While nobody was looking, the Islamic State launched a new, deadly offensive

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GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Syrian rebels appealed for U.S. airstrikes to counter a new offensive by the Islamic State in the northern province of Aleppo that could reshape the battlefield in Syria.

The surprise assault, launched over the weekend, opened a new front in the multi-pronged war being waged by the extremist group across Iraq and Syria, and it underscored the Islamic State’s capacity to catch its enemies off guard.

The push — which came on the heels of the miltants’ capture of the Syrian city of Palmyra and the western Iraqi city of Ramadi late last month — took them within reach of the strategically vital town of Azaz on the Turkish border.

The offensive reinforces the impression that the Islamic State is regaining momentum despite more than eight months of U.S. led-airstrikes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/islamic-state-militants-open-major-new-offensive-in-aleppo/2015/06/01/9b834f64-085c-11e5-951e-8e15090d64ae_story.html

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1. Syrian Army General Ghassan on the war against Nusra: 'They cut off his head in Idlib and sent a vid

Above us, white clouds graze the top of Tel Moussa, 9,400 feet of red rock above foothills of granite and valleys of innocent cherry orchards.

Colonel Median of the Syrian Army’s 3rd Armoured Division stands on the dry, cold earth below, sun-shades above his stubble beard; he does not know the identity of the ancient Moussa who blessed this mountain with his name, but he knows how to curse him. “If I could catch him, I would hang him because he is the source of torture for me and many of my men.”

Across the gaunt peaks and caves of the Qalamoun range east of the Lebanese border, a kind of victory has been celebrated by the Syrian army after the sudden collapse of Palmyra to the “Islamic State”, a loss which – as they both admit freely — deeply shocked Median and his senior officer, General Ghassan.

Months of fighting west of the town of Yabroud have freed a 25-mile front from the Nusra Islamists right up to the Lebanese frontier, and Ghassan’s 130-mm artillery are now dug in on the Syrian side of the border, scarcely 12 miles from the Lebanese city of Baalbek.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/syrian-army-general-ghassan-on-the-war-against-nusra-they-cut-off-his-head-in-idlib-and-sent-a-video-to-his-brother-31270278.html

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2. Iran militia: 50,000 troops needed to save Assad

BEIRUT – An influential Iranian militant group thought to be close to the country’s rulers has called for tens of thousands of infantrymen to be sent to Syria, according to a report by Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya.

“Iran must send 50,000 soldiers from the infantry force to Syria to manage the war there and prevent the fall of the Assad regime, which has begun to collapse recently,” Al-Arabiya reported, citing a study on Iran’s management of the war in Syria conducted by Ansar e-Hezbollah.

According to the cited study, the mission of the 50,000 soldiers would be to ensure Syria’s coastal region is not cut off from Damascus.

“Iran must preserve the vital corridor [connecting] Damascus to Latakia, Tartous and the Lebanese border.”

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/565367-iran-militia-50000-troops-needed-to-save-assad

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3. Iraq allies, including US, to enable arms supply against IS

PARIS (AP) -- A senior U.S. diplomat says the coalition of countries arrayed against Islamic State extremists will make it easier to get weapons to the Iraqi soldiers that need them.

Speaking at an international conference in Paris on the fight against the radical Sunni group, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said Iraq was putting the plan into place.

The U.S. is shipping anti-tank rockets to Iraqi forces to use against suicide truck bombs.

Earlier, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told journalists his forces needed weapons from Iran and Russia, but were hampered by international sanctions against those two countries.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ISLAMIC_STATE_DIPLOMACY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-02-09-11-46

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4. . nt

[Jesus Malverde]

6. Plenty of video on live leak of jihadists armed with US made Tow missiles...nt

[Jesus Malverde]

5. Discusting war...nt

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7. Real war, not fake theatrical political war, but real war.

Real war is ugly, very ugly, and any war becomes a real war if the killing goes on for very long. That's what the big shots always forget, they think they can keep things under control, but it always descends into chaotic violence instead.

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8. Iraq, Iran fighters deployed to defend Damascus: security source

BEIRUT: Thousands of Iranian and Iraqi fighters have been deployed in Syria in past weeks to bolster the defenses of Damascus and its surroundings, a Syrian security source told AFP Wednesday.

"Around 7,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters have arrived in Syria over the past few weeks and their first priority is the defense of the capital. The larger contingent is Iraqi," the source said on condition of anonymity.

"The goal is to reach 10,000 men to support the Syrian army and pro-government militias, firstly in Damascus, and then to retake Jisr al-Shughur because it is key to the Mediterranean coast and the Hama region" in central Syria, he added.

