Тартус - Латакия. Предисловие

Syria Update: Tartus – Latakia. Introduction.

November 30, 2013


ANNA News team has just returned from its short trip to the Mediterranean coast of Syria visiting the sites of recent combats in and around the cities of Tartus and Latakia. 

We visited local townships that had been targeted by the militants, who had subjected those places to pillage and destruction.

Local residents, who had suffered from the militants’ raids, relayed deplorable details about the barbaric ruthlessness of the Islamist fanatics.

Not far from the Turkish border, ANNA News reporters have visited Syrian army units’ bases that defend the country from the bands of terrorists, who move in from the border side. SAA officers and soldiers told us about the battles.

We have also met local governments’ leaders and members of the clergy. We talked about the provinces’ problems and the steps that are being taken to solve them.

A more detailed account of our trip will be presented in our forthcoming documentaries.



Contributors: Vasily Pavlov, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.

ANNA-News, Syria

Cyber War: Our Response to Chamberlain

На пути к кибермиру. Кибероружие как шанс для России

http://topwar.ru/36517-na-puti-k-kibermiru-kiberoruzhie-kak-shans-dlya-rossii.html

Cyber War: Our Response to Chamberlain

My own reflections on the issue of cyber warfare weapons as Russia's chance to win long-range high-precision arms race

Cyber warfare is actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption including the activity of using the internet to attack a country’s computers in order to damage communication and transport systems or water and electricity supplies. Cyber war refers to hostile attempts by one nation to penetrate another’s computers or networks.

Cyber warfare is also referred to politically motivated hacking to conduct sabotage and espionage. It is regarded as a form of information warfare sometimes seen as analogous to conventional warfare. Cyber attacks are defined as the top security threat to the United States.

The Pentagon is said to have developed a list of cyber-weapons and cyber-tools, including viruses that can sabotage an adversary’s critical networks, to streamline how the United States engages in computer warfare.

There is a CIA- and a number of other agencies-approved classified list of capabilities that has been in use for several years. The list forms part of what is called the Pentagon’s set of approved “fires” that can be employed against an enemy.

Whether it is a tank, a warplane or a computer virus, it follows the same kind of rules regulating its employment. According to the Pentagon, the integration of cyber-technologies into a formal structure of approved capabilities is perhaps the most significant operational development in military cyber-doctrine in years.

Examples of cyber warfare range widely from cyber attacks on enemy government computers before armed forces ground attack on that nation to cyber assaults on enemy nuclear weapons plants to cyber actions to launch botnets to disrupt enemy government computer systems. Cyber warfare also includes use of programs to crash Web sites and computers to cover other, more aggressive actions in the real world.

It is a common knowledge that, given its computer programming capacity, Russia has every advantage in developing its own cyber war capabilities. However, what exactly is cyber war and what issues need be taken into consideration in our country? Here are some thoughts on certain aspects of developing cyber warfare capabilities in Russia.

We have been hearing sounds of the alarms about "cyber warfare" for at least about the last 20 years. Often, our grasp of the technical aspects of cyber warfare is limited. To date, in all the instances where cyber attack has been used by state actors it was done in order to enhance a conventional attack. In part, that is the reason why so far there has not been significant action in the area of defending against concerted cyber attacks.

Cyber war is first about protecting communication systems. The use of the Internet, computers, and networks gives unique technical characteristics to this kind of hostile actions against foreign enemies and entails international legal aspects of this kind of war. The latter involves current mismatch between technical capabilities to conduct cyber war operations and the governing laws and policies.

Presently, cyber warfare boils down almost exclusively to solving technical issues of data security of communication systems. Leaving technical aspects of controls at major information network boundaries aside, let us focus on the legal aspect of this kind of warfare.

Increasing integration of cyber-technologies into formal structures of approved military capabilities of the world’s leading nations will inevitably end up leading to signing international cyber war treaties, which, like nuclear arms control treaties before, will be used to create "rules of the game" for international war. Therefore, if Russia is to remain on par with the other cyber combatants, it is important to solve most critical technical issues long before the question of international regulations is brought forward. Otherwise, cyber war regulation initiatives on the part of the leading nations might be used to hamper Russia’s progress with this regard. The brightest example is the nuclear nonproliferation treaties, which have been aimed against non-nuclear state- and non-state actors by the nuclear-weapon states.

Thus, any significant actions in the area of cyber war is not only a technical but also a policy issue. Everything, from the history and the players to the regulations to the endless possibilities, needs to be taken into account with this regard. In the meantime, cyber warfare cannot be conducted on a sustained basis. Any cyber attack can and will be eventually discovered and respective data security breach removed. Data security breach is not as simple as just pushing a button – in fact, the average security breach is said to be the result of a very limited number of separate mistakes. Mistakes are made all the time. Therefore, data security breaches occur all the time, somewhere. Cyber war is not about finding ways to cause breaches in every possible target system.

Syria Update: Attack Northward (Part 4.2)

Syria Update: Attack Northward (Part 4.2)

November 29, 2013





Syrian army assault troops were about to start dismounting from the Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV).

SAA officer: “Tanks stay closer to each other! Assault troops get ready to dismount!”

As the three IFVs were approaching the disembarkation point, the third vehicle was hit by a shaped charge anti-tank mine that had been planted by the roadside tree.

SAA officer: “Fellas, are you OK? Answer me! Cease fire! Cease fire, everybody!”

Suddenly, the targeted IFV showed up out of the of dust.

SAA officer: “Careful! Careful! Hold your fire, everyone! IFV, what is it? Can you reply? Can you hear me? Thank God, the IFV is OK. IFV, stop the vehicle nearby the soldiers.”

“Tanks, everything is OK! IFV crewmembers and the assault troops are fine.”

“Go ahead! Everything is OK. Let’s begin the dismounting. Tanks, stop! Number Two, move back a bit!”

The IFV returned to its original position. After the battle, we came up to take a look at the vehicle.

SAA soldier: “Thank God, everybody is alive. The landmine hit the side of the IFV. Here is the hole.”

The targeted IFV’s crewmembers changed the vehicle and immediately returned to the battlefield.

Shortly, the IFVs arrived at the designated points of dismount and the assault troops entered battle. The tanks and the IFVs kept providing cover to the assaulting troops. The moment any enemy movement was spotted, the vehicles opened fire.

SAA officer: “IFV, pick up the rest and move out to dismount! Hurry up!”

