video.

He was later killed.

But the key breakthrough from the documents is the revealing of the identities of a number of previously unknown jihadis in the UK, across northern Europe, much of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the United States and Canada.

Their whereabouts are crucial to breaking the organisation and preventing further terror attacks.

Many of the men passed through a series of jihadi “hotspots” – such as Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya, Pakistan and Afghanistan – on multiple occasions, but were apparently unchecked, unmonitored and able to both enter Syria to fight and then to return home.

One of the files marked “Martyrs” detailed a brigade manned entirely by fighters who wanted to carry out suicide attacks and were trained to do so.

:: IS Files: A ‘Goldmine Of Information’ For Intelligence Agents

Some of the telephone numbers on the list are still active and it is believed that although many will be family members, a significant number are used by the jihadis themselves.

The files were passed to Sky News on a memory stick stolen from the head of Islamic State’s internal security police, an organisation described by insiders as the group’s SS.

He had been entrusted to protect the organisation’s core secrets and he rarely parted with the drive.

The man who stole it was a former Free Syrian Army convert to Islamic State who calls himself Abu Hamed.

Disillusioned with the Islamic State leadership, he says it has now been taken over by former soldiers from the Iraqi Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

He claims the Islamic rules he believed have totally collapsed inside the organisation, prompting him to quit.

I met him in a secret location in Turkey, and he said IS was giving up on its headquarters in Raqqa and moving into the central deserts of Syria and ultimately Iraq, the group’s birthplace.

He also claimed that in reality Islamic State, the Kurdish YPG and the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad, are working together against the moderate Syrian opposition.

Asked if the IS files could bring the network down he nodded and said simply: “God willing”.

From the attacks in Tunisia and the Bataclan massacre in Paris, it is clear that IS is refocusing its base of operations abroad and is intent on carrying out high-profile attacks in Western countries, something that security chiefs across Europe are warning about right now.

Sky News has informed the authorities about the haul.

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ISIS shelled Kurdish-controlled Iraq village with ‘poisonous substances’

March 9, 2016

ISIS shelled Kurdish-controlled Iraq village with ‘poisonous substances’ – governor

Published time: 9 Mar, 2016 15:38 Edited time: 9 Mar, 2016 16:25

Source: ISIS shelled Kurdish-controlled Iraq village with ‘poisonous substances’ – governor — RT News

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters used “poisonous substances” during the shelling of a village in northern Iraq on Tuesday, a local governor said, according to Reuters.

“There were poisonous substances in these shells. We don’t know what,” Kirkuk province governor Najmuddin Kareem told reporters, referring to a Tuesday attack on the village of Taza.

More than 40 people suffered from partial chocking and skin irritation after mortar shells and Katyusha rockets filled with the “poisonous substances” exploded in the mainly Shia Turkmen village, which is located south of the oil city of Kirkuk, in a region under Kurdish control.

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Aleppo, Syria © Hosam Katan

Syrian Kurds say jihadists used phosphorus in chemical attack in Aleppo

None of the 40 people died as a result of the attack, though five remain in hospital, health officials told Reuters.

A total of 24 shells and rockets were fired into the village from IS positions in the nearby Bashir area, Kurdish peshmerga forces commander Wasta Rasul said.

It comes just one day after the Kurdish militia group YPG stated that Islamist opposition fighters used yellow phosphorous in a chemical attack on the Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, US aircraft have begun targeting IS’ chemical weapons sites near Mosul, Iraq. It comes after an initial round of airstrikes aimed at diminishing the group’s ability to use mustard agent, according to CNN.

It is unclear whether the strikes conducted over the past several days have been successful. The strikes were aided by an IS detainee who provided vital information to the US military, according to the news network.

Last month, a source from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that IS militants attacked Kurdish forces with mustard gas in 2015, citing lab tests that came back positive for the substance after Kurdish soldiers fell ill on the battlefield.

It represented the first known instance of chemical weapons use in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the source said.

