Russia primarily hunting down Chechens in Syria.

Russia primarily hunting down Chechens in Syria.. (Naharnet).

While Russian President Vladimir Putin's air campaign in Syria may have other aims, one result seems to be that it is hitting Islamists from Russia's Caucasus, say analysts.

High on the list of places Russia appears to have targeted are positions held by the Al-Nusra Front -- an al-Qaida associate with a high concentration of fighters from Chechnya, Dagestan and Muslim ex-Soviet nations in Central Asia.

At the weekend, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the mission aimed at protecting Russia itself.

"It's better to do it abroad rather than fight terrorism inside the country," he said.

Fighters originating from the Caucasus are believed to have first appeared in Syria in summer 2012, notably at the battle of Aleppo.

The men have a reputation for being good warriors and are dubbed "Chechens" by locals even if they come from elsewhere in the Caucasus, a region where Muslims overwhelmingly adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam.

Now there are "at least 2,000 fighters" from Chechnya, Dagestan and other Caucasus regions who operate in Jund al-Sham al-Shishan, alongside al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra front, the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Raman told AFP.

"They are concentrated in Idlib, Aleppo, and Latakia provinces," he said.

These are the northwestern regions of Syria where Russia's campaign has been concentrated since being launched on September 30.

Other groups with a strong presence of Caucasus fighters include Ajnad Kavkaz (Soldiers of the Caucasus) in Idlib and Latakia, and the Jaish al-Muhajireen in Aleppo, which also includes Uzbeks and Tajiks and is split into al-Qaida and IS-loyal factions.

"The Russians consider it better to concentrate on the Al-Nusra Front where the Chechens and the Caucasians are, since they think the (US-led) coalition is already dealing with IS," said Romain Caillet, a French expert on jihadists.

A video circulated via Russian Islamist websites at the weekend purported to show Chechen fighters calling on Caucasus natives to come back home to wage holy war on Russian soil.

"We have successfully reached home and began searching for everything needed for jihad," a masked man says in the clip. "We ask other brothers to also come home." Read the full story here.

Source: Agence France Presse

Tehran: 'Iran supports Russia’s anti-terror airstrikes in Syria'

Tehran: 'Iran supports Russia’s anti-terror airstrikes in Syria'. (Taz).

A senior Iranian diplomat has reaffirmed Iran’s support for Russia’s airstrikes against the Daesh Takfiri terrorists waging havoc in the war-ravaged country of Syria, Press TV reported.

“Tehran supports Moscow’s anti-terrorism measures in Syria and its aid to the Syria army,” ISNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying on Sunday.

Iran and Russia have always supported the people and government of Syria in the face of terrorism, he added.

Moscow began its military campaign against terrorists in Syria on September 30 upon a request from the Damascus government.

The deputy foreign minister stressed that the US’s policies against terrorism have resulted in regional instability, adding, Washington's support for the Saudi war on "the people of Yemen" has led to the formation of "a new wave" in terrorism in the Middle East that is further "threatening the world.”

The international community should take the threat of terrorism in Syria, Iraq and Yemen seriously, Amir-Abdollahian noted.


Backed by the US, Saudi forces kicked off their military aggression against their southern neighbor on March 26 without a UN mandate.

'Send in Muslim troops to fight ISIS': Ramzan Kadyrov.

'Send in Muslim troops to fight ISIS': Ramzan Kadyrov. (DM).

One of Vladimir Putin's closest allies has called on the Russian president to deploy Muslim ground troops to fight the Islamic State.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman president of Chechnya, said Moscow should expand its operations in Syria – which began yesterday with controversial airstrikes on anti-government rebels in defiance of the West.

He said: 'I'm convinced that not only airborne should be used there, but also infantry, because the faster we finish off ISIS, the more peacefully we'll live across the territory of global community.

'We Chechens as yet, unfortunately, have no opportunity to participate in the fight against these evil spirits.'

Kadryov, a Sunni Muslim who runs the province with an iron fist and is seen as one of Putin's most loyal supporters, said Islamic fighters from Chechnya should be sent to combat the jihadis.

Kadyrov's comments will be seen as an attempt to defuse further jihadi recruitment by negating the argument that the conflict is fuelled by sectarianism.

That has also been the prevailing factor behind the West's refusal to put 'boots on the ground' in Iraq or Syria, instead choosing to support Muslim troops in combatting ISIS themselves.

Deploying ground troops, however, would plunge relations with the West into further crisis, but so far Putin has ruled out such a move, acutely aware of the Soviet Union's disastrous decade-long presence in Afghanistan.

Speaking to news outlet gazeta.ru, Kadyrov also claimed Putin had acted in line with international law in contrast to Western action in Syria.

'I'm sure that it will contribute to ensuring safety in entire world,' he added. Hmmmm.....Somehow i expected something of the kind. Read the full story.

Photo-up with General Qasem Soleimani shows four IRGC top commanders killed in Syria.

Photo-up with General Qasem Soleimani shows four IRGC top commanders killed in Syria.(NCRI).

