SAA & FSA repel terrorist attack in Syria’s southwest – Russian MoD
RT.com, Jun 23 2018
Syrian troops came under massive attack in the southwest of the country overnight, the Russian Reconciliation Center said on Saturday. Around 1,000 terrorists from HTS/Nusra attacked positions of the 9th tank division, inflicting casualties and causing damage to homes of civilians. The SAA was joined by rebel militants in repelling the attack, who requested help in fighting HTS/Nusra through the Reconciliation Center. Earlier this week, several rebel groups operating the southwest decided to side with the Syrian government. While the terrorist attack was foiled on some points, fighting continues in several other locations, according to the Russian military.
Russian MoD: SAA, FSA Repel al-Nusra Attack in South Deescalation Zone
Sputnik News, Jun 23 2018
Tensions in the southern deescalation zone have intensified amid an anti-terrorist operation conducted by the SAA. The Russian Defense Ministry has stated that the SAA jointly with the FSA has repelled over a thousand HTS/Nusra attackers in the southern deescalation zone. As a result of the attack, five SAA soldiers were killed and 19 others injured, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. A Defense Ministry statement reads:
At present, SAA soldiers are engaged in defensive battles. The loss of government troops amounts to 5 fatalities and 19 casualties. In addition, residents of these settlements were hit by terrorists.
The ministry noted that FSA field commanders, who had earlier sided with the country’s legitimate government, asked Damascus for help via the Russian Center of Syrian Reconciliation. In some areas, the SAA, together with FSA detachments, managed to stop the militants. Measures are being taken to protect civilians. Tensions in the area have been high since the SAA launched an anti-terrorist campaign there, with the Pindo envoy to the UN calling on Moscow to “do its part to respect and enforce the ceasefire it helped establish” and convince Damascus to stop “any further destabilizing action in the southwest and throughout Syria.” Most of Syria’s territory has already been liberated by the government forces backed by Russian Air Force, however, there are still some terrorist pockets located mainly in the southwest Pindo-controlled areas. In April, a military diplomatic source told Sputnik that the HTS/Nusra had been advocating a joint offensive against government troops claiming that the de-escalation regime had been violated. The source added that the group sought to create an autonomous state in areas under their control with Pindo support. The international community has actively been making an effort to find a solution to the Syrian conflict and forge peace within the country. As a result of the Astana talks, four deescalation zones have been established in Syria, among which is a southern deescalation zone in parts of the country’s Daraa and Quneitra provinces.
Assad defies Pindostan, presses assault in southwest Syria
Angus McDowall, Tom Perry, Reuters, Jun 23 2018
BEIRUT – Syrian government helicopters dropped barrel bombs on opposition areas of the country’s south-west on Friday for the first time in a year, in defiance of Pindo demands that Assad halt the assault, the SOHR and rebels said. Assad has sworn to recapture the area bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the army this week began ramping up an assault there, threatening a deescalation zone agreed upon by Pindostan and Russia last year. On Thursday, Pindostan reiterated its demand that the zone be respected, warning Assad and his Russian allies of “serious repercussions” of violations. It accused Damascus of initiating air strikes, artillery and rocket attacks. UN Sec-Gen Guterres on Friday demanded an immediate end to military escalation in south-western Syria, saying he was “concerned at the significant risks these offensives pose to regional security.” Ambassador Nimrata Haley said in a statement earlier on Friday:
The Syrian military escalation unambiguously violates the deescalation arrangement. Over 11,000 people had already been displaced. Russia will ultimately bear responsibility for any further escalations in Syria.
The barrel bombs targeted a cluster of rebel-held towns including Busra al-Harir northeast of Deraa city. The SOHR said Syrian government helicopters had dropped more than 12 barrel bombs on the area, causing damage but no reported deaths. An FSA spox said the munitions had been dropped on three towns and villages and that war planes had hit another. He told Reuters:
I believe (the regime) is testing two things: the steadfastness of the FSA fighters and the degree of Pindo commitment to the de-escalation agreement in the south.
