ISIS- SYRIA-THREAD

[Anthea]

The year is 2014

Mobile phones have been invented

Mobile phones with the ability to take videos

Logic tells us that there should be many hours of footage coming out of Kobani

EVERY SINGLE DAY

Some of the world's media still have a presence in the area

Though admittedly some media outlets are now just rehashing stories provided by Reuters
and the Associated Press - rather than having their own journalists in the Kobani area

There is still enough media interest in Kobani to warrant the release of detailed information

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN KOBANI ?

[Anthea]

The Battle for Aleppo



The fighting is becoming very close to the Citadel of Aleppo

[Anthea]

BBC News

Islamic State crisis: The 13-year-old on 'righteous path'
By Mark Lowen



In a cramped living room in southern Turkey, a 13-year-old boy is training to join Islamic State.

As he welcomes us in, he appears a regular, happy-looking child: his hair is ruffled, his smile beaming, he wears a grey, hooded sweater.

But as we sit down to talk, he heads next door to change, returning in a black balaclava and military-style camouflage top.

He wants to be known as "Abu Hattab".

Born in Syria, he was first radicalised last year, joining the jihadist group Sham al-Islam.

'Behead them'

He had Sharia lessons and learned how to use weapons, proudly showing us pictures in which he takes aim with machine guns.

Now he spends his days online, watching jihadist videos and chatting on Facebook to IS fighters.

Within weeks, he says, he'll go to the IS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria to become a young jihadi soldier.

"I like Islamic State because they pursue Sharia and kill infidels, non-Sunnis and those who converted from Islam," he says.

"The people killed by Islamic State are American agents. We must behead them as Allah said in the Koran."

I ask whether he has disclosed his age to those to whom he talks online.

"At the start, I didn't," he says.

"But recently I told them - and now they contact me even more, sending me photos and news."

But why not simply enjoy his childhood, I ask?

"I don't want to go out with friends or have fun. Allah ordered us to work and fight for the next life - for paradise. Before, I went to the park or the seaside.

"But then I realised I was wrong - and I've taken the righteous path."

'Evil powers'

His family now lives in Turkey - so would he launch an attack here, or in Britain for example?

"Britain should be attacked because it's in Nato and is against Islamic State," he says, "but we would kill only those who deserve it. If they ask me to attack Turkey and give me a holy order, I would do it. Soon the West will be finished."



At home, he and his mother, who wants to be known as Fatima, lead a devout life.

She spends much of her time studying the Koran and admits strong sympathies for the militants.

Last year, she sent her son for training with Sham al-Islam - but denies brainwashing him.

"I never encouraged him to join Islamic State," she insists.

"I support some of their beliefs but not others. But I think they came to help the Syrian people - unlike the evil powers around the world."

'Future leader'

"I can't stop him if he wants to fight," she says.

"War makes children grow up fast. I want him to become a future leader - an emir."

Steadily her voice grows in intensity, her eyes narrowing in anger above the scarf she uses to cover her face.

"I would not be sad if he killed Westerners. I'm ashamed that my other sons are working peacefully for civil society groups - they must take up arms."

How would she feel, I ask, if he dies fighting for Islamic State?

She pauses. "I would be so happy," she replies, before bowing her head to cry.
If she's not encouraging him, I ask, what is she doing to stop her son losing his childhood to extreme violence?

$100 per month

Islamic State is recruiting widely among children, according to a United Nations report released last month - and often forcibly.

One video posted online, called "cubs of the Islamic State", appears to show a battalion of children dressed in full military garb, holding weapons and standing next to an IS black flag.

Other jihadist groups are also using child soldiers, Human Rights Watch reporting recently that they're deployed as suicide bombers and snipers.

In the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, we met a Syrian civil society activist who has seen his two younger brothers - 13 and 15 years old - fall victim to a recruitment drive by Jabat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria.



Mohamed, 21, shows me a video of his youngest brother firing heavy artillery with a group of fighters.

In other pictures, he poses for the camera gripping a machine gun.

"I tried to stop my brothers from joining al-Nusra but they didn't care what I felt," he says.