Four commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards have been killed by fighters of the Free Syrian Army, which is waging civil war against the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

They were all member of the IRGC’s Qods Force, which Iran has sent to fight alongside Assad forces in Syria.

The photo from left to right shows: Ali Soltan Moradi, a member of Basij that was killed on February 12, 2015 in Dera’a, southern Syria; Abbas Abdollahi, commander of the Saberin Battalion of the 31st IRGC Division (Ashura) who was also killed on the same day; Alireza Tavas’solei, an Afghan living in Iran who was killed in Dera’a on February 28; Commander Hossein Badpa from 41st IRGC Division (Sarallah of Kerman) killed on April 20 near Basir al-Harir in Dera’a.

In late April, the Iranian regime's media reported on the burial ceremonies in Iran of another four commanders and dozens of IRGC forces together with dozens of Afghans and five Pakistanis.

After the uprising of the Syrian people, Iran formed groups called Fatemioun and Zainabiyoun on the pretext of defending the holy shrines in Syria, but they are known to have been extremist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Hezbollah who had been organized by the Iranian regime to massacre the Syrian people.

It was revealed last week that Iran has also been sending Afghan immigrants to fight in Syria.

The Afghans are mostly Shiite Muslims from the Hazara ethnic group who were living as illegal immigrants in Iran until they were rounded up by the regime's Revolutionary Guard.

They were given the choice of either fighting in Syria or going to jail, according to German magazine Der Spiegel.

The magazine has estimated that at least 700 Afghans have now been killed in fighting around Aleppo and Damascus alone.

This reliance upon Afghan fighters is part of Iran's strategy of support for the Assad regime, which is coming under increasing pressure from opposition fighters.


It also advances Iran's larger strategy in the Middle East, according to researcher Philip Smyth, who noted in a report how Tehran is coordinating a 'Shi'ite jihad' in Syria, using its militant proxies in Iraq and Lebanon to portray the defense of the Assad regime as a religious obligation. Hmmm.....I wouldn't rush for a selfie with Soleimani

Actual And Literal Islamic Human Slaughterhouses For Christians Discovered.

Actual And Literal Islamic Human Slaughterhouses For Christians Discovered. HT: Shoebat - Aina.

Warning links contain 18 + and gruesome footage .

Saif Al-Adlubi told the story when the Egyptian butcher would examine the row of people who were waiting their execution. Al-Adlubi witnessed at least two Armenians who were waiting their turn to be slaughtered since no one paid their ransom, the sum of $100,000 each.

"He grabbed the neck of one elderly Armenian Christian", says Al-Adlubi, which the Egyptian butcher was about to slaughter. The Egyptian butcher felt the neck of the Christian Armenian saying "you're an aged man and your neck is soft and I don't have to sharpen my knife for you". Others might be more difficult depending on their physique.

Saif Al-Adlubi tells of his miraculous escape to the Turkish village of Rehaniyeh from Syria. He was probably one of the few survivors who sounded the alarm on one of the gruesome systematic human extermination centers carried out by the Takfiri Jihadist group ISIS.

Rescue Christians translated an interview with Al-Adlubi: (See video Above).

(Also see references [here] and from Al-Jazeera [here] and others [here])

The prison centers where the ISIS (Da'ish) controls have become miniatures of what was during the Nazi SS extermination camps, except the ISIS carries out the extermination in a much more horrific way. 

Da'ish transforms the prisons into kangaroo courts with systematic slaughterhouses and killing centers to exterminate Christians and Muslims who disagree with the Takfiri ideology. Once they are found guilty, the way they deal with the victims was as if they were cattle.

The ISIS stands for The Islamic group of Iraq and Syria. ISIS is also known in Middle East circles as Da'ish. Rescue Christians obtained footage of another slaughterhouse from one Syrian Christian named Kamil Toume to confirm the claims.

It all adds up. Toume confirmed what was told by Al-Adlubi and he provided some leaked footage to prove it:

Rescue Christians aided Toume's plight to escape the fate of his father and sister after they were ritually sacrificed and cremated by Al-Nusra Islamist rebels in Duwair near Homs.

We also work in order to rescue Christians from this horror in Syria. Please donate to save the lives of Christians in Iraq and Syria from this unbearable brutality and evil. When you donate, you save a life and fight evil.

"You never heard of Umm Muhammad slaughterhouse?" Kamil told us when we asked him to comment on the story of Saif Al-Adlubi.
"What do you mean by Umm Muhammad Slaughterhouse"? We asked in unbelief.

The footage is from two separate slaughterhouses, one in Bayyada and the other is even 3 years old in Al-Siba'.

Slaughterhouses has been going on for 3 years in Syria.