The combat continued.





Contributors: Vasily Pavlov, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.

ANNA-News. Syria.

Syria Update: Military Problem-Solving Skills of the SAA Commanding Officers

Syria Update: Military Problem-Solving Skills of the SAA Commanding Officers

November 26, 2013



We arrived in Jobar. Syrian army troops have spent their day stuck in positional fighting there. On our way to their positions, we encountered several burnt-out remains of foreign mercenary fighters. Such is the inevitable end of those, who have arrived to make a fortune off a foreign country.

The most distinct feature of this particular city area is the density of the building structures here that makes it almost impossible to use heavy armored vehicles without moving too close to the enemy positions. To overcome this problem, our military problem-solving skills become very handy.

“It is hard to imagine! But the Syrian army soldiers’ ingenuity knows no limits. Out of this heap of concrete a ramp is going to be made, which will be used by artillery vehicles as their firing point to engage the militants. It is hard to imagine it right now, but the bulldozer is about to start the work.”

“One particularly large chunk of concrete, a beam, made the work of the bulldozer impossible. The sappers decided to blow this part of the collapsed building up.”

The following day, we arrived to witness the trial of a newly made firing point. The best weapon system to engage enemy in urban area is said to be ZSU-23-4 Shilka (Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun) Tank. However, it is lightly armored and therefore cannot carry out its missions when closing up with the terrorists. Now, thanks to this newly made knoll, Shilka would be able to engage the militants deep into their defenses and along the entire length of the enemy engagement line.

Using this new firing position proved worthwhile. This kind of experience would be used again by the Syrian army troops from now on to destroy the surrounded militant group there.




Contributors: Andrey Filatov, Vasily Pavlov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.


ANNA-News. Damascus.

Syria Update: Attack Northward (Part 4.1)

Syria Update: Attack Northward (Part 4.1)

November 24, 2013





A large group of militants had recently tried to break through out of the encircled area. The Syrian army has thwarted their attempt. However, the bandits have occupied a number of city blocks, dangerously close to the nearby thoroughfare.

The Syrian troops were assigned the mission of destroying the breakthrough militant group; securing the urban area adjacent to the road; and ensuring the safety of the road traffic.

The Syrian soldiers filled the air with cheerful voices, glorifying their motherland, the president, and their commanding officers.

SAA officer: “Come on, guys. Let’s go! One by one.”

The infantry troops began to mount the infantry fighting vehicles (IFV).

In a little while, everybody was ready and waiting for the “Go ahead” command.

As usual, the battle tanks were the first to move out. Their mission was to provide suppressive fire against the enemy and provide cover to the dismounting infantry troops. The tanks were promptly followed by the infantry-mounted IFVs.

As soon as they reached the road, the first two tanks moved immediately to their firing points.

SAA officer: “IFVs, wait! Slow down! Let the tanks first clear the way for the troops! Tank Number One, hurry up! Stop behind the truck! Go ahead, fellas! Number One and Number Two, stop! Stop!! Number One, fire! Roll back a bit! Good for you! IFVs, go ahead! Follow the tanks!”

“Engage the enemy on that alley! Number Two, cover it! Number One, fire! Number Two, stop! Aim to the right! Fire! IFVs, go ahead! Number Two, go ahead! Troops, go ahead!”

The tanks were moving slowly forward, providing cover to each other and to the following infantry troops.

SAA officer: “IFVs, dismount the first group right behind the truck. Tanks, stay close to each other. Infantry! Slowly ahead! Stand by to dismount!”







Contributors: Vasily Pavlov, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.



ANNA-News, Syria.

Syria Update: 2S3 Akatsiya 152-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer in Action

Syria Update: 2S3 Akatsiya 152-mm Self-Propelled Howitzer in Action
November 23, 2013


Having failed to move deeper in downtown Damascus City, the militants have once again resorted to their familiar tactics of sporadic terrorist acts aimed at destabilizing the general situation in and near the city’s neighborhoods including by constantly firing at the civil traffic of the nearby thoroughfares thus claiming that the roads are their battle areas now. Syrian army troops keep pushing the terrorists away from the roads by actively engaging the enemy in al-Qabun municipality, located to the north of Jobar.


The night before, the militants had managed to make their way under the basement of one of the local buildings and detonated it. Six SAA soldiers were killed in the explosion. The collapsed building has exposed the militant positions and Syrian army 2S3 Akatsiya 152-mm self-propelled howitzer moved out to demolish them. After damaging the militant positions, the howitzer received a message on terrorist fighters’ movement in the area and promptly opens fire on them.


Having fulfilled its mission, the Akatsiya rolls out and returns to its artillery regiment home base.



Contributors: Andrey Filatov, Vasily Pavlov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.

ANNA-News. Damascus.

Зеркало (1975) / The Mirror - The Mirror: Dark Surrealism of Andrei Tarkovsky

The Mirror: Dark Surrealism of Andrei Tarkovsky

One thing that had fascinated him since his adolescence was the power of the unconscious, which could make a stutterer speak well and help him make himself understood. It was the power of the unconscious that could also help any artist express himself by means of his respective form of art. All that an artist would have to try to do in this situation was to find a way to get access to his unconscious by grasping and effectively communicating his lifetime mental images, thoughts, and memories to other people. It would have to be done in a way enabling the author to apply, along with the audience, the power of their collective conscious to building a more tangible representation of their mental images. In the same manner, a sculptor translates his own vision into a material form.

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932 - 1986), who had firmly positioned himself as the finest Soviet director of the post-War period, incorporated the most tragic moments of his life experience into a stream-of-consciousness-like manner of narrating a story of his life, which he himself increasingly viewed as devoid of any meaningful narrative of a story, in a film, which he called a nightmare.

In the film – The Mirror – the author stresses his philosophic eye he had developed to viewing life’s problems. He remembers the moments when he as a child began to look at himself and the world around him in the most tragic philosophical way. The tragic moments included his first observation of his own adolescent reflection in the mirror, his first dramatic encounter with the life and works of Leonardo Da Vinci, his first mysterious reading of Pushkin’s letters to Chaadaev. Those were the moments that set the path of his thoughts for years to come, making him a cursed person, doomed to be haunted for the rest of his life by the Eternal Philosophical Questions of humanity and particularly the Cursed Questions that challenged the Russian aristocratic intellectuals since the 19th century.

