ISIS update 9/13/2017..Russia says 85% of Syrian territories won back

September 13, 2017: Army Prepares To Cross Euphrates River

Russia: 85% of Syrian territories won back

After Deir ez-Zor Oil will be Taken from Militants

Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Repels Al-Nusra Front’s Attacks on Gov’t Positions in Aleppo

The Syrian army soldiers repelled terrorists’ attack on their positions in Aleppo province after hours of clashes, inflicting major losses on them.

The Al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay’at or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorists’ attacks to capture the government forces’ positions in Southern Aleppo city were fended off by the strong defense of the Syrian military men.

Meantime, the Syrian army and popular forces continued their military advances in other parts of Syria, including Homs and Hama, over the past 24 hours.

Tens of terrorists were killed and dozens more were injured during the Syrian army’s operations in other provinces across Syria.

Aleppo

The Syrian army warded off an attack by Al-Nusra Front on government positions South of Aleppo, inflicting heavy losses on the terrorists.

The army units clashed with a group of Al-Nusra terrorists who were trying to penetrate from their positions in Kafr Aibash to the Syrian army’s military positions in Jurreh al-Jahash in Southern Aleppo.

The Syrian troops managed to push back the Al-Nusra terrorists after killing and injuring many of them as well as destroying their military vehicles and equipment.

Deir Ezzur

The Russian military group’s Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Alexander Lapin, told reporters on Tuesday the Syrian troops are completing the defeat of the ISIL which blocked Deir Ezzur’s Northern and Southern neighborhoods.

“At the moment the operation to liberate the city continues. The Syrian troops are completing the defeat of the ISIL group which blocked Deir Ezzur’s Northern and Southern neighborhoods,” Lapin said.

He recalled that the city of Deir Ezzur, which used to be besieged by terrorists for more than three years, was unblocked by Syrian troops under the command of General Hassan Suhel on September 5.

“The Kalibr cruise missiles launched from the Admiral Essen patrol ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet have destroyed militant command posts and communication hubs, which made it possible to disrupt the management of ISIL units in this area,” the general stressed.

According to Lapin, while developing the offensive, the assault force of General Zahreddine’s Republican Guard unblocked the military airfield where over 1,000 servicemen were surrounded for ten months.

“More than 450 militants, five tanks and 42 pickup trucks with installed large-caliber machine guns were wiped out during the operation. Units of the 5th assault corps advancing from Palmyra through al-Sukhneh entered the city from the southern direction,” he emphasized.

Homs

The Syrian army continued its military operations against ISIL in the Eastern outskirts of Homs and came close to imposing full control over the entire region.

The army units intensified their military operations against ISIL in Eastern Homs and advanced further East of Sha’er Mountain and took control of several points.

The Syrian army also regained control over several regions North and West of Balas mountains in Eastern Homs.

The army troops killed several ISIL terrorists in the operation and destroyed their military positions and equipment.

Hama

The Syrian army continued its military operations in Eastern Hama, and took control of a strategic village there.

The army units took control of Masoud village in Eastern Hama from the ISIL after several hours of clashes with the terrorists.

A military source disclosed that the ISIL terrorists had fled to Masoud village after the Syrian army liberated the town of Aqayrbat. The source noted that heavy clashes are currently underway in Eastern Hama, saying that the army troops killed several terrorists and destroyed their military vehicles as well as ammunition.

The Syrian and Russian fighter jets, meantime, heavily pounded ISIL’s military positions and movements in the al-Hardaneh village and the depth of Eastern Badiyeh (desert), killing tens of terrorists and destroying their military vehicles.

Meantime, the Russian military group’s chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Alexander Lapin, told the media on Tuesday Russian air strikes in Syria destroyed nearly 180 facilities of terrorists’ infrastructures near Aqayrbat on Monday to support advancing Syrian government troops.

“On Monday alone Russian planes flew more than 50 sorties near Aqayrbat to wipe out nearly 180 terrorist targets – terrorists’ pockets of resistance and strongholds, underground shelters, command centers, terrorists groups, artillery positions and ammunition depots and fuel and lubricants warehouses,” Lapin said.

He recalled that in central Syria government forces had gained control of the city of Aqayrbat – a strategic transport node the terrorists had turned into a major stronghold.

“The last remaining loopholes for delivering ammunition and materiel to the terrorists have been plugged. The Syrian army is pushing ahead with security sweeps to clear the areas west and north of Akerbat of terrorists. The terrorist groups still offer strong resistance despite the heavy losses they have sustained,” Lapin added.

Over the past week of heavy fighting the Syrian army has retaken another eight localities to split the group of militants near Aqayrbat and complete its defeat piece by piece.

“Russian planes support the advancing Syrian troops round the clock by conducting reconnaissance and destroying terrorists’ manpower and materiel and also warehouses containing ammunition and other supplies,” Lapin stressed.

