'Russia kills US-backed Syrian rebels in second day of air strikes as Iran prepares for ground offensive'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11903702/Russias-Vladimir-Putin-launches-strikes-in-Syria-on-Isil-to-US-anger-live-updates.html

'Russia kills US-backed Syrian rebels in second day of air strikes as Iran prepares for ground offensive' - live updates

Russian jets bomb rebel positions in Syria including rural areas near the north-western town of Jisr al-Shughour, a day after launching air strikes. Follow latest developments here.

Video of strikes @ links.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0RV4DN20151001?mod=related&channelName=worldNews&utm_source=twitter


Thu Oct 1, 2015 | 11:23 AM EDT

Assad allies, including Iranians, prepare ground attack in Syria: sources


Syria's President Bashar al-Assad answers questions during an interview with al-Manar's journalist Amro Nassef, in Damascus, Syria, in this handout photograph released by Syria's national news agency SANA on August 25, 2015.
Reuters/SANA/Handout via Reuters

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By Laila Bassam

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria in the last 10 days and will soon join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes, two Lebanese sources told Reuters.

"The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advances by the Syrian army and its allies," said one of the sources familiar with political and military developments in the conflict.

"It is possible that the coming land operations will be focused in the Idlib and Hama countryside," the source added.

The two sources said the operation would be aimed at recapturing territory lost by President Bashar al-Assad's government to rebels.

It points to an emerging military alliance between Russia and Assad's other main allies - Iran and Hezbollah - focused on recapturing areas of northwestern Syria that were seized by insurgents in rapid advances earlier this year.

Russian Air Force in Syria deploying over 50 planes & choppers – Defense Ministry
Published time: 1 Oct, 2015 10:56Edited time: 1 Oct, 2015 16:59
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Su-24 Alexei Danichev / RIA Novosti

Russia’s Air Force fleet in Syria includes over 50 warplanes and helicopters, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry said, reporting eight overnight sorties.
TrendsRussian anti-terror op in Syria
Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on Russian anti-terror op in Syria
Previously Russia hadn’t revealed any detail of its contingent in Syria, which started an aerial campaign on Wednesday to help the Syrian Army fight against terrorist troops.

“The air group was deployed on very short notice. It was possible because we had most of the materiel and ammunition ready at our depot in Tartus. We only had to move our aircraft and deliver some extra equipment,” spokesperson for the Russian Defense Ministry Igor Konashenkov told the media.
The fleet includes the latest Su-24M and Su-25 ground attack planes, he said.
The airstrikes on Wednesday night targeted four Islamic State facilities, Konashenkov said.

“A terrorist HQ and an ammunition depot were destroyed near Idlib, as were a fortified three-level command center near Hama,” he said. “A direct bomb hit also completely destroyed a workshop north of Homs that produced explosives and ammunition,” he added, saying that at this workshop terrorists were stuffing vehicles with explosives. Those vehicles were then used to conduct terror attacks.
The night sorties raise the number of targets hit by Russia in Syria in the first 24 hours of the operation to 12.

“All the airstrikes are being conducted in coordination with the Syrian Army command. The Syrian Defense Ministry has deployed an operative group at the Hmaimim air base,” the Russian official said, referring to the airfield near near Basel al-Assad international airport south of Latakia, where the Russian forces are based.

