Syria

Submitted by Claire Bernish via TheAntiMedia.org,

On the same day Syrian President Bashar al-Assad claimed his fighters would retake the entire country “without hesitation,”unnamed American defense officials revealed to the Daily Beast that the same Iraqi militias who were previously fighting ISIL alongside the U.S. are now actively collaborating with Russian and Iranian forces to “crush” American-backed rebels in Aleppo. According to the report:

As we documented last autumn in “Syria Showdown: Russia, Iran Rally Forces, US Rearms Rebels As ‘Promised’ Battle For Aleppo Begins,” Syria’s largest city has been among the hardest hit of the country’s urban centers over the course of the last five years.

Newsweek documented the destruction in a series of stark and profoundly indelible images in 2012, perhaps the most striking of which was this:

Recapturing the city is critical to restoring Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.

The US-led coalition is competing with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in a race to reach and liberate Raqqa from ISIS. Should the SAA fail to liberate Raqqa from the terrorists then Syria could be permanently broken up, with the help of a U.S. led coalition that includes Kurdish, Turkish, Saudi and western agendas. Sputnik reports: Over the last few days, the 555th Brigade of the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division, backed by pro-government militias, has continued to gain ground in northeast Syria. It has moved toward the Al-Raqqa Governorate’s strategic Tabaqa Military Airport.

Russia have deployed a new cruise missile warship towards Syria on Saturday armed with Kalibr anti-ship missiles.  The Russian Defense Ministry’s head of Black Sea Fleet’s information department confirmed that the Zeleny Dol Buyan-M class corvette departed Russia’s permanent naval task force. “Today, the Zeleny Dol missile corvette and the Kovrovets minesweeper of the Black Sea Fleet left [the Crimean port of] Sevastopol to begin carrying out tasks as part of Russia’s permanent naval task force in the Mediterranean,” Vyacheslav Trukhachev said.

As Turkey continues to build up its military presence on the Syrian border, Saudi Arabia have announced their plans to launch a ground operation in Syria alongside the the United States. Russia have accused both countries of using Syria as an excuse to wage a coordinated attack against Russia.  The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the possibility of a large-scale war in the Middle East is almost inevitable now that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have entered the picture.