October 10, 2014
BEIRUT: Militants (click here) have been driven out of Syria’s strategic Qalamoun region near the undemarcated border with Lebanon, Hezbollah's deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday.
“We are causing losses among [the ranks] of the takfiris, and they are now outside the entire Qalamoun region near the Bekaa,” he said during a Hezbollah ceremony Friday.
Terrorists are being chased down into valleys and mountainous regions, Qassem added, noting that militants would not be able to secure warm refuge in Qalamoun. Qassem's comments refer to a common assumption that that weather conditions in winter would drive out militants, who are not well equipped to handle the harsh climate.
Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah have been engaging in fierce clashes with rebels in the Syrian Qalamoun region. Hezbollah is now trying to tighten the noose on Nusra whose fighters fled to the Lebanese border during the offensive....
There are no reliable allies to anyone in Syria. I believe the Shi'ite presence in Syria is questionable. There is a lot of infighting. It is nearly impossible to tell who has the greatest influence in the Syrian Civil War besides the Islamic State.
There are no reliable allies to anyone in Syria. I believe the Shi'ite presence in Syria is questionable. There is a lot of infighting. It is nearly impossible to tell who has the greatest influence in the Syrian Civil War besides the Islamic State.
By Ruth Sherlock and Richard Spenser
The Assad regime's hopes of outright victory (click here) in the Syrian civil war have been dashed by defeats in the north of the country in the run-up to the planned American intervention, according to analysts, diplomats and reports from the ground.
Six months ago President Bashar al-Assad was said to be finally winning the war as the rebel forces collapsed due to extremism and infighting.
But now, even as America announces new plans to train fighters to take him on while also bombing bases of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), he has been driven out in parts of the north with heavy losses, and some of his allies are said to be disillusioned with him....
Diplomats say that both Iran and the Lebanese-based Shia group Hizbollah, previously staunch backers, are questioning their unconditional support....
..."Much of the Syrian army is Sunni and they see Hizbollah as too sectarian. Some from the Syrian army won't work with Hizbollah. They don't want the militia involved." The regime still has the upper hand in Aleppo, where in June it all but completed an encirclement of non-Isil rebels. But even there, it has failed to press the advantage and the rebels still control a crucial access road into the areas they hold, despite being simultaneously under attack from Isil forces to the east.
"The situation has been stable for a while," a spokesman of the Jaish al-Islam, an Islamist brigade, said.
"Regime and IS attacks have almost paused but they can erupt at any time." However, its failure to deal a knock-out blow, like the western-backed rebels' own when they swept into Aleppo, suggests that outside interference in the war on both sides is keeping the war going with no end in sight....
All the groups including Hezbollah are using Syria as their own platforms to agendas that have nothing to do with or about Syria and/or defending any borders. There are no clear answers for Syria.
You can call it a power vacuum if you want, but, that is a Western idea with Western jargon. The fact is Syria is and has always been divided into factions with their own interest. This is no different than when Saddam ruled Iraq. The stability was not because the people loved him and followed him, it was because it was nearly impossible to defeat him.
This would be a status quo if the deaths weren't so high. In a way the Islamic State is just as successful as Saddam, but, a hair more dangerous to the people. It is just like the relationship the Taliban has with Afghanistan. Same thing. The same governing dynamic. Sharia Law and extremist beliefs. Instead of The Taliban in Syria it is the Islamic State. There is no answer in Afghanistan. The people have to decide they don't want the extremist influence same as Pakistan.