"They should be at school. Al-Nusra offers children $100 per month to fight with them. And they give them weapons-training in a camp. Their childhood has been taken."

Both brothers have recently been captured by Islamic State. Mohamed fears they'll soon defect from al-Nusra to fight with IS.

"I used to have fun with my youngest brother at home. But then he changed. When I told him al-Nusra would destroy our country, he said 'shut up, or I'll kill you'.

"I said goodbye to both of them when they went to join al-Nusra and I thought: I'll never see them again. I'm sure I'll get news that they've been killed."

Syria's war is blackening the formative years of a generation.

And militants are preying upon children as tools of that war, their innocence stolen too early.

As I left the house of "Abu Hattab", I asked his mother what her 13-year-old wanted to become when he was even younger.

She smiled: "A pilot."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29921816

[Anthea]

Anyone listening to the voice of little girl kobani

phpBB [video]

[Anthea]

Reuters

U.S.-led air strikes hit al Qaeda affiliate in Syria
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi: Writing by Tom Perry; Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Beirut; Editing by Crispian Balmer

A U.S.-led coalition that was set up to fight Islamic State bombed the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and another radical faction in northwest Syria overnight, rebels and residents said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said a series of air strikes had targeted Nusra Front, including in Idlib province in northwest Syria, where last week the organization routed Western-backed Syrian rebels.

One strike on a base near the northern city of Aleppo killed at least six Nusra fighters, the Observatory said, adding that the hardline Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham was also hit overnight.

It was the second time the Nusra Front, long one of the most effective groups battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, had been hit in the U.S.-led air campaign, which was launched to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State -- a separate hardline Islamist group that has clashed with the al-Qaeda affiliate.

Several commanders are believed to have been killed in the original strikes against Nusra in September, including Kuwaiti-born Mohsin al-Fadhli -- also known as Abu Asmaa al-Jazrawi -- reputedly a former member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle.

Residents on Thursday said one of the air strikes targeted a car used by Nusra commanders, near an Internet cafe in the Nusra-controlled town of Sarmada, close to the Turkish border.

A rebel from another Western-backed group operating in northern Syria confirmed the air strikes on the Nusra Front and on Ahrar al-Sham, and said they took place at around 1 a.m.

"The strength of strikes and their accuracy confirms that they were carried out by the alliance," the rebel said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Nusra Front vehicle struck in the attack had been carrying ammunition, he said.

FLATTENED

In neighboring Harem, residents said at least four children had been killed and dozens injured in an attack they believed was launched by the coalition.

Residents around the rebel-held Bab al-Hawa border crossing, a strategic gateway to Turkey, said a missile flattened the headquarters of Ahrar al-Sham nearby and killed Abu al-Nasr, the head of the group's arms procurement division.

Nusra, which has been trying with allies to remove its name from the U.N. terrorist list, was taken by surprise when coalition warplanes bombed several of its positions during the initial strikes in September.

Last week the group seized control of areas of Idlib province from Western-backed rebel leader Jamal Maarouf, head of the Syria Revolutionaries' Front in northern Syria, confiscating its weapons. It also took positions from the Hazzm Movement, another recipient of Arab and Western support.

Maarouf, whose group is one of the biggest non-Islamist rebel formations, said in a video statement his group had abandoned villages only to avoid civilian casualties.

The retreat marked a big blow to the non-Islamist opponents of Assad, who have generally struggled against better armed and equipped Islamist groups including Nusra Front and Islamic State.

The United States is planning to expand military support to what it describes as the moderate opposition to Assad as part of its strategy against Islamic State in Syria.

Nusra Front was once seen as the strongest insurgent group in Syria but has been eclipsed by Islamic State, which broke with al Qaeda early this year and has seized wide areas of Syria and Iraq.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... J820141106

[Anthea]

Reuters

U.S. launches fresh strikes on Khorasan group in Syria

The United States said it conducted air strikes on Wednesday night against the so-called Khorasan group, an al Qaeda-linked militant faction based in Syria, and said the group was plotting to attack Europe or the United States.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a target of the strike was David Drugeon, a French-born militant and convert to Islam who some U.S. officials say is a bomb maker for the group.

General Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said Drugeon was one of the group's "leadership elements and one of the most dangerous elements in that organization."

He declined to say whether Drugeon was killed, telling a forum in Washington the military was assessing the results of the strikes. Asked whether Drugeon was a target, he said, "Any time we can take their leadership out is a good thing."

The officials said they believed a leader of the Khorasan group, Muhsin al-Fadhli, who had been targeted in U.S. strikes in Syria in September, was still alive. It was unclear whether al-Fadhli was a target of the latest U.S. raid.

In a statement on Thursday, U.S. Central Command said the latest strikes were carried out by the U.S. military against five Khorasan targets near Sarmada in Idlib province, close to the Turkish border and west of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

"We took decisive action to protect our interests and remove their capability to act," it said, adding that al Qaeda militants "are taking advantage of the Syrian conflict to advance attacks against Western interests."

"SKILLED AL QAEDA VETERANS"

U.S. officials have described Khorasan as a grouping of skilled al Qaeda veterans who moved to Syria from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and set up operations under the protection of Nusra Front, the main Syrian al Qaeda affiliate.

From strongholds in northwestern Syria, Nusra Front has fought militants in the Islamic State, another spin-off of al Qaeda which holds territory in Syria and Iraq and is considered a major threat in the area by Washington.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said a series of U.S. air strikes targeted Nusra Front in Idlib province, where last week the group pushed back Western-backed Syrian rebels. The Observatory said at least six Nusra militants had been killed.

There was no independent confirmation that this was an account of the same attack described by CENTCOM.

The U.S. military made clear the attacks were specifically aimed at Khorasan and not more broadly at Nusra Front. "There were no strikes conducted against al Nusra," Austin said.

U.S. officials have described Khorasan as a particularly menacing faction of militants who have been using their sanctuary in Syria to try to organize plots to attack U.S. and other Western targets, possibly including airliners.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington and Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Editing by David Storey, G Crosse and Lisa Shumaker)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... O120141106

[Anthea]

Reuters

Peshmergas blunted but did not break, Islamic State siege of Syria's Kobani
By Omer Berberoglu and Rasha Elass: Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz in Beirut, Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Jonny Hogg in Ankara; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Giles Elgood

Iraqi Kurdish forces have blunted but not broken the siege of the Syrian border town of Kobani, a week after arriving to great fanfare with heavy weapons and fighters in a bid to save it from Islamic State.

Kobani has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to halt the advance of the Sunni Muslim insurgents. The town is one of few areas in Syria where it can co-ordinate air strikes with operations by an effective ground force.

The arrival of the Iraqi Kurd peshmerga, or "those who face death," with armored vehicles and artillery, has enabled them to shell Islamic State positions around Kobani and take back some villages.

But the front lines in the town itself are little changed, its eastern part still controlled by the insurgents, and the west still largely held by the main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the YPG, and allied fighters.

"There is no change at all in Kobani as a result of the peshmerga. Maybe one or two streets are gained then lost, back and forth," said Rami Abdulrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war.

"ISIS (Islamic State) posts are well entrenched in Kobani city, and the Kurds say they need more heavy weaponry to make a dent ... There also needs to be better co-ordination between the Kurdish units and coalition air forces," he said, adding that Islamic State suicide attacks were also proving effective.

The peshmerga entered Kobani in more than a dozen trucks and jeeps last Friday from Turkey, cheering and making victory signs.

They were given a heroes' welcome by Turkish Kurds and Syrian Kurdish refugees, angry at Turkey's refusal to send in its own troops and optimistic, as they lined the streets cloaked in Kurdish flags, that the peshmerga would turn the tide.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, which runs a semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq, has made clear from the outset that its peshmerga fighters, numbering around 150, would not engage in direct combat in Kobani but rather provide artillery support to Syrian Kurds.

"Of course the presence of the peshmerga has been helpful because they’re shelling ISIS positions, destroying their fighters and weapons," Idris Nassan, a local official in Kobani, said by telephone.

"Because of the peshmerga shelling we've stopped ISIS advances in the western rural areas as well as the east and southeastern front line of the city," he told Reuters.

