Defence`s Feeds

© AFP 2017/ GEORGE OURFALIAN

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has managed to recapture over 70 square kilometers from western-backed militants in the vicinity of the al-Seen Military Airbase east of Damascus.

Government forces have captured Beir al-Siba, the Mount Sabahiyat and the Rishi and Tal Shahab in the area near the airbase. The SAA has also imposed a fire control over the Baghdad-Palmyra road in Badia Al Sham.

A rough look at the government advance in the area

The SAA has made their gains after minor clashes with militants from Assoud al-Sharkiah and the Forces of Martyr Ahmad al-Abdo that seized this area last month after rapid advance against ISIS. Indeed, ISIS terrorists just withdrew from a large area in the Syrian desert because of a lack of manpower and military equipment as a result of losses in Syria and Iraq.

Separately, the SAA has begun deplyoing more reinforcements, including battle tanks in order to develop the advance in the area.

The SAA aims to develop its operations and reach the areas controlled by the 5th Assault Corps in the area south of Palmyra, north of Sawanah village.

Thus, government forces are aiming to prevent various factions of the Free Syrian Army from liifting the siege from Jaish al-Islam in eastern Qalamoun. If militants succeed in this, they would threaten the al-Seen Military Airbase and the government-held area near Damascus.

Alleged photos of the government reinforcements deploying to the area:

Source: https://twitter.com/NatDefFor/

Source: https://twitter.com/NatDefFor/

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© AP Photo/ David Vincent, File

Written by Ahmed Sayed exclusively for SouthFront; Edited by Brian Kalman

On the 5th of January, 2017, the Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi visited the port city of Safaga on the Red Sea and announced the establishment of the Southern Fleet. The backbone of the new fleet will be the two Mistral LHDs acquired from France. The vessel can carry up to 16 attack helicopters, 70 combat vehicles (including 17 main battle tanks) and approximately 450 marines. The vessel has a length overall (LOA) of 199 meters, a beam of 32 meters, a displacement of 22,000 tons and a cruising speed of 19 knots.

Since his inauguration, the government of el-Sisi began an ambitious plan to expand the power and scope of the capabilities of the nation’s navy. The Mistrals, a FREMM multi-purpose frigate, four Gowind 2500 Class corvettes, and four German made Type 209 diesel electric attack submarines (SSK) are at the heart of this effort. These investments exhibit an increase in coastal patrol and reconnaissance, and a marked focus on anti-submarine warfare (ASW). The FREMM frigate design is the result of a collaboration between DCNS of France and Armaris and Fincantieri of Italy, while the Gowind 2500 is a DCNS design.

Egypt leveraged its cordial and cooperative relations with both the French and Russian governments to reach an agreement to purchase both Mistral class vessels for only $750 million USD. The Egyptian government made the decision to realign its arms acquisitions from arms manufacturers in France and Russia, after relations with the United States became heavily strained after the deposing of Mohamed Morsi in the summer of 2013. The Russian government was pivotal in securing the deal between DCNS and Egypt after the French government refused to honor a contract to deliver the first two “Russian Mistrals”. In the wake of the Ukrainian crisis and the Russian annexation of the Crimean peninsula, and the resultant EU sanctions regime, France reneged on the legal contract to supply the two vessels and technical support services. The contract amounted to over $1.3 billion USD. Russian shipbuilders are currently working on a number of LHD designs to replace the Mistrals.

In fact, the Egyptian Navy requires the active support of the Russian Navy to properly learn how to use the Mistrals, as they were built to specific Russian standards, for use by Russian crews. If Egypt were to remove all of the Russian tailored systems from the vessels, the cost and extent of the refit would render the vessels useless for all practical purposes. Russia did not agree to help Egypt remove such systems, yet has agreed to sell Egypt a full complement of the Ka-52K naval attack helicopters that were originally designed to be used on the ships. The contract to build and deliver the Ka-52k helicopters includes maintenance and technical support.

© Photo: Russian Defense Ministry

In turn, the Egyptian Navy will allow Russian naval architects and technical personnel full access to the vessels in support of Russian efforts in designing and producing indigenous vessels of a similar pattern. Thus, Egypt and Russia have joined in a strategic partnership that will aid both in achieving the goal of strengthening the naval capabilities of their respective nations.

Why Purchase the Mistrals?

Why did the Egyptian leadership decide to purchase two large and complex vessels, a type that the nation’s navy has no technical or practical experience operating, especially considering that they were tailor made for the Russian Navy? On the surface the decision seems quite perplexing. As stated earlier, both Egyptian and Russian strategic interests must be considered in formulating a rational explanation for such a substantial national defense investment.

