Critical Observer

SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKoF8vBImhW8K_KiRti40TyTuGx9Lg_6z1VenCkNmgk6dcheNP__aHYDyUCptImkPC5aFjGLgs6lcIdu4MQ_BbfNqc4Cq0WCHqBtsQ7vLxNT6vuNu5M3mAzwCEKil4Q2W8l7tam1SJw/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coincided with the visit by a U.N. envoy to Damascus on Thursday.<br />
Two Syria-based groups as well as the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say warplanes carried out at least 12 airstrikes across the city. They reported casualties but had no specific figures.<br />
<br />
It was not immediately clear what was hit.<br />
<br />
The city in northern Syria is the self-declared capital of the Islamic State group's so-called Islamic caliphate it has established across parts of Syria and Iraq. The region is often targeted by a U.S.-led coalition fighting IS from the air. The Syrians have occasionally targeted the city as well, but Syrian government airstrikes typically concentrate on other opposition-held areas of the country.<br />
<br />
Syrian President Bashar Assad reiterated in an interview with Russian media aired Wednesday that that the U.S. refuses to coordinate with his government in the fight against IS.<br />
<br />
For the U.S. officials, "if they cooperate with the Syrian army, this is like recognition of our effectiveness in fighting ISIS," Assad said, using another acronym for the group. He also said that his priority is "defeating terrorism" in Syria.<br />
<br />
Russia is trying to convince the West of the need to work with Syria in the fight against IS.<br />
Thursday's airstrikes on Raqqa coincided with a visit by the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to Damascus. De Mistura met with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, who repeated to him that fighting terrorism was the Syrian government's priority, according to the state-run news agency SANA.

SYRIAN ARMY STAGES AIRSTRIKES ON ISIS HELD RAQQA

Syrian army warplanes carried out a wave of airstrikes in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, activists said, in rare attacks that coin...

Read Article »

