The Biden White House junta bombed Syria and Iraq to sustain his anti-Christian and anti-Jewish Zionist project protecting the US proxies Israel and the plethora of US-founded and sponsored terrorist groups in the two countries, namely ISIS and al Qaeda.
Throughout the night, the US war machines added a new series to its endless war crimes by bombing dozens of sites in Syria and Iraq murdering at least 18 persons, the US rulers claimed that their latest bombing was a retaliation to the bombing of its base in Jordan which resulted in the killing at least 3 US Army personnel and injuring 3 dozens of others.
The Syrian Ministry of Defense said in a statement carried by the Syrian News Agency SANA:
“Today at dawn, the American occupation forces launched a blatant air aggression against several sites and towns in the eastern region of Syria and near the Syrian-Iraqi borders, which led to the martyrdom of a number of civilians and soldiers, the wounding of others, and the infliction of significant damage to public and private property.”
The statement accused the Biden’s junta of aiding ISIS (ISIL – Daesh) in the bombing:
“The area targeted by the American attacks in eastern Syria is the same area where the Syrian Arab Army is fighting the remnants of the terrorist organization ISIS, and this confirms that the United States and its military forces are involved and allied with this organization, and are working to revive it as a field arm for it, whether in Syria or Iraq, by all dirty means, and that this aggression has no justification other than an attempt to weaken the ability of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies in the field of fighting terrorism.”
Syria’s Cultural Ministry condemned Biden regime forces bombing the historical Al Rahba Fortress, built in the 9th century. Additionally, the Biden forces bombed the electrical grid in Deir Ezzor.
Local sources in Syria and Iraq said that the US aggression targeted 85 posts used by the allied forces combating ISIS in the countryside of Al Mayadeen in eastern Syria Deir Ezzor province and in the Al Qaim area in western Iraq.
Iraqi PMU said in a statement that the US aggression murdered 16 Iraqis and injured 25 others in the Anbar province. Iraq declared a 3 days mourning for the martyrs.
Russia, on its part, condemned the US aggression against Syria and called for an urgent meeting of the useless NATO-controlled United Nations Security Council, maybe to score additional points forcing the USA and its allies to use their veto powers against resolutions targeting them similar to how Russia’s ‘western partners’ are trying to do the same against Russia for its special military operation in Ukraine.
The first time US war criminals bombed Syrian Arab Army soldiers to aid al Qaeda was on 18 September 2016, when Obama ‘accidentally’ slaughtered 83 Syrian soldiers in al Tharda, soldiers who were encircling ISIS terrorists, after which the terrorists shot down a Syrian jet, martyring three more soldiers.
During the US bombing, the Iraqi Resistance carried out five bombings against the illegal US Army bases in Al Tanf in southeast Syria, Conoco Gas Field in eastern Deir Ezzor province in northern Syria, Kharab Al Jir in the Hasakah province in northeastern Syria, Ain Al Asad air base in western Iraq, and the Harir air base in Irbil in the northern Kurdistan province of Iraq.
Biden, claiming responsibility for this aggression thinking this would increase his rating for the upcoming election, said “Our response began today. It will continue at times and places of our choosing,” while almost crying he does not seek a regional war and his officials repeatedly explained they do not seek to widen the war in Gaza! So starting a war by not starting a war and not escalating a war by escalating a war? Obviously, dementia and insanity have taken over this White House regime.
The Zionists’ desperate attempts to expand their war on Gaza to engulf the whole region comes after the humiliating defeat of Israel, first in the 6 hours war on the 7th of October last year, and the failure to achieve any of the set goals after 120 days of the systematic genocide the US and NATO-sponsored Israel is carrying out against the Palestinians in Gaza.
Instead of accepting the defeat of their anti-Christ project, the Zionists are now bombing the entire region: Gaza, southern Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, while claiming they are in self-defense, the farce claim that was overruled by the International Court of Justice when it denied the occupation forces of the right of self-defense and granted the same to people under occupation in all methods needful.
Should we add that the Biden junta did not seek its rubber-stamping Congress’s approval for this war?
In 2007, Sen. Biden put the President on notice that he would impeach him for going to war with Iran without Congressional approval.
The Observers explained that the US aggression was carried out after alerting the Iranians of the targets in advance and that Biden’s junta went out of its way to reassure Iran that is not seeking a regional war with the Axis of Resistance.
Syria’s accusation of the United States sponsoring ISIS and other terrorist groups comes after years of gathering material evidence, confessions of the arrested terrorists, the US and its NATO proxies’ political pressure against the country, and the economic siege the US-led camp of Western colonial powers imposes on the Syrian people, in addition to the US, Israel, and Turkish interventions whenever these terrorist groups are on the verge of defeat at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies similar to this latest bombing campaign.
On its part, the Iraqi resistance vowed to continue to bomb the illegal US Army bases in Syria and Iraq until the complete withdrawal of the US Army from both countries after it limited its goals to the end of the Israel ‘Holocausting’ of the Palestinians in Gaza.
By its chaotic actions, Biden’s junta has effectively widened the war in Gaza it is seeking to contain, blocked international maritime trade through the Red Sea for Israeli, US, and British ships by bombing Yemen to stop the blockade Yemen imposed on Israeli ships until Israel stops its genocide of Gaza.
Biden junta bankrupted its coffers and the coffers of its Western European satraps trying to do the same to Russia through the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine while acting tough against China in Taiwan.
It’s not the incompetent Western ruling class to be blamed for all the miseries and injustices around the globe including in the Western countries, it’s the indifference and ignorance of the Western citizens not holding their rulers accountable for the war crimes they committed in their names with their tax monies against innocent people and now Karma is doing its work where evil started in the crumbling collective West.
Syria News is a collaborative effort by two authors only, we end up most of the months paying from our pockets to maintain the site’s presence online, if you like our work and want us to remain online you can help by chipping in a couple of Euros/ Dollars or any other currency so we can meet our site’s costs.You can also donate with Cryptocurrencies through ourdonatepage. Thank you in advance.
The head of the Rights Movement party and member of the Iraqi Parliament Hussein Mouanes during a televised interview for Al Mayadeen channel on Friday, January 26, 2024 (Screengrab from Al Mayadeen broadcast)
The head of the Iraqi Rights Movement Hussein Mouanes says there will be no sovereignty in Iraq without the expulsion of US forces.
Hussein Mouanes, the head of the Rights Movement party and member of the Iraqi Parliament, emphasized the necessity of the United States withdrawing its forces from Iraq so that the country could be liberated from Washington’s hegemony.
Mouanes has been at the forefront of voices demanding that all foreign armies withdraw from Iraq, on top of which are the US personnel.
The Iraqi legislator has been recently placed under US Treasury sanctions.
In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen, Mouanes said the sanctions are a source of “pride and honor.” He also pointed out that the US resorting to imposing sanctions reflects “American arrogance and disregard for Iraq and a violation of its sovereignty.”
"قرار الخزانة الأميركية يمسّ السيادة بحيث تطبق أوامر أميركية على أرض العراق"
Mouanes explained that the United States “employs these tactics with the aim of embarrassing the Iraqi government and showcasing its dominance in Iraq” and that Washington is attempting to complicate the Iraqi scene through this policy.
He further asserted that Washington’s inclination toward imposing sanctions holds “no value in his opinion.” Nevertheless, he highlighted that this is a decision that “touches upon the highest legislative authority (given his role as a parliamentary deputy) and encroaches upon the nation’s sovereignty, ultimately resulting in the enforcement of American directives within Iraq.”
Addressing the US’ influence on Iraq’s economy, the MP said the United States today has “dominance, control and mandate” over the country. He emphasized his call for the withdrawal of US forces and the liberation of Iraq from economic dominance, stressing that there is “no turning back from this” stance.
The parliamentary member further explained that when US forces occupied Iraq, they established two funds, “Iraq 1” and “Iraq 2”, where Iraq’s oil revenues were deposited. One of the funds was “spent as being related to Kuwait’s debt,” while the United States invested used funds from the second deposit to exert economic control over the country, he added.
Regarding the strategies to counter Washington’s mandate, he disclosed that they have demanded and taken “various measures to break free from the dominance of the US dollar, diversify currencies, and strengthen the Iraqi dinar,” emphasizing that all the necessary tools are available to implement this decision. He also reiterated that Iraq now possesses regular sources of financial income across all regional countries.
On US forces leaving the country, Mouanes pointed out that there may not necessarily be a consensus on the withdrawal of US forces, but a majority is required. This majority was achieved through a resolution passed by the Iraqi Parliament on January 5, 2020, which directed the government to demand their withdrawal.
“There will be no sovereignty in the country as long as there is power with authority higher than that of the government.” He also confirmed that through the Iraqi-American bilateral committee and elsewhere, the US forces must be withdrawn from Iraqi territory one way or another.
"لا سيادة في البلد في ظل وجود سلطات لها قرارات ومواقف فوق سلطة الحكومة".
“Nothing is difficult if there is a genuine will, and we have faith in the current government’s ability to manage this issue, as no rational person would accept this dominance in this manner.”
Mouanes pointed out that the United States nurtured and developed terrorist threats and groups such as ISIS, while they were investors in this terrorism. They used the group as a pretext to bring their forces into Iraq so they could safeguard their interests and the security of “Israel”, he continued.
"الوجود الأميركي الآن هو وجود تهديدي وليس حافظاً أو مدافعاً عن البلد"
Over the past two months, the United States carried out several strikes against Iraqi factions of the Popular Mobilization Forces PMF – a governmental security apparatus – including one that targeted a site belonging to the Defense Ministry. Several Iraqi citizens were killed in the attacks.
The aggressions came after the Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched a phase of operations against Israeli targets and US forces in Iraq and Syria, in response to the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and Washington’s direct involvement in it.
Commenting on the US attacks, the legislator said the “bombing of a government institution and the killing of government officials in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) is an act of recklessness, disdain, and aggression.”
Regarding the US Embassy in Iraq, he reiterated that it has turned into a military barracks, describing it as the largest embassy and the largest diplomatic mission in the world. Mouanes pointed out that the embassy, while housing the diplomatic mission, functions as a military barracks and hosts spying and espionage devices.
On the proposal for a ceasefire between the US military and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, he said, “The term trice sounds meaningless to me, as there is an occupation and a people who reject it.”
In terms of the impact of the US forces’ departure on the security aspect, he affirmed that the Iraqi army and the armed forces, as well as the PMF, are in their best condition today.
They have a budget allocated to them, and there is confidence in their capabilities, he added. “There is no justification for the existence of a parallel army to the Iraqi army under any pretext.” Elsewhere in the interview, Mouanes said the Israeli Mossad spy agency has a presence in Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdistan region, under the cover of civil society organizations, economic and security companies, and embassies.
According to the MP, the next step after “expelling the US” is to call for the formation of an alliance of all countries opposing “Israel” to counteract Mossad infiltration.
In conclusion, he stated that “Iraq is in danger, and [we] are committed to reclaiming sovereignty, regardless of who agrees or disagrees.”
“We are moving toward reclaiming the sovereignty of the country, preserving it, and expelling this vile American presence.”
Leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement Sayyed Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses the Yemeni people and the Ummah, on January 25, 2024. (Yemeni Armed Forces/Military media)
The leader of the Ansar Allah movement highlights the US’ direct role in war crimes against Palestinians in his latest address.
The leader of the Yemeni Ansar Allah movement, Sayyed Abul-Malik al-Houthi, lambasted the United States for its role in supplementing and supporting the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, during his weekly address to the Yemeni people and the Ummah at large on Thursday.
Sayyed al-Houthi underlined the essential role that Washington plays in extending the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, holding the US administration accountable for piled-up humanitarian aid outside the Gaza Strip and the closure of the Rafah border crossing.
Moreover, the leader pointed to the ongoing US-UK-led aggression on Yemen, which the two Western nations claim aims to secure international maritime trade routes. Contrary to US-UK claims, Sayyed al-Houthi said that Washington “does not care about the threat to international navigation and the fact that it has turned the Red Sea into a battlefield, nor about the arrival of food and medicine to the people of Gaza.”
He added, “[The US] has no problem with expanding the conflict [and increasing tensions in the region].”
In fact, the Resistance leader said the US “insists on keeping Gaza under total siege and keeping the Rafah crossing closed most of the time,” adding that Washington “insists that there be no flow of [humanitarian aid] to the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
It is worth noting that Sayyed al-Houthi’s statements coincide with a months-long effective Naval campaign launched by the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF), aiming at pressuring the Israeli occupation to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid in. The Biden administration in Washington has opted to support the Israeli occupation’s genocidal war on Palestinians and launched at least eight strikes on Yemen.
In this context, Sayyed al-Houthi said, “While the Americans fight for the supplies to reach the Israelis, they prevent food and medicine from reaching Gaza,” pointing out that “[Washignton] is the one behind the continuation of Zionist crimes and behind [the incompetence of international organizations].”
The US “contributes directly to starving the Palestinian people, causing them to die of hunger, not only with the bombs [it provides the Israeli occupation forces with] to kill them.”
Yemen’s battle is intrinsically tied to Gaza
The leader of the Ansar Allah movement said the Yemeni Armed Forces launched more than 200 attack drones and fifty cruise and ballistic missiles in support of the Palestinian people.
He stressed that Yemen would continue to launch operations in support of the Palestinian people “until food and medicine reach all residents of Gaza and the Zionist crimes” in the Gaza Strip stop.
Sayyed al-Houthi stressed that the US’ military aggression and its insistence to reject a humanitarian deal “will not affect our position,” stressing that the Yemeni people “will never retreat.”
“Our battle is ongoing and is entirely linked to the Gaza battle.”
Yemen’s operations: No threat to international navigation
He also indicated that the US is attempting to “justify its aggression against our country and its protection of Zionist crimes,” under the pretext of protecting international navigation.
In response to these claims, Sayyed al-Houthi said that since the beginning of the Yemeni Naval campaign, “4,874 commercial ships have crossed,” through the Red Sea, untouched, adding that the US-UK-led escalation “is [the real] threat to international navigation” and has violated “the sovereignty of countries” in the region.
He went on to advise Europeans against allowing the US to exploit their govenrments’ funds for such purposes.
He explained that “no matter how much the Americans and the British escalate,” the results of this escalation will “be counterproductive and will not affect our decision and position, but we will continue to develop our military capabilities.”
“Whenever the Israelis and the Americans insist on [committing war crimes in Gaza], we must be more resolved and determined to prevent it.”