Click to see the full-size image

The recent discoveries of substantial natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea within Egypt’s  exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and the desire to secure these assets, especially considering they lay between the EEZs of Egypt and Turkey, offers one insight into strengthening of Egypt’s naval power projection capabilities. Egypt was forced to negotiate a maritime demarcation agreement with both Cyprus and Greece to avoid future disputes over the rights to the natural gas, and a number of cooperative commercial agreements were signed regarding any future energy extraction endeavors.

The ongoing crisis in Libya, and the substantial support on the part of Egypt for the Libyan National Army in its fight against non-state actors and terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS, may one day lead to an Egyptian military intervention in Libya to preserve Egypt’s national security interests in safeguarding the country’s western border and preventing radical groups from obtaining a foothold there. Another essential reason behind the expansion of the Egyptian Navy, which explains the European support for it, is the current flow of migrants from North Africa. The EU wants to work with Egypt in a similar fashion to how it has dealt with Turkey, to limit the flow of migrants from Libya by sea. The EU would like a strong Egyptian naval presence in the southern Mediterranean to interdict migrant trafficking and to possibly play a role in returning migrants back to North Africa. In such a way, a strong Egyptian Navy will play a stabilizing factor for Europe.

Strategic Importance of the Horn of Africa

The Horn of Africa is a key geographical region in controlling world maritime trade. It lies near an important global trade route, positioned at the nexus of the Strait of Aden (the southern approach to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal), the Strait of Hormuz, and their openings to the Indian Ocean. This region witnessed growing importance and military conflict in the 1980s and early 1990s, between the proxies of the USSR and the United States. The Somali strongman, President Mohamed Siad Barre, first worked with the Soviet Union in maintaining power, yet switched sides in the late 1970s to find the United States a more than willing sponsor. Siad Barre was deposed in the early 1990s when the nation was wracked with internal conflict and a number of warring factions vied for control. The power vacuum left by the breakup of the Siad dictatorship has yet to be filled, and the resulting failed state has become a haven for many Islamic terrorist groups and crime organizations that rely on kidnapping, extortion and piracy.

Click to see the full-size image

The current state of affairs in Somalia and its destabilizing influence on the strategically important Horn of Africa, has forced both regional and global powers to establish a foothold in the region to protect their interests. The United States, Saudi Arabia, France, China and the United Arab Emirates have all established naval bases in the area. The United States operates the largest military base in Djibouti, Camp Lemmonier, with approximately 4000 personnel assigned to the base.

The Iranian-Saudi tensions in the area, with Iran allegedly transporting weapons and ammunition to the Houthi Saleh alliance via the maritime route and Saudi Arabian naval vessels supporting the pro-Hadi coalition, have increased since the latter’s intervention in Yemen since March of 2015. Additionally, growing tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia started with Ethiopia’s construction of the Renaissance dam. The dam will reduce the supply of water from the Nile River to Egypt, and may very well lead to a humanitarian crisis in the country.

It is obvious that the current Egyptian authorities want to play a more definitive role in shaping regional and global policies effecting the region. The possession of the two Mistrals and their future use in the region will undoubtedly strengthen Egypt’s political position in dealing with global powers such as the United States, Russia and the E.U., and will restore Egypt to its traditional influential role in the region, especially considering a president that is seen as more friendly to Egypt, Donald Trump, became president in January, 2017.

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The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies are shifting the focus of their military operations following the implementation of the safe zones agreement signed in Astana.

In the eastern Homs countryside, government forces recaptured a number of high points from ISIS terrorists, including the Al-Madraj hill. This advance contributes to a larger government effort aimed at securing the area north of the Tiyas Military Airbase, including the road to Salamiyah. In case of a success, this should allow the Syrian military to shorten a frontline in the area and to improve security of the Ithriyah-Aleppo road, the only government supply line to Aleppo city.

Meanwhile, reports appeared that government forces are going to resume operations against ISIS in the eastern part of the Aleppo province, aiming the Jirah Military Airbase. If the airbase is liberated, the strategic town of Maskaneh will become the next target of the advance.

Earlier it was revealed that the Tiger Forces and the Qalamoun Shield Forces were being redeployed from the province of Hama to other frontlines in order to increase the government forces capabilities in a battle against ISIS on other frontlines. The activity of another elite unit, the Desert Hawks Brgiade, was also reported along the road linking up Palmyra and the Tiyas Airbase.

