Opposition counteroffensive stalls against Iran-backed forces, SW Aleppo

Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah T-72 type main battle tank, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15

According to Leith Fadel at Al-Masdar News, dated 26NOV15:

The Islamist rebels from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jaysh Al-Islam, and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham launched a large-scale offensive in southern Aleppo earlier this week, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s frontline defenses at the multiple hilltops that surround the

Over the past 6 days in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, and Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki have repeatedly tried to bypass the Syrian Armed Forces’ frontline defenses at the imperative village of Banes and Kafr Haddad; this powerful assault from the Islamist rebel factions has resulted in the capture of Kafr Haddad’s southern Sector, despite the Islamist rebels declaring this village as “liberated”.

With the ongoing firefights near Banes and Kafr Haddad, the Islamist rebels attempted to take advantage of the Syrian Arab Army’s brief hiatus from the battlefield in order to allow their soldiers to take leave for a few days before going back to battle.

According to a battlefield journalist that is embedded with the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels have been unable to make any significant progress in the last 72 hours after failing to take Banes from the soldiers entrenched in this village.

The Islamist rebel offensive has proved to be rather unsuccessful thus far as several of their combatants have been reportedly killed by the Syrian Armed Forces.

COMMENTARY: Opposition forces committed not inconsiderable forces in launching this counteroffensive. While sections of theIRGC-QF line appeared to buckle, no opposition breakthrough appears to have been achieved.

What's more, with R+5 (Russia, Syria, Iran, Lebanese Hezbullah, Iraqi PMF and Syrian NDF) forces attacking at multiple axes and with the opposition committing much needed military resources to this now stalled counteroffensive, attritional losses at the Aleppo front as well as multiple stress points being applied may now be stretching opposition force resources as never before.

Iran-backed Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah T-72 type main battle tank movement through countryside village, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

Iran-backed Hezbollah force member equipped with Iran-manufactured AM50 anti-materiel sniper rifle, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

Iran-backed Hezbollah force member equipped with SPG-9 Kopye (“Spear”) recoilless gun, SW Aleppo front. Social media imagery emerging 24NOV15.

UNSC unanimously adopts French-proposed resolution against ISIL

File photo: United Nations Security Council in session  [photo: UN.org]

According to the UN News Centre, dated 20NOV15:

The United Nations Security Council this evening called on all countries that can do so to take the war on terrorism to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and destroy its safe haven, warning that the group intends to mount further terror attacks like those that devastated Paris and Beirut last week.

In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body declared the group’s terrorist attacks abroad “a global and unprecedented threat to international peace and security” following the “horrifying terrorist attacks” it perpetrated recently in Sousse (Tunisia), Ankara (Turkey), over Sinai (Egypt) with the downing of a Russian plane, and in Beirut and Paris.

It warned that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or Da’esh as it is also known, “has the capability and intention to carry out” further strikes and called upon “Member States that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law” on its territory.

Condemning “in the strongest terms” ISIL and other terrorist groups in the region such Al-Nusrah Front, the Council Member States “to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Iraq and Syria.”

It called on Member States to intensify efforts to stem the flow of foreign terrorist fighters to Iraq and Syria and to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism, and reaffirmed that those responsible for terrorist acts, violations of international humanitarian law or violations or abuses of human rights must be held accountable.

COMMENTARY: The full text of the resolution hadn't been uploaded by the UN at the time of this posting but it appears the the government of the Syrian Arab Republic was not condemned in the resolution, which is significant. According to Russia Today, dated 20NOV15:

Syria’s UN Ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, hinted prior to Friday’s vote that this resolution was long overdue. “Welcome to everybody who finally woke up and joined the club of combating terrorists.”

Meanwhile, Russia is continuing its work on a draft resolution proposing international military campaigns to fight against Islamic State. The current text is an updated version of a document submitted on September 30.

Previously on 19NOV15 the UNGA human rights committee Thursday adopted a Saudi-proposed resolution condemning certain foreign interventions in Syria

According to Reuters, dated 19NOV15:

The U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee Thursday adopted a Saudi-drafted resolution condemning Iranian and Russian intervention in Syria, a decision that the Syrian and Iranian delegations rejected as unhelpful and unjustified. The nonbinding resolution, authored by Saudi Arabia and sponsored by Qatar and other Arab nations, the United States and other Western powers, passed by the 193-nation assembly’s third committee.