The leader of the Ansar Allah movement highlighted that in the history of the Arab struggle against the Israeli occupation, there has never been an aggression similar to that on Gaza today, both in terms of the war’s period and the level of criminality committed.
On that note, Sayyed al-Houthi pointed out that the number of casualties in Gaza is now calculated as a percentage of its population. “This is unparalleled today in all conflicts around the world,” he stressed.
In fact, more than 1 in 100 people in the Gaza Strip have been killed by the Israeli occupation since October 7, while more than 1 in 20 Gazans have either been killed, injured, or gone missing in the same period.
Despite the unprecedented level of Israeli brutality, the situation today has differed, he added. “Thanks to the resilience and steadfastness of the Resistance and the people of Gaza,” the equation has changed. The leader added that suffering is mutual and is not limited to Palestinians as in previous periods in the fight against the occupation.
“Despite the scale of the Zionist aggression, crime, tyranny, and incursion, the enemy has failed to achieve its declared goals,” Sayyed al-Houthi emphasized.
Leader of the Ansar Allah, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi: "Despite the scale of the Zionist aggression, criminality, tyranny, and incursion, the enemy has failed to achieve its stated objectives." https://t.co/dTcusFcC1A
Elsewhere in his address, Ansar Allah’s leader reiterated that Muslims bear a great responsibility to “support the resilience of the Palestinian people in the face of extremely difficult conditions, severe suffering, and great oppression.”
He underlined that “if Muslims provide the necessary support to the Palestinian people and its Resistance fighters, the equation will change completely,” pointing out that “the criminal path of the Israeli enemy continues every day, expressing an aggressive tendency, hatred, brutality, and moral bankruptcy.”
“Whenever the enemy fails to achieve its declared goals, it resorts to committing horrendous crimes,” he added, asking, “All international institutions are witnessing what is happening in Palestine, in Gaza, but where is the practical stance?”
“The statements issued by international institutions do not match up to the real situation Gaza is facing,” he added.
Leader of the Ansar Allah, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi: "The statements issued by international institutions can never truly capture the reality of what is happening in #Gaza." https://t.co/pKATrCR9yF
Regarding the international public stance on the Israeli war, he emphasized the need for the demonstrations in Western countries to continue, namely in Europe and the United States.
However, he said that “there must be broader and escalating actions to pressure the heinous and brutal crime against the Palestinian people to stop.”
“Mass popular movement has great importance in demanding an end to the aggression on Gaza and ending the crime against the Palestinian people,” Sayyed al-Houthi said, noting that “people suffering severe oppression from their regimes can boycott American and Israeli goods.”
Reaffirming Yemen’s unwavering position to support Gaza, respond to Israeli crimes, and face the occupation’s supporters no matter the challenges, he stressed that Gaza will not be left to its fate.
“Our people will not leave Gaza alone, and Yemenis will not stay at home ignoring what is happening, but the popular mobilization will continue,” he declared, calling for “massive demonstrations on Friday in the capital Sanaa and across other provinces.”
The Syrian government’s agreement to crack down on illicit Captagon networks as part of regional diplomatic rehabilitation highlights the need for joint efforts, even if they contradict US interests in keeping Damascus isolated.
Recognizing the grave threat posed by this illicit trade, the Syrian leadership has undertaken strategic measures, including the mobilization of officers and a comprehensive security campaign to eradicate cartel networks operating in the country.
In recent weeks, the Syrian security forces have carried out raids in the border areas where the control of the Syrian security services is weak, and have even threatened to carry out airstrikes to target Captagon factories.
Syria and Saudi Arabia’s joint effort
These developments come as a result of the recent Syrian-Saudi rapprochement, which has seen the Syrian state pledge to combat the manufacture of drugs on its territory, while Saudi Arabia has redoubled efforts at home to contain an emerging, easy-to-manufacture drug known in the kingdom as “shabu,” or worldwide as “crystal meth.”
The Syrian and Saudi role in the fight against drugs is consistent with developments in Iraq and Jordan which have joined the kingdom in working together to combat drugs and prevent their territories from being used as hubs for the manufacture of narcotics and as transit routes.
Just as regional cooperation in combating the drug trade is gaining momentum, the US media has relentlessly propagated the notion that Syria and Lebanon have transformed into narco-states, serving as major hubs for the manufacturing and smuggling of Captagon.
Consequently, Washington appears dissatisfied with the aforementioned joint efforts to combat this notorious yet lucrative drug trade.
Well-informed sources reveal to The Cradle that efforts between Arab countries to cooperate in counter-narcotic operations are being made in the face of intense US pressure. Washington’s stance on this is clear; it wants to undermine any progress in Syrian-Saudi relations, even if this leads to the failure of the fight against drugs.
As the US focuses on addressing the Captagon issue, which has emerged in the security vacuum resulting from regional conflicts, various Arab capitals, including Riyadh, Damascus, Baghdad, Amman, and Beirut, are collaborating to eradicate this illicit market. They have established a coordinated control room to track drug sources and smuggling routes, with the objective of dismantling the networks that have proliferated in recent years.
Previous attempts to combat Captagon
Moreover, parallel to the political rapprochement between Damascus and Riyadh, marked by the upcoming reopening of their embassies and the invitation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the recent Arab Summit in Jeddah, the security services of both countries have initiated a long-term partnership with Jordan and Iraq. This partnership aims to combat the pervasive drug problem that has arisen during the challenging security conditions endured by Syria throughout the war.
The joint security cooperation of the countries involved in this process, according to informed sources who spoke to The Cradle, is due to previous agreements during meetings between security officials.
The region, particularly in the past two years, has witnessed an alarming escalation in drug smuggling activities, necessitating a united response.
The sources reveal that there was a history of successful security cooperation prior to the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011. Notably, their joint efforts in the past led to the dismantling of numerous Captagon manufacturing and smuggling networks.
In 2010, Saudi Arabia played a significant role in uncovering and neutralizing a major drug network that involved individuals from various nationalities, including Jordanians, Syrians, and Saudis.
Unfortunately, with the onset of the Syrian conflict, the existing security cooperation was disrupted, temporarily halting the joint efforts.
It’s bigger than Syria
Among the myriad of drugs available, Captagon stands out as one of the most prevalent due to its ease of manufacture and low production costs. The security vacuum created by the Syrian war provided an ideal breeding ground for its production, while the region’s challenging economic conditions further facilitated the establishment of expansive smuggling and distribution networks. The allure of substantial financial gains motivated the emergence of these illicit networks, exacerbating the drug problem in the region.
Contrary to what is commonly believed, security sources confirm to The Cradle that Captagon manufacturing operations are not limited to Syria, but rather factories in Jordan and Iraq are raided from time to time, which prompted the restoration of security cooperation between the affected countries to eliminate these networks.
Meanwhile, Washington perceives Captagon as a security threat originating from the Syrian state, and has used it as grounds to draft new sanctions to penalize and increase pressure on Damascus and to provide cover for the illegal presence of US forces in the country. However, the Arab countries involved in the joint effort have chosen a different path, leveraging the experience of past cooperation and recognizing the futility of depending on US political investment.
While security operations are typically shrouded in secrecy, the countries engaged in this endeavor have openly expressed their political commitment and documented their cooperation. This was evident in the articles of the final statement issued at the five-party meeting of the foreign ministers of Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, hosted in Amman last month.
In this context, Syrian sources indicate that the political declaration issued parallel to the security measures taken so far aims to send political messages to western countries that the Syrian government is a partner in the solution rather than part of the problem.
Additionally, this increase in cooperation has impacted the political aspects of the Captagon issue as well. This was clearly demonstrated by the discussion of Captagon during the recent visit of the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to Baghdad on 4 June, which was completely at odds with the desired US approach.
Washington’s plan is to offer assistance to the border guards of the countries neighboring Syria alongside its own efforts to combat the drug. This includes the continued deployment of US forces to various bases in the northeast region as well as the border triangle shared with Jordan and Iraq (Al-Tanf).
The funding for these operations, initially authorized under the pretext of fighting ISIS, is now specifically allocated by the US Department of Defense in accordance with the so-called CAPTAGON Act, which aims to highlight the alleged involvement of the Syrian government in the trade.
The act also seeks to undermine the pharmaceutical industry in Syria, which is one of the few industries that partially survived the war intact.
Continuous collaboration against the regional drug trade
In light of these circumstances, recent leaks published by Reuters regarding Saudi Arabia’s alleged offer of $4 billion to the Syrian government in exchange for resolving the Captagon issue deserve scrutiny. The Saudi Foreign Ministry denied these claims, while a Syrian source tells The Cradle that the allegations form part of the US-led media campaign against the Syrian government.
The source emphasizes that Saudi Arabia is actually engaged in a partnership with the Syrian government to resolve the drug crisis, while Damascus considers Captagon as one of the most significant risks resulting from the war, greatly impacting the country’s economic recovery, security, and humanitarian well-being.
It is anticipated that more networks will be dismantled in the upcoming period, particularly considering that the majority of networks dismantled thus far were active in southern Syria. This region has been undergoing a gradual post-war recovery process, aiming to revive state institutions and eliminate the prevailing security vacuum.
Simultaneously, efforts are being made to regain control over areas completely outside the Syrian government’s jurisdiction and enhance the effectiveness of government agencies in areas under its control. These endeavors necessitate significant effort and ongoing cooperation among the concerned capitals to establish a collaborative security belt.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
In his speech, President Al-Assad spoke of the opportunity this wave of discontent and anger has provided to the Region to revise its dispositions – away from Western dominance and intervention
By Alastair Crooke
America’s own structural contradictions of a hyper-financialised economy, sucking the substance from its real-economy host — of a society living in trembling fear of a hospital bill.
The US stands aloof and disconsolate in the wake of the diplomatic revolution in the Middle East. First, China mediated (and guaranteed) a settlement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and then last week, President Bashar al-Assad strode confidently into the Arab League summit – to greetings and kisses all around. President Assad, after 12 long years of struggle, has been legitimised within the Arab sphere, and is returned as a normal, sovereign state for most of the world.
But a new mood has arisen: Anger is building across the world. To those that have been vilified, sanctioned and attacked in the name of the ‘Rules-based Order’ the message is clear: You are not alone; many peoples are voicing their anger and discontent. The divisive ‘with us’, or (be treated as extremist threat), if ‘against us’ dogma is being overthrown. US foreign policy is crumbling across the Middle East, and in Asia, Africa and South America.
In his speech, President Al-Assad spoke of the opportunity this wave of discontent and anger has provided to the Region to revise its dispositions – away from Western dominance and intervention:
“Today we are facing an opportunity to change the international situation that appears in the form of a unipolar world, a result of the dominance of the West, who lacks all ethics and principles … This historic opportunity requires the Arab World to reposition itself and invest in the positive atmosphere of reconciliation that preceded today’s summit”, Al-Assad added, referring to recent diplomatic initiatives which resulted in Saudi Arabia’s resumption of diplomatic ties with Tehran and Damascus.
President Al-Assad also stressed the need to consolidate Arab culture in the face of “modern liberalism, which targets the innate affiliations of man and strips him of his morals and identity”.
This latter point by Al-Assad — ‘the cultural danger’ associated with contemporary woke liberalism — is noticeably becoming a global theme, as states emphasise the wish to manage lives in their own way of being.
Of course, Syria is not yet sovereign. US and Turkish forces, together with foreign-backed militia, occupy significant portions of Syrian land. Nonetheless, the Arab League’s position on rejecting foreign intervention and their de-facto legitimisation of the Syrian government will assist Damascus in finding a negotiated outcome.
For “Israel”, the prospect ahead is one of radical change, amidst fears of “being left in the dust”. Prime Minister Netanyahu, amidst domestic schisms and continuing protests, has been seeking to downplay these tectonic shifts, and to project an image of ‘business as usual’ to counter the foreign media focus on protests and political turmoil within “Israel”.
Attacking the Palestinians in Gaza helps keep Netanyahu’s Right-leaning coalition intact — as one Israeli commentator wrote: “Killing children brings Israelis together”. However, Netanyahu’s two Israeli-unity mainstays for ‘gathering Israelis around the flag’: hyping the Iranian nuclear ‘threat’, and lauding his achievement of the so-called Abrahams Accord, have both lost their shine.
Firstly, the reconciliation between Iran and Gulf States voids much of the original justification — Arab fear of Iran — for US’ Iran policy. The two former antagonists presently are resolving their differences diplomatically (under Chinese guidance), and exchanging mutual security assurances between them. In any event, Team Biden does not want war with Iran. It has enough on its plate already.
And secondly, Jake Sullivan, on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, failed to persuade the Kingdom to normalise with “Israel”. Arab States at the summit rather, are emphasising the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative which precludes normalisation with “Israel”, until a Palestinian State has come into existence. The States which have ‘normalised’ will continue in the same mode, but the conceptual structure of the Abraham Accords (from the Israeli perspective) is entirely hollowed out. Arab States are busy opening diplomatic and trade channels with Iran; they are no longer manning an anti-Iran axis on behalf of Washington and “Tel Aviv”.
Were we to stand-back and see Regional events in a wider arc, we might notice two things about the global situation: The first is that “Israel’s” present travails, and signs of a putative unravelling of the project, spring not, as its leaders and external allies incessantly have prognosticated, from outside forces, but from “Israel’s” own internal unresolved contradictions.
“Israel’s” structural problem is underscored by the current, bitter stand-off over Netanyahu’s plan for Judicial Reform. The Israeli Jewish population is split down the middle: Ashkenazi vs Mizrahi; secular ‘balancers’ vs ‘Jewishness’ exclusivists — with neither side willing to back down and each claiming to be the ‘more democratic’; and each with a vision of “Israel” that is wholly incompatible with that of the ‘other’. “Israel” rests at the cusp of low-intensity civil conflict.
Similarly, America’s polarisation and deepening political divide, which for some Americans also portends some form of internal secession as the only solution to America’s own putative unravelling, spring not – as its political leaders insist – from outside forces (from Russia, China or Iran), but from its own unresolved contradictions.
America’s own structural contradictions of a hyper-financialised economy, sucking the substance from its real-economy host — of a society living in trembling fear of a hospital bill; of despairing to put their children through college with its exorbitant fees; and a political system in near constant paralysis, a zero-sum confrontation — are self-generated and are not external ‘demons’ (except perhaps, in the depths of the unconscious psyche).
Here is the contrast: The Region is shaking itself free from the divisions and schisms of the past. Western ‘great powers’, however, are sinking deeper into theirs. This confluence is systemically unstable: it represents an imbalance, and likely will lead to a period of sustained turmoil.
