"Millions of Syrians left without heat after ISIS destroys Hayyan Gas Company factory in east Homs"

One minute video posted to YouTube (via AMN) showing Islamic State terrorists wiring the gas plant with bombs and detonating them

By Leith Fadel
January 8, 2016
AMN

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:15 P.M.) - The so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham" (ISIS) decided to destroy the most important source of gas to civilians in Syria on Sunday, leaving millions without proper heating during these frigid months.

The Islamic State's official media wing released footage of their terrorists planting explosives inside the Hayyan Gas Company factory in eastern Homs, shortly before detonating the bombs on Sunday afternoon.

As a result of this terrorist attack by the Islamic State, millions of Syrians will have to find alternative sources of heating in order to warm their homes this winter.

For the civilians of Damascus, the destruction of the Hayyan Gas Company factory could not come at a worse time, as they have been without water for more than two weeks now. [Also due to terrorist attacks on the water supply]

[END REPORT]

**********

Fewer decent US jobs meant more Americans went to work in defense sectors

That's why the defense-related sectors gained inordinate power in the United States. When Trump's presidency restores more jobs and a greater variety of them, this will break the stranglehold that the defense lobbyists and their policy institutes have had on American government. 

Then the nightmare of ceaseless U.S.-fueled warfare and war profiteering will finally end for Americans. Then the American military will once again be an honorable institution and our key intelligence agencies will no longer be ruled by operatives for foreign interests and their American puppets.
     
Record 95,102,000 Americans Not in Labor Force; Number Grew 18% Since Obama Took Office in 2009
By Susan Jones 

January 6, 2017 - 8:49 AM EST
CNS

(CNSNews.com) - Barack Obama's presidency began with a record number of Americans not in the labor force, and it's ending the same way.

The final jobs report of the Obama presidency, released Friday, shows that the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 14,573,000 (18.09 percent) since January 2009, when Obama took office, continuing a long-term trend that began well before Obama was sworn in.

In December, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 95,102,000 Americans were not in the labor force, 47,000 more than in November; and the labor force participation rate was 62.7 percent, a tenth of a point higher than in November.

The participation rate dropped to a 38-year low of 62.4 percent on Obama's watch, in September 2015. It was only 3-tenths of a point higher than that last month.

[END REPORT]

********

Obama clearly announced that he ordered support for Islamic State

President Obama said during a speech or press briefing at the Pentagon:

"As I've said before, this aspect of our strategy was moving too slowly but the fall of Ramadi has galvanized the Iraqi government. So with the additonal steps I ordered last month we're speeding up training of ISIL forces including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province." 

The statements start at the 4:37 minute mark on a video put together by Info Wars and posted at YouTube on January 4, 2017.

The video doesn't specify the date of Obama's remarks but because Ramadi fell to Islamic State in May 2015 I'll tentatively assume they were made in the early summer of 2015.

Is is possible Mr Obama misspoke? From a leaked audio tape of Sec.State John Kerry speaking to Syrian 'opposition' groups on the sidelines of a UN meeting in September 2016, Mr Obama meant exactly what he said.  He ordered that IS be given training -- and from Mr Kerry's remarks, material support as well in the form of weapons, and possibly also money.

It does not seem that Mr Obama was the only American to believe Islamic State was a useful U.S. 'asset' in the Middle East.  An American website called The Conservative Treehouse played armchair detective and found that U.S. Senator John McCain and two other American politicians had assisted Islamic State. 

In the same report Treehouse examined the remarks by Mr Kerry on the audio tape, which had been leaked to The New York Times and CNN in the Fall of 2016. 

(The Times did not publish a copy of the tape whereas CNN did, then yanked the recording at some point, perhaps after Treehouse discovered it a few days ago or gave it another listen at that time.)

See: Absolutely stunning: Leaked audio of Secretary Kerry reveals President Obama intentionally allowed rise of ISIS; January 1, 2017, The Conservative Treehouse.

It sounds to me, from his own words at the Pentagon and Kerry's, that Mr Obama did more than "intentionally allow" the rise of Islamic State. He actively aided it.

(I think Info Wars is wrong when it leaps to the conclusion in the above video that Kerry's remarks prove Obama and Hillary Clinton "founded" Islamic State.)

