According to al-Masdar, Kurdish YPG forces are currently engaged in combat with Turkish forces in Afrin. The northern Syrian region has been under the control of Kurdish led SDF forces since 2012.
This masks yet another escalation of Turkey’s ‘Euphrates Shield’ operation which has seen Turkish armed forces with their allied jihadist group FSA occupying Syrian land.
President Donald Trump, with his trusty Twitter account at the ready, just fired off two tweets that utterly destroyed the efforts of democratic party congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to jump on the “Trump is a Russian agent” bandwagon.
Take a look:
Drone footage has confirmed that ISIS has destroyed much of the Hellenic amphitheatre of Palmyra, the location where maestro Valery Gergiev led a concert of Russian musicians for the troops of the Syrian Arab Army, Russian military and civilians who liberated Palmyra from the last ISIS occupation in May of 2016.
Now much of this site has been destroyed by ISIS in the wake of their second occupation of the ancient city.
The French daily Le Monde is reporting that a French-Swiss construction firm,
LafargeHolcim Group, made pay offs to Islamic militants in Syria, “one third of whom are outlawed,” according to the newspaper.
The payments were apparently made in order to ensure that the company’s cement factory located in Syria was not targeted by the militants.
As cited by Sputnik:
Multiple news agency reports confirm that the Syrian army – heavily backed by the Russian air force and with the assistance of Russian Special Forces – is engaging in what increasingly looks like its final assault on ISIS positions in Palmyra preparatory to the complete liberation of the ancient city.
Media reports speak of the Iraq military capturing two districts in heavily populated western Mosul from ISIS today, and of attempts being made by the Iraqi military to capture from ISIS a key bridge across the Tigris river.
The most detailed account of the fighting today has been provided by RT.
The Syrian army’s offensive to retake the ancient city of Palmyra – captured by ISIS in December – seems to be about to bear fruit.
According to the highly reliable Al-Masdar news agency, the Syrian army has reached the northern foothill of the Jabal Hayyal mountain southwest of Palmyra, overlooking the ancient city.
The Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-‘Abadi ordered his air force today to start bombing ISIS in Syria, and the Iraqi air force has duly done so, bombing ISIS positions in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province, which adjoins Iraq’s Anbar province.
A video has been released showing the results of air strikes by the Iraqi aircraft (US built F-16s).
Reports that ISIS have been defeated in al-Bab may superficially being joy to many readers. But the reality is far from good.
“I know how the UN works. I believe that [Ukraine’s] permanent representative would not do this on his own. This means that he was ordered to do it,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is quoted as saying in a Sputnik report.