There were 115 votes in favor, 15 against and 51 abstentions.

Without explicitly naming Russia, it said the General Assembly “strongly condemns all attacks against the Syrian moderate opposition and calls for their immediate cessation, given that such attacks benefit so-called ISIS and other terrorist groups, such as Al-Nusra Front.”

The resolution’s language is clearly aimed at Russia, which has been bombing opposition forces in Syria for two months. Moscow says it is attacking ISIS but Western officials say they have targeted other rebel forces and Western-backed groups.

The resolution also condemned the presence in Syria of “all foreign terrorist fighters ... and foreign forces fighting on behalf of the Syrian regime, particularly the Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [of Iran] and other groups such as Hezbollah.”

[…]

The resolution demands foreign militias leave Syria immediately.

It also blasts ISIS and other Islamist militant groups for rights abuses and atrocities.

But most of the criticism in the resolution is aimed at the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom Western and many Arab nations would like to see ousted.

COMMENTARY: Predictably, the Syrians and Iranians rejected the resolution. The Iranian response was put forward by Iran’s Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Gholam Hossein Dehqani. According to PressTV, dated 20NOV15:

Dehqani warned of the “adverse consequences” of the resolution on the UN reputation and said Iranian military forces are present in Syria upon an official request by the Syrian government to provide consultations to the war-hit country.

“Therefore, the adoption of such a text is a violation of international regulations and a breach of governments’ right to establish peace in their own territory,” the Iranian envoy pointed out.

He said such claims are aimed at taking revenge against forces that have so far played the most effective role in the battle against terrorism and extremism, adding that Daesh terrorists would have overran more areas in the Middle East in the absence of such forces.

The Iranian diplomat once again reiterated that the resolution would act as an award for extremists and terrorists as well as all those who use financial and logistical resources to spread extremist and terrorist ideologies.

The Syrian response was put forward by Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari. According to Reuters, dated 19NOV15:

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari rejected the resolution and accused its Saudi authors of hypocrisy about what he said are widespread human rights in the kingdom. He referred to "decapitation and flogging in public squares," saying they were like abuses of Islamic State.

He accused the Saudis, along with Qatar and Turkey, of supporting what he said were terrorists in Syria.

The delegates of Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia rejected the charges.

Russian-Supported Syrian Coalition Advances South of Aleppo

Russian-supported offensive by the Syrian army and its militia backed by the Quds Force and IRGC troops, the Hezbollah and other foreign Shia fighters began on Friday to retake territory around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, Reuters reported.

The Aleppo campaign is concentrated so far to clear rebel areas south of Aleppo. The city itself, which is home to 2 million people, is divided between government forces and rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the coalition had captured three villages amid fierce fighting. Coalition troops are also attempting to advance to the east of Aleppo towards Kweires military airport to break a siege on the base. (Reuters, 17 October)

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the army captured the village of Huwaija on the way to Kweires. The Observatory said intense fighting in Huwaija and several other villages nearby is taking place.

Meanwhile, the pro-government coalition continues countering rebel forces in provinces of Hama, Idlib, Latakia and areas north of Homs City. The Observatory reported heavy Russian bombardment around Homs City. The Observatory said 72 people, including 31 women and children, were killed in the past 48 hours in the assault in Homs.

File photo: The city of Aleppo; 29 July 2015 (George Ourfalian/AFP)

Iran: ‘Axis of Resistance’ Should Block U.S. Influence in Region

Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s senior advisor for foreign affairs and former Iran’s foreign minister, said Sunday in Tehran that the "Axis of Resistance," which comprised of Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah, should block U.S. influence in the region. Velayati said the duty of the Axis is “not only to fight against the dominance of foreigners in their countries, but also to cut the influence of the U.S. in the region.” (IRIB/Press TV, 16 August)

Velayati added that "mercenaries" are currently fighting in Muslim countries to materialize the goals of the United States. Velayati probably does not count Quds Force-led foreign Shia militias fighting in Syria to save Assad’s regime among the "mercenaries," nor is he probably counting the Iranians and Lebanese fighting in the country as foreigners. Velayati also did not address the issue of what has happened to the "Axis of Resistance" now that the Syrian government has lost control over most of the country.