The revelation came just three days after Central Intelligence (CIA) Director John Brennan stated that IS had used chemical weapons on the battlefield, stressing that the militant group may have more in its possession.

In October, the OPCW also concluded that mustard gas was used in neighboring Syria in 2015. Experts believe the mustard gas used in Syria originated from an undeclared chemical stockpile, or that militants have gained the basic knowledge to develop and conduct a crude chemical attack with rockets or mortars.

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U.K. Police Warn ISIS Plotting ‘Enormous and Spectacular Attacks’ on West

March 8, 2016

U.K. Police Warn ISIS Plotting ‘Enormous and Spectacular Attacks’ on West

BY:
March 7, 2016 12:04 pm

Source: U.K. Police Warn ISIS Plotting ‘Enormous and Spectacular Attacks’ on West – Washington Free Beacon

ISIS, the terror group that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks last November, is plotting “enormous and spectacular attacks” on the West, according to a senior British police official.

Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner, said Monday during a press briefing on the terror threat against the U.K. that authorities have detected more plans to launch attacks on “western” lifestyles, The Guardian reported.

“In recent months we’ve seen … more plans to attack western lifestyle … [ISIS has gone] from that narrow focus on police and military as symbols of the state to something much broader. And you see a terrorist group that has big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks, not just the types that we’ve seen foiled to date,” Rowley told reporters.

“You see a terrorist group that while on the one hand has been acting as a cult to use propaganda to radicalize people to act in their name … you also see them trying to build bigger attacks,” Rowley continued.

Rowley further stated that ISIS has encouraged operatives who have underwent military training in Syria to travel to northern Europe and launch attacks there. Concerns of possible terrorist attacks in Europe and the United States have increased with the rise of ISIS in the Middle East, particularly following the coordinated attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people.

Rowley said that U.K. authorities are prioritizing the search for potential links to terror networks.

“[The] shared effort to look for any possible links of those networks or other networks that have reached the U.K. is obviously a massively high priority,” Rowley stated.

The U.K. has seen a considerable increase in terrorism arrests in recent years. The count of individuals arrested on suspicions of terrorism increased by 57 percent in the most recent three-year period when compared with the previous three years. Roughly half of these apprehensions led to suspects being charged.

Women accounted for 14 percent of counterterrorism arrests made in 2015, and 13 percent were age 20 or younger. Rowley said that these statistics point to the success of ISIS propaganda and the terror group’s ability to reach a diverse group of people.

“That would not have been the picture that one would have seen a few years ago. That is an indication of that radicalization, the effect of the propaganda and the way the messages of Daesh [ISIS] are resonating with some individuals,” Rowley said.

ISIS has also made impressions on individuals in the United States; American authorities have arrested dozens of individuals in recent years for trying to join or provide material support to ISIS.

The terror group is also believed to have inspired the shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people last December, an attack carried out by a husband and wife who had been radicalized for years. The female attacker, Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik, immigrated to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia in July 2014.

The rise of ISIS has become a key issue in the 2016 presidential election in the United States.

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EXCLUSIVE: Turkey ‘protects & supplies’ Al-Nusra camps at its border – Syria’s YPG to RT

March 4, 2016

EXCLUSIVE: Turkey ‘protects & supplies’ Al-Nusra camps at its border – Syria’s YPG to RT

Published time: 4 Mar, 2016 05:04 Edited time: 4 Mar, 2016 09:51

Source: EXCLUSIVE: Turkey ‘protects & supplies’ Al-Nusra camps at its border – Syria’s YPG to RT — RT News

And now a statement from the State Department ?

Read also : https://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/state-department-issues-new-warning-about-terrorist-threat-to-u-s-citizens/#comment-84060

Jabhat Al-Nusra terrorists have pitched their camps right next to the border and receive regular supplies from the Turkish side, Syrian Kurdish forces told RT’s Lizzie Phelan, who traveled with YPG to investigate suspicious activity there.