U.S. TRAINING CREATED TOP ISIS COMMANDER

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ADyKj-cmB4Q6n9Evk9JGxzt9BS0mdlM17xEvE_6VoK7dQ_S2MU4a2L783D20WKVxy2rpiCn9dkj_V1yCN8SRaapxoTrU7ds4tMG-PkC4L1ksXrN8z1N0hYy5x7PNdtn7lm7Nt8fgccQ/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4ADyKj-cmB4Q6n9Evk9JGxzt9BS0mdlM17xEvE_6VoK7dQ_S2MU4a2L783D20WKVxy2rpiCn9dkj_V1yCN8SRaapxoTrU7ds4tMG-PkC4L1ksXrN8z1N0hYy5x7PNdtn7lm7Nt8fgccQ/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The 15 Chechens looking to cross the border from Turkey to Syria didn’t strike Abdullah as particularly important or unusual.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
It was early summer in 2012, and as a smuggler based in the Turkish border town of Killis, Abdullah, who’d fled his home village in Syria because of fighting on the outskirts of Aleppo, was used to secretive groups of foreigners – journalists, aid workers and many recently aspiring jihadists – hiring him to cross Turkish military lines at the border while avoiding what was then still a significant Syrian government presence in northern Syrian.</div>
<div class="reorder_story-target_2" id="related-gallery" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 0px 10px 30px; width: 231px;">
<div class="mi-slick-gallery-container clearfix" id="slick-gallery-container-29508007" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; visibility: visible;">
<div class="preroll-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;">
<div class="slick-gallery slick-initialized slick-slider" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden; position: relative; touch-action: none;">
<div aria-live="polite" class="slick-list draggable" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px);" tabindex="0">
<div class="slick-track" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 237px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; position: relative; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 231px; zoom: 1;">
<div aria-hidden="false" class="gallery-item image slick-slide slick-active" data-slick-index="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 237px; min-height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); width: 231px;">
<span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-320="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_480/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-480="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-640="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_768/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-768="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_960/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-960="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><span class="test-temp" data-src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_1140/ISIS-Omar_04" data-width-1140="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></span><img alt="Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters." data-preload="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" src="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/r2l56m/picture35322876/ALTERNATES/FREE_320/ISIS-Omar_04" style="border: 0px; bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; left: 0px; margin: auto; max-width: 231px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); vertical-align: middle;" title="Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters." /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="current-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 40px; padding: 10px 0px;">
<span class="caption-text" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Abu Omar al Shishani, born Tarkhan Batirashvili in Georgia’s Pankisi Valley, is seen in an image captured from an Islamic State video posted on the Internet. The Pankisi Valley is home to perhaps as many as 150 Islamic State fighters. </span><span class="photographer" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Screenshot from ISIS Video</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“In 2012, everyone was coming to Syria and we had too much work leading all kinds of people across the border,” he explained over lunch in Killis, a Turkish town just a few miles from the rebel-held Syrian city of Azzaz. “A lot were Muslims who had come to support the revolution against Bashar Assad from every country. So many from Europe, Russia, Germany, France. . . .”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The 15 men had reached Abdullah through a network of contacts that were funneling new fighters to northern Syria, and Abdullah recalled they said they were going to Syria to assist in the fight against Assad. They were quiet, disciplined and for the most part spoke only a bit of crude formal Arabic.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Only later did Abdullah realize that the network that funneled these men to him was the beginnings of the Islamic State, and that one of the 15 would turn out to be the most important non-Arab figure in the Islamic State hierarchy, a former American-trained noncommissioned officer in the special forces of the nation of Georgia, who’d led his men heroically during the 2008 Russian invasion of his homeland.</div>
<div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-1" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;">
WE TRAINED HIM WELL, AND WE HAD LOTS OF HELP FROM AMERICA.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Former Georgian defense official</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Abu Omar al Shishani, as he’s now known, had been born Tarkhan Batirashvili 27 years earlier in Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, a tiny enclave of ethnic Chechens, known locally as Kists, whose roughly 10,000 residents represent virtually all of the Muslims in predominantly Orthodox Christian Georgia.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
