TheNewsGuru

Tag: Syria

  • Putin predicts global ‘chaos’ if West hits Syria again

    Putin predicts global ‘chaos’ if West hits Syria again

    Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.

    In a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, Putin and Rouhani agreed that the Western strikes had damaged the chances of achieving a political resolution in the seven-year Syria conflict, according to a Kremlin statement.

    “Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the U.N. Charter continue, then it will inevitably lead to chaos in international relations,” the Kremlin statement said.

    The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told CBS’ “Face the Nation” program that the United States would announce new economic sanctions on Monday aimed at companies “that were dealing with equipment” related to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical weapons use.

    On Saturday, the United States, France and Britain launched 105 missiles targeting what the Pentagon said were three chemical weapons facilities in Syria in retaliation for a suspected poison gas attack in Douma on April 7.

  • Why I ordered strike on Syria – Trump

    Why I ordered strike on Syria – Trump

    U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he ordered a strike on Syria in response to last weekend’s chemical weapons attack.

    Trump, while addressing the nation on Friday night, said the joint strike with France and the United Kingdom was currently underway.

    “A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

    “A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway,” Mr Trump said.

    Pentagon, at a press briefing on the strike at 10 p.m., said the strikes did maximum damages to Assad’s regime’s chemical weapons sites.

    Trump said that the “massacre” last weekend in Syria “was a significant escalation in a pattern of chemical weapons use by that very terrible regime.”

    “The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air. These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead,” Trump said.

    Trump also took a swipe at Russia and Iran, condemning their continued support to Assad’s regime.

    “To Iran and to Russia I ask, what kind of a nation wants to be associated with the mass murder of innocent men, women and children?

    “The nations of the world can be judged by the friends they keep. No nation can succeed in the long run by promoting rogue states, brutal tyrants, and murderous dictators,” Trump said.

    “In 2013, President Vladimir Putin and his government promised the world that they would guarantee the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons.

    “Assad’s recent attack and today’s response are the direct result of Russia’s failure to keep that promise.

    “Russia must decide if it will continue down this dark path or if it will join with civilised nations as a force for stability and peace.

    “Hopefully, someday we’ll get along with Russia and maybe even Iran. But maybe not,” the president stressed.

    Trump however added that the U.S. “does not seek an indefinite presence in Syria”.

    “We look forward to the day when we can bring our warriors home. We cannot purge the world of evil or act everywhere there is tyranny.

    “No amount of American blood or treasure can produce lasting peace and security in the Middle East,” Trump said.

    “We pray that God will bring comfort to those suffering in Syria. We pray that God will guide the whole region toward a future of dignity and of peace.

    “And we pray that God will continue to watch over and bless the United States of America,” he said.

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis said U.S. and its allies struck harder this time than the 2017 strike against the country which did not seem to deter the Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

    Joseph Dunford, Joint Chief of Staff, said the strikes were carried out on three Syrian chemical weapons infrastructures and the U.S. believed it would send al-Assad a strong message.

    On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said analysis done by the U.S., U.K. and France proved the chemical attack.

    In a statement Friday night, UK Prime Minister Theresa May called last weekend’s chemical attack “pure horror”.

    “The Syrian regime has a history of using chemical weapons against its own people in the most cruel and abhorrent way.

    “And a significant body of information including intelligence indicates the Syrian Regime is responsible for this latest attack,” May said.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said the response was “limited to the Syrian regime’s capabilities to produce and use chemical weapons”.

    “We cannot tolerate the normalisation of the use of chemical weapons, which is a direct threat to the security of the Syrian people and our collective security,” Macron said.

  • 5.6m refugees, over 400,000 dead in war-torn Syria

    In seven years of continued assault in Syria, over 400,000 people, including children have been reportedly killed in armed conflicts, leaving about 5.6 million refugees in the country.

    Amnesty International (AI), a global movement campaigning for human rights, released these shocking statistics recently with the note: “We will not sit silently and watch this tragedy continue for the eighth year in Syria”.

    TheNewsGuru reports “The Syrian government, backed by Russia, is bombing its own people in Eastern Ghouta. Scores of people have been killed and hundreds injured in the past month,” according to AI.