An RT crew has filmed a number of vehicles coming through the Bab al-Salam crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border, on the outskirts of the northern town of Azaz, which is partially controlled by Al-Nusra, according to reports.

“We can actually see here the important border town of Azaz, that Turkey is determined to prevent YPG from taking. Just a little beyond that you can see the Bab al-Salam border crossing and a heavy flow of vehicles coming from Turkey into Azaz,” the RT correspondent said, reporting from the Turkey-Syria border, an area that TV crews rarely gain access to.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCc9siFSq4o/

“When we zoom in we can see Turkish military vehicles, probably around a kilometer away, maybe less. And just in front here’s another small village that YPG say Al-Nusra uses for training,” Phelan said.

“Beyond that we can see the Turkish flag flying, that’s on the Turkish side of the border, and through there the YPG says they monitor a regular supply of weapons coming from Turkey to that Al-Nusra camp.”

Lizzie Phelan ‎@LizziePhelan

2.&just a few km from Nusra controlled Azaz that is determined 2 prevent YPG from taking.

5:48 AM – 2 Mar 2016

According to the Kurds, after the terror group was excluded from the ceasefire, Al-Nusra have taken down most of their flags, which would give their location away and invite airstrikes. However, the RT crew still managed to film some flags flying above their positions.

YPG are unequivocal about Turkey’s sponsorship of terrorist groups in Syria.

Head of the YPG in Afrin, Abdu Khalil, says Turkey is definitely providing support for terrorist groups in the area.

“Turkey wanted to make a coalition against terrorism, but any country which would be in a coalition against terrorism should not open its border to Al-Nusra Front,” he said.

“When there is a Kurdish prisoner, when he is in Turkish hands, they deliver him to Al-Nusra Front, whereas a wounded man from Islamic State who is in a Turkish hospital: he gets immunity and guards. No one can even look at him. What more evidence do you want than that?”

Ankara says its direct strikes against the YPG are justified due to its links with the Turkish-based militant group the PKK, which Turkey has recently resumed its war against at home.

The rebel fighters on the ground say they are certain Turkey is providing assistance to IS, Al-Qaeda and Al Nusra.

“The reason Turkey is on the ground is to support groups like Al-Qaeda. Support for ISIS is coming from Turkey. They are shelling because it wants to occupy our land, not to help our people. Turkey dismissed many of the armed groups, and supported Al Nusra against us,” Abu Jouma Benawii, a general in the FSA and co-founder of Jaish al-Thuwar (Army of Revolutionaries), told RT.

“Our fronts against the regime have stopped, but our fronts against ISIS are going on and against Al Nusra as well. We are committed to the ceasefire, one million percent,” he added.

Asked if he would have changed his mind about joining the uprising, Abu Jouma Benawii said in hindsight: “Really I would have changed my mind, because everybody contributed to destroying Syria, at the beginning and the end it is only the people who lose.”

“Had we known that Syria’s friends would be like this, we wouldn’t have been with them. All our people were forced to flee,” he added.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said Turkey has the right to carry out military operations not only in Syria, but in any other country hosting terror groups that threaten the Turkish state. He alleged that Ankara’s stance has “absolutely nothing to do with the sovereignty rights of the states that can’t take control of their territorial integrity.”

“On the contrary, this has to do with the will Turkey shows to protect its sovereignty rights,” Erdogan added.

Turkish forces have been shelling YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization, as well as government army positions in Syria, since mid-February. The bombings of YPG targets, the military wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have been underway despite the US, Ankara’s ally, viewing the Kurdish fighters as a vital partner in fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

There were reports of dozens of Turkish military vehicles crossing into Kurdish northern Syria, with servicemen digging trenches in the area. Turkey’s “provocative” military buildup on the border and shelling of the Syrian territory could thwart the fragile truce and disrupt the peace process in the Arab Republic, the head of the Russian ceasefire monitoring center Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko said this week.