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
Now, it is abundantly clear that the United States’ dishonest and aggressive Middle East strategy, which is at odds with the aspirations of the Arab world, has utterly failed. The establishment of a multipolar world by Russia, China, and Iran was a significant milestone in this process. The convergence of these three nations and the global support for this new diplomatic triangle have been impossible for the United States and its allies to prevent.
Around the world, anti-Russian sentiment is being stoked to confront the White House’s growing Russophobia, Sinophobia, tightening of unlawful sanctions measures, and even outright terrorism: the illegal undermining of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea and the apparent planning of similar terrorist activities against the TurkStream in particular (the activation of flights of the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones in the Black Sea, one of which crashed on March 14, can confirm this).
The US intelligence agencies continue to seek to arm ISIS (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) fighters, particularly at the US military base Al-Tanf in Syria, in order to exacerbate the chaos in the region. According to incoming information, the Islamists would soon get several dozen four-wheel drive pickup trucks equipped with heavy machine guns, BGM-71 ТOW and NLAW missile defense systems, 9K38 Igla, and other weapons.
While American hegemony, which Washington has been actively trying to impose on the world in recent years, is being eroded with each passing day, the concept of a multipolar world promoted by Russia and China is being further strengthened. Beijing’s efforts to mediate the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia were also a crucial stage in the process. This is supported even by American media, which saw the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran as a direct challenge to Washington’s quest for dominance in the Middle East and around the globe. The signing in Beijing on March 10 of a peace treaty between the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and his Saudi counterpart and the decision to open Embassies within two months show the intention and willingness of Middle Eastern states to solve pressing regional problems without American involvement, to seek ways out of existing conflict situations, the vast majority of which were created and fomented by the White House.
The situation in Iraq, which was invaded by the US and its allies without the consent of the UN Security Council 20 years ago, is a stark example of how Washington’s policies and authority have collapsed. The United States, which had promised to create a “free nation,” has reduced this nation to corruption and the ruins of what was once a powerful, affluent state, and has thrown it into an economic and political catastrophe. The US invasion, civil war and rampant terrorism killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. By international agreement, the United States and its allies’ attack was unleashed to enable the Anglo-Saxons’ unchecked looting of Iraq’s economy and oil fields. According to Orientalists, it was this policy that led to a surge of sectarian conflict, rampant terrorism and a series of civil wars throughout the Middle East. The US intervention, like with past armed aggressions by Washington in recent decades, has shown America’s dedication to militarily interfering in sovereign states and utterly eliminating their statehood, which is openly despised in the Middle East.
Washington made contempt for the interests of the countries in the region the defining feature of its policy in the rush to bolster its global hegemony following the fall of the Soviet Union. And this position was reinforced by the unrelenting US military presence in the region, the continuing attachment of Middle Eastern companies to Western markets, and the regional elites to the “democratic and financial values” of the United States. Following the election of US President Donald Trump, the White House began to focus primarily on the needs of Israel, so that the idea of the Abraham Accords, without resolving the Palestinian issue, began to be misrepresented in Washington as the ideal way to befriend Jews and Arabs on the grounds of instilling fear of Iran.
The White House therefore experienced Iran’s diplomatic successes in collaboration with Russia and China as well as the “treachery” of former American allies, the Saudis, with great agony. Furthermore, Washington’s realization of the decline in American influence in the region was a dreadful wakeup from its previous Middle East slumber.
The United States is currently unable to manage the Middle East crises and build a consensus among the region’s nations due to Washington’s deadlocked relations with the major Persian Gulf powers. This became particularly clear after Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine: except from Israel’s modest actions, not a single nation in the area has applied even the most rudimentary sanctions against Moscow. Concurrently with Trump’s 2015 decision to pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran, relations between Washington and Riyadh have deteriorated significantly in recent years, and against this backdrop the Saudi government has been forced to worry about both their own security and efforts to bring about peace in the region.
As a result of the US credibility being completely called into question by the White House’s tardy backing of the sheikhs’ activities in the adjacent Yemen, Riyadh is now looking for ways to resolve the conflict through direct communication with Tehran. And these contacts proved to be very effective, with Iran agreeing to stop clandestine arms shipments to the Houthi militia in Yemen as part of a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations. The region’s nations have a chance to move toward peace on their own, without relying on Washington. And since Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has invited Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to visit Riyadh, these actions will undoubtedly be quite spectacular in the near future.
In light of these circumstances, there is growing discussion in the area about the necessity for the United States to end its aggressive actions in the Middle East and sail back home before a regional wave of protest in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, and many other nations forces it to do so.
Valery Kulikov, political expert, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
The Syrian Resistance supported by its allied forces bombed illegal US military bases in northern Syria inflicting direct casualties among the US Army oil thieves and ‘American contractors’ aka CIA agents, the bombing comes after the US Army, in its desire to change the rules of engagement, dared to believe it had the right of retaliation against a previous bombing that was a retaliation in itself for the Israel bombing of Aleppo International Airport a day earlier.
As its custom, the US war ministry aka the Pentagon, and its propagandists will always minimize their casualties, deny them completely if they can get away with it, and later on, report the casualties as results of accidents or during training, at the same time they will maximize the casualties among their foes, invent them if needed to boost the morale among their personnel and their families 6000 miles away from the battlefronts.
As the exchange of fire is settled, for now, first, we will start with multiple local sources confirming the killing of at least 8 US Army oil thieves and 2 ‘American contractors’ who I will refer to as CIA agents unless the US commander in chief personally can officially prove otherwise.
In our earlier report, the toll was 1 CIA agent killed, another wounded in addition to 5 US Army oil thieves wounded as well. This was the result of bombing the illegal US military air base in Kharab Al Jief in Hasakah province, northeast of Syria.
The sequence of events started when Israel bombed Aleppo International Airport for the second time this month in the early hours of dawn on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
The rule of engagement set by the Syrian Resistance is whenever Israel bombs any site in Syria, the US Army will be bombed in retaliation. The US Army in addition to stealing Syrian oil and food, helps Israel bomb Syria, Israel’s very existence depends on the US taxpayers, the US military, and the US political protection.
In retaliation to the Israeli bombing of Aleppo International Airport, a war crime by all laws, the Syrian Resistance within the set rules of engagement (its own version of the rules-based national order) bombed the illegal US Army air base in Kharab al Jier in Hasakah province.
Because the US Army wanted to break this rule of engagement in its quest to escalate its war crimes in Syria further, and because they sustained casualties, the US Army in their illegal military base in the Al Tanf area fired missiles or drones against two warehouses in a southern suburb of the Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, the warehouses used to distribute supplies for the needy Syrians suffering from the NATO member state Turkey cutting the water of the Euphrates, the shortage in fuel to farm their lands because of the US Army stealing their oil, and the shortage of wheat, Syria’s main food staple, because the US Army and its Kurdish SDF separatist terrorists steal the Syrian wheat and burn the wheat fields they cannot steal.
As a result of the bombing of the two warehouses, an unknown number of people were killed, sources say between 2 and 5, and several others were wounded. The warehouses are supervised by the Iranian Consular Center in Damascus which issued a statement strongly condemning the US aggression and vowing to respond.
The promise to respond took half an hour to materialize, a missile attack targeted the illegal US military bases in Syria’s largest oil field Al Omar and Syria’s largest gas field Conoco which alone has received 20 missiles, both in eastern Deir Ezzor countryside. Multiple sounds of explosions were heard all over the region.
To save face, and again to try to change the rule of engagement, the US Army fired missiles against a Syrian Resistance post which drew a massive exchange of missiles between the Syrian Resistance and their allies across Deir Ezzor province, and the illegal US Army bases in the region.
At least one heavy missile struck the US Army occupying the Conoco Gas field resulting in a fire in the base and reports of several US Army personnel killed.
Iranian Kamikaze drones joined in barbecuing US Army oil thieves
The illegal US Army base in the Youth Camp in Deir Ezzor came under a missile attack.
Soon after the first US Army attack occurred, the Syrian Arab Army went on alert and readied its missiles to join if needed.
Simultaneously, when the news of US soldiers and CIA agents being killed in Syria, the missile units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC in western Iran also went on alert and were readied to join if needed.
The US Commander in Chief, one demented so-called Joe Biden claimed in a comment that he was in his cognitive powers to order his troops in Syria to ‘swiftly retaliate against the attack’ by what he called ‘Iranian-backed militias’.
During the exchange of fire, a former US official in hiding issued a statement ridiculing the handling of Biden’s junta of the situation and calling for a direct wide-scale confrontation. The US former official named Mike Pompeo said that ‘the US forces were attacked 78 times since 2021, and the Biden’s administration (junta) retaliated against only 3 of them.’
There’s a reward on the head of Pompeo by the Iranian IRGC for his role in killing Iran’s most revered general and the head of the IRGC General Qasim Soleimani while on a diplomatic peace mission in a 3rd country, near Baghdad International Airport. A heinous cheap war crime that sent this Pompeo into bunkers with expensive beefed-up security on the account of the US taxpayers. Sometimes, living in fear is worse than killing.
The escalations calmed down after the US Army stopped responding to the incoming missiles, hopefully, they understood that their role is to get bombed when Israel bombs Syria and not respond, firstly, they are aggressors, their presence in Syria is illegal and considered occupation, they help terrorist groups against the Syrian people, they steal Syrian oil and food, and they are a cause of instability in the region, they have NO right to self-defense, their only right is to accept the role of cannon fodders for the Zionist Joe Biden and his Greater Israel project.
Syria News is a collaborative effort by two authors only, we end up most of the months paying from our pockets to maintain the site’s presence online, if you like our work and want us to remain online you can help by chipping in a couple of Euros/ Dollars or any other currency so we can meet our site’s costs.
You can also donate with Cryptocurrencies through our donate page. Thank you in advance.
US President Joe Biden says the US will “act forcefully” to ‘protect its personnel’ in Syria amid extensive attacks against US occupation bases in Northern Syria.
An Army carry team loads into a vehicle a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Antonio I. Moore, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware after being killed in Deir Ezzor province, Syria. (AP)
After a senior Iranian advisor revealed how the US shelled Deir Ezzor, Syria, US President Joe Biden warned Iran, on Friday, that the US, to protect its occupation forces and interests in Syria, will “act forcefully”.
“Make no mistake: the United States does not … seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people,” Biden said in a briefing while on a visit to Canada.
Moreover, Biden was asked whether Iran would face a more severe blow, to which Biden replied, “We’re not going to stop.”
It is worth noting that according to the Pentagon, as reported by Reuters, US F-15 jets, that flew out of al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, initially targeted facilities in Deir Ezzor pertaining to groups affiliated with the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). However, a senior Iranian advisor told the UNews news website that “the targets that were hit [by the US] are food stores and service centers,” adding that “this aggression resulted in seven martyrs and injured seven other innocents who did nothing wrong except for serving the locals, their people, in the area.”
“We are fully aware that the US occupation is trying to cause injuries among our ranks under false pretexts that it has long used to justify its criminality,” he added. “Based on that, we underline that our mission, through our legitimate presence in Syria, has been to help the Syrian state to confront the terrorists and the takfiri project led by ISIS.”
“For years, the region has been under attack from the American occupation, in an attempt to impose an equation of force, and their pretext has always been that they are returning fire. In the end, it turned out that they are seeking to attack precision weapons and systems that Iran is transporting, which pose a threat to their protégé, ‘Israel’,” the top Iranian advisor said.
Al Mayadeen’s Damascus Bureau chief reported that over 15 rockets targeted US occupation bases and facilities throughout the night. There is no conclusive report on the extent of the damages. However, at least five were wounded, three of whom were transferred to the US base in Iraq, and one contractor was pronounced dead.
One of the officials explained that the Avenger missile defense system on the base, RLZ, may have been experiencing some unexpected maintenance issues, although the fact that the troops were on high alert given the frequent attacks they are subjected to in light of their occupation of Syrian territory, the report said.
The US military currently has no knowledge as to why the system did not work as it should, and the circumstances are being investigated at present, the report said, citing two officials.
It was reported earlier in the day that about a dozen rockets were fired at a US base, with a second base in the area being targeted, but the strikes did not result in casualties.
The US military occupation controls parts of the provinces of Al-Hasakah, Raqqa, Aleppo, and Deir Ezzor, where the largest Syrian oil and gas fields are located. The Syrian government has repeatedly called the US military presence in the provinces an occupation aimed at plundering the country’s oil.
The US military said it carried out “precision airstrikes” in eastern Syria on Thursday in response to an alleged drone attack that killed one American and injured five US service personnel.
A Department of Defense statement claimed that the casualties fell “after a one-way unmanned aerial vehicle struck a maintenance facility on a Coalition base near Hasakah in northeast Syria.”
The US has for long employed the alleged “ISIS threat” as a pretext to continue its illegal occupation of Syrian territories, frequently looting oil and gas from Syrian fields and transporting them to other occupation bases in Iraq via illegal crossings.
يبدو أن هناك تنسيقاً روسيّاً – إيرانيّاً غير معلن للتصعيد ضدّ الوجود الأميركي في سوريا (أ ف ب)
الحسكة | لم يمضِ وقت قصير على إعلان الولايات المتحدة اختراق الطائرات الروسية – أكثر من 20 مرّة – الأجواء فوق «قاعدة التنف»، وتالياً انتهاك اتّفاق غير معلَن بين البلدَين في سوريا، حتى تعرّضت قاعدة «التحالف الدولي» في خراب الجير في ريف الحسكة الشمالي الشرقي، لاستهداف صاروخي، أَوقع خسائر بشرية في صفوف الأميركيين، للمرّة الأولى منذ بدء «المقاومة الشعبية» باستهداف القواعد الأميركية غير الشرعية في البلاد، في حزيران عام 2021. وفيما كانت الطائرات الروسية تواصل عمليّات الرصد والمراقبة في أجواء منطقة الـ55 كلم و«قاعدة التنف»، نجحت إحدى الطائرات المسيّرة التي يُرجّح أنها تابعة لفصائل سورية مدعومة من إيران، في استهداف «قاعدة ومطار خراب الجير» في ريف اليعربية، بعدد من الصواريخ، وهو ما خلّف خسائر بشرية ومادية فيها.