But analysts of extremist groups said Batirashvili’s impact has been far greater than the small numbers of Muslims in Georgia would suggest. Since he swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2013, thousands of Muslims from the Caucasus have flocked to Syria to join the extremist cause.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“More than anything else, Batirashvili has legitimized ISIS in the Caucasus by the power of his exploits, which is amplified by slick ISIS propaganda,” said Michael Cecire, an analyst of extremism for the Philadelphia-based <a href="http://www.fpri.org/" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76ba; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Foreign Policy Research Institute.</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Batirashvili’s battlefield successes, including orchestrating the capture of Syria’s Menagh Air Base after two years of failed attempts, “helped to legitimize ISIS in militant circles, including in the North Caucasus,” Cecire said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“Batirashvili’s ability to demonstrate ISIS’ tactical prowess attracted fighters in droves from other factions and tipped the scales in foreign fighter flow and recruitment,” Cecire said. “In the North Caucasus, young people no longer wanted to fight in Syria with the increasingly marginalized Caucasus Emirate (groups), but wanted to fight with the winners – ISIS.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Batirashvili’s story also was compelling, Cecire said: “A man with a modest background, sickly and impoverished before he went to Syria,” becomes “a great battlefield commander defying the world” . . . a “seemingly emulable, rags-to-riches story.”　</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Those seeking an explanation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence on sending military supplies and manpower to Syria to bolster the government of President Bashar Assad would do well to consider Batirashvili. Putin not only personally oversaw the Russian push into Georgia, but he has twice waged war against Islamist-led factions in Chechnya whose cause Batirashvili has supported since he was a teenager. Ethnic Chechens are thought to be one of the largest groups of foreign fighters in the Islamic State.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Now 30, Batirashvili is a key figure, reportedly a member of the group’s governing council, is said to be the Islamic State’s supreme military leader in northern Syria and Aleppo, and is perhaps the group’s most fearsome ground commander. His current status is an irony for a man once considered a Georgian soldier with a bright future.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“We trained him well, and we had lots of help from America,” said a former Georgian defense official who asked to not be identified because of the sensitivity of Batirashvili’s role in the Islamic State. “In fact, the only reason he didn’t go to Iraq to fight alongside America was that we needed his skills here in Georgia.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Even before Georgia and Russia came to blows in 2008, Batirashvili had earned a reputation for fighting Russians. While a part of Georgia, the Pankisi Valley’s northern end abuts Chechnya, where separatists fought a brutal war for independence from Russia in the 1990s. Batirashvili’s mother was Chechen, and his father has told local journalists that young Batirashvili had seen a handful of military operations as a rebel in Chechnya before joining Georgia’s military in 2006 at age 20.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The choice of a military career was natural, say Georgian officials and journalists who knew him and his community. Pankisi is a tiny and isolated sliver of Georgia with little economic activity, and the choices for its youth are narrow: leave home to fight the Russians, become a subsistence farmer, join one of the legendarily nasty Chechen criminal gangs, or join the military.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
According to Batirashvili’s ex-comrades in the Georgian military, Batirashvili was tapped immediately upon his enlistment to join Georgia’s U.S.-trained special forces.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“He was a perfect soldier from his first days, and everyone knew he was a star,” said one former comrade, who asked not to be identified because he remains on active duty and has been ordered not to give media interviews about his former colleague. “We were well trained by American special forces units, and he was the star pupil.”</div>
<div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-2" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;">
HE WAS A PERFECT SOLDIER FROM HIS FIRST DAYS, AND EVERYONE KNEW HE WAS A STAR.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Georgian soldier</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Fighting the Russians in Chechnya would not have disqualified him, the former comrade said. “Having fought the Russians as a Chechen is hardly unusual and not the sort of thing that would have meant you were a bad guy,” he said. “It just means you’re from Pankisi.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
None of the people who knew Batirashvili during his military service noted any sort of dedication to Islam or jihadist tendencies, but that’s not considered particularly unusual in a country where Muslims tend to adhere to a moderate strain of Sufi Islam despite Chechnya’s reputation as a incubator of extremism.</div>
<div class="highline highline-fact" id="highline-fact-1" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; float: left; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 7px 30px 40px 0px; width: 350px;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #cda01e; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-transform: uppercase;">
BATIRASHVILI’S EXPLOITS IN THE 2008 WAR WITH RUSSIA ARE THE STUFF OF LOCAL LEGEND. WHY HE LEFT THE MILITARY ISN’T CLEAR.</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“Chechens have a reputation as crazy Islamic warriors, but our Islam has always been moderate,” according to one Pankisi community and clan leader who’s been ordered by the government not to talk about the man many Georgians laughingly refer to as “Pankisi’s most famous son.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
That reputation for moderation, however, began to change in the wake of the Chechen wars, which devastated Chechnya, and by the construction in 2000 of a second mosque to serve the valley’s six small villages.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The new mosque, the community leader said, was built with a donation from Saudi Arabia and “preached a kind of alien Wahhabi-style Islam,” not the Sufi-style Islam that had characterized the regions for hundreds of years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“It told our people that it was wrong to pray at graves of saints and ancestors, as our people have done for hundreds of years, and even to share our religious rites with our Christian brothers,” he said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
By the mid-2000s, multiple residents say, the situation had split the community, mostly by age, with the original Sufi mosque attended by the older members of the community, while the young people were radicalized by the new mosque. This led to significant tensions with police until it was resolved by a revolution almost 1,000 miles away.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“They all started leaving for Syria,” the community elder said. “Things are safer here now because all the radicals – our children – have gone to Syria.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
