Source: SyriaNews
Trump Forces along with ISIS (ISIL, Daesh, al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant) terrorist groups carried out a coordinated attack against an SAA outpost in Al Bukamal area, southeast of Deir Ezzor.

The ‘ISIS Airforce’ aka ‘Illegal International Coalition to Support ISIS’ bombed an artillery post of the Syrian Arab Army in the Sukkariyeh area, west of Al bukamal.

US-led coalition attack was at 11:30 pm yesterday Saturday evening, and caused the injuring of two SAA soldiers and the destroying of the artillery cannon.

Simultaneously, herds of ISIS terrorists carried out an attack against Syrian Arab Army posts positioned in the area from the Baghouz axis, where the Trump Forces Murdered 5 children and 3 women end of last month, east of the Euphrates adjacent to the borders with Iraq.

The SAA units operating in the area have repelled US-sponsored ISIS attacks and killed and injured most of the ISIS attackers.

This US-led illegal coalition attack against a Syrian Arab Army unit is usually accustomed with attacks by ISIS terrorists or to secure their retreating terrorists from battlefronts with the SAA troops.

A previous similar attack by the US-led Coalition on SAA units in Al-Bukamal area was merely 8 months ago, in similar tactics and purposes by the illegal Coalition.

When the US-led illegal Coalition cannot attack SAA or any of its allies posts inside Syria and protecting the Syria people, the Coalition murders the Syrian people directly. A long list of such crimes against humanity committed in the past few months in the province of Deir Ezzor alone of such nature.

This comes in addition to previous war crimes committed by the US-led coalition in Raqqa city which was ‘completely obliterated, and not ‘liberated from ISIS’ as they claimed from ISIS.

The Syrian Arab Army and its allies were on the verge of cleaning the entire province of Deir Ezzor during their swift advance in the region in late 2017, before the US and its cronies in the illegal coalition jumped to the rescue of ISIS and drew a line to prevent the SAA from chasing ISIS, with the Russian approval, one of the fatal Russian miscalculations in the Syrian Crisis.

By Finian Cunningham
Source: Strategic Culture
With unseemly haste, US news media leapt on the killing of four American military personnel in Syria as a way to undermine President Donald Trump’s plan to withdraw troops from that country.

The deadly attack in the northern city of Manbij, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, was reported to have been carried out by a suicide bomber. The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group reportedly claimed responsibility, but the group routinely makes such claims which often turn out to be false.

The American military personnel were said to be on a routine patrol of Manbij where US forces have been backing Kurdish militants in a purported campaign against ISIS and other terror groups.

An explosion at a restaurant resulted in two US troops and two Pentagon civilian officials being killed, along with more than a dozen other victims. Three other US military persons were among those injured.

US media highlighted the bombing as the biggest single death toll of American forces in Syria since they began operations in the country nearly four years ago.

The US and Kurdish militia have been in control of Manbij for over two years. It is one of the main sites from where American troops are to withdraw under Trump’s exit plan, which he announced on December 19.

Following the bombing, the New York Times headlined: “ISIS Attack in Syria Kills 4 Americans, Raising Worries about Troop Withdrawal”. The report goes on, “the news prompted calls from Republicans and Democrats for President Trump to reconsider his plans to withdraw troops from the country.”

A more pointed headline in The Washington Post was: “Killing of 4 Americans in Syria Throws Spotlight on Trump’s Policy”.

The Post editorialized, “the bombing showed that [ISIS] is likely to be a force to be reckoned with in Syria for the foreseeable future.” It quoted politicians in Washington claiming the “bombing deaths… were a direct result of a foolish and abrupt departure announcement [by Trump], and made the case for staying.”

Democrat Senator Jack Reed, who sits on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, said: “From the beginning, I thought the president was wrong [in ordering the withdrawal]. It was a strategic mistake for the whole region.”

With macabre smugness, anti-Trump politicians and news media appeared to exploit the death of US troops in Manbij to score points against Trump.

The president’s claims made just before Christmas of having defeated ISIS were widely replayed following the Manbij attack this week by way of ridiculing Trump’s order to pullout US troops from Syria.

Nevertheless, despite the deaths, Trump and his Vice President Mike Pence stated they were still committed to bring the 2,000 or so US troops home. Some military figures also went on US media to defend Trump’s pullout plan in spite of the terror attack in Manbij.

There clearly is a serious division in Washington over Trump’s policy on Syria. For Democrats and supportive media outlets, anything Trump does is to be opposed. But there are also elements within the military and intelligence nexus which are implacably against, what they see as, his “capitulation to Russia and Iran” in Syria. That was partly why his Defense Secretary James Mattis resigned days after Trump made his announced withdrawal at the end of last month.

