I had to remove & edit a photo in this thread -- but that's broken the chain.
For simplicity's sake, you can now read the whole stream of tweets detailing my trip to NE
#Syria
with
@CENTCOM
here:
I’ve just returned from NE
#Syria
, where I visited the U.S. military’s RLZ base in Rumeilan, the al-Roj & al-Hol camps, as well as Ghuweiran Prison – all alongside
@CENTCOM
Commander Kurilla.
An incredibly insightful trip, with a lot of takeaways.
This
#Russia
-dropped bomb would flatten a building — and yet these
#Ukraine
EODs defuse it with 2 hands and a bottle of water, while shells audibly land nearby.
Mind boggling bravery.
On Sept 12, 2001 -- 24hrs after 9/11 -- Queen Elizabeth ordered the U.S. national anthem be played at the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace.
Nothing like that had occurred in 600 years.
🇺🇸🇬🇧
NEW --
#Poland
has agreed to deploy *all* of its MiG-29 jets to the U.S. AB at Rammstein, in exchange for "used" U.S. aircraft with equivalent capabilities.
HUGE news for
#Ukraine
.
According to U.S. officials speaking today, ~100,000
#Russia
troops inside
#Ukraine
(~70% of its entire deployed force) is running out, or has already run out of fuel & food.
WHAT.
A Dutch researcher managed to log into
@realDonaldTrump
's Twitter account by guessing his password ("maga2020"), which had no 2-step verification.
NEW -- S-300 air defense systems have been sent into
#Ukraine
, by U.S. or
#NATO
allies -- per
@RepMcCaul
, the top Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
(stock image)
Last week, a boat carrying ~750 desperate refugees sank off the coast of
#Greece
-- only 104 survived.
Today, a search is on for a submersible carrying 5 wealthy individuals in the Atlantic.
Both are tragedies, but one achieved hour-to-hour media coverage.
Guess which...
This is utterly bizarre.
This clearly shows a basement in a
@WHO
-run hospital was being used as a bomb shelter -- but the presence of toilets, showers, diapers & chairs becomes "evidence" of hostage storage.
The "hostage list" at the end is a calendar w. nothing but days/dates.
Special footage from the Rantisi hospital in Gaza - on the basement floor, a room was found with signs indicating hostages were held there, underground headquarters and a room full of weapons inside the hospital:
Next month,
#Russia
will be given Presidency of the
@UN
Security Council.
No, it won't be April Fools.
It's like making a burglar a bank manager -- yet another mockery of an outdated & often illogical UN system.
@JeffSonnenfeld
&
@SergiyKyslytsya
:
2 Syrian painters displayed their solidarity with
#GeorgeFloyd
in the only - & best - way they know.
A powerful mural on the ruins of a destroyed home in
#Binnish
,
#Idlib
, by art duo Aziz Asmar & Anis Hamdoun.
"I promise
#Russia
's forces... that I will not spare them & I'll make mountains of Russian tanks & armor, which I will destroy as soon as I enter
#Ukraine
."
@suheilhammoud
, aka "Abu TOW," arguably the world's most experienced ATGM operator:
The U.S. has given
#Ukraine
7,000 Javelin ATGMs in recent months -- which is 1/3 of the entire American stock & will take 1+yr to replace.
Also 2,000 Stingers -- 1/4 of the U.S. inventory, which'll take 5yrs to replace.
Is this supply sustainable?
With an open invitation to the
@WhiteHouse
, these images of Gen. Mazloum (real name: Sahin Cilo) are a bit problematic.
1. Swimming as a teenager w.
#PKK
founder/leader, Abdullah Ocalan, in
#Latakia
,
#Syria
2. Sat next to
#PKK
leader Duran Kalkan, wanted by
@StateDept
for $3m.
Let's be completely honest here -- if an incident like this happened in
#Russia
,
#Syria
,
#Iran
etc., the media coverage would be utterly visceral, instantly alleging "war crimes," a "massacre" and more.
Drone strikes & tank shells were fired on people desperately seeking aid.
