ISIS apologized to Israel for attacking IDF soldiers. RT Report
21st Century Wire says…
A report yesterday in RT, stated that “ISIS terrorist forces have started moving tanks and other heavy weaponry to the Deir Ezzor area”, following the inexorable advances of the Syrian Arab Army and allies towards full liberation of the final strongholds of this US coalition-manufactured terrorist group who have held Deir Ezzor civilians as hostages under a brutal siege & occupation since July 2014. Previously the city had been besieged & occupied by so called “moderate” groups who had taken control of much of the province and half the city at the end of 2013.
Sheila Coombes of Frome Stop War group raised some very important questions after reading the RT report:
“No group like ISIS can function in a vacuum. Questions must be asked about how they got these weapons – how are they transported, how does the fuel for the lorries and tanks that move them get to the next conflict zone, without WWII style destruction of supply lines? Who helps to facilitate this, who is turning a blind eye to those who operate the chain of custody for supplies to reach them?
It’s as if these people came out of the sand dunes 3 years ago and were gifted the capabilities of a small state with no requests by the international community to sanction those who were providing, harbouring and facilitating their acquisition of capital assets.
It really is quite unbelievable and is the stuff of fiction, anyone who has had a business, in the normal or even the black economy will understand that their rise has been greatly facilitated – no-one is that successful, that quickly without the acquiescence and assistance of outside and necessarily state actors. No one business man owns tanks, trucks, heavy duty weapons – states do and states and their intelligence agencies have the capability to make these accessible to whoever would act in their favour.”
Read the RT report here:
Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) terrorists have started moving tanks and other heavy weaponry to the Deir ez-Zor area in a desperate attempt to hold their positions in the region following the successful offensive of the Syrian Army, the Russian defense ministry has said.
“Following the successful offensive action of the Syrian Armed Forces group supported by the Russian Air Forces in the Ghanem Ali area, Islamic State terrorists try to regroup and establish fortified defensive positions in the Deir ez-Zor area,”the ministry said in statement.
It added the extremists are deploying heavy weapons, “including tanks, all-terrain vehicles with high-caliber weapons and mortars mounted on them.”
The ministry said further that the actions of the jihadists apparently show that they “recognize the fact that the staging area around Deir ez-Zor is the last stronghold of the international terrorists on the Syrian soil.”
The Russian Air Force is meanwhile continuing air strikes against extremists in the area.
Over the last 24 hours, Russian aircraft destroyed “four tanks, 16 all-terrain vehicles with high-caliber machine guns mounted on them as well as two fortified positions that had gun lines,” the statement says.
Syrian government forces supported by Russian military planes are continuing their offensive on terrorists entrenched around Deir ez-Zor and are now advancing alongside the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, the statement added.
On Sunday, the Russian defense ministry said the offensive operation of Syrian government forces supported by Russian warplanes led to the defeat of the “most capable and best armed group of [Islamic State] in the Euphrates River valley.”
The terrorists suffered heavy losses during the battle near the town of Ghanem Ali, located in the eastern part of the Raqqa governorate south of the Euphrates, the ministry said, with around 800 terrorists killed in the operation. Some 13 tanks, 29 pickup trucks with mounted high-caliber machine guns as well as nine artillery pieces were also destroyed in the armed clash Sunday.
The key Euphrates city of Deir ez-Zor has been under terrorist siege for two and a half years after being cut off from government-held areas in the May 2015 jihadist offensive on Palmyra. The surrounded city, alongside a neighboring military base and airfield, have been sustained with food and ammunition by Russian and Syrian transport planes and helicopters.
Russian planes delivered 293 tons of food and medical supplies to Deir ez-Zor in August, according to General Sergey Rudskoy, spokesman for the Russian General Staff. The Russian Air Force also significantly intensified its operations against Islamic State in August, upping the number of sorties to 60-70 per day as the push for Deir ez-Zor gains momentum.
While the Syrian Army and allied forces are pushing toward the besieged city, the situation in the enclave remains tense.
In September 2016, jihadists managed to capture several key positions in the area in an offensive that coincided with a US-led coalition airstrike that mistakenly hit Syrian Army positions in the city which left some 200 soldiers dead or injured.
The extremists then exploited this success, eventually slicing the enclave in two in January, disrupting the supply line between the airfield and the rest of the stronghold.
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