    According to AI, Syria’s Eastern Ghouta has been under a catastrophic situation; with more than 400,000 people suffering under the Syrian government’s tightened siege since November 2017.

    The people have been enduring hunger, malnutrition, lack of medication and escalated bombardment that has been targeting civilians, homes, hospitals and markets. In the past 30 days, more than 190 civilians have been killed and more than 2700 injured.

    “This is not new for the people of Eastern Ghouta: people who’ve been trapped in a cruel siege for nearly six years are now being attacked daily, killed and maimed by their government. Children and elderly people are dying of malnutrition and lack of medication.

    “The attacks must be stopped. Humanitarian aid must be allowed into Eastern Ghouta.

    “We succeeded in creating pressure and noise around the world for Aleppo – and we can succeed in helping the people under attack in Eastern Ghouta,” AI stated.

     

  • 32 dead as Russian plane crashes in Syria

    A Russian transport plane crashed on landing at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in Syria, killing all 32 on board, the defence ministry said in a statement carried by RIA Novosti.

    There were 26 passengers and 6 crew, the ministry said.

    “The reason for the crash according to preliminary information could have been a technical fault,” the ministry said, adding that the plane had not come under fire according to a report from the ground.

    The transporter was around 500 metres from the runway, the statement said.

    A commission will investigate the causes of the crash.

    Moscow began conducting air strikes in Syria in September 2015, and its intervention has swung the nearly seven-year conflict firmly in favour of its ally in Damascus.

    The latest accident comes after a Sukhoi military jet crashed while trying to take off from Hmeimim in October last year, killing two crew.

    Russia’s most recent officially acknowledged military loss in battle in Syria was last month when a pilot was killed after his plane was downed over Idlib province.

    Russia’s official military losses in the war before the crash were 45.

    Moscow last month also said that five citizens, not officially affiliated with the Russian military, were likely killed in the strikes in eastern Syria — the first admission of non-military combat casualties.

  • BREAKING: Syria downs Israeli fighter jet

    An Israeli F-16 fighter has been shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire on a raid to destroy Iranian facilities allegedly responsible for launching a drone into Israel.

    The Israeli military claims it shot down the drone and struck Iranian targets in Syria after what it called a “severe and irregular violation of Israeli sovereignty”.

    The military says its planes faced heavy anti-aircraft counter fire from Syria that forced Israeli pilots to abandon an F-16 jet that crashed in the Jezreel valley in northern Israel. It said the pilots were injured and evacuated to hospital. Sirens sounded in northern Israel as a result of Syrian fire.

    It was one of the most serious incidents involving Israel, Iran and Syria since the start of the Syrian civil war almost eight years ago.

    Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter that Iran was “responsible for this severe violation of Israeli sovereignty”.

    “IDF (Israel Defence Forces) has targeted the Iranian control systems in Syria that sent the [unmanned aircraft] into Israeli airspace. Massive Syrian anti-air fire, one F16 crashed in Israel, pilots safe,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter on Saturday.

    According to a separate military statement, Israeli forces had identified an “Iranian UAV” launched from Syria and intercepted it in Israeli airspace with a combat helicopter.

    The military was “monitoring events and is fully prepared for further action”.

    Syrian state media said air defences opened fire in response to an Israeli act of “aggression” against a military base on Saturday and hit “more than one plane”, citing a military source.

    “The Israeli enemy entity at dawn today conducted a new aggression against one of the military bases in the central region. Our air defences confronted it and hit more than one plane,” the unidentified military source said.

    The Israeli military denied more than one plane had been hit.

    Israel’s chief military spokesman, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, said Israel held Iran directly responsible for the incident.

    “This is a serious Iranian attack on Israeli territory. Iran is dragging the region into an adventure in which it doesn’t know how it will end,” he said. “Whoever is responsible for this incident is the one who will pay the price.”

    The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, paid a rare visit to the Israel-Syria front on Tuesday and warned Israel’s enemies not to “test” its resolve. He did not mention by name Iran or its Lebanese militia ally, Hezbollah, both main players in Syria’s civil war.

    Netanyahu has been cautioning against any attempt by Iran to deepen its military foothold in Syria or construct missile factories in neighbouring Lebanon.