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A general view shows the Kurdish city of Afrin, in Aleppo's countryside March 18, 2015. © Mahmoud Hebbo

Dozens of Turkish military vehicles cross Syria border, dig trenches – report

The ceasefire in Syria, which came into force on February 27, brokered by leading world powers, including the US and Russia, is designed to pave the way to reconciliation between the Syrian government and moderate rebel forces. They would together agree on a peaceful transition in the country. Some of the forces in Syria, including IS and Al-Nusra, are not subject to the ceasefire.

Experts have been criticizing moderate rebel forces, but even they think that the situation is shifting now.

Moderate rebels used to be “a fable, a pure lie,” Syrian political analyst Taleb Ibrahim told RT.

“Everyone remembers what happened to the rebels who had been trained in Turkish camps by the CIA, and when they returned to Syria, and turned to Al-Nusra Front”.

However, the situation is starting to change slowly, as more and more Syrian rebel fighters “discover that they are destroying their country and serving external plans to divide Syria.”

Russian aircraft continue to carry out airstrikes against Al-Nusra front militants to “stabilize the situation” in the regions north of the city of Aleppo, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

READ MORE: Russia presents proof of Turkey’s role in ISIS oil trade

There have been at least 31 violations of the Syrian ceasefire over the past three days, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, adding that during the same period the number of local ceasefire agreements between various factions had increased to 38.

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Hillary Emails – NATO Commander on Libya War Mission: ‘Inshallah, Soon’

March 4, 2016

Hillary Emails – NATO Commander on Libya War Mission: ‘Inshallah, Soon’

by Aaron Klein

3 Mar 2016

Source: Hillary Emails – NATO Commander on Libya War Mission: ‘Inshallah, Soon’ – Breitbart

TEL AVIV – James Stavridis, who led the 2011 intervention in Libya as NATO’s 16th Supreme Allied Commander, used unusual terminology to express his hope that the United Arab Emirates would step up its involvement in the Libya war.

In an email forwarded to Hillary Clinton’s private server, Stavridis discussed a mission change that would put U.S. bombs on UAE aircraft for strikes in Libya.

“As to how long … inshallah, soon,” wrote Stravridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral.

The dispatch was contained in Monday’s batch of roughly 3,900 pages said to be the last of Clinton’s work-related emails. The messages were reviewed in full by this reporter.

Stravridis was replying to an email sent from one of Clinton’s top deputies, Jake Sullivan, to Ivo H. Daalder, the U.S. Permanent Representative on the NATO Council.

“Any way to get the UAE suggestion that they will contribute aircraft for strike missions firmed up and announced by the SYG?” Sullivan asked.

Daalder forwarded the query to Stravridis, asking, “Gather you and Clinton talked about this. When do you think they will be able to start?”

Here is Stavridis’s full reply:

What the UAE For Min said was they wanted US bombs so we’ll have to work that on DoD circuits (Centcom presumably) We’ll also go mil-to-mil via force gen, JFC Naples, and JTF and push them to use their own air to ground ordnance in the interim Suggest you guys work the political side up there

As to how long … inshallah, soon

Best, Jim Admiral, USN Supreme Allied Commander, Europe Commander, US European Command “Stronger Together”

Inshallah is Arabic for “Allah willing” or “if Allah wills it.”

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

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State Department Issues New Warning About Terrorist Threat to U.S. Citizens

March 4, 2016

State Department Issues New Warning About Terrorist Threat to U.S. Citizens

BY:
March 3, 2016 5:59 pm

Source: State Department Issues New Warning About Terrorist Threat to U.S. Citizens – Washington Free Beacon

Did the state department declare now Turkey as a criminal state ?

The State Department issued a new Worldwide Caution on Thursday that warned about the ongoing terrorist threat to U.S. citizens across the world from groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.

