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Russia will deploy its military police on the Golan Heights frontier between Syria and Israel, its defence ministry said on Thursday, after weeks of mounting volatility in the area.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sweeping away of the opposition in southwestern Syria has worried Israel, which believes it could allow his Iranian backers to entrench their troops close to the frontier.
Underlining the tensions, Israel killed seven in an overnight air strike on the Syrian-held part of the Golan Heights, Israeli radio said on Thursday.
Sergei Rudskoi, a senior Russian defence ministry official, said that Russian military police had on Thursday begun patrolling in the Golan Heights and planned to set up eight observation posts in the area.
Three military factions banded together on Wednesday to form a 100,000-strong fighting force, billed as the largest military opposition entity against the Assad regime in Syria's central Hama and northwest Idlib regions.According to sources in Syrian opposition, the Syrian Liberation Front and the Suqour al-Sham Brigades joined the National Front for the Liberation of Syria affiliated with the Free Syria Army (FSA).The sources told Anadolu Agency the development is aimed at the unification of FSA’s factions in one entity.Assad regime tortured 8,000 to deathThe National Front of Liberation will continue to operate under Fadlallah al-Haji.Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.This led to a military conflict between the Syrian opposition groups and the Assad regime over the war-torn country’s territory. Iran has been supporting the Assad regime during the war while Russia intervened in September 2015.UN calls on Assad regime to protect civiliansPeace talks were launched in Geneva in 2012 aiming to find a political solution for the conflict while Astana talks began in 2017 discussing cease-fire that has been fragile so far.Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict mainly by regime airstrikes targeting opposition-held areas while millions more were displaced. During the conflict, Assad regime was accused many times by many international actors of targeting Syrian civilians by chemical weapons.
'Largest military entity' against Assad regime formed
He said the Russian presence there was in support of United Nations peacekeepers on the Golan Heights who, he said, had suspended their activities in the area in 2012 because their safety was endangered.
"Today, UN peacekeepers accompanied by Russian military police conducted their first patrols in six years in the separation zone," Rudskoi told a briefing for journalists in Moscow.
"With the aim of preventing possible provocations against UN posts along the 'Bravo' line, the deployment is planned of eight observation posts of Russia's armed forces' military police," Rudskoi said.
He said the Russian presence there was temporary, and that the observation posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces once the situation stabilised.
Turkish and U.S. troops on Wednesday completed their 23rd round of patrols in the northern Syrian city of Manbij as part of a deal to rid the area of the YPG/PKK terror group.In a statement, the Turkish General Staff said forces of both countries conducted separate coordinated patrols in the region between areas liberated by Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield and Manbij.Five PKK terrorists 'neutralized' in Turkey's ŞırnakPatrols by Turkish and U.S. troops in the region began on June 18.The Manbij deal between Turkey and the U.S. focuses on the withdrawal of the PKK-affiliated YPG terror group from the city in order to stabilize the region.In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK has taken some 40,000 lives, including many women and children. The YPG/PKK is its Syrian branch.190,000 Syrians return to liberated hometownsTurkey, US complete 22nd round of patrols in ManbijShould the Manbij model prove a success, Turkey will push for a similar arrangement in eastern Syria.Turkey has said the presence of terror forces near its border constitutes a threat and has launched military operations and other efforts to rid the region of terrorists.
Turkey, US conduct 23rd round of patrols in Manbij
The deployment of the Russian military police highlights the degree to which the Kremlin has become an influential actor in Middle East conflicts since its military intervention in Syria which turned the tide of the war in Assad's favour.
Israel has been lobbying the Kremlin to use its influence with Assad, and with Tehran, to try to get the Iranian military presence in Syria scaled back.
Israel sees Iran, and Iran's allies in the Hezbollah Shi'ite military, as a direct threat to its national security.
That message was conveyed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met in Moscow last month, a senior Israeli official said.
Iranian forces have withdrawn their heavy weapons in Syria to a distance of 85 km (53 miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, TASS quoted a Russian envoy as saying on Wednesday, but Israel deemed the pullback inadequate.
After the Syrian regime’s years of silence about the fate of tens of thousands of people that rights groups say have been forcibly kidnapped in the war, authorities have begun quietly updating registers to acknowledge thousands of deaths.Following the ongoing talks between Russia, Turkey and Iran in Astana to release detainees in regime prisons, Damascus released a list which stated that 8,000 civilians detained over the course of seven years were dead-- likely by torture-- including academicians, journalists and civil servants.The regime has tried to conceal the massacre and torture by listing their cause of death as “heart attacks” and cited infectious diseases. Among the dead are 125 children and 63 women.The listed names were registered in Aleppo, Homs, Daraa, Tartus, Idlib, Lattakia, Deir ez-zor, Raqqaa and Hasakah. Tortured to death Syrian Opposition Commander General Adib Shelaf allegedly said that more than 200,000 civilians have been disappeared in detention facilities belonging to the Syrian regime and that at least 40,000 were tortured to death in jails.Shelaf stated, “The Syrian regime decided to covertly de-register those who were detained during the Syrian civil war due to a groundswell of international pressure. The regime noted the cause of deaths on official records as either ‘heart attack’ or due to ‘infectious diseases.’”Syria’s Zaman al-Wasl newspaper and the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria have reported names of 8,000 prisoners who were tortured to death over the past seven years in regime jails in July.The number of deaths based on regions is as follows:1- Damascus suburbs: 18562. Daraa: 12833. Homs: 12534. Damascus: 8705. Hama: 7626. Idlib: 5857. Aleppo: 4738. Deir Ezzor: 4509. Latakia: 15410. Quneitra: 11011. Raqqa: 5012. Hasaka: 4413. Tartus: 2814. Swaida: 23 Ten victims of non-Syrian nationalities, and two of the victims were not affiliated with any nationality.UN, Turkey, Iran, Russia talk Syrian charter committeeAstana talks to contribute to end of civil warThe Astana peace talks, which were launched in January 2017 with the aim of putting an end to violence and improving the humanitarian situation in war-torn Syria by Iran, Russia and Turkey, is being considered as the sole solution to the end of the Syrian civil war.The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will have talks with Iran, Russia and Turkey representatives in September to draft a new Syrian constitution. According to a UN statement, Mistura held informal talks in Sochi with Russian, Iranian and Turkish representatives and received lists from the Assad regime and the opposition on proposed candidates for the Constitutional Committee on Tuesday.Turkey, Russia, Iran set to free some Syrian detaineesThe constitutional committee will include 50 people from “government, opposition representatives, Syrian experts, civil society, independents, tribal leaders and women.”In addition to the formation of a constitutional committee, the 10th round of Syrian talks is focused on the latest situation in de-escalation zones in Idlib, the return of refugees, and the release of prisoners.Officials from Turkey, Russian and Iran on Monday agreed to the mutual release of some Syrian detainees from both the regime and opposition sides.Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests. Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and over 10 million were displaced, according to the UN.
Assad regime tortured 8,000 to death