    Guardian UK

     

  • Putin, Erdogan discuss military coordination in Syria – Reports

    Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan have agreed to strengthen coordination between the two countries’ military and security services in Syria in the fight against terrorism, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

    According to the statement issued by the Kremlin, Putin and Erdogan, during a telephone conversation, discussed the prospects for new contacts between Russia, Turkey and Iran on Syria.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a possible summit meeting between the leaders of the three countries was discussed, but no date had been agreed upon, RIA news agency reported.

    Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency also reported that following the conversation, “Turkey, Russia and Iran will hold a summit in Istanbul soon.

    “The phone call focused on the Syrian regions of Afrin and Idlib.’’

    The last time such meeting took place in Sochi, Russia, in November.

    Turkey is engaged in an ongoing military offensive in Afrin against Kurdish militants.

    In Idlib, the last province under control of Syrian rebel forces, heavy fighting has been going on in recent days between opposition fighters and the Syrian government forces.

    A Russian warplane was shot down near Idlib, an area dominated by Islamist factions, including militants linked to al-Qaeda, leading to a further escalation.

    The three nations are the guarantors of the Astana process, a forum for holding talks on ceasefires in Syria based in the Kazakh capitals.

     

  • Syrian Army Intercepts Israel Missiles Near Damascus

    Syrian Army Intercepts Israel Missiles Near Damascus

    Syrian air defences intercepted at least two Israeli missiles fired at a government “military position” in Damascus province early Saturday but the attack still caused damage, state media reported.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said the missiles, presumably Israeli, targeted “positions of the Syrian regime and its allies” southwest of Damascus.

    An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.

    “At half past midnight (2230 GMT Friday), the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles at a military position in Damascus province,” the state SANA news agency reported.

    “The air defences of the Syrian army were able to deal with the attack… destroying two of the missiles,” it said, adding that the attack nonetheless caused “material damage”.

    Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the missile strike targeted a military base near Kesweh, south of Damascus.

    “An arms depot was destroyed,” he said, adding that it was not immediately clear whether the warehouse was operated by the Syrian army, or its allies Iran or Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

    Israel has acknowledged carrying out repeated air and missile strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the bloody civil war six years ago to stop arms deliveries to Hezbollah, with which it fought a devastating 2006 conflict.

    It has also systematically targeted government positions in response to all fire into territory under its control, whoever launched it and regardless of whether it was intentional or not.

    Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

    The two countries remain technically at war.

    AFP

  • London attack: revenge for RAF’s love from Manchester air strike – Pro-Islamic State social media users claim

    London attack: revenge for RAF’s love from Manchester air strike – Pro-Islamic State social media users claim

    Pro-Islamic State social media users claimed the London attacks were revenge for the RAF’s “love from Manchester” air strike, according to the Site intelligence monitoring group.

    A photograph emerged last week of an RAF bomb with the message “love from Manchester” written on it. It was on its way to strike ISIL targets in Syria.

    One Twitter user, who was retweeted by the Site director, posted the image and wrote: “This is your merchandise and tonight we responded.”

    There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the London attacks, which left at least seven people dead.

    The RAF confirmed the photograph, which was widely shared on social media last week, was genuine and showed a message on a Paveway IV bomb loaded on a British jet carrying out air strikes from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

    There had earlier been accusations that the photo was a fake. An RAF spokesperson said: “The RAF can confirm the photo was genuine”.

    An RAF source said: “The sentiment of the message written on the weapon is understandable and such writing has history in the RAF, so the individual concerned will not be taken to task.”

     

    Telegraph

     

  • Trump goes to court, insists on travel ban on citizens from Syria, Libya, others

    United States President, Donald Trump, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a freeze on the revised travel ban, after it was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

    The Trump administration, Friday, asked the Supreme Court to revive the president’s plan to temporarily ban citizens from six Muslim dominated countries.

    The countries are Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Iran, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.

    Justice Department lawyers asked the court to overturn a decision of the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit that kept in place a freeze on President Trump’s revised ban.

    The government court filing late asks the justices to set aside the 4th Circuit ruling and accept the case for oral arguments.

    It also asks the high court to lift an even broader nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge in a separate Hawaii case.

    A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers Hawaii, heard the government’s arguments in the case last month, but has not yet ruled.

