Source: SANA
The Syrian Army and armed forces units, backed by the army air-force, on Sunday continued operations against the Takfiri terrorist organizations in different areas across the country, inflicting heavy losses upon them in the arms and personnel.

Hama

Army units, in cooperation with the supporting forces, re-established full control over Maardes town in the northern countryside of Hama, a military source announced on Sunday.

The source pointed out that a number of terrorists were killed and their weapons and ammunition were destroyed.

The source added that the members of army’s engineering units are working on dismantling the explosive devices that were planted earlier by terrorists before they were killed or fled away towards the farms and orchards north of the town.

Aleppo

29 terrorists from the so-called “Jaish al-Fateh” were killed in an operation carried out by an army unit against their gatherings and positions to the northeast of Aleppo northern province.

The military source told SANA that an army unit carried out concentrated bombardments against gatherings and positions of the terrorist organizations on the axis of al-Majbal, Breej and Masaken Ibraheem Hananou to the northeast of Aleppo City.

The source added that 29 terrorists were killed in the operation and more than 37 others were injured including one of their field commanders, in addition to destroying an amount of arms and ammunition that was in their possession.

Daraa

An army unit targeted fortified positions of two terrorist groups northwest of the Customs’ old building and in al-Nazihin Camp in Daraa al-Balad area in Daraa city, leaving many of their members dead or injured.

Damascus Countryside

Army units killed a number of terrorists and destroy vehicles, some of which equipped with machine guns, as they fire artillery shells on their gatherings in Khan al-Sheeh farms, al-Husseiniyeh, al-Khazrajiyeh and Harfa-Beit Jinn intersection and on others’ vehicles’ movements in al-Tibeh, Zakiyeh and al-Waara in Damascus Countryside.

Quneitra

An army unit clashed with a terrorist group that was attempting to infiltrate and attack one of the military points in al-Naqar al-Gharb site in the area surrounding al-Amal Farms to the south of Mashati Hadar in Quneitra, according to SANA reporter.

The reporter said that the clash ended by eliminating all the members of the terrorist group and destroying their weapons and ammunition.

The reporter added that the army directed concentrated strikes on a terrorist group that was bulldozing agricultural lands and families’ properties to set up fortifications to the southeast of al-Tilal al-Humr to the east of Hadar village, killing the group’s members.

Source: RT
A government-controlled area in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo has been hit by rebel mortar shells. At least seven children came under fire, five of them were killed. An RT crew has been reporting from the local hospital.

A school and adjacent bus stop were hit by mortar shells in the government-controlled Al-Suleymaniya neighborhood of Aleppo, RT’s Murad Gazdiev reported from the Al Razi hospital, where the victims have been brought.

A total of at least seven children and one adult were hit. Two girls, identified as Lama and Maria, died instantly, as they were closest to the spot the shell hit.

A five-year-old boy and his nine-year-old sister, were also among those killed – their bodies seen in the Al Razi hospital.

Another 16-year-old child was killed in a separate attack on Seyf Aldawla neighborhood. Locals told RT crews that four shellings took place in Western Aleppo on Thursday, although this information has not been confirmed yet.

Western Aleppo neighborhoods have often been targeted by rebel fire, with doctors at Al-Razi telling RT crew it has been overcrowded with the injured and on the brink of its capacity to provide emergency care and painkillers. Al-Razi is one of two hospitals in Western Aleppo equipped with emergency rooms.

“Mortar victims are brought here. We might have 15 people brought to the emergency room in less than an hour,” Doctor Mouhammad told RT.

“It’s hard psychologically on the doctors. The stress, the workload, the tension – they all take their toll,” he added.

While filming at the hospital, the RT crew saw the appalling aftermath of indiscriminate fire in Western Aleppo. Ten-year-old boy Hassan, born deaf and mute, lost a foot in shelling two days ago, but survived.

“The day before yesterday he was playing with other boys in al-Hamadaneyah area when the shell landed there,” one of Hassan’s relatives explained.

“One of the boys was torn apart completely and my nephew had his foot blown off.”