HEAVY WEAPONS

There was intense fighting in the days after their arrival, with heavy shelling and almost continuous gunfire as peshmerga forces and fighters from Syria's moderate rebel ranks helped the YPG push the Islamists out of some surrounding villages.

On Friday, a coalition jet bombed a site southwest of the town. No gunfire or shelling could be heard across the border.

Nassan said that "constant shelling" by peshmerga forces had taken away some of Islamic State's ability to attack and that there had been good co-ordination between the Kurdish units and the Free Syrian Army, the moderate rebel fighters.

A Reuters correspondent on the border said the intensity of the shelling had died down since then, and there had been no obvious change in the frontlines in the town itself.

"ISIS brings new fighters and supplies all the time, so we need new fighters and supplies too," Nassan said, adding Islamic State fighters had seized nine tanks in an attack on the Sha'ar gas field in central Syria which they were bringing to Kobani.

The Sha'ar gas field, to the east of the city of Homs, has changed hands four times since July when Islamic State fighters first seized it. The Observatory said Syrian government forces retook it on Thursday.

Hevi Mustefa, the Kurdish leader of the Syrian province of Afrin, said Islamic fighters were amassing for an attack there, 200 km (125 miles) to the west of Kobani.

Afrin, which declared autonomy like Kobani and a third Kurdish-dominated region, Jazeera, now risks becoming "another Kobani," Mustefa told Reuters during a visit to Ankara.

Despite having limited strategic significance, Kobani has become a powerful symbol in the battle against the hardline Sunni Muslim insurgents who have captured large expanses of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic "caliphate".

The battle has raged in full view of the Turkish frontier, and Turkey's reluctance to help defend the town sparked riots among Turkish Kurds last month in which 40 people died.

A lawmaker from Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party accused soldiers of killing an activist as she and others crossed the border to show solidarity with Kurdish forces.

TV footage from Thursday showed soldiers firing tear gas at a large group of people running through a minefield and along a railway that divide Syria and Turkey.

"The person killed yesterday after Turkish soldiers opened fire was shot even though she already reached the Kobani side," MP Levent Tuzel told reporters in Istanbul. His party has called on Turkey to re-open the crossing and let in aid and weapons.

A senior state official in the nearby town of Suruc said soldiers used tear gas but were not aware of any deaths or injuries from a shooting, CNN Turk reported. The military General Staff did not comment on the incident.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... 4F20141107

[Anthea]

Reuters

Islamic State shuts down schools in eastern Syria

Islamic State has shut all schools in areas it controls in eastern Syria pending a religious revision of the curriculum, residents and a monitoring group said on Friday.

Islamic State is tightening its rules on civilian life in Deir al-Zor province, which fell under near-complete control of the Islamist militant group this summer. The government still controls a military air base and other small pockets.

The announcement came on Wednesday, after Islamic State held a meeting with school administrators at a local mosque on the outskirts of Deir al-Zor city, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors all sides of the conflict.

"Islamic State informed them that teachers shall undergo a religious instructional course for one month, and that Islamic State officials were currently developing a new curriculum instead of the current 'infidel' education," the Observatory statement said.

At the start of the academic year in September, Islamic State revised the school curriculum in areas it controls, eliminating physics and chemistry while promoting Islamic teachings.

Their latest move aims to further reduce the school day into several hours of religious learning at the expense of academic subjects, according to local activists.

"They've announced that they will only teach religion and a little bit of mathematics. Their rationale is that all knowledge belongs to the creator, so even the multiplication table shouldn't be taught," said an activist called Abu Hussein al Deiri.

Some locals protested the school shutdown, according to footage posted online by activists. It showed two dozen girls and boys appearing to be under 12 years of age marching with a few female teachers clad in black veils as required by Islamic State since the beginning of the academic year.

The children chanted: "we want school".

But activist al Deiri lamented that the protests were muted because most people were "too afraid to demonstrate".

