Tag: syria

Is A Huge War Coming? US & Israel Bomb Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Gaza & Lebanon While Threatening War With Iran

The brutal war that Israel is waging on Gaza is increasingly becoming a regional conflict.

Since October, the United States and Israel have bombed not only Gaza, but also Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Now, the U.S. government is even threatening Iran with war. President Joe Biden sent the Iranian government a private message while the U.S. military was bombing Yemen on January 13. He said threateningly, “We’re confident, we’re well prepared”.

While this is happening, South Africa has introduced a case in the International Court of Justice, the top United Nations judicial authority, which accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

South Africa’s case has garnered support from dozens of countries across the Global South.

This case has frightened Israel and its sponsors in Washington. They are apparently seeking to expand the conflict into a regional war, to try to win more sympathy and to turn attention away from what South Africa and many countries have referred to as a genocide in Gaza.

In fact, top UN experts have been warning precisely this for months: that the Palestinian people face “the risk of genocide in Gaza”, and that there has been a “failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide”.

The Financial Times reported in December that, in just two months of Israeli bombing, Gaza had become one of the most heavily bombed areas in human history.

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Senate Votes Down Resolution to Withdraw Troops from Syria

The Senate on Thursday voted down a resolution that would have directed President Biden to withdraw all US troops from Syria, where US forces have come under frequent attack in response to President Biden’s support for Israel’s Gaza onslaught.

The bill failed in a vote of 13-84 and received support from seven Democrats, five Republicans, and one Independent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT). The resolution was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who argued the US occupation of eastern Syria risks a major regional war.

“Keeping 900 US troops in Syria does nothing to advance American security. Rather, our intervention puts those servicemembers at grave risk by providing an enticing target for Iranian-backed militias,” Paul said.

“Our continued presence risks the United States getting dragged into yet another regional war in the Middle East without debate or a vote by the people’s representatives in Congress. Congress must cease abdicating its constitutional war powers to the executive branch,” he added.

Paul’s bill would have given the president 30 days to withdraw from Syria unless he was able to get authorization from Congress. The resolution received support from Robert Ford, who was the US ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014 when the US first threw its weight behind the regime change effort against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We owe our soldiers serving there in harm’s way a serious debate about whether their mission is, in fact, achievable. Absent a debate and authorization of such a mission, our troops should be removed. Consideration of S.J. Res. 51 is an important opportunity for the Senate to take a step towards that necessary outcome,” Ford said.

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Seymour Hersh Releases Leaked Pentagon/DIA Document — One More Nail In The Coffin Of Western Gov’t Official Story Of Syria Chemical Weapons Claims

With absolutely no fanfare in either the alternative or mainstream media, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh has released a leaked Pentagon/DIA assessment of the chemical warfare capability of Jobhat al-Nusra/Al-Nusra Front (also known as Al-Qaeda), a fact that Western governments and Western media simply would not admit during their “chemical weapons” propaganda volley against the Syrian government. The document is from June 20, 2013.

The documents were released in Hersh’s article entitled “When the Intelligence is Inconvenient” and can be found on his Substack page. The entire article can be read in full with a subscription.

A brief excerpt from the article reads:

On Sunday Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Jonathan Karl of ABC’s This Week that he remained “very confident in Ukraine’s ultimate success” in the ongoing war with Russia. He depicted Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to escalate its attacks inside Russia as “their decision, not ours.”

Blinken’s wrong-headed confidence and his acceptance of a significant escalation in the Ukraine war defies belief, given the reality on the ground today in the war. But it also could be based on insanely optimistic assessments supplied by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA’s assessments, as I have reported, are now the intelligence of choice inside the White House.

As a journalist who has written about national security matters for many decades, how can I explain a process that is clearly contrary to the best interests of the people of the United States and its leadership?

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Pentagon Belatedly Reveals Two Dozen US Personnel Were Wounded In Spate Of Drone Attacks In Iraq, Syria

The Pentagon revealed in a late Tuesday statement that in just the past week, US and coalition forces have been attacked at least ten times in Iraq, as well as three times in Syria “via a mix of one way attack drones and rockets,” according to Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, speaking to NBC.

But the real bombshell development, which Biden’s defense officials have apparently sat on for several days, is that some 24 US personnel were wounded in the attacks. According to the NBC statement:

Two dozen American military personnel were wounded last week in a series of drone attacks at American bases in Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command told NBC News on Tuesday.

The Pentagon confirmed the attacks last week, but the number of U.S. casualties has not been previously disclosed.

“Twenty American personnel sustained minor injuries on Oct. 18 when at least two one-way attack drones targeted al-Tanf military base in southern Syria, CENTCOM said,” the report continues. 