American and Georgian intelligence estimates put that number at between 150 and 200 young men who have left Pankisi to fight in Syria.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Batirashvili’s father, who still lives in Pankisi, couldn’t be reached for comment. Local officials who were asked to help contact him said his son had warned them not to let foreigners interview him, and outsiders are easily noticed riding along the single main road that spans the tiny valley.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Batirashvili’s exploits in the 2008 war with Russia are the stuff of local legend. At the time, the region was tense. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Putin, then Russia’s prime minister, had been waging a verbal war over what Saakashvili called Russian interference in Georgian affairs with its support of South Ossetia, a Georgian region that had declared its independence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
In what is generally seen now as an enormous miscalculation, Saakashvili ordered a Georgian military offensive to retake the autonomous breakaway region. According to his former comrade and the Georgian defense official, Batirashvili led a special forces detachment of forward artillery observers who’d infiltrated deep into South Ossetia to set up an observation post overlooking the Dzara Bypass Road, which connected South Ossetia through the critical Roki Tunnel to Russia.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
As Georgian troops attacked the Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, Batirashvili’s unit rained artillery on the Russian reinforcements that began pouring in to reinforce the break away republic.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The Russians crushed the Georgians within days, but not before Batirashvili’s unit inflicted serious damage, including an ambush on Aug. 9, 2008, that wounded the commander of the Russian 58th Army, one of the highest ranking Russian military officers wounded since World War II.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“He was a magnificent fighter and one of the best men I have ever known,” said a veteran of that battle who remembered Batirashvili as quiet and dedicated to his men. “He controlled the forward positions and called in the artillery on the Russians. Maybe he more than any other single soldier in the Georgian army fought the Russians the best during that terrible week.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The story of how Batirashvili left the Georgian army and later ended up in prison for a year on suspicion of arms trafficking is muddled. Georgian military records show that he was discharged for medical reasons in 2010 – he’d contracted tuberculosis, according to the records – but some colleagues and residents of Pankisi say the real reason for the discharge were concerns about his family.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“The guy has two brothers, both of whom fought in Chechnya, and he is known to have helped the rebels before joining the army,” the defense official said. “As good a soldier as he was, there was a lot of concern about the guy’s being radicalized over the Chechen conflict next door.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
By late 2010, Batirashvili was under arrest for weapons possession, which his father told the BBC was merely an old box of ammunition in the house. But prosecutors asked for a significant jail term out of fear that Batirashvili already had been radicalized. Regardless of when this radicalization took place, by the time he left prison 16 months later, Batirashvili reportedly was telling people that prison and his Muslim mother’s death from cancer shortly after his release had convinced him to become religious.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
In early 2012, Batirashvili disappeared from Georgia. He told his father he was headed to Istanbul to get away from Georgian military intelligence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Traveling to Turkey, even before the Syrian civil war, wouldn’t have been an unusual choice. Istanbul had been a destination for Chechen jihadists and gangsters for years. With Turkish roots, Chechens were welcome in Istanbul, able to disappear easily among the ethnic Chechens living in Turkey’s largest city.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“You must understand this about Chechens, they’re really good at two things: Fighting and extorting other Chechens,” said one Pankisi resident. “So if you run a grocery story or a tea shop or some other business anywhere in the world, if you’re Chechen, you will end up having to pay other Chechens to leave you alone.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“And Istanbul had too many unemployed guys trying to be gangsters all at once,” he added. “But when Syria came along they had something to do.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
A Chechen fighter who spent two years fighting in Syria and currently lives in Istanbul agreed.</div>
<div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-3" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;">
WE WERE ALL BORED AND STARVING HERE IN ISTANBUL BEFORE THE SYRIAN WAR.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Chechen refugee in Turkey</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“We were all bored and starving here in Istanbul before the Syrian war,” said Ramzan, a huge man with a bushy red beard. He was talking over a cup of tea, buried in the Chechen market on the Asian side of Istanbul.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Ramzan, who asked to not be identified further because of security concerns, had been fighting against the Russians in Chechnya when he was wounded outside of the Chechen capital, Grozny. After members of his family were kidnapped by security forces in the hunt for him, Ramzan decided to flee to Turkey in 2002. For a decade he’d scraped out a living doing low-level extortion and protection rackets.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“Once the jihad in Syria began, people began to tell us, ‘Come to Syria, there’s fighting and paychecks and wives.’ So we started leaving by the hundreds,” he said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Ramzan fought for nearly two years as a member of Jaysh al Muhajireen, or the “Army of the Immigrants.” Abu Omar al Shishani, aka Batirashvili, was its commander.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“Abu Omar – we never used our Chechen names – was my emir (commander) for two years in Syria,” said Ramzan. “I fought with him in Aleppo and at the capture of the Menagh Air Base. He is an excellent military commander and a very good Muslim. He also helped the Islamic State get many Russian-speaking recruits from Chechnya, Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and even Afghanistan. He was responsible for bringing them in through a network that I think was controlled by al Qaida.