Not surprisingly, the film is punctuated by philosophical poetry of the author’s father, Arseny Tarkovsky, the invisible narrator recurrently asking the important questions of life. The Mirror is Tarkovsky's own reflection on these questions and more. The surreal character of the film first of all is intended to let the viewers know that the author does not fully understand the overall meaning of those images, thoughts, and memories. The viewers are called upon to join the author in his attempt to make sense of life in general and of his own life in particular.

As the viewers are called to join forces with the film’s director to build a tangible presentation of our perception of reality, the film makes a statement of profound philosophical significance intuited by the artist and delivered in his unique artistic way. The mirror here refers to the consciousness of man, stating that our shared perception of reality is mere reflection of reality, the true sense of which can only be deciphered by decoding the images in our mind in the same manner as we try to interpret the meaning of our dreams. Thus is the oneiric nature of the film and A. Tarkovsky’s reference to it as a nightmare.

Given the autobiographical character of the film, it can be viewed as the author’s confession, indeed. But that is a strange confession. The author confesses his guilt but admits that not only he cannot be judged by it, but that he has come to a hint of understanding the reason for it, as well. However, it was just a hint and the author did not feel entitled to make sense of it all on his own. That is why he presents his flow of consciousness in form of his dreams and memories as such, using all his talent and mastery of his cinematographic art to help the viewers enter his consciousness and experience his death bed nightmares the way he experienced them.

The hope on the author’s part is that the people who take efforts to penetrate his troubled unconscious will be able to co-author along with him something that will help all other people eschew suffering and pain, which he had inherited from his parents and passed on to his wife and children later in a sort of a spiteful circle.

The author viewed himself as a mirror, which could not help reflecting the surrounding reality and subsequently spend the rest of his life being haunted by those reflected images that take the form of one endless nightmare, made of wartime-newsreel-footage-like mental pictures and voiceover-audio-like voices, including that of his father. Interspersed with moments that most resemble a traditional narrative, the author’s memories are mostly made up of scenes that do not come in a chronological order and often feature dreamlike qualities. As such, they are often not recognizable to other people, who are not familiar with the life of the author, and therefore seem even more meaningless to them.

Strangely enough, but the author tacitly admitted that he himself could no longer make any sense out of that nightmare, called his thoughts and life memories, and asked the viewers to help him out, opening to them in an artistic way his own mind, his own unconscious in a faint hope to be able to make himself understood.

The Mirror’s surrealism is dark. It is dark not only because the author feels helpless in the face of life, like when the barn burned down and all they could do was watch. It is dark in the face of death as well, even though since his childhood the author was not entirely strange to religious outlook. The author has no hope of eternal light or life after death. Partly why he is in need of other people’s help, is the author’s lack of religious faith, which he had lost eventually in the course of his life after having been tragically seduced even as a child by the philosophic and scientific trickery of the genius of the archetype of the Renaissance Man. To him death was the end.

The Mirror is a film about the final hours of the author – a dying man in his forties – that are being spent in hallucinations about his childhood and his mother, about himself as a child and a grown man, and about his lover. The brightest moments of his life were floating across his mind where he could no longer distinguish between himself as the child and as the father. He could no longer distinguish between his mother, his wife, and his lover. All became one. Everything was intermingled and confused. The mirror of his consciousness was dimming. He saw himself and his little sister being led away by their grandma across the insanely beautiful evening meadow on a forest edge with rich deep green grass sleepily drowning in translucent milky fog. He remembered himself surrounded by that still beauty of the silent nature as they were walking in the grass and the moment he decided to break that sleepy spell by a defiant yell that pierced the air. Perhaps, it was that piercing shriek that brought this particular memory to the surface of his dimming consciousness. Like a dream provoked by sudden external noise.

Their grandma held the children by their hands and as she led them away across the meadow, she was occasionally casting secret worried glances in the direction of the forest edge, where the figure of their mother was standing surprisingly alone in the grass. There by the trees in the privacy of the lushest meadow grass, he remembered how he was happily lying on the ground and she was standing above him looking over the grass at the kids as they were being led further and further away from her.

Then suddenly he saw them all as if from a distance. They all were there, surrounded by the drowsy forest and sleepy grass. All together and moving apart. He was moving away from them all, from the forest, and from the meadow. Dark tree branches started creeping in, blocking the sight of him and his sister, his grandma, his mother, and the beautiful meadow and the woods. Yes, he was floating away and the dark trees with their black trunks and boughs were slowly covering the sight, increasingly blocking the view. Their black bodies amassed leaving but a tiny fading light somewhere in the middle until it became darker and darker still until the light dimmed away, overwhelmed by darkness. The darkness of nothingness…

Syria Update: Securing the South Ring Road

Syria Update: Securing the South Ring Road
November 22, 2013


After completing the initial stage of the operation, aimed at separating the militants’ defense lines in Jobar from the militant defense area in Zamalka, Syrian army proceeded securing the area immediately adjacent to the strategic high-rise buildings, which had been recaptured the day before.

Situated to the southeast of Damascus city, that important position, overseeing the city’s South Ring Road, was used by the army troops to move deeper into the surrounding area in order to cut encircled militant defense lines in Jobar neighborhood and subsequently wipe out the remaining militant groups there.

Today, the primary mission of the Syrian army is to push the terrorists away from the South Ring Road. Syrian army troops used their newly secured firing points to suppress any movement detected in the houses of the residential sprawl.

One of the militants’ snipers was trying to detect our position and continued firing upon our building, across all the levels.

We followed the Syrian army commanding officers to visit the infantrymen, who had taken their positions in the very thick of the predominantly residential sprawl. The outer walls of the disfigured dwelling houses were bearing the marks of destruction and multiple bullet holes, a vivid testimony to the level of intensity of the ongoing urban warfare down here.

When inside, one of the Syrian army officers remarked, passing by a couple of thin metal bars that were propping the ceiling: “We used them to reinforce the ceiling to make sure it does not collapse because of the mortars shells”. “See, all that was built by the militants; we have seized it and used, afterwards”, he added, pointing at the massive loads of sandbags, piled up alongside the walls and partitions of the heavily fortified rooms of what used to be a dwelling house.

Not so long ago, one had to speak in whisper around here in order to make sure that the militants did not open fire at the sound of your voice. But even today, one had to be careful. Militant snipers, positioned in neighboring Zamalka, were still controlling open spaces between the houses in this area.