Al-Adlubi is Muslim fundamentalist who joined the FSA (Free Syrian Army) and was a militant and a media agent for the FSA. He was captured by Da'ish and tells his horrific tale explaining how he has never experienced or seen such horror under the Assad Regime. He was one of few that made it out when the Syrian militia finally defeated the Da'ish rebels in that specific prison center.
"How could I be considered Kafir (heathen) if I pray and fast?" he asked the prison official as he tells his story to several Arabic news agencies.
"you are "murtad" [apostate]" answered the official.
"I asked him, what is my destiny. I want to get a closure. What is it, a year two years in prison?"
"He said in Arabic "Abshir Bithabih", in English, "Rejoice, you will be sacrificed".
According to Dai'sh Islamic theology, he would be sacrificed as a martyr by being slaughtered for his sin. This is not the same fate for Christians who in their view will end up in eternal hellfire.
Before he was freed, Al-Adlubi saw the bodies of young men who were systematically slaughtered and disemboweled.

"The slaughterhouse was on a hill. It is secluded and is void of any homes nearby" says Al-Adlubi. "I witnessed lifeless bodies hanging upside down as if they were slaughtered sheep," he added.
"In the center of the slaughterhouse is a huge Egyptian about two meters high. He was the one doing the slaughtering"

The Egyptian butcher examines the row of the young and old men who were about to be slaughtered: Armenian Christians, Syrian Christians, Shiites and even Sunnis. Each had to be physically examined. They are decapitated from the root of their necks, their chest cavities are opened and disemboweled and hung upside down. The neck of the aged Christian Armenian man was a simple one.

The stories told by Al-Adlubi and Toume adds up. Toume sent us some footage that circulated the Syrian community after the human slaughterhouse finally ended, and the ugly remaining evidence was revealed when Umm Muhammad's slaughterhouse in the Siba' district in Homs was busted by Syrian police 3 years ago in August 2011. This was during the infancy of the revolution in Syria.

Umm Muhammad's slaughterhouse was not operated by Da'ish but by the FSA (Free Syrian Army) during its infancy.

The slaughterhouses were in progress for years and only the future will show the extent of such operations. We have also reported in the past how a rare disease (Kuru) that infected Syrians which can only be contracted as a result of cannibalism.

Umm Muhammad was a Sunni woman in charge of dismembering human bodies. In the footage, it can be seen with human bodies being chopped up exactly as is done in a cattle slaughterhouse. What is striking is the way of the superior care in the chipping of the body parts without having clear traces of torture, which indicates that the potential target was to pile the body parts for an unknown reason. The table is the type used in a morgue or in Forensic Medicine.

Al-Adlubi's story also checks out from footage obtained from Al-Bayyada, another slaughterhouse, which Rescue Christians was able to obtain footage from. And just as Al-Adlubi stated, they were hanging upside down, headless, like slaughtered sheep. The heads were removed from the root of the chest cavity just as Al-Adlubi stated when describing how the Egyptian was doing his meticulous methods and how Toume described the Umm-Muhammad slaughterhouse in Al-Siba' district.Read the full story here, warning footage contains extreme violence. 

Fistfight Breaks out in FSA Meeting, Head of Syrian opposition Jarba Punched Thrice.

Fistfight Breaks out in FSA Meeting, Head of Syrian opposition Jarba Punched Thrice.(Fars).

Head of the Syrian opposition bloc Ahmad al-Jarba was punched thrice as leaders of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) scuffled during a meeting in Istanbul, according to a spokesman of the army's chief of staff.

"Jarba received three punches even though he was not involved in the fistfight and was only trying to separate the two camps," Omar Abu Leila told media outlets on Friday, Al-Manar reported.

He said the 30 members of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army and the field commanders engaged themselves in a fistfight during a Thursday meeting in Istanbul.

Abu Leila said that the scuffle broke out over differences regarding the details of an earlier agreement to settle a dispute triggered by the sacking of Free Syrian Army chief Salim Idriss.

Jarba and the FSA ground commanders had met in Istanbul earlier to resolve the dispute.

According to the deal reached, both interim defense minister Assad al-Mustafa and Idriss were to submit their resignations.

However, the Supreme Military Council of the FSA announced on Friday that al-Mustafa was staying in his post.

"The agreement is ink on paper. It's null and void," Colonel Qassem Sadaddin, the council's spokesman, said on Friday.

Citing the ineffectiveness of the general staff in the past few months, the council sacked Idriss on February 17 and appointed veteran field commander Abdullah al-Bashir in his place.

But the FSA's ground commanders rejected the decision, saying they would only take orders from Idriss.

Obama 'Admin' halts aid to Syrian rebels, High-ranking CIA official resigns.

Obama 'Admin' halts aid to Syrian rebels, High-ranking CIA official resigns.(HD).

The United States has cut off northern Syrian moderate rebel groups from non-lethal aid, with an al-Qaeda advance in northern Syria physically blocking the aid’s dispersal, as the Obama administration continues to ‘disengage’ itself from Syria.

Daily Hürriyet’s Washington representative, Tolga Tanış, reported that the Obama administration commenced its ‘disengagement’ from Syria on Oct. 2, laying out three conditions to the moderate rebels, should they wish for the resumption of aid.

