ISIS update 8/29/2017..Syria-Lebanon border terrorist-free

Russian airstrikes target ISIS trying to move heavy weaponry to Deir ez-Zor

Official media wing of the National Defence Forces published footage showing a large gathering of Syrian Arab Army’s troops stationed near Al-Sukhnah, a key junction Town in Eastern Homs, which was wrestled from the so-called Islamic state this month… The video showed N.D.F & S.A.A troops in high spirits,towards the end of the video, Russian choppers could be seen conducting sorties close by to beef up moral for Government forces… The Syrian Arab Army eliminated one of the two Isis pockets in central Syria… With only the Eastern Hama enclave left Government forces are now able to regroup for a looming offensive towards Deir ezzor city…

The Syrian Arab Army captured khirbat Tawil al-Bilas, Al-Mushayrifah, Tall al-Qira, and Umm al-Mikbas in Eastern Homs countryside from the so-called Islamic state Terrorist-group…

August 29, 2017: ISIS Defense Collapses In Uqayribat Pocket

Russia deliver tons of aid to Hasaka province

KAFARYA AND FOUA in Idlib BESIEGED BY JAISH AL FATAH SINCE MARCH 2015

Syria-Lebanon border line terrorist-free

The Lebanese army in force at the Syrian border

Lebanon: Defeated ISIS fighters retreat by bus to Syria following controversial truce deal

Convoy of Daesh terrorists reach east Syria

Hezbollah: 2 sides of Lebanon-Syria border now secure

Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Inflicts Heavy Losses on Terrorists

The Syrian army hit hard the terrorists’ military positions, hardware and defense lines in Hama province.

The terrorists in Hama province sustained heavy losses in tough battle with the Syrian army.

The Syrian army also continued its advances in other key provinces across Syria.

Hama

The Syrian Army troops and the Russian Air Force targeted ISIL’s defense lines in Eastern Hama, inflicting major losses on the terrorists on Monday.

The army men engaged in heavy fighting with ISIL in Wadi al-Azib and Salba regions in Eastern Hama, killing a number of militants.

Also, the army’s artillery and missile units shelled heavily ISIL’s movements and positions in the villages of al-Hadaj and Mostariheh Tahmaz in Aqayrabat region, and destroyed several military vehicles.

The Russian and Syrian fighter jets, meanwhile, pounded ISIL’s concentration centers in Salba, Qalib al-Thor regions and in the villages of Hamadeh Omar, Naqba and in the town of Aqayrabat.

Tens of ISIL terrorists were killed or wounded in the attacks.

Homs

The Syrian Army troops drove ISIL out of more hills and heights in a mountainous region in Eastern Homs in their push towards terrorist-held regions in Deir Ezzur on Monday.

The army men captured the hills and heights of Khirbet al-Ba’albas, Moshrefeh Huweises, Khirbet Abu al-Tous and Towileh al-B’albas West of Mount al-Sha’er East of the town of al-Sukhnah along the road to Deir Ezzur.

Field sources said that the army is only 32km away from Homs’ border with Deir Ezzur, adding that ISIL suffered heavy casualties and its military hardware sustained major damage in the attacks.

Reports said earlier on Monday that the army soldiers imposed full control over Kasrah Faraj, Tal al-Akram, Wadi al-Walij and Wadi Najib regions East of al-Qawaha along the road connecting the town of al-Sukhnah to Deir Ezzur province.

Also, the army units drove ISIL out of Tal (hill) al-Etesalat 30km East of al-Sukhnah.

Field reports said that fierce clashes are underway between the army men and ISIL around Qasr al-Hayer Sharqi, North of Humeimeh region, hills of al-Sha’er mountain and Huweises region in Eastern Homs.

Deir Ezzur

Seven terrorists were killed and several more were wounded in a fresh round of clashes among ISIL members in Albu Kamal region in Southeastern Deir Ezzur on Monday.

Infighting erupted among ISIL terrorists, mostly from Africa and Saudi Arabia, in the town of al-Salehiyeh in terrorist-held Albu Kamal region, leaving seven militants dead and several more wounded.

In the meantime, dead bodies of two non-Syrian members of ISIL were found in an old garage in the town of al-Mayadeen in Eastern Deir Ezzur.

Local sources reported that Majed Suleiman nom de guerre Abu Fatimeh Shanan and another ISIL commander have escaped from Deir Ezzur as a growing number of terrorist leaders are fleeing the region after the rapid advances of the Syrian Army troops in Homs, Hama and Raqqa provinces that are all moving towards Deir Ezzur.

Reports said earlier on Monday that the army’s artillery and missile units along with the Russian Air Force targeted ISIL’s positions in the Eastern city of Deir Ezzur on Monday, destroying a bomb-making workshop of the terrorists.