“Current information suggests that ISIL, al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, al-Shabaab, and other terrorist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions,” the State Department said in a release updating the Worldwide Caution, using another name for ISIS.

“Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that U.S. citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. ”

The new alert replaced a previous alert issued in July of last year, months before ISIS launched terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people last November. Authorities believe that ISIS continue to plot attacks against U.S. and Western interests worldwide, especially in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Asia, the new alert stated.

The State Department warning cited major terrorist attacks that have been carried out in France, Belgium, Mali, Turkey, and other countries, and emphasized that U.S. citizens are at risk of kidnapping by operatives from ISIS, al Qaeda, and other groups. It noted that terrorists targeting U.S. citizens at home and abroad generally focus on places that attract crowds, including sporting events, hotels, restaurants, and public transportation systems.

“Extremists may use conventional or non-conventional weapons and target both official and private interests,” the State Department warning said. “Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, shopping malls, and other tourist destinations both in the United States and abroad where U.S. citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.”

The alert included information about threats in various regions, including Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and parts of Asia. It noted that “credible information” indicated that all countries in Europe are “vulnerable” to attacks from terrorist organizations.

“Authorities believe there is a high likelihood terror attacks in Europe will continue as European members of ISIL return from Syria and Iraq. European governments are taking action to guard against terrorist attacks; however, all European countries remain potentially vulnerable,” the warning said.

The agency also reminded U.S. citizens that it is a crime to provide support to terrorist groups like ISIS.

“Private U.S. citizens are strongly discouraged from traveling to any country to join in armed conflict.  U.S. citizens are reminded that fighting on behalf of or providing other forms of support to designated terrorist organizations, including ISIL, can constitute the provision of material support for terrorism, which is a serious crime that can result in penalties including prison time and large fines,” the alert warned.

American citizens have been arrested for attempting to join or provide material support to ISIS. More than 200 Americans have tried to fight for ISIS, the head of the FBI said in 2015.

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Truce Signed in Syria by Assad Regime, Rebel Forces – Excludes ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Nusra

February 23, 2016

The truce formally begins on Saturday and was agreed upon by Russia and the United States.

By: Hana Levi Julian Published: February 23rd, 2016

Source: The Jewish Press » » Truce Signed in Syria by Assad Regime, Rebel Forces – Excludes ISIS, Al Qaeda, Al Nusra

Da’esh (ISIS) fighters seizing control of Deir Ezzor in Syria.
Photo Credit: Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

As the gunshots and sounds of mortarfire grow closer to Israeli communities in the Golan Heights, the Syrian regime has signed a truce with representatives of the rebel forces.

The truce, however, excludes Da’esh (ISIS), Al Qaeda and the Jabhat al-Nusra (Al Nusra Front) terrorist organizations, according to a statement released Tuesday afternoon by the state-run SANA news agency, which raises the issue of how long it will actually last, and how relevant it really is.

“The Syrian Arab Republic accepts the cessation of fighting actions on the basis of continuing the military efforts for combating terrorism against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jabhat al-Nusra and other al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organizations according to the Russian-U.S. agreement,” said an official source at the Syrian Expatriates and Foreign Ministry.

The military picture in Syria is far from simple.

Both Russia and the U.S.-led coalition are still claiming to be bombing ISIS terror targets in Syria, but one can hardly separate those out from the general population, let alone from other combatants.

The Syrian regime forces include the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanon’s Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist guerrilla fighters and Russian military personnel on the ground and in the air.

The U.S.-led coalition forces in the air have been bombing targets on behalf of the more moderate Syrian opposition forces. But there have been overlaps and on more than one occasion the “moderate” rebels have united with radical Islamists when they deemed necessary to overcome an enemy target. In this way, weapons, ammunition and other foreign ordnance changes hands, and Da’esh (ISIS) and/or Al Qaeda-linked terrorists end up possessing American arms and military technology.

