[Syria] Краткая сводка о ситуации в Сирии за 16 октября 2013 года

Syria Update: Latest Events
2013, October 16

Damascus. On October 16 2013, the twin explosions effects removal has been completed almost two days after the act of terror that was carried out by al-Nusra Front militants on Umayyad square near the building of the Syrian Arab Republic State Television and Radio in the late evening hours of October 13 2013. As it has been reported before, the terrorists had exploded two car bombs in the immediate vicinity of the office block. Luckily, nobody was injured, except the two terrorist drivers, who were killed in the explosions.

The explosions severely damaged the façade of the building and a number of its offices. However, it did not disrupt the state television and radio broadcasting. As of now, the repair works inside the building have been completed making it possible for all the personnel to resume their routine activities.

Aleppo. Counter-terror operation against al-Nusra Front militants has continued in the province Aleppo, the current mission being to ensure safe traffic of the Hama – Aleppo highway. Abo Jren, closely adjacent to the road, has become another village among all the others that the Syrian Army has fully secured along with the areas and hilltops situated near the highway.

During this particular secure operation, the army troops tried to avoid using artillery so that they would not destroy local dwelling houses. However, the village school building that had been used as a headquarters and fortified command center by the terrorists has suffered serious damage. A great number of terrorists have been killed. A number of fortified firing points, a wide network of trenches and fortified defense structures have been found during the final stage of the secure operation.

Deir ez-Zor. The Deir ez-Zor - Tadmor (Palmira) highway as well as the nearby area have been taken under control by the Syrian Army troops. The highway traffic has resumed.

Damascus province. Because of the recent mortar attack and a failed attempt at takeover by the al-Nusra Front militants, a number of civilian residents from Sednaya town of Damascus province have injuries. The town is well known for its long history of peaceful coexistence of the local Christian and Muslim communities, maintaining architectural sites of great historical value that date back for more than 1500 years. Sednaya is home to the Holy Patriarchal Convent of Our Lady of Saidnaya, which is one of the most revered ancient Monasteries in the Middle East. It is highly regarded not only by the Christians but by the Muslims, too.

It is worth mentioning that the attack took place shortly after the bandits had been driven from Maalula town. Brave and active actions of the Syrian Army soldiers have led to the attack being rebuffed with heavy losses on the terrorists’ side. The soldiers say that they will keep on fighting to defend peace and good will of the ordinary citizens, whose lives they are protecting.

The town of Darayya of Damascus province has been secured and inspected by the Syrian Army finding an underground tunnel 10 meters deep stretching for more than 300 meters. The tunnel has stunning underground facilities, including air circulation system and ground surveillance equipment. In the course of the operation, a large number of militants have been destroyed, including one group, which had been preparing for another terrorist attack. Terrorists’ weapons and more than 200 kilograms of explosives have been seized in the operation.



Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyrshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov.

ANNA-News Agency. Syria.

Syria Update: Fight for a school in Jobar. Tank vs. Grenade Launcher Duel

Syria Update: Fight for a school in Jobar. Tank vs. Grenade Launcher Duel


The final preparations for another battle to secure this school compound in Jobar were in full swing. Syrian Army commanding officers started them with the reconnaissance debriefing. They themselves had visited and inspected all their troops’ sites, trying to take into account every little detail and predict all possible combat scenarios of the battle ahead and to figure out in advance all likely firing positions of the enemy. However, in the course of the war, something always presents itself that could not have been foreseen.


- "As the tank moves ahead, you start watching out all around so that no one could pop out, so that not a single shot at the tank would be fired."


Shortly before the battle began, the tanks’ crewmembers had also talked about how they would coordinate their actions.

It was time for the troops to take their original positions.

The first gunshot by the SAA troops blew away the manmade sand hill in front of the militants’ positions. Subsequently, the terrorists’ positions that had been earlier spotted in the buildings immediately adjacent to the school were engaged.


- "Move forward, if you're ready. One tank to the left, another one to the right. After having fired, immediately pull back steadily."