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Cecire, the analyst, said there’s little doubt Abu Omar found many ethnic Chechens, living in poverty, willing to join the fight. “The ‘poverty’ explanation for foreign fighter flow has taken a lot of flak,” he said. “But in Pankisi and many rural Caucasus regions, that poverty is intertwined with the fame and international demand for the Chechen warrior.” That intersection was a draw for Chechens “in search of means as well as meaning,” Cecire said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“At rock bottom, it’s no wonder that Batirashvili availed himself of that demand,” he said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Abu Omar quickly turned Jaysh al Muhajireen into one of the most effective anti-Assad fighting forces, in part by insisting that Syrians be mixed among his primarily Russian-speaking force. The Syrians’ local knowledge and the Chechens’ fighting prowess soon made Jaysh al Muhajireen the leading Syrian rebel unit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“He was the most brilliant commander in the Syrian revolution,” said Yousef, a Syrian who served as Abu Omar’s deputy and spoke freely of his time with him during lengthy interviews in Gaziantep and Killis, two Turkish cities with large Syrian rebel presences.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Abu Omar’s string of victories included leading broad coalitions of disparate rebel groups to victory in Aleppo. In August 2013, he was the leader of the group that captured the Menagh Air Base, which rebels had been trying to take for two years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Yousef, who asked to not be identified further because of security concerns, remembers his time with Abu Omar fondly. “I fought with him for two years, he was like a brother to me,” he said. “He would talk about the best military tactics and why we should never be afraid of dying, because we would go to paradise and marry black-eyed virgins and eat with the Prophet Muhammad.”</div>
<div class="highline highline-quote" id="highline-quote-4" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: dotted; border-top-width: 2px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #cda01e; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans Cond', 'Roboto Condensed Medium', HelveticaNeue-CondensedBold, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600; line-height: 20px; margin: 40px 0px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px;">
HE’S ONE OF THE BEST MEN AND BEST MUSLIMS I HAVE EVER KNOWN.<span class="ng_highline_attrib" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; display: block; font-family: 'McClatchy Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; text-transform: none;">Syrian rebel</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Ramzan also has warm memories of Abu Omar as a commander. “I fought alongside Abu Omar a lot,” he said. “And I respect him as a person and a leader, he’s a good man.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
But both Yousef and Ramzan said they eventually broke with Abu Omar over his decision in November 2013 to throw in with the Islamic State. At the time, tensions were running high between the Islamic State and other rebel factions, including al Qaida’s Nusra Front. Abu Omar had remained above the fray, but it eventually became apparent that he had sided with the Islamic State.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Yousef remembers a series of suicide bombings that targeted Free Syrian Army units at Tal Rifaat, his hometown, while he was visiting family.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“The FSA unit in Tal Rifaat was made of very good men. They did not have a reputation for being gangsters or foreign spies like many of the other FSA units,” he said. But the Islamic State attacked them anyway.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“I called Omar and told him ‘Stop, these are good men, why is this happening?’” Yousef recalled. “And he told me not to worry and that he would have them stop fighting. He told me wait a day and not to take action.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
The next day, two suicide car bombs dispatched by the Islamic State struck Tal Rifaat, killing a number of Yousef’s friends. A horrified Yousef called Abu Omar again, who denied knowing about the car bombs but said the only FSA units being targeted had ties to Western intelligence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Yousef found himself the middle man in a negotiation between the FSA and Islamic State representatives, who included Abu Omar’s nephew.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“I thought the meeting was good and that we would resolve things,” Yousef said. That night another suicide bomb struck a command post for the FSA killing several top officials in the local unit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Yousef called Abu Omar again in a panic only to be told that the car bombs must have been from Assad forces because he had not authorized an operation. “The next day they murdered my cousin in a cemetery,” Yousef said. “He wasn’t even a fighter with the FSA and they shot him to death for being Syrian.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Yousef visibly teared up as he told of the final text messages he sent Abu Omar, ending their friendship and announcing his split from the group.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“I told him that an enemy is an enemy, but he was a brother who became an enemy and it was much worse. That I would forever oppose him.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
Still, Yousef, who now fights with a moderate Syrian rebel movement outside Aleppo, absolves Abu Omar of the worst crimes of the Islamic State.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
“He’s one of the best men and best Muslims I have ever known,” said Yousef. “I am obligated to confront him if he remains with these people, but if he were to leave them or take control of the Islamic State, I would forgive him. If he ran the Islamic State I would have never had to leave.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lyon, Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 10px;">
by MITCHELL PROTHERO of McClatchy DC</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; height: 1px; line-height: normal; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-transform: none; width: 1px;">
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article35322882.html#storylink=cpy</div>