It appears all the injuries were deemed minor, given Gen. Ryder described that all personnel returned to duty after being evaluated and threated, and there was no significant damage to base installations. However, in Iraq, “The U.S. shot down the one-way attack drones, but the debris from one destroyed a hanger that contained small aircraft, CENTCOM said.”

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Pentagon Expects ‘Significant Escalation’ of Attacks on US Troops Over Gaza War

A Pentagon official told reporters on Monday that the military is preparing for a “significant escalation” of attacks on US troops stationed in the Middle East due to President Biden’s support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

The comments came the same day US Central Command said its forces downed two drones that were fired at a base in Syria. Starting last week, there have been a series of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.

“They’ve been under an increase of attacks for the really for the last three days or so at various locations,” said a senior Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, according to Military Times.

A group that calls itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed it launched drones at US forces in Syria on Monday, but the US has not attributed blame. The Pentagon official pointed the finger at Iran due to Tehran’s support for Shia militias that operate in Syria and Iraq, although there’s no indication Iran is directly involved.

“We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term,” the official said. “And let’s be clear about it: the road leads back to Iran. Iran funded, armed, equipped and trained militias and proxy forces all across the region.”

Separately, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said there was no sign Iran is ordering the attacks, but said the US still blames Iran. “We don’t necessarily see that Iran has explicitly ordered them to take these kinds of attacks,” he said. “That said, by virtue of the fact that they are supported by Iran, we will ultimately hold Iran responsible.”

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Protests In Suweida Reminiscent Of 2011 — Who Is Behind Them?

Twelve years after the initiation of the Western-backed destabilization in Syria, it appears the Western intelligence and military apparatus is once again attempting to stir up a “popular” revolution against the government of Bashar al-Assad. This time, however, not only do they continue to use their proxy fighters in the form of terrorists and Kurdish fanatics, they are also attempting to use the domestic population to further fracture Syrian society.

Having suffered through over a dozen years of horrific warfare that saw their country largely destroyed and an almost unimaginable loss of life, Syrians were then saddled with American (and thus Western) sanctions that have brought the entire Syrian economy to a halt, causing as much suffering as the war itself at least in terms of living standards for the average Syrian.

With the frontlines largely quiet except for daily shelling and occasional airstrikes, Syrians are forced to reckon with the fact that, even with the guns silent, their lives will not return to normal or to any sense of normalcy. Basic necessities like electricity, fuel, medical care, and food are are scarce and have been scarce for some time. Certainly, they have been scarce long enough for the words of their government to “hold on just a little longer” to start feeling hollow. Indeed, starving Syrians have begun to look at Syrian government officials whose lives do continue on as normal with the resentful eyes of the hungry that only someone with an empty belly can truly understand.

This resentment is what Western powers are attempting to take advantage of.

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State Media: Syria’s Two Main Airports Disabled by Simultaneous Israeli Missile Strikes

Syria’s two main airports were taken out of service Thursday by simultaneous Israeli missile strikes, Syrian state media said, in the first such attack since Hamas terrorists launched their assault on Israel.

AFP reports Israeli missile strikes have caused the grounding of flights at the airports in the capital Damascus and northern city Aleppo, both of which are controlled by the government of war-torn Syria.

The “simultaneous” strikes “damaged runways in the two airports, putting them out of service”, state media said, citing an unidentified military source via Reuters.

Sources told the outlet the strikes on the airports are intended to disrupt Iranian supply lines to Syria and thence Israel.

A Syria military source cited by state news agency SANA said “bursts of missiles” hit the two airports at the same time, in what he said was a bid to distract the world’s attention from Israel’s war with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

The Israeli military said it does not comment on such reports.

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ISIS are back…and they’re faker than ever.

In just the last few days ISIS – Islamic State or ISIL or Da’esh or whatever – have hit the headlines in publications from all over the world. A strong resurgence for a narrative that’s been more than quiet for the last few years.

To do a quick recap, when last we heard from our cartoonish black-flagged head-choppers they were telling their suicide bombers to “steer clear of coronavirus-stricken Europe”.

An announcement that, pre-“pandemic”, would have been among the silliest headlines I’ve ever read…but in a post-Covid world it probably barely scrapes the top twenty.

Either way, that marked a hiatus for ISIS, an exit from the world stage as the “war on terror” made way for the “war on Covid”. In fact, a “reduction in violent terror events” was even sold as a potential plus-side of lockdowns, according to a study done by Yale.

…but now here we are. Three years on, and ISIS is back with a bang, or rather several bangs. Like a balaclava-wearing bear, they’ve emerged from their hibernation feeling grumpy.

The mainstream started laying the ground work for it back in January/February, with the aforementioned Yale study and then US politicians suddenly warning that ISIS was a “simmering powder keg” and underlining that the War on Terror is not over.

