Syrian militants will launch an offensive to capture government-held areas, if the US goes ahead with a strike and weakens the Syrian Army’s positions, a rebel commander has said. In a hardly surprising admission, an oft-cited Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander said the possible strike against Syria mulled by US President Donald Trump would play into the hands of militants seeking to topple Syria [...]

On Monday, the UN Human Rights Council voted in favor of adopting the UK-proposed draft resolution, rejecting Russia's amendments. The Russian delegation regards the refusal to take its proposal into account as a public announcement for the support of terrorists. The United Kingdom and the United States de facto confirmed their support of terrorists in Syria by rejecting Russian amendments for the [...]

Major General Qassem Soleimani, senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, has provided the country's Foreign Ministry with documents proving US collaboration with Daesh beyond a shadow of a doubt, Iranian media has reported. Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, special advisor on international affairs to Iran's speaker of parliament, said he had a meeting with Soleimani and received t [...]

Exclusive: Selective outrage over civilian suffering in Syria – hyping Syrian government abuses while downplaying the effects of U.S.-led Coalition air strikes – undermines the legitimacy of human rights advocacy, argues Jonathan Marshall. Few things threaten the legitimacy of human rights advocacy more than partisans invoking it selectively to promote one side in a violent conflict. Tha [...]

A new report by Syrian media about the evacuation of Daesh militants adds to the growing evidence that the US is using its aviation to assist terrorists. According to the Syrian state-run news agency SANA, the US has evacuated Daesh leaders from the Al-Shaddadah area in the northeastern al-Hasakah Governorate using its helicopters. [...]

President Donald Trump has accused Russia, Iran and the Syrian government of causing a "humanitarian disgrace" in Syria, and said that the US military only remains in that war-torn country "for one reason: to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS and to go home." But let’s look at the facts. [...]

Commenting on the claim made by the Iranian military that the US has provided direct assistance to Daesh in Afghanistan, political analyst Ahmad Wahid Mozhda told Sputnik that many Afghan politicians and ordinary Afghans are saying the same thing. According to the observer, the US's likely goal is to cause problems for the country's neighbors. [...]

More than half a year after being liberated, Mosul's battle wounds still fester. Entire districts lie in ruins with bodies scattered in the streets, and locals say they have yet to see the aid they were promised. [...]

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told Sputnik on Saturday, hours after a Russian Su-25 attack aircraft was downed by militants in Syria, that the United States did not equip partner forces in Syria with surface-to-air weapons. Alongside by, with, and through our partners in Syria, the United States remains focused on the fight against ISIS [Daesh]. [...]

Two Russian Syria-embedded journalists have put together a damning firsthand report on the true purpose of the secrecy-laden US military mission at At-Tanf, southern Syria. The Pentagon was forced to go into full public relations mode late last month amid fresh allegations by the Russian General Staff that US instructors were providing training assistance for some 350 ex-Daesh (ISIS) militant [...]

Moscow baffled by American and French statements over US-led coalition’s 'decisive role' in defeating Islamic State in Syria. “The defeat of IS in Syria is first of all result of actions by the Syrian leadership and governmental forces,” the ministry said. [...]

Charles Shoebridge takes a look at some of the last year’s security and foreign policy developments: on Trump, Syria, Israel, "Russia meddling", terrorist attacks. While perhaps forced to do so by the reality of the battlefield, Trump did honor his pledge to stop US funding and arming of Syria’s rebels. With it largely at an end, the massive scale of the arming program was at last publicly rev [...]

The new accusations add to the string of charges of alleged US-led coalition cooperation with Daesh (ISIS), contrary to its proclained goal of fighting terrorism in Syria. [...]

Washington has rejected Russia’s contribution in eradicating ISIS in Syria, claiming that only the US-led coalition has made meaningful progress against [Daesh/ISIS]. [...]

The ‘War on Terror’ cost US taxpayers at least $1.46 trillion since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense’s cost of war report has revealed. The 74-page DoD dossier was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy News. It breaks down the cost of the US’s various conflicts and reveals the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq account for the greatest chunk [...]

While airstrikes by the US-led coalition in Syria have only resulted in terrorists seizing ever new chunks of Syrian territory, the Russian military operation, launched in 2016 , has led to a huge military shift turning the tables against the jihadists, an independent British journalist told Sputnik. [...]

September 30 marks the second anniversary of the Russian counterterrorism military operation in Syria. Unlike the efforts by the United States and its international coalition, the Russian campaign in Syria is fully legitimate. It was launched at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sputnik presents a look into the results of the Russian aerial campaign in Syria after two years   [...]

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released aerial images which they say show US Army special forces equipment north of the town of Deir er-Zor, where ISIS militants are deployed. US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, the ministry said in a statement.   [...]

The perennial American lack of foresight and the chaos its Middle Eastern wars have wreaked means Osama bin Laden and forces for extremism have essentially won the war on terror, a former CIA analyst tells Radio Sputnik’s Loud and Clear program. Loud and Clear host Brian Becker was joined by John Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst who gained celebrity for confirming to the press that the Cent [...]