#Assad
killed 500,000 of his own people & disappeared 130,000 more, dropped 82,000 barrel bombs, conducted 340 chemical attacks & he runs a narco state worth tens of billions of dollars.
So of course, let’s give him a seat at the
#ArabLeague
! That’ll resolve everything.
Genius protest outside
@RussianEmbassy
in
#London
— washable paint “spilled” onto the road, for cars to drive through & create a massive
#Ukraine
flag for all to see.
In 85 days, ~1 million people have fled their homes in
#Idlib
,
#Syria
.
60% are kids & 20% women.
They're now homeless, hemmed onto a shut
#Turkey
border. There are no tents left & little food. Kids are freezing to death.
Where the Hell is the world's attention? WAKE UP.
WOW -- 6,000 bombs in 6 days, in 365 km2
#Gaza
.
For comparison, the international anti-
#ISIS
coalition dropped an average of ~2,500 bombs **per month, across 46,000 km2 in
#Syria
&
#Iraq
.**
#Gaza
's death toll is now 1,420+, including 447 children & 248 women.
Dozens of fighter jets and helicopters attacked a series of terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip.
So far, the IAF has dropped about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets.
#Argentina
just elected a new President -- who says he met his 1st dog while he was a gladiator in
#Rome
2,000yrs ago & that he now communicates with his 5 cloned dogs though a mystic.
Oh, and he also wants to legalize the organ trade, amongst lots of perfectly sane ideas.
In case anyone missed it:
A U.S. fighter jet shot down a Turkish drone over NE
#Syria
earlier today -- I've had that confirmed by a senior U.S. official.
That's a VERY rare NATO-on-NATO clash.
NEW - reports of a rocket attack & targeting the U.S. consulate in
#Erbil
just now. Large explosions heard.
Several fighter jets now heard in the skies, per locals.
The rolling eyes & the smirk say it all here -- the moral indifference & cold dismissal of calls to protect human life is nothing short of sickening.
There was a time when being liberal meant something truly good -- but some of the left has gone off the deep end in recent years.
JC:"They're stealing Ukrainian children. 500 just yesterday were shipped to Russia. & this is why we should be supporting them. We cannot allow this kind of evil to go unchecked...Don't you agree with me on that?"
BG: "I'm sorry, I don't. And here's why."
300 days ago, my friend Elizabeth Tsurkov (
@Elizrael
) was kidnapped by Kataib
#Hezbollah
in
#Baghdad
,
#Iraq
.
Amid the
#MiddleEast
's many spiraling crises, Liz's case must not be forgotten.
She must be released.
#NATO
states have announced today new deliveries of *thousands* of anti-aircraft & anti-tank missiles to
#Ukraine
-- to destroy
#Russia
aircraft & vehicles and to kill Russian troops.
Truly extraordinary (& very good news).
Two DOD insider sources told me today that the
#Biden
White House has placed (in the words of one) “every possible handcuff” on the DOD’s ability to respond to
#Iran
proxy attacks.
The scale & scope of these attacks are unprecedented — and we’re just taking the hits. Dangerous.
New tonight: An hours-long firefight involving U.S. commercial vessels in the Red Sea this weekend has left some U.S. officials frustrated by what they see as the Biden administration’s deliberate downplaying of a major threat to American forces.
If
#Russia
had conducted x3 consecutive precision strikes on deconflicted & clearly-marked aid vehicles as they traveled 2.5km along a 'safe route' in
#Ukraine
,
#Syria
or anywhere else, the
#Biden
admin would come down on them like a ton of bricks.
Hypocrisy, at its worst.
I don’t even know what to make of this…
#Putin
’s Chechen ally Ramzan Kadyrov has released footage of his fighters in
#Mariupol
— and its backdrop is the “Take Our Blood” nasheed, which is the de facto anthem of anti-
#Assad
Ahrar al-Sham in
#Syria
.
BREAKING - multiple reports coming from
#Iraq
claiming that *both*
#IRGC
Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani &
#PMU
Deputy Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes were killed tonight in the [alleged US] drone strike outside
#Baghdad
Airport.
