Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) forces conducted an operation to secure the main roads between Hama and Deir Ezzor, as well as between Raqqa and Homs as Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has been increasing its activity in the country. The footage filmed approximately 90 kilometres (56 miles) south-west to the city of Raqqa on Wednesday shows the SAA soldiers and military vehicles during the operation. We came to complete the mine-clearing operation in the countryside of the Syrian semi-desert, connected to the countryside of Salamiyah, the countryside of Homs, and the countryside of Raqqa,” said an SAA soldier, adding…

As of May 21st, the US Navy has 7 out of its 11 aircraft carriers underway for training and operations. On the day, the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was the most recent one to depart, and it did so from Guam. It arrived there on March 27th, amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The warship left Naval Base Guam and entered the Philippine Sea to conduct carrier qualification flights for the embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11. The other six Navy aircraft carriers that are underway are five Nimitz-class carriers – USS Nimitz, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, USS Abraham Lincoln, USS Harry S.…

On May 22, a van carrying a number of Turkish-backed militants was struck on a road near the town of Zakoom in the northwestern Hama countryside. Some sources claimed that the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) destroyed the van with an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). However, others said an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) operated by Russian or Iranian forces targeted the van. According to xeber24, a Turkish-backed militant was killed and three others were injured in the attack. Other sources said a child who was standing near the van was also injured. In the last few months, several drone strikes…

This week, the Syrian Army, Liwa al-Quds and the National Defense Forces have conducted a series of anti-ISIS raids in the Homs-Deir Ezzor desert. The intensification of the anti-ISIS efforts followed an ISIS attack near Ghabagheb, on the Damascus-Deir Ezzor highway. On May 17, ISIS terrorists set up a fake checkpoint and killed several civilians and soldiers there. On May 18, the NDF and Liwa al-Quds sent reinforcements to the area of al-Sukhna from their positions near al-Rusafah in the province of Raqqah. Coordinated anti-ISIS raids started on May 19. In the following days, the army and its allies destroyed…

The Libyan National Army (LNA) has shared a video documenting an arms shipment from Turkey to forces loyal to the Government of National Accord (GNA). Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Mesmari, a spokesman for the army, presented the video during a press conference held on May 21. The video was recovered from a Turkish-made BMC Kirpi mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) captured from GNA forces in a recent battle. The video documents the journey of a large batch of BMC Kirpi vehicles from Turkey to GNA forces, according to the following timeline: From February 14 to April 28 of 2019, the vehicles were still in…

Late on May 21, the U.S.-led coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carried out a new security operation in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside. The operation took place in the town of al-Shheell. A joint force of the coalition and the SDF raided several houses in al-Shabkah neighborhood in the center of the town. Heavy clashes broke out as a result. “A new operation carried out by our special units with the international coalition, through a raid on two positions of the terrorist organization ISIS in al-Shheell,” the SDF’s Coordination and Military Operations Center said in a short statement.…

The United Nations warns that urgent funding is needed to contain the novel coronavirus outbreak in Yemen, where the healthcare system has collapsed as a result of the Saudi-led coalition’s devastating campaign. Many of the aid agencies operating in Yemen say the country is “really on the brink now,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told a Friday briefing in Geneva. “The situation is extremely alarming, they are talking about that the health system has in effect collapsed,” he said, quoting the aid agencies working in the war-torn state. Laerke went on to say…

The US Labor Department has said that unemployment rates rose in all 50 American states and the District of Columbia in April. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday that this happened because businesses were closed across the United States in an effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has killed at least 95,000 and infected more than 1.58 million people in the US. According to the data, 43 states set record-high levels of unemployment last month, with the highest being in Nevada, the state with the greatest reliance on the hard-hit food services and hospitality industry.…

Russia says a planned move by the United States to withdraw from a major international treaty on unarmed surveillance flights would undermine global security. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Washington had provided no concrete evidence proving its claims that Moscow had violated the terms of the Open Skies Treaty, a pact which gives its 35 member states the right to unarmed overflights. However, Ryabkov regretted the planned US withdrawal from the treaty, saying it would undermine international security. Other members to the 35-nation pact also regretted a Thursday announcement by the US government on the…

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has reiterated Lebanon’s rejection of US President Donald Trump’s plan for the Middle East, warning that it aims to destroy the Palestinian cause and pave the way for the disintegration of the region. In a speech on the occasion of the International Quds Day, Speaker Berri reiterated Lebanese rejection of the “humiliating” plan as well as the Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. Berri emphasized the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance against Israel. International Quds Day, celebrated on the last Friday of the Islamic month of Ramadan, is seen as the legacy of the…