ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

WORLD NEWS | Sun Jun 18, 2017 | 9:05pm EDT
U.S. warplane downs Syrian army in Raqqa province
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Matt Spetalnick | AMMAN/WASHINGTON

A U.S. warplane shot down a Syrian army jet on Sunday in the southern Raqqa countryside, with Washington saying the jet had dropped bombs near U.S.-backed forces and Damascus saying the plane was downed while flying a mission against Islamic State militants.

A Syrian army statement released on Syrian state television said the plane crashed and the pilot was missing in the first such downing of a Syrian jet by the United States since the start of the conflict in 2011.

The army statement said it took place on Sunday afternoon near a village called Rasafah.

The "flagrant attack was an attempt to undermine the efforts of the army as the only effective force capable with its allies ... in fighting terrorism across its territory," the Syrian army said.

"This comes at a time when the Syrian army and its allies were making clear advances in fighting the Daesh (Islamic State) terrorist group," it added.

The U.S. Central Command later issued a statement saying the Syrian plane was downed "in collective self-defense of Coalition-partnered forces," identified as fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near Tabqah.

It said that "pro-Syrian regime forces" had earlier attacked an SDF-held town south of Tabqa and wounded a number of fighters, driving them from the town.

Coalition aircraft in a show of force stopped the initial advance. When a Syrian army SU-22 jet later dropped bombs near the U.S.-backed forces, it was immediately shot down by a U.S. F/A-18E Super Hornet, the statement said.

Before it downed the plane, the coalition had "contacted its Russian counterparts by telephone via an established "de-confliction line" to de-escalate the situation and stop the firing."

The coalition does "not seek to fight the Syrian regime, Russian or pro-regime forces" but would not "hesitate to defend itself or its "partnered forces from any threat," the statement said.

The U.S.-led coalition has in recent weeks escalated its aerial bombing campaign in northern Syria and Raqqa province. U.S.-backed forces have encircled the city of Raqqa and captured several districts from the militants.

The Syrian army, which has been taking territory from retreating Islamic State militants in the eastern Aleppo countryside, has moved into Raqqa province and seized back some oil fields and villages that had been under the militants' control for almost three years.An SDF official told Reuters the Syrian army had been engaged in skirmishes in recent days with U.S.-backed forces near the town of Maskaneh close to the borders of Raqqa province, much of which is now held by U.S.-backed groups fighting Islamic State.

The Syrian army backed by Iranian-backed militias has also been in competition in southeastern Syria with U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels who are also trying to recapture territory from Islamic State.

On several occasions in recent weeks, warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition have also struck pro-government forces to prevent them advancing from a U.S.-controlled garrison in southeastern Syria at a spot where the country's borders join with Iraq and Jordan.

Washington also described those strikes as self-defense.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)

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WORLD NEWS | Sun Jun 18, 2017 | 3:48pm EDT
Iran fires missiles at militant groups in eastern Syria
By Babak Dehghanpisheh | BEIRUT

Iran fired missiles on Sunday into eastern Syria, aiming at the bases of militant groups it holds responsible for attacks in Tehran which left 18 dead last week, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards launched the mid-range ground-to-ground missiles from western Iran into the Deir al Zour region of eastern Syria, killing a "large number" of terrorists and destroying their equipment and weapons, it said.

The missiles targeted the "headquarters and gathering centers of Takfiri terrorists supporting and building car bombs", it said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Military leaders and officials in Iran, a predominantly Shi'ite country, often refer to Sunni Muslim radicals as Takfiris.

The Revolutionary Guards are fighting in Syria against militant groups who oppose President Bashar al-Assad.

The attack last week, which included shootings and at least one suicide bombing, was on Iran's parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

"The spilling of any pure blood will not go unanswered," the Revolutionary Guards said in the statement quoted by Tasnim.

Islamic State issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Tehran attack.

Senior Iranian officials, however, have pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia, Iran's Sunni regional rival.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)

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IRGC launches missiles at Daesh headquarters in Syria from western Iran

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has launched missiles at Daesh Takfiris' headquarters in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr.

The IRGC announced on Sunday that the medium-range ground-to-ground missiles were launched from Iran’s western provinces of Kermanshah and Kordestan in response to the recent Daesh-claimed terror attacks in Tehran, which killed 18 people and injured 50 more.

The IRGC noted that a large number of terrorists have been killed in the attacks, in which a large amount of terrorists' weapons, ammunition, and equipment were also destroyed.

“The spilling of innocent blood will not go unanswered," said the IRGC in a statement.

The IRGC further assured the Iranian nation that it will “spare no efforts to defend the national security and obviate plots as well as anti-security phenomena.”
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Syrian, Iraqi army troops meet up at border for first time in years
Sun Jun 18, 2017 5:45PM

Syrian government soldiers, backed by volunteer fighters from popular defense groups, have linked up with Iraqi army troops for the first time in years after they took control of a vast territory in Syria’s semi-arid southeastern region of al-Badiya.

Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Manar television network reported on Sunday that the army units in cooperation with allies had managed to liberate 25,000 square kilometers (9,600 square miles) of land during a campaign in the border region in recent weeks.

“This is the sign of the cooperation between the brotherly Iraqi and Syrian military leadership to secure the shared borders,” a Syrian army general, speaking on condition of anonymity, told privately-owned and pro-government al-Ikhbariya al-Soriyah television news network.

The general said the meeting point for Iraqi and Syrian forces is northeast of Tanf base, where the US military is training anti-government Takfiri militants.

The Syrian military official further noted that the new meeting point is only 20 kilometers (12 miles) from al-Mayadeen area, where Daesh terrorists have recently relocated much of their leadership to.

The development came only a day after Iraqi forces liberated al-Waleed border crossing point in the Ar-Rutba district of the western province of Anbar from Daesh extremists.

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Iraqi forces had moved northeast of al-Waleed, meeting up with pro-government Syrian troops for the first time since 2015.

The head of the Britain-based monitoring group, Rami Abdurrahman, said the link between Iraqi and Syrian forces will allow Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by their Arabic name, Hashd al-Sha’abi, to move inside Syria and help Syrian government's campaign against Daesh in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Separately, the artillery units of the Syrian army have struck Daesh positions across Dayr al-Zawr, killing and wounding many of the extremist militants in Panorama area, Borouk Hill, al-Tharda and al-Hueiqa neighborhoods as well as Ayash village.

A correspondent for Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that Syrian Air Forces jets have bombarded Daesh vehicles equipped with heavy machineguns in Hattla and the outskirts of Dayr al-Zawr Airport.

Scores of militants have been killed and injured during the airstrikes.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant and terrorist groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then.

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Equation said:

So much for operation winning hearts and minds.

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Equation said:

I don't care if Assad Syrian Army wins the war, as long as the war comes to a near end. The people had suffered enough.

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