Massive news, if it’s accurate.
#Assad
joined the
#ArabLeague
"emergency" meeting on
#Gaza
today, hosted by
#Saudi
.
Little mention of his year-long starvation siege of the Palestinian Yarmouk Camp; the 5,000+ Palestinians killed by regime shelling or the ~4,000 Palestinians still in
#Assad
's torture prisons.
One of
#Russia
's most advanced naval vessels, the Flota Kasatonov -- a Gorshkov-class stealth frigate equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles -- was blocked from crossing the
#Bosphorus
this past weekend, en route to take part in the war on
#Ukraine
.
Per
@FT
.
Very bad idea
@elonmusk
--
@Twitter
is an invaluable source of material relevant to war crimes investigations around the world, much of it from accounts dating back to 2010-on.
Simply "purging" such a wealth of evidence would materially weaken the long-term pursuit of justice.
#Israel
's strike in
#Damascus
today is a huge development & a major escalation.
3
#IRGC
-QF Generals:
- Brig. Gen. Mohammed Zahedi (Commander,
#Syria
&
#Lebanon
)
- Gen. Hossein Aminullah (Chief of General Staff,
#Syria
&
#Lebanon
)
- Maj. Gen. Haj Rahimi (Commander, Palestine)
Just like in
#Syria
,
#Russia
is using the UR-77 de-mining system to devastate urban, residential areas in
#Ukraine
.
The “Meteorit” system fires a high-explosive “rope” which is detonated with a brutal effect across a ~300ft radius.
Watch to the end:
The White Helmets are absolute heroes. Every single one of them.
This extraordinary video played out dozens, hundreds of times throughout NW
#Syria
this week — the
@SyriaCivilDefe
deserve every accolade out there.
An hour ago,
#Putin
's "de-nazification" attack on
#Ukraine
successfully struck the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site.
It was established to memorialize the
#Nazi
murder of ~100,000 people in 1941, including the entire Jewish population of
#Kyiv
.
First you destroy the city, “cleansing” it of your opponents — then you take you family to walk amid its rubble.
The cold, evil exemplified in this image from
#Aleppo
is chilling.
‘We will be with our friends again; We will be with our family again; We will meet again.’
As the world plunged into a winter
#COVID
nightmare, the
#Queen
's words here filled a gap no politician could fill.
Some updates:
- Not rockets, but tactical ballistic missiles;
- U.S. injuries confirmed;
- 15+ U.S. Patriot missiles were launched to intercept, but some missiles still got through -- meaning attack was BIG;
-
#Iran
-directed "Islamic Resistance in
#Iraq
" claimed responsibility.
NEW -- a large rocket attack just targeted U.S. troops inside Ain al-Asad base in
#Anbar
,
#Iraq
.
#Iran
proxies say their attack was "massive" and larger than previous ones in
#Iraq
or
#Syria
.
Local sources say smoke is rising from within the base.
#Putin
[rightly] gets slammed for firing cruise missiles into residential buildings in
#Ukraine
, but when
#Israel
vaporizes an entire residential block, it's ok & "like the tunnels of Chu Chi."
I'm sorry, but if our principles can't be universal, they count for nothing.
The mass grave toll at Nasser Hospital is now 310 -- some with hands & feet tied up, showing signs of field execution.
#Israel
left the hospital 2 weeks ago & a further 400 people who'd been there are still missing.
Over the past 48hrs news has clarified around the discovery of mass graves, containing 210+ bodies -- many women & children -- outside Nasser Hospital in
#KhanYounis
in
#Gaza
.
BREAKING - reports of a (US?) helicopter-borne raid on a convoy of Huras al-Din (
#AlQaeda
in
#Syria
) leaders traveling near Barisha in
#Idlib
.
Locals say as many as 6 choppers involved - gave chase to convoy, 2 landed & assaulted vehicles. Possibly took bodies or evidence away.
Make no mistake — this isn’t going to irreversibly defeat
#Hamas
. What we’re watching play out now are the ingredients for
#Hamas
2.0 & a new, coming wave of terrorism in the
#MiddleEast
& likely further afield.