We were making our way through heaps of rubble and chunks of broken concrete. It was hard to believe that some time ago that was someone else’s home.
The commanding officers had arrived in person to observe the directions of the planned attack, which would be carried out by the Syrian battle tanks. They were discussing their future actions with the infantrymen.

“Easy, easy, easy! The militants are close!” Stepping carefully amid the concrete rubble and covering open spaces in leaps, the senior commanding officers moved on along with one of the infantry leaders, trying to come as close as possible to the frontline. The officer was speaking in hardly audible low voice, “What is it that you need to be done here?” The infantry leader replied in soft voice, reinforcing his whispered request with impassioned hand gestures, “It is necessary that the tank destroys this position. They have a barricade over there. It has to be brought down. They are afraid of tanks. We will use that moment then and launch the offensive”.

The day before, these high-rise buildings were in control of Al-Nusra Front militants. Today, the Syrian army troops were using them to fire upon the terrorists, who had taken their positions in the houses of the residential area nearby. I followed the SAA Captain to get to the elevated position used for reconnaissance purpose. When we had arrived, I could not get rid of a strange sensation as if I was the target on a firing range. There was not a single corner there that could not be seen from at least one direction where the militant positions were situated. Besides, the partitions there were useless as a cover from a sniper bullet. However, the SAA commanding officers were not paying any attention to such trifles as they were working on their future assault plans. A thoroughly planned attack would save soldiers’ lives.

The four-storied building across from our position was still in control of the militants. Down in the residential sector, the SAA troops were mere meters away from the militants there.

The militants had strung out carpets across certain alleyways to conceal their movements from the SAA troops. The Captain was giving out target data now and Syrian army machine-gunners were firing at the nearby structures trying to disrupt the militants’ communications.
The SAA battle tanks were the first to move in.

Captain: “Move closer. To the left. A little bit further. Further. Move forward. Forward, again. Stop. Take to left, to the left!”

The SAA soldiers reported a militant firing point in. Target data was relayed to the tank crewmembers followed by a strike by the tank.

Captain: “Friendly forces are to the right. The militants are to the left. Fire upon the first house. Fire upon that house. I see movement there. Fire at them.” The tank fired a shot. “Good, good for you!”

Captain: “The tanks are rolling back. That is it. Come back! The second tank, put up the smoke screen. Now! Get the smoke screen, second tank! That is it! We are moving out. Out!”

Having carried out their mission, the tanks were moving out of the battle area. The infantry units secured eight houses, thus taking hold of yet another frontline of the militants’ defenses.




Contributors: Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Igor Nadyrshin, Marat Musin.
ANNA-News, Damascus.

Syria Update: ANNA News Reporters Under Sniper Fire

Unidentified snipers on a highway have opened fire on a car carrying ANNA News reporters on their way to Harasta, a city and northeastern suburb of Damascus. The bullet had nearly missed Andrey Filatov, slightly scratching his head’s skin, but hit the driver in the head. Traveling at 120 km/h, the interpreter and the guide together had managed to grasp the steering wheel and stop the car.

We will continue our work, covering the war against terrorists in Syria.


Andrey Filatov: “We were riding in an unmarked car on a highway when we came under sniper fire. The bullet hit our driver in the head. Our guide managed to grab the steering wheel and steady the car. That is why we did not run off the road and therefore survived. But our driver was killed.”

“We were moving on the highway when two shots were fired at us – one shot was made from behind and the other came from the left-hand side of the car. Our driver was killed; the bullet hit him in the head. We were moving at a speed of about 100 kilometers an hour. Our interpreter along with our second guide managed to grasp the steering wheel; we did not skid off the road. So, we stayed alive. But our driver was killed.

“… The bullet must have passed very close to my head, as the skin on my head has been scratched and it is bleeding a little bit now. Miraculously, the bullet did not hit me in the head, but it hit the driver”.

Two Number Ones - Writer and Actor: Legendary Storyteller versus Sitcom Artist

Bill Cosby’s story about telling stories.

“There has always been a mystery, to me, about ad-libbing, that was answered maybe 20 years ago,” he says. “Jonathan Winters is the only man that I know who would walk out and hell’s a poppin’. The only one. I think that the rest of us mortals – 12% on a fantastic night – ad lib. So everything that I do when I’m working comes from the thought of something to writing, whether I’m walking with no pencil, no paper — just walking and thinking and setting the thing in story form. That’s the way I work, in story form, so that I could have a funny idea or an idea that says, look there’s got to be something funny about all this, right?”

There are two ways to communicated emotions in a way that makes you smile and laugh. One is through a narrative by telling (or writing) stories and the other is through mental images created by painting images out of logical constructions. The former is known as storytelling and the latter is… Well, it is a different form of art. It evolved recently thanks in large part to the rapid proliferation of novel means of communication, like Television and the Internet.

Bill Cosby’s humor is based upon his ability to tell stories in a special way! As an artist, he is the progeny of his generation of storytellers, who had honed that art generally before the advent of televised shows. Unlike him, Jon Stewart has mastered the new medium to develop a novel kind of comedy show, which is based not upon simply telling a story but on re-living a humorous situation as an artist. As opposed to storytelling, no matter how much that is accompanied by stage performance, displaying a situation is more visual-based and more dynamic, and theatrical.

Pace is not the only difference between storytelling and situational comedy. There is a cultural difference between a relatively slow-paced story-based humor and a fast-paced dynamic situation-based humor! Bill Cosby is an old-school story-based comedian. His approach is generally based upon telling a story in a hilarious way characteristic of him. In fact, he is the author of a collection of his short stories of stand-ups.

In order to draw listeners into the narrative storytelling does not have to be interspersed with the use of expletives or profanities, if you choose not to. On the other hand, bringing the audience into a short-lived fast-paced situation requires additional verbal tools in order to promptly whip up the viewers’ senses.

In our fast-paced times, we are getting increasingly mobile. We are getting used to live on occasional funny situations. Long stories do not count any more. Some of those funny situations are expected to be so short-lived that they have to be forced into a constrictive 140-character-limit format. We just do not have time for longer narratives these days.

Perhaps, that is the main difference between the old-school clean funny story and the modern-day cheap funny situation. Both can be witty and hilarious. However, the times of extended fictional works in prose, both written and spoken, seem to have ended. Bill Cosby’s life-long performance is like a book of hilarious stories. Whereas, Jon’s is a mosaic of televised sitcom strips, deemed to be connected like dots into a larger picture.