Tanks as well as armored personnel carriers moved in to provide support to the infantry troops.

The head tank began this cleanup operation with firing at the neighboring office block, from which the Syrian Army troops had been fired upon as early as the morning before. The storm squad moved on, afterwards.

The office blocks positioned ahead and to the right hand side of the head tank were occupied by the militants.  The head tank's crewmembers were trying to detect any movement on the enemy side. Meanwhile, the infantrymen inside the building provided their tanks with a barrage of fire cover. In this way, even if a terrorist with a grenade launcher had managed to fire a shot he would not have had the time for aiming.

The second tank was shielding the infantrymen from the road section that was controlled by the enemy. In a little while, the infantrymen were moving out to secure the first office building of the compound. Now, the fighting began inside the buildings. The battle progressed staircase by staircase and any single partition inside these buildings was another combat zone, another front line that had to be taken. And the room for maneuver was limited.

The tanks were firing from outside trying to destroy the militants’ barricades behind the walls of the buildings. The soldiers inside the two tanks and the one armored personnel carrier were seeking the movements of the militants inside the buildings. At one moment, our friend Hussain had spotted some movement on the second floor. Everything was set for a duel between a terrorist grenade launcher and the tank.

In slow motion replay, it can be seen that the tank’s gun barrel was moving to the left when suddenly the tank’s gunner spotted a flash of movement. The grenade shows up and the shot is fired. The militant missed his target. The terrorists are now one grenade launcher less.
The camera on the second tank had captured the trace of the projectile and flying fragments of the grenade.



Marat Musin, Vasily Pavlov, Igor Nadyrshin, Victor Kuznetsov, Andrey Filatov.


ANNA-News. Damascus.

Syria Update: Latest Events October 12-13, 2013

Syria Update: Latest Events (translation)
October 12-13, 2013

Damascus. Al-Nusra Front militants have continued their terrorist attacks on the residential areas of the local towns and villages, trying to destabilize the situation there and to create an atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the local population. A car bomb exploded in the downtown area of Damascus in district Al Shaalan injuring two people. Two cars were completely wrecked. 

In the province of Damascus, the al-Nusra Front militants have continued their mortar attacks against the heavily populated areas. As a result, about 12 mortar bombs have fallen in the Jaramana city. Six people have been killed and 25 wounded, among them women and children. Local buildings and residents’ property have sustained considerable damage. It was noted that the al-Nusra Front militants have constantly attacked this particular predominantly Christian neighborhood. 

At the funeral ceremony, representatives of a French non-governmental organization who happened to be in the city of Jaramana at the time expressed their condolences to the family members of the victims of those attacks. They could see with their own eyes the horror of this undeclared war and heard the local people’s voices on this issue. 

Counter-terror operation has continued in Ghouta area, east of Damascus. The town of Husseinia as well as Al-Diabia area have come under full control of the Syrian Army. Al-Nusra Front militants have suffered heavy losses there. While securing the area, the Syrian Army soldiers have discovered the militants’ headquarters and their command center, which were rigged with computers and other equipment and were connected with a wide network of trenches, deep underground tunnels and shelters with large stocks of weapons and ammunitions in them. SAA sappers have also defused a large number of improvised explosive devices (IED). Besides, a number of dead bodies, hastily covered by dust, were found in one of the trenches. Presumably, they were the militants who had been killed earlier.

In Damascus province, another counter-terror operation has ended in town of Tal Sakka being completely freed from al-Nusra Front terrorists. A large number of militants and their vehicles has been destroyed including one armored personnel carrier. The freed area is currently being secured by special forces units. In the process, numerous fortified firing points, underground tunnels and tranches have been found and a lot of IEDs were neutralized. The securing of the area is still being carried out.

In Aleppo province, Syrian Army has taken under its control a number of residential areas, including villages Alannazan and Hakleh, as well as the flat lands and hill ranges running along the Damascus - Aleppo highway. Local car traffic as well as interstate bus services have resumed. Now, residents from the neighboring provinces can safely travel to come to visit their friends and relatives.

Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyrshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov.

