region:eastern syria

The following video shows a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone destroying a Russian-made T-72 main battle tank in Syria in what U.S. officials have defined a “defensive strike against pro-Syrian government forces”. The second one in less than a week.

This Video Shows U.S. MQ-9 Reaper Drone Destroying a Russian-made T-72 Tank in Syria.
▻https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/02/13/us-mq-9-reaper-takes-out-russian-t-72-tank-syria.html

https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/T-72-tank-destroyed.jpg

A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone took out a Soviet-made T-72 tank in eastern Syria on Saturday in a “self-defense” strike after pro-regime forces fired on U.S. advisers and allied Syrian fighters.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, head of Air Forces Central Command, acknowledged Tuesday that the battlespace in Syria is becoming increasingly contested as more operators move into the area, making response decisions ever more complicated.

“... We rely upon our folks who are on the ground to make that decision, primarily the ground force commander,” Harrigian told reporters from the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, during a video teleconference briefing.

“What happened in that particular scenario is the tank that fired was within an effective range to target our SDF and advisers on the ground, which clearly provides [the ground commander] the ability to defend himself. And he made that decision, appropriately so, and that was the result,” he said.

Thousands of ISIS Fighters Flee in Syria, Many to Fight Another Day - The New York Times

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/04/world/middleeast/isis-syria-al-qaeda.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/05/world/05dc-isis1/05dc-isis1-facebookJumbo.jpg

WASHINGTON — Thousands of Islamic State foreign fighters and family members have escaped the American-led military campaign in eastern Syria, according to new classified American and other Western military and intelligence assessments, a flow that threatens to tarnish American declarations that the militant group has been largely defeated.

As many of the fighters flee unfettered to the south and west through Syrian Army lines, some have gone into hiding near Damascus, the Syrian capital, and in the country’s northwest, awaiting orders sent by insurgent leaders on encrypted communications channels.

#daech #syrie

Mapping the Battle Against ISIS in Deir Ezzor
▻https://www.newsdeeply.com/syria/articles/2017/09/26/mapping-the-battle-against-isis-in-deir-ezzor

https://newsdeeply.imgix.net/20170926113459/Map-of-Control.jpg?w=1800&fit=max&q=60

In recent weeks, the so-called Islamic State has suffered a string of defeats in eastern Syria. It has lost swaths of territory in Deir Ezzor city to advancing pro-Syrian government forces and has been driven from villages and oil fields on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River by a U.S.-backed paramilitary group.

The two simultaneous but separate offensives by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian government loyalists may have resulted in quick gains in their first few weeks, but fighting is ongoing in many parts of the province, much of which remains under complete militant control.

ISIS still controls roughly 74 percent of the Deir Ezzor province and commands two main strongholds in the areas of Boukamal and Mayadin, south of the provincial capital. The group also controls a resource-rich region east of the Euphrates River that contains most of the oil and gas fields in the province.

With a long and grueling campaign still underway to expel the militant group from its last bastion in Syria, Syria Deeply examines the battle for Deir Ezzor by looking at the main groups, their objectives and their advances in the region.

Damascus says Syrian Kurdish autonomy negotiable : report
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds/damascus-says-syrian-kurdish-autonomy-negotiable-report-idUSKCN1C10TJ

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government is open to negotiations with Kurds over their demand for autonomy within Syria’s borders, the foreign minister has said, striking a conciliatory tone as military tensions worsen between the sides in eastern Syria.

Walid al-Moualem said the government could discuss the Kurdish demand once Islamic State is defeated, state news agency SANA reported, citing an interview with Russia Today.

“This topic is open to negotiation and discussion and when we are done eliminating Daesh (Islamic State), we can sit with our Kurdish sons and reach an understanding on a formula for the future,” Moualem said.

#Kurdes #Syrie

Why Syria hasn’t retaliated to the alleged Israeli strike

Syria and allies practice restraint after alleged Israeli attack on missile plant

Amos Harel Sep 10, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-1.811402

It appears, however, that the timing isn’t convenient for sabre rattling by the Assad regime and its supporters. The regime scored an important victory last week when the Syrian army and Shi’ite militias took over Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria and drove out Islamic State fighters. Iran is explaining its active military involvement in Syria with the need to help the Assad regime, more than opening a front with Israel, while Hezbollah is playing down the assistance it receives from Iran and Syria.
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A military retaliation against Israel could create difficulties for the parties bolstering Hezbollah. The response could come at a later stage and indirectly, like the tightening of Russian-Iranian cooperation.
Recently, reports have said Russia will provide air defense in western Syria, mainly via S-400 missiles, for Iranian arms plants as well. As far as is known, Iran operates such facilities in Syria in coordination with the Assad regime, but so far hasn’t implemented plans to set up similar ones in Lebanon.

