Syria: Pro-Assad forces hail recapture of key rebel-held town

[webfact]

Syria: Pro-Assad forces hail recapture of key rebel-held town



DAMASCUS: -- Syria’s pro-government forces are hailing a key victory over rebels, ahead of planned peace talks that look increasingly likely to stall.

The recapture of the town of Rabiya, described as the last rebel stronghold in western Latakia province, was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group and confirmed by Syrian state TV.

Regime forces, supported by Russian officers and Hezbollah militants, then took control of local villages, the Observatory says, amid violent clashes with Islamist fighters, notably from the al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra.

Syrian and Russian airstrikes are said to have played a part.

But the monitoring group says warplanes from the two nations have also killed 164 civilians – including dozens of children – in the last three days in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

A huge question mark surrounds peace talks scheduled for Monday in Geneva amid a row over who should represent the Syrian opposition.

Nonetheless, the United States says it is confident they will go ahead during the week.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2016-01-25

[Stargeezr]

I hope the ISIL group of terrorists are driven out of Iraq, then surrounded in Syria and

bombed until they are all gone. This Daesh bunch of animals do not deserve to exist

on Earth.

[ALLSEEINGEYE]

I do not think these were ISIS fighters I think they were the rebels that were opposing Assad's regime.

[sebastion]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

[Rancid]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Right, things were so much worse before.

Following this logic if Trumps elected and some governments don't like him then it is ok then to arm and finance the anti-Trumps, send in psychopathic religious nuts to start a civil war, take female slaves, replace baseball with beheadings & bomb the US infrastructure into the stone age and then demand his removal and replacement with a puppet regime as a condition of stopping the death and carnage?

Bringing freedom and democracy...

[sebastion]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Right, things were so much worse before.

Following this logic if Trumps elected and some governments don't like him then it is ok then to arm and finance the anti-Trumps, send in psychopathic religious nuts to start a civil war, take female slaves, replace baseball with beheadings & bomb the US infrastructure into the stone age and then demand his removal and replacement with a puppet regime as a condition of stopping the death and carnage?

Bringing freedom and democracy...

I never suggested democracy or freedom.

Even Putin has tried to ease Assad out of power by offering asylum in Russia. The war isnt going away until Assad is removed and he is going to fight til the death.

Perhaps you need to read a little more into the conflict and the reasons behind it.

Too many interests are at stake for everyone.

Putin is just protecting russian interests in the region. Nothing more.

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/22/10815392/putin-russia-syria-assad

[JHolmesJr]

Putin needs to send assad a little polonium.

[Chicog]

Funny, if you read other stories they are struggling to maintain their grip.

(CNN)Fierce battles continue around the strategic city of Deir Ezzor in northern Syria between regime forces and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to human rights groups.

Hundreds of combatants and civilians have been killed over the past week, and Russian aircraft have been dropping supplies to beleaguered army units.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad is battling to retain a foothold in the area. It still controls the military airport to the south, but ISIS claims to have overrun several regime-held districts at the beginning of the week, taking advantage of a sandstorm that grounded military aircraft. But in the last few days, Russian and possibly Syrian warplanes have carried out airstrikes against ISIS areas, while the already desperate situation of civilians has worsened.

The Institute for the Study of War -- a Washington-based group that analyzes the conflict in Iraq and Syria -- said Russia had shifted the focus of its air campaign to Deir Ezzor in the face of the major ISIS assault on parts of the city still held by the regime. "The shift in Russian air operations serves to forestall the immediate defeat of regime forces in Deir Ezzor, one of the last remaining regime outposts in Eastern Syria," the Institute said.

Even so, the regime presence in Deir Ezzor looks increasingly precarious. Were ISIS to capture the entire city, it would give the group morale-boosting control of a second provincial capital in Syria, after Raqqa, and improve its supply lines across the border into Iraq.

More at: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/22/world/syria-isis-deir-ezzor/

[Yahooka]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

[sebastion]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

Agreed. None of the problems were around when Gaddafi/Saddam etc were ruling with a iron fist.

The U.S meddling under the guise of "liberating" the people failed.

[craigt3365]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

Agreed. None of the problems were around when Gaddafi/Saddam etc were ruling with a iron fist.

The U.S meddling under the guise of "liberating" the people failed.

None of the problems except an abused and controlled population. Exactly what started all these problems in the first place. Don't think we want to go back to that again.

[Credo]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

Agreed. None of the problems were around when Gaddafi/Saddam etc were ruling with a iron fist.

The U.S meddling under the guise of "liberating" the people failed.

Assad has been around for a long time and his father was around before that. His iron fist hasn't been so successful.

[Chicog]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

Agreed. None of the problems were around when Gaddafi/Saddam etc were ruling with a iron fist.

The U.S meddling under the guise of "liberating" the people failed.

Assad has been around for a long time and his father was around before that. His iron fist hasn't been so successful.

His father murdered at least 30,000 people to maintain his grip on power.

He has probably doubled that.

But apparently that is an acceptable price to some.

I can see the argument, but if that happened in the West there would be outrage.

[sebastion]

Assad still needs to be removed. A victory for him should not be celebrated.

Unfortunately there isn`t any alternative..........the so called moderates that was partaking in the early days of the uprising are either abroad or insignificant on the battlefield.Another unfortunate proof for the fact that most Middle Eastern countries are in need of a strong leader rather than democracy.

Agreed. None of the problems were around when Gaddafi/Saddam etc were ruling with a iron fist.