The Face of Democracy: Oops, he did it again!

Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug are reported to have been continually referring to the fact that Rob Ford received a great number of votes in the 2010 municipal election, and that anything which interferes with his ability to be mayor disrupts the essence of democracy because he was elected to the position.

It is very strange to hear Rob Ford’s opponents talk about elections now as though that single process alone does not constitute the legitimacy of a democratically elected and publicly supported official. He is a public figure and he has been repeatedly presented by the people as their political leader. The demos has voiced its opinion. Rob Ford represents the people of Toronto. His misdemeanor-provoked voices from the opposition that democracy is about more than elections sound preposterous.

Rob Ford is the face of Democracy.

Erroneously, normative democratic theory first deals with the moral foundations of democracy and only after that with democratic institutions. Because contemporary Western capitalism requires an ideology, it uses normative democratic theory to provide a pseudo scientific account of when and why democracy is morally(!) desirable as well as particularly moral principles for guiding the design of the so-called democratic institutions.

To make things look even more complicated, that normative democratic theory is described as inherently interdisciplinary bringing in political science, sociology and economics in order to give this ideology a look of concrete guidance.

It is noteworthy that the academic discourse on democracy in the Western school of thought begins first of all with the question of why democracy is morally desirable at all. Putting moral dimension in this discourse is unscientific.

Democracy in essence is the government by the people, technically speaking. It is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. In its pure form, democracy is possible only in very small socially homogeneous groups.

The moral aspect of democracy hinges upon the individual qualities and moral outlook of the constituent members, who are being driven generally by their individual selfish interests. Therefore, any moral definition of democracy is not intended to carry any normative weight to it. Moreover, in modern complex societies, the defining notions of democracy in their original forms become dissolved in other forms of socio-political relations.

That is why present-day democracy in the complex social systems of the Anglo-Saxon nations has acquired the features of political theater, whereas the issues of government and power have become increasingly concealed beneath the layers of the so-called Deep Government and Deep Power.

Those small pockets of near-pure democracy have become possible, in these upheaval times of global political change. Due to the occasional temporary overlook by the Deep Power structures, small democratic processes have been allowed to flourish in certain communities. Invariably, those little dated experiments in primitive, if not pure, democracy have brought on top a number of political figures, who have become the show cases of their voters’ inherent moral and ethical qualities and characteristics.

Those democratically elected political leaders have turned out to be severely lacking in terms of the contemporary notions and ideas of morality and ethics that have evolved over time and now constitute the general image of aspiring humanity of our civilization. The pockets of pure, if primitive, democracy amid the reigning rule of concealed autocracy have given birth to relatively little political monsters and big moral freaks of our times.

Even in our tumultuous times, consequences of such lapses of political process, taking the form of direct exercise of power by the separate individuals in various places, look like a step back from the civilized norms of our contemporary social relations. Pure (direct) democracy may well suit the members of a local constituency, who had voted for their little political monsters, regardless of the latter’s moral image, in hope of dramatically improving their own lives. After all, political process is no beauty contest. But it demonstrates that from purely moral point of view, democracy itself is no guarantee of moral conduct.

Claiming moral foundations for democracy is preposterous. Therefore, the normative democratic theory has no ground to call for the moral foundations of democracy as such! In democracy, the moral image as well as the character of each individual - voting for his or her local political leader - is normally hidden from public observation, but it is revealed in the official, who has been elected thereby. This circumstance demonstrates the moral foundations of individual voters, but it gives no moral ground to Democracy itself.

It would come as no surprise then if his opponents were found to have finally resorted to some purely undemocratic means to oust Rob Ford from his mayoral office. As opposed to that largely contaminated democratic theory of today, such a move would be pure political science.

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 8)

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 8)
November 16, 2013


The long-awaited storming of the high-rise buildings in Jobar neighborhood of Damascus City was followed by the Syrian army assault troops moving deeper into the militants’ defense positions, separating them away from their defense lines in Zamalka. Securing their positions in the area immediately adjacent to the newly recaptured strategic high-rise buildings, the Syrian army soldiers began their decisive battle for control of the city’s South Ring Road.

Now, the militant fire coming from the nearby buildings of the residential area posed the main threat to the Syrian army troops. Syrian army battle tanks were actively engaging enemy in that direction by methodically delivering preemptive strikes against militant positions there.

Simultaneously, the tanks were providing armor and fire cover to the infantrymen on the move to their respective points of entry. Multiple underground passageways made that area particularly dangerous by connecting the remaining militant-held residential district houses into one heavily fortified defense area. The tanks’ mission was to provide suppressive fire against the enemy and prevent the militants from opening fire on the Syrian army troops. All the while, the infantrymen were relaying target data to the tanks.

Syrian soldier: “Aim the barrel beneath the red cask. Good for you! Good for you! Hero!”

The tanks’ crewmembers were certainly taking risk by staying on in one spot for so long, as an anti-tank missile could come from Zamalka direction at any moment. However, they had to do so in order to provide cover to their comrades.

While one of the tanks was firing, another one was covering the reload.

Syrian soldier: “Repeat fire once more! See, those barricades over there? Strike there! Go on! Fire!”

The leader tank started moving forward. It approached the building close up and fired off.

Syrian soldier: “Come on, Wasim! Hurry up! Stop! Take a bit to the right! Strike! Do not let them pop out! Wasim, are you all right? Then, move it to the right! Stop! Fire!”

Infantry reinforcement group moved out to support the assaulting troops.

Syrian soldier: “Repeat fire, once more! You did hit the barricade, right on. Repeat fire so they don’t go away! Fire!”

Having fulfilled its mission, one of the tanks began to roll out, leaving the battlefield. However, the moment the infantrymen had spotted some militant movement, the tank rolled in again, moving forward.

One infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) arrived bringing ammunition and equipment to the soldiers, who were busy securing the area.

During those 20 seconds that we were rushing across 80 meters of open space towards one of those high-rise buildings, it was strangely incredible how easy it was to do. Shortly before that, several Syrian army soldiers had been killed in order to get there. Now, it took us just 20 seconds to get inside this high-rise building.

As soon as they got inside the building, the SAA soldiers started fortifying their positions, in case the militants launched a counter attack.