But I am less interested in Mr Kerry's remarks, or even Mr Obama's than I am in trying to figure out how I missed Mr Obama's news-making statement at the Pentagon. Granted I don't follow the daily press briefings at the Pentagon, if that was the venue for his remarks. But this was not a leaked speech or briefing; you can see that from the sign behind his podium. It's the same as the sign posted in the Pentagon press room. Mr Obama's speech or briefing was not meant to be off the record.

And yet for some reason his remark about helping Islamic State didn't make headlines -- or if it did, where I was during that week? It would've taken a least a week's worth of daily news cycles before the furor about such a remark would've died down. Yet I don't recall news of any such statement from Obama.  Again, this might be me. But do you recall a news report about his statement?

It's possible that Info Wars picked up the video clip from a TV report at time on Obama's statement but I don't follow IW; I ended up there last night in an attempt to untangle the provenance of the Kerry leaked audio tape.

In any case there is so much news related to the 'war on terror' that Obama's statement could have flown under the radar. Or it could have been ignored by the press.  

********

Genocidal famine: They're dying of hunger in N. Yemen

Where is the outrage from the 'international community?' Where is the 'Responsibility to Protect' crowd? 

Doll on a bed in a bombed house in Sana'a, Yemen 

Photo: Reuters/Mohamed al-Sayaghi

As Bombs Drop on Starving Children in Yemen, World Unforgivably Looks Other Way
15:23 - 05.01.2017 (updated 18:11)
Sputnik

[See Sputnik for map of the fighting factions' zones of control in Yemen]

Amid wall-to-wall media coverage of the war in Syria, especially around the so-called 'fall of Aleppo', a war involving war crimes by governments allied to Western powers is taking place in another part of the Middle East, in Yemen. Unfortunately, coverage of that war is sporadic, even as millions of people face the prospect of a famine-genocide.

On Monday, the Associated Press published a short article about people in northern Yemen who are dying of hunger. The news agency recalled that a Saudi-led and US-backed coalition had initiated a blockade against territories controlled by the Houthi-led rebels, adding that the blockade has seen a 60% spike in food prices, which means that "now [Yemenis] can barely feed themselves." 

But as The American Conservative contributor Daniel Larison pointed out ["Yemen is being starved to death"], AP's story is actually a selective, sanitized report. 

"The coalition's responsibility for creating these conditions is even greater than the article states," he says.

For example, the journalist recalled, "in addition to a punishing blockade that has been in place for almost two years, the coalition has bombed major ports, roads, and bridges that are all critical to bringing in food and other aid."

Meanwhile, the so-called 'legitimate' government of Yemen, led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was ousted and fled to Saudi Arabia in March 2015, announced last month that the country's Central Bank would be moved to Aden, in the country's south, which remains controlled by forces loyal to the president.

That, Larison said, has "had the effect of rupturing one of the last national institutions left, and made it much harder for importers to arrange financing to bring in necessities. Shortly before the end of the year, major trading companies halted wheat imports into Yemen as a result of Hadi's Central Bank decision, which made the already dire situation in the country even worse." 

The journalist stressed that Hadi, the Saudi-led coalition and its Western backers "have inflicted all of this on the civilian population of Yemen for more than twenty-one months in the service of an atrocious war effort that has failed in all of its stated objectives."

Yemen, he said, is now "suffering one of the worst man-made disasters of this century," with millions threatened with death caused by starvation and preventable diseases. "And yet the US continues to support and enable the coalition war effort that bears a huge share of the blame for creating famine conditions in one of the world's poorest countries."

"Unless something is done immediately to lift the blockade and bring in food to stave it off, Yemen's famine will only grow more severe," Larison warned.

Unfortunately, as Sputnik has already reported, most mainstream media coverage on the conflict in the Yemen has been "highly selective" and "palliative," owing to the inconvenient fact that Saudi Arabia is a major US ally, and receives weapons from several major Western powers, including the UK, Germany and Canada. 

Yemen, human rights observers complain, has effectively been turned into the "forgotten conflict," and there is a danger that the country's humanitarian catastrophe may soon turn into a full-blown famine-genocide if the silence continues.

Meanwhile, in a highly cynical maneuver, the mainstream media has devoted hundreds of articles and thousands of hours-worth of coverage of the situation in Syria, where they continue to promote the 'fall of Aleppo' narrative, even while the city begins to rebuild and thousands of civilians return to the liberated city.