U.S. TRAINING CREATED TOP ISIS COMMANDER

The 15 Chechens looking to cross the border from Turkey to Syria didn’t strike Abdullah as particularly important or unusual. It was ...

Read Article »

U.S. REFUSES TO BOMB KNOWN ISIS POSITIONS IN SYRIA - LAVROV

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzXRu4582VWXM-q3vYI54MyFUvizJRsNQ6pM4C7U60F2pgu24WmxITWmqsQyYFfq7m6LrxYIRWFmT77SBnS3iykTL7FEKEaMmzIcC-pEd9Rt6XeaNzRu1i7WaSOBhN3Wbg8CRbmLm_WY/s1600/00000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzXRu4582VWXM-q3vYI54MyFUvizJRsNQ6pM4C7U60F2pgu24WmxITWmqsQyYFfq7m6LrxYIRWFmT77SBnS3iykTL7FEKEaMmzIcC-pEd9Rt6XeaNzRu1i7WaSOBhN3Wbg8CRbmLm_WY/s640/00000.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday the goal of the United States in Syria is different than what is publicly stated. He also said the coalition led by the U.S. knows the positions of ISIS in the country and is not targeting them.<br />
<br />
Lavrov told Channel one, the largest television network in the Russian Federation, that analysis of aviation operations in Syria “creates a strange impression” and instead of fighting ISIS “there is something else which is a concern of the coalition.”<br />
<br />
He said the coalition purportedly fighting ISIS has “information on where exactly” the positions of the terrorist army are in Syria and Iraq, but “does not give consent to striking them.”<br />
<br />
<h3>
<i><span style="background-color: #cccccc; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My Comment: This is more and more proof that our criminal government is using this fabricated 'war on terror' to justify regime change in countries which are a threat to the established 'petro-dollar' system and the western private central bank network. ISIS is being used as a proxy army to destabilize the middle east and justify ridiculous government spending on the military industrial complex and domestic surveillance programs in the name of security.</span></i></h3>
In August intelligence analysts said the Pentagon is not targeting an estimated 60 Islamic State training camps considered key in the ISIS effort to capture and hold territory.<br />
<br />
According to Bill Gertz of the Free Beacon, officials have stated these camps are off limits “because of concerns about collateral damage.”<br />
<br />
“If we know the location of these camps, and the president wants to destroy ISIS, why are the camps still functioning?” one official said.<br />
<br />
The absurdity of the U.S. statement on collateral damage is astounding.<br />
<br />
A study by Stanford Law School and New York University’s School of Law found that the number of Islamic terrorists killed as a percentage of total casualties in U.S. drone strikes is 2 percent. The remainder are civilians.<br />
<br />
Moreover, so-called collateral or incidental damage has served as a tactic for the U.S. in its war in Iraq.<br />
<br />
“The death of many civilians in Iraq during the Gulf War due to the the lack of electricity in hospitals, which was the result of the destruction of almost all Iraqi power plants by allied air attacks, has been asserted by Iraq as disproportionate collateral damage,” notes Horst Fischer.<br />
<br />
Bombing ISIS Conflicts with Syria Endgame<br />
<br />
The United States and its allies are not effectively targeting ISIS — and, in fact, continue to resupply the group, as a number of Iraqis claim — because eliminating the terror group would conflict with the ultimate objective in Syria: the overthrow the al-Assad government and the balkanization the country.<br />
<br />
The latter was explained in a document produced by the Ford Foundation funded Brookings Institute.<br />
<br />
“Deconstructing Syria: A new strategy for America’s most hopeless war,” authored by Michael E. O’Hanlon, states that “the only realistic path forward may be a plan that in effect deconstructs Syria” and “create pockets with more viable security and governance within Syria over time,” areas that “would never again have to face the prospect of rule by either Assad or ISIL.”<br />
<br />
Both so-called “centrist” Democrats and their neocon colleagues support undermining Syria and are responsible for the humanitarian crisis now threatening to swamp Europe with refugees.<br />
<br />
The United States has consistently supported the Syrian “rebels,” now virtually all radical Wahhabist jihadists. This includes ISIS and al-Nusra, the former created out of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the latter from native Syrian mujahideen. The State Department, of course, denounces both as terrorist groups while covertly supporting them as part of the effort to undermine al-Assad.<br />
<br />
Lavrov only hinted at the real situation in Syria. The Russians, however, are well aware of the fact the ISIS bombing campaign is a farce and a public relations gimmick and understand the real objective in Syria, which includes removing the Russian presence in the region.