Having invested years and money in regime-change machinations in Syria, there is bound to be US military and intelligence cabals which are resistant to Trump’s move to pack up. Not that Trump’s move portends a peace dividend for the region. It is more a “tactical change” for how US imperialism operates in the Middle East, as his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Cairo last week.

That is why Trump’s order to take troops out of Syria may not be a clear-cut withdrawal. His National Security adviser John Bolton on a tour of the Middle East last week has already tried to undermine Trump by attaching all sorts of vague conditions to the troop pullout. Bolton and Pompeo have talked about the need to ensure the total defeat of ISIS and of the countering of Iranian presence in Syria.

This brings up the question of who may have carried out the bombing in Manbij? Was it really a suicide bomber? Was it really ISIS? Several observers have pointed out that ISIS have not had any presence in Manbij for the past two years since the Americans and Kurds took control of the city.

As always, the key question arises: who stands to benefit from the killing of the American troops? The scale of the attack suggests it was carried out with a sharp political message intended for Trump.

One potential beneficiary are the Kurdish militants who are being abandoned by the putative US withdrawal. Without their American sponsor on the ground, the Kurds are in danger of Turkish forces launching cross-border operations to wipe them out, as Ankara has vowed to do. A Machiavellian Kurdish calculation could be to “disprove” Trump about “ISIS being defeated”, and that US forces are needed to prevent any resurgence of the terror group in Manbij and northeast Syria.

Another sinister player is the CIA or some other element of US military intelligence. It is certainly not beyond the realm of plausibility that the CIA could facilitate such an atrocity against American personnel in order to discredit Trump’s withdrawal plan.

Certainly, the way the anti-Trump media in the US reacted with such alacrity and concerted talking points suggests there was something a bit too convenient about the massacre.

It would in fact be naive to not suspect that the CIA could have pulled off such a false flag in Manbij. As in 1950s Vietnam, as told by Graham Greene in ‘The Quiet American’, the CIA have been doing such dirty tricks with bombing atrocities and assassinations for decades in order to precipitate wars in foreign countries that the agency calculates are in America’s geopolitical interests.

By Miri Wood
Source: Syria News
Trump — the Real Donald — tweeted that the US has defeated ISIS in Syria. This was the “only reason for being there” since taking office. The tweet was posted at 0629 EST. Twelve hours later, it has elicited 25,000 comments, 18 million search engine results (mostly yellow journalistic reporting), and mass hysteria.

Twelve hours later, and Sarah Sanders’ White House Press Briefing is still not available online. A few journals and wire services have interviewed a few anonymous “official sources,” and the story line is that “all [illegal] State Department personnel in Syria will be evacuated from the country within 24 hours” and [illegal] US ground troops will leave in 30 or 60 or 100 days — upon the completion of a mysterious “final operation against ISIS.”

This is considered worthy of being called “Immediately” in headlines.

This breaking news comes within days of neocon John Bolton and Pentagon Dr. Strangelove sources stating that the US will [illegally] occupy the Syrian Arab Republic for forever.

The condemnation of this vague possibility is inversely proportional to the wild, war criminal support showered upon Trump, when he bombed Syrian soldiers at the request of al-Qaeda in the S.A.R. Deep state media were so star-stricken that nobody noticed that the US president bombed Syria based on “fake news CNN,” and specifically on CNN’s interview with a British illegal whose medical license was revoked in his homeland, because of his terrorist activities.

MSM reporting continues to ignore the fact that the US has been illegally in Syria, that the US has breached international law.

US strikes in Syria may be lawful if Syria consents to the use of force in their territory. If Syria does not consent, the strikes would violate international law, unless the US demonstrates that the strikes were taken in self-defense.

Sarah Knuckey, international lawyer and Professor at Columbia Law School
Snickering over Trump taking credit for the ‘defeat of ISIS’ is similar to the snickering over his sulfuric speech before the UNGA, in September. Ignored were his threats of perpetual war to all countries not amenable to becoming US satellites; instead, media guffawed over his bringing fudged, domestic employment stats to the United Nations. Intentionally omitted is that ISIS was created by the US (as was its parent, al Qaeda) and that the US has been protecting ISIS in Syria since the Obama administration ‘accidentally’ slaughtered 83 soldiers in September 2016.

Of course, no member of deep state would dare let slip that ISIS is almost gone, eradicated by the Syrian Arab Army & allies, despite the most heinous international conspiracy in history.

The massive pile-on against Trump’s open-ended plan to leave Syria exudes the stench that another nefarious atrocity against the SAR might be around the corner. Has-beens of the Hollywood 5th column are tweeting as though they were Joseph McCarthy. Scant moments after the Trump tweet, a neo-colonialist from NBC was on the air, live, chirping about the terrific time he had while illegally in Syria with American invaders…as this were the most normal and legitimate thing in the world.

