Meanwhile in Iraq & Syria

[BjornP]

http://dailyhellas.com/2017/05/25/greek ... -in-syria/

Greek newspaper “Eleftheros Typos” published photos of fighters with weapons standing in front of a wall in the conflict zone with slogans in Greek reading: “From Rojava to Athens, the liberated lands of the struggle. You will spill blood to take them. Solidarity to the occupations”.

(Anarchists btw with YPG)

Yeah, here's VICE report from Syria from a year or so back where a former German Antifa (who are almost all anarchists) travelled to Syria when the civil war began, taught himself fluent Kurdish, and at the time of the video footage was now a commander of a Kurdish YPG position.

[TheReal_ND]

That's actually impressive if true. My understanding is that these Antifa types usually don't fight, they just posture and get street cred.

[BjornP]

That's actually impressive if true. My understanding is that these Antifa types usually don't fight, they just posture and get street cred.

That's your antifa. Here, they've been engaging in violence with police during most major WTO meetings, climate change conventions, G7 meetings (anything that involves the "evils" of capitalism), and jump the few far-right hooligans and neo-nazis they can find. They once got into a fight against Hizb uth Tahrir, a Salafist organization, over some anti-woman sentiments the HuT had been saying in the media, thought that's (sadly) more rare. Here in Denmark, in 1993, they torched a neighbourhood in Copenhagen due to their resistance against the formation of the European Union and the signing of the Maastrict Treaty.

VICE has a video, too, of antifas in Sweden.

[TheReal_ND]

Torching neighborhoods is ok I guess. They are more militant over there that's for sure but the discussions I had regarding these Greek anarchists with the YPG make it sound like they are doing a lot of posturing really. Something to watch though. The only positive take away from this is that the are anti EU so maybe they raise hell in Greece about it when they come back. More likely, if they get any training they will use it against Golden Dawn first, which should be entertaining.

[TheReal_ND]

Developments May 31
Waiting for the bomb to drop edition:
>Russian frigate&submarine fire 4 cruise missiles at IS near Palmyra
>SAA,RUforces new offensive against IS in E.Hama
>SDF reach the gates of Raqqa,4k IS fighters are inside
>SAA advances in E Ghouta against JaI as rebels infighting continues
>SDF VOWS TO PREVENT ANY CORRIDOR BETWEEN IRAN AND ‘SYRIAN REGIME’,will oppose any PMU attempt to enter the Syrian
>SAA frees 35+ civies held hostage by rebels in Barzeh District
>witnesses claim US military killed fleeing Yemeni child in latest botched raid
>Philip:89 militants,19 civis&21 gov soldiers dead, 90% of Marawi cleared
>US ICBM intercept test was successfull, cost 250mil
>Kabul blast:90dead,400 wounded
>Iraqi Army bans the burka in Mosul
>Saudi jet mistakenly bombs allied forces, Houthis kill 6 saudi soldiers in Najran
>IS insurgents target Houthi outposts in central Yemen

FSA launched a counteroffensive along the Damascus-Baghdad highway which failed. Saw report say RuAF bombed them

https://twitter.com/ModerateLoomis/stat ... 9922304000

S. #Syria: #SyAF & #RuAF increasing their strikes vs #FSA now that pro-Assad and #Iraq|is encounter stronger resistance to advance.


https://twitter.com/QalaatAlMudiq/statu ... 5019008000


#Regime withdrew from their positions amidst heavy rebel grad rockets attack

# Regime forces hold same positions as days before now.

https://twitter.com/worldonalert :

#Syria: Pro-#Assad forces are trying to encircle #FSA fighters and #US soldiers in #Al_Tanf.

#Regime advance continues

UAE-backed forces gain control over Aden airport
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... 62b6cd8763

https://twitter.com/MIG29_/status/870032915870007296
Turkey 13 troops by military helicopter crash in Şırnak province Southeast Turkey due to hitting the power line totraali.