ANNA-NEWS

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar and Zamalka of Damascus (Part 4)

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar and Zamalka of Damascus (Part 3)

Heavy fighting continues to secure strategic high-rise buildings which are being used by the militants to control the south beltway. No considerable advance have been made by the Syrian troops lately. The marksmen kept skimming the city ruins and taking out militants while machinegun personnel would simply shoot at anything that moved.

The Syrian troops’ primary mission now is to help their infantry to close up with the high-rise apartment blocks by sneaking through the adjacent blocks of the densely built residential area. The ANNA News crewmembers were not invited there for safety reasons. The Syrian Arab Army soldiers engaged in this intensive room-by-room urban warfare are normally just a few partitions away from the terrorists. Very often, a faintest sound coming through the wall to the next room is enough to provoke fire. Meanwhile, sappers constantly disarm a large number of mines inside the buildings.

We have witnessed how a casualty was radioed in and mere three minutes later a wounded soldier was brought in by infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). Fifteen minutes later he is going to be in the medical center. While transporting the wounded soldier, the IFV suddenly was engaged by enemy fire. Nobody was injured. Another IFV moved out to engage and destroy the enemy firing point.

Upon marking the militants’ firing points, Syrian troops report them to their commanding officers and after that Syrian tanks enter the battle. The fire strikes were delivered in three separate directions. Two tanks were engaging the enemy by the marks provided by the Syrian infantry, while another two were separating the enemy defense lines pushing the militants away from the advancing infantry and on to the right flank, deeper into the residential area.

Inside the buildings, enemy firing points are fortified with sandbags and various building materials. As soon as the infantrymen find themselves engaged with enemy fire from such heavily fortified positions, they immediately call in for fire support.

The intensity of the battle can be best attested for by the nonverbal communication carried out between the militants and the Syrian troops. As soon as the tank finished firing and rolled back, the militants opened machinegun fire. What sense does it make to shoot at a heap of rubble? Perhaps, they wanted to show that they could not be got.

The militants abandoned five low storied buildings. Demining operation there has already begun.

Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyrshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov.

ANNA-News, Damascus

Syria Update: Latest Events

Syria Update: Latest Events
October 10, 2013


Tartus.
Syrian Army has completed safety inspection of the area in and around Al-Mitras village of Tartus province where about 300 Al Nusra Front militants blocked by the army troops have surrendered to the authorities. Army sappers have found and disarmed a large number of improvised explosive devices (IED). Local residents can now safely return to their homes. Grateful to the army soldiers for their hard work, people happily expressed their belief in the soldiers’ final victory.


Hama.
Counter-terror operation has been carried on in Hama province. Al-Hamam village situated near the strategically important highway from Damascus to Aleppo is now completely free of militants. The fact that the militants belonged to Al Nusra Front is proved by scattered around black and white flags with characteristic writings on them and the handwritings on the walls of the nearby houses.

During the operation, a great number of the militants were killed and several SUVs, which had been used as platforms for heavy machine guns, were destroyed. Final safety inspections are underway in and around the city. A wide network of fortified firing points, trenches and several underground passages and bunkers has been located in the area. A number of fortified firing points, interconnected by trenches, which had been previously used by the terrorists to engage road traffic have also been found along the nearby highway.


Homs.
Cleanup operation to secure the previously freed areas from Al Nusra Front militants entrenched in the area continues in Bab Hud district of Homs. The operation is made more complex by the fact that the ancient city is congested with old stone buildings and has very narrow streets and alleys along with a great number of fortified firing points, deep underground passages and shelters.

Al Nusra Front militants keep bombarding and attacking nearby civilian targets including industrial facilities with the clear intention to weaken the already war-torn economy. Because of artillery shelling, a large fire broke out on the territory of one of the Homs oil refineries. Thanks to the heroic efforts by the local workers and fire brigades the fire was successfully contained. Nonetheless, the state and the refinery have suffered considerable material damage.