Last month, Salon.com contributor Rebecca Gordon penned a disparaging piece about the looming Trump presidency and the prospects for international peace, effectively pushing the blame for President Obama's seven ongoing wars, including Yemen, onto the President-elect's shoulders.

But it wasn't Trump that started the Yemen campaign, nor was he the one to sign multi-billion dollar weapons deals with a country openly engaging in war crimes. Some observers have marked their concern that Trump may side with Riyadh in its regional power struggle with Tehran, which has supported the Houthis politically, if not militarily.

Others, however, remain hopeful that the President-elect may at least tone down US support for the Saudi monarchy, particularly following Trump's very public criticisms of a Saudi prince over Riyadh's support for his opponents last year. 

Ultimately, the world will have to wait and see how the new administration handles Saudi Arabia and the war in Yemen. Unfortunately, it looks like it won't be the mainstream media's coverage of that conflict that pressures them to make any actual changes in policy.

[END REPORT]

Associated Press/Hakim 

"Smog is related to nearly one-third of deaths on China's mainland"

On New Year's day, in an article updated on Monday, the South China Morning Post filed a detailed report on China's air pollution-driven smog, which as of Monday was literally off the charts in Beijing. Any reading above 300 is dangerous to human health:

[...]
The air quality index released by the municipal environmental protection bureau on Sunday hit 482, almost touching the 500 mark where the scale tops out, and far beyond the point deemed hazardous to health. The US embassy gives its own reading for air pollution in the capital, and said levels were well beyond 500.

More than a dozen other cities including Tianjin and others in neighbouring Hebei and Shandong provinces also saw smog return to dangerous levels.
[...]
Stations in Qinhuangdao and Shijiangzhuang in Hebei, and Taiyuan in Shanxi saw readings rise above 500. A few other cities in Shandong and Hebei saw levels climb past 400.

Beijing issued an orange alert for air pollution on Thursday that was extended to Wednesday. Heavy polluting vehicles and trucks carrying construction waste are banned from roads and some manufacturing firms have cut production.
[...]

Now is this smog the same as the toxic "yellow dust" that sweeps into Beijing annually and also affects nearby countries? No. This is yellow dust:

It's not actually dust; it's sandstorms off the Gobi Desert every Spring mixing with high levels of pollutants including sulphur, which turns the sand yellow. The phenomenon is exacerbated by desertification, meaning  there's increasingly less distance between the cities and deserts.   

For a detailed discussion of China's yellow dust, see my March 2010 post, Convergence, Part 2: Yellow Dust. 

Meanwhile, Mainland Chinese are being killed in large numbers by routine smog, as the SCMP report notes. And from a February 2015 report by Blouin News on yellow dust (now only available on my blog):

China faces huge environmental and air-cleanup challenges and costs, which it is undertaking on its own. The country estimates that pollution cost it roughly 3.5% of GDP in 2010, according to a study by the Council on Foreign Relations, and life expectancy in the north has decreased about 5.5 years due to air pollution.

For more on China's routine smog, see SCMP for related reports such as How China’s quick blue-sky fixes make pollution worse and How bad will the air pollution get? Don't ask China’s supercomputers. 

By the way, the air pollution in India's capital city of New Delhi and several other India's cities is almost as bad as that found in Beijing, as this December 19 report from the Times of India and scores of other recent reports indicate. However, the Guardian reported that air pollution in Varanasi, India's "holy city" is the most toxic in the nation:

Levels of airborne pollution across north Indian plains routinely higher than in the capital, Delhi, researchers warn

What about using smog-sucking towers, of the kind installed in Beijing? They're virtually useless; I think they're for show:

The Chinese Forum of Environmental Justice (CFEJ) has claimed that the towers do not meet World Health Organization standards, calling the structures "smog warning towers."

The CFEJ acknowledges that the towers do help to filter the air, but contend that that they are unstable and only cover a limited area.

Environmental experts told state-owned China News that "the weight of the machine’s captured particulate matter per hour is less than that of a spoonful of salt."

********  

Carla Ortiz on what went wrong with western media coverage of Syria's war

Bolivian actress and documentarian Carla Ortiz is one of the very small number of Westerners who've been brave enough to travel around Syria to see the conflict for themselves and to independently report on their impressions.   

In her interview with Sputnik about Western news reporting on the Syrian conflict she remarked that the media had made many mistakes. "We succumbed to the news without verifying their sources." 