All these operations and efforts should set a foothold for a widely expected government advance against ISIS along the Palmyra-Dier Ezzor road. Thus, the town of al-Sukhnah will be a mid-term goal of the government operation. This attack will likely be synchronized with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) push towards the ISIS stronghold of Raqqah.

Now, the SDF is still struggling to push ISIS terrorists out from the town of Tabqah and the nearby dam.
South of al-Qaryatayn, the SAA advanced in the area east of the al-Seen Military Airbase, according both pro-government and pro-militant sources. Pro-government fighters reportedly captured al-Sabab Biyar and reached the Zaza Checkpoint. Thus, the SAA cut off one of the important roads that could be used by militants to link up their territory in the Syrian desert with the Qalamoun pocket.

Clashes between government forces and of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS)-led militant coalition continued in northern Hama countryside despite the safe zones agreement. Last weekend, the SAA and its allies captured Al-Zallaqiyat village and the nearby hill. However, clashes north of Zallaqiyat continued until Monday.

Meanhile, Jaish al-Izza destroyed a BMP-1 in Al-Zallaqiyat and targeted two gatherings of Syrian soldiers using US-made TOW anti-tank guided missiles. Airstrikes and artillery strikes were reported in Lataminah, Morek, Kafrzita, Al Bweida and Lahaya.

HTS (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) is a widely recognized terrorist group. It as well as ISIS and other al-Qaeda-linked terrorists are excluding from the ceasefire. Now, HTS forces are operating in northern Hama alongside with Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Izza and smaller units from other militant groups. Thus, the northern Hama countryside will remain a point of tensions despite efforts to implement cessation of hostilities in the province of Idlib and in the nearby areas.

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Sally Yates

Originally appeared at ZeroHedge

Later today at 2:30PM EST, former Acting Attorney General  Sally Yates and Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer more questions about “Russian Interference in the 2016 United States Election.”  As it turns out, President Trump has a couple of suggested additions to the question list for Ms. Yates, which he decided to share this morning over Twitter.

“Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council.”

Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

Yates, who was fired by Trump after her refusal to back his controversial immigration order (see “Trump Fires Acting Attorney General Yates For “Betrayal“), is expected to give her account of the warnings she gave to the White House regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Yates reportedly told the White House that Flynn might have misled the administration about the content of his communications with Sergey Kislyak.  Which, of course, turned out to be true and resulted in Trump also firing Flynn in February after reports he misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials were confirmed.

Of course, Trump seems to be more worried about what Yates said after she offered up her warning to the White House…

The post Trump Accuses Sally Yates Of Leaking “Classified Information Into The Newspapers” appeared first on .

Photo allegedly shows Uighur militants fighting in Syria. (Photo: Twitter)

Up to 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are now fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China said on Monday, according to Reuters.

“Our estimated numbers, because of the numbers we fight against, we kill, we capture, we wound, would be around 4-5,000 Xinjiang jihadists,” Reuters quoted Imad Moustapha as saying. “China as well as every other country should be extremely concerned.”

According to Moustapha, some of the Uighurs were operating in Syria sa a part of ISIS. However, their majority was fighting “under their own banner” to promote their separatist cause.

The post Up To 5,000 Chinese Uighurs Fighting In Militant Groups In Syria appeared first on .

FILE IMAGE: AFP 2017/ OZAN KOSE

The Turkish military has seized a large ammunition depot belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the province of Sirnak in the southeastern part of the country, the Turkish media reported on Monday.

Turkish forces captured some “200 AK-47 long-barreled assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and a huge cache of other weapons and explosives,” the Daily Sabah daily reported citing military sources.

The depot was located in 25 different caves in the Incebel mountains. Pro-Turkish sources describe it as a largest-ever PKK weapons depot seized by security forces.

The post Turkish Military Discovered Large PKK Ammunition Depot In Sirnak Province appeared first on .

The Syrian Army and the National Defense Forces (NDF) have advanced against Western-backed militants in the area east of the al-Seen Military Airbase. Pro-government fighters have captured al-Sabab Biyar and the Zaza Checkpoint.

Thus, the army and the NDF cut off one of the important roads that could be used by militants to link up their territory in the Syrian desert with the Qalamoun pocket.

Click to see the full-size map

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This map provides a general look at the military situation in Iraq on May 8, 2017.

Click to see the full-size image

The post Military Situation In Iraq On May 8, 2017 (Map Update) appeared first on .

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Thanks to Jonathan for the link! Story here.

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