Photo credit: Ali Akbar Velayati, Khamenei’s senior advisor, delivers a speech in Tehran; 16 August 2015 (IRIB/Press TV)

Iran, Turkey Broker Rare Truce in Syria

Syria’s warring parties declared a 48-hour ceasefire in two frontline areas on Wednesday after unprecedented mediation from Turkey and Iran, Reuters reported.

The ceasefire halted fighting in the rebel-held town of Zabadani between the insurgents on one hand and the Quds Force, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and Syrian army on the other. The truce also involves a pair of Alawite villages still controlled by the regime in Idlib countryside, al-Foua and Kefraya. The ceasefire could be extended to give time for ongoing negotiations aimed at evacuating civilians and combatants. (Reuters, 12 August)

Officials close to the Syrian regime have told Reuters that the truce was a result of mediation by Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Iran, which backs the regime. The truce began at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday.

Zabadani is about 45 km (30 miles) northwest of Damascus and has been the focus of a weeks-long ferocious fighting between Iran-led coalition forces and the Syrian opposition.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is in Damascus today to discuss Iran’s plans to end the seemingly unending conflict now at its fifth year.

File photo: Smoke rises after the government shelling of Old Aleppo’s Kadi Askar area, controlled by the opposition; 1 August 2015 (Abdalrahman Ismail/Reuters)
 

Hezbollah tour of Qalamoun mountain positions captured from al-Qaeda

Iranian media imagery of Hezbollah tour to foreign journalists of recent gained positions captured from Aal-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front, at the Qalamoun mountains:

Hezbollah soldiers equipped with AKS-74U “Krinkov” short assault rifles

Hezbollah soldier equipped with AKS-74U “Krinkov” short assault rifle

Study of current Hezbollah outfitting of digital camouflage BDUs, ACB-style combat boots and field gear

Hezbollah soldier equipped with AKMS-type assault rifle

Hezbollah firing position for DShKM type 12.7mm heavy machine gun 

Hezbollah light pickup truck mounted multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) and infantry mortar

Abandoned al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front position, Qalamoun mountains

Abandoned al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front improvised lodging, Qalamoun mountains

Abandoned al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front improvised lodging, Qalamoun mountains

Abandoned al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front position, Qalamoun mountains

Al-Qaeda discarded Kornet missile tube formerly containing missile of the 9M133-1 high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) type.

Al-Qaeda discarded remains of SPG-9 recoilless gun round

Al-Qaeda abandoned 1980s Hyundai H-100 pick-up truck

Found inside above al-Qaeda abandoned vehicle: M72 LAW 66 mm rocket launcher

Al-Qaeda discarded remains of chainsaw and automotive alternator

Photos: Islamic Republic News Agency

Syrian Army, Hezbollah Forces Rapidly Advance into Southern Syria

Major Military Operation Believed to Be Directed by Quds Force

The Syrian Army, bolstered by the Lebanese Hezbollah, continued its rapid advance into southern Syria today, recapturing strategic hilltops and key swaths of territory lost last year to rebel groups including al-Nusra. Iran’s Quds Force is believed to have directed the major military operation.

“Regime troops and their Hezbollah-led allied are advancing in the area linking Daraa, Quneitra and Damascus provinces,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.

A field commander told Syrian state TV: “The military operation launched by the Syrian army in the south continues under the leadership of President Bashar Assad and in cooperation with the axis of resistance – Iran and Hezbollah.” (Asharq Alawsat/ABC, 12 February)

The area captured today by Syrian government forces and its allies are close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Above: map depiction of front lines, 11 February 2015  [source: #SchwarzeSun]

Photo credit: Pro-Assad fighters ride on military vehicles and tanks after regaining control of Deir al-Adas, a town south of Damascus; 10 February 2015 (Reuters/ABC)

Hezbollah Findings of Israeli Airstrikes that Killed Iranian General

An Iranian general killed in an Israeli airstrike last Sunday in Syria may have died because he did not turn off his cellphone. The Lebanese newspaper Al-Joumhouria reported today that a Hezbollah investigation into the strike found that IRGC Gen. Mohammad Allahdadi kept his cellphone on in a sensitive area targeted by Israeli intelligence. 11 people, including Allahdadi and senior Hezbollah commanders, Jihad Mughniyeh and Mohammas Issa, and their entourage were killed in the strike.