Syrian soccer fans hold a portrait of President Bashar Assad before a match with Iran in a World Cup qualifier, Tehran, September 6, 2017.Vahid Salemi / AP
On Sunday, Israel’s military will continue the large drill in the north that began last week; numerous infantry units and aircraft will be involved. The exercise, which is taking place in a Lower Galilee area that simulates Lebanon, will move this week from defense to offense. Presumably, Hezbollah and Syria will also have to take the Israeli army’s high alert into account if they’re considering a retaliation to the airstrike.
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he didn’t know who attacked the plant in Syria, “but whoever it was did Israel an excellent service.”
As Ya’alon put it, “The Russians, even if they think we did it, aren’t saying a word. There’s a hotline between our defense establishments and understandings that we won’t get in their way and they won’t get in ours. I don’t see a fear of an escalation, but we have to keep evaluating the situation.”

Trump and Putin are the real targets of Israel’s alleged strike in Syria -

Exceptional strike, attributed to Israel, signals Netanyahu can disrupt a ceasefire in Syria if Israel’s security interests are ignored ■ Incident comes amid anti-Hezbollah war game

Amos Harel Sep 08, 2017
read more: ▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.811078

The weapons manufacturing plant that occurred early Thursday morning in western Syria is a site clearly identified with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The exceptional attack, which foreign media are attributing to the Israel Air Force, appears to be a message to the world powers that maintain a prominent aerial presence in the area. Over the past two years, Russia has invested huge efforts in saving and rehabilitating the Syrian president.
The bombing is not routine, either in its target or its timing. In an interview with Haaretz last month, outgoing air force chief Amir Eshel said that over the past five years, the air force had launched attacks on the northern military theater and on other fronts.
But most of these forays were designed to quell efforts to strengthen Hezbollah and other terrorist and guerrilla groups. This time, according to Syrian reports, the target was a government one – a missile production facility run by the Assad regime – rather than another Hezbollah weapons convoy destined for Lebanon. 
>> Analysis: Israel Just Shot Itself in the Foot
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Over the past year, senior Israelis have highlighted their concerns following the wide steps taken by the Iranians to try and enlarge and upgrade the supply of precision missiles in Hezbollah’s possession. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi have all made reference to this in public appearances. 
For several years now, Hezbollah has maintained a huge weapons arsenal, containing between 100,000 and 130,000 missiles and rockets (according to various estimates). If the proportion of precision missiles is increased and their precision improved, that could enable the organization to inflict more devastating damage to the Israeli home front in a war.
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In accordance with its declared policy, Israel is acting to prevent Hezbollah improving the quality of its weapons. The chaos the Syrian civil war has caused, during which serious damage has been inflicted on the capabilities of Assad’s army, has seemingly made this easier for Israel. Syria has for years been a no-man’s-land that no one has controlled. That changed with the arrival of the Russians two years ago. 
According to foreign media, the deployment of Russian squadrons in northwest Syria since September 2015 hasn’t entirely halted the Israeli attacks. But the strategic reality has become more complicated. The prime Russian interest is the survival of the Assad regime. For Moscow, it is important to show that the regime is stable and that Russia is the party dictating what takes place in Syria. The attack on the facility – the Syrian Scientific Researchers Center – undermines that image, and could concern the Russians.
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The timing of the action attributed to Israel is sensitive. At the end of July, in a Russia-led effort, the Assad regime reached a partial cease-fire with Syrian rebel groups. Although the fighting has continued in various regions, its intensity has declined in many places. The United States, whose interest in Syria has been on the decline, acceded to the Russian initiative. 
Washington and Moscow also failed to heed Israeli protests that the agreement to reduce friction in southern Syria failed to require Iran and allied militias to steer clear of the Golan Heights.
Consequently, the attack attributed to Israel – the first to be reported since the agreement was reached – may be interpreted as an Israeli signal of sorts to the world powers: You still need to take our security interests into account; we’re capable of disrupting the process of a future settlement in Syria if you insist on leaving us out of the picture. 
Since the attacks attributed to Israel began in January 2012, the Assad regime has shown restraint in the vast majority of cases, other than in one incident in March this year when missiles were fired at Israeli planes after an attack near the town of Palmyra in eastern Syria. One missile was intercepted by an Arrow missile over Israel.
At first, the Syrian regime totally ignored most of the attacks. At later stages, it would accuse Israel and sometimes even threaten a response, but it didn’t follow through. The reason is clear: The damage sustained by the regime from the responses was marginal compared to the harm to civilians in the civil war, and the last thing President Bashar Assad wanted was to drag Israel into the war and tip the balance in the rebels’ favor.
Israel will have to see how recent developments are received in Moscow, Washington and Tehran. The response won’t necessarily come immediately.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting in Moscow, October 2015.AP
Russia is not hostile to Israel but, above all, it looks after itself and Assad. The Russians will also take the consequences on countries in other areas into account, as well as its tangled relations with the United States – which has been acting as a present-absent party in the Middle East for a long time now.
This comes against the backdrop, beginning Tuesday this week, of a large Israeli military exercise based on a war scenario with Hezbollah. In fact, Israel is taking pains to declare that the exercise was planned nearly a year in advance and that it has no warlike intentions. But the fact that the exercise was carried out has raised the anxiety threshold among Hezbollah’s leaders.
Al-Manar, the Hezbollah television station, declared Wednesday that Hezbollah isn’t worried about a war. That’s very inaccurate. To a great extent, Hezbollah, like Israel, is worried about a war and would prefer to avoid one – but in the Middle East things sometimes happen when you don’t exactly intend them.
The early morning attack came exactly 10 years and a day after the bombing of the North Korean nuclear facility in eastern Syria, which U.S. President George W. Bush and others attributed to Israel. Last time (and then too, by the way, an attack came during a major exercise by the air force) a war was averted. That’s the hope this time too.