ويبدو ممّا تقدَّم، أن هناك تنسيقاً روسيّاً – إيرانيّاً غير معلن للتصعيد ضدّ الوجود الأميركي في سوريا، بهدف الضغط على الولايات المتحدة لإجبارها على اتّخاذ قرار بالانسحاب من القواعد التي تتواجد فيها شمال البلاد وشرقها. والظاهر أيضاً أن الجانب الروسي ركّز اهتمامه على مراقبة وتعقّب تحرّكات الأميركيين في التنف جنوب البلاد، فيما تولّى الجانب الإيراني مهامّ مراقبة واستهداف القواعد الأميركية في محافظتَي الحسكة ودير الزور، في الشمال الشرقي منها. وفي هذا الإطار، أفادت مصادر ميدانية، «الأخبار»، بأن «طائرة مسيّرة تابعة للمقاومة الشعبية السورية المدعومة من إيران، نجحت في اختراق نظام مراقبة خاص نشرتْه الولايات المتحدة في عموم قواعدها في سوريا، واستهدفت بعدّة صواريخ هنغاراً هو عبارة عن غرف منامة، ما أدّى إلى وقوع خسائر بشرية ومادية»، مشيرة إلى أن «الاستهداف وقع بعد ظهر الخميس، من دون تحديد الوجهة التي انطلقت منها الطائرة المسيّرة». ولفتت المصادر إلى أن «نجاح الطائرات المسيّرة في إسقاط قتلى في صفوف الأميركيين، يُعتبر تطوّراً نوعيّاً في عملها»، متوقعةً أن «تصعّد المقاومة من عمليّاتها حتى الوصول إلى هدفها الرئيس في الضغط على قوات الاحتلال الأميركي، لمغادرة المنطقة نهائيّاً».
وبعمليّتها هذه، تكون «المقاومة الشعبية» قد تمكّنت من خرْق نظام مراقبة عالي التقنية، يتضمّن رادارات وكاميرات حراريّة ونظام دفاع جوياً نصبته الولايات المتحدة في جميع قواعدها في سوريا. كما أن استهداف «مطار خراب الجير» خصوصاً، وإنْ لم يكن الأوّل من نوعه، يمثّل نجاحاً إضافيّاً للمقاومة، لكون المنطقة تقع تحت سيطرة «قسد»، منذ أكثر من 10 سنوات، فيما تبعد أقرب نقطة من أماكن وجود المقاومة المفترضة في دير الزور، عنه، أكثر من 200 كلم. ومن هنا، ثمّة ثلاثة احتمالات لنقطة انطلاق المسيّرة، وجميعها كارثيّة بالنسبة إلى الأميركيين: فإمّا أنها نجحت في قطْع أكثر من 200 كلم من مناطق سيطرة الجيش السوري في دير الزور متجاوزةً سلسلة من القواعد الأميركية في الدير والحسكة، أو أنها انطلقت من محيط القاعدة، أو أنها انطلقت من داخل الحدود العراقية الملاصقة للقاعدة، وهو احتمال يبدو ضعيفاً.
ساد التخبط صفوف القوات الأميركية الموجودة في «قاعدة التنف»
وأمام هذه السيناريوات، ساد التخبّط صفوف القوات الأميركية الموجودة في القاعدة، والتي نفّذت، بالتعاون مع «قسد»، سلسلة اعتقالات بحقّ مدنيين في القرى والتجمّعات السكنية المحيطة، بتهمة تسريب معلومات عن تحركات القوات الأميركية ومراكزها في المنطقة. كذلك، شهدت أجواء محافظتَي الحسكة ودير الزور، تحليقاً متواصلاً للطيران الأميركي الحربي والمسيّر، في موازاة استنفار داخل القواعد ونشر دوريات تابعة لـ«قسد» في محيط «العمر» و«كونيكو»، تخوّفاً من وقوع هجمات مشابهة لهجوم «خراب الجير». وبعد مرور 12 ساعة على الاستهداف، وتأكيد وقوع خسائر بشرية في صفوف الأميركيين، نفّذت طائرات حربيّة أميركية، غارات جويّة على عدّة مواقع لقوات محلية سورية مدعومة من إيران في مدينة دير الزور وبادية البوكمال. وأعلنت وزارة الدفاع الأميركية («البنتاغون»)، في بيان، «شَنّ غارات محدودة ودقيقة ضدّ جماعات مدعومة من إيران شرق سوريا، رداً على هجوم طائرة من دون طيار أسفر عن مقتل متعاقد أميركي وإصابة خمسة جنود». وأشار البيان إلى أن «أجهزة الاستخبارات حدَّدت أن المسيّرة من صنع إيراني»، مضيفاً أنه «تمّ تنفيذ الغارات الجوية، رداً على الهجوم الذي وقع الخميس، بالإضافة إلى سلسلة من الهجمات الأخرى ضدّ قوات التحالف الدولي من مجموعات تابعة لإيران».
من جهتها، أكدت مصادر ميدانية سورية في دير الزور، في تصريح إلى «الأخبار»، أن «طائرات تابعة للاحتلال الأميركي اعتدت بعدّة غارات على بناءين عسكريّين توجد فيهما قوات رديفة في منطقة هرابش، بالقرب من مطار دير الزور العسكري، ما أدّى إلى ارتقاء خمسة شهداء وأربعة جرحى»، مضيفاً أن «العدوان طاول أيضاً نقطة عسكرية لقوات رديفة في بادية القورية في ريف الميادين، ما أدّى إلى استشهاد عنصرَين وجرح خمسة أفراد من القوات الرديفة». وعادت «المقاومة الشعبية» للردّ على الاعتداءات الأميركية مجدّداً، باستهداف صاروخي لقاعدة حقل «العمر» النفطية، شمال شرقي دير الزور، بعد ظهر الجمعة، من دون معلومات عن حجم الخسائر، ووسط استمرار حالة التوتّر في عموم المنطقة.
في هذا الوقت، حذّر «المركز الاستشاري الإيراني»، في بيان، أمس، الأميركيين من استهداف مراكزه وقواته، قائلاً: «نملك اليد الطولى ولدينا القدرة على الردّ في حال تمّ استهداف مراكزنا وقواتنا على الأراضي السورية». كما أوضح أن العدوان استهدف «نقاطاً مدنية» هي عبارة عن «مخازن تغذية ومراكز خدمات»، لافتاً إلى سقوط «عدد من الشهداء والجرحى الأبرياء الذين لا ذنب لهم». كما أشار البيان إلى أن الاحتلال الأميركي يحاول، من خلال اعتدائه على المنطقة منذ سنوات، «فرْض معادلة، ولطالما كانت ذريعتهم أنهم يردّون على مصادر نيران»، مضيفاً أنه «تبيّن أنهم يسعون، بحسب ما يعتقدون ويُشيعون، إلى استهداف أسلحة دقيقة وتجهيزات حسّاسة تنقلها إيران، وتُشكّل خطراً على ربيبتهم إسرائيل». وفي أعقاب إطلاق التحذير الإيراني، تمّ استهداف القاعدة الأميركية في حقل العمر النفطي في ريف دير الزور الشرقي، بعدة قذائف صاروخية.
According to civilian sources, the convoy is made of 23 vehicles and includes covered trucks and sand tanks filled with stolen oil.
American occupation soldiers patrol in Hassakeh, Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022 (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Syrian news agency SANA reported on Saturday that US occupation troops have looted a new batch of oil from Syria’s al-Jazeera fields.
The convoy is on its way to reach US military bases in Iraq via the illegal al-Mahmudiya crossing in the al-Yarubiya region.
According to civilian sources, the convoy is made of 23 vehicles and includes covered trucks and tanks filled with stolen oil.
The sources further added that an additional convoy made up of 34 trucks exited the illegal al-Walid crossing in al-Yarubiya.
The last time US troops plundered Syrian oil was on February 27th. The oil was looted from the same al-Jazeera fields and was transported to Iraq via illegal crossings.
Even after the February 6 earthquake devastated several cities across the coutry, the US continue to loot oil from Syrian territories under US occupation.
US troops claim to be occupying the area in order to rid the region of terrorists, yet the US has strategically implanted itself there for the purposes of stealing Syria’s oil as well as destabilizing President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
In December of 2022, Syria’s foreign ministry said the US occupation forces and their affiliated military groups’ systematic lootings of Syrian oil, wheat, and other national resources have amounted to direct losses valued at $25.9 billion and indirect losses valued at over $86 billion.
“19.8 billion US dollars of looting oil, gas, and mineral resources, 3.3 billion US dollars resulting from vandalizing and ransacking of facilities. 2.9 billion US dollars the value of damages caused to the oil and gas installations by the so-called ‘injternational coalition’ bombing of these installations,” the statement detailed.
The Ministry then demanded the UN to once again adopt urgent steps to cease the violation of international law by the US and its allies and ensure compensation for these violations.
We thank Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Geir Pedersen, Head of UN OCHA Martin Griffiths, as well as Assistant Secretary-General of the Leagues of Arab States Hossam Zaki for their insights.
We welcome the beginning of the 7th round of the Editorial Board of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva. We are convinced that there is no alternative to Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political settlement under UN assistance that should be free of external interference and artificial deadlines, and should remain within the framework of UNSC resolution 2254.
We do hope that “methodological” reservations will not impede fruitful conclusion of this round, and the work will mainly focus on dialogue between the Syrian delegations and their readiness to come to an agreement on the issue of constitutional reform. We call on Geir Pedersen to concentrate on this without getting distracted by other initiatives.
Mme.President,
Progress of political settlement is in even greater demand now that the situation on the ground remains tense and potentially explosive. Main security threats to Syria have to do with the rise of activity of terrorists who found refuge at Damascus-uncontrolled territories in Idlib, cross-Euphrates area, and Al-Tanf. This problem can be solved if the uncompromising fight against internationally-recognized terrorist groups, first of all ISIL and HTS continues; illegal foreign military presence that violates Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is put an end to; and Israel’s arbitrary air strikes stop for good.
We believe the key reason creating this hazardous situation is the West showing indulgence towards terrorists and trying to use them for own purposes. Among the resent consequences of this dangerous stance we can name a large-scale terrorist attack on al-Sinaa prison in Hasakeh. When cleansing the prison and surrounding urban areas from militants, US aviation and armored vehicles were used. Measures for protection of civilians were ignored, which is richly illustrated by mass outflow of peaceful population from combat zone: more than 45,000 people by OCHA estimates.
Even though Washington poses its military presence as a counter-terrorism operation, we see no active fight against terrorists there. Besides, by available records, ISIL and other extremists from across the Euphrates are being transferred to other hotspots where spreading chaos is beneficial for the US. It is worth reminding that the United States and its allies repeatedly launched massive missile and bombing raids against Syria’s military and industrial infrastructure in violation of the international law and the UN Charter – on a far-fetched pretext of eliminating chemical weapons. Apparently, this is what West-promoted “rules-based order” looks like.
This being said, and also in view of the fact that the Secretary-General stepped back from conventional “neutral language” that is appropriate for an international civil servant in the context of Ukraine, we request A.Guterres to be consistent and give an assessment to whether the presence of the US and other forces in Syria meets the UN Charter. We count on him to call the names of those who illegally occupies the Syrian territory, first of all in Al-Tanf, and specify who is responsible for the situation in IDP camps that are out of control of Damascus. Otherwise we will have to perceive his silence as a manifestation of double standards.
We also remind the Secretary-General that we never heard him give an assessment to the US bombardments of Raqqa, Hajin, and Baghouz. By UN data, there was no single medical facility in Raqqa left unaffected by hostilities. At least 80 people (most of them women and children) died during the bombardment of Baghouz. After his emotional assessments of the developments in Ukraine that were based on unverified or even unverifiable data, Head of the United Nations is obliged to call things by their real names in the context of continuing US occupation of Syrian territories based on data that is confirmed by international agencies.
Mme.President,
At the humanitarian track, we share the assessments of M.Griffiths that the international community is failing Syrians from year to year. Implementation of UNSC resolution 2585 that is called to boost comprehensive humanitarian assistance to Syria is stalled. Planned cross-line convoys from Aleppo to Sarmada were blocked by militants in Idlib. According to the incoming reports, Nusra fighters openly say that they would not let through any internal convoys (that carry aid to approximately 43,000 people in need) until the renewal of the cross-border mechanism (CBM) in July, of which they are somehow convinced. There is also no access to the three other zones of Turkish operations – even COVID-19 vaccines cannot be delivered there.
In parallel to this, our Western colleagues try to connect member states’ obligations under the unanimously adopted resolution 2585 with political preconditions. While politicizing humanitarian assistance, Europeans and Americans keep suffocating Syria with unilateral sanctions that erode the humanitarian situation and seriously complicate efforts of specialized organizations, i.a. due to related chilling effect and overcompliance by banks, insurance companies and economic operators. Again, didn’t we make decisions defining hunger as an unacceptable method of warfare that contradicts the IHL?
We must not relax our attention to assisting Syrian IDPs and facilitating refugee return – this task remains on the agenda. Host countries – Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey do not conceal that there are limits to their accommodating capacities.
We believe we need to uphold the fundamental right of refugees to return, as stated in UNSC resolution 2254 and given scrupulous coordination of such efforts with Damascus.
Colleagues,
As we all know, the CBM mandate expires this summer. Of all provisions of the resolution, only one is being implemented at the moment – cross-border humanitarian deliveries. It seems no one is going to implement the other provisions. At the same time, Damascus has proven that cross-line deliveries to Idlib are possible and that peaceful population can receive humanitarian aid if it departed from the territory of Syria. We strongly call you to not forget this and not expect that we turn a blind eye to nonfulfillment of resolution 2585 that becomes more and more outspoken.
President Al-Assad before the members of the People’s Assembly: The elections are a historical station, the details of which have been written by our people by the voters ’stances, their will and their defiance, and affirming their determination to adhere to the constitutional requirements.
President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that the people’s Assembly elections are a historic stage of the war phases that our people wrote their details through their electoral pens and their will.
President al-Assad added in a speech to members of the People’s Assembly’s third legislative term that today’s meeting was supposed to be held under the dome of the People’s Assembly as usual, but in light of the measures taken to confront the coronavirus, the session was held at the People’s Palace.
The President added that the elections you lately run were different, thus, in spite of coronavirus epidemic and its effect in the abstention of some people to take part in, there were multiplicity in the lists and a true competition, and this competition is a patriotic movement and any national movement is positive because it reflects the patriotic commitment.
The President added “We heard a lot of criticism about the people’s Assembly’s elections, and part of that might be true, but the most important positive side is to see our problems in a true manner.
President al-Assad added ‘We have to put into consideration that the victory in the war is not only by carrying it out military, economically or morally, but it also needs preparing for it through planning and organizing it.