White House: Qatar must stop funding terrorism White House spokesman Sean Spicer called on Qatar to stop terrorist organizations around the world.

Spicer said there were ongoing investigations into Qatar's involvement in supporting terrorism around the world and that strict measures would be taken.

https://www.shfanews.net/post/38363

VIDEO: Two Syrian soldiers turn themselves in to #ISIS commanders on #Palmyra frontier
>https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/vi ... -frontier/

[BjornP]

More on the road toward Kurdistan's path toward an independence referendum:

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/240520175

So, they're going to vote this November, apparantly. Though, the Iraq government under Maliki seems less inclined to accept the legitimacy of that idea....

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/300520178

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan presidency and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki engaged in a volatile exchange of words, each accusing the other of violating the Iraqi constitution.

Maliki said the use of force may be necessary to “deter” the policies of Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and his efforts to establish a greater Kurdistan. Barzani responded saying Maliki should have taken his own life for having driven Iraq into a sectarian war.

More in depth on that situation:

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/250520172

And on the front page of the same news site, a story about the Christians of Iraq being aligned with many different groups and getting into conflicts with each other:

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/230520172

The situation is complicated by the presence of rival forces protecting Christian towns and villages.

Some areas, including Alqosh, Bashiqa, Tal Squf, and Batnaya, are under the protection of Nineveh Plains Protection Forces supported by the Peshmerga. But in Tel Kef, Hamdaniya and other places, Babylon Units, associated with the Hashd al-Shaabi forces, are in control.

“The rivalry is not only between Shiites and Sunnis, or Sunnis with Shiites. Rather, there are unfortunately problems even among Christians. There is big interference,” Rayan Kildani, secretary general of Babylon Units, said.

[TheReal_ND]

The never ending shit show. Kurdistan will be a mistake imo

[BjornP]

It would be a mistake of any US or NATO country to openly advocate for an independent Kurdistan, as long as Turkey's a NATO ally. Among the public in both the NATO countries as well as Russia, according to one of those articles, support for Kurdish independence is high. But while helping split up Iraq and create a Kurdish ally could be in Russia's interest, it could also cause some friction between the cooperation between the Syrian regime, the main Syrian Kurdish forces and Russia. Although, lately it seems the Syrian Kurds have adopted an increasingly pragmatic outlook when it comes to their future.

From a US/NATO perspective, advocating for Kurdish independence is no guarentee that such a new state will be favorable to US market, military or political interests.

[TheReal_ND]

Agree. Now for the daily dose of Syraq news



Desarrollos Junio Dos
Fascism on the rise addition:
>PMU begin cleaning the Sy-Iraq border of IS
>E Aleppo:SAA capture several sites from IS,seize Maskanah Grain Silos area
>SDF deployed to E Raqqa entrance, 1km to Al-Mashlab from Raqqa
>RU MoD:3 IS convoys fleeing Raqqa destroyed, 80killed
>SAA resumed offensive in S Palmyra after failing in Al-Abassiyah, no gains yet
>Daara:15 rebels dead,20 injured in roadside bomb planted by SAA
>E Ghouta: JaI managed to repel SAA attack from yesterday
>At least 15 RU ships deployed to Med. sea
>Pro-Turkish militants clash with YPG in NW Syria, turkish artilery helped
>2SAA surrender to IS on Palmyra frontier
>Philip:AF mistakenly bombs gov positions in Marawi-11dead,7injured, meanwhile IS captured weapons&equpmnt
>Yemen:clashes around Aden airport, 2 dead

A Saudi billionaire prince, famous for employing a team of dwarves, is now Twitter's second largest shareholder.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his investment firm now owns just over 5%, which is more than Twitter's new chief executive Jack Dorsey.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/3 ... -bin-talal

Twitter has a crackdown on pro Houthi/Saleh profiles every now and then.

[TheReal_ND]

Supermarkets emptied in Qatar as Saudi-led embargo causes public panic. Even the bacon is gone.

https://www.rt.com/news/390863-bahrain- ... ons-qatar/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-40155829