Liberating Deir ez-Zor: Civilians & chief commander recall ISIS-attack & 3-year siege

Bombshell Report Catches Pentagon Falsifying Paperwork For Weapons Transfers To Syrian Rebels | Zero Hedge

A new bombshell joint report issued by two international weapons monitoring groups Tuesday confirms that the Pentagon continues to ship record breaking amounts of weaponry into Syria and that the Department of Defense is scrubbing its own paper trail. On Tuesday the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) produced conclusive evidence that not only is the Pentagon currently involved in shipping up to $2.2 billion worth of weapons from a shady network of private dealers to allied partners in Syria – mostly old Soviet weaponry – but is actually manipulating paperwork such as end-user certificates, presumably in order to hide US involvement.

The OCCRP and BIRN published internal US defense procurement files after an extensive investigation which found that the Pentagon is running a massive weapons trafficking pipeline which originates in the Balkans and Caucuses, and ends in Syria and Iraq. The program is ostensibly part of the US train, equip, and assist campaign for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a coalition of YPG/J and Arab FSA groups operating primarily in Syria’s east). The arms transfers are massive and the program looks to continue for years. According to Foreign Policy’s (FP) coverage of the report:

The Department of Defense has budgeted $584 million specifically for this Syrian operation for the financial years 2017 and 2018, and has earmarked another $900 million of spending on Soviet-style munitions between now and 2022. The total, $2.2 billion, likely understates the flow of weapons to Syrian rebels in the coming years.

But perhaps more shocking is the following admission that Pentagon suppliers have links with known criminal networks, also from FP:

According to the report, many of the weapons suppliers — primarily in Eastern Europe but also in the former Soviet republics, including Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Ukraine — have both links to organized crime throughout Eastern Europe and spotty business records.

The sheer amount of material necessary for the Pentagon program — one ammunition factory announced it planned to hire 1,000 new employees in 2016 to help cope with the demand — has reportedly stretched suppliers to the limit, forcing the Defense Department to relax standards on the materials it’s willing to accept.

It is likely that the organized crime association is the reason why the Pentagon has sought to alter its records. In addition, the sheer volume of weaponry continuing to ship to the Syrian battlefield and other parts of the Middle East means inevitable proliferation among unsavory terror groups – a phenomenon which has already been exhaustively documented in connection with the now reportedly closed CIA program to topple the Syrian government. The associations and alliances among some of the Arab former FSA groups the DoD continues to support in the north and east remains fluid, which means means US-supplied weapons will continue to pass among groups with no accountability for where they end up.

One of the authors of the OCCRP/BIRN report, Ivan Angelovski, told Foreign Policy that, “The Pentagon is removing any evidence in their procurement records that weapons are actually going to the Syrian opposition.” The report is based on internal US government memos which reveal that weapons shipment destination locations have been scrubbed from original documents.

Balkan Insight, which is hosting the original investigative report: “Seven US procurement documents were whitewashed to remove reference to ‘Syria’ after reporters contacted the Pentagon to enquire about whether the exporting countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia – had been informed of the destination.”

The fact that Foreign Policy, which is the foremost establishment national security publication in the world, would admit that the Pentagon’s Syria weapons procurement program is tied to East European organized crime is itself hugely significant. At this point the evidence is simply so overwhelming that even establishment sources like FP – which itself has generally been pro-interventionist on Syria – can’t deny it.

FP further reports that the Pentagon program “appears to be turbocharging a shadowy world of Eastern European arms dealers.” And adds further that, “the Pentagon is reportedly removing documentary evidence about just who will ultimately be using the weapons, potentially weakening one of the bulwarks of international protocols against illicit arms dealing.”

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Map/Infographic produced as part of the OCCRP/BIRN report, itself confirmed by Foreign Policy magazine. Notice the map denotes that prior CIA weapons went directly to Idlib province (northwest, section in green) and the Golan border region (south). Both of these areas were and continue to be occupied by al-Qaeda (in Idlib, AQ’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham). In Idlib specifically, analysts have confirmed genocidal cleansing of religious minorities conducted by AQ “rebels” directly assisted by CIA weapons.

Late last month we featured the story of Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, who was fired from her job after being interrogated by national intelligence officials for exposing the same Pentagon arms network which is the subject of the latest OCCRP/BIRN investigation. At the time, Al Jazeera was the only major international outlet which covered the story, which confirmed that Bulgarian agents interrogated Gaytandzhieva and “tried to find out her sources.” An anonymous source had leaked a large trove of internal government files connected to the arms trafficking to the East European-based Trud Newspaper journalist, which was the basis of her reporting. The newest investigation released Tuesday appears to include some of the same documents, also confirmed by Gayandzhieva.

Read the full OCCRP/BIRN investigation here.

Read Zero Hedge’s original coverage of the Pentagon’s Balkan arms pipeline here.

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