http://www.hagmannandhagmann.com/archives/2468

Final countdown to World War III
By Douglas Hagmann on October 1, 2015       

• 
  

It was precisely three years ago when I wrote that World War III will begin in Syria. I wrote that Syria, not Iran, will be the flashpoint between the United States and Russia, based on information given to me by a source within our own intelligence community. I wrote that we were seeing the final acts of a carefully choreographed play being performed on the world stage, where the script was written long ago by the globalist playwrights.
I warned that “if left to proceed as written, the entire geopolitical world and balance of power could, and most likely will, change with this next curtain call. No one will be left untouched by the coming events. We are at the precipice of World War III.” That was in October of 2012. Today, we are now seeing the final curtain call for the next act by the current headline in the corporate controlled mass media:
Russia has begun airstrikes in Syria, the West is disputing their targets, and Putin has told the U.S. and the West to stand down.
For those who have been paying attention to the machinations of the globalists, this headline should come as no surprise. World war is looming and getting closer by the minute.
We are now at the scene where it should all be making much more sense, even to those who continue to cling to their normalcy bias and refuse to see the breadth and depth of the lies we’ve been told. We’ve been gamed by the globalists, lied to by the corporate controlled media – including the pseudo-intellectual pundits who relentlessly push the “coincidence theory” of history while depicting those who understand the script in the most pejorative of terms.
Perhaps now, as global conflict appears inevitable, the mouthpieces of myth, the purveyors of the putrid lies and the architects of the ultimate Hegelian Dialectic and their facilitators will be exposed for who and what they are. They are a group of globalists that include Fabian Socialists, Communists, Marxists, Fascists and Islamic Socialists entrenched within the U.S. and the West.
They are responsible for the imminent confrontation between the U.S., NATO and the West and Russia and their allies in Syria.
As I have previously written, the road to World War III travels directly through Damascus. The road to global conflict was paved by the selection of Barack Hussein Obama II in 2008, and was further widened by the Clinton State Department as it went through Libya, specifically Benghazi, by a rogue crew of globalists acting at the behest of the Saudis.
As I have always asserted, the attack at Benghazi was a critically important hinge moment in history. It was a warning from Russia by proxy to Obama, Clinton and the globalists in the U.S. and the West, against overthrowing Assad and changing the balance of power in the Middle East on behalf of Saudi Arabia. It was a warning by Russia to stop arming the Islamists. It was a warning that went unheeded.
Those who continue to adhere to the “coincidence theory” of history might not understand just how perilous the events taking place today really are until they see a mushroom cloud in the distance. Perhaps not even then will they see exactly how we’re being gamed by the globalists, for in addition to being intellectually impaired to the truth, they will be left visually impaired by the blinding flash.
Meanwhile, the political pundits continue to entertain us with the bread and circus of the upcoming elections. These are the same Trojan horse operatives who have called those of us who questioned the bona fides of Barack Hussein Obama II, questioned the facts about the Benghazi attack, and strived to expose the nefarious agenda of the “new world order” in pejorative terms.
They are the ones who characterize the missing emails of Hillary Rodham Clinton as a non-scandal, either out of ignorance or intentional malice, for they know that within these emails exist the blueprints for war. They contain evidence of complicity, and for this reason, they will never see the light of day. Such exposure would show that we’ve been gamed by the leaders of both political parties, and the leaders of both parties were in on the treasonous conspiracy to push us to war.
Perhaps it will all become moot, for the push toward global governance through orchestrated chaos, depopulation through war, and the subjugation of our national sovereignty to international control appears to be not just continuing, but accelerating.
When all of the dots are connected, the picture will reveal the agenda of destruction and the perpetrators of peril. Through our inaction, we have been brought to the doorstep of destruction.
Prepare. Pray.
By Doug Hagmann

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255876/Russia-pouring-gasoline-fire-Syria-s-civil-war-says-America-Putin-defies-West-drops-bombs-non-ISIS-forces-fighting-Assad.html


Vladimir Putin has conscripted 150,000 new troops into the Russian army as the country unleashed a new wave of airstrikes in Syria - while and Iran and Islamist group Hezbollah prepare for a major ground offensive.
Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria over the last ten days, backed by the country's Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, and rebel fighters from Iraq and Afghanistan, two Lebanese sources claimed today. 

One of the sources said the Iranian ground forces were 'soldiers and officers', not advisers.
He added: 'We mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more.' 
They are being supported by Russia's warplanes who bombed camps of rebel fighters trained by the CIA, one of the group's commanders claimed.

Such a move would put the United States and Russia at opposite ends of a conflict for the first time since the Cold War.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3255876/Russia-pouring-gasoline-fire-Syria-s-civil-war-says-America-Putin-defies-West-drops-bombs-non-ISIS-forces-fighting-Assad.html#ixzz3nL8h1sYM

http://www.blacklistednews.com/Mid-East_Coup%3A_As_Russia_Pounds_Militant_Targets%2C_Iran_Readies_Ground_Invasions_While_Saudis_Panic/46431/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Mid-East Coup: As Russia Pounds Militant Targets, Iran Readies Ground Invasions While Saudis Panic
Published: October 1, 2015