Syrian state television said on Friday that army units had targeted “lairs and movements of terrorists” in the area. Russian warplanes have yet to take part, rebels say, but Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin was quoted as saying that Russia was helping Damascus to recover the south. Zasypkin told al-Akhbar:
The SAA now, with support from Russian forces, is recovering its land in the south and restoring the authority of the Syrian state. Israel has no justification to carry out any action that obstructs the fight against terrorism.
Jordan Sends Tanks To Border Amidst SAA Advance
Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, Jun 23 2018
Images surfaced overnight Thursday of a large Jordanian military convoy reportedly headed to the border near the Syrian province of Daraa, including M-60 battle tanks and heavy military equipment. This as German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman on Thursday, telling him:
You live not just with the Syria conflict, but also we see Iran’s activities with regard to Israel’s security and with regard to Jordan’s border.
Beirut based al-Masdar News published the photos provided through its sources in the region with this description:
The Jordanian military is deploying reinforcements, including heavy military equipment, on the border with the Syrian province of Daraa, according to Jordanian and Syrian sources.
As we reported this week, the long awaited battle for Daraa has begun despite repeat warnings issued to the Syrian government from Pindostan not to extend its military campaign to the country’s south, where the conflict first began with fierce anti-Assad protests in 2011 which quickly spiraled into violence. The convergence of geopolitical interests among the external and regional powers which have long fueled the Syrian proxy war makes Syria’s southwest region the perfect storm for potential outside intervention and dangerous broader conflagration. The below summarizes this week’s developments which makes the rapidly unfolding events in Syria’s southwest provinces a highly volatile and escalating situation:
- Israel has warned against the deployment Iranian and Hezbollah fighters allied with the Syrian government, especially near the contested Golan Heights area.
- Pindostan has threatened to take “take firm and appropriate measures” should Damascus continue its military campaign in Deraa.
- The SAA and the Pindo-backed group, Jaysh al-Mughawir al-Thoura from the al-Tanf area clashed on Thursday, leaving one Syrian soldier dead.
- Abdullah has joined Israel in denouncing Iran’s “meddling” in the region, and met this week with Netanyahu in the first public meeting between the two leaders since 2014.
- Abdullah also met this week with Merkel and discussed countering “Iranian aggression.”
- Israel attacked (or possibly Pindo coalition) SAA and Iraqi paramilitary forces near the Iraq-Syria border on Sunday, killing over 40 pro-Syrian and allied fighters.
- Assad has vowed to liberate “every inch” of sovereign Syrian territory and sees the return of al-Quneitra and Daraa governorates to the government as key to ending Israeli and other outside meddling, including an ISIS pocket which lies adjacent to Israel and Jordan.
- Huge Syrian military convoys have been seen entering the southwest provinces, preparing for a final major offensive.
- Jordan has sent reinforcements to its border opposite Daraa to both ensure fleeing militants don’t penetrate into Jordanian territory and in support of the Pindo coalition desire to “counter Iran”.
Meanwhile, thousands of civilians in the region are reportedly fleeing toward the Jordanian and Israeli borders as clashes in the northern part of Daraa province have begun. Notably Daesh has long maintained a stronghold along the Israeli occupied Golan Heights and Jordanian border, something which Israeli leadership and media are all too aware of and appear to have turned a blind eye to. Western media has increasingly acknowledged Israel’s “not so secret” quiet support to Jihadis along the Golan border, with even the WSJ confirming weapons transfers and medical aid given to al-Qaeda insurgents. Israel, Pindostan and Jordan have made “countering Iran” in Syria and the region their top priority, and not Daesh. Israeli media has claimed to be in possession of on the ground footage of Daesh terror training camps just across the Israeli border. Netanyahu and Israel’s military leaders have long been on record as advancing a policy of “let the Sunni evil prevail” in reference to seeing Daesh & AQ terrorism as the “lesser evil” when compared to Shia Iran and Hezbollah.
Niqnaq 