Moreover, Ankara — also a member of NATO along with the United States — has been bombing Kurdish sites in northern Syria, claiming the PYD and PYG groups are related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist group. Turkey alleges the PKK perpetrated last week’s horrific suicide car bombing in the capital city, Ankara, together with a PYD-linked Syrian national.

Regardless of who is dropping the bombs, after five years of one of the most savage civil wars in the Middle East very little is left of the “Syrian Arab Republic” that the world — or President Bashar al-Assad himself — once knew. At present, even the outlying districts of Damascus have been bombed into rubble in many areas, as seen in the video below, filmed by RussiaWorks.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry source noted that the cease-fire is set to begin on Saturday Feb. 27. In order to ensure the success of the cease-fire, “the Syrian government affirms readiness to continue to coordinate with the Russian side for identifying the areas and the armed groups that are to be included in the cessation along the period it is in effect,” the source said.

“The Syrian government stresses the importance of border curbing, halting support provided by some countries to the armed groups, and preventing these organizations from boosting their capabilities or changing their positions so as to avoid anything that may undermine this agreement,” the source warned.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed that he and U.S. President Barack Obama had agreed on a joint statement announcing their plans to stop military operations in Syria. The U.S. State Department announced the agreement, which it said includes “plans to stop the military operations in Syria, [but] which exclude the Islamic State (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations.”

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Ceasefire after 5 years of Syrian civil war?

February 22, 2016

Syria: Ceasefire between the West and rebel groups starting Saturday The Western powers and Syrian rebel groups agreed that a ceasefire will begin on Saturday. The rebel groups clarified that the agreement will only be valid if the Western powers participate in the ceasefire. The Western powers claimed that they would respect the ceasefire but continue to attack ISIS and the al-Nusra Front.

Feb 22, 2016, 7:30PM Becca Noy

Source: Ceasefire after 5 years of Syrian civil war? | JerusalemOnline.com

image description
Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News

Several reports were published this evening (Monday) that claim that a ceasefire agreement has been reached by the Western powers and rebel groups. The ceasefire, which is set to begin on Saturday, does not include ISIS or the al-Nusra Front.

The agreement that allows the Western attacks against the 2 terror organizations to continue is under harsh criticism from Western experts, who claim that Russia will not differentiate between the rebel groups and the 2 terror organizations.

image description
Photo Credit: Reuters/Channel 2 News

Despite the criticism and the fear among the rebel groups, the TV station that is identified with them reported that they approved the ceasefire. The report emphasized that the rebel groups agreed to accept the offer, provided that the Western powers fully back the agreement.

“We decided to accept the agreement under the condition that the Western powers guaranty that they will respect it,” said former Syrian prime minister Riad Hijab, who defected to Jordan. Hijab is supported by Saudi Arabia and is recognized as the Syrian opposition coordinator. Hijab added that this is only a temporary humanitarian ceasefire.

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US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27

February 22, 2016

US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27 – reports

Published time: 22 Feb, 2016 16:27 Edited time: 22 Feb, 2016 16:31

Source: US, Russia reach deal on ceasefire in Syria to begin Feb. 27 – reports — RT News

© Alaa Al-Faqir
© Alaa Al-Faqir / Reuters
The US and Russia have agreed on a draft plan outlining a cessation of hostilities in Syria to begin on February 27, according to media reports. Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front are excluded from the plan.

The reports come from two unnamed diplomatic sources cited by Reuters.

The sources confirmed an earlier report by Al Jazeera, which said the document has yet to be signed by all the parties to the Syrian conflict – with an obvious exception of IS and Al-Nusra, as they are on the UN Security Council’s list of terrorist organizations.

The draft document calls on all the parties concerned to sign up by midday on February 27 and to cease hostilities by midnight the next day, according to Al Jazeera.

Riad Hijab, a coordinator of the Supreme Negotiations Committee – a group of Syrian opposition backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia – has also confirmed that a provisional agreement was reached. He added the deal would be “according to international guarantees“.

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