Another child, a five-year-old girl named Tasmeem, was hit by a piece of shrapnel from a shell that landed in Western Aleppo on Wednesday. She was brought to the hospital with her intestines hanging out. Doctors have been operating on her, saying she is stable for now.

The ordeal of civilians risking their lives under rebel shelling in government-held western Aleppo does not get much coverage in Western media. UK-based international affairs commentator Jonathan Steele believes it is done to paint Assad as the villain.
“It’s part of ideological bias, […] there’s no doubt that the media seems to be supporting the anti-Assad forces. So they heighten anything being done by Assad in terms of casualties and then minimize what’s being done by enemies of Assad, the rebel groups,” Steele told RT.

RT asked several international humanitarian organizations to comment on the situation in Western Aleppo. Only one, Human Rights Watch, has responded so far, saying they did not have enough information to comment on “this specific attack, or attacks on West Aleppo more broadly at this stage.”

Source: RT
Washington and its allies are using the Syrian crisis to play politics, instead of providing real solutions, Vladimir Putin told French TV. He said that Moscow has put forward an offer to send troops to safeguard aid convoys in Aleppo, while the West accuses Moscow of committing war crimes.

“This is political rhetoric that does not have great significance and does not take into account the real situation in Syria,” Putin told French TV channel TF1 during an interview in the central Russian city of Kovrov, when asked about the accusations that have been leveled by Francois Hollande, UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and the Obama administration.

Putin then accused the West of destabilizing the region – citing the Arab Spring in 2011 as a key flashpoint for tensions that still dominate the Muslim world.

“I believe deeply that some of the responsibility for what is happening in the region in general and in Syria in particular lies especially with our western partners, above all the USA and its allies, including the main European countries,” said Putin. “Remember how everyone rushed to support the Arab Spring? Where is that optimism now? How did it all end? Remember what Libya or Iraq looked like before these countries and their organizations were destroyed as states by our western partners’ forces?”

Putin linked the volatility in the region to the recent spate of large-scale terrorist attacks in the West, which have either been planned or inspired by jihadist groups such as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), which have thrived in the chaos.

“[Before the Arab Spring] these Middle Eastern countries were not examples of democracies as we understand the word today, and there probably was a need and possibility to influence these societies’ organization, the state organization, and the nature of these regimes,” said Putin, who was attending a festival dedicated to Sambo, a Russian combat sport.

“But whatever the case, these states showed no signs of terrorism. They were not a threat for Paris, for the Cote d’Azur, for Belgium, for Russia, or for the United States. Now, they are the source of terrorist threats. Our goal is to prevent the same from happening in Syria.”

Putin also detailed his version of the breakdown of the long-negotiated joint operation between Washington and Moscow in Syria, claiming the key turning point was the September 16 US-led coalition strike on a Syrian army unit, which the Pentagon maintains was accident.

“Our American colleagues told us that this airstrike was made in error. This error cost the lives of 80 people and, also just coincidence, perhaps, ISIS took the offensive immediately afterwards. At the same time, lower down the ranks, at the operations level, one of the American military service personnel said quite frankly that they spent several days preparing this strike. How could they make an error if they were several days in preparation?” said Putin. “This is how our ceasefire agreement ended up broken. Who broke the agreement? Was it us? No.”

Several western powers have since blamed Russia for what they claim was a retaliatory strike on a UN convoy on September 20. Washington has now broken off any bilateral talks with Moscow over Syria.

But Putin says that Russia is still open to helping resolve what the UN has termed the worst humanitarian crisis since the war – which has likely killed over 400,000 people – began five years ago.

It has been proposed that our armed units, Russian military personnel, be deployed on the road to ensure transit safety [for aid convoys to Aleppo]. The Russian military, who are courageous and decisive people, have said they would do it,” said Putin, who said that the initiative, which had not previously been made public, was an “exotic proposal.”

“But I told them that this could only be done jointly with the US, and ordered them to make the proposal. We have proposed this, and they [the Americans] promptly refused. They do not want to deploy their troops there, but they also do not want to pull back opposition groups – who are, in fact, terrorists. What can we do in this situation?”

