Syria War, 11 December 2024: Stories from 1001 Nights

Hello everybody!

After four days of the Israeli rampage all over Syria, at least the air strikes have stopped, the last evening. The flying supermen of the Israeli Air-Space Force can now lean back and boast with their tremendous success in shooting ‘strategic targets’: there’s no denial, when it comes to Israel, then Osa II-class fast missile boats and SA.342 Gazelle helicopters are equal to B-52 bombers and Intercontinental ballistic missiles… And all because Israel is the only force in the Middle East to have the right to shoot at the UN peacekeeping troops: if anybody else is doing that, then Israel is automatically protecting the UN troops…. Above all, there was an obvious and indisputable danger of so many of Syrian weapons falling into the hands of the IRGC and Hezbollah, both of which have meanwhile all but withdrawn from Syria, but: there was no, and there will be no interference with Syrian internal affairs, you know.

The Israeli ground forces also didn’t advance into Syria, and didn’t illegally occupy yet more of the Syrian territory (in addition to lots of Lebanon’s territory on north of the Lebanese-Syrian border). Nah. According to the IDF spokesperson, anybody claiming such things is lying. The IDF is not approaching Damascus: only ‘present inside the buffer zone and at defensive positions’. Conclusion is on hand: there was a miraculous creation of a buffer zone along the border between Lebanon and Syria all the way to the town of Qatana, 20km outside Damascus. And IDF also sent only a handful of troops there. Just the 210th Division - including the 5101 Shaldag, 810th Mountain Brigade, the 679th Armoured Brigade, the 474th Territorial Brigade.

Hand on heart: actually it’s so that these few troops simply lost their way while patrolling their defensive positions on the Israel-occupied Golan Heights, before finding themselves 20km short of Damascus. Almost the same that happened to the IRGC and Hezbollah in Syria from 2011 until few days ago…

Overall: everything we have seen the last four days was yet another story from 1001 night. Nothing has happened, because Israel didn’t release any additional photos nor videos since its troops have crossed the armistice line of 1974, and the Syrians are brazen enough not to run in front of Israeli tanks to take photos or videos as these are shooting at them. Of course, there is also no need to care about the local population: its ethnic cleansing is already underway. Nowadays the IDF is calling that an ‘evacuation’.

How good there was never any kind of an Israeli invasion of Syria…

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Asked whether Syria is going to react against the Israeli aggression, Jowlani responded that, ‘Syria will not enter into a new war. The country is not ready for another war. Our biggest threat was Hezbollah and the Iranian-backed Shi’a militias in Syria.’

Really a massive jihadist threat for Israel there, obviously: was a reason why Netanyahu (sought by the ICC for crimes against humanity) then had to ‘remind rebel forces against embracing Iran’… (is that guy actually on dope or something?)

Really, cannot but conclude that it’s nothing else than divine that Israel is protecting all of the Middle East. And the World and the UN peacekeepers, too…

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Elsewhere around Syria…

Actually, the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) remains busy with stabilising the situation. For example, it has issued a decree banning anybody from forcing women to wear hijab and interfering with their choice of clothing. Furthermore, it banned any kind of meddling in the work of the media, regardless if TV, radio, or the social media. There are lots of meetings with representatives of the SSG with Alawi, Ismaili, Christian and other sects, to arrange new authorities and re-organise the public life. The SSG is also aiming to adapt a free-market economy and attract investment to rebuild the country.

The last two days, the Command of Military Operation (CMO; de-facto ‘new armed forces of Syria’) was preoccupied with two issues:

• hunt for elements of the Assadist regime that run away, and

• the situation in the Dayr az-Zawr Province.

For example, about 20km west of Hama, the CMO troops clashed with a group of Assadists that entrenched themselves in a farm outside Rabiaa.

In Dayr az-Zawr, and essentially, after rushing its forces to link-up with popular uprisings against the US-supported PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-conglomerate, and after the later opened fire at unarmed civilians protesting against it (prompting the local Military Council to defect from the SDF), the CMO has moved in and secured the entire western bank of the Euphrates River from Ma’adan in the north, via the Dayr az-Zawr (city) to al-Bukamal on the border to Iraq in the south (the Iraqi side of that border crossing is al-Qaim).

Of course, according to the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF, there was no uprising against it, but the group withdrew from Dayr az-Zawr, plus the second largest oilfield of Syria… entirely on its own.

Must’ve been a goodwill gesture…

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Manbij… the town is under complete control of the Türkiye-controlled ‘Syrian National Army’. Kicked out of there, the US-supported PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF was proud to announce it was the Americans who arranged a ceasefire and it’s going to withdraw from the areas west of Euphrates - on condition of the SNA stopping attacks Ayn al-Arab/Kobane. Seems, wherever the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF goes, there are similar miracles like wherever the Israelis go. In this case, it was a ‘cease-fire’ that resulted in that group losing Manbij…

What a surprise then, gauging by news from the area further east, Erdogan is not the least impressed: the Türkish Air Force is flying air strikes on PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF-positions in the Ayn al-Arab/Kobane area for two days, meanwhile, …while Türkish UCAVs are roaming the skies deeper over north-eastern Syria - and striking ‘targets of opportunity’. And, no doubt: they are as precise as the Israelis and Americans. In Safiya (west of Ayn Issa), they’ve killed eight civilians when blowing up a private home.

Therefore, and amid Washington expressing its ‘understanding for Türkish terror-related concerns’ (oh, how kind from the USA: it took them only 10 years to do this), the Türkish armed forces and the SNA have launched a ‘comprehensive military operation’ against the PKK/PYD/YPG/SDF in the Ayn al-Arab/Kobane. Arguably, their first attempt to cross the Euphrates over the Qaraqozaq Bridge was repelled, but: don’t worry, they’ve tried again and then broke through. AFAIK, the latest report is that the SNA crossed the bridge and drove all the way to the Faraj gas station.

Think it’s good that Ankara didn’t launch a ‘qualitative military operation’, like the Assadist armed forces did in Hama, Homs, and Damascus, about a week ago, though….

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Russian bases (foremost the Hmeymim AB)… the Russians have continued their evacuation. Additional An-124s and Il-76s have been reported as arriving. The Russian Med Flotilla also returned to Tartous - but to complete the evacuation from there.

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With other words: wonders, miracles, wonders, miracles, and yet more wonders - all over Syria…