Russia is Getting Away with it All

Posted on May 9, 2016May 9, 2016 by Denise Simon

Russia Establishes New Military Base in Palmyra: Activists

Local activists claim Moscow has founded a second base in the desert city after taking over the Hmeimim military base in Lattakia last year

The Palmyra Coordination Committee released a statement on Sunday stating that Russia has established a second military base in Syria located in the area of Palmyra, Idleb province.

The statement added that the Islamic State group and Syrian regime forces facilitated handing the ancient city over to the Russians.

“Locals were forcibly displaced by regime and Russians bombings as well as [ISIS] while Assad today with international sponsorship gives Russians the right to violate the property of the people of Palmyra in reward [for] their efforts [by] occupying the city and violating locals’ property.”

The Committee also released footage with the statement showing a Russian military base surrounded by barbed wire.

****

UN accuses Syrian government of blocking aid to Aleppo

The UN has accused the Syrian government of refusing UN appeals to deliver aid to 905,000 people, including in war-torn Aleppo, as the city suffered another day of attacks despite efforts to secure a ceasefire. “We seem to be having new possible besieged areas on our watch, we are having hundreds of relief workers unable to move in Aleppo,” UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said after a weekly humanitarian meeting of nations backing the Syria peace process.”It is a disgrace to see while the population of Aleppo is bleeding their options to flee have never been more difficult than now.”

Russia has said a new ceasefire to halt fighting in Aleppo could be imminent, with Syria’s divided northern city hit by a wave of violence that has killed more than 270 people since 22 April.

Reports on Wednesday said at least three people had died in new attacks in the city, as rebel forces pressed an offensive against government troops on the city’s western outskirts.

With the UN Security Council to hold urgent talks on the crisis later on Wednesday, diplomatic efforts to stem the violence shifted to Germany where Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to meet UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, Syria’s main opposition leader Riad Hijab and France’s top diplomat Jean-Marc Ayrault.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late on Tuesday he hoped to agree on a freeze of fighting in Aleppo “in the near future, maybe even in the next few hours”, after meeting de Mistura in Moscow. Full story here.

****

Close Encounters With Jets Show Russia’s