Syria's government lost control of Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province on April 25, as a coalition of opposition forces including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front swept through the region.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Jun-03/300429-iraq-iran-fighters-deployed-to-defend-damascus-security-source.ashx

[Jefferson23]

9. EXCLUSIVE: Islamic State militants re-emerge in southern Syria

Local armed opposition fighters say they are still in control of their only north-south supply line after Islamic State (IS) militants unleashed a dawn attack in Lajat, northeast of Daraa in southern Syria, on Tuesday.

The attack was IS’s second offensive in southern Syria in six weeks. Following the group’s usual pattern, a suicide car bomb went off at a checkpoint manned by the FSA’s Al Omari Brigade, killing three opposition fighters. IS militants then cut off the main road in the northern Lajat area, disrupting the FSA’s supply line to the entire Lajat area.

After a day of heavy fighting involving several factions of the Free Syrian Army opposition group and around 200 IS militants, rebel commanders tell Middle East Eye the area is calm – for now.

In a special statement prepared for Middle East Eye, Abu al-Walid, spokesman for the Al Omari Brigade, said: “Da’esh [an Arabic acronym for IS] is claiming that they stormed Lajat with forces from outside the area, but this isn’t so. It was a Da’esh sleeper cell that cut off the road and cut off some areas in the north of Lajat, in an attempt to distract the FSA in Daraa, which was preparing to fight for control of [Syrian Arab Army] Brigade 52 in the countryside of Daraa.”

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-islamic-state-militants-re-emerge-southern-syria-986014703#sthash.hJAoN2f7.dpuf

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10. Daesh seems to be going after the Syrian opposition forces now.

Seeking to consolidate control in the vacuum the government is leaving behind as it consolidates too.

[Jefferson23]

11. Their rage keeps keeping on...what a nightmare. n/t

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12. Gun-Running Report Shakes Turkey

Even by current standards, the Turkish government's reaction to the publication of leaked video footage that purports to show the country's intelligence agency running weapons into Syria, is extreme.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has intervened personally in the case. He called the report by Cumhuriyet -- a secularist daily with a circulation of about 50,000 -- an act of espionage and said the author would "pay a heavy price for this." He then filed a complaint with prosecutors, demanding that the writer Can Dundar (also the daily's editor-in-chief), be charged with a range of crimes that carry maximum sentences of life in prison plus an additional 42 years in jail.

Admittedly, the government has been suppressing Turkish media freedoms for years. And on Tuesday, Erdogan told state television that the New York Times, the BBC and CNN were operating as tools in a foreign plot managed by a "superior mind." They have been trying to split and weaken Turkey for at least a century, he said, since the Times cheered attempts to strip the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, of some of his powers. Enough said.

Even so, asking for multiple life sentences for publishing footage whose authenticity can't be verified but also hasn't been clearly denied by the government, and which concerns an event confirmed by the prosecutor and police who stopped the trucks in January last year, is extreme.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-03/gun-running-report-shakes-turkey

[Jefferson23]

18. Yikes..what superior mind would that be?

You can't make this stuff up.

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19. When they start wild blathering like that, watch out.

He has a lot on the line in this next election, and his past excesses have come back to haunt him. I was commenting to Dave (King_David) how much he reminds me of Netanyahu.

[Jefferson23]

20. Yea, the lack of self control, thinking that anything will work and no consequences will erupt

due to your stupidity.

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13. Commentary: Dude, Where’s My Humvee?

Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran the northern city of Mosul in June 2014, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sunday in an interview with Iraqiya state television. Coupled with previous losses of American weapons, the conclusion is simple: The United States is effectively supplying Islamic State with tools of war the militant group cannot otherwise hope to acquire from its patrons.

In addition to the Humvees, Iraqi forces previously abandoned significant types and numbers of heavy weapons to Islamic State. For example, losses to Islamic State include at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, as well as small arms and ammunition, including 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems.

“We lost a lot of weapons,” Abadi admitted.

To help replenish Iraq’s motor pool, the US State Department last year approved a sale to Iraq of 1,000 Humvees, along with their armor upgrades, machine guns and grenade launchers. The United States previously donated 250 Mine Resistant Armored Personnel carriers (MRAPs) to Iraq, plus unaccountable amounts of material left behind when American forces departed in 2011. The United States is currently in the process of moving to Iraq 175 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, 55,000 rounds of main tank-gun ammunition, $600 million in howitzers and trucks, $700 million worth of Hellfire missiles and 2,000 AT-4 rockets.

http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/opinion/commentary-dude-wheres-humvee/

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14. ISIS Forces That Now Control Ramadi Are Ex-Baathist Saddam Loyalists

The fall of Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, to the Islamic State last month has frayed nerves in Washington, but what few appear to grasp is that ISIS’s May offensive has given Ramadi back to its former owners — the ex-Baathist Sunni terrorists known as the Former Regime Loyalists. The FRLs, as they’re called, were Saddam Hussein’s most ardent followers, the same fighters whom the United States fought non-stop for eight years. Their resurgence has implications not just for the United States but for ISIS itself. For while these forces may fly the ISIS flag today, their ultimate plans for Iraq are quite different than those of the “caliphate.”