“That is the tunnel that connected these two buildings. Most probably, there is also an underground passageway, leading to al-Arabie.”

Syrian soldier: “Go ahead, Hussein! They are sitting around in that house.”

The soldiers were overwhelmed with joy because of such a rapid assault.

Inside the building, there are traces of the militants’ having being there shortly before – an improvised kitchen place, 2-meter-deep barricades, and their observation point.

Syrian soldier: “Move forward and a little to the left! Crash down that three-storied house! They are in there.”

Two- and three-storied houses in this residential area have now become a major source of enemy threat to all of us. One of the tanks moved out to provide cover. A four-round salvo by the tank had transformed the local skyline. Now, from under that brick heap, nobody would be able to shoot at us.

We moved along. Following alongside the troops, I finally approached the area, where the hidden entrance to the tunnel, running from this high-rise building, had been located earlier.

Syrian soldier: “There is an underground passageway here that leads to Zamalka. It has a passage out of the tunnel half way through, to strike in the back. Be careful. It is very dangerous here. Film it fast and we must get away from here. Just pop out the camera alone, that’s all.

For safety reasons, I could film just the entrance to the tunnel. The area around it was said to have been turned into a minefield by the militants. It was very dangerous to be there at that moment and Syrian army soldiers were eager to take me away from that spot.

As an additional reminder of the dangerous character of the place there, several burned-out carcasses of armored vehicles were standing stuck nearby. Some of those heavy vehicles were said to have belonged to the militants, who used to brag by posting videos with them.

Syrian army troops continued securing the area in and around the high-rise buildings by fortifying their defense positions. Meanwhile, some of the infantrymen began entering the houses of the residential area and they needed tank fire support. The tanks promptly moved forward.

SAA Logistic Services did know their business well, too. An IFV delivering food supplies along with the ammunition had proved the age-old axiom that you cannot keep you soldiers hungry.

Militant sniper power from Zamalka, still kept areas between the high-rise buildings under enemy control. However, we had to cross that open space in order to get on to the other side of the street. We decided to sprint-cover that distance by rushing across the street all together at once thus making militant sniper’s task of picking a target somewhat more complex. One of the tanks fired a cover shot, which also played the role of the firestart pistol signal to us. Syrian army Captain proved his excellent fitness, as usual.

Meanwhile, the leading assault troops were already fighting deeper inside the residential area. The infantrymen moved on to support the offensive.

Inside this high-rise building, the ground was strewn with casings of ammunition, including hand-held 90 mm M79 OSA anti-tank rocket launchers and Molotov cocktails, used by the militants.

Unfortunately, a landmine that had been planted by the militants killed several SAA soldiers. Two soldiers died. Five more were wounded.

After mortar shelling the militants’ defenses, the Syrian army soldiers took me away from the frontline positions. Shortly after that, SAA sappers detonated several landmines, planted in the area by the militants.

This operation, which was aimed at separating the militant defense lines in Jobar from the militants’ defense area in Zamalka, is over. The active phase of the high-rise buildings assault by the SAA troops had lasted only 40 minutes. Despite their vows, the militants were unable to put up any credible military resistance. Next step, the Syrian army will be cutting militant defense lines in Jobara neighborhood in order to wipe out the remaining militant groups there.



Contributors: Andrey Filatov, Igor Nadyrshin, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.
ANNA-News. Damascus.

[Syria] Darayya. Southern strike p.5 | Сирия. Дарайя. Удар с юга. (ч.5 П...

Syria Update: Darayya. Southern Strike

November 15, 2013

This was another stage of the counterterrorism operation in Darayya neighborhood of Damascus City. On our way to the frontline, we met some of the local residents. Finally, we reached the lookout station of the Syrian army.

In a little while, SAA battle tanks moved out to their designated positions. Before the beginning of the assault, Syrian attack aircraft delivered a series of strikes against the militant mortar and artillery positions in the depth of their defenses, located beyond the reach of the tank firepower.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army spotters were busy detecting Islamists’ firing points, including militant snipers’ positions. The Syrian army artillery and snipers were engaging spotted enemy positions immediately.

A belligerent militant surface-to-air missile did stop the attack aircraft on its mission.   

Subsequently, the battle tanks – the staple of the SAA strike force – joined the battle.

ANNA-News Agency.

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

Darayya, Syria.

Syria Update: Al-Qabun Frontline

Syria Update: Al-Qabun Frontline

November 15, 2013

Today, we have arrived in al-Qabun, a municipality and a neighborhood of Damascus. It is located to the southeast of Barzah neighborhood, where Syrian army special cleanup operation is going on that was covered in the previous report “Barzah Cleanup Operation”.

Syrian army troops have recaptured part of al-Qabun from the militants. It is predominantly face-to-face combats here with the warring parties fighting at extremely close combat range of 5 to 100 meters.

Movement had been spotted in one of the militant-held buildings and the militants there were immediately fired upon.

The densely-built urban area stretching far and wide in front of the building - that we used as our observation post - is said to be entirely in the militants' hands at this moment. 

“We are at the frontline positions of the Syrian army troops in al-Qabun. From here, the distance to the militants is 20 to 25 meters. In the building across from here, we can see the window curtains that the militants had hung up to conceal their own movement inside”.

We moved on. Next, this here is a secret firing position of the Syrian army. Once the Syrian army soldiers spotted militant movement outside, the army commanding officers realized that the militants were reconnoitering the area. To keep their works concealed from the militants, the Syrian army troops organized additional firing point right inside the wooden closet, blocking the window of one of the apartments. When the militants had decided to storm this building, the fire opened from this position drove them back.

The nearby school building has been taken by the militants. All the adjacent buildings around it are said to be joined together into one network and it would take a lot of effort on the part of the Syrian army to secure this neighborhood with minimum losses to the storming troops.

The multistoried building in the distance was said to be the Water Resources Ministry. It had been the target of the militants, trying to capture it, for more than a year. When the Syrian army troops were advancing here, the militants retreated inside the school building.

There are numerous bodies of dead militants, scattered in what has now become a no man’s land. The fast advancing Syrian army troops had forced the militants to abandon their dead.

We moved on, taking another direction alongside the frontline. In one of the rooms, the gaping hole in the partially collapsed ceiling was said to have been the result of a militant mortar. The militants’ positions were just across the alley now, mere five meters away from the sandbags outlining the defenses of the Syrian army troops.