Oct 7 & since = a generational trigger.
Very concerning chatter about an escalating crisis between
#Iran
&
#Pakistan
tonight, as:
- Both militaries mobilize on the border
- Pakistani fighter jets buzz the Iranian border
- Hurried Chinese mediation breaks down.
All since
#Iran
’s Jan 16 missile attack on
#Balochistan
.
A shame Sarandon wasn't given the same treatment years ago when she claimed chemical weapons attacks in
#Syria
had been faked & presented
#Assad
as the victim of Western regime change policies, rather than the 21st Century's most notorious war criminal.
Susan Sarandon has been dropped by her talent agency UTA after being vocal about the ongoing genocide happening in Palestine at a pro-Palestinian rally.
(Source: Deadline)
#Putin
’s police arrested a 76yr old woman today in
#StPetersburg
- for protesting against the invasion of
#Ukraine
.
How brave & patriotic of them!
Yelena Osipova survived the Siege of Leningrad from 1941-44.
Horrific news of tonight’s earthquake in
#Turkey
& northern
#Syria
— the damage looks extensive.
The epicenter region is home to millions of refugees and IDPs, many of whom live in tents & makeshift structures. This is the absolute nightmare scenario for them. And it’s winter.
NEW — protesters are rampaging across Jaramana in
#Damascus
, protesting against the collapse of
#Syria
’s Pound & the
#Assad
regime’s failure to respond.
This is virtually unprecedented since 2011-12.
If I’m not mistaken, we haven’t seen transport aircraft at
#Kabul
dropping flares until today — that’s a clear indication of concern about a surface-to-air missile threat…
New footage from
@itvnews
/
@CBSNews
:
This is why millions of
#Ukraine
civilians have been in bomb shelters for days —
#Russia
is indiscriminately shelling built-up residential areas, like here in
#Kharkiv
:
#Hezbollah
just penetrated the
#IronDome
& hit a residential building in Kiriyat Shimona in northern
#Israel
.
That’s a significant escalation, coming on the heels of
@IDF
airstrikes hitting deeper into
#Lebanon
than at any point since
#Hamas
’s Oct 7 attack.
This is desperate behavior — and abhorrent rhetoric.
In a bid to win extreme nationalist votes,
@kilicdarogluk
says “10 million refugees” need to be urgently expelled from
#Turkey
in order to save the country
#Syria
refugees (3.5m, not 10m) just can’t catch a break.
Heartbreaking scenes from the village of Al-Jadidah in western
#Idlib
today, as
#Russia
airstrikes hit a farm, killing 7 civilians, 5 of them children under 10.
We’re in the 12th year of
#Syria
’s crisis & this continues to happen — with total impunity.
Enough now.
NEW -- a
#Romania
Mig-21 has vanished from radar off the coast of the Black Sea.
A Puma rescue helicopter sent on a search mission has since vanished too.
A 2nd rescue missile is underway.
The cause of their disappearance (or crash) is unknown.
Northwestern
#Syria
—
#Idlib
&
#Aleppo
in particular — have suffered 12yrs of brutal conflict. More than 65% of the basic infrastructure of the area is destroyed or heavily damaged.
Tonight’s earthquake couldn’t have hit a more vulnerable region.
An absolute disaster.
Horrific news of tonight’s earthquake in
#Turkey
& northern
#Syria
— the damage looks extensive.
The epicenter region is home to millions of refugees and IDPs, many of whom live in tents & makeshift structures. This is the absolute nightmare scenario for them. And it’s winter.
Horrific news from
#Idlib
— light-years from media attention.
9 civilians (including babies) killed & 70+ injured in an
#Assad
regime cluster munition attack by adjacent IDP camps in western
#Idlib
.
This is what impunity looks like.
#Syria
Absolutely appalling behavior from
#Greece
's Coastguard -- a boatful of desperate
#Syria
refugees are rammed, hit with sticks and fired at with automatic rifles.