Tillerson is working with China and Russia — very, very quietly - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/tillerson-is-working-with-china-and-russia--very-very-quietly/2017/09/07/1aed4970-9416-11e7-89fa-bb822a46da5b_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/09/07/Editorial-Opinion/Images/AFP_S79JK.jpg?t=20170517

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has often been the silent man in the Trump foreign policy team. But out of the spotlight, he appears to be crafting a broad strategy aimed at working with China to resolve the North Korea crisis and with Russia to stabilize Syria and Ukraine.

The Tillerson approach focuses on personal diplomacy, in direct contacts with Chinese and Russian leaders, and through private channels to North Korea. His core strategic assumption is that if the United States can subtly manage its relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin — and allow those leaders to take credit for successes — complex regional problems can be solved effectively.

Tillerson appears unfazed by criticism that he has been a poor communicator and by recent talk of discord with President Trump. His attitude isn’t exactly “take this job and shove it,” but as a former ExxonMobil chief executive, he doesn’t need to make money or Washington friends — and he clearly thinks he has more urgent obligations than dealing with the press.

Tillerson appears to have preserved a working relationship with Trump despite pointedly separating himself from the president’s controversial comments after the Charlottesville unrest. Although Trump didn’t initially like Tillerson’s statement, it’s said he was ultimately comfortable with it.

The North Korea crisis is the best example of Tillerson’s diplomacy. For all the bombast of Trump’s tweets, the core of U.S. policy has been an effort to work jointly with China to reverse the North Korean nuclear buildup through negotiations. Tillerson has signaled that the United States is ready for direct talks with Kim Jong Un’s regime — perhaps soon, if Kim shows restraint. Tillerson wants China standing behind Kim at the negotiating table, with its hands figuratively at Kim’s throat.

Despite Pyongyang’s hyper-belligerent rhetoric, its representatives have conveyed interest in negotiations, querying details of U.S. positions. But Kim’s actions have been erratic and confusing: When it appeared that the North Koreans wanted credit for not launching missiles toward Guam, Tillerson offered such a public statement. Bizarrely, North Korea followed with three more weapons tests, in a reckless rebuff.

Some analysts see North Korea’s race to test missiles and bombs as an effort to prepare the strongest possible bargaining position before negotiations. Tillerson seems to be betting that China can force such talks by imposing an oil embargo against Pyongyang. U.S. officials hope Xi will make this move unilaterally, demonstrating strong leadership publicly, rather than waiting for the United States to insert the embargo proposal in a new U.N. Security Council resolution.

Tillerson signaled his seriousness about Korea talks during a March visit to the Demilitarized Zone. He pointed to a table at a U.N. office there and remarked, “Maybe we’ll use this again,” if negotiations begin.

The Sino-American strategic dialogue about North Korea has been far more extensive than either country acknowledges. They’ve discussed joint efforts to stabilize the Korean Peninsula, including Chinese actions to secure nuclear weapons if the regime collapses.

