Category: Syria

In the Golan Heights, there is an unassuming aqueduct used for local irrigation. Not so long ago, however, this mundane structure was part of a much grander project, known as ‘Tapline,’ a 754 mile long Trans-Arabian pipeline to transport oil straight from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. When Tapline was constructed in 1947, the idea of creating a shortcut for transporting oil over land made economic sense. This was still true twenty years later, when, despite fierce animosity, Israel and the Arab states cooperated to keep the pipeline running after Israel captured part of the Golan in the 1967 war. But, with the arrival of oil supertankers, it became more economically attractive to load the oil in the Gulf and sail it straight to Western markets, instead of using Tapline. While the Tapline project may have been buried, the idea of building a pipeline through the Middle […]

Click here to view full article at peakoil.com

Rebel fighters carry their weapons as they head toward their positions in the town of Kafr Nabudah, in Hama province, Syria, on which forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad are carrying out offensives to take control of the town, October 11, 2015. Insurgents in Syria are deploying more men and weapons, including significant quantities of anti-tank missiles, to resist ground attacks by the Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russian air strikes, rebels and a monitoring group said on Tuesday. With help from Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iranian soldiers, Syria is trying to drive insurgents from western areas that are crucial to President Bashar al-Assad’s survival, and has recaptured a number of towns in the provinces of Hama and Latakia. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group tracking the war, said a battle continued for control of the town of Kafr Nabuda in Hama province, which […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

AP Photo/Muzaffar Salman DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Insurgents fired two shells at the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital on Tuesday as hundreds of pro-government supporters gathered outside the compound to thank Moscow for its intervention in Syria. An Associated Press reporter was outside the embassy when the first shell slammed into the compound in central Damascus and smoke billowed from inside. As people started running away, another shell hit the area. It was not immediately clear if there were casualties. Opposition fighters in the suburbs of the capital have targeted the embassy in the past but it was not clear if Tuesday’s attack targeted the rally. Before the shelling, the demonstrators had gathered outside the embassy carrying posters of the Russian and Syrian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad, and waved the two countries’ flags. Some held placards that read: "Thanks Russia" and "Syria and Russia are together […]

Click here to view full article at hosted.ap.org

Photo Syrian soldiers under attack Sunday in Hama Province. Government troops advanced there Monday, aided by Russian air power. Credit Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda, via Associated Press BEIRUT, Lebanon — Insurgent commanders say that since Russia began air attacks in support of the Syrian government, they are receiving for the first time bountiful supplies of powerful American-made antitank missiles. With the enhanced insurgent firepower and with Russia steadily raising the number of airstrikes against the government’s opponents, the Syrian conflict is edging closer to an all-out proxy war between the United States and Russia. The increased levels of support have raised morale on both sides of the conflict, broadening war aims and hardening political positions, making a diplomatic settlement all the more unlikely. The American-made TOW antitank missiles began arriving in the region in 2013, through a covert program run by the United States, Saudi Arabia and other allies to […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

MOSCOW, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) — Russia n President Vladimir Putin ruled out on Sunday the possibility of sending Russian troops for ground operations in Russia’s ongoing military intervention in the war-torn Syria . "This is out of the question," Putin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel. He said Russia is not going to do this no matter what happens, and "our Syrian friends know about it." In response to allegations from Western countries and media that the Russian air campaign in Syria has not targeted the Islamic State (IS) and has led to civilian casualties, the Russian leader retorted that Russia conducted enough reconnaissance before launching the counter-terror attacks. "We have continuously carried out aerial and space reconnaissance, comparing the data we obtained from different sources," he said. He added that Moscow notified the United States and […]

Click here to view full article at news.xinhuanet.com

Islamic State fighters have seized villages close to the northern city of Aleppo from rival insurgents, a monitoring group said on Friday, despite an intensifying Russian air-and-sea campaign that Moscow says has targeted the militant group. News of the advance came as the United States announced it was largely abandoning its failed program to train moderate rebels fighting Islamic State and would instead provide arms and equipment directly to rebel leaders and their units on the battlefield. The Obama administration is grappling with a dramatic change in the four-year-old Syrian civil war brought about by Moscow’s intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad. The Russian defense ministry said stepped-up air strikes on rebel positions in Syria killed 300 anti-Assad rebels and that it hit 60 Islamic State targets over the last day. There was no independent confirmation of the death toll. About 200 insurgents were killed in an attack […]

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Islamic State registered significant gains on Friday in the area of northwestern Syria that Russian warplanes have been bombing, taking six villages near Aleppo and threatening to cut off an important route north to the Turkish border. Late in the day, there were reports that rebels had reasserted control in one village. The Kremlin has said its military had entered Syria to fight the Islamic State, but the Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower on insurgent groups aligned against President Bashar al-Assad, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and relatively secular groups like the Free Syrian Army. Rival insurgents say that the Islamic State, also called ISIS or Daesh, is taking advantage. “Daesh has exploited the Russian airstrikes and the preoccupation of the Free Syrian Army in its battles in Hama, and advanced in Aleppo,” one rebel commander told Reuters. […]

Click here to view full article at www.nytimes.com

Click here to view full article at www.ft.com

A frame grab taken from footage released by Russia’s Defence Ministry October 5, 2015, shows airstrikes carried out by the country’s air force in Syria. An intense wave of Russian air strikes hit the Syrian province of Hama and nearby areas in the neighboring province of Idlib on Wednesday, a group monitoring the conflict said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were also heavy surface-to-surface missile bombardments. Russia, a top ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, started carrying out air strikes in Syria last week.

Click here to view full article at www.reuters.com