Hours later, a fraud liberal from the fraud liberal New Yorker, whined that a US official had just her permission “to meet up with American troops in Syria sometime in the spring.”

Ha’aretz, whose antipathy toward Trump dates back to when he was PEOTUS, outdid itself with chutzpah and amnesia. Somehow, Israel’s leading news source forgets that Israel has bragged about giving state of the art trauma care to ISIS terrorists on the occupied Golan Heights, and also in Israeli hospitals.

“Ha’aretz also forgets that Israel was al-Qaeda’s first air force against Syria:
“Way back in May 2013, when al Qaeda only used ‘FSA,’ Israel coordinated a massive bombing with the FSA terrorists so they could video the atrocity with their state of the art photographic equipment.”

Third generation gusano and US Senator Marco Rubio has also forgotten that Israel tends to the ISIS wounded, crying that a withdrawal of illicit US troops “will have grave consequences for the US and Israel…”.

Representative Adam Kinzinger announced, “I’m speechless,” and then proceeded to prove himself a liar, giving interviews throughout the day. Kinzinger has spent more of his time as a congressman supporting al Qaeda in Syria, than supporting his constituents in Illinois.

Regarding the floods of crocodile tears by the imperialist politicians and journalists over the faux, potential betrayal of the “Kurds,” let it not be forgotten that the SDF was created by Obama as a foreign mercenary militia, with armed, separatist, terrorist, traitorous Ziokurd peons being used for marketing foreign wetworkersto Westerners who love rooting for ‘the little guy’ in every country not their own.

At 1510, the Real Donald Trump uploaded a video to Twitter. He offered no timetable, no details, no mention of removing NATO operatives from the al-Tabqa Dam that they have occupied and held hostage since 11 February 2013. He merely repeated that the [illicit and illegal] “troops are coming home.”

Source: Press TV
The Syrian government has demanded an independent and international mechanism to investigate the crimes being perpetrated against civilians by the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters addressed to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the rotating president of the UN Security Council Ma Zhaoxu on Saturday, stated that the Friday airstrikes by the US-led coalition against the eastern town of Hajin near the Iraqi border, which claimed the lives of at least 26 local civilians, including 14 children, once again exposed Washington’s false claims of combating terrorism and revealed that the military alliance had no respect whatsoever for the lives of innocent people and international law.

The letters added that the US-led coalition’s goals were to kill as many Syrian people as possible, further destroy Syria’s infrastructure, undermine the country’s future, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and hinder a political settlement of the ongoing crisis.

“All these attempts constitute a blatant violation of all United Nations Security Council resolutions on Syria,” the Syrian foreign ministry said.

“Whilst the United States and its allies continue to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, the Security Council has maintained an awkward silence and failed to take any measure to stop these misdeeds,” it pointed out.

The Syrian foreign ministry highlighted that the Damascus government had on several occasions pointed to the US-led coalition’s systematically barbaric attacks against innocent civilians, and its use of internationally banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs.

The ministry then called on the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities, and propose an independent and international mechanism to help stop the coalition’s crimes, investigate them and punish their perpetrators.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

By Ruaa al-Jazaeri
Source: SANA
Warplanes of the US-led international coalition carried out a new massacre in the town of Hajin, 110 km to the east of Deir Ezzor City.

Local sources told SANA that over the past few hours, warplanes of the US-led coalition intensified their aggression against Hajin town as they targeted civilians’ houses with tens of sorties claiming the lives of at least 26 civilians, some of them women and children, in addition to inuring scores and causing huge damage to the houses.

The sources added that the number of martyrs is likely to rise due to the continued sorties and the difficulty in pulling the wounded out of the rubble, in addition to the critical health condition of many of them.

The sources noted that the coalition shells the civilians’ houses in the town intentionally under the pretext of targeting Daesh (ISIS) terrorists, indicating that the continued aggression launched by the coalition has displaced hundreds of civilians whose houses have been destroyed.

Source: 21st Century Wire
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) restarted their operation in the eastern countryside of the Homs Governorate after a fierce battle with the Islamic State (ISIS) the week prior.

Led by their Republican Guard forces, the Syrian Arab Army restarted their operation this week by targeting a number of areas belonging to the Islamic State terrorists in the Badiya Al-Sham region of east Homs.

According to Anna News, the Syrian Arab Army has been clearing several Islamic State hideouts and trenches that have been used to launch attacks against the government forces in the past.

The Syrian Arab Army has been engaged in a fierce battle with the last remaining Islamic State terrorists that are still active at this front in the eastern countryside of the Homs Governorate.