The big idea driving Tillerson’s China policy is that the fundamentals of the relationship have changed as China has grown more powerful and assertive. The message to Beijing is that Xi’s actions in defusing the North Korea crisis will shape U.S.-China relations for the next half-century.

Tillerson continues to work the Russia file, even amid new Russia sanctions. He has known Putin since 1999 and views him as a predictable, if sometimes bullying, leader. Even with the relationship in the dumps, Tillerson believes he’s making some quiet progress on Ukraine and Syria.

On Ukraine, Tillerson supports Russia’s proposal to send U.N. peacekeepers to police what Putin claims are Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s assaults on Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine. The addition of U.N. monitors would help implement the Minsk agreement, even if Putin gets the credit and Poroshenko the blame.

On Syria, Tillerson has warned Putin that the real danger to Russian interests is increasing Iranian power there, especially as Bashar al-Assad’s regime regains control of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria. To counter the Iranians, Tillerson supports a quick move by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to capture the lower Euphrates Valley.

Trump’s boisterous, sometimes belligerent manner and Tillerson’s reticence are an unlikely combination, and many observers have doubted the relationship can last. But Tillerson seems to roll with the punches — and tweets. When Trump makes a disruptive comment, Tillerson seems to treat it as part of the policy landscape — and ponder how to use it to advantage.

Tillerson may be the least public chief diplomat in modern U.S. history, but that’s apparently by choice. By Washington standards, he’s strangely uninterested in taking the credit.

Israeli Officers : You’re Doing ISIS Wrong - POLITICO Magazine
▻http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/05/22/israeli-officers-to-trump-youre-doing-isis-wrong-215172

(...) The United States has mishandled the situation in other ways, in the view of the Israelis I spoke with. For example, U.S. efforts to train rebel fighters inside Syria to fight ISIS are widely seen as counterproductive. “The CIA [training] program goes against Assad and the Pentagon program only goes for rebels against ISIS,” the intelligence officer complained. “So what is the U.S. stance is not really clear here.”

Israeli analysts laid out several possible scenarios ahead for the Syrian civil war, including that Assad regains control of his country (not likely) and the regime grants some rebels group autonomy and economic incentives in return for coexistence (already well underway).

What they agree on is that Assad is now unquestionably winning. And he owes Hezbollah, the radical Shia Muslim proxy of Iran, “big time” for it.

The so-called Army of God, which has gone to war with Israel twice and constitutes a state within a state in neighboring Lebanon, has lost an estimated 1,700 fighters bleeding for the Syrian dictator and as payback is now seeking to expand its new base of operations in Syria—which also means a new sphere of influence for the mullahs in Tehran.

“If Assad wins,” one IDF official in the Golan Heights told me, “we will have Hezbollah on two borders not one.”

Yavne, the brigadier general, similarly described the Iranian influence as significantly more worrisome than ISIS or other Sunni Muslim terror groups:

“If I can be frank, the radical axis headed by Iran is more risky than the global jihad one," said Yavne. “It is much more knowledgeable, stronger, with a bigger arsenal.”

As far as these Israeli officers are concerned, the ideal strategy is to sit back and let both types of groups duke it out—and work to contain the conflict rather than trying to end it with military force. As the IDF intelligence officer put it, “the battle for deterrence is easier than the battle for influence.”

But does that mean the United States and its allies should simply allow ISIS to retain its so-called caliphate in parts of eastern Syria and eastern Iraq?

“Why not?” the officer shot back. “When they asked the late [Israeli] Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the Iraq-Iran War in the 80s, who does Israel stand for, Iraq or Iran, he said, ‘I wish luck to both parties. They can go at it, killing each other.’ The same thing is here. You have ISIS killing Al Qaeda by the thousands, Al Qaeda killing ISIS by the thousands. And they are both killing Hezbollah and Assad.”

I asked an IDF official peering out into the Syrian frontier a similar question—about the consequences of America’s war against ISIS in the region.

“There is no lack of Islamic militant groups here,” he said, clutching a machine gun in one hand and a pineapple popsicle in another. “You just haven’t heard of them yet.”

Bryan Bender is POLITICO’s national security editor and the author of You Are Not Forgotten .

via @nidal

S’il te plaît, envahissez mon pays : How to Salvage Syria
▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/07/how-to--syria.html

Based on months of interviews with Syrian opposition figures, ISIS defectors, Sunni Arab tribesmen, U.S. military sources, and intelligence officials, we believe it necessary, as part of this plan, to keep small but effective U.S. garrisons indefinitely in eastern and northeastern Syria and western Iraq.