Syrian army officer: “There, five meters away from us, in that basement, there are militants present, right now”.

Being fully aware that the enemy is close, the Syrian soldiers spend hours in wait, keeping under constant control their respective visual sectors.    

Among the ruins of concrete, the militants were said to be present everywhere. Here and there, there could be seen carpets, strung out to conceal the militants’ movement.

Afterwards, we were invited to take a look at the militants’ food supplies. The produce originated from Qatar and Turkey. Vacuum-packed bread can be stored for as long as one year. It was produced in Turkey. Canned foods come from Qatar.

As we moved on in another direction, we were told that everything we could see around us had been previously recaptured from the militants through the enormous combat efforts of the Syrian army assault troops.   

We have been shown a place where Syrian army commanding officers once decided to plant several mines on the ground floor of the building, after they had learned of the imminent attack by the militants. The mines were remotely detonated, after the militant activity had become apparent. The explosion destroyed the room’s partitions, depriving the militants of cover. The Syrian army soldiers killed a large group of militants then by intensive fire.

We have also been shown some of the earthworks equipment that had been used by the militants to make barricades and tunnels. In the basement of an unfinished building, the militants had started digging a tunnel but had not have enough time to finish their work. They also used that basement to rig cars with bombs for their subsequent acts of terror. The militants took great efforts to conceal the bombs by hiding them under the car seats’ upholstery and inside the working compartments. To disarm such a car bomb, one would have to disassemble the parts of the car. Actually, it is anybody’s guess how many lives had been saved by capturing this one car bomb.

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

ANNA-News. Damascus.

Syria Update: Barzah Cleanup Operation

Syria Update: Barzah Cleanup Operation

November 14, 2013



Barzah. Barzah is a neighborhood – located on the Northeastern outskirts of Damascus City – where Syrian army has been carrying out its counterterrorism cleanup operations to free city suburbs from remnant militants. Syrian army troops have continued securing the previously freed areas and getting ready to assault the central parts of the neighborhood.

As usual, a large quantity of improvised explosive devices were being found in the process. The remaining militants were being looked for by the army troops securing the area on the ground as well as by specially assigned lookouts. From time to time, we could hear them shout out warnings: “Sniper! Sniper! The militants are coming!”

One barricade had revealed a militant sniper position, situated on the right-hand-side end of a rubble heap, blockading an alley. Soon afterward, it was destroyed by RPG grenade-launcher fire.

Syrian army troops securing the area kept moving, scouting for the hiding militants. Our news reporter moved alongside them.

Soon, another militant sniper group had been spotted trying to impede free movement in the area. An assault group was dispatched to calm them down. A Fighting Infantry Vehicle was covering the troops’ movement by its own armor and fire. After the securing of the spot, we moved out to inspect the area.

Syrian army troops have discovered an unusually large tunnel dug out by the militants. So far, just 500 meters of the tunnel have been inspected. It has not been clear yet what could be at the end of it, though. Syrian army sappers were the first to step deeper into the tunnel, as it could have been totally mined. The tunnel was four meters wide and about five meters high. It was rigged with ventilation and electricity. Given its dimensions, the tunnel could have been used not only by the militant ground troops but by their heavy vehicles as well. Infantry Fighting Vehicles, for instance, as well as tanks, could have easily moved through the tunnel.

Standing at the entrance of the tunnel, there was an electricity generator still functional.

A kindergarten building was secured which the militants had used as their headquarters. What used to be a kindergarten had been turned into a bunker. One of its rooms, judging by the inscriptions on the walls, the militants used for their sexual needs.

The militants are said to have developed a habit of turning educational facilities into their command points.

An entrance to yet another underground tunnel was discovered which was blocked by debris.

On our way back, we had been bid farewell by a terrorist sniper who had put a bullet over our heads.

Counterterrorism operation in the north of Damascus continued.




ANNA-News Agency.

Contributors: Vasily Pavlov, Andrey Filatov, Victor Kuznetsov, Marat Musin.

Damascus, Syria.

Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 7)

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Syria Update: Splitting Jobar from Zamalka (Part 7)

12 November 2013



(Transcreation)



Damascus has a suburb named Jobar, where the Syrian army had sieged terrorist-held high-rise buildings for some time. Located just west of the town of Zamalka, Jobar neighborhood has become a scene of some dramatic events, which eventually were to culminate in recapturing of the strategic buildings by the Syrian troops.

This was the day when the long-awaited decisive storming of the high-rise buildings – which allowed the militants to control the city’s South Ring Road – was supposed to take place. The inevitable takeover of the buildings would allow Syrian army to regain control of the bypass and eventually separate the militant defense lines in Jobar from the defense positions of the militants, entrenched in Zomalka. The terrorists in the high-rise buildings had pledged by that time that the SAA troops would not capture those buildings and that all the attacks by the Syrian army would be rebuffed.

We had arrived in Jobar long before the sunrise. Mere minutes were left before the storming of the buildings was to begin. Syrian army troops were in place and ready for action. Accompanied by SAA Captain Khaled, I proceeded to my position at an improvised observation point.

A Syrian Army battle tank was the first to enter combat. The tank’s crewmembers were Bashar and Vasim. They volunteered for this mission after their friend Nimir – tank driver –, had been killed some time before on this very spot, which was now designated as their tank’s firing point.

The tank crewmembers were continually receiving targets’ data from the infantrymen. Mere 10 meters away from the militant defense positions, the infantrymen on the ground kept visual contact with the militants and relayed their positions to the tank. The high intensity of fires from the tank and the infantry would not give the militants a chance to strike back upon the tank.

The militants were sticking to the same combat tactic that had helped them before. They were trying to strike the tank blind by firing upon its optical devices and shoot at it with an anti-tank missile afterwards.

The dust clouds seemed to make it impossible to see their target, but militant snipers kept firing nonetheless at the tank hoping to disrupt its optics. The tank was promptly responding with fire.

In a little while, the tanks were rolling back. However, the infantrymen were calling in for more support. Another tank was rolling in to join the battle, shortly. It fired a shot and immediately rolled back for cover.

After having demolished the militant defense positions, the tanks rolled back giving way to 2S3 Akatsiya 152-mm self-propelled howitzers, which were supposed to destroy the militant in-depth defenses, which had been used by the terrorists as shelters inside the buildings during the tank fire.