Aleppo.
The special operation mentioned in the previous news report is still under way in Khanasser area. Syrian army units have continued with their mission to secure the neighboring areas from Al Nusra Front bandits. The road from Khanasser to Sefera has been taken under full control by the Syrian Army. In the course of this operation, a large number of militants were killed. A large number of weapons have been seized.


Damascus province.
Operations to put an end to Al Nusra Front militants’ presence in Barza district of Damascus province has continued to be very successful. Specialized units are carrying out thorough inspections of previously secured areas. All the bandits engaged during these cleanups are being finished off on the spot.



Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyrshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov.

ANNA-News

The UK Under Transfer: David Cameron hails Royal Mail privatisation a 'success'

There is an interesting dynamic present in Europe, these years. The European Union and European Central Bank are demanding that debt-strapped Greece sell off its prime tourist land, ports, transport systems and other assets in the public domain. That is perfect example of classical liberalism grab for basic infrastructure as part of the overall asset stripping. However, the trend is evident elsewhere.


The past decades have been marked by the classical liberalism demonstrated through worldwide financial engineering. Financial and banking sector has already proved to be a paradise for liberal laissez-faire economics. In the new debt-strapped low-interest environment, prevalent in North America and European countries recently, there is an increased activity on the part of the financial and investment elite using their pooled investment vehicles to buy up countries and large chunks of hitherto public infrastructure. All classes of private equity firms, hedge funds, and buyout funds are currently reported to have been doing something that has not been seen in nearly a century: they are buying up assets, starting with the inventory of foreclosed properties and ending up with consolidating their inventories by buying assets directly for cash.


As a result, additional financial charges and tollbooth rents are being actively built into the prices charged for access to what is essentially public services (i.e. roads, schools, hospitals, parks, etc.). As a result, prices are rising. However, the prices began to rise not because costs and wages were rising, but because of monopoly rents and other rent-extraction activities.


In the process of increasing consolidation, a new neo-feudal rentier class is forming eager to buy roads and bridges to turn into them toll roads and bridges, to buy parking-meter rights, to buy prisons, schools, hospitals, parks, public services and other basic infrastructure.


Since the 1980s, we have witnessed a predominantly worldwide bubble economy. Falling interest rates almost guaranteed capital gains. However, currently near-zero interest rates cannot fall any further. They can only rise, threatening capital losses. That is why there is panic in today’s bond and stock markets. The near-zero interest rate regime is about to end. Therefore, there is little incentive for bond buying. Once interest rates rise, the world will enter an “anti-bubble” economy. Instead of capital gains driving “wealth creation” Alan Greenspan style, the world has enjoyed the asset-price deflation.


So the world is now in the Bubble Economy’s legacy. In place of a new bubble, financial elites are demanding privatization sell-offs from debt-strapped governments. The same dynamic is present in both the U.S. and Europe.


As Michael Hudson, a research professor of economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC), USA has put it, “this post-bubble environment of debt-strapped austerity is empowering the financial sector to become an oligarchy much like landlords in the 19th century. It is making its gains not by lending money – as the economy is now “loaned up” – but by direct ownership and charging economic rent. So we are in the “economic collapse” stage of the financialized bubble economy. Coping with this legacy and financial power grab will be the great political fight for the remainder of the 21st century”.


This tragic transfer of public infrastructure is nothing short of a denationalization of public assets which is taking place currently in the UK. Regardless of how much Mr. Cameron applauds the privatization of England’s most essential public services, including the Royal Mail, the danger of even greater consolidation of public assets, and therefore of political power, in the hands of the financial and banking elite cannot be overestimated.


So much more sarcastic and untrustworthy is the call by Mr. Cameron for his country to "celebrate the success" of the privatization of the Royal Mail, as it if is good for employees, shareholders and "the company itself" as if it is purely an economic issue. It is not!


It is necessary to repudiate the status quo notion of a "purely economic" science to understand that even very fundamental economic and political issues can only properly be understood in the overlapping of those issues in a political-economic context.