    In its application, Justice Department lawyers said the 4th Circuit should have considered only the language of the executive order and not second-guessed the president’s motivations.

    The Supreme Court “has never invalidated religion-neutral government action based on speculation about officials’ subjective motivations drawn from ­campaign-trail statements by a political candidate,” Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall wrote in the government’s lawyers filing.

    Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores had on Thursday said that the administration is “confident that President Trump’s executive order is well within his lawful authority to keep the nation safe and protect our communities from terrorism.”

  • Macron meets Putin, no fiery handshake, hold talks on Syria, Ukraine

    France’s President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday vowed to improve the strained relations between their countries, while admitting to disagreements during talks at Versailles palace described by Macron as “extremely frank”.

    Their first meeting since Macron took office provided another test of the Frenchman’s diplomatic skills after his memorable first encounter last week with US President Donald Trump that Macron sealed with a vice-like handshake.

    This time the handshake was warmer but the tone guarded after an hour of talks on the 300th anniversary of a visit to Versailles by tsar Peter the Great.

    Putin admitted to some differences of opinion in the talks which covered issues including the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, but insisted that Franco-Russian ties withstood “all points of friction”.

    “We disagree on a number of things but at least we discussed them,” Macron said.

    “Our absolute priority is the fight against terrorism and the eradication of terrorist groups and Daesh in particular,” he said, using an alternate name for the Islamic State group that has claimed several deadly attacks in France.

    – “Organs of propaganda” –

    The newly elected French leader called for a stronger partnership with Russia on Syria, one of the sticking points in relations between the West and Moscow which backs the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

    Macron advocated “a democratic transition that preserves the Syrian state”, warning that “failed states” in the Middle East were a threat to the West.

    But in an apparent warning to Assad and Russia, he said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a “red line” for his presidency and would draw an “immediate response” from France.

    The pair discussed the Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its military involvement in Ukraine as well as allegations of Russian meddling in France’s election campaign.

    Putin declared that the sanctions were “in no way” helping to end the fighting between government forces and Kremlin-backed rebels in Ukraine’s east.

    The Russian strongman, who hosted Macron’s far-right rival Marine Le Pen for talks during the election race, also shrugged off allegations that Russian hackers infiltrated Macron’s campaign.

    “Maybe they were Russian hackers, maybe they were not,” he said, dismissing the claims as unsubstantiated.

    Macron, for his part, expressed anger at reports by pro-Kremlin media during the election questioning his sexuality and links to high finance.

    He took aim at the Russia Today broadcaster and Sputnik agency, calling them “organs of influence and propaganda”.

    – ‘No concessions’ –

    Putin’s visit comes after the 39-year-old French centrist made a successful debut on the world stage last week, holding his own against Trump at a NATO summit in Brussels and at a G7 summit in Italy.

    Ahead of the visit, Macron told a French weekly that he was not “bothered” by leaders who “think in terms of power dynamics”.

    He said he would make “not a single concession” to Russia on the long-running conflict in Ukraine, with he and his G7 counterparts saying they were prepared to strengthen sanctions against Moscow.

    Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2014, Russia has flexed its muscles with a series of war games involving tens of thousands of troops in areas bordering NATO Baltic states.

    Macron said he, Putin and the leaders of Germany and Ukraine would meet soon for talks, “which will allow us to make a complete evaluation of the situation”.

    – Modernising tsar –

    Western powers charge Russia with failing to honour its commitments under the Minsk accords framework for ending the violence in Ukraine.

    France helped spearhead the sanctions, which have seriously dented EU-Russia trade.

    Putin moved quickly after the French election to try to smooth things over, congratulating Macron and urging him to work to overcome their countries’ “mutual distrust”.

    Monday’s visit comes seven months after Putin cancelled a trip to Paris amid a row over Syria with Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande, who had said Russia’s bombing of Aleppo could amount to war crimes.

    In Versailles, he and Macron inaugurated an exhibition marking the visit of Russia’s modernising tsar Peter the Great to France in 1717.

    The fervently pro-Europe Macron said his invitation to Putin aimed to showcase “a Russia which is open to Europe”.

    Putin was also later to visit a new Orthodox cathedral complex in central Paris.

     

     

    Mail Online