The first howitzer fired a shot to clear the way for its subsequent firing position.

SAA commanding officer was speaking on the phone: “We started storming the high-rise buildings in the early morning… I hope we’ll seize them today.”

We returned to our improvised observation point and saw the sunrise from there.

The first assaulting troops entered the first left-hand side high-rise building. We knew that the first right-hand side high-rise building was already in control of the Syrian army. The terrorist fire now posed the main danger from the residential area immediately adjacent to the high-rise buildings. Syrian army tanks were engaging the enemy there.

Having taken the first building, the infantrymen secured the immediate area in order to make sure they could move on towards the residential area houses. We decided to follow the assaulting troops.

We could hear the SAA commanding officer speaking on the phone: “That’s it! Everything is fine! We have seized four buildings already. We’re moving forward.”





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



ANNA-NEWS, Damascus.

Обстрел мирных жителей Дамаска

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Syria Update: Shooting at Civilians in Damascus
12 November 2013


We are in Dalmasca, an Orthodox Christian School of John Damascene, which has become target of one of the latest terrorist mortar attacks when twin mortar explosions ripped through the school area killing five children and wounding 15 others. One of the mortars has crashed into this 4-th graders’ classroom. The missile penetrated through the roof fraying the classroom ceiling and exploded right above the school desks killing all five schoolchildren, who were in the class.

It was terrible to see bloodstains all around the classroom knowing that was the blood of children, whose lives were cut short so suddenly. One of Al-Nusra Front terrorist groups has already taken responsibility for the attack.

The terrorists in Syria have literally forced children to live and study under strained conditions having their school windows permanently blocked with sandbags for protection. However, even that measure could not save the lives of those 10-year-olds, killed by a mortar.


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

ANNA-News, Damascus.



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Syria Update: Latest Events 09 November 2013

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Syria Update: Latest Events
09 November 2013


Damascus province. Local residents of Abu Shamat area have helped Syrian army locate one of Al-Nusra Front-affiliated terrorist groups, which had been on the move lately. The terrorist mobile group consisted of several heavy-machine-gun-equipped trucks, also used to transport ammunition and personnel. All the terrorists have been killed and their equipment destroyed.

Syrian army has foiled an Al-Nusra-led armed attempt to seize Arneh village near the Kar Bun Mountain in Damascus province and killed most of the terrorist group members. The terrorists had sustained great losses and lost a number of their vehicles, assault weapons, and ammunition, which they had abandoned on the battlefield.

Homs. Counterterrorism operations have been carried out in the province of Homs. Syrian army has freed Mhin village of all Al-Nusra bands there in the eastern parts of Homs province. A large number of terrorists have been killed. Large quantities of abandoned terrorist weapons and ammunition have been subsequently found in the area. Vigorous security inspection of the village is in progress.

Aleppo. Syrian army has continued security checkups in the recently freed village of al-Azizia and its nearby areas in Aleppo province. Separate isolated terrorist groups, trying to break out of the encircled area, are being relentlessly pursued and neutralized by the army units. The terrorists are not going to evade their punishment they have fully deserved.

Damascus. During transport inspection, at one of the Syrian army checkpoints, a car was suspended en route to Daraya. Four terrorist who had happened to be in the car attempted to resist and were killed on the spot. A more detailed examination of the car revealed a hidden weapon cache, which contained sophisticated tandem-charge anti-tank munitions for RPG-type grenade launchers.

International Commission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has continued its work in Syrian Arab Republic. Syrian authorities and army leadership have been providing all necessary assistance to its members. All chemical weapons production and storage facilities are being verified. Special attention is being paid to security issues to ensure the safety of the Commission members.






ANNA-News Agency

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

Syria

Краткая сводка о ситуации в Сирии за 6 ноября 2013 года. 21+

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Syria Update: Latest Events

06 November 2013

Homs. A suicide terrorist has detonated a truck rigged with improvised explosive devices (IED) of enormous power in AL-Sabekia town in Homs province. Six people were killed in the blast and more than 20 were wounded. Due to the extreme power of the explosion, the entire central part of the township has been obliterated . Great damage has been done to personal belongings of the local citizens. The town dwellers have nonetheless reiterated that they would never change their own attitude towards terrorism. They have vowed to never let terrorists inside their homes.

In Eastern Homs, a group of AL-Nusra Front terrorists has tried to attack Alnaamia town by detonating there a railroad draisine, which had been loaded with 200 kilograms of high-powered IEDs. The terrorists had tried to use the draisine to enter the town and cause a massive explosion there. Syrian army soldiers’ brave and expert response to the situation has prevented this yet another terrible terrorist act and saved many civilian lives. 

Counterterrorism operations have continued in Homs province. Special security measures have been implemented fully in the previously freed areas. During these vigorous security checkups, many terrorists, trying to flee justice, have been killed. Several cars of the terrorists have been destroyed, too. One of the terrorist bands’ name lists – citing personal data of the terrorist members – as well as registries of the terrorist-issued weapons and ammunition have been found. Among the names of the listed are many foreign mercenaries from various countries including one Chechen by the name of Hattab.

Syrian army sappers have disarmed a large number of different types of IEDs, including high-powered ones, planted in the area of Tal Al-Saat road.

Hama. Counterterrorism operations continued in Jamal Ashkar area of Hama province. During one of the recent security inspections, local residents of Sukh Ata-Ul township have helped Syrian army soldiers discover a large stockpile of AL-Nusra Front terrorists' weapons arsenal. The terrorist weapons cache was hidden in a local mosque. A large number of small arms and anti-tank weapon systems, hand grenades, ammunition, IEDs, and various medicines have been safely extracted from the hideout. One terrorist have been arrested. Investigation is underway.

Damascus. Syrian army has ambushed and completely destroyed another isolated band of AL-Nusra Front-affiliated terrorists in Damascus province. The band’s movement route and their mission are being investigated, now.

Aleppo. Counterterrorism operations have continued in Aleppo province with the main objective to destroy the terrorist roadblocks on Damascus – Aleppo highway and to secure the neighboring areas along that road. During one of the operations against the AL-Nusra Front terrorists in the area, Syrian army has liberated Alazizeih village, situated to the north of the town of Al-Sfera. The terrorists were attempting to put up a desperate resistance, as they were fully aware of the village being strategic to providing the highway traffic security.

ANNA-News Agency

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

Syria.