A joint U.S.-Russia plan on the chemical disarmament of Syria and clashes between the Western-Arab-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda-linked rebels known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) factored into the halting of aid to the rebels. Turkey closed its Öncüpınar border gate on Sept. 18 amid an al-Qaeda advance and the U.S. stopped a batch of non-lethal aid to moderate rebels.

At the same time a group of Syria’s most powerful rebel brigades have rejected the Western-Arab-backed opposition group, Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which announced the creation of an interim government in exile. The 13 rebel groups, led by the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, called on supporters of the Syrian opposition to embrace Sharia law.

On Oct. 2, the State Department officials conferred and decided on sending three messages to the moderate rebels. Citing an unnamed source who attended meetings,

• Tanış said the first one was that the U.S. would not repeat the same mistake in Afghanistan where supported groups were radicalized; instead, Washington would wait for moderate groups to distance themselves from radicals. 
• The second one was that the U.S. would not resume its provision of aid until Turkey reopens its border gate and the moderate rebels took control of the northern Syrian town of Azaz. 
• The third and final one was that the U.S. would not allow for any further developments until it heard ‘good news’ from the rebels. 

High-ranking CIA official resigns

The opposition tried to solve the deadlock and even pushed al-Nusra Front out of the Saudi Arabian-backed Islamic Army, but could not convince Washington to ‘disengage’ from Syria at the time.

A U.S. official advised yesterday that the aid to rebels had officially ceased. “ISIS has blocked the dispersal of part of the aid. The border gate is closed and we cannot distribute necessary supplies,” he said.
Another source familiar with the matter commented on the new U.S. policy, saying it has caused quite the stir within the CIA, including the resignation of a high-ranking official in September.

Gohmert: McCain 'a guy' that supported al-Qaida.

Gohmert: McCain 'a guy' that supported al-Qaida.(Fars).

A US Republican lawmaker publicly declared that hawkish Republic Senator John McCain of Arizona has in fact "supported Al-Qaeda" in Syria.

During a speech at the annual Values Voters Summit in Washington, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert harshly criticized McCain for supporting former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, and the Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria, Al-Alam reported.

Gohmert’s criticism was in response to remarks made by McCain in an interview with Fox News where he described Republicans’ efforts to defund President Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, amid a US government shutdown as "a fool’s errand".

"When it comes to the shutdown that's going on, I heard just before I came some senator from Arizona, uh, a guy that liked Gaddafi before he wanted to bomb him, a guy that liked Mubarak before he wanted him out, a guy that's been to Syria and supported Al-Qaeda and rebels, but he was saying today the shutdown has been a fool's errand," Gohmert said.

Earlier this year, McCain, who is a staunch advocate of US military strikes on Syria, met with militant leaders in the Middle Eastern country.

The Republican senator has even dismissed as "not true" a study by the Foreign Policy magazine that asserts Al-Qaeda-affiliated "extremists" increasingly make up the opposition forces in Syria.

"Groups on the more extreme end of the spectrum, particularly those affiliated with al Qaeda, have proven remarkably adept at spreading their military resources across large swathes of territory, joining battles at the pivotal moment, and exploiting their superior organizational structures to establish political control and influence over territory," read a report published by Foreign Policy in September.

A few days after the report was published, however, McCain told an audience at The Council on Foreign Relations that it was "not true, not true!"More here.

Video - Syria: Executions, Hostage Taking by Obama admin supported Rebels

A prominent human rights group announced that Syrian armed groups of committing crimes against humanity during a recent offensive on an area held by people loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. HumanRightsWatch

Human Rights Watch revealed that armed terrorists killed at least 190 civilians and took over 200 hostages, mostly women and children, during the August attack on Lattakia province.
The New York-based group’s report clarified that at least 67 of the victims were executed or unlawfully killed during the attacks on 10 Alawite villages loyal to al-Assad. In some cases, the report said, entire families were gunned down.

The 105-page report, “You Can Still See Their Blood’: Executions, Indiscriminate Shootings, and Hostage Taking by Opposition Forces in Lattakia Countryside,” presented evidence that the civilians were slaughtered on August 4.

The investigation found that 20 armed groups participated in the operation. It said five extremist groups were the most involved, including al-Nusra Front and the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” both linked to al-Qaida; Ahrar al-Sham; Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar; and Suqqor al-Izz.

Human Rights Watch’s acting Middle East director, Joe Stork, said the abuses were not just the actions of rogue fighters, but a “coordinated, planned attack on the civilian population.”
Witnesses said the terrorists went house to house, in some cases executing entire families and in other cases killing men and taking women and children hostages.

One survivor, Hassan Shebli, said he fled as terrorists approached his village of Barouda at dawn, but was forced to leave behind his wife, who was unable to walk without crutches, and his 23-year-old son, who is completely paralyzed.

When Shebli returned days later, after government forces retook the village, he found his wife and son buried near the house and bullet holes and blood splatters in the bedroom, the New York-based group said.