62 soldats syriens tués dans une frappe attribuée à la coalition menée par les Etats-Unis — RT en français
►https://francais.rt.com/international/26494-coalition-americaine-frappe-armee-syrienne

Selon un communiqué de presse du commandement général syrien relayé par une chaîne de télévision officielle, la coalition emmenée par les Etats-Unis a bombardé des positions de l’armée syrienne le 17 septembre près de l’aérodrome de Deir ez-Zor.

(...) Il a ajouté que des combattants du groupe terroriste Daesh avaient entamé une offensive contre les positions syriennes immédiatement après ces frappes.

Quels maladroits ces Américains tout de même !

#syrie #ei #daesh

Isis Inc : how oil fuels the jihadi terrorists

On the outskirts of al-Omar oilfield in eastern Syria, with warplanes flying overhead, a line of trucks stretches for 6km. Some drivers wait for a month to fill up with crude.

▻https://next-geebee.ft.com/image/v1/images/raw/http%3A%2F%2Fcom.ft.imagepublish.prod.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fa9d79bfa-74
▻https://next.ft.com/content/b8234932-719b-11e5-ad6d-f4ed76f0900a#axzz3raOZQDUY
#ISIS #pétrole #EI #Etat_islamique #cartographie #visualisation #Syrie

A lire la tribune de Frederic C. Hof dans Newsweek, publiée d’abord sur le site de l’Atlantic Council, qui est un plaidoyer pour une invasion du territoire syrien (le fameux plan d’invasion au sol souhaité par les Turcs et les Saoudiens, que certains pensent être le plan B évoqué par Kerry).
Ce Fred Hof est un ancien officier militaire en poste au Moyen-Orient. Il a le rang d’ambassadeur et a été conseiller spécial pour la « transition » en Syrie auprès d’Hillary Clinton - en clair chargé de l’opération de regime-change en Syrie. Il s’est aussi un peu occupé de paix israélo-arabe, comme on le fait aux USA... Il est désormais senior fellow auprès du Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East : ▻http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS00/20130717/101150/HMTG-113-AS00-Bio-HofA-20130717.pdf
Au milieu de l’habillage argumentatif à base de génocide et des alarmes humanitaires peu crédibles de la part d’un tel personnage, on trouve des vérités rarement dites. D’abord qu’un des objectifs de Poutine en Syrie est de mettre fin aux opérations américaines de regime-change de par le monde en infligeant une défaite aux USA :
▻http://europe.newsweek.com/what-putin-next-move-syria-431694?rm=eu

Putin’s objective need not change: force the United States into a de facto alliance with Assad against ISIS, thereby enabling him to tell Russians that the American worldwide regime change campaign he has vowed to defeat has been stopped cold in Syria , that the American president has been forced to eat his “Assad should step aside” words and that Russia has returned to great power status—thereby ending decades of humiliation.

Quand on a été préposé à ce genre d’opérations, il y a là de quoi crier au scandale, effectivement.

Ensuite, que dans le moment actuel sur l’accord de cessation des hostilités, la crainte de M. Hof et d’autres (disons ceux qui financent le Rafik Hariri Center...) soit que l’accalmie relative de la violence au nord-ouest, si elle perdurait, ne permette à Poutine et Assad de se lancer à la conquêt des territoires de Da’ich à l’est. Voire pire, de solliciter publiquement le soutien américain pour cela, légitimant du coup Assad :

Assad’s negotiators in Geneva would simply stiff-arm any attempt to sideline him. Russian aircraft and Syrian ground forces (supplemented critically with Shia foreign fighters organized by Iran) would move incrementally against ISIS, calling on the American-led anti-ISIS coalition to support what Moscow would characterize as “the legitimate Government of Syria and its elected President in the battle against international terrorism.”

Du coup, bin, l’invasion au sol est bien évidemment nécessaire :

The recommendation here remains as it has been for many, many months: A coalition of the willing ground force led by the United States, consisting in large measure of regional forces and excluding Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, should destroy ISIS in eastern Syria and give the Syrian opposition the opportunity to work with local committees (now underground) to establish decent governance in ISIS-liberated Syria.

On passera sur l’autre recommandation, assez délirante, de bombarder des bases syriennes au cas où les attaques russes et syriennes prendraient le prétexte de la présence d’al-Nousra...