When examined in detail, economic phenomena can be comprehended as purely political situations which are in fact being driven, or at least conditioned, by deeper economic issues. Taking into consideration the often well-masked economic structures and political intentions involved, in a particular configuration of social forces, a purely economic explanation is often destined to be highly misleading.

This "political economic" approach was the dominant means of dealing with much of social phenomena throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. That is when classical liberalism began to take effect and in view of the scope of the proposed transformation of the British and thereafter global economy introduced under the guise of mathematical models the kind of analysis of the contemporary advances as simply "Economics."


It was believed that “Economics” would be considered far too closer to the subject of political science. Nonetheless, "Political Economics," during the last forty or so years has gained its earlier nomenclature and methodology once again academically respectable. To a great extent, this has become possible due to the epic shifts in political landscape regarding the highest levels of the global socio-economic hierarchy.

The crisis of 2008 has marked the beginning of a new phase in the financial power “grab”. Therefore, such separate instances of transfer of public assets into the hands of private banks must be viewed in the context of global power struggle. Summarizing the economic theories, as well as current economic developments, one cannot fail to notice how they lead to subjecting governments of various countries to unfair trade. That leads to depleting natural resources and privatizing infrastructure that is sold at distressed prices. That parasitic finance techniques generally being used to extract the maximum amount of the country's surplus rather than providing a price-competitive service.

Therefore, looking at the current transfer of communal services into the hands of the increasingly politically and economically powerful financial elites, there is little for the people in the UK, or the US, to celebrate for that matter. As public infrastructure in the UK is being transferred, and denationalized economically, in effect the whole country is slowly being handed over into the hands of the future landlords, like those in times when the very ideas of classical liberalism first became popular.

Syria Update: Latest Events

Syria Update: Latest Events
October 9, 2013


1. 0:05 - Deir ez-Zor: A large gang of Al-Nusra militants have made a failed attempt to capture one of the Syrian Arab Army bases in the province. The military unit’s personnel successfully rebuffed the terrorists’ attack. The attacking militants had taken heavy casualties before the remainder of them literally ran for their lives away from the area abandoning their weapons. A large number of small arms weapons and ammunition was found scattered around the neighboring area in the next following days.

 
2. 0:42 Al-Hasakah: Al-Nusra militants have continued their terrorist attacks in the area, trying to destabilize situation there and to create an air of fear and insecurity amongst the local population. They have used an improvised explosive device (IED) to blow up a private SUV in one of the city’s main streets. Fortunately, nobody was injured because of the explosion. The damaged SUV and one other car parked nearby were completely destroyed by fire, though. The fire was quickly put out.

3. 1:22 Aleppo: SAA troops have completely secured strategically important Khanaser region from La-Nusra militants. Khanaser area has served as a main supply route to Aleppo province. The Syrian army has also freed the neighboring areas bordering Khanaser district, including the nearby villages. Syrian sappers have checked the local roads and found a large number of IEDs. Humanitarian aid convoys have resumed deliveries of goods to the remote areas of the province.


4. 2:20 Homs: As part of counter-terrorist operation, a secret IED workshop has been discovered that was used by the terrorists to assemble hand-made explosive devices. Investigation is in progress.

5. 2:38 Damascus: Following the Agreements, UN experts have continued their work on establishing the international control and destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons. Syrian Army is providing full support and open access to all storage facilities. All immediate assistance is being given to the UN experts, too.
One of the Syrian Army officers, who had been in charge of the counter-terrorist operation aimed at securing the area adjacent to the road leading to the Damascus Airport, has talked about the details of that operation. The road travel has been getting increasing safer since the beginning of the operation. Separate local residential facilities, like small houses and private gardens in the area, are still being checked by the Army troops. Districts of Betseham, Akroba, Akhdav and Shabaa have been totally freed of terrorists. As a result, large numbers of Al-Nusra militants and foreign mercenaries, including from Russia’s North Caucasus, were destroyed.
ANNA News filming crewmembers have also travel the road all the way from the city of Damascus to the Airport, having ascertained the safety of the route.


Contributors: Marat Musin, Igor Nadyirshin, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, from Syria.

ANNA News