The U.S meddling under the guise of "liberating" the people failed.

None of the problems except an abused and controlled population. Exactly what started all these problems in the first place. Don't think we want to go back to that again.

No. These problems were started when Saddam was removed and tried by a puppet U.S iraqi government.

If you look at the facts. Over 100 of ISIS's top people are ex Saddam generals, Baathists who had an alliance with Al Queda. They are seeking revenge against the state of Iraq that was installed by the U.S which is a Sunni majority.

Syria also joined the fray by sending Shia militants to retake Baghdad.

This has backfired now on Syria and their meddling has come home to roost.

Removing Saddam was really the tipping point as others wanted to capture the power.

Saddam even warned the west that if he was removed the middle east would turn to fire and burn.

He wasnt wrong.

Russia's involvement starts long before this uprising. They trained the region and supplied weapons since the 80's.

America gets a lot of the blame and rightly so but the Russias also armed and trained a lot more militants than the U.S ever did.

Edited January 26, 2016 by sebastion

[craigt3365]

No. These problems were started when Saddam was removed and tried by a puppet U.S iraqi government.

If you look at the facts. Over 100 of ISIS's top people are ex Saddam generals, Baathists who had an alliance with Al Queda. They are seeking revenge against the state of Iraq that was installed by the U.S which is a Sunni majority.

Syria also joined the fray by sending Shia militants to retake Baghdad.

This has backfired now on Syria and their meddling has come home to roost.

Removing Saddam was really the tipping point as others wanted to capture the power.

Saddam even warned the west that if he was removed the middle east would turn to fire and burn.

He wasnt wrong.

Russia's involvement starts long before this uprising. They trained the region and supplied weapons since the 80's.

America gets a lot of the blame and rightly so but the Russias also armed and trained a lot more militants than the U.S ever did.

Please do a little research on Assad's father (who had the same problems as today, and dealt with them in the same way....killing innocent civilians). And the Muslim Brotherhood. Which was started way before the US was significantly involved in the ME and was created due to problems caused by the existing colonial powers.

Sure, the collapse of the Iraqi government didn't help things at all. But it wasn't the lightning rod that caused all this. This isn't one country against another. It's one religion against another. And it's fueled by maniacal and brutal dictators. The root cause of the problem.

[sebastion]

No. These problems were started when Saddam was removed and tried by a puppet U.S iraqi government.

If you look at the facts. Over 100 of ISIS's top people are ex Saddam generals, Baathists who had an alliance with Al Queda. They are seeking revenge against the state of Iraq that was installed by the U.S which is a Sunni majority.

Syria also joined the fray by sending Shia militants to retake Baghdad.

This has backfired now on Syria and their meddling has come home to roost.

Removing Saddam was really the tipping point as others wanted to capture the power.

Saddam even warned the west that if he was removed the middle east would turn to fire and burn.

He wasnt wrong.

Russia's involvement starts long before this uprising. They trained the region and supplied weapons since the 80's.

America gets a lot of the blame and rightly so but the Russias also armed and trained a lot more militants than the U.S ever did.

Please do a little research on Assad's father (who had the same problems as today, and dealt with them in the same way....killing innocent civilians). And the Muslim Brotherhood. Which was started way before the US was significantly involved in the ME and was created due to problems caused by the existing colonial powers.

Sure, the collapse of the Iraqi government didn't help things at all. But it wasn't the lightning rod that caused all this. This isn't one country against another. It's one religion against another. And it's fueled by maniacal and brutal dictators. The root cause of the problem.

Assads father didnt create isis. The overthrow of Saddam did. What happened pre isis is of no concern as the middle east has always been sectist and been fighting each other for thousands of years. U.S meddling is what brought their brand of war that we call terrorism to our shores.

Had the west stayed out they would be just continuing what had been going on since man began. Fighting each other.

Pushing democracy is the middle east will never work. They need dictators to rule them.

[craigt3365]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood

The Society of the Muslim Brothers (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين‎), shortened to the Muslim Brotherhood (الإخوان المسلمون al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928

...............

Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Ismailia in March 1928 along with six workers of the Suez Canal Company, as a Pan-Islamic, religious, political, and social movement.^[58] The Suez Canal Company helped Banna build the mosque in Ismailia that would serve as the Brotherhood's headquarters, according to Richard Mitchell's The Society of Muslim Brothers.^[59] According to al-Banna, contemporary Islam had lost its social dominance, because most Muslims had been corrupted by Western influences. Sharia law based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah were seen as laws passed down by God that should be applied to all parts of life, including the organization of the government and the handling of everyday problems.^[60]

Al-Banna was populist in his message of protecting workers against the tyranny of foreign and monopolist companies. It founded social institutions such as hospitals, pharmacies, schools, etc. Al-Banna held highly conservative views on issues such as women's rights, opposing equal rights for women, but supporting the establishment of justice towards women.^[39] The Brotherhood grew rapidly going from 800 members in 1936, to 200,000 by 1938 and over 2 million by 1948.^[61]

As its influence grew, it opposed British rule in Egypt starting in 1936,^[62] but was banned after being accused of violent killings^[63] including the assassination of a Prime Minister by a young Brotherhood member.[

[craigt3365]

An interesting read:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_war

The European crusaders re-conquered much of the territory seized by the Islamic state, dividing it into four kingdoms, the most important being the state of Jerusalem.

It's been a problem for a long time.