U.S. REFUSES TO BOMB KNOWN ISIS POSITIONS IN SYRIA - LAVROV

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday the goal of the United States in Syria is different than what is publicly stated. H...

Read Article »

RUSSIA TO BEGIN AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIS IN SYRIA

<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdGBC8QWx4VIeOy3wDlwmKfirlyOCgu7A-n8koS4ktjcR8E8kWOLQmmJulsOpjeAwjCY5lJc3Cm6Mhbl-r7DJFxeRp1nhIrLz-DROdH9f9_2pN8gg_mY8TvMB2F7jtztvQhur1sRwn1A/s1600/120514dhs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisdGBC8QWx4VIeOy3wDlwmKfirlyOCgu7A-n8koS4ktjcR8E8kWOLQmmJulsOpjeAwjCY5lJc3Cm6Mhbl-r7DJFxeRp1nhIrLz-DROdH9f9_2pN8gg_mY8TvMB2F7jtztvQhur1sRwn1A/s640/120514dhs.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Russian presence in Syria will increase likelihood of encounters with US (since the US and Israel are secretly funding and protecting Al-Qaeda or ISIS, or ISIL or IS or whatever they are choosing to call them this week.)</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-weight: 500; line-height: 1.1; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 5px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1;">During a speech Sunday at the Citadel in South Carolina Republican presidential hopeful </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1;">Scott Walker</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1;">said ISIS would not be defeated in Syria until the government of Bashar al-Assad is brought down.</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 1.1;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Government Puppet, Walker, said so long as Syrian President Bashar Assad “is still in power and Iran, his patron, has a base of operations in Damascus,” ISIS will not be defeated. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<b style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">My Commentary:</b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> (</span></span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Even though Assad has been fighting a war against ISIS for the last 4 years, while US has been '</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">accidentally</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">' air dropping weapons and supplies to them dozens and dozen of times. Aside from being in conflict together one has nothing to do with the other. ISIS are a group of Sunni extremists and Assad is an Alawite, which are considered infidels by the terrorist group. The US government preys on the public's ignorance on the matter and seems to be getting away with it for the most part. Assad is the ONLY one besides the Kurds and a small number of rebels, actually fighting ISIS in the area.</span></span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">) </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“But let me be clear: Defeating ISIS and rolling back Iran will require a greater investment of U.S. resources,” Walker said. “Therefore, we must do more to recruit and support fighters in Syria who oppose both ISIS and Assad.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this month, the Obama administration authorized the use of airstrikes to counter ISIS in Syria, but Obama’s policy on Syria has prompted criticism by Republicans and Democrats alike, many whom want a more robust response to the terrorist group.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">U.S. airstrikes, however, will soon face competition from Russia. </span><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Western diplomats say a Russian expeditionary force has arrived in Syria and will operate, according to the Israeli website</span><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> </span>YNet<span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">, as a Russian forward operating base.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“In the coming weeks thousands of Russian military personnel are set to touch down in Syria, including advisors, instructors, logistics personnel, technical personnel, members of the aerial protection division, and the pilots who will operate the aircraft,” writes Alex Fishman.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“The current makeup of the expeditionary force is still unknown, but there is no doubt that Russian pilots flying combat missions in Syrian skies will definitely change the existing dynamics in the Middle East.”</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The presence of the Russian military in the skies over Syria will increase the possibility of encounters with the United States, especially if the US adopts a more aggressive stance against the Syrian government.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier this month the United States began launching manned airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wwbd9b86SB0?rel=0" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 425px; overflow: hidden !important; width: 620px;" width="620"></iframe></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">by KURT NIMMO | INFOWARS.COM | AUGUST 31, 2015</span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><i>with Comments by AlexxSounds of this site.</i></span></div>
</div>

RUSSIA TO BEGIN AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIS IN SYRIA

Russian presence in Syria will increase likelihood of encounters with US (since the US and Israel are secretly funding and protecting Al...

Read Article »