“My mom was here in the house with me. She came out of the house first, and I was behind her. We saw the three fighters just in front of us, and then we fled on foot down behind the house and into the valley. The three fighters that I saw were all dressed in black. They were shooting at us from two different directions. They had machine guns and were using snipers. My older brother came down and hid with us as well. We hid, but my dad stayed in the house. He was killed in his bed. My aunt, she is an 80-year-old blind woman, was also killed in her room. Her name is Nassiba,”another witness added.

A Barouda resident told Human Rights Watch that 23 of her relatives were missing. She said she saw several of them on the YouTube video: “The oldest son of my brother… [who was executed] would have just been starting school … He has two sons, [one] who is six, and [another] who is four-and-a-half.”

Other residents told Human Rights Watch about cases in which opposition fighters executed adult male family members, and then captured women and children from the family as hostages.

Nine residents from the Lattakia countryside separately told Human Rights Watch that their relatives had been taken hostage. Three of these residents said they saw their relatives in the background of a video published on YouTube on September 7. The video showed civilians from the area held hostage by Abu Suhaib, the Libyan local leader of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar.
Lama Fakih of Human Rights Watch said the rebel abuses in Lattakia “certainly amount to war crimes,” and may even rise to the level of crimes against humanity.
The group said more than 20 groups participated in the Lattakia offensive.
“The high civilian death toll, the nature of the recorded wounds – for example, multiple gunshot or stabbing wounds – and the presence of 43 women, children, and elderly among the dead together indicate that opposition forces either intentionally or indiscriminately killed most of the remaining victims,” the organization added.
In response, the organization urged the concerned governments with influence over these armed opposition groups to press them to end deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks on civilians. “In addition, all governments, companies, and individuals should immediately stop selling or supplying weapons, ammunition, materiel, and funds to these groups, given the compelling evidence that they have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it mentioned.
Governments should also not permit the use of their national territory for shipment of arms, ammunition, and other materiel to these groups, Human Rights Watch said.

It further mentioned that Turkey should increase border patrols and prevent the entry of fighters and arms for groups credibly implicated in systematic human rights violations. “Turkey should also investigate and prosecute, under the principle of universal jurisdiction and in accordance with national laws, anyone in Turkey suspected of committing, being complicit in, or having command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The UN Security Council and Turkey’s allies should call on Turkey in particular to do more to verify that no arms are passing through Turkey to abusive groups, Human Rights Watch said.

Related: 

Both sides in Syria conflict should face ICC trial – HRW director to RT

New Report Says Syrian Rebels Committed War Crimes.

New Report Says Syrian Rebels Committed War Crimes.(Aina).By Karin Laub.

BEIRUT (AP) -- Jihadi-led rebel fighters in Syria killed at least 190 civilians and abducted more than 200 during an offensive against pro-regime villages, committing a war crime, an international human rights group said Friday.

The Aug. 4 attacks on unarmed civilians in more than a dozen villages in the coastal province of Latakia were systematic and could even amount to a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch said in a 105-page report based on a visit to the area a month later.

Witnesses said rebels went house to house, in some cases executing entire families and in other cases killing men and taking women and children hostages. The villagers belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam which forms the backbone of President Bashar Assad's regime -- and which Sunni Muslim extremists consider heretics.

One survivor, Hassan Shebli, said he fled as rebels approached his village of Barouda at dawn, but was forced to leave behind his wife, who was unable to walk without crutches, and his 23-year-old son, who is completely paralyzed.
When Shebli returned days later, after government forces retook the village, he found his wife and son buried near the house and bullet holes and blood splatters in the bedroom, the New York-based group said.
The findings are bound to feed mounting Western unease about the tactics of some of those trying to topple Assad and about the growing role of jihadi rebels, including foreign fighters linked to al-Qaida.
U.N. war crimes investigators have accused both sides in Syria's civil war, now in its third year, of wrongdoing, though they said earlier this year that the scale and intensity of rebel abuses hasn't reached that of the regime.
The new allegations of rebel abuses come at a time when the regime is regaining some international legitimacy because of its apparent cooperation with an internationally mandated program to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014.

Lama Fakih of Human Rights Watch said the rebel abuses in Latakia "certainly amount to war crimes," and may even rise to the level of crimes against humanity.

The group said more than 20 rebel groups participated in the Latakia offensive.
Five groups, including two linked to al-Qaida and others with jihadi leanings, led the campaign, which appeared to have been funded in part by private donations raised in the Persian Gulf, the report said.

Human Rights Watch appealed to the Gulf states to crack down on such money transfers. It also urged Turkey, a rear base for many rebel groups, to prosecute those linked to war crimes and restrict the flow of weapons and fighters. The Western-backed Syrian opposition must cut ties with the groups that led the Latakia offensive, the report said.

Most of the alleged attacks on civilians occurred on Aug. 4, said the group. The campaign began with rebel fighters seizing three regime posts and then the villages. After the regime positions fell, no pro-government troops were left in the Alawite villages. It took government forces two weeks to recapture all the villages.

Human Rights Watch said at least 67 of the 190 civilians slain by the rebels were killed at close range or while trying to flee. There are signs that most of the others were also killed intentionally or indiscriminately, but more investigation is needed, the group said.

