Cyprus-Forum.com

[yialousa1971]

US Coalition's Downing of Syrian Jet Shows Who's 'Really Fighting Daesh'

On June 18, the Syrian Defense Ministry said that the United States-led coalition shot down its aircraft in the countryside near Raqqa when it was on a combat mission against Daesh.

US Coalition's Downing of Syrian Jet in Raqqa: 'Provocation', 'Limited War' or 'Self-Defense'?
The ministry noted that the coalition’s "actions are aimed at halting the Syrian army and its allies in the fight against terrorism, whereas our army and allies make great progress."
Later, US Central Command confirmed the information saying that it shot down the Syrian government forces' Su-22 aircraft as it was allegedly bombing an area where US-backed rebel forces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were stationed, south of Tabqa in the Raqqa province.

The coalition called its attack on the Syrian army's jet "collective self-defense," adding that it contacted the Russian military to de-escalate the situation after the incident.

The US command underscored that fighting the "Syrian regime," Russian or pro-Damascus forces is not the coalition’s mission, but it "will not hesitate to defend the Coalition or partner forces from any threat."

On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry called the attack "cynical" and "de facto an act of aggression" against a UN member state.

By downing the Syrian jet, the US committed another act of aggression that is not related to the fight against terrorism, according to Konstantin Sivkov, a military expert and president of the Russian Academy for Geopolitical Problems.

"This was a true act of aggression. On the territory of a sovereign state, the US shot down a combat aircraft of this country’s air force," Sivkov told Sputnik.

According to him, such actions are not related to the fight against terrorism and "yet one more example of the US using terrorist groups to implement its own geopolitical ambitions."

Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Council, suggested that the Syrian jet was attacked deliberately and such provocations could happen again.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/2017 ... et-russia/

[yialousa1971]

Russian military halts Syria sky incident prevention interactions with US as of June 19 – Moscow

The Russian Defense Ministry announced it is halting cooperation with its US counterparts in the framework of the Memorandum on the Prevention of Incidents and Ensuring Air Safety in Syria following the coalition’s downing of a Syrian warplane.

The ministry has demanded a thorough investigation by the US military command into the incident with the Syrian government military jet, with the results to be shared with the Russian side.

“In the areas of combat missions of Russian air fleet in Syrian skies, any airborne objects, including aircraft and unmanned vehicles of the [US-led] international coalition, located to the west of the Euphrates River, will be tracked by Russian ground and air defense forces as air targets,” the Russian Ministry of Defense stated.

Downing the military jet within Syrian airspace “cynically” violates the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic, Russian military said.

The actions of the US Air Force are in fact “military aggression” against Syria, the statement adds.

https://www.rt.com/news/393028-syria-russia-us-plane/

[Robin Hood]

Syria conflict: Russia issues warning after US coalition downs jet

Russia has warned the US-led coalition fighting in Syria that it will view its aircraft as targets, after the US shot down a Syrian military plane on Sunday.

The coalition said the Syrian Su-22 had bombed US-backed fighters battling so-called Islamic State in Raqqa province.
Russia, the Syrian government's main ally, also said it was halting communications with the US aimed at preventing such incidents.

The White House says it retains the right to self-defence in Syria.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40329036

The last sentence says it all!!!! US actions in Syria are all against International Law ...... the US HAS NO rights at all in Syria. It has not been attacked, it has not been invited by the elected Government and it has no UN mandate for such actions and that goes for ALL coalition forces in Syria. The only entities that have authority in Syria is the Syrians and the Russians and other invited allies.

The Russian statement is a warning and not a threat as announced by the US against Russia. IMO: I think the US is provoking the Russians to shoot down one of their aircraft as an excuse to ramp up US involvement .... certainly in Syria if not a wider ME scenario. I believe the Russians are well aware of this and, if they have to show their claws it will be a coalition aircraft and not a US aircraft they will eventually bring down. It is almost inevitable this will happen eventually.

Will the US attack Russia in that event ......... I somehow doubt it? There will be a lot of sword rattling and threats from the US and it will be used as an excuse to pour thousands more US ground forces into Syria that will just escalate the situation. This alone would be an act of war by the US.

The above incident has little to do with Syria ..... the main target is IRAN using Syria as the primary killing ground to then justify an attack on Iran when they retaliate !!!!!

https://www.justsecurity.org/42230/trum ... ies-syria/

[repulsewarrior]

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/32264/53/

...interesting reporter, and reporting, from Raqqa, she interviews Brett McGurk, Trump's envoy there.

[Robin Hood]

How many times was Paphitis told he was looking at the conflict in Syria through a haze of propaganda ............. I think Tolstoy has him nailed. Pity Paphitis has stopped posting as since he went, the Forum is dying through lack of interest in debate/argument!

"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow- witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him." - Leo Tolstoy

Mass Media Siege: Comparing Coverage Of Mosul and Aleppo - By Media Lens

When Russian and Syrian forces were bombarding 'rebel'-held East Aleppo last year, newspapers and television screens were full of anguished reporting about the plight of civilians killed, injured, trapped, traumatised or desperately fleeing. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, both Official Enemies, were denounced and demonised, in accordance with the usual propaganda script. One piece in the Evening Standard described Assad as a 'monster' and a Boris Johnson column in the Telegraph referred to both Putin and Assad as 'the Devil'.
As the respected veteran reporter Patrick Cockburn put it:

'The partisan reporting of the siege of East Aleppo presented it as a battle between good and evil: The Lord of the Rings, with Assad and Putin as Saruman and Sauron.'