I think if you talked with Voltaire Network's Thierry Meyssan, Land Destroyer's Tony Cartalucci or the anonymous author of Moon of Alabama, they'd tell you there were no mistakes. But Carla is not naive; she understands the large role that propaganda played in framing the war to the public. Yet she conveys the simple point that the blind can't see:

"On all of the six fronts of the Syrian war that I’ve been to, including eastern Aleppo, I’ve never seen any foreign reporters save for those from Russia Today. So how can people who've never been there cover the battle for the city’s liberation or report that Aleppo is in flames? I’ve been in a firefight and can relay my experience, but where do they get their stories?"

From this perspective the Syrian War is a parable about the consequences of being too clever by half. The foreign powers that wielded propaganda to hide the truth about Syria created a situation so dangerous that they had to depend on others to learn what was going on in the country. And so in their quest to blind the public they themselves ended up blinded.  

The entire interview with Carla is worth the read. And I very much hope that "Voice of Syria," her forthcoming documentary, will be made available to all audiences. It's scheduled for theatrical release in Bolivia and Syria in June 2017.

********   

Still much fighting for the Syrian Army in rural Aleppo

AMN's Leith Fadel has the lowdown, from a report he filed yesterday. Short but important read for those following the Syrian War. 

********

Southfront Launches Military Maps Database - Bravo, SouthFront!

See SouthFront for the details.  

*********

REBELS SURRENDER MOST OF DAMASCUS-GOLAN HEIGHTS BORDER

By Leith Fadel
January 3, 2017
AMN

BREAKING NEWS

BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:25 P.M.) - The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is now in control of almost all of the Damascus-Golan Heights border after the rebels agreed to surrender 3 villages in the western countryside of Damascus.

According to a military source in Damascus, the villages of Beit Sabr, Kafr Hawr, and Beit Timah were surrendered by the rebel forces to the government in exchange for safe passage to the Idlib Governorate.

Militants and their families have already begun packing the buses inside the village of Sa'sa, as they prepare for the long journey from rural Damascus to the Idlib Governorate in northern Syria.

The villages of Kanakir, Beit Jinn, and Zakiyah are all that remain under the control of the rebel forces along the Damascus-Golan Heights border - the militants are currently negotiating the surrender of these areas as well.

With the rebels surrendering almost all of the Damascus-Golan Heights border, the Syrian Arab Army's 42nd Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division will now shift their attention to the areas where there is a large presence of jihadists in the Al-Quneitra Governorate.

[END REPORT]






********

The world now knows that several Nato-EU governments aid terrorist groups

The realization has been one of the strangest consequences of the Syrian War. Before the war rolled into its fifth year, there were people who had always suspected that some of the Nato governments were secretly sponsoring various terror groups -- a suspicion that goes all the way back to the formation of the Turkish Grey Wolves in the late 1960s. 

During the intervening decades a few journalists would poke around and write "Please listen to me" reports for press outlets that only intelligence professionals and conspiracy theorists bothered to read. And for years during the Afghan War the U.S. and British governments managed to downplay reports pointing to their support for the Pakistani government despite its known control over al-Qaeda linked terror groups -- groups that wreaked carnage in Afghanistan, including against American and British troops serving there. 

Today it's a different story, as the truth about what's really been going on in Syria punches its way into the 'mainstream' media the world over. 

The attempt by the U.S. government to save face by accusing the Russians of causing everything bad collapsed into a farce yesterday, when after filing two obviously false reports last week the Washington Post was forced by public pressure into admitting what everyone else who reads the news already knew: Russian government hackers do not appear to have targeted Vermont utility, say people close to investigation. (There is no 'appear' about it; no hackers had targeted the utility, not even ones from Mars.)

However, there is nothing farcical about support from Nato and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) governments for terrorist groups in Syria -- including ones that are sworn enemies of those same governments. 

By the first half of 2016, when IHS Jane's Defence Weekly published a detailed list of U.S. arms shipments to 'rebels' in Syria and the Guardian reported on the £1bn of weapons flowing from Europe to the Middle East, it was no longer possible for Nato governments to shift all blame to the GCC countries for the mountains of weapons being transferred to mercenary armies with terrorist affiliations operating in Syria. As the civilian death tolls continued to mount in the country this past year, the excuse from Nato governments that they were just trying to help moderate rebels rang increasingly hollow. 

