Moscow mows mud huts mostly misses militants.

[Michael K.]

Not derived from royal think tank wonk in ridiculous British tabloid; comes from Syrian Human Rights Observatory with contacts on location in Syria, as reported in Lebanese news outlet.

https://www.edailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2015/Oct-03/317516-fresh-russian-raids-on-isis-syria-stronghold-activists.ashx

Oct. 03, 2015 | 10:54 AM (Last Updated: October 03, 2015 | 05:58 PM)

Russia presses Syria strikes in defiance of the West

Agence France Presse

BEIRUT: Russian bombing raids on Syria entered their fourth day on Saturday, striking ISIS main stronghold after the Kremlin came under fire from the West for targeting moderate rebel groups.

A staunch backer of Syria's President Bashar Assad, Moscow began sorties over the country on Wednesday in what it said would be a prolonged aerial campaign against ISIS and other extremist groups.

But it has been accused by the United States and its allies of instead targeting mainly Western-backed opponents of Assad, with President Barack Obama warning that its strategy was a "recipe for disaster".

Moscow said Saturday that its jets had destroyed an ISIS command post near the group's main Raqa stronghold as well as an underground bunker.

"Over the past 24 hours, SU-34 and SU-24M jets of the Russian airborne formation in Syria made more than 20 sorties over nine Islamic State infrastructure facilities," the defense ministry said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian strikes "hit ISIS positions west of Raqa overnight and explosions were heard in the city".

Raqa has acted as the extremist group's de facto Syrian "capital" since 2013.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its information, said Russian jets had killed 12 militants in Raqa this week.

But raids ordered by Moscow have also hit areas controlled by moderate groups that are fighting Assad and even prompted a claim by US Senator John McCain that Russian jets had killed rebel soldiers trained and funded by the CIA.

Obama told reporters that Russia "doesn't distinguish between ISIS and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go.

"From their perspective, they're all terrorists. And that's a recipe for disaster."

Russia said its strikes this week had completely destroyed ISIS positions in northern Aleppo province, neighboring Idlib province and in Hama in central Syria.

But several military sources and the Observatory said Russia had hit areas controlled by groups other than ISIS.

The Observatory also says Russian strikes have killed several civilians and wounded doctors in a raid on a hospital in Hama.

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that just five percent of Russian strikes had targeted ISIS.

"We're analyzing where the strikes are going every morning," he told Saturday's edition of The Sun newspaper. "The vast majority are not against ISIS at all."

Russia was "shoring up Assad and perpetuating the suffering," Fallon added.

The Syrian conflict began as an uprising against Assad's rule in 2011 but has splintered into a multi-front civil war with government troops, moderate rebels, militants and Kurdish forces all vying for control.

More than 240,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with four million more forced to flee the country.

A U.S.-led coalition has been bombing ISIS positions in Syria since September 2014 but the extremists have still managed to take ground, including the ancient desert city of Palmyra, a U.N. world heritage site.

Turkish President Recip Tayyip Erdogan, one of the fiercest critics of Assad, urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to reconsider his strategy in Syria.

"I will definitely speak to Putin... I will express my sadness over this matter," he told Al-Jazeera Arabic on Saturday.

"I want to understand why Russia is so interested in Syria," Erdogan said, adding he had "received information" that 65 people had died so far in Russian bombing runs, without specifying the source of the toll.

The EU on Friday also called on Russia to concentrate its firepower on ISIS.

"The fight against Daesh must be directed against Daesh," said EU foreign affairs spokeswoman Catherine Ray, using an Arabic acronym for the extremists.

© 2015 The Daily Star - All Rights Reserved. Powered by IDS.

[MikeWB]

Not derived from royal think tank wonk in ridiculous British tabloid; comes from Syrian Human Rights Observatory with contacts on location in Syria, as reported in Lebanese news outlet.

The two-bedroom Coventry home of Syrian immigrant Rami Abdel Rahman has been the organization's base and the source of information for major mainstream media on anything Syria-related from the past four years, including the death toll.

Nobody quite knows who Abdel Rahman has on the ground in Syria, but information just keeps flowing on and on, usually in a dramatic fashion and with little detail.

Dude, you're   embarrassing yourself with this CIA-tier propaganda bullshit. Try posting this garbage on some neocon site.

[Michael K.]

Dude , you published a royal think tank wonk and before that Russian state media.  Is that what you call impartial sources?  You're frigging wonk predicted that ISIS is on the verge of callapse, but if you look back he's been saying so for over a year.  How could he know, and how can you believe him?  This "Islamic Brotherhood" guy at least looks more believable by any reasonable standard.

Exaggerated estimates of air power have been commonplace in Syria.  You are not using your skepticism on Russian estimates, which like anything in Pravda, are laughable exaggerations.  Nobody can do it with just air power.  When you see a mass ground offensive sweep through and extirpate all resistance, then you will know something.

[MikeWB]

Why don't you publish better sources on who this mysterious Syrian Human Rights Observatory operation? It's clearly a bullshit "organization" that's a propaganda outlet. Seriously, try fooling some people who are too dumb to use a search engine with this garbage-tier stuff.

I guarantee you this guy is getting a paycheck from some SateDept/MI6 NGO.

[Michael K.]

So do me one better and show me something that isn't state media which is more of the same you complain about, but KGB flavor.  Who has a network of native Syrian observers that isn't politically aligned with one side or another?  At least their estimates are a bit more modest claims than the claim that ISIS is surrendering after twenty bombings, killing at most 65 estimated, in a war that has killed 240,000+. What view can't be discredited for bias?