At the time of the attack, Gen. Allahdad and Hezbollah commanders were in the Quneitra area on the Syrian-controlled side of the Golan Heights at outposts housing a joint Iranian-Hezbollah “operations room” built recently as a command post to counter the Syrian rebel forces in the area, the paper said.

Photo credit: Lebanese TV screenshot of the convoy hit by the Israeli airstrike.

Thousands Attend the Funeral for Jihad Mughniyeh in Beirut

Tensions High, Retaliatory Response Expected

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters marched today behind the coffin of Jihad Mughniyeh killed Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in the Golan Heights. Thousands more lined streets in Beirut, in the biggest Hezbollah funeral since that of Imad Mughniyeh, Jihad’s father, in 2008.

Also killed in the airstrike were Iranian Brig. Gen. Ali Allahdadi, reportedly IRGC’s chief of intelligence in Syria, IRGC Colonel Ali Reza Tabatabai, commander of Iran’s Radwan Force in Lebanon, a Special Operations unit, and Hezbollah’s senior commander Mohamed Ahmed Issa, the organization’s operations chief in Syria. Total of twelve people, six Hezbollah and six IRGC members, were killed when their three-vehicle convoy was hit by missiles fired from two Israeli helicopters.

Jihad Mughniyeh is the most prominent Hezbollah figure killed so far in Syria. IRGC has lost a number of general officers since its involvement on the side of President Assad in the country’s civil war began in 2011.

The incident would raise tensions in an already-tense region, with Hezbollah supporters expecting a major retaliatory response against Israel.

Photo credit: Hezbollah supporters carry the coffin of Jihad Mughniyeh during his funeral in a southern Beirut suburb; 19 January 2014 (Joseph Eid/AFP)

IRGC intelligence chief among KIA by Israeli helicopter strike

Above: file photo of IRGC Brigadier General 2C Allahdadi

Iranian media reports several IRGC members were killed 18JAN15 in the Israeli helicopter strike at Quneitra, Syria that also took the lives of several Hezbollah fighters.

Iranian media identifies Allahdadi as a "retired" IRGC commander engaged as an intelligence chief in Syria. He and his fellow IRGC were attacked while their convoy was enroute from Lebanon to Syria.

Brigadier General 2C Allahdadi's past service experience included commander of the IRGC in Yazd province.

Iranian depiction is expected to portray the helicopter strike as further evidence of Israeli indirect support of ISIL and Al-Qaeda linked forces, against the Iran-led coalition supporting the Syrian Arab Republic.

Below: Iran-led coalition victims of the Israeli helicopter strike being received at the Sayed Zeynab shrine; a rallying point for the Shia component of the Iran-led coalition fighting in Syria.

Photos: Mashregh News

Jihad Mughniyeh, Military Commanders Killed in Israeli Attack

An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a three-vehicle convoy carrying senior members of the Lebanese Hezbollah in the Syrian province of Quneitra, near the Golan Heights, killing Jihad Moghniyeh, Mohamed Ahmed Issa and other senior members of the Hezbollah, destroying one vehicle and damaging others.

Jihad Mughniyeh was the son of Imad Mughniyeh, the military commander of the Hezbollah who was assassinated in 2008 in a car bomb to Israeli foreign intelligence. He was a rising star within Hezbollah, whose last public visit to Iran was in September 2013 to attend the funeral of the mother of the Quds Force Commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani (pictured above.) 

Issa was a senior Hezbollah military commander and head of its operations in Syria. The deaths of Jihad Mughniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander are a serious setback for their organizations. The presence of high-ranking members of the Hezbollah near Golan might signify that they could have been in planning stages of a major operations against Israel at the border.