The artillery and missile units opened heavy fire at ISIL’s positions and destroyed their bomb-making workshop near al-Tamo’ein square, killing the commander in charge of the workshop Abu Abdullah Tunisi and 12 others.

The Syrian and Russian fighter jets, meanwhile, carried out several rounds of combat flights over ISIL’s positions in Panorama farms, al-Omal neighborhood, old airport, Kasarat neighborhood and the village of Ma’adan Atiq in Southern outskirts of Deir Ezzur, killing a number of terrorists and destroying military hardware.

Sweida

The Syrian Army troops engaged in fierce clashes with a group of terrorists in Northwestern Sweida and managed to repel their offensive after inflicting heavy casualties on the militants.

The army units clashed fiercely with a group of terrorists and warded off their attack on the strongholds of pro-government forces in al-Dowar region from Northeastern Dara’a.

The terrorist group left behind a number of dead and injured members and retreated.

Is Hezbollah stronger after its involvement in Syria?

Israel Threatens To Bomb Assad’s Presidential Palace | Zero Hedge

More information has emerged from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s meeting with President Putin last week. The two met in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on August 23rd to discuss recent developments in Syria. According to new shocking reports in both Arab and Israeli media, a senior Israeli official accompanying Netanyahu on the trip threatened to assassinate Syrian President Assad by bombing his palace in Damascus, while further adding that Israel will seek to derail the US-Russia brokered de-escalation deal reached in Astana, Kazakhstan earlier this summer.

According to the Jerusalem Post:

A senior Israeli official warned the Russian government that if Iran continues to extend its reach in Syria, Israel will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus, according to reports in Arab media.

Israel also warned that if serious changes do not happen in the region, Israel will make sure the ceasefire deal, reached by the United States and Russia in Astana, Kazakhstan, will be nullified.

A senior Israeli source told the Al-Jadida newspaper that no understanding was reached between the Israelis and the Russians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did, however, make it clear to Putin that its concerns must be met or Israel will be forced to act.

The warnings occurred in a meeting between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.

As we noted at the time, Netanyahu’s brazen words to Putin that ‘preventative’ escalation in Syria to destroy what Israeli defense officials commonly call the “Iranian land bridge” (or the so-called ‘Shia crescent’) reveals increased desperation as even the West is now seeming to ignore Netanyahu’s repeatedly declared “red lines”. While Netanyahu’s public statements in Sochi were provocative enough – openly threatening direct military escalation in Syria should his demand for Iranian forces withdrawal not be met – the newly revealed threat of assassinating the sitting head of a sovereign U.N. member state takes the war of words to a whole new level.

The Israeli Prime Minister also shared intelligence with Putin which purports to reveal Iranian plans for long-term presence in Syria. It appears Netanyahu is now making his case before world media, with new BBC and other international headlines reading, “Iran building missile factories in Syria and Lebanon: Netanyahu”.

The Jerusalem Post details exactly which officials accompanied Netanyahu in Russia:

The prime minister, accompanied by Mossad head Yossi Cohen, the newly appointed head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, and Likud minister Ze’ev Elkin who served as his translator, flew to Sochi on the Black Sea for the meeting, returning to Israel shortly after it ended.

We further explained that Israel has long been at open war with Syria, in spite of the fact that both Israeli officials and international media rarely acknowledge it. In 2013 Israel launched a massive missile attack against a Syrian defense technology facility in Jamraya outside of Damascus. And yet more brazen was the 2016 attack targeting Damascus International Airport, which killed a well-known Hezbollah commander. In a significant admission earlier this month, the head of Israel’s air force acknowledged nearly one hundred IDF attacks on convoys inside Syria over the course of the past 5 years.

Netanyahu himself was recently caught on a hot mic bragging that Israel had struck Syrian targets at least “a dozen times”. And this is to say nothing of Israel’s covert support to al-Qaeda linked groups in Syria’s south, which has reportedly involved weapons transfers and treatment of wounded jihadists in Israeli hospitals, the latter which was widely promoted in photo ops involving Netanyahu himself. As even former Acting Director of the CIA Michael Morell once directly told the Israeli public, Israel’s “dangerous game” in Syria consists in getting in bed with al-Qaeda in order to fight Shia Iran.

While Israel has for years played more of a quiet ‘long game’ in Syria outside the media spotlight: providing tacit support to al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria along its Golan border (in Netanyahu’s words to Putin: Israel prefers the “Sunni sphere” over “bringing in Shi’ites” which reflects a disturbing widely held view among Israeli officials that ISIS is the ‘lesser evil’) as well semi-regularly bombing select targets, its increased willingness to loudly and unreservedly voice its intentions to the world is the result new realities it appears unprepared to accept.

What new realities in the region are now pushing Israeli officials to incautiously leak threats of Assad’s assassination to the Arab press?