Source: Zero Hedge

Back in June, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimaini, visited a town north of Latakia on the frontlines of Syria’s protracted civil war. Following that visit, he promised that Tehran and Damascus were set to unveil a new strategy that would “surprise the world.” 
Just a little over a month later, Soleimani - in violation of a UN travel ban - visited Russia and held meetings with The Kremlin. The Pentagon now says those meetings were “very important” in accelerating the timetable for Russia’s involvement in Syria. The General allegedly made another visit to Moscow in September. 
The timeline here is no coincidence. Iran has long provided covert and overt support to the Assad regime via financial transfers, logistical support from the Quds, and via the involvement of Hezbollah in the Assad government’s fight to regain control of the country.
As we’ve documented extensively over the past several weeks, what appears to have happened here is that Iran, unable to simply invade Syria in support of Assad (because doing so would obviously be a disaster in terms of preserving the optics around the P5+1 nuclear deal), turned to Moscow which has in the past used Russia’s Security Council veto to block the referral of the war in Syria to the Hague and which is a known ally of both Tehran and Damascus.
While it’s unclear exactly what the pitch was to Putin, Russia clearly saw an opportunity to advance The Kremlin’s geopolitical agenda at a key time in history. Moscow is keen to put on a brave face amid the most contentious standoff with the West since the Cold War (as a result of the conflict in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea) and amid the related effort to preserve Gazprom’s market share in Europe. 
In short, Putin looks to have viewed this as the ultimate geopolitical win-win. That is, Russia gets to i) expand its influence in the Middle East in defiance of Washington and its allies, a move that also helps to protect Russian energy interests and preserves the Mediterranean port at Tartus, and ii) support its allies in Tehran and Damascus thus preserving the counterbalance to the US-Saudi-Qatar alliance. 
Meanwhile, Iran gets to enjoy the support of the Russian military juggernaut on the way to protecting the delicate regional nexus that is the source of Tehran’s Mid-East influence. It is absolutely critical for Iran to keep Assad in power, as the loss of Syria to the West would effectively cut the supply line between Iran and Hezbollah.
The same dynamic is playing out in Iraq. That is, Iran is fighting ISIS via various Shiite militias just as it’s fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen via the Shia Houthis. It is thus extremely significant that Baghdad has agreed to share intelligence with Syria and Russia, as that effectively means the Iran-backed Shiite militias battling for control of Iraq will enjoy the support of the Russian military. 
What should be obvious here is that this is a coordinated plan.
The Kremlin has effectively agreed to bring the might of the Russian air force to bear on Assad’s opponents in Syria and on Sunni militants in Iraq in support of Iranian ground troops and because the US and its allies have failed so miserably in terms of fielding anti-Assad rebels who don't turn out to be extremists, Putin gets to pitch the whole thing as a "war on terror." It would be difficult to design a more elegant power play.
If you think that’s far-fetched, consider the following just out from Reuters:

Quote :

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria in the last 10 days and will soon join government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies in a major ground offensive backed by Russian air strikes, two Lebanese sources told Reuters.
"The (Russian) air strikes will in the near future be accompanied by ground advances by the Syrian army and its allies," said one of the sources familiar with political and military developments in the conflict.
"It is possible that the coming land operations will be focused in the Idlib and Hama countryside," the source added.
The two sources said the operation would be aimed at recapturing territory lost by President Bashar al-Assad's government to rebels.
It points to an emerging military alliance between Russia and Assad's other main allies - Iran and Hezbollah - focused on recapturing areas of northwestern Syria that were seized by insurgents in rapid advances earlier this year.
"The vanguard of Iranian ground forces began arriving in Syria: soldiers and officers specifically to participate in this battle. They are not advisors ... we mean hundreds with equipment and weapons. They will be followed by more," the second source said. Iraqis would also take part in the operation, the source said.

And then consider this, also just out (via Reuters):

Quote :

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday it would consider any request from the Iraqi government to conduct air strikes against Islamic State inside Iraq, but said it had not yet received such an appeal, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
It cited the foreign ministry as saying it would evaluate the "political and military" logic of such a move if a request was forthcoming.

Finally, to drive the point home and further confirm the veracity of the thesis outlined above, here’s Saudi Arabia panicking at the prospect that Russia’s presence is set to completely disrupt the Mid-East BOP (via Reuters, yet again):

Quote :

Saudi Arabia, a leading foe of President Bashar al-Assad, demanded his ally Russia end its raids on Syria, saying the strikes had caused civilian casualties while failing to target the hardline Islamic State militants Moscow says it opposes.
In remarks at the United Nations in New York, a senior Saudi diplomat suggested both Russia and Assad's other main ally Iran could not claim to fight Islamic State "terrorism" at the same time as supporting the "terrorism" of the Syrian authorities.
Saudi ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi expressed "profound concern regarding the military operations which
Russian forces have carried out in Homs and Hama today, places where ISIS forces are not present. These attacks led to a number of innocent victims. We demand it stop immediately and not recur."
"As for those countries that have claimed recently to join in the fight against ISIS terrorism, they can’t do that at the same time as they support the terrorism of the Syrian regime and its terrorist foreign allies like Hezbollah and the Quds Force and other terrorist sectarian groups," he added in comments broadcast by Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television.
ISIS is a common acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIL. Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite militia openly fights on behalf of Assad's government, and the Quds Force, part of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, is also widely believed to be aiding Damascus.

It would be difficult to overstate the significance of what appears to be going on here. This is nothing short of a Middle Eastern coup, as Iran looks to displace Saudi Arabia as the regional power broker and as Russia looks to supplant the US as the superpower puppet master. 
Do not expect Saudi Arabia and Israel to remain on the sidelines here.
If Russia ends up bolstering Iran's position in Syria (by expanding Hezbollah's influence and capabilities) and if the Russian air force effectively takes control of Iraq thus allowing Iran to exert a greater influence over the government in Baghdad, the fragile balanace of power that has existed in the region will be turned on its head and in the event this plays out, one should not expect Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem, and London to simply go gentle into that good night.

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