This, he said, was 'the nadir of Western media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Syria.' Media reporting focused laser-like on 'Last calls (or messages or tweets) from Aleppo'. There were heart-breaking accounts of families, children, elderly people, all caught up in dreadful conditions that could be pinned on the 'brutal' Assad and his 'regime'; endless photographs depicting grief and suffering that tore at one's psyche.

By contrast, there was little of this evident in media coverage as the Iraqi city of Mosul, with a population of around one million, was being pulverised by the US-led 'coalition' from 2015; particularly since the massive assault launched last October to 'liberate' the city from ISIS, with 'victory' declared a few days ago. Most pointedly, western media coverage has not, of course, demonised the US for inflicting mass death and suffering.

As Cockburn pointed out, there were 'many similarities between the sieges of Mosul and East Aleppo, but they were reported very differently'.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47471.htm

Now the truth is coming out but, as the article points out. you will never read about it or see it on the BBC, so people continue to have beliefs and opinions shrouded in the mists of propaganda. Now the West is trying to do the same job on Russia!

[Robin Hood]

As the evidence starts to emerge it shows just how far off the mark Paphits was with his boasting and bravado!

Covering Up the Massacre of Mosul- By Nicolas J S Davies August 21, 2017

When Russia and Syria killed civilians in driving Al Qaeda forces out of Aleppo, U.S. officials and media shouted “war crimes.” But the U.S.-led bombardment of Iraq’s Mosul got a different response.

Iraqi Kurdish military intelligence reports have estimated that the nine-month-long U.S.-Iraqi siege and bombardment of Mosul to oust Islamic State forces killed 40,000 civilians. This is the most realistic estimate so far of the civilian death toll in Mosul.

But even this is likely to be an underestimate of the true number of civilians killed. No serious, objective study has been conducted to count the dead in Mosul, and studies in other war zones have invariably found numbers of dead that exceeded previous estimates by as much as 20 to one, as a United Nations-backed Truth Commission did in Guatemala after the end of its civil war. In Iraq, epidemiological studies in 2004 and 2006 revealed a post-invasion death toll that was about 12 times higher than previous estimates.

Full article:

https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/21/covering-up-the-massacre-of-mosul/

[Robin Hood]

It looks as if within a few weeks ISIS will be wiped out in Syria.

There are a couple of enclaves of Syrian Opposition Groups but they too are expected to lay down their arms when SAA confronts them. So, apart from Raqqa ..... the war is almost won!

Syria Summary - Towards The End Of The Caliphate

This map from the last Syria summary shows the forming of two cauldrons north and north-west of Palmyra. ISIS forces there were enclosed by the Syrian army progressing eastwards on several axes.

Ten days later the most eastward of those cauldrons has been eliminated.

The Syrian army progresses further east and continues to move onto Deir Ezzor on three axes.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/08/syria-summary-towards-the-end-of-the-caliphate.html

[repulsewarrior]

...interesting link; food for thought.

[repulsewarrior]

...so says the UN.

In the first UN report to officially blame Damascus, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said it had gathered an "extensive body of information" showing the Syrian airforce was behind the horrific sarin gas attack on April 4.

"All evidence available leads the Commission to conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe Syrian forces dropped an aerial bomb dispersing sarin in Khan Sheikhun,"



Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/201 ... z4rwdAxSX8

[Robin Hood]

...so says the UN.

In the first UN report to officially blame Damascus, the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said it had gathered an "extensive body of information" showing the Syrian airforce was behind the horrific sarin gas attack on April 4.

"All evidence available leads the Commission to conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe Syrian forces dropped an aerial bomb dispersing sarin in Khan Sheikhoun,"

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/201 ... z4rwdAxSX8

The UN recently announced that around 600,000 Syrian refugees had returned to areas of Syria now under government control, of those 40,000 have returned to Aleppo. Although I believe Ghouta is still held by terrorists as are areas of Idlib referred to in the report.

The UN sources are all people in the rebel held areas. If you are not a rebel or a sympathiser/supporter you don’t last very long in these areas ....... so IMO the sources are highly questionable. Their sources have to be ‘rebels’ as there are no independent sources in either area. Independent sources ...... are usually murdered. So IMO the report lacks credibility as well as defying common sense. It also contradicts assessments by people qualified to express their opinions with credibility, who have also provided detailed analyses.

I really have to question why, if this idea that Assad has a penchant for gassing and indiscriminately murdering his own people, is true, that they would return at all, let alone to areas controlled by the very same government that reports like this condemn for war crimes. It is completely illogical. I’ll let Eva Bartlett explain ............

Eva Bartlett video 8 mins..... addressing a reporter in a UN press conference. She has a point, she has been there, he has not and he could not even name his ‘credible’ sources, because as the lady points out ......... “There aren’t any!”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPoNkxsRJww

Eva Bartlett versus arrogance ............. amusing, but raises the blood pressure ! Who do you find more credible ? How different the story was to this arrogant morons version of events, when the residents eventually came out of Eastern Aleppo after four years of occupation by the terrorists. History has proved Eva Bartlett to have been 100% correct.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JFEmCKHVME