First, the Syrian government and its allies Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah are winning the war. In Israel’s thinking the Astana agreement potentially means Iranian presence will now be backed by Russian air power. It also appears that in the United States’ backing of ‘de-escalation zones’ which necessarily involves Iranian enforcement, the US is giving tacit approval to Iranian troop presence in Syria. This is Israel’s worst nightmare: it invested so heavily in toppling Assad in the first place in order to roll back what it claims is ‘Iranian and pro-Shia expansion’ in the region.

Secondly, the US has essentially signaled to Israel: you are on your own when it comes to Syria policy. Trump shut down the CIA program to topple Assad – a program which had the assistance of Israeli intelligence. Other world leaders like France’s Macron have further stated that Assad is here to say for the near future.

Third, Hezbollah has just finished wiping up ISIS on the Lebanese-Syrian border and now appears more confident than ever. Israel went all in with the Sunni insurgency fighting Assad as that insurgency also threatened the existence of Hezbollah, which Israeli defense officials understand to be the most formidable foe right across Israel’s border. On Monday Hezbollah General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah declared August 28 as Lebanon’s “Second Day of Liberation” in a televised address celebrating Lebanon’s military victory over ISIS in the country’s northeast. As we reported recently, it’s an ‘open secret’ that US special forces advisers are indirectly coordinating with Hezbollah through the Lebanese Army, though politically sensitive as Lebanon depends heavily on US military aid.

And finally, Israel senses that international opinion is shifting quickly now that ISIS is rapidly folding. It knows that world opinion will not stomach another Iraq style invasion for regime change in the Middle East. And yet such a prospect of regime change in Syria is now all the more difficult as Russian air defenses are so deeply entrenched. Israel now finds itself isolated and Netanyahu’s brazenness stems from this realization. His screams grow louder from a position of weakness.

Now, the only question that remains is: on the remote chance that Israel does escalate militarily in Syria, what will Russia let it get away with?

1000s of Syrian refugees return home from Turkey to celebrate Eid al-Adha

Iraqi forces uncover ISIL torture cells in Tal Afar

Iraqi forces and Shiite militias who recently reclaimed Tal Afar after a rapid Islamic State collapse say they are clearing up thousands of explosives the militants have left behind. VOA’s Kawa Omar visited the town.

The Iraqi Air Forces attacking Islamic state troops and vehicles columns that two days ago were in full retreat from the strategic city of Tal-Afar in Nineveh province…
The footage is captured straight from the gun cameras if the Iraqi attack Helicopters, and shows them using guided missiles against Isis vehicles and troops concentrations…
The video above is linked to an interdiction operation by the IQ.A.F that is reported to have resulted in the death of 180 Isis militants as well as the destruction of sixty transport vehicles and technicals belonging to the so-called Islamic state Terrorist-group…
Tal-Afar was officially liberated from the Isis yesterday after one week of clashes for the city between the Jihadist faction and the Iraqi Armed forces…

Iraq: ISIL Terrorists Attempting Hard Not to Lose Tal Afar Battle

The Iraqi pro-government forces have liberated the entire neighborhoods of Tal Afar city in Northwestern Nineveh in 10 days of operation in the region, field sources said Tuesday, adding that the terrorist group is trying hard to slow down the army’s devastating advances towards North.

The sources said that the Iraqi forces continued their advances toward al-Ayaziyeh region in the Northern countryside of Tal Afar from two flanks and managed to seize control over the villages of al-Alouliyeh, Khoiteleh, Kasir, al-Harouniyeh East of the town of al-Ayaziyeh and the regions of Ibrahim Tal (hill) Washi, Tal Miram anmd Tal Mazar West of the town.

In the meantime, the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news reported that the Iraqi police, army and the country’s popular forces of Hashd al-Shaabi have stormed ISIL’s positions in the town of al-Ayaziyeh after liberating its surrounding farms.

Also, a military field source said that the remaining pockets of ISIL have escaped from Tal Afar to al-Ayaziyeh, adding that fierce clashes are underway in the region.

The sources said that ISIL’s snipers, suicide attackers and planted bombs and landmines along the roads to al-Ayaziyeh have slowed down the army’s advances in the battlefield.

Relevant reports said on Sunday that the Iraqi soldiers and Hashd al-Shaabi pushed ISIL back from al-Sana’yeh al-Shamaliyeh region and al-Askari neighborhood.

The commander of Qademoun Ya Nineveh announced that ISIL has just kept control over al-Ayaziyeh region and its nearby villages, adding that the army is advancing towards al-Ayaziyeh.

The army men and Hashd al-Shaabi combatants had earlier freed al-Mo’arez and Tal Afar Bawabah regions and the village of al-Rahmah.    

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