Syria, 13 December 2024

Hello everybody!

‘Friday the 13th’ has no meaning in the Middle East: there are no superstitions nor fears about misfortunes related to the number 13 and Fridays, nor is anybody I know thinking about the massacre of the Knights Templar by officers of King Philip IV of France. Instead, Fridays are like Sundays here in ‘the West’: most of shops are closed, there are always large crowds gathering for the noon prayer, and the people tend to spend the rest of the day with their families. Of course, it’s perfectly possible that some of Syrians are going to keep this ‘Friday the 13th’ in their memory due to bad experiences.

***

Concluding that there are still too many buildings standing in the country, and the terrorist threat is higher than ever before in the history of human kind, Israel has resumed air strikes on Syria, yesterday. Between the places bombed was a depot about 1km east of the Russian Hmeymim AB, another depot outside Tartous, multiple military sites in the Masyaf area, an abandoned surface-to-air missile site in the Wadi Hanna area (near the north-eastern ‘corner’ of the border between Lebanon and Syria), and then the al-Mazzeh AB, the former base of the Republican Guards Division on Mount Qasyoun, Qabr as-Sitt AB in the Aqraba District in Damascus.

In south-western Syria, the democratising, humanist, and secular Zionist armed forces have continued their Operation Good Neighbour.

Except for heroically ‘confiscating tanks and other combat means’ of the former regime, they’ve destroyed a former Syrian Army fortification west of Umm Batina, and started constructing their own. Together with nearby Ruwayhina, this village was outside the UNDOF-zone (i.e. east of it): don’t worry, the population was ordered to ‘evacuate’…

Inside the UNDOF-zone, they’ve continued their ‘temporary’ operation of ‘protecting Israel’ by seizing the villages of Ajraf, Kudna/Kudneh (which the modern-day Israelis now call ‘Kwdana’), Ber Ajam, Bariqah, al-Asbah, and al-Rafid, and then - in a particularly humanist fashion - ordering their population to ‘evacuate’, too: because they are all heavily armed, blood-thirsty terrorists, obviously, the inhabitants of occupied villages were given two hours to pack their stuff, and were prohibited from taking their livestock with them. After all, Israel doesn’t like the ‘Syrians’ to communicate with what’s left of the ‘Druze’ on the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, nor either to raise the flag of Revolutionary Syria..

AFAIK, nobody in ‘the West’ has seen anything of this, and thus there are neither any calls for the Israelis to stop, nor anything else of that kind… At most, the Times of Israel is telling a story like if such IDF units like the 474th Brigade all of a sudden decided they’ve got nothing better to do, but to violate the cease-fire-line of 1974, and drive into Syria, without any kind of orders from above, of course…

Sigh… I can’t wait for some enterprising idiot to come to the idea to organise a music event or two in that area…

***

Elsewhere around Syria…

While the number of Syrian refugees returning from Türkiye is constantly increasing…

Manbij… turned out the cease-fire between the Türkiye-controlled SNA and the US-supported PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-conglomerate was limited to the Manbij area and to last four days, starting with 17.00hrs local time on Thursday (yesterday, 12 Dec). Its purpose is to enable the remaining PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-combatants to evacuate their families, hand over the Tomb of the Sultan Suleiman Shah, and withdraw from the Teshren Dam and the surrounding areas.

Arguably, the SNA should do the same, but I’m taking bets that it’s not going to do so. Even more so because this morning the locals were already out in the streets, protesting against the theft, looting, plundering and entry into homes by SNA combatants - and demand the (independent) CMO/SSG to take over.

Me thinks: if there’s anything ‘good’ about what’s going on these days in Syria, then that the people have lost all the fear: it doesn’t matter what party is in charge, but whoever is mistreating and/or trying to oppress them, and whoever is against a unified Syria - is certain to face a mass unrest.

***

Ayn al-Arab/Kobane… and because the cease-fire is limited to the Manbij area alone, the Türkish armed forces continued shelling the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-controlled areas east of the Euphrates River. Heaviest hit were Qara Qozak (northern bridge over the Euphrates), Teshreen Dam, the frontline in the Ayn al-Issa area (north of Raqqa), and the Um el-Keyf and Tel Juma area (about 80km east of the Euphrates).

