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

Jura said:

(related to ISIL in Damascus suburbs)
Thursday at 1:49 PM
...:

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Jura said:

May 5, 2018
and

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IS fighters being evacuated from south Damascus: monitor

[I read it also elsewhere]

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The Islamic State (IS) militants and their families started evacuating their positions in southern Damascus towards the Syrian desert, activists said Sunday. However, state media outlets have denied the claims.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the IS militants and their families started evacuating the Hajar al-Aswad area and the nearby Yarmouk Camp in southern Damascus, under a "secret deal" between the IS group and the Syrian government, following month-long intense battles.

The observatory said, since Saturday afternoon, IS militants in the southern areas have been burning their positions in Hajar al-Aswad and Yarmouk Camp.

The watchdog group said the Syrian government could soon declare empty of IS militants in such areas.

Other activists also posted photos of buses waiting at the Batikha roundabout near Yarmouk Camp and they were said to be used for the evacuation.

But the state news agency SANA denied the reports of any deal of evacuation of IS militants from southern Damascus to the Syrian desert.

It maintained that the military operations in Hajar al-Aswad and nearby IS-held pockets are ongoing.

The IS has lost its major stronghold late last year, with the Syrian army capturing the Deir al-Zour city in eastern Syria as well as large swathes of the Syrian desert near Iraqi border. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces also stripped IS of its de facto capital of Raqqa north of Syria.

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 12:39 PM
now I read
Activists say IS militants start evacuating southern Damascus amid gov't denial
Xinhua| 2018-05-20 18:48:34

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Lockheed Martin’s F-35 has seen combat for the first time.

The Israel Defense Forces announced on its Twitter account that the I

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, using its “Adir” moniker was used in operational missions.

“The Adir planes are already operational and flying in operational missions,” the tweet said, quoting Israel Air Force head Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin. “We are the first in the world to use the F-35 in operational activity.”

The Israeli Air Force used the F-35 in two recent strikes in Syria, Norkin said,

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.

The use of the F-35 in combat is a major milestone for the aircraft that has been in development since the early 1990s. The program has been marred not only by cost overruns and delays but persistent attacks by critics who have called into question the jet’s warfighting capabilities.

The combat debut could also bode well for future buys of the joint strike fighter. Israel has already put 50 F-35 Adir aircraft on contract. However, last year its parliament urged its defense ministry to conduct an analysis of alternatives before going forward with more orders, which could add another 25 to 50 jets to the IAF.

Israel’s announcement follows another

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when the U.S. Marine Corps deployed its vertical take-off and landing version, the F-35B, to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, the first permanent overseas deployment of the aircraft for the U.S. Military.

Israel’s decision to employ its Adir, or “Mighty One” in Syria may stem from February’s downing of an IAF F-16, which prompted some experts to question why the IAF was not using the stealthy jet against capable Syrian air defenses.

The U.S. Air Force plans to follow suit. The F-35A is slated to deploy to Europe as early as 2020. Those aircraft are destined for Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath in England.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that his administration has nearly won the seven-year-long war in Syria as the army has made major progress in the fight against the rebels, noting that the West tries to prolong the crisis with every Syrian victory.

"With every move forward for the Syrian army, and for the political process ..., our enemies and our opponents, mainly the West led by the United States and their puppets in Europe and in our region, try to make it farther, either by supporting more terrorism, bringing more terrorists to Syria, or by hindering the political process," Assad told Russia Today in an interview released on Thursday.

The president has noted that if it wasn't for the foreign support to the rebels in Syria, the militants could have been defeated within a year.

He said that the claims of chemical weapons use by the rebels and their Western backers are part of the desperate measures undertaken by the West to prolong the war as the conflict is getting closer to an end with the Syrian army determining to recapture all rebel-held areas in Syria.

Assad said the public opinion around the world didn't buy the Western narrative about the chemical weapons' use by the government forces, noting that the West couldn't back down on their allegations so they had to strike Syria, in reference to the U.S.-led missile strikes on Syrian sites on April 14.

The president, however, said that Russia's threats to strike the bases of the missile launchers targeting Syria have pushed the West to make their strikes limited, otherwise it could have been a country-wide offensive by the United States and its Western backers.

After the advance of the Syrian army, as well as the unreliable nature of opposition forces, the U.S. administration has started losing its "cards" and could be brought to the negotiation table, Assad believes.

"Our challenge is how we can close this gap between their plans and our plans," Assad said.

He said it's the duty of the army to liberate all of Syria because "this is our land, it's our right and our duty to liberate it and the Americans should leave somehow they are going to leave."

About the Israelis threats to Assad and his government, the president said the Israeli remarks and threats are a sign of their "panic" because the rebels they are backing in Syria are losing.

Regarding the repetitive Israeli airstrikes on Syria and ways to stop them, Assad said that the foreign-backed "terrorists" have from the beginning aimed at destroying the Syrian air defenses. "This is a proof that Israel was in direct link with those terrorists in Syria."

Assad said the militants destroyed big parts of the Syrian air defenses throughout the crisis, noting that "now, our air defenses are much stronger than before thanks to the Russian support."

He said the recent attacks by the United States and Israel on Syria proved that the air defenses are in a "better situation."

The president said the only option to respond to the Israeli attacks is by improving the air defenses and "we are doing that."

In response to claims that Israel only targets Iranian forces in Syria, Assad said that there are no Iranian troops in Syria but "we have Iranian officers who work with the Syrian army as a help they (Iranians) don't have troops."

He stressed that the Israeli allegations are a lie, noting that Syrian soldiers were killed in the Israeli strikes, not Iranians.

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