Reasonable people asked how it helped moderates when the weapons they'd been given by their governments automatically made them prime targets for Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

By late December Sputnik barely raised an eyebrow when it reported that large caches of American, German and Bulgarian heavy weapons had been discovered by Russian sappers in eastern Aleppo.

If Donald Trump sticks to his assertion that the USA won't engage in regime change and 'nation-building' operations during his watch, the United States, at least, might recover from the blow to its reputation for its actions in Syria. But any such recovery could take a generation.

********

Reportedly some terror groups in Syria plan to flee to KSA, other Gulf Arab states

Before that report here's the Syrian battle sitrep for today from FARS, published in at 12:24 am local time: Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Repels Attacks on Gov't Positions in Deir Ezzur.

Terrorist Groups Planning to Move to Saudi Arabia, other Arab States Following Defeats in Syria
Sun Jan 01, 2017 - 2:12

FARS

TEHRAN (FNA)- Media sources disclosed that a number of terrorist groups have decided to forward their forces to Saudi Arabia and other Arab states in the Middle East after devastating defeats in the battlefields across Syria.

Waltir Net reported that recent advances of the Syrian army troops against militants in different parts of the country and in the meantime Turkey's overt retreat from its previous positions to topple President Bashar al-Assad have caused the terrorist groups to decide to leave the country for Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries.

The website said that terrorists of Ahrar al-Sham, in a meeting held in the group's council on December 19, underlined that they do not intend to merge with Fatah al-Sham Front (previously known as the al-Nusra Front).

Ahrar al-Sham's meeting was held before the recapture of Eastern Aleppo by the Syrian pro-government forces, which was a sign of major defeat of Fatah al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham.

The website went on to say that latest images released recently show that two groups of Ahrar al-Sham and Fatah al-Sham are practically hoisting different flags indicating their defection.

The two groups showed their wide differences with their white and black flags.

Meantime, dissident sources said Al-Nusra Front is preparing war plans to force Ahrar al-Sham militant group out of Idlib after reports said the latter has signed the ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey between the Syrian government and some militant groups.

Sources close to the dissident groups in Northwestern Syria said that Al-Nusra has prepared war plans to capture the entire Idlib province and force Ahrar al-Sham back across the border into Turkey after the latter militant group joined the ceasefire agreement between the Syrian government. 

And the so-called moderate dissidents that task Ahrar al-Sham [are] to assign a new mission to all its militants that used to fight against the Syrian government to stand against the Al-Nusra Front as a terrorist group and open war on the Al-Qaeda offshoot in Idlib.

Meantime, media sources reported that Turkey has warned all militant groups in Idlib that merger with al-Nusra would amount to "suicide" as Ankara has agreed to separate al-Nusra Front and extremist commanders from other groups in Northern Syria.

[END REPORT]

*********

"ISIS begins withdrawing from west Palmyra after suffering heavy losses"

By Leith Fadel
January 3, 2017
AMN

BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:45 A.M.) - A Syrian Arab Army (SAA) officer informed Al-Masdar News on Monday evening that the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham" has begun withdrawing from the western countryside of Palmyra after suffering a significant number of casualties over the last three weeks.

ISIS began withdrawing their combatants on Monday after the Syrian Arab Army inflicted heavy casualties on their forces yesterday near the T-4 Military Airport.

According to a military source at the T-4 Airport, a reconnaissance drone provided the Syrian Arab Army images regarding the Islamic State's gathering point near the T-4 Pumping Station.

Using heavy artillery, the Syrian Arab Army scored several direct hits on the Islamic State gathering points, killing more than 40 enemy combatants and destroying as many as 5 pick-up trucks and 3 armored vehicles, including 2 BMP tanks.

As a result of these losses, the Islamic State has reportedly begun withdrawing their forces to the Al-Raqqa countryside, where their combatants are currently engaged in a fierce battle with the Kurdish-led "Syrian Democratic Forces" (SDF).

In the coming days, the Syrian Arab Army will launch a massive counter-attack to recapture much of Palmyra's western countryside, forcing the Islamic State terrorists to concede much of the important gas fields.

[END REPORT]

*******

And what of the Syrian ceasefire?

"On Sunday, the Russian Center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria reported that it had registered 21 violations in the last 24 hours."

For an allover view of the 'political' implications of the ceasefire, skim through Patrick Cockburn's Dec. 30 analysis for The Independent, The Syrian ceasefire agreement has shifted the balance of power to Assad. 

