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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syrian rebels seize swathes of south as Islamic State retreats
2017-04-01
[REUTERS] Syrian rebels have seized large areas from Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in southern Syria in the last two weeks as the jihadist group prepares to defend its Raqqa stronghold in the north from a U.S.-backed assault, rebel commanders say.

The advances by Western-backed Free Syrian Army
... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund...
(FSA) factions have helped to reduce the risk of Islamic State fighters regrouping in areas near Damascus and the Jordanian border as they face major defeats in Syria and Iraq.

Western intelligence sources have worried for months that Lions of Islam fleeing from their main urban strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
in Iraq could find a safe haven in the vast areas of the Syrian Desert bordering Jordan.

The rebels fighting in southern Syria have received military aid funneled via Jordan in a program overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

Their sudden gains are a culmination of months of covert operations in which they have ambushed and cut communications lines to weaken the Death Eaters' stronghold in the southeastern border area close to Iraq, the rebels say.

"Extensive areas have fallen into our hands. (Islamic State) has been pushed out of them in heavy festivities in 16 days of battles," said Talas al Salameh, the commander of the Osoud al Sharqiya, the biggest of the FSA groups in the area.

"(Islamic State) had cut roads and were in control and had been positioned in former Syrian army bases with a strong presence and with heavy armor. We cut links between their areas and as a result they began to retreat," al-Salamah said.

In northern Syria, Islamic State has come under growing military pressure in recent months from separate campaigns being waged by the U.S.-backed Arab and Kurdish fighters, by the Russian-backed Syrian army and by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
-backed FSA groups.

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State is backing an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters - the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - in the campaign to isolate and capture Raqqa city on the other side of the country.

Posted by:Fred

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