Then the US started nailing “senior ISIS leaders”, offing two in two weeks in April and a third in July. Syria got in on the act too, dropping an ISIS leader of their own.

Through the summer, ISIS “affiliates” claimed responsibility for attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uganda. These were followed with more “the war on terror is not over” messaging.

But things have really started to heat up the last few days.

On August 11th CBS reported that ISIS were behind an ambush in Syria, killing 20 Syrian soldiers.

On August 12th the Washington Post reported that ADF, an “ISIS affiliate” in the Congo apparently, was “becoming deadlier”.

On August 13th it was reported ISIS was “deploying cryptocurrency to continue its reign of terror”.

Oh the humanity!

On August 14th the Iranian government officially blamed ISIS for an alleged terror attack on a shrine in Shiraz, and TimesNow reported that an ISIS “expert bomb maker” was planning an attack in India.

And just yesterday, The Mirror warned that ISIS and al-Qaeda were “back in Afghanistan”. Meanwhile Indonesian police raided a terror-suspects home and found an ISIS flag

The cherry on top is the UN releasing a report yesterday morning, warning that ISIS still posed “a serious threat”, with 5000-7000 fighters in Syria and Iraq. And in case anyone was curious, they also attempted an  explanation for  the lack of ISIS activity the last few years too. It wasn’t at all a result of the global elites having other (covid) fish to fry. No sir. It was a “deliberately adopted” strategy

to reduce attacks, in order to facilitate recruiting and reorganization.”

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Eight Years of Corrosive Lies about Syria

We are told constantly that Donald Trump’s lies corrode the life of our Republic. Jacob Levy of the Niskanen Center invoked Hannah Arendt on the subject, and said that Trump uses lies the way authoritarians do, to demonstrate and expand their power, by “making his surrogates repeat the lies [he] compromised them; that tied them to him. And it degraded them, and made clear where power lay.” James Pfiffner of the Brookings Institute solemnly argued that Trump’s lies are different than past presidential fibs because Trump doesn’t try to equivocate, and that they thus “challenge the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment.”

I’m willing to give these arguments in the defense of truth-telling a great deal of time. The triviality of some presidential lies, they often tell us, is an aggravating factor. By lying trivially, and casually, the president demeans truth itself, which is suborned by power. All true, as far as it goes.

But, then I come across another story about Syria in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that the United States may leave 1,000 troops in that country after all. The president, if you’ll remember, announced a complete withdrawal of troops from Syria months ago. Then, weeks later the White House announced that a small force of 200 would stay behind. Now, the Journal was reporting that it would actually be 1,000. A few hours later the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff said the original plan remained unchanged.

I realized that I no longer knew what to believe.

Consider three assertions routinely made about Syria by pundits, politicians, and policymakers: 1) Syria shows the perils of U.S. non-intervention; 2) We’re only in Syria to fight ISIS; and 3) U.S. withdrawal from Syria would mean handing a victory to Vladimir Putin.

All of the above statements have become conventional wisdom. The same people sometimes repeat more than one of them. And yet they are entirely irreconcilable with one another.

If withdrawing from Syria means handing a victory to Vladimir Putin, then we are doing something other than fighting ISIS there, something that certainly can’t be described as “non-intervention.”

One fact I do know: The CIA began the U.S. mission in the Syrian Civil War years before ISIS came into being, and a full year before President Obama began talking up his red lines and proposing a congressional vote to authorize intervention in Syria.

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Pentagon Walks Back Claim It Killed Al-Qaeda Leader In Syria

US military officials are walking back claims that a drone strike Central Command (CENTCOM) launched on May 3 in northwest Syria killed a senior al-Qaeda leader after evidence emerged that a civilian was killed.

When the strike was first launched in Syria’s northwest Idlib province, reports immediately emerged that the strike killed a sheep herder with no ties to any militant groups. The Associated Press spoke with family members and neighbors of the victim, Lotfi Hassan Misto, who insisted he was innocent.

According to The Washington Post, Misto was a 56-year-old father of 10, and the paper spoke with terrorism experts who said it was unlikely he was affiliated with al-Qaeda. 

The operation was overseen by U.S. Central Command, which claimed hours after the strike, without citing evidence or naming a suspect, that the Predator drone strike had targeted a “senior Al Qaeda leader.” But now there is doubt inside the Pentagon about who was killed, two U.S. defense officials told The Washington Post.

“We are no longer confident we killed a senior AQ official,” an unnamed military official told the Post. Another official claimed the person they killed was al-Qaeda but offered no evidence.

“Though we believe the strike did not kill the original target, we believe the person to be al-Qaeda,” the official said.

CENTCOM’s initial press release on the strike did not name the person they killed. Since then, the command has refused to share any details of the operation or say why they could have targeted the wrong person.

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