Next, here's the latest sitrep from FARS, datedlined today at 12:20am local time: Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Inflicts Heavy Losses on Terrorists in Homs Province, which summarizes the military action province by province. 

Take special note of the part about Idlib. Clearly the bad guys are preparing to decamp from Idlib City. They've even ripped up train tracks and transported them to Turkey for sale.
Now we're ready for details about where the ceasefire agreement stands:

Why Saudi Arabia and Qatar are not Part of Syrian Ceasefire Deal
14:29 - 02.01.2017
Sputnik

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are "closely monitoring" the latest developments in Syria, Salih Muslim, co-chairman of the [Syrian Kurdish] Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Sputnik, adding that the fragile ceasefire brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran in late December will hardly hold since some stakeholders are not interested in the war ending.

"Currently everyone in Syria wants a truce. We want it too. We want the bloodshed to stop. We want life in Syria to go back to normal. However, every force fighting in Syria pursues its own goals. The end of war is clearly not a goal for some of these forces because it is not in their interests. I think that fighting will stop for some time, but it will resume once again because serious games are being played in Syria," he elaborated. 

The deal between Damascus and armed Syrian opposition was unveiled by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 29, with the nationwide truce taking effect the next day. The ceasefire has been repeatedly violated since then. On Sunday, the Russian Center for reconciliation of opposing sides in Syria reported that it had registered 21 violations in the last 24 hours.

"I don't think that the latest ceasefire will be successful. I don't believe that that the goals outlined by the recent deals will be reached since many groups have not been part of the agreement," Salih Muslim noted. "The truce will be observed by the groups linked to Turkey. Those militias that do not follow orders from Turkey will not abide by the ceasefire deal."

Russia and Turkey act as co-guarantors of the new ceasefire. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Egypt could soon become part of the Syrian peace talks, adding that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Iraq will also be invited to take part in these efforts in the future. "Saudi Arabia and Qatar are closely following the ceasefire," Salih Muslim said. "They want to see its first outcomes."

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have long provided support to some of the radical groups fighting in Syria. Their assistance has been viewed as one of the factors contributing to the continuation of the nearly six-years-long war.

[END REPORT]

********

Fake News, Syrian War style

[sigh] So little time, so many scoundrels. Emphasis in the report is mine. 

SYRIAN ARMY CONTINUES ANTI-TERRORIST OPERATION NORTHWEST OF DAMASCUS, LIBERATES AYN AL-FIJAH VILLAGE – REPORTS
January 2, 2016
SouthFront

The Syrian army’s 4th Armoured Division, the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Hezbollah, backed up by the Syrian Air Force, have been conducting an anti-terrorist operation against Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) in the Wadi Barada area, located northwest of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

On January 1, government forces launched an attack on Jabhat Fatah al-Sham positions near the village of Ayn Al-Fijah and forced a breach in the terrorists’ defenses by the evening. On January 2, reports appeared that the Syrian army and its allies liberated Ayn Al-Fijah from terrorists. Nonetheless, they still have to be confirmed.

In turn, pro-militant media outlets have launched a massive media campaign, blaming government forces for “violating” the nationwide ceasefire agreement. Unfortunately Of course, their reports don’t mention that Jabhat Fatah al-Sham is a legitimate target according to this agreement (more here).

The Syrian government launched military operation in the Wadi Barada area in December, 2016 after Jabhat Fatah al-Sham and its allies poisoned the water supply line to the government-held area of Damascus.

[see current situation map of the region under discussion]

[END REPORT]

*********

Terrorists take aim at Syria's water, heating, and electricity supplies (UPDATED 6:28am EST)

On December 30 SANA reported that Islamic State broke a long-standing 'deal' with Syria's government not to shut down the water supply for Aleppo but with their terrorist buddies decamped, IS went ahead and fiddled with the main source of the city's water supply, which is the Euphrates and al-Khafsa stations on the Euphrates River. 

The next day SANA tersely reported Water flow from Euphrates River to Aleppo returns gradually but without explaining how the army had peeled IS's bony fingers from the water stations.

Then today FARS reported, Syrian Soldiers Score Victories Against Terrorists Near Water Reservoirs in Northwestern Damascus. It was the first I'd learned that the bad guys had gone after a reservoir that serves Damascus city.  