Islamic State has detained, crucified, executed and beheaded hundreds in recent months in Deir al-Zor for "apostasy", a crime of which it accuses anyone who disobeys or opposes Islamic State.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... KU20141107

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syrian Kurds call for help to avoid 'another Kobani'

Western and Arab powers that are have deployed air strikes to prevent the Syrian town of Kobani falling to Islamic State must be ready to help another Kurdish enclave that is also surrounded by Islamist fighters, the local leader said on Friday.

Kobani has been besieged by Islamic State for more than a month, and only air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition and the deployment of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters have kept the hardline Sunni group at bay.

Two-hundred km (120 miles) to the west lies Afrin, which, like Kobani, is one of three Kurdish regions that declared itself autonomous from the Syrian government earlier this year.

It could face a fate similar to Kobani's at the hands of the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, according to the woman who runs Afrin's local government as its prime minister.

"Afrin is surrounded by Nusra, we're ready to defend ourselves," Hevi Mustefa said during a visit to the Turkish capital Ankara to raise awareness of Afrin's plight.

"We're grateful for the international community's efforts at Kobani, but it was late. We want support from them so that the situation in Kobani doesn't repeat itself," she told Reuters in an interview, wearing a tailored leather jacket and a pendant in the Kurdish colors of yellow, green and red.

Nusra Front is al Qaeda's Syrian wing and one of the more powerful groups fighting in Syria's splintered and increasingly sectarian civil war against President Bashar al-Assad.

It is similar in ideology to Islamic State, a group that broke away from al Qaeda and now is its rival for territory in Syria and for global recognition as the leading brand of militant jihadism.

Nusra Front struck a blow against the West's strategy of aiding moderate Syrian rebels a week ago when its fighters over-ran Western-backed forces in Idlib province, to the west of Afrin.

READYING FOR ATTACK

The collapse of state authority in much of Syria provided the long-oppressed Kurds with an opportunity to set up local governments in three areas. Their decision not to directly confront Syrian government forces had, until recently, allowed them to remain islands of relative calm.

Islamic State's offensive against Kobani changed all that, however, and Afrin, home to more than 1 million people, including 200,000 refugees, may be next, said Mustefa.

Islamic State attacked Afrin last year but was repulsed. The Nusra Front has held positions close by for many months without launching a major offensive.

Nusra recently struck a deal with other armed groups in the area and advanced to within 25 km of Afrin town. The Kurdish administration believes they are gathering forces to attack.

Mustefa wants coalition forces to co-ordinate with Kurdish troops and to quickly launch a bombing campaign if that attack happens. She is also calling on neighboring Turkey to open a border crossing to allow aid and trade to flow to the region.

Although her delegation has had some contact with Western diplomats, calls to meet Turkish officials have so far gone unanswered.

Ankara is strongly opposed to the autonomy of Syria's Kurds, fearing it could stir up separatist feelings within Turkey's own 15 million-strong Kurdish population and saying it threatens the unity of Syria.

Turkey also accuses the autonomous regions of colluding with Assad, a one-time Ankara ally, turned implacable foe.

Mustefa acknowledges they have avoided direct confrontation with Damascus, but denies having relations with Assad, calling the allegation a smear to discredit the Kurds.

"We're fighting against the (government) in another way, with our system, which could be an alternative model for the whole of Syria," she said.

"Syria's like a mosaic. That's why every part could have a local government that meets their needs, but they could link with a central government ... We're struggling for the unity of Syria."

Kurdish fighters from Afrin are members of the outgunned YPG and YPJ militias that have doggedly defended Kobani against Islamic State. Those remaining in Afrin are now gearing up for what they fear may be a similarly tough fight, particularly if Western powers do not intervene.

"We don't want war," Mustefa said.

"Yes, we're afraid, but we trust in our security forces and our population to defend themselves."

(Editing by Oliver Holmes and Robin Pomeroy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... N120141107

[Anthea]

Reuters

Syrian activists share photo of children said killed in U.S. strike



Syrian activists shared a photo on social media on Friday of two children they said were killed in U.S. air strikes on Wednesday night which Washington said targeted an al Qaeda-linked militant faction.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had no comment on the authenticity of the images or whether they might have been caused by U.S. bombing.

“We of course strive to avoid civilian casualties even in this extremely complex operating environment and we recognize the inherent risk in strikes...When any accusations are made or information is brought forward, we would certainly look into that and take it seriously.”