The rebels seized more than 200 civilians from the Alawite villages, most of them women and children, and demanded to trade the hostages for prisoners held by the regime.(Video- Are these Syrian Rebel held 'Hostages' still alive? WHERE ARE THEY? )

The HRW report said the rebel groups that led the offensive included Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, both linked to al-Qaida; Ahrar al-Sham; Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar; and Suqqor al-Izz.More here.

Syria jihadists advance toward Turkey border post: NGO .

Syria jihadists advance toward Turkey border post: NGO.(HD).

Hundreds of jihadist fighters from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have advanced in northern Syria towards a border post with Turkey, an NGO said Oct. 2.

"Hundreds of ISIL fighters advanced overnight towards Bab al-Salameh, which is closed from the Turkish side," said Rami Abdul Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The advance comes after fighting between the group and the Northern Storm rebel brigade, which is part of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA).

ISIL has seized the town of Azaz, which lies several kilometres from the border, as well as at least two villages nearby.

Unable to repel the jihadist group, Northern Storm forces pulled back as ISIL fighters moved into the area, Abdul Rahman said.

ISIL fighters entered Azaz on September 18, sparking deadly fighting with FSA forces and prompting Turkey to close its side of the Bab al-Salameh border.

Another brigade brokered a truce between the two sides that saw the Northern Storm withdraw from the town.

Clashes between ISIL and non-jihadist rebel fighters have broken out with increasing regularity, particularly in rebel-held areas of northern Syria.

Syria's rebels initially welcomed the entry of foreign jihadists into the battle against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

But they have turned against the jihadists in some areas, accusing them of abuses and imposing an extreme interpretation of Islam.

Iran offers help in Syria chemical weapons destruction.

Iran offers help in Syria chemical weapons destruction.(Taz).

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran is prepared to help with the enforcement of an agreement reached between Russia and the US on a framework for Syria to annihilate its chemical weapons, PressTV reported.

"We have to move now to the implementation of the Syrian chemical weapons convention," Zarif said in an interview with Al-Monitor website on Tuesday.
"It's going to be tough, we will be prepared to help in order to make sure that [the agreement] is implemented correctly and speedily," the Iranian minister stated.
He emphasized that Iran supported the diplomatic process leading to the US-Russia framework to destroy Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons.

The minister pointed to "positive" Iran-Russia cooperation on Syria to avert the catastrophic outcomes of a war."It was averted through a concerted effort on the part of a number of players, including Iran and Russia, and the United States, and a good number of other players, because there were forces that were pushing for war," Zarif said.

On September 14, Russia and the United States agreed on a deal under which Syria must account for its chemical weapons stockpiles within a week and see them eliminated by the middle of 2014. Syria has agreed to the deal.

Under the US-Russian deal, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) team should finish the work by November. Some arsenals will be eliminated safely and destroyed outside Syria, while others will be destroyed inside the country.

The mission of the OPCW comes after a UN team of chemical weapons inspectors wrapped up its investigation into a deadly chemical attack near Damascus on August 21.

Washington threatened to take military action against Syria over an unsubstantiated claim that the Syrian government had been behind the August attack.
Syria strongly rejected the allegation, saying the attack had been carried out by the foreign-backed militants to draw in military intervention.

Zarif further expressed Iran's readiness to attend the planned Geneva 2 international conference on Syria but "only if asked.""We are not begging to be invited. If they ask us to go, we will go, without any conditions, and we do not accept any conditions," the top Iranian diplomat stated.

On May 7, Russia and the US agreed in the Russian capital, Moscow, to convene an international conference on Syria, which will serve as a follow-up to an earlier Geneva meeting held in June 2012.
However, the date of the event keeps slipping as Syria's opposition coalition remains divided over taking part in the second round of Geneva talks. They have repeatedly refused to take part in the conference unless Syrian President Bashar al-Assad steps down.
The Syrian government has already announced that it is ready to take part in the peace conference without any preconditions in an effort to help end over two years of deadly turmoil in the country.

Syrian FM to UN: 'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'

Syrian FM to UN: 'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'. (RT).

In his speech to the UN Assembly, Muallem on Monday dismissed the definition of the Syrian conflict as a civil war, saying that the Syrian government is engaged in a “war against terrorism that recognizes no values, nor justice, nor equality, and disregards any rights or laws.”

“Confronting this terror in my country requires the international community to act in accordance with relevant resolutions on countering terrorism, particularly the UNSC resolution No. 1373 of 2001,” he said. 

Muallem said that it’s the terrorist groups, including those linked to Al-Qaeda, who are violating Syrian people’s human rights “on a daily basis.”

Any Syrians who do not share the extremist ideology risk being “killed, slaughtered,” with the women also taken as “captives on the basis of perverted concepts of religion that have nothing to do with Islam,” Syria’s FM said. 

“We are the ones who were targeted by poisonous gases in Khan Al-Assal, near Aleppo,” Muallem asserted, saying that Syria asked the UN inspectors to include in its mandate the ability to determine who used chemical weapons, but that it was omitted due to pressure from the US, the UK and France.