Climat d’#insécurité (Le Monde, 23/11/2015)
▻http://lemonde.fr/cop21/article/2015/11/23/climat-d-insecurite_4815296_4527432.html

En fait, le #changement_climatique est directement lié à l’augmentation de la menace terroriste (…), a-t-il expliqué. Si nous n’écoutons pas ce que les scientifiques nous disent, nous allons voir des pays tout autour du monde – c’est ce que dit la CIA – se battre pour l’accès à l’eau, pour l’accès aux terres arables, et nous verrons surgir toutes sortes de #conflits. »

Lire aussi « Aux origines climatiques des conflits » (août 2015) ►https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2015/08/SINAI/53507

L’effondrement du système agricole syrien résulte d’un jeu complexe de facteurs dont le changement climatique, une mauvaise gestion des ressources naturelles et la dynamique démographique. Cette « combinaison de changements économiques, sociaux, climatiques et environnementaux a érodé le contrat social entre les citoyens et le gouvernement, catalysé les mouvements d’opposition et irréversiblement dégradé la légitimité du pouvoir d’Assad », estiment Francesco Femia et Caitlin Werrell, du Centre pour le climat et la sécurité (3). Selon eux, l’émergence de l’Organisation de l’Etat islamique (#OEI) et son expansion en #Syrie et en Irak résultent en partie de la sécheresse. Et celle-ci ne relève pas seulement de la variabilité naturelle du #climat. Il s’agit d’une anomalie : « Le changement du régime des précipitations en Syrie est lié à la hausse moyenne du niveau de la mer dans l’est de la Méditerranée, cumulée avec la chute de l’humidité du sol. Aucune cause naturelle n’apparaît dans ces tendances, alors que la sécheresse et le réchauffement corroborent les modèles de réponse à la hausse des gaz à effet de serre », estime la revue de l’Académie des sciences américaine (4).

MI6 „ISIS Rat Line“ & The Threat To India | Zero Hedge
▻http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-08/mi6-isis-rat-line-threat-india

Interestingly, a recently declassified secret US intelligence report, written in August 2012, uncannily predicts – and effectively welcomes – the prospect of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and an al-Qaida-controlled Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. In stark contrast to western claims at the time, the Defense Intelligence Agency document identifies al-Qaida in Iraq (which became Isis) and fellow Salafists as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” – and states that “western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey” were supporting the opposition’s efforts to take control of eastern Syria.

Raising the “possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality”, the Pentagon report goes on, “this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran)”.

(Lire absolument – et recoupements souhaités.) 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency document : West will facilitate rise of Islamic State “in order to isolate the Syrian regime” – “This is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want”
▻http://levantreport.com/2015/05/19/2012-defense-intelligence-agency-document-west-will-facilitate-rise-of

On Monday, May 18, the conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch published a selection of formerly classified documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Defense and State Department through a federal lawsuit.

While initial mainstream media reporting is focused on the White House’s handling of the Benghazi consulate attack, a much “bigger picture” admission and confirmation is contained in one of the Defense Intelligence Agency documents circulated in 2012: that an ‘Islamic State’ is desired in Eastern Syria to effect the West’s policies in the region.

▻http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Pg.-291-Pgs.-287-293-JW-v-DOD-and-State-14-812-DOD-Release-2015-04-10

Astoundingly, the newly declassified report states that for “THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY [WHO] SUPPORT THE [SYRIAN] OPPOSITION… THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING A DECLARED OR UNDECLARED SALAFIST PRINCIPALITY IN EASTERN SYRIA (HASAKA AND DER ZOR), AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE SUPPORTING POWERS TO THE OPPOSITION WANT, IN ORDER TO ISOLATE THE SYRIAN REGIME…”.

The DIA report, formerly classified “SECRET//NOFORN” and dated August 12, 2012, was circulated widely among various government agencies, including CENTCOM, the CIA, FBI, DHS, NGA, State Dept., and many others.

The document shows that as early as 2012, U.S. intelligence predicted the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS), but instead of clearly delineating the group as an enemy, the report envisions the terror group as a U.S. strategic asset.

À la une du Akhbar aujourd’hui :
▻http://al-akhbar.com/taxonomy/term/5298

Ça me semble suffisamment énorme pour que les gens de bon goût t’expliquent que c’est rien qu’une théorie du complot et que tu ne devrais pas trop en parler.

