Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
When Israel struck and destroyed the Iranian Consulate in Damascus on April 1, their partners, the terrorists following Radical Islam, were coordinating attacks on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). This is not the first time that Israel has coordinated and partnered with terrorists in Syria.
In the latest incident, Israel attacked Damascus with an airstrike which hit the Iranian Consulate, while Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacked the SAA in the outskirts of Idlib in north west Syria, east of Latakia and west of Aleppo. The terrorists used suicide bombers as well as armed terrorists to carry out the attack which claimed the lives of SAA soldiers.
On March 31, Israel attacked the Jamraya Research Center in Damascus, and at the same time HTS was attacking near Jebel al Zawaya, and the SAA positions south of Idlib. The SAA pushed back against the terrorists by using massive gun power, supported by the Russian air force, and killing and injuring foreign terrorists, including Uyghurs from the East Turkmenistan Islamic Party (TIP).
On March 29, Israel targeted Aleppo with airstrikes, which killed civilians, while at the same time HTS coordinated attacks on the SAA positions near Aleppo utilizing foreign terrorists including those from Tajikistan, the same country of origin as the so-called IS terrorists who attacked the Crocus Center in Moscow recently. In this attack, the HTS utilized drones, and suicide bombers. Many, if not most, of the foreign terrorists were killed. After the attack, the HTS media claimed they had taken over SAA positions in west Aleppo, which the SAA quickly proved was a false claim, and showed video evidence refuting the claim which showed the dead terrorists.
On March 28, Israel targeted a residential building in Damascus killing civilians, and the HTS coordinated attack in suburbs of Idlib, used 1,900 armed terrorists as they targeted the SAA. The majority of the terrorists were foreigners, such as: Chechens, Tajiks, Uyghurs, Uzbeks and Turkmen. The SAA responded to the attack by using air force, missiles, tanks and Russian military support. The majority of the terrorists were killed or injured, and the HTS media reported the Idlib hospitals are full of their fighters, and several big leaders have died. The HTS did not gain any territory in these attacks, even though they used a massive amount of weapons and fighters.
Since the outset of the March 2011 US-NATO attack on Syria for regime change, Israel has been an active partner with the US, and has supplied weapons to the terrorists attempting to change Syria from a secular government into a Muslim Brotherhood led government, which would be US-friendly. Under President Obama, and his VP Biden, they elevated the Muslim Brotherhood to ally status.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a global terrorist organization, but despite Senator Ted Cruz bringing a bill to Congress several times, he could not find the votes to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood in the US, which finds support among Democrats and Republicans alike.
Obama saw the opportunity to overthrow the Syrian government without having to use American soldiers, by using the terrorists following Radical Islam as his foot soldiers, to fight the SAA, which is a national conscripted army made up of only Syrian males over 18 who are not enrolled in university.
The armed fighters began as the “Free Syrian Army” which was fully supported by the US, and the support which costed billions lasted until 2017 when President Trump shut down the CIA “Timber Sycamore” project.
Early on, the FSA failed to achieve military goals the US set, because the FSA did not have the support of the majority of the Syrian people, who could not justify chopping off your neighbor’s head just because they are born into a different religion. The SAA never fell apart, as the Pentagon envisioned.
In the first few years of the Syrian conflict, the FSA destroyed the SAA air defense system in the suburbs of Damascus and Deraa. The FSA assassinated SAA Generals who were attached to the air defense system. The FSA assassinated Syrian scientists involved in developing the SAA, especially in the Jumraya Research Center in Damascus, which has recently attacked again by Israel. These various FSA attacks on the air defenses occurred before the SAA entered into the war against terrorism.
It is paramount to understand, that the Syrian air defense system was in place to protect against Israeli airstrikes. By the FSA destroying the Syrian air defenses, this proves the US sponsored FSA were in collusion with Israel from the beginning of the conflict in 2011, and HTS continues that coordination with Israel today.
As the FSA faded away, the Jibhat al-Nusra group started making advances on the Syrian battlefield. The head was Mohamed al-Julani, a Syrian raised in Saudi Arabia. He had fought the US in Iraq as an Al Qaeda member, then became associated with Baghdadi, the head of ISIS, and finally came to Syria to form his own brand called Jibhat al-Nusra.
The US continued to support Julani and his fighters in Idlib, but once Jibhat al-Nusra was listed as an international terrorist group, the US insisted Julani change its name to HTS to re-brand itself.
Julani is the occupier of Idlib, holding 3 million civilians as human shields. Every bit of food and aid which rolls into Idlib from the UN and other aid agencies passes through his hands first. If you support him and his Radical Islamic fighters, then you get your share of food, but if you have voiced any complaints, you get nothing. Those who are denied free aid have to buy the surplus aid at Julani’s shopping center, the two-story Hamra Mall, which he built including escalators.
In the days of Jibhat al-Nusra, the Israeli military opened a security gate on the Golan Heights allowing injured Jibhat al-Nusra fighters to go to Israeli hospitals for medical treatment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally visited the injured Radical Islamic terrorists in the Israeli military hospital and had photos published of him consoling them.
Since October 7, Israel has bombed Syria more than 32 times. Airstrikes include on the SAA, Damascus International Airport, storage facilities in Aleppo, and places used by Hezbollah and Iran. The conflict between Syria and Israel began with the 1967 War, the occupation of the Golan Heights, the occupation of the Shebaa Farms in neighboring Lebanon, and the most important piece to the mosaic of conflict, is the occupation of Palestine, and the current genocide in Gaza.
Iran, Syria and Lebanon are parts of the axis of resistance, which are fighting for the freedom of Palestinians, as well as liberating all occupied territories.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