In addition to USS Donald Cook, the U.S has now dispatched USN Carrier Strike Group 8 to the Mediterranean/
#Syria
:
- USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier
- Carrier Air Wing VII
- USS Hué City missile cruiser
- x6 Arleigh Burke-class Destroyers
- x1 Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate
Tonight's strikes in W.
#Iraq
& E.
#Syria
are FAR bigger than any action undertaken before against
#Iran
's proxies -- huge secondary explosions on both sides of the border suggest big rocket/missile depots have been hit.
A PMF HQ was hit in
#Iraq
too: headache for
#Baghdad
.
At my count, the
#Taliban
have captured 30+ districts across
#Afghanistan
in 48hrs -- 100s of
#ANA
forces have surrendered & handed over bases, arms depots, weapons & vehicles.
The pace of the
#Taliban
's advance since the U.S. withdrawal announcement is shocking.
NEW --
#Biden
says U.S. will provide
#Ukraine
with:
- 800 short & long-range anti-aircraft systems
- 9,000 anti-tank systems
- 7,000 small-arms
- 20 million rounds of ammunition
- "Drones"
Unclear what the latter refers to -- reports implied a possible Switchblade supply.
President
@JoeBiden
is absolutely right -- what
#Russia
is doing in
#Ukraine
is appalling and such "atrocities" are "an outrage to the world" & demand a massive international response.
I just wish he'd felt the same about
#Syria
-- where all this & more played out for 10yrs.
NEW -
#Israel
just conducted simultaneous air strikes on
#Damascus
&
#Aleppo
International Airports, presumably targeting incoming
#Iran
weaponry intended for delivery to
#Hezbollah
or proxies there in
#Syria
.
Optics & timing (particularly from
#Tehran
) no coincidence.
Senior
#Iran
-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq figure, Naji al-Kaabi, was just assassinated by unknown gunmen in Maysan,
#Iraq
.
He died of a single gunshot to the head, while driving in the al-Askari district.
U.S. & NATO assistance to
#Ukraine
has had an extraordinary effect so far -- but triumphant talk of 'winning' is premature & dangerous.
Yes
#Russia
is on the backfoot, but it's got room to adapt & drag this out into more favorable dynamics.
My warning:
BREAKING - Senior
#AlQaeda
operatives Abu Dhar al-Masri & Abu Yusuf al-Maghrebi (both expelled/defected from Huras al-Din) have been killed in a U.S. drone strike outside Arab Said in
#Idlib
.
They'd been wanted by
#HTS
too.
As the
#Israel
-
#Gaza
crisis looks set to persist for months & the prospects of major regional escalation are on a knife edge, please spare a thought for my friend
@Elizrael
, who was kidnapped by
#Iran
's proxies in
#Iraq
7 months ago.
Her case must not be forgotten.
NEW -
#Turkey
has now made the decision that the situation in
#Ukraine
is a “war.”
That means
#Ankara
can (or likely may) legally decide to block
#Russia
access to Turkish waters. That’d be a big deal, with profound consequences for
#Syria
too.
I learn to use
#Kalashnikov
and prepare to bear arms. It sounds surreal as just a few days ago it would never come to my mind. Our
#women
will protect our soil the same way as our
#men
. Go
#Ukraine
! 🇺🇦
"Safe corridors" & "ceasefires."
#Russia
'agreed' to plenty of these in
#Syria
-- & abided by few, if any.
On occasion,
#Russia
bombed the aid passing through the "safe corridors" & covered for
#Assad
regime attacks amid the "ceasefires." Watch where the corridors pass, too.
BREAKING: Ukraine says it has reached a tentative agreement with Russia to organize safe corridors for civilians to evacuate and for humanitarian supplies to be delivered. Under the agreement, cease-fires would be observed where safe corridors are created.
#Putin
’s put Gen. Sergey Surovikin in command of the whole
#Ukraine
campaign — he’s a brutal, calculated leader.
It was Surovikin who coordinated the unilateral violation of 3/4 of
#Syria
’s “de-escalation zones,” methodically crippling the opposition & sealing
#Assad
’s survival.