Despite the downbeat tone of the interview, Putin insisted he was still “optimistic” about a diplomatic solution in Syria, and claimed that the offer to “reschedule” next week’s visit to France, which was canceled following a diplomatic snub by Francois Hollande, was genuine.

“This is not the best moment for official meetings, given the lack of mutual understanding, to put it mildly, that we have over events in Syria, particularly the situation in Aleppo. But we are always open, of course, to any consultations and dialogue on this matter,” said Putin.

By Sahar Abdallah
Source: Muqawamist WordPress
Victory inches closer in eastern Aleppo as terrorist groups — excluding Noureddine al-Zinki and Jabhat al-Nusra, who have rejected talks — have reportedly begun negotiations with the Syrian Arab Army to secure their departure from the city.

If true, this will give our men control of several strategic districts and expedite the conclusion to the fight for Aleppo City we’ve all been waiting for.

Not a coincidence that as this development comes to light, Russia has announced it will begin talks with Washington aimed at « creating the conditions for the resolution of the Syrian crisis ».

Could it be that the American regime finally recognizes how badly it’s been defeated and will finally take Putin up on the offer of an exit door as its Wahhabi proxies collapse in Halab and elsewhere in Syria?

Only time will tell, but there is one thing that’s for certain: The Syrian people and their army’s steadfastness paved the way for this critical moment, as they remain unbroken nearly six years into this brutal « regime change » plot. Every bit of the impending triumph belongs to them.

Sahar Abdallah: Lebanese writer, geopolitical analyst and commentator covering the Arab-Islamic world’s affairs. Follow me on Facebook for daily updates: Sahar Abdallah

Source: South Front
Volunteers of the White Helmets civil defense organization have a double life: they are ‘volunteers’ by day and terrorists by night.

Photos, published online, reveal ‘the second life’ of volunteers of the White Helmets civil defense organization that operates throughout the Syrian territory, controlled by the ‘moderate’ opposition.

According to the photos, the volunteers spend one part of their lives, providing assistance to civilian population, and then transform into members of terrorist groups and shoot at the same civilians.

The White Helmets, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense (SCD), was founded in early 2013 by British security consultant James Le Mesurier. The organization is supported by Mayday Rescue, a foundation, registered in the Netherlands. The SCD was created as “a response to indiscriminate bombardment of civilian communities in rebel-held areas by the Syrian Arab Air Force.” However, according to an official statement, the mission of the White Helmets is “to save the greatest number of lives in the shortest possible time and to minimize further injury to people and damage to property.”

Now volunteers of the White Helmets operate in 114 local civil defense centers across 8 Syrian provinces with high presence of various militant groups: Aleppo, Homs, Idlib, Damascus Countryside, Hama, Latakia, and Daraa.

See more photographs of White Helmets so called volunteers here: Photos of terrorists

H. Zain/ H. Said
Source: SANA
Deir Ezzor, SANA – Aircrafts of the US-led international coalition launched strikes on two main bridges on the Euphrates River in the countryside of the eastern Deir Ezzor province.

SANA reporter in Deir Ezzor said Wednesday that the strikes resulted in the destruction of al-Asharah Bridge that links the river’s two banks in the eastern countryside of the province only few hours after destroying al-Mayadin Bridge.

The destruction of the two bridges aims at disconnecting the areas located on both banks of the river, the reporter noted.

The coalition, which claims to be fighting ISIS terrorist organization, has repeatedly targeted the Syrian infrastructure with the aim to deliberately inflict damage on sites and facilities in the country.

Late last year, the coalition’s aircrafts destroyed two electricity plants in al-Radwaniyeh area and water pumping stations in al-Khafseh area, east of Aleppo, in addition to claiming hundreds of civilian lives.

In a latest targeting that took place on September 17th, the coalition hit a position for the Syrian Arab Army in Thardah Mountain in Deir Ezzor, paving the way for
ISIS terrorists to take over it.