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Big Christmas Gifts For Syria – Alloush Killed, Yarmouk Cleared
Today the Syrian airforce used air delivered missiles on buildings where a meeting of Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) leaders and others tool place and killed its leader Zahran Alloush, several of his lieutenants and some leading personal from Ahrar al-Shams, Failaq al Rahman, another anti-government Salafist group, and Jabhat al-Nusra.
Alloush, here a video of him preaching, was an extremely sectarian man. He called for the "cleansing" of all Alawite and Shia from Syria and he put Alawite women into cages on marketplaces to use them as human shields against government attacks. He praised Osama Bin Laden. Two Years ago Joshua Landis provided a profile of Alloush with some translation of his speeches.
Alloush had many enemies. Unlike other "moderates" he fought not only against the government. When challenged by ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra or any local competition he fought them too. In the eyes of some Gulf propagandists that made him a "moderate". But his ideologically positions were nearly identical to those of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda. His pasture was the Ghouta area, east of Damascus and he had about 12,000 troops under his command. The Saudis and the Turks payed him and his men.
That the meeting could be targeted is great success for the Syrian and Russian intelligence.
In another success today some 2,000 Islamic State followers and their immediate families left Yarmouk after a deal with the government. Yarmouk is a large Palestinian quarter in Damascus. The men were allowed to leave to east Syria where the Islamic State rules. Heavy weapons were collected by the government and the Syrian army will take control of Yarmouk and two nearby quarters.
These are two very big Christmas gifts Syria received today. While Alloush will be replaced, his "army" is likely to fall apart under any less brutal and charismatic leader. Yarmouk will likely stay pacified for the foreseeable future.
@Grieved@94
[…] I expect Russia over the next few years to continue to lace the world with renewed laws and affirmations of the rule of law. The US will ignore, and the cynics will sneer – for a time. The day will come, around 2020, when Russian military might is where it aims to be. On that day, Putin will have both the good argument AND the Smith & Wesson that the old saw says makes for the best persuasion. And finally the cynics and those currently in despair will get it […]
I wonder if you saw this,
Mighty missiles: Russian Tor-M2U SAM fires from moving launcher (RARE VIDEO)
The Russian Defense Ministry has released rare footage of a Tor-M2U surface-to-air missile launcher firing on the move, a feat as yet unachieved by any competitor.
The launcher was driving off-road at 25 kpm/h and successfully hit a Saman practice target with the first missile fired, the ministry said. The test was performed this summer at Kapustin Yar test range in Arkhangelsk region […]
[…] The capability to fire on the move is what distinguishes the M2U modification of the Tor. The benefit is that it can respond to a surprise attack and that a moving column doesn’t need to stop to get protection, as was the case with the previous models.
Producer of the system, Almaz Antey, said at the time that teaching the old dog the new trick was challenging, but the result brings Tors to a new tactical level […]
and this,
Russia Creates Secretive New Missile for Iskander-M System
Russia’s defense industry recently announced the creation of a new missile. According to military expert Igor Korotchenko, the announcement was careful to conceal the new missile’s specifications.
Russia’s new missile for the Iskander-M launcher, said to have been completed on Friday, has some secret characteristics, weapons expert Igor Korotchenko told Sputnik.
“The Ministry of Defense and the industrial enterprises are not disclosing the tactical and technical characteristics. This is so that a potential opponent would not take counter-measures,” Korotchenko said.
According to Korotchenko, the two main factors behind the development of a new missile are the precision of the strike and the ability to maneuver against anti-air and anti-missile defenses […]
[…]Russia is not trying to win wars. Russia is building peace. It’s a significantly different effort, and it even looks different. It fools a lot of people who look for explosions as the indication that things are moving. I love a good explosion myself. But above all I admire the unparalleled diplomacy we’re seeing nowadays. Those old Taoists, the Chinese, must surely admire it too. Who knew that something so silent and well dressed could move mountains?
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
I’d like to share two more articles you might have come across with, but if not, I am sure you’ll appreciate them. Relatively long, but worth your time reading them.
Why the West Can Never Defeat or “Forgive” Russia
Historically and intuitively, Russia has fought for the survival of humanity. Of course, things are not always pronounced or defined in such terms. However, already on several occasions, this enormous country has stood up against the most mighty and evil forces that have threatened the very survival of our Planet.
During the Second World War, the Soviet people, mainly Russians, sacrificed at least 25 million men, women and children, in the end defeating Nazism. No other country in modern history has undergone more.
Right after that victory, Russia, alongside China and later Cuba, embarked on the most awesome and noble project of all times: the systematic dismantling of Western colonialism. All over the world oppressed masses stood up against European and North American imperialist barbarity, and it was the Soviet Union that was ready to give them a beacon of hope, as well as substantial financial, ideological and military support.
As one oppressed and ruined nation after another was gaining independence, hatred against the Soviet Union and the Russian people was growing in virtually all the capitals of the Western world. After all, the looting of non-white continents was considered a natural right of the “civilized world”.
In the USA and Europe, such words as “colonialism” and “imperialism” were rapidly gaining extremely negative connotations, or at least on the surface. It would have been counter-productive to attack, to demonize the Soviet Union for supporting liberation struggles in all those continents. Instead, elaborate theories about the “Evil Empire” were erected.
Russia has always been “ in the way”; a colossal country spoiling the brutal plans of Washington, Berlin, London and Paris – plans to control and plunder the entire planet.
But the nobler were its deeds; the more insulting the attacks against it […]
Hounding the Bear: Hybrid Methodology of Containing Russia
Bear-hounding is a hunting technique, in which a pack of dogs pursues a bear until exhaustion—at that point the hunter can make his kill. And that is to what Karen Shakhnazarov, a well-known Russian filmmaker of Armenian origin, compared Russia’s predicament in the current geopolitical situation.
The bear analogy in Russia’s case is a contrived and, often, derogatory image describing the barbaric Other outside the West. It has deep historic roots, as literary and artistic examples indicate. But it is also one that works metaphorically. As a large continental power spanning Eurasia including some of the coldest places on earth—one with nuclear capabilities—Russia is not unlike the bear. In fact, many Russians themselves have reappropriated this comparison […]
I truly envy your prose. I wish I could express myself with such power as well as so much beauty.
Posted by: Lone Wolf | Dec 27 2015 2:43 utc | 107
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