Syria had “waited for five months” for the UN chemical inspectors to arrive, and even before the completion of their work “certain states began beating the drums of war,” Muallem said. He added that Syria was committed to fully implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention and cooperate closely with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The Syrian top diplomat went on to question, whether those countries “supplying terrorists” with weapons would “abide by their legal commitments,” saying there “remains the challenge” they would not do so.

Muallem then accused “regional and Western countries that are well known to all of us” of supplying chemical agents to “terrorists who used poisonous gases” in Syria.

Syria calls for “necessary and prompt measures to compel those well-known countries that finance, arm, train and provide a safe haven and passage for terrorists coming from different countries of the world,” Muallem said.


DETAILS TO FOLLOW

Syrian opposition may try to use chemical weapons again - Lavrov.

Syrian opposition may try to use chemical weapons again - Lavrov.(RBTH).

Lavrov: "If we are absolutely confident that any of the sides permitted an abuse or used chemical weapons, we will be ready to make a decision in compliance with Chapter 7 [of the UN Charter],"

Moscow fears that the Syrian opposition will again attempt to use chemical weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"We have serious suspicions that these attempts [of use of war chemicals by the Syrian opposition] will continue," he said in an interview with Kommersant daily published on Monday.

Commenting on U.S. claims that Washington has plenty of evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government Lavrov said: "They did not produce it to us. Meanwhile, we produced the evidence we have [ received through our own channels, from Syrians and from independent sources] that prompts the conclusion that it is handiwork of the opposition."

"At the meeting with the UN Secretary General and with the five permanent members of the Security Council and at the Security Council session itself we stressed that the countries acting as sponsors of the opposition in the political, financial and military respects bear responsibility for it not trying to lay hands on some stocks of chemical weapons, to receive it from somewhere abroad or stage provocations within Syria to shift the blame on the government, arouse general anger and thus try to provoke an outside strike at Syria."
"It seems to me we are on the right track," Lavrov said.

He pointed out that in compliance with the new UN Security Council resolution "any abuses permitted by any side - the government or opposition groups - must be reported to the UN Security Council after a thorough investigation." "This also applies to the use of chemical weapons by, God forbid, anyone," he said.

"If we are absolutely confident that any of the sides permitted an abuse or used chemical weapons, we will be ready to make a decision in compliance with Chapter 7 [of the UN Charter]," he said.
"This is inscribed in our commitments. But I must stress that we will not buy a pig in a poke like when we are now told about the August 21 incident they say it is clear to everyone that it was the handiwork of the government," Lavrov said.

Lavrov : "Russia to Supply personel for Syria Weapons Inspection, some forces "don't obey anyone except Al-Qaeda."

Russia to Supply Personnel for Syria Weapons Inspection.(MT).

Russia will participate "in all parts of the operation" to execute the UN Security Council's binding resolution to clear Syria of chemical weapons, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published Monday.

"We will definitely contribute personnel to the inspection work and participate in other forms of international involvement which might be proposed by the Secretary-General of the UN," Lavrov told Kommersant, adding that Russia would likely provide financial support to the mission as well.

The Security Council on Friday agreed to send a group of 10 to 12 inspectors to Syria as early as Oct. 1 with plans to eliminate the country's chemical weapons stockpiles by mid-2014.

Asked what obstacles the resolution might encounter, Lavrov anticipated "disruptions" brought on by rebels trying to provoke foreign governments into military intervention.

"Here a central role is held by our Western partners and their close allies in the Persian gulf, and in the region as a whole, who sympathize with the rebels. They have influence over them. … A signal must be sent [to the rebels], so that they don't dare to disrupt this process," Lavrov said, although he added that some forces "don't obey anyone except Al-Qaeda."

Lavrov said that governments who support the rebels financially or militarily "are responsible for ensuring that the opposition does not try to lay hand on any chemical weapons stockpiles."

The foreign minister also seemed intent on promoting an image of President Vladimir Putin as a committed advocate of international disarmament.

Putin plans to "do everything to neutralize, bring under international control and subsequently destroy the chemical stockpiles remaining in the world," Lavrov said. The president set himself this task after a discussion with U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg in early September, he added.

IHS Jane Study - Nationalities of Militants in Syria .. in Figures.

IHS Jane Study - Nationalities of Militants in Syria .. in Figures.

According to a study conducted by the British institute for defense, IHS Jane’s, in September and published by the UK Daily Telegraph last week, nearly half of mercenaries in Syria are hard-line militants.

According to the British newspaper, the study showed that the number of insurgents fighting against the Syrian army is estimated at about 100 thousand gunmen distributed to about a thousand armed band, who came from 83 countries, including all Arab countries except Djibouti.

Syria: nationalities of militants.