The photo, sent to Reuters by an activist in Idlib province, showed two young children covered in blood and dust. The activist, who asked to remain anonymous, said a total of four children were killed in a strike which hit the town of Harem.

Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the image.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which tracks the violence in the civil war, also reported that two children were killed by a U.S. strike in Harem.

The United Nations says that more than 190,000 people have been killed in Syria's three-year-long civil war.

More than 2,000 children under nine are among those killed, it says.

In a statement on Thursday, U.S. Central Command said strikes were carried out against five Khorasan targets near Sarmada in Idlib province, 20 km (12 miles) east of Harem and close to the Turkish border.

"We took decisive action to protect our interests and remove their capability to act," it said, adding that al Qaeda militants "are taking advantage of the Syrian conflict to advance attacks against Western interests."

Khorasan is the Islamic term for an area including parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where al Qaeda's council is believed to be in hiding. Khorasan is believed to be a foreign fighter cell in the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official Syria wing.

But the U.S. differentiates between Khorasan and the Nusra Front. General Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said on Thursday that there were "no strikes conducted against al Nusra".

A separate Syrian Islamist rebel group, Ahrar al-Sham, said in a statement on Thursday that the air strikes had leveled one of its bases in Idlib province near the Turkish border and also killed civilians including women and children.

The United States has been carrying out strikes in Iraq against Islamic State since July and in Syria since September with the help of allies. Washington did not say it had targeted Ahrar al-Sham.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/ ... 3220141107

[Anthea]

I have never been in favour of bombing

I believe that there should be troops of the ground and drones or spotter planes making certain that civilians are not caught up in the fighting

Even if bombs are used with today's technology there is no reason for missing targets

What annoys me most is that - as in the case of Kobani - everyone was totally aware that the Islamic State was heading in the direction of the town - the town of Kobani itself lies in open farm land and it would have been extremely easy to view IS tank movements - yet NOTHING was done to prevent IS from reaching the town - the big question is WHY

WHY was nothing done to prevent IS from reaching Kobani

EVERYONE could see what was happening

HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people were running away from advancing IS forces

WHY did the world wait until more than 200,000 people had been driven from their homes

WHY have America and others - rather than protecting Kobani so that people could eventually return - added to the destruction of Kobani

The vast amounts of money America has spent in destroying Kobani would have been far better used - preventing the spread of IS - protecting the people - keeping towns free from invasion

[Anthea]

Removing the rubbish from Kobani

[Anthea]

Press TV

US-led airstrikes hit oil field in Syria

The United States and its Arab allies have launched new air raids against ISIL positions in Syria, with at least one airstrike hitting an oil field controlled by the militants.

The fighter jets struck the terrorists’ positions in the north and east of Syria on Friday night, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The airstrikes were reportedly conducted in response to the militants’ shelling of a camp where displaced people from the Syrian town of Kobani are currently residing.

"Four explosions were heard during the night in Deir Ezzor province (eastern Syria), caused by US-Arab airstrikes in the area of the Tanak oil field and an IS checkpoint," said the said the monitoring group, which relies on its sources in Syria.

Since late September, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

Some analysts have criticized the aerial military campaign in Syria, saying the strikes are meant to destroy the Arab country's infrastructure.

Alan Sabrosky, a US Marine Corps veteran, has said that the United States’ airstrikes in Syria often target militants with “no military value” and actually aim at the country’s infrastructure.

“What I can see happening is that the targets they’re selecting are those that have, in many cases, no military value at all to ISIS or any other rebel group but really are intended to break whatever infrastructure the Syrian government will have when the fighting is over,” Sabrosky told Press TV on September 30.

He added Washington intends to inflict “such damage to the economic and industrial infrastructure within Syria that any Syrian government after the fighting will be so weakened that it will be vulnerable to further attacks.”

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11/08 ... -in-syria/

[Anthea]

[Anthea]

Below is a picture of new map



New Syrian INTERACTIVE MAP:

Situation in Syria as of 8 November 2014

Please click on link below to map:

http://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/des ... 791/40.551