The situation in Raqqa is meanwhile getting chaotic: yesterday, the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF has opened fire at the mass protest against its regime, injuring several participants. Moreover, there were mass protests demanding the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF to leave Hasakah, too. Abdi Mazloum (a member of the PKK), the ‘General’ in charge of the US-supported democratisers, reacted by claiming that the ‘ISIS is starting to take advantage’ - i.e. by trying to discredit those protesting against his peace-loving, super-courageous, sole opposition to the headchoppers. Therefore, the PKK…erm… sorry: the PYG is happy to publish photos and videos of ‘massacres by the SNA’ and misdeclare protests against it into ‘protests against the SNA’ (erm… it’s ‘Turkish occupation mercenaries’ in the vocabulary of the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF, probably because the PKK is from Türkiye, and the SNA from Syria….).

Actually, he’s imposed a curfew, while the protesters are carrying flags of Revolutionary Syria and one must expect things to get only hotter today.

***

Ah yes: the Syrian TV has released an UAV-taken video of the Russian-controlled Hmeymim AB. Between others, visible are:

- 4 Su-34s,

- 7 Su-24s,

- 4 Su-30s,

- 1 An-72,

- 2 An-26s or An-30s,

- 2 Il-76s (plus 1 Syrian, probably the YK-ATA, used to evacuate Assad & family to Hmeymim AB)…

...and lots of people with their baggage.

…must be some Russian plane-spotters, or tourists that have lost direction…

Mind that there should be some 4-6 Su-27s (or Su-35s) around, but the video is not showing the ‘quick reaction alert’ platform of the base, where they’re usually parked. Also, the VKS must have at least 4-6 Su-25s at the Hmeymim AB: they were seen in action the last week. Finally, there’s a number of Mi-8 helicopters around: two or three can be seen in the background of different sequences.

While Moscow has announced that it’s negotiating about the future of its bases in Syria, it’s obvious there are lots of people and equipment left to evacuate - and that an evacuation of the Russian troops from other parts of Syria, in direction of Tartous, is in full swing. Perhaps to short-cut some of this, a big column of Russian military vehicles stampeded at high speed along the highway north of Latakia, in the direction of the Türkish border, yesterday in the morning (sorry, didn’t save the link to that video).

***

That much about ‘military-related’ issues. Of course, I could continue with ‘politics’, but what’s going on in this regards right now is primarily related to reconciliation between different sects and insurgent groups, stabilisation and establishment of the rule or law and order, working-up the new government (a very good review of the situation on that link!), care for dozens of thousands of detainees freed over the last few days (of course, the US media meanwhile cares only about two US citizens freed from Assadist captivity), the return of millions of IDPs and refugees from abroad to their homes, the provision of basic services (food, water, electricity), organisation and distribution of humanitarian aid, de-mining, destruction of Assadist Captagon-factories etc., etc., etc.

Arguably, some are already ‘loudly guessing’ about the extension and the fate of Syria’s ‘debt to Iran’. That’s where I can’t help but wonder why is nobody coming to the idea to locate and at least freeze - if not confiscate - bank accounts of certain Bashar al-Assad? After all, he’s one of richest characters crawling around this planet - and all that money could be well-used for re-building Syria, so that none of millions of its kids comes to the idea to become a terrorist.

…ah yes: I’ve forgotten that ‘we’ are never, ever negotiating with terrorists and that terrorism can only be solved by kinetic solutions..

While, actually, most of Syrians are simply as happy as these two returnees to Aleppo.

***

OK, then let me end with a ‘disclaimer’ of sort.

As can be read here and here, there is a well-orchestrated and coordinated disinformation campaign against Syria and Syrians taking place all over the social media. Accusations, lies, intertwined narratives are spewed by the Israelis, Russians, Iranians and the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF (or their fans in ‘the West’) all over the place - all aiming to distort facts about what is actually going on in Syria.

For example: some idiots started claiming that the Minister of Justice of the SSG (Syrian Salvation Government) has imposed the Shariya Law all over Syria. That’s nonsense.

Therefore, in the case of doubt, always first check serious accounts like the EkadFacts. Sure, it’s in Arabic but all the browsers nowadays have the translator function (and, I can ascertain: your finger is not going to fall off, nor are you going to contact any kind of an infectious disease if you click on such or similar links).