Uh, well, so, the good guys are on the case.  What else to say.

Wait. I forgot to mention the oil and gas fields near Raqqa.  IS wasn't actually after the city proper, just those fields.  All right I'll scare up a link on the status of that mess. I shall return.  Some war reporter I am. 

UPDATE

(Is it me, or does Leith sound a little ticked off at the Syrian Army?)

Rebels, ISIS punish millions of people in government-held Syria

By Leith Fadel
28/12/2016

AMN

BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:30 A.M.) - The Syrian Arab Army's (SAA) victory in east Aleppo was short-lived, thanks in large-part to the so-called "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham's" (ISIS) offensive to seize every gas field north of Palmyra.

With every gas field under their control, the Islamic State has created a fuel crisis across government-controlled Syria, as millions of people are unable to heat their homes this winter.

Making matters worse, the jihadist rebels of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have contaminated the water supply in the Wadi Barada area of rural Damascus, leaving more than 5 million people living in-and-around the Syrian capital city without clean water.

This type of humanitarian warfare has been relatively ignored by the international community, despite the fact several NGOs continue to operate inside the country and region.

[END REPORT]

********

"Some 650 Cars Burned Around France on New Year’s Eve"

The following is a file photo that was used by both TASS and FARS to illustrate their (virtually identical) short reports on the December 31 car burnings because no news photos of the 2016 version of the annual conflagration is available -- not that I've seen. As to why this so, let's ring up French newspaper editors and ask them.  

Or we could call France's government and ask whether Al Saud was planning to pick up the tab for the 100,000 or so French police, firemen and civilian volunteers who had to be put on the streets to keep order on New Year's Eve this year.
   

Archive AP Photo/Michel Spingler

PARIS, January 2. /TASS/. New Year celebrations in France were again marred by a series of car burnings in which over 650 vehicles were set ablaze, the country’s interior ministry said late Sunday.

"The number of burned cars shows that this phenomenon, as unacceptable as it is, continues to exist. A total of 650 cars were set ablaze while last year there were 602 such cases," the ministry said in a statement.

However, the ministry reported an overall trend of decline in the car burnings, which have effectively become an annual event in French suburbs since the 2005 riots [a.k.a. The French Intifada]. 

"In the past five years, the number of torched vehicles dropped by 20%, the ministry said.

Security has been tough on New Year’s eve around France, with more than 100,000 police officers, firemen and civilian activists on duty to prevent major disturbances. "No major incidents were reported on the Saint Sylvestre night (New Year’s eve)," the statement reads, adding that "sporadic occasions of tensions or public disorders" still took place.

"A total of 454 people were detained by police officers and gendarmes during the night, 301 of them were placed in custody," the interior ministry said.

[END REPORT]

********

Islamic State claims attack on Reina club in Istanbul

I don't see Reuters report yet so it must have come over the 'wire' to Sputnik:

11:23 02.01.2017 (updated 11:40 02.01.2017
Sputnik

Daesh terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve, Reuters reports citing the group's statement.

In this statement, Daesh claimed that the perpetrator of the attack was its "soldier."

On Sunday, 39 people were killed, including 16 foreigners, and 69 injured in the gun attack in an Istanbul nightclub Reina. The nightclub is located on Istanbul's European side. 

Witnesses said that the attacker, who was reportedly 
 speaking Arabic, opened fire from a Kalashnikov assault rifle. 

The manhunt is currently underway. It was reported earlier that the Turkish police has arrested and interrogated 63 Daesh militants in different Turkish cities on December 28-31. They obtained information about a possible involvement of a citizen of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the attack. 

[END REPORT]

********

St. Sarkis Cathedral, Tehran, Iran - New Year observance

About 25 photos of the celebration, published at FARS (Iranian state news agency): 

"Iranian Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in Tehran. Christianity is reportedly the fastest growing religion in Iran with an average annual rate of 5.2%, and it remains the second-largest non-Muslim minority religion in the country." (Wikipedia)

********

Om Gan Ganpataye Namo Namah

Putin DID NOT order Russia's Anglo-American school closed

The story about the school closing was just CNN continuing with hissy fits on behalf of the Democratic Party and their dear leader Obama. Forbes has the details on the false school-closing story, which was picked up by several news outlets including the Daily Mail. 

By the way, CNN is behind House & Garden TV in the cable ratings.      

********