Syria: Nation-wide clashes continue between regime and rebels | Al Akhbar English
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-nation-wide-clashes-continue-between-regime-and-rebels

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Syria: Nation-wide clashes continue between regime and rebels

Rebel fighters from the Islamic Front, Syria’s largest rebel coalition, hold a position on July 13, 2014 during clashes with militants of the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), for the control a village on the outskirts of Aleppo. (Photo: AFP-Ahmed Deeb)
Published Monday, August 11, 2014
The Syrian governorate of Deir Ezzor has been witnessing a growing escalation in fighting, with fierce battles taking place between the Islamic State (IS) and the tribes there, resulting in mass executions and large-scale displacement. In the meantime, a Syrian military source speaking to Al-Akhbar denied reports of clashes and shelling in the areas surrounding the Damascus International Airport, describing the battle to encircle the airport declared by the Army of Islam organization as “illusory.”

In Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, developments are taking an increasingly bloody turn. Violent clashes broke out between IS and the tribesmen in the areas of al-Shaaitat, Abu Hamam, Kiskhiyeh, and Gharanij, prompting large numbers of civilians to flee those areas. According to activists, nearly 100,000 people, mostly women, children, and elderly people, have fled in the direction of Baqaan, Hujayn, al-Bahr, and al-Shaafa.

Meanwhile, sources said that the IS has been bombing the villages indiscriminately using T-72 tanks. In turn, the IS posted images purporting to show mass executions it carried out including by firing squad, beheading, and crucifixion. The IS claimed the victims were prisoners it had captured from the ranks of al-Shaaitat tribal fighters.

A source from the IS said, “The mujahidin, by God’s grace, have been able to capture a large number of traitors.” “Some were executed pursuant to God’s law on those who betray their oaths, and the rest will meet the same fate, and no one will escape punishment,” the source added.

“The operation is part of a failed psychological war following the successive losses suffered by Alloush and his organization.” – Syrian military sourceHowever, a source from the Shaaitat clan said that the IS’ victims were actually laborers from the oil fields in the area. The same source told Al-Akhbar, “The IS is holding dozens of prisoners from Shaaitat, mostly laborers from the oil fields now controlled by the IS.”
Many of these prisoners were not aware of recent developments, while others were kidnapped at checkpoints just for belonging to the Shaaitat clan, the source explains. “The crimes being committed by the IS against our people are meant to terrorize us, but they have backfired, and the criminals will not escape from the rebels who will avenge their brothers,” the source adds.

In the same vein, activists on social media sites said that the IS is trying to convince the Gharanij Brigades to stop fighting alongside Shaaitat, and allow the IS’ convoys to pass through their territory in return for safety for their lives and properties. However, according to the activists, the Brigades have refused the offer.

Sources also said the IS tried to end the fighting against Shaaitat’s fighters, as it sensed the battles were not proceeding in its favor. However, IS seems to have made humiliating demands, including for Shaaitat to hand over 170 people it wants and lay down arms including their personal pistols, which the Shaaitat clan has refused. In the meantime, locals said that Syrian warplanes dropped flyers “saluting the courage of the tribesmen, and confirming support for them against the IS’ terrorism.”

In Raqqa, reports indicated that the IS continues to build up its forces to attack the Tabaqa military airbase, now the last remaining major Syrian military outpost in the governorate, after the IS overran the headquarters of both the 17th Division and Brigade 93 in the past several days. The IS fighters attacked the Tabaqa airbase on Friday, but the army managed to repel the attack.

On the other hand, Syrian warplanes conducted airstrikes against IS bases in the city of Tabaqa, also on Friday.

No fighting in the vicinity of Damascus airport

On Thursday, Zahran Alloush, leader of the Army of Islam, announced the start of a battle to encircle Damascus airport, which aims to seize the airport and surrounding areas. Then on Friday, opposition Local Coordination Committees were spreading reports about violent clashes in the towns of Hteita al-Turukman and al-Ghazlaniya, which are close to the airport.

However, a Syrian military source denied the reports, describing this battle as “illusory.” “There are no battles,” he said, adding that “the Syrian army has been in full control of the area since October.” The same source stressed that it would be “impossible” to make any breach in the vicinity of the Damascus International Airport and adjacent areas, and said, “The operation is part of a failed psychological war following the successive losses suffered by Alloush and his organization.”

In Qalamoun in the northern Damascus countryside, fierce fighting broke out in the hills near Rankous and al-Jubbah, with Syrian warplanes targeting dozens of militants. Clashes also continued in the Joubar district south of the capital. Mortar shells fired by opposition groups landed in several neighborhoods of Damascus, killing and injuring several civilians.

‘Islamic State’ imposes total cover-up for women in Eastern Syria
▻http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=67377

The jihadist Islamic State has imposed a strict dress code for women in eastern Syria, forbidding them from showing any part of their bodies, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

“Women... are completely forbidden from showing their eyes,” said the statement, which the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said was distributed in IS-controlled areas of Deir Ezzor province in the east.