ISIS’s roots in Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party are deep — many of the group’s most devoted commanders, advisers and fighters started out as Baathists. The ex-Baathists essentially run ISIS, and their past is evident in the tactics they are using now.

After the 1963 coup that first gave the Baathists a share of power in Iraq’s government, Saddam became head of the secret Jehaz Al-Khass, or Special Branch, and collected meticulous dossiers on friends and enemies alike. Saddam used these dossiers to carry out a political putsch in the mid-sixties, as well as the bloodless 1968 coup that brought his party to full control of Iraq. From 1968 until 2003, Baathists controlled every aspect of Iraqi life and generalized the surveillance techniques that Saddam had used so effectively in his rise to power.

The Baath government amassed millions of personal records and forced its citizens to spy on family and friends for Saddam’s intelligence agencies. Those agencies, staffed almost exclusively by Sunnis, were masters at collecting and using the most intimate details of the lives of individual Iraqis. Stasi-level minutiae about family structure, births, deaths, relations and the aspirations of everyone who lived under the regime were documented and filed. The regime then used all its information to compel compliance, the alternative to which was death. After the invasion, the Baathists held the key to the human terrain of Iraq. All of these Saddamist traditions have been carried on by his disciples in ISIS.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/06/03/isis-forces-exbaathist-saddam-loyalists/

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15. Analysis: With Syria crumbling, Israel's security situation has never been better

Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan said Tuesday that Israel's security situation on the northern border has improved as a result of the Syrian civil war, which has served to drain the blood of Hezbollah.

On the surface, these appear to be trivial remarks, which have been repeated by military experts and analysts over the past several years. But to hear them from such a senior military authority is refreshingly new.

As far as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minsiter Moshe Ya'alon are concerned, these comments verge on heresy. If our security situation has improved, does the IDF really need additions to its budget? And what about the approach taken by Netanyahu, who continues to warn, on every possible occasion, of the threat of Iran, Hezbollah, and Islamic State?

Indeed, Israel's strategic situation has never been better. Arab states that were once armed to the teeth, such as Libya and Iraq, have fallen apart. Egypt is a military and intelligence ally of Israel in its fight against Hamas the Sinai terror threat.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Analysis-With-Syria-crumbling-Israels-security-situation-has-never-been-better-404909

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16. US sees drawn-out fight vs Islamic State amid claim of Assad-IS collaboration

A US-led coalition united against the Islamic State met in Paris this week against the backdrop of militant victories in Iraq and Syria that underscore the coalition's struggles to get ahead on a constantly shifting battlefront.

The coalition of mostly Middle Eastern and European nations has carried out airstrikes, supported ground operations, and shared intelligence in an bid to halt the self-described Islamic State. IS continues to gain ground in Iraq and Syria, however, most recently with the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s Anbar Province, and Palmyra, a World Heritage site strategically placed in Syria.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for more international help. “There is a lot of talk of support for Iraq. There is very little on the ground,” Mr. Abadi said at the meeting, saying the terrorist group’s victories were a “failure on the part of the world.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/terrorism-security/2015/0603/US-sees-drawn-out-fight-vs-Islamic-State-amid-claim-of-Assad-IS-collaboration

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17. . nt

[KoKo]

22. Edited by Myself..as Off Topic. n/t

Last edited Wed Jun 3, 2015, 10:17 PM - Edit history (2)

[KoKo]

21. Recommend Posts...

Gotta Catch Up........!

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23. Sunni sheikhs pledge allegiance to ISIL in Iraq's Anbar

A number of Sunni tribal sheikhs and tribes in Iraq's Anbar province have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

The sheikhs and tribal leaders made the pledge in a statement read out by influential Sheikh Ahmed Dara al-Jumaili, after meeting in Fallujah on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera's Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said it was not yet clear if the tribes had been forced to pledge allegiance by ISIL fighters, who control Fallujah and most of Anbar province.

"If this is a willing move then that is very worrying for the Iraqi government," Khan said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/sunni-sheiks-pledge-allegiance-isil-iraq-anbar-150604074642668.html

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24. Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra threaten to take fight to Iran

ISTANBUL (AA) -- Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, said in an Al-Jazeera interview Wednesday evening that his group “could cut off the hands and legs of Iran in the region, and if it does not stop, we will take the conflict to its interior.”

He considered “Iran’s plan in the region to be the return of the Persian Empire which the Islamic opening ended,” referring the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century AD.

Al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, or “Front of Victory,” is one of the most prominent armed opposition movements in Syria.

In the second part of his interview on the “Without Borders” program on Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera, he said: “Iran is using conversions to Shiism as a tool to expand in the region.

http://www.aa.com.tr/en/rss/524733--syrias-jabhat-al-nusra-threaten-to-take-fight-to-iran