Estimates by IHP Jane’s’ experts revealed that ten thousand of these gunmen fight to the side of Al-Qaeda affiliated groups, and 30,000 to 35,000 other insurgents are fighting within other hard-line armed groups.
“There are also at least a further 30,000 moderates belonging to groups that have an Islamic character, meaning only a small minority of the rebels are linked to secular or purely nationalist groups,” the daily noted.
Charles Lister, author of the analysis, said: “The insurgency is now dominated by groups which have at least an Islamist viewpoint on the conflict. The idea that it is mostly secular groups leading the opposition is just not borne out.”

The Daily Telegraph pointed out that the study is based on interviews with militants and intelligence estimates.

Syria - The Islamic Rebels form an Alliance Against Restoring the Syrian Republic.

The Islamic Rebels form an Alliance Against Restoring the Syrian Republic.(sismec).

Earlier today, a statement was released in the name of a number of Syrian rebel factions announcing the severing of all ties with Brigadier General Salim Idris’s Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Supreme Military Council (SMC), the Syrian National Council (SNC), and its parent organization, the Supreme National Coalition (the other SNC). The document is entitled “On the Coalition and the Provisional Government” and lists out four major points.

• The first point calls for all military and civilian forces to unite under an Islamic framework is based on the sharia (Islamic Law), making it the sole source of legislation. 
• The second point is that only those members of the Syrian opposition who have “lived their concerns and shared in their sacrifices” are entitled to represent the people of Syria. 
• Thirdly, the signatories consider all coalitions formed outside of Syria as illegitimate and refuse to recognize the provisional government led by Ahmad Tumeh. 
• The final point is a call on all military and civilian opposition factions to unite their ranks, set aside their differences and “put the interests of the nation ahead of those of the individual group.”

Included among the eleven groups that have signed on to this Islamic Alliance are those moderate Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood persuasion (the good baddies—no suicide attacks and their beards aren’t that long) with the closest ties to the SNC, such as Liwa al-Tawhid or the Brigade of Unity (whether the intended meaning of tawhid is unity of the nation or divine singularity depends on the target audience), the Suqour al-Sham Brigades, and Liwa al-Islam; three groups that had formed a coalition back in September of last year called the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front (SILF).

Also joining the alliance are such hardline Salafi Islamists (the moderately good-to-fair baddies—they don’t do suicide bombings but their beards are pretty long) as Ahrar al-Sham and the Fajr Islamic Movement, who had formed a coalition of their own called the Syrian Islamic Front (similar to the SILF but minus the ‘Liberation’). 

Without a doubt, the scariest of militant groups that have joined the alliance are the Salafi-Jihadist Nusra Front (the bad baddies, also known as a US designated terrorist organization—they pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, blow themselves up, and their beards go all the way down) who, in spite of participating in a number of large-scale attacks with other factions, had neither joined the FSA nor had they attached themselves to either of the two more hardline coalitions, the SIF and SILF. They are considered the most extreme and the most militarily capable of opposition groups, comprised mainly of Syrians who fought in the Iraqi insurgency.

Video Fars: "Syria Militants Beheading People, execute women for refusing sexual relationship with the militants."

Fars: "Syria Militants Beheading People, execute women for refusing sexual relationship with the militants."(Warning link contains extreme violence and may not be suitable for some viewers +18)

When will the WARCRIMES committed by the Obama admin backed rebels be discussed?

Syria - Kurdish People’s Defense Units forms another female brigade in Afrin

Syria - Kurdish People’s Defense Units forms another female brigade in Afrin.(Firat).

Women's Defense Units (YPJ) affiliated to People’s Defense Units (YPG) in western Kurdistan have formed another brigade named “Gulê Selmo”.

The formation of the new female brigade was announced with a military ceremony in the city of Afrin on Tuesday.

Speaking at the ceremony, YPJ Commander Jinda Efrini said that they have formed the new brigade in response to the armed groups that have massacred women and committed savage crimes against them under the guise of Islam in the villages of Til Aran and Til Hasıl in Aleppo region.

The Kurdish People Protection Units were set up last July, when the Kurdistan West Democratic Movement (TEV-DEM) –the umbrella body of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the main party among the Syrian Kurds, and other organizations close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)–, took control of some areas of northern Syria as well as Aleppo´s predominantly Kurdish districts of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh.

Although most of the Kurdish militia is made up women and men of Kurdish origin, it´s not infrequent to find fighters of different ethnicities and religions among their ranks.

In Qamishlo –680 kilometers northeast of Damascus– there is a significant number of Christian combatants within the YPG and the enlistment of young Arabs men in Aleppo has also increased since last year.

There are also cases of young Arabs from other parts of the city that have decided to join the Kurdish militia because they are disappointed with FSA´s attitude.

Video - Video provided by Syrian rebels claiming to portray Syrian Army troops firing a chemical weapon munition.

Video - Video provided by Syrian rebels claiming to portray Syrian Army troops (in RG appearing gear) firing a chemical weapon munition. It is obviously not an Iranian Fajr-5. Over at Roque Adventurer blog, observer notes similarity to an Iranian Falaq-2 launcher.HT: UskowiOnIran.

Video - Claimed rebel chemical weapon attack, reported by Iranian journalist inside Syria.