Women are also forbidden from wearing “open abayas (traditional black gowns) that reveal colourful clothes worn underneath”, it said.

Abayas, it added, “must not be decorated with beads, sequins or anything else” and women “must not wear high heels”.

“Anyone who violates this will be penalised,” it added, without elaborating on the punishment.

Syrian rebels: Give us more arms, or we quit
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syrian-rebels-give-us-more-arms-or-we-quit

Rebels from northern and eastern #syria on Wednesday threatened to lay down their arms in a week if the country’s exiled opposition does not help them fight the jihadist Islamic State (IS). “We, the leaders of the brigades and battalions...give the National Coalition, the [opposition] interim government, the [rebel] Supreme Military Council and all the leading bodies of the Syrian revolution a week to send reinforcements and complete aid,” the statement said. “Should our call not be heard, we will lay down our weapons and pull out our fighters,” it added. read more

#syria blast at weapons market near #Iraq border kills 30: state TV
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-blast-weapons-market-near-iraq-border-kills-30-state-tv

A bomb attack targeting a weapons bazaar in eastern Syria close to the Iraqi border killed 30 “terrorists” on Saturday, state television reported. “A big explosion hits a terrorist arms market in Mayadeen, killing 30 terrorists and wounding dozens of others,” the television reported. A rebel official from the town in Deir Ezzor province told AFP the blast killed at least 15 civilians in a street market. read more

#ISIS

Et là, entre la poire et le fromage, Robert Ford te me balance une théorie du complot sans avoir l’air d’y toucher (mais dans ce camp-là, on a le droit) :
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/opinion/ford-arm-syrias-opposition.html

Hezbollah, though, is unlikely to fight to clear eastern Syria of jihadists.

Iraqi helicopters attack jihadi convoy across Syrian border
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-helicopters-attack-jihadi-convoy-across-syrian-border

Iraqi army helicopters attacked a jihadi convoy inside eastern #syria on Sunday as it tried to approach the border, killing at least eight people, an interior ministry spokesman said. “The army struck eight tanker trucks in Wadi Suwab inside Syrian territory as they were trying to enter Iraqi territory to provide the Islamic State of #Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) with fuel,” Brigadier General Saad Maan said. It was the first time Iraq’s military has said it carried out an attack in Syria, and Maan said “there was no coordination with the Syrian regime” over the strike. read more

#Top_News

Militants give Syrian women two-day ultimatum to wear hijab
▻http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/02/20/Militants-give-Syrian-women-two-day-ultimatum-to-wear-hijab.html

Islamist rebels in eastern Syria have ordered women to put on the Islamic veil, warning that anyone not doing so would be held to account, in a concerted new attempt by hardliners to impose their strict views on society.

In a statement, an organization calling itself the Islamic Law Council of Deir al-Zor gave women until Saturday to don the face veil. It did not say what punishment would befall women who fail to comply with the order.

Islamist militants destroy Sufi shrine in eastern Syria: activists
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/13/us-syria-crisis-shrine-idUSBRE99C06620131013

Militants placed explosives at the shrine of Sheikh Eissa Abdelqader al-Rifaiy in the rebel-held town of Busaira, 45 km (30 miles) east of the provincial capital of Deir al-Zor, and detonated them on Sunday morning, they said.

Private donations give edge to Islamists in Syria, officials say
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/private-donations-give-edge-to-islamists-in-syria-officials-say/2013/09/21/a6c783d2-2207-11e3-a358-1144dee636dd_story.html

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — The stream of U.S. weapons heading to moderate rebel groups in Syria is being offset by a fresh torrent of cash for Islamist extremists, much of it from small networks of Arab donors who see the Syrian conflict as a step toward a broader Islamist uprising across the region, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials say.

The private donors, who use Twitter and other social media to collect millions of dollars from sympathetic Muslims, are providing crucial backing for Islamist militias that appear to be gaining ground in northern and eastern Syria, even as fighting stalls elsewhere, the officials said.

Dollars raised over the Internet are wired between private banking accounts and hand-delivered by courier, often in border towns like this city of 1.4 million, about 20 miles from the Syrian frontier, according to Middle Eastern intelligence officials who monitor the activity. Some fundraising pitches ask for specific pledges to cover the cost of a weapon, for example, or to finance an operation. For $2,400, a donor can pay for the travel, training and arming of a single non-Syrian fighter.