“Regarding the organizing and the administrative side, it depends on right legislations which are the core of your Assembly’s work… It depends on the right legislations that organize the relation between the state’s institutions and between the citizens and establishments which create the justice and equal opportunities, thus they boost the national belonging to Homeland” President al-Assad added.
He added that the successful plans set off from strategic visions and your council has a central role in dialogue and it is an important bridge between the citizens and the Executive Authority.
The President affirmed that the war will not prevent us from assuming our duties, and the power of peoples is in adaptation with the conditions and subjugating them for their interests.
President al-Assad added “any defect in the legislations affects the institutions , weakens the citizen’s confidence, and weakens the morals and destabilizes the situation ..and both of the morals and stability are the core of the aggression on Syria and at the same time they are the core of defending it, especially that this war, which is not traditional from the military side through bringing in hundreds of thousands of terrorists from other areas of the world, depended on the psychological side that aimed at destroying morals , self-defeat and later the free surrender.”
President al-Assad added that Caesar Act is not a separate state of what had come of the blockade stages that have caused a big damage to the Syrian people.
The president added that the “act” has some additional harm and there is a lot of psychological warfare in it.
President al-Assad went on to say that through the general context of war, whenever terrorists fail in their missions, there are an escalation, one time they go to the Security Council, another time they escalating in the chemical issue or they bomb our forces, and after the liberation of the west of Aleppo and the south of Idleb, the title was economic aggression to weaken the achievements of our forces’ victories, making them pale and without meaning for the Syrian people.
“The question about why the last Israeli strikes in Al-Badya and the surrounding areas coincided with the issuance of the act, the answer is that because they came to facilitate the movement of Daesh as their cells are positioned in Al-Badya region and its surroundings and they are not sleeping cells, they are active ones , and this is another aspect of “ Caesar Act, “ so it is not only an act to impose economic sanctions, but it isalso a new stage of the escalation “ the president added.
The other side is to motivate the terrorists, throughout the past years, terrorists have lost trust in their leadership and began to hand over the weapons and began to change their positions and lost hope to achieve something.
“The US needs terrorists in the region, on top, Daesh, and it wanted from Caesar Act to express its support to the terrorists,” the President said.
He added that the Israeli aggressions on Deir Ezzor came to facilitate the movement of Daesh terrorists.
President al-Assad said that responding to the blockade will be through production and self-dependence.
The President said that we have to think about what could secure the livelihood of the citizen and distance him from poverty and we have to boost hope and work because without them there is no meaning for life.
President al-Assad added that we have to remember that our standing by the army was the reason behind all its achievements and our support to the Syrian Pound will be the reason for its power.
The President affirmed that unlike what some people think, the circumstance now is appropriate to inject money, adding that the foreign capital is coward but the national one must not be so, otherwise the homeland will lose.
“We have to concentrate on supporting the micro-investments as they are able to support the national economy and face blockade …the agricultural sector is the pillar of the national economy and it has to be supported,” the President added.
As for the factors that affect the Syrian pound, the President said they are known; the direct effect of the war that lead to slow down the economy by the destruction of infrastructure and a dramatic decline in investment, also the blockade that has prevented the import of essential necessary materials for the production process.
As for the measures applied by the institutions, the President affirmed that they aim at fixing the exchange price. But fixing the price or returning it to the best situation, this needs everyone’s cooperation because the Syrian pound is in everyone’s hands, not Justin the hands of institutions, and we have to the Syrian pound instead of abandoning it for the interest of other currencies.
He went on to say that deterrence is the last mean in combating corruption, adding “we are persistent in restoring the stolen public funds through the legal ways and institutions.
President aL-Assad said that” urgent reforms in agricultural sector are able to give swift and wide results more than any other sectors.
He added “we are in the heart of war and we are talking about the liberation of different lands and regions ,however, the return of state authority will be through the return of the rule of law, and not only the liberation of the lands, because Law and corruption cannot meet in one place.
“Homeland can’t withstand while it’s being snapped by terrorists and looted by corrupters,” the President said.
The president reaffirmed that Golan remains in the heart of every honest Syrian, its status won’t be changed by the annexation decision of the government of a Zionist entity or an immoral US regime, and our right to regain it is inseparable from our right to liberate all our lands from terrorism.
The President said that we have to think about what could secure the livelihood of the citizen and distance him from poverty and we have to boost hope and work because without them there is no meaning for life.
He added that there is no difference between a local or imported terrorist, a Zionist soldier, Turkish or American one, all of them are enemies on our territory.
Damascus (ST): President Bashar Al-Assad the commander in chief of the army and armed forces has affirmed that that the men of the army have always been with our great people during different stages of the aggressive terrorist war, noting that the achievements they realized were great.
In a speech delivered to the armed forces and published in “Jaish al-Sha’ab” (the People’s Army) magazine on the 75th anniversary of army foundation, President al-Assad expressed high appreciation and pride in the great victories realized by the army men, noting that the Army Day represents the confirmation of the values of genuineness, belongingness and dignified future.
“ You, brave men of our armed forces, have always been with our great people during all the stages of the aggressive terrorist war at the time some parties imagined that they could subjugate your strong will, but you defeated their delusive arrogance. You have proved that you are the men of sacrifice and bravery who do not know fear or hesitation and who pay their lives as a dear price for the dignity of their homeland and people”, President al-Assad said, adding that the army’s great victories have been clearly manifested throughout the past nine years of the terrorist war during which the colonialist forces practiced all forms of terrorism and aggression against Syria and its steadfast people.
The President concluded his speech extending congratulations to all army personnel on this glorious day in which army members renew their pledge to defend the homeland and its sovereignty, calling on them to press ahead with their heroic march of liberating the homeland from terrorism and occupation.
The special authorities in Homs seized a large quantity of weapons and ammunition intended to be smuggled to the terrorist groups deployed in the northern countryside of Idlib.
The competent authorities, through constant and accurate follow-up of the activities of arms and ammunition smuggling networks, for the third time during the past few days,seized a large and diverse amount of weapons and ammunition while it was on the way to being smuggled to the northern Idlib countryside, SANA correspondent in Homs stated, indicating that the members of the network were arrested.
The seizures included large quantities of medium and light ammunition, hand grenades, ammunition, automatic weapons, anti-armor missiles, medium and PKC machine guns, in addition to “RPGs” and shells.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Tehran would work to strengthen economic cooperation with Syria amid looming sanctions under the US Caesar Act.
“We have strong economic relationships with Syria, and as for the latter, [it has] a credit line in Iran. We and our friends will work to develop the economic situation in Syria and enhance economic cooperation between Iran and Syria”, Zarif told Sputnik when asked about the Caesar Act.
Zarif also expressed Iran’s concern over US attempts to increase pressure on Syria, accusing Washington of doing everything to destabilize the region.
The statement was made ahead of the Iranian Foreign Minister’s talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov scheduled for later today in Moscow.
The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, signed into law by US President Donald Trump in December 2019, is due to come into effect on Wednesday. The document stipulates sanctioning almost all Syrian economic and trade activities, as well as government officials.
Zarif’s statement came after Trump in early May announced that he is renewing US sanctions against Syria due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle Eastern country.
“I have determined that it is necessary to continue in effect the national emergency declared with respect to this threat and to maintain in force the sanctions to address this national emergency”, Trump said in a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Relatively, Damascus sees the US presence on Syrian soil as a violation of national sovereignty and an attempt to seize the country’s natural resources.
President Bashar Assad Receives Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Damascus
President Bashar Al Assad received in Damascus the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Muhammad Javad Zarif, that would be a normal and regular bilateral friendly meeting, but at a time of a global lock-down especially on air flights due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic preventive measures, there must be something of top urgency.
Visiting minister Zarif met with his Syrian counterpart Minister Walid Muallem at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs first then they both moved to the Syrian Presidency where President Assad received Minister Zarif. Minister Zarif has an important message to deliver in person to President Assad from the Iranian leadership, and this message cannot be conveyed by a video or phone conference.
Following this meeting in Damascus, the Kremlin stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed with the Turkish Erdogan by a phone call the recent developments in Syria, preparations for the coming virtual summit, and added that the ‘Presidents renewed their confirmation of the unconditional compliance with the principles of Syrian sovereignty.’
At least, that’s what most political and military observers and analysts are arriving at. The real Axis of Evil led by the USA and its NATO and regional cronies have not stopped their daily war crimes business even during the times when their own countries are ‘allegedly’ facing the pandemic, Saudis continue to bomb Yemen although they claimed they are abiding by a truce due to the pandemic, Israel bombing everywhere even though they failed to establish a government despite three consecutive ‘elections’ and the increasing number of deaths attributed to coronavirus there, Trump forces continue shipping more illegals, weapons, gears, and trying to expand their presence northeast of Syria, and also in the southeast of the country, and the worse of them all the Turkish madman Erdogan continue following his destructive ultra evil dream of dominance on whatever extra inch and whoever extra servant he can get his filthy hands over.
Russian President Putin threw yet one more rope to rescue the Turkish pariah Erdogan early last month March when he accepted to receive him in Moscow and Erdogan, the hypocrite double-faced anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood he is, pretended to accept terms to solve the issues with his terrorists presence in the Syrian northwestern province Idlib, something if the Russians believed he would they would erase all the image the world painted about their intelligence and principled foreign policy.
Lebanese Al Mayadeen news channel has a couple of reports in line of the above-mentioned addressing these latest developments, the full transcript of the English translation of the video reports below:
Full transcript of the English translation of the above reports:
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that Turkey’s actions on the ground expose the truth of its intentions by not adhering to the agreements concluded, whether in Astana or Sochi. During his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the political parties discussed, including the Constitutional Committee, the Astana process, and developments in the Syrian north.
As for Zarif, he condemned the current Western attempts to reinvest the issue of chemical weapons in Syria, describing this behavior as shameful.
Zarif’s talks in Damascus come a year after his last visit in the midst of the global air embargo, and he asks many questions and explanations regarding the timing of the visit.
There were no statements by Minister Zarif in the corridors of the Syrian Foreign Ministry after his meeting with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem in front of the cameras that had waited for an hour. It seems Zarif considered sufficient the Iranian Foreign Ministry statement issued before his arrival to discuss bilateral relations, regional and political developments in the anti-terrorism file.
The Syrian Presidency statement, on its part, condemned the political investment exercised by Washington in facing the Corona epidemic and stressed that the meeting dealt with developments in the political track, the Astana process and the developments in Idlib.
However, the implementation of the Moscow protocol is stalled a month after it started without running a single patrol until the moment or removing the militants six kilometers on both sides of the Aleppo-Latakia road, or removing the militants six kilometers on both sides of the Aleppo-Latakia road, it seems that it warranted an Iranian-Syrian consultations to discuss the situation in the province. Iranian positions indicated that the Moscow agreement, in which the Russians rushed the cease-fire in light of the clear field victory for the Syrian army and allies and the approach to wresting control of international roads and reaching the Turkish borders, remains a question in Tehran and Damascus about the extent of the commitment of Ankara, which Damascus still sees as an occupier that is strengthening its occupation by building military bases under the pretext of observation points, as it pledged, and not to be just a new maneuver by the armed groups to mobilize themselves for a new confrontation that does not seem far from now.
Zarif in Damascus is in a declared and speedy visit despite the air embargo measures in all countries of the world. This means that the visit is inseparable in the context of the Syrian-Iranian mistrust about the situation in Idlib, and that there is no compromise on the role of the allies and no sharing of any political or field solution without them.
The above was by Dima Nassif, for Al-Mayadeen from Damascus.
In parallel, the top aide to the Iranian foreign minister for special political affairs, Ali Asghar Haji, said that a meeting would be held via the Internet this week between the foreign ministers of the countries guaranteeing the Astana Accord to discuss the ‘Syrian file.’
Haji confirmed in a statement to Sputnik that he had taken into consideration the holding of an online meeting due to the spread of Coronavirus and the result of important and rapid events in the Syrian file.
Zarif’s visit in the time of Coronavirus indicates the preparation of a new leap in the time of the upcoming Sochi understandings, but the green light for the expected Tehran summit may indicate that Turkey is taking seriously the evacuation of international highways from terrorist groups.
An Insight by Al Mayadeen’s Qasim Izz al-Din:
Minister Zarif indicated that Iran is not abandoning the axis of the resistance after the assassination of General Soleimani, which may suggest affirming the support of the Syrian army in Idlib and the political support for Syria in rapprochement with Turkey at the request of Ankara.
The Tehran postponed summit previously overthrown by Turkey by counting on Western countries that supported what it called the right of Turkey in Idlib, so Ankara invited it to a summit that did not know success in Istanbul. But the Syrian army’s insistence on opening international roads and liberating Saraqib upset the equations, and pushed Erdogan to pledge again at the recent Moscow summit to separate terrorist groups from ‘moderate Turkish factions’.
Syria’s willingness to restore international roads with Russian-Iranian support has narrowed the margin of Turkish maneuvering on betting on time in the hope of avoiding the collision with Jabhat al-Nusra, but what can be postponed for a month cannot be postponed forever.
Between the options of implementing the Sochi and Moscow understandings or opening the roads by force, Turkey appears to have no choice but to dissolve the al-Nusra Front or integrate it into the Spring Shield groups away from international roads or engage them with groups against dissidents such as the Hurras Uddin.
The agreement on the upcoming Tehran summit indicates Turkey’s progress in implementing the Moscow understandings, as well as a new leap in the Tehran summit towards a political solution and reconstruction in Syria.
In the event of Ankara’s delay, the Syrian army will complete the path by restoring roads and lands.
End of the English transcript of the report’s translation.
Fierce clashes between the Syrian Army and ISIS terrorists erupted near the villages of al-Sukhnah and Wadi al-Waer in the province of Homs on April 9 evening.
According to pro-government sources, the army and local militias backed up by the Russian Aerospace Forces kicked off a wide-scale security operation to crack down on the terrorists hiding in the desert area. Its goal is to put an end to the recently observed increase of actions of the terrorist group against pro-government forces on the western bank of the Euphrates.
Supporters of the so-called ‘moderate Syrian opposition’ immediately claimed that government forces suffered heavy casualties in this operation. They insist that over 20 soldiers were killed. Pro-government sources claim that up to 30 ISIS members were neutralized.
In the coming days, Syrian troops will likely continue developing their anti-ISIS operation along the Sukhna-Deir Ezzor road and in the southern countryside of Mayadeen. ISIS cells infiltrating the government-controlled area from the eastern bank of the Euphrates in eastern Syria and the border area in western Iraq have become a serious security threat recently.
Meanwhile, ISIS announced that it had conducted 29 attacks on government forces across Iraq during the past week. The terrorist group claims that 66 government fighters were killed or injured. These claims remain unconfirmed. After the collapse of ISIS’ self-proclaimed Caliphate in the Middle East, ISIS-affiliated media outlets become used to spreading fake news and dramatically overestimating supposed ‘successes’ of the terrorist group.
The Turkish Army established a new observation post near the village of Jannet Elqora in Syria’s southwestern Idlib. This village is located in a close proximity to the M4 highway, which links the port city of Lattakia with the country’s industrial hub, Aleppo city. Last week, the Turkish military established three similar posts in the towns of Baksariya, al-Z’ainiyah and Furaykah in southwest Idlib.
According to open data, the Turkish military currently has up to 60 ‘observation posts’ across the region of Greater Idlib. Ankara claims that all these positions were established and heavy military equipment were deployed to them in order to put an end to the terrorist threat in the region and observe the ceasefire. However, so far, the only real goal achieve by Turkey has been the increase of security for al-Qaeda terrorists operating in the region.
The US State Department welcomed a new OPCW report accusing the Syrian military of using chemical weapons. According to the new accusations, Syria conducted 3 chemical attacks in the province of Hama in March 2017. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also accused Iran and Russia of conducting a ‘disinformation campaign’ in order to ‘hide’ the usage of chemical weapons by Syrian forces.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said the OPCW report “is misleading and contains falsified and fabricated conclusions”, while Russia’s permanent mission to the watchdog described the document as “not trustworthy.”
Since the very start of the conflict, the chemical weapon issue has been deeply polarized and the OPCW’s conclusions on the topic have repeatedly faced a strong criticism from independent experts. Furthermore, recent leaks from the OPCW investigation on the Douma incident demonstrated that the organization is intentionally hiding facts, doctoring investigation results and drawing preplanned conclusions in order to push forward the mainstream agenda designed to demonize the Assad government.
The Afrin Liberation Forces carried out a series of attacks on Turkish-backed militants in northern Aleppo. According to the group, its fighters stormed positions of Turkish proxies near Omra killing three of them on March 26. On April 1, the group’s members blew up a vehicle of a field commander, Abu Khalid. The commander and his three bodyguards were killed, while the fourth one was injured. On the same day, Kurdish rebels detonated an IED at a headquarters of Turkish-backed forces in the al-Mahmudiyah neighborhood of Afrin city. The attack resulted in material losses only.
The Afrin Liberation Forces is a brand used by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to distance themselves from regular attacks on the Turkish Army and Turkish-backed groups in northern Syria. They launch their attacks from the YPG-controlled area near the city of Aleppo and have a network of cells within the Turkish-occupied region of Afrin.
Turkish convoys with building blocks and engineering equipment were entering Syria through the Kafr Lusin border crossing on April 1 and April 2. Later, the equipment and building blocks then were delivered to the militant-held part of the M4 highway in southern Idlib. The Turkish military is reportedly planning to use them to set up a group of fortified checkpoints along the highway in order to solidify its presence there. In March, Turkish forces in the area became a target of two IED attacks by radical militants, and Ankara reasonably expects that such attacks could continue in April.
On April 2, two Syrian soldiers were killed and five others were injured in a Turkish artillery strike on a Syrian Army checkpoint near the town of Tell Tamr in the province of al-Hasakah. In 2019, the army established a number of positions in northeastern Syria following a breakthrough agreement with local Kurdish militias. Then, joint Syrian-Russian efforts allowed to limit the Turkish military operation against Kurdish forces and prevent a larger escalation. Nonetheless, sporadic firefights and artillery duels regularly erupt on the contact line between the Turkish Army and its proxies on the one hand and the Syrian Army and Kurdish militias on the other hand.
Meanwhile, the US-led coalition reinforced its military base in the oil-rich area of Rmelan. The US base is located near one of the country’s largest oil fields. It can produce up to 90,000 barrels a day. Earlier, the US military deployed additional equipment and troops to its positions in the area of al-Shaddadi in southern al-Hasakah.
According to the Pentagon, about 500 US troops remain deployed in the oil-rich areas in the provinces of Deir Ezzor and al-Haskah. However, the scale of military activity in the region indicate that the real number of personnel involved is likely higher.
This is Part 1 of a documentary series by investigative reporter Ugarit Dandash, the documentary is part of Ms. Dandash’s From the Ground documentary series where she reports from Syria the horrors the Syrian people lived inflicted on them by the USA and all its cronies, lackeys, and stooges combined efforts over the past 9 years.
From the Ground – The Syrian War through the Eyes of Forensic Medicine was made exclusively for the Lebanese Al Mayadeen news station in Arabic. It was aired on Thursday night 19 March 2020.
All countries which supported the ‘freedom fighters’, ‘armed opposition’, ‘moderate rebels’, call them whatever Orwellian name that suits you, are an accomplice in each crime committed against the Syrian people, needless to say, that each taxpayer and each citizen of those countries has much blood on their hands especially those who keep quiet hiding behind the ‘democracy elections’ delusion while their governments kill in their names, murder using their money, destroy families and hide behind the ‘democracy’ slogan, and not being held by those citizens for the crimes they committed all over the world. If you didn’t know for over 9 years what your government did in Syria, this will leave you with no excuse.
The video file size is beyond the capacity of our site, our YouTube channel was long deleted by YouTube, so we had to split it into two parts embedded below, followed by the transcript in English of the full video for history. Please excuse any typos, it was definitely unintentional.
During the years of the war in Syria, forensics carried out its traditional role which people know and carried out an unconventional role handling the war-related cases which the forensic medicine dealt with during the wartime.
The forensic medicine has presented much, within a short period of time, we inspected 230407 cases of martyrs and injured, despite the low number of forensic doctors in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Forensic Medicine, like all other sectors, suffered bleeding, we had martyrs among the doctors and forensic employees, in addition to the immigration of a number of the forensic doctors, and despite that the forensic medicine carried out its role completely, work more like a miracle and this is what the viewers will notice when they watch this episode.
It managed to reveal the facts, reveal the right and justice, there’s a misconception among some who are uninformed that the forensic doctor only inspects the body and writes the report then their role ends, no, there are rights, legal, humanitarian, and moral consequences based on the report of the forensic doctor. The matter is of high sensitivity and importance. There are many news flashes that appear on the screen but many people do not read what’s beyond it and do not read its hidden nature, they do not know that forensic medicine was the main source of information for this news. Forensic Medicine managed to reveal the truth and push away the exiting ambiguity, this forensic medicine carried out a great role during the wartime.
Like all people on the streets we used to receive the echo of the events that there were protesters and they were shot at by the authorities, the army men were shooting them, or they were shot from a close distance, but as professionals dealing with bodies, the body was giving us indications of what was actually going on.
We were not in the picture of the events we were always coming after, at the beginning of the crisis when bodies were reaching us in 2011 we noticed that the gunshots were coming from long distances and from high directions, meaning that there was a sniper in a building somewhere about 50 or 60 meters away and on the 4th or 5th floor of a building, as in one of the bodies, it was definitely not shot from a close distance.
In the second stage when there were strict orders for riot policemen not to carry their weapons, I remember that in one Friday I wrote 125 reports for members of the riot policemen beaten with sticks and stones, and after a while we started getting law enforcement members shot in addition to some civilians, we were saying if those law enforcement members were doing the shooting then who shot them? They started telling that their colleagues were shooting them because they refused to shoot!
In the next stage we started noting the use of Pump-Action shotguns, it’s a type of hunting rifles. I believe there is no regular army that carries this type of rifle. Some might ask why Pump-Action rifles? This rifle doesn’t need a professional to use it, once fired from the shot comes out with a conical diameter and hits a number of people, we also noticed several bodies with gunshot marks from the hunting rifles and also we noticed it was struck by torturing tools like large stones, knives, or machetes. We were seeing gunshot marks on the body and next to it marks indicating the use of sharp tools.
There are always vital signs accompanying the wound that occurs only when the person is alive, When a person is injured while they are alive, the wound bleeds, clotting factors act, and reactions occur in the body, such as a crunch and inflammation, while we don’t see all these symptoms when the deceased person is injured, the knife stab is like a stab in a doll, or a stab in a sponge. the vital signs of relapse do not appear, and the blood is a fluid that does not coagulate; for us, these things are simple and we can tell that these wounds were inflicted on the person after death, because we started seeing the abuse and mutilation of corpses.
Each stage lasted about two weeks, then after a month and a half between the end of April and the beginning of May 2011 kidnapping and torture stage started. A body would arrive at the morgue, it would be handcuffed or blindfolded, and there would be other marks of a gunshot or slaughter or killing or mutilation.
After about 1.5 months or two months the kidnapping, torture and killing stage started. Even the kidnapping was gradual, at first the victim would be covered with his own cloth and strangled with what he was wearing, then we started seeing bodies tied up by iron skewers then by plastic handcuffs, you’d notice that there’s more planning and more organizing in this thing.
Forensic medicine was able to block all the doors in their faces in many of the situations.
Question: There was always doubting in any reports and whatever the Syrian state was declaring, and the forensic medicine is a state institute, was there confidence in the forensic medicine among international organizations like when dealing with the fact-finding missions (which came to Syria), was there any challenge in the forensics reports or the scientific indications were sufficient to silence any challenge?
Answer: I attended international committees, let’s take the chemical subject for instance, they were asking me questions like when did you go from Al-Razi Hospital to the University Hospital? How long did the trip take when there was traffic jam and when there was no traffic jam? The details were to this extent in this matter. Despite that, and because we were confident in our information and in our science, thanks to God, and because we were not distorting the truth, we were able to convince them with the existing facts. Thanks to God we are very precise, and I was surprised when they would ask me questions like how long it takes between Al Razi Hospital and the University Hospital when there was traffic and when there wasn’t…
Question: Are we talking now about the use of chemical weapons in Khan Al Asal in 2013?
Answer: No, we are talking about the attacks that followed. They were asking questions like: why did you inspect all the injured? Why did you inspect the soldier victims? What do they have to do with this? We told them that at first we inspect all cases and then we segregate them, but at first all cases have to be inspected, they were focusing on such type of questions, like what did you smell when you arrive at the scene? Of course, they had their own specialist technicians, but thankfully, they were never able to (question our reports). Also, in Jisr Shoghour, for instance, they had a large number of forensic doctors and forensic technicians who tried to refute the official narrative which was the truthful narrative, like: the focus was on the time of death because there was a difference in that between two groups of martyrs, we managed to prove to them by scientific evidence that the case was not…
Question: Let’s stop at Jisr Shoghour, from the beginning, so we can remind of what happened. We are talking about two incidences in Jisr Shoghour, the famous incident and there was a previous one you talked about, let’s start from the one that happened first, how long was it before the massacre and what happened in Jisr Shoghour, especially that all talks that time that protests were peaceful?
Answer: The magnitude of what happened in Jisr Shoghour, its ugliness, makes people forget what happened before it. On 5 June 2011, a security force along with riot police went to support the besieged soldiers in the Jisr Shoghour main post. The group was 105 servicemen in total, all of them martyred. Let me stop here at an area called Urum al-Joz, this has to be highlighted. On 5 June 2011, the crisis was in its early days and as they were claiming it was ‘peaceful’, at that time I was heading the forensic medicine office in Idlib province. The forensic medicine examined and found qualitative injuries, severe ones, professional in sniping, of course, none of the martyrs didn’t get to their weapons, ever, they were killed while on the buses. At the time one of the judges asked me, he was martyred afterward by Nusra Front, he asked me, what is the need for autopsy in such a situation? We have dozens of martyrs in the lands we are examining, so I answer that autopsy for the sake of history.
I’m not a politician but a science man and I read the circumstances, the crisis didn’t come suddenly and enter Syria, there were shockwaves all over the Arab world, we were watching and seeing, and we were seeing unrelated things, in addition that one of the main tasks of forensics is to document because the forensic medicine aims for rights to be restored and justice to prevail, we have to document in order for every person to get their rights, but when documenting we were discovering how much we were under an untruthful media narrative, and I’m trying to be as much as unbiased with my words here, but there was media disinformation.
As per my segregation of the cases which I consider was in the fifth stage, as in the forth stage there were gunshots among the civilian victims but there were also gunshots among the armed men and there were also gunshots among the army soldiers because clashes happened and we couldn’t know what was going on, but the following stage which was the fifth and was around July (2011), it was the stage of explosions, the massacres stage started, we would receive a case of a bus would that was coming from a village and the bus was blown up, they were entering a house of a family and then kill and liquidate all its members, this was the most dangerous stage because it caused a state of panic, there were displacing operations for entire families from certain areas and an attempt to create small cantons so they can control it, this stage was in July 2011.
He asked me: What do you mean by autopsy for history? I told him you’ll know what I mean by autopsy for history when I finish the examination. With the autopsy of the bodies of 3 martyrs, we demonstrated that the gunshot used is advanced gunfire using a modern sniper, all the martyrs were sniped from long distances, which means, the situation is very serious, there are sophisticated quality weapons and there are trained snipers, this is not amateurs using guns for the first time, here comes the role of forensics.
Question: Let’s talk about the incident that you told me about, which is the martyred soldier…
Answer: O One of the martyrs I examined his body, I was surprised that the gunshot was from a distance of hundreds of meters. could be 200 or 300 meters or more, we could not determine its extent, but it is very far, you find that the gunshot penetrated the helmet that was worn by the martyr, then went through the frontal bone, then the brain material, then the temporal bone, and you know what the temporal bone means, then the occipital bone and then the helmet. It was a strange thing, I was surprised at that time as forensic medicine that there was a weapon of this quality, the subject was very dangerous, a bullet-like this is very sophisticated, and a qualitative weapon like this is used by a very professional sniper.
Question: In this case, there was no forensic role that could at least warn or influence subsequent events?
Answer: We warned at the time, and I warned in a number of meetings, I was in Idlib, then in Aleppo, then the Director-General of Forensic Medicine in the Syrian Arab Republic, I always seek what is called preventive forensic medicine, which we warn of about aspects that pose a threat to society and the security of society, how about this topic, it poses a danger to the whole society, we warned in a number of meetings that there are advanced qualitative weapons that are used in Syria, when you talk about June 5, 2011, at the beginning of the events, they had more advanced weapons than the army, unfortunately, this is the fact, we, as forensics, always seek to show the community that there are dangerous matters that must be taken care of, as we give this information we give it to beware, because there must be cautious and we know how to deal with what is coming, what is coming I told them will be very dangerous, and events have proven this.
Question: This thing happened before the famous Jisr Al-Shughour massacre?
Answer: We went to Jisr Al-Shughour, and of course there was a huge media hype. The opposition and the Western media, even including the Western ambassadors present, there was still official dealings with the government, and there were Arab, foreign and Gulf (GCC) media, many Gulf media, and the Gulf ambassadors at that time, they tried in any way and means to refute and challenge the true official narration, we as forensic medicine went (there), I was with them, we found 90 bodies and remained a number of bodies are missing, we examined them and stopped at a number of points, first, the abuse that occurred after death and the torture that occurred during life was something very strange in the Syrian society that foretells a disaster. One of the martyrs I examined was longitudinally divided into two halves, one of the martyrs was buried alive, we proved as forensic medicine that he was buried while he was alive, then the Western media and ambassadors came to find any loophole they believed to exist in the forensic reports or the official version.
Question: Like what?
Answer: There were two groups of martyrs, a group of martyrs was present in the main building, which is the security detachment, and a group of martyrs was in the post office. After those who were in the post office were killed, their bodies were thrown in the Orontes River, the second group of martyrs, knowing that field executions took place within a short period, within an hour or two, they tried to say that this group was killed at a different period from the group of the main detachment, we did a scientific analysis for them and explained to them the subject of decay, when (the body) inside the water how (decay) slows down due to lack of oxygen and the presence of moisture and when we get the body out of the water how the decaying accelerates tremendously and the phenomenon of the so-called black head appears, where the head of the body appears blackened, that is why we call this phenomenon in forensics is called the Black Head, I explained this to them carefully, I told them that if the body is not examined immediately after being extracted from the water it gives an enormous septic appearance, if the forensics doctor is not very accurate it is impossible to distinguish the time of sepsis. We explained it to them fully.
Question: Was this explanation given directly to…?
Answer: Directly to the media and the ambassadors present. Even a reporter for a station transmits my explanation of the topic and says that, according to what this doctor says, the official version seems authentic, so the media station changes the reporter.
Question: Was it a Gulf (GCC) station?
Answer: It was a Gulf station. Imagine, after I confronted them with science, thank God, they could not provide any response, the narrative became true because we speak science and we have no relationship with politics.
Question: The international committees that came specifically for the Jisr al-Shughur incident, did it interfere, or tried to know anything at that point?
Answer: This issue was the largest massacre that took place in the history of modern Syria, a huge number of martyrs, a way of killing gruesome, abuse of corpses, and the topic that deserved to be highlighted. When forensic medicine explained and clarified the matter, they did not follow up on this issue, why? Because they knew that the topic condemned the other team. Had the forensics failed at that time, they would have formed 100 committees, but when forensic medicine could explain exactly how the issue happened, they had no choice but to turn the page, they had no choice.
After the break:
I asked the executive authorities to provide us with a vegetable cooling truck. They sent me a 16-meter vegetable cooling truck to preserve the bodies in, we were running the truck on diesel because there was no electricity.
Manifestations that appear on a corpse after decaying may confuse by a non-forensic specialist, particularly with the subject of bruising.
Part Two:
When the Hamzah al-Khatib incident occurred, the forensic doctor explained, but there was no echo of what he said, they spoke of bruises while it was decaying.
The story of Hamza Al-Khatib is impressive: he read decaying but said it was bruises. The testes are swollen due to decaying, and the penis was no longer visible, so they said that the penis was cut.
Forensic medicine and you will see the photos soon, showing that the cause of death is a gunshot, the entry nozzles are clear and the exit nozzles are clear.
Indeed, he was shot because they were defending the housing compound of the (officers). The photos show you three gunshot entries and the penis is intact, nothing wrong with it.
We read the situation from the corpses that come to us.
The future of our lives from corpses?
Exactly, when you see at the beginning of events this is kind of torture on the corpses, you see the killing methods that were used, you realize that what’s coming is very dangerous.
– Start with ‘in the name of God’..
– Terrorist activist: In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Another martyr of freedom from the city of Giza in the governorate of Daraa, whose name is Hamza Ali Al-Khatib, age 13. He went out on the Friday of Anger to lift the siege on the people of Daraa. He was arrested at Sidon Housings (compound) and tortured in the most heinous way, looking at the traces of torture.
When the incident of Hamzah Al-Khatib happened, people were refusing to listen, unfortunately, I say that with the utmost frankness. People were refusing to listen to any science or whatever. The people were mobilized (by media), forensic medicine at the time spoke, but there was no echo of what it said, there was doubting the narration presented by forensic medicine which is the true narrative, the people now must listen and must know. They said about the presence of bruises while they were manifestations of sepsis, if time permits, we will display the pictures and explain a scientific explanation on this topic.
Terrorist Activist: This is a bullet in the right arm, which penetrated his arm from this side and exited from here and entered his chest, a shot in his abdomen, and another shot on the left side symmetrically with the right side exited from the outside side and entered from the inner side to his chest again.
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad, Head of the Forensic Medicine Center in Homs: The story of Hamza Al-Khatib is impressive: he read decaying but said it was bruises. The testes are swollen due to decaying, and the penis shrank and was no longer visible, so they said that the penis was cut, because there are pre-existing mentalities and their doctor did not have good prospects. You also remember the story of The Hirak, but the doctor there was a professional, in the story of The Hirak was electrocuted and he altered it.
Fortunately, we have the pictures from the start in the story of Hamzah Al-Khatib, and everything is clear. His body had nothing, no bruise, no beating, 3 gunshots, no one denied that he was shot because they were defending the housing compound. The photos show 3 gunshots and the penis is intact. It means that the facts were then altered.
Terrorist activist: and a shot at the top in his chest, and look at the bruises in his face with the broken neck, and look at the bruises on his right leg.
At the beginning of the war, people did not want to hear, or a group of people refused to listen at all, did not want to listen to the voice of truth, the voice of justice, wanted to walk behind what you expected or wanted. The western media had a very big role, and the Arab and Gulf media in particular, had a very big role in mobilizing and inciting people.
What did forensics do? initially, it was said that Hamzah Al-Khatib’s body had been mutilated, tortured, even severed its male penis. Forensic medicine, as you will see with pictures a little later it turns out that the cause of death was gunshots, the entry holes are clear and opposite the exit holes. It shows there was no torture on his body, even the subject of the cutting of the penis, people suspected what they thought was bruising on his body, this was decaying. Decaying, the degradation that took place gives a bruising-like appearance and any specialist in the field of forensic medicine and criminal science can distinguish that, the subject isn’t a debate, the case is scientifically clear. As for age, they said gave an age and forensic medicine estimated another age. The role of forensic medicine was very crucial in this case.
Terrorist activist: They did not stop with this amount of torture, but cut off his penis, then shot him, look at him without penis, they cut off his penis. Date May 25, 2011, on Wednesday.
Question: In the matter of determining age in the case of Hamza Al-Khatib, and in general, how is it done?
Answer: There are several criteria that forensic medicine uses through the study of orthopedics, radiographs in particular for the left hand wrist, the examination of teeth, and we have included this topic as a very important study: forensic dentistry. Under 21 years old, I can say that (forensic medicine) gives very credible and reliable results, after the age of 21, the margin of suspicion becomes between 6 months to a year.
Question: It was said that Hamza Al-Khatib was 13 years old?
Answer: Forensics has proved he was three years older than this.
Question: In the case of a corpse, the images that spread about inflation that the corpse is swollen …?
Answer: This is a natural process and natural development of the septic state that occurs. What happened is that after the corpse was kept in Tishreen Military Hospital for a period of about 20 days, it was transferred to the National Daraa Hospital, of course, the cooling was not appropriate, for that decay increased and accelerated.
Manifestations that appear on the body at the time of sepsis may be suspected by a non-specialist, particularly with the subject of bruising. Forensic medicine spoke and explained it fully. You will see the pictures when the body arrived. There was no mutilation or torture of the deceased, exactly. Here, the forensic role was decisive and essential, but as I told you at that time the problem was that people refused to listen, in short.
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad, Head of the Forensic Medicine Center in Homs: I do not hide from you that a large number of forensic doctors were threatened, another section sat at home, a number of them were afraid, and a number that stopped appearing on the media, and even I was one of these, this is first, secondly I was one those who spoke on some shows about media misinformation, but we were stifled by the media and no one heard us. It was in vain. We spoke and tried to speak more, but we became in our media outlets talking to each other. We are the people convinced that there is a conspiracy against the country. That is why our role was weak.
Question: From the Arab committees that came, and they came to Homs in particular, did they not meet you? Didn’t try to contact you?
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad, Head of the Forensic Medicine Center in Homs: They met us and I think that Al-Dabi, the head of the delegation, gave positive indications because he came to us and we presented him with the facts, and the period during which Al-Dabi visited us was the car bomb that exploded at the Military Medical Services Est. on the street of Al-Jajah Restaurant and Khaled Bin Al-Waleed School and we see the files, there was a car that exploded, they brought us the car to the Forensic Medicine, and it is well documented, they brought the car thinking it was for a suicide bomber, but when we discovered the corpse at the morgue we discovered that there were circular bruises on the hand that was found and on the feet, and we saw the electronic board in his viscera, and there were forceps placed on the penis for torture by blocking urine to produce psychological pressure, this is known as a method of torture that is cut urine by attaching the urethra or placing forceps.
We found that this person previously had a previous traffic accident and as a result of the fixative device placed in the vertebrae and his story, we were able to identify that this person was kidnapped 3 days ago and he is a known person. This person was kidnapped and after a while he was put in the car. The car was booby-trapped and directed towards the headquarters of the Military and Police Medical Services in that area. It seems that when this person came out knowing that he was booby-trapped, thought about where to go and decided to go to the security forces, he will not go to his family to save him, they were meanwhile planning to detonate the car remotely, and during that time the existing witness also spoke and then we analyzed what happened: When the car arrived at the military service building, the guard came to see the car because nobody was going in that street, at the moment the soldier came to him, the person returned the car to the back and after he returned about 20 meters, the car exploded, they felt that he was retreating and this person knew that he will be detonated and he didn’t want to harm the soldier so he drove backward, the material damage was little, he was the only person killed.
At that time we wanted to explain openly to the media what happened, and then it was decided after the recording of the episode that we might teach people this way so we do not want it to be repeated that a person is kidnapped and booby-trapped and tied to the car and sent. So that it does not get repeated after the episode was recorded the decision was made not to be shown to the media and I showed it to al-Dabbi in those days, he asked me for documents, I told him that I need official permission to give it to you…
Question: Dabbi’s report was unexpectedly positive…
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad, head of the Forensic Medicine Center in Homs: His report was positive because I took him down to the forensic morgue and showed him the bodies during that period, and I have the pictures, how a person was killed and only the meat was removed from his face and the top of his chest with the knife after death. We showed him pictures that I tell you about how he was tied, how he was covering his eyes, how he was slaughtered. Then they used to master slaughtering, we used to see slaughtering from the front, and then we see slaughtering taking place from the back…
Question: What is the difference?
Answer: The difference between them is that those who are slaughtered from the front die quickly, while those who are slaughtered from the back remain half an hour until they die because they are bleeding slowly … We started thinking why? We got the idea because some people have a habit that they want the blood of the carcass to be kept inside. Some people slaughter the carcass, the sheep or the like, they slaughter them from the back and in this way the bleeding is slow and the blood remains inside the carcass – the animal, and this is used as a method of cheating sometimes to increase the weight. The aim was torture. We used to see the victims slaughtered and then we saw that the hair of his forehead was shaved or his eyebrows had been shaved, why? Because the person who slaughters him tortures him, shaves his hair and shaves his eyebrows, and then he slays him. All these aspects, including beheadings…
Question: In what way are heads cut with a sword or slaughtered?
Answer: No, with the knife, it is clear that it was with the knife and not with the sword, technically you need a very professional person to be able to cut off the head with one stroke, but when using the knife he needs to insert it between the vertebrae.
The method of slaughtering was with knives, not with a single stroke. We know this from the multiple wound lines on the neck.
Dr. Zahir Hajo, Director of the General Authority of Forensic Medicine in Syria: The era that spanned from March 2011 until March 2012 when the army entered Idlib, one of the most dangerous episodes that passed in the history of Idlib as a province and a city. There was a lot of kidnapping after the Jisr al-Shughur for all the civilians who were supporting the state. Every day we found the body of a person who had been field-executed after being tortured.
I remember from the unique cases that I saw a civilian accused of supporting the state, all the traces of torture studied in the forensic books that forensics faces and which we study in books and those that do not exist in the books are present on it exist, huge barbaric torture, I am surprised by his story, which can explain to you what this country went through, his wife to ensure that they will execute him, “guarantee that they will execute him” she paid a million Lira and sold everything she owned so they will stop torturing him. He suggested to his wife that they would release him when the ransom was paid, he agreed with them where he asked them, in order to get rid of torture, that they should execute him, kill him, they said that they would not execute him for free, until his wife paid the money they executed him and rid him of torture.
We used to examine all of these things as forensic medicine.
Question: His wife paid money to kill him to rid him of torture?
Answer: It could have been expected that they would release him, knowing that he agreed with him that he would die and end. This period was one of the most dangerous periods in Idlib’s history, and there was a tremendous presence of gunmen in the outskirts carrying out kidnappings and assassinations, at which time the Attorney General in Idlib was assassinated, Mr. Nidal Ghazal Allah, have mercy on him.
Terrorist Activists: These are the Shabbiha forces coming to Jisr al-Shughour from Idlib, June 5, 2011. Shabiha coming from Idlib. focus…
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad: Of course, it reached its peak in the tenth month of 2011. I think we have reached a high point in the matter of kidnapping and killing in this way.
Question: What was the effect of that if we wanted to talk about people, for example, when they inspect the bodies and you wanted to hand them over to their families?
Dr. Bassam Al-Muhammad: I understood your question. The problem reflected on us as a forensic medicine when the relatives come to collect the bodies, whether armed or martyrs, as a result of these kidnappings, the person who had lost a family member could not reach the National Hospital to identify the body and take it, and thus we faced accumulation of corpses, and we have other problems. People did not receive the bodies, so I asked to make cold rooms and then the cold rooms were not enough, then we asked to bring vegetable transport vehicles, and here a rumor emerged that we are collecting the bodies, that the state is collecting the bodies to take them from a place For the last, it wasn’t, we didn’t have electricity at the National Hospital, so I asked the executive authorities that I needed a vegetables cold truck so they sent me a 16-meter-long vegetable refrigerator to put the bodies in. We run it on diesel because there is no electricity so that the bodies do not rot and people come to identify them, after a while we found that one refrigerator is not enough, the rumor emerged here that we are collecting the bodies and transporting them from one place to another, but the truth is as I told you.
Question: Did you encounter problems with the parents with their different passions who could have heard stories and could even have for them even the subject of the autopsy have many social and religious caveats sometimes, did you face this type of problem whether related to the cause of death and how to explain it to the family or about the autopsy?
Answer: We did not resort to autopsy much because the apparent disclosure was sufficient and we were not looking for a known criminal and it was clear that it was a murder, we were very sympathetic for the relatives that we developed the procedures at the Forensic Medicine, it wasn’t logical to let the relatives go in to see all the bodies to identify theirs, so we photographed the bodies and displayed on the computer. When he identifies his body, we bring it up to see it in real and recognizes it formally, because the number of bodies could have shocked the people, so we automated the process in order to deliver the bodies.
Unfortunately, the large numbers of dead bodies remained unknown because people were unable to reach us, and the areas were separated from each other in Homs. We tried, in some ways, to send CDs to identify the missing, within our capabilities. However, there remained unknown bodies that we, unfortunately, cannot identify.
Question: Was it buried later?
Answer: All the bodies in Homs were buried in a systematic way, according to an initiative that we, the forensic medicine, in cooperation with the Burial Office, the Religious Endowments Ministry, the security authorities, the governorate, and the civil defense. Everything was documented, we took pictures of the bodies, and the unknown bodies which weren’t recognizable from the pictures we took DNA samples from it, code was placed on the body and there was a unified code from the beginning of the crisis to the end of it. You know that we, as a health care sector, do not care about shrouds, nylon, and the like, they brought us the coffin, we wrapped the body, Civil Defense transports it, prayers were held for it under the supervision of Endowments and buried in cemeteries, 6 graveyards were approved in Homs because the numbers were large, bodies were buried orderly, each in a grave alone, and for this moment when someone reviews us to identify a dead body, we can take them to the grave of the body.
We made sure that there were no mass graves, even when Homs was liberated, we entered the old Homs district and searched the graveyards, whether the graves were collective, we took samples and were documented and buried in a regular way, and even the irregular graves that were in the gardens of homes, shelters or rooftops were re-dug out and sent to regular graves so that residents can return to live in their homes.
Question: Have you reached a stage, I do not want to call it a disability, but the numbers of dead bodies in it were beyond your capacity or your ability to absorb all this number, not only in terms of location but also the ability to analyze all the data?
Answer: What happened with us and as you know that laws are not established for crises, laws are put in place for a stable social life, the law was that for an (unidentified) body to be buried that it should be kept for a month and we must get the approval of the Public Prosecutor, we continued with this, but the large number of corpses continued to come and approached a thousand corpses with us, here as forensic doctors as a result of our reading of the reality and the summer began, so we submitted a request to the Attorney General l and explained to him the situation that continuing with this process would threaten an environmental disaster, he asked us to act according to the principles that allow the identification of corpses later in order to avoid environmental disasters, we were collecting the bodies, putting them in the (vegetable cold) trucks, but 4 freezers were sufficient for some time, then what?
We must bury them. Before the burial process, we performed photo documentation of all the dead bodies, as I told you, with number codes, wrap them in shrouds them and send them to the graves, because in that period in October we reached a peak in the numbers of unidentified bodies, we absorbed this number by collecting the bodies in refrigerators and vegetable transport vehicles that were used for this purpose, during which time we were told that we were collecting bodies but we were absorbing the shock. After this period, we started the natural process, to preserve the (body’s decency) you need to bury it according to the principles that preserve human dignity and at least preserve the religious duties that a person must perform towards the deceased person, and this thing was done at the governorate level in cooperation with all the competent authorities.
A person must read well in order to see what will happen to him in the future. We read from the corpses that reach us, we read the situation from the corpses that reach us.
Question: The future of our lives are from corpses?
Answer: Exactly, when we see what happened with this body, we simulate what happened with it, we find that the situation is very dangerous. When you see this type of torture on the body at the beginning of events, you see the killing methods that happen, you know the next is very dangerous.
لم يكد يمرّ إلا القليل من الوقت، على توقيع البروتوكول، الروسي التركي الملحق باتفاق سوتشي، حتى سارع وزير الخارجيه الأميركي للاعتراف بهزيمة مؤامرته، هو وبقية جوقة المحافظين الإنجيليين الجدد التي تحتلّ البيت الأبيض وربيبهم نتن ياهو الى جانبهم، وذلك عندما صرّح صباح يوم الخميس 5/3/2020، للصحافيين “بأنّ طلب انسحاب القوات السورية الى خطوط وقف إطلاق النار لسنة 2018 كان طلباً أميركياً”.
وهذا يعني أنّ مطالبة أردوغان الجيش السوريّ بالانسحاب الى ما بعد نقاط المراقبة التركية، في ريفي حلب وإدلب، كان طلباً أميركياً “إسرائيلياً” بلسان تركي أردوغاني.
ولكن فشل هجوم أردوغان، البري والجوي، الواسع النطاق، والذي شاركت فيه فرقة كاملةً، من القوات الخاصة التركية، تساندها ثلاث كتائب مدفعية ميدان ذاتية الحركة، من عيار 155 ملم، إضافة الى كتيبة دفاع جوي تركية، مزوّدة بصواريخ أرض جو محمولة، تمّ نشرها في محيط القواعد العسكرية التركية في محافظتي إدلب وحلب، إلى جانب ثلاثة آلاف دبابة ومدرعة قتالية، كانت تنتشر في نقاط عدة من محافظتي حلب إدلب، وفي وضع انفتاح قتاليّ (الانفتاح القتالي يعني في العسكرية وجود القوات خارج قواعدها أو ثكناتها وفي نقاط الانطلاق لتنفيذ الهجوم على مواقع العدو)، استعداداً لتنفيذ المؤامرة التي تمّ الاتفاق عليها بين أردوغان ونتن ياهو (والدليل على مشاركة نتن ياهو بشكل مباشر في إعداد المؤامرة والتخطيط لتنفيذها هي تصريحاته يوم الانتخابات الإسرائيلية بأنّ نجاحه سيؤدّي الى خروج إيران من سورية). وبومبيو، نقول إنه وبعد فشل الهجوم وصمود القوات المشتركة في مواقعها ونجاحها في الحفاظ على كلّ مكتسباتها، رغم هذا الحشد الهائل قد قلب السحر على الساحر وجعل أردوغان يذهب صاغراً إلى موسكو بحثاً عن طوق نجاة.
ولا بدّ، عند الحديث عن فشل الهجوم التركي، أن يُصار إلى تسليط ما يكفي من الضوء على عملية الانسحاب التكتيكي للقوات المشتركة من سراقب والعملية العسكرية الليلية الخاطفة لاستعادتها، والتي نفذها لواء الرضوان للقوات الخاصه التابعة لحزب الله. إذ إنّ هذه العملية، التي كان من بين أهدافها، علاوة على استعادة المدينة، تنفيذ عملية هجومية واسعة النطاق والسيطرة على رقعة الهجوم والتثبّت وبناء خطوط دفاعية ليلاً والدخول في عملية الدفاع عنها صباحاً، وبدون غطاء جويّ. أيّ بالاعتماد على كفاءة القوات المقاتلة وعلى الصواريخ المضادة للدروع والصواريخ القصيرة والمتوسطة المدى، التي ستكون مهمتها ضرب نقاط تحشّد العدو ورؤوس جسوره قبل أن يبدأ هجومه المضاد.
لذا فإنّ معركة استعادة سراقب توازي، في قيمتها الاستراتيجية، معركة بنت جبيل او مجزرة الميركافا في وادي الحجير، خلال الحرب “الإسرائيلية” على لبنان عام 2006، ذلك لأنها أسفرت عن تثبيت انتصارات القوات المشتركة ورسمت خريطة الهزيمة الأميركية الإسرائيلية التركية في محافظات حلب وإدلب. وهي بالتالي شكلت الأساس الذي بُنيَ عليه الاتفاق الذي عُقد بين الرئيس بوتين وأردوغان، في موسكو، والذي قيّمه خبراء عسكريون أميركيون، لا زالوا في الخدمة، أيّ من جنرالات البنتاغون الحاليين، على النحو التالي:
1
ـ إنّ الاتفاق قد كرَّس الانتصارات العسكرية، التي حققتها القوات المشتركة بعد 2018، أيّ بعد سوتشي.
2
ـ إنّ توقيع اتفاق موسكو، بين الرئيس بوتين وأردوغان، قد أنهى محاولات بومبيو لإقامة حلف تركيّ أميركيّ لإسقاط الرئيس بشار الأسد، خاصة منذ إعلان مستشار الأمن القومي الأميركي السابق، جون بولتون، لهذا الهدف في شهر أيلول 2018، وتزايد الضغوط العسكرية والديبلوماسية، التي تمارس بضغط من الخارجية الأميركية، والتي كانت تهدف الى إسقاط الرئيس السوري وإخراج القوات الإيرانية من سورية. وهذا دليل جديد على التنسيق الوثيق بين الإدارة الأميركية ونتن ياهو في ما يتعلّق بتواجد المستشارين العسكريين الإيرانيين في سورية.
إذن… فإنّ القوات المشتركة، وعبر سلسلة انتصاراتها التي توّجتها بعملية استعادة السيطرة على مدينة سراقب، قد وضعت حداً، أولاً وقبل كلّ شيء، لأحلام أردوغان العثمانية، وأوهام بومبيو وممثله للأزمة السورية، جيمس جيفري، وممثلة واشنطن في الأمم المتحدة كيللي كرافت، الذين كان قد حملهم وزير دفاع أردوغان الى إدلب للاحتفال معه “بالنصر”، عندما ينجح هجوم الجيش التركي، في السيطرة على كامل محافظة إدلب وريفي حلب الغربي والجنوبي الغربي، مما يعني السيطرة على الطرق الاستراتيجيّة، المسماة M 5 و M4، وبالتالي حسم معركة الشمال السوري بأكمله، من كسب غرباً حتى القامشلي شرقاً لصالح الحلف الصهيوأميركي التركي “الإسرائيلي”. وهو الأمر الذي حصل عكسه تماماً، إذ كرّس الاتفاق ليس فقط السيطرة الحكومية على كلّ المناطق التي حرّرتها القوات المشتركة، منذ عام 2018 وحتى الآن، بل وكذلك كلّ ما يسيطر عليه أتباع أردوغان من المسلحين الإرهابيين، جنوب الطريق السريع حلب – اللاذقية. وذلك لأنّ إقامة المنطقة الآمنة، شمال وجنوب هذا الطريق، بعمق ستة كيلومترات من كلّ جهة، يعني فعلياً سقوط كلّ مواقع المسلحين الإرهابيين الواقعة جنوب هذا الخط بسبب قطع خطوط إمدادهم من تركيا.
ومن بين الأحلام المريضة، التي أسقطتها موازين قوى الميدان السوري العسكرية الجديدة، أحلام ممثلة واشنطن في الأمم المتحدة والمطلّقة من زوجين سابقاً والمتزوّجة من الملياردير جو كرافت عام 2016، والذي يعتبر ثالث أكبر منتج للفحم الحجري في الولايات المتحدة، ويملك ثروة تبلغ أربعة مليارات دولار، يستثمرها في شركات عدة في قطاع الطاقة. ايّ انها كانت تصبو الى الاحتفال بسيطرة أردوغان على محافظة إدلب لفتح المجال أمام زوجها الثالث للسيطرة على قطاع الطاقة في إدلب وغيرها.
كذلك الأمر تبخرت أحلام جيمس جفري، المعروف بارتباطاته بالمجمع الصناعي العسكري، والذي كان يحلم بنجاح هجوم الجيش التركي في أرياف حلب وإدلب ما يمهّد الطريق الى تزويد تركيا ببطاريات صواريخ باتريوت. وهو المعروف، في دوائر الإدارة الأميركية، بمطالباته المستمرة بتزويد تركيا بهذه المنظومات، الأمر الذي أحبطه جنرالات البنتاغون بشكل مستمرّ، وخاصة بعد أن طلب أردوغان من الإدارة الأميركية إرسال بطاريات باتريوت لـ “الدفاع عن تركيا”، منتصف الشهر الماضي وفي ذروة استعداداته لتنفيذ مؤامرته مع نتن ياهو وبومبيو في الشمال السوري.
وبكلام أوضح فإنّ جنرالات البنتاغون، الذين يعتبرون “حليفهم” الكردي أكثر كفاءة وأقلّ تكلفة من ثاني أكبر جيش في حلف الناتو، ايّ الجيش التركي، نقول إنّ هؤلاء الجنرالات قد دفنوا أحلام جيمس جيفري، في إطلاق حملة تسويق جديدة لمنظومات الباتريوت. فهم، ايّ الجنرالات، أعلم من غيرهم بعدم فعاليتها، تلك الفعالية التي تهمّهم أكثر من مسألة تسويقها.
وفي ضوء كلّ المعطيات المذكورة أعلاه يتبيّن انّ فرقة الرضوان، وغيرها من التشكيلات العسكرية لحلف المقاومة، ومن ضمنها آلاف المقاتلين اليمنيين، الذين أعربوا عن رغبتهم بالالتحاق بالمقاومة، على الجبهة الشمالية، قد أصبحت جاهزة لتنفيذ المرحلة الأخيرة من الهجوم الاستراتيجي، الذي سينتهي بتحرير القدس وفلسطين كاملة وإنهاء وجود الكيان المحتلّ بشكل كامل. فكلّ ما هو مطلوب لذلك أصبح جاهزاً، من انتشار للقوات الى اكتمال التدريب على تنفيذ الهجوم وانتهاء برفع العلم الفلسطيني على أسوار القدس.
هذا التحرير الذي سيطلق عودة الشعب الفلسطيني، كاملاً الى كامل فلسطين، وهو الأمر الذي يجري وضع اللمسات الأخيرة، على خطط تنفيذه من قبل مجموع محور المقاومة. ايّ انّ محور المقاومة قد انتقل من مرحلة التخطيط لتحرير فلسطين إلى مرحلة ما بعد التحرير والعودة.
Damascus (ST): The General Establishment for Post has issued a memorial stamp in commemoration of the Syrian Arab Army Day which falls on August 1st.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 