File photo: Jihad Mughniyeh, center, is seen behind Quds Force Commander Gen. Soleimani and other Iranian leaders at a funeral ceremony for Soleiman’s mother; September 2013 (IRNA)

Iran Funneling $1 Billion to $2 Billion a Month into Syria - Report

The Christian Science Monitor quoted a Beirut-based diplomat with contacts in Syria as estimating that Iran funnels between $1 billion to $2 billion a month into Syria.

“A Beirut-based diplomat with extensive contacts in Syria estimates that Iran funnels between $1 billion to $2 billion a month into Syria to keep Mr, Assad in Power. Of that, some $500 million is spent on military assistance, mostly for National Defense Force, a 70-000-strong loyalist militia commanded by IRGC, according to this diplomat and others who monitor Syria closely,” The Christian Science Monitor reported today.

“They [the Iranians] have officially given around $5 billion in (line of) credit, and when you consider the financial aid, military aid, discounted oil, and man hours of IRGC officials the number must be north of $10 billion (annually). Absent Iranian largess, Assad would not be financially solvent today,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a Washington-based senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (The Christian Science Monitor, 5 January)

A slump in global oil prices on top of existing sanctions, however, is squeezing Iran. Aside from funneling billions to the Syrian regime, Iran is also waging an expensive military campaign in Iraq and is supporting the operations of the Lebanese Hezbollah.  

Regarding Hezbollah, the Christian Science Monitor reports that according to a wide range of political and diplomatic sources in Beirut, as Iran tightens its belt because of falling oil prices, the Hezbollah in particular is coming under pressure financially, imposing salary cuts on personnel, defer payments to suppliers and reduce monthly stipends to its political allies in Lebanon.

But analysts do not expect Iran to end its financial support of Syria or Hezbollah.

“I think people will go hungry in Tehran before Iran will cease its investments in this so-called ‘axis of resistance,’ says Sadjadpour.

Photo credit: Deramstime.com

Fighting between Islamists and Lebanese Army Enters Third Day - UPDATE

Tripoli and Lebanon’s North Under Attack

Lebanese army troops battled Islamist militants in Tripoli and across northern Lebanon for a third day on Sunday, Reuters reported today. Militants began fighting the army on Friday. Dozens of soldiers, militants and civilians have been killed in the clashes.

Reuters reported that fighting spread to Arsal, the frontier town in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, which militants briefly seized in the summer. The Islamist killed 20 soldiers and captured many more before withdrawing from the town.

Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on residents of Tripoli to support the government during “these difficult times” and said the city would not be abandoned. (Reuters, 26 October)

Lebanese security sources told Reuters that the militants include both Lebanese and Syrian affiliates or supporters of Islamic State and the Nusra Front. The insurgents, who are overwhelmingly Sunni, accuse the army of working with Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shia movement and militia force, which has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to fight against the Sunni opposition forces.

UPDATE: The Lebanese Army started evacuating residents from Tripoli districts affected by the fighting, KUNA reported on Sunday. Some Tripoli neighborhoods, especially Bab al-Tabana, have been the scene of fierce fighting between the army and the Islamist militants since Friday.

Photo credit: Lebanese army soldiers take positions during clashes with Islamist militants in Tripoli; 26 October 2014. (Reuters)

Iran Ordered Attack on IDF Soldiers Patrolling Israel-Lebanon Border - Report

Unnamed sources in Washington have told Kuwaiti daily Al Rai that Tuesday’s attack on Israeli forces patrolling the Israel-Lebanon border was carried out by the Lebanese Hezbollah under direct order from Iran. The paper said Iran ordered the attack in retaliation for the alleged Israeli attack on Parchin military complex on Sunday. (Jerusalem Post, 10 October)

Israel says the Hezbollah planted and detonated two bombs in the Har Dov region along the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday, injuring two IDF soldiers.

The 5 October attack on Parchin caused significant damage to the facilities, with two building destroyed and a third extensively damaged; in total six building were destroyed or damaged in the explosion. Iran has indirectly implicated Israel for being behind the attack. 

File photo: IDF soldier at Har Dov border with Lebanon. Hezbollah, reportedly on orders form Iran, detonated bombs in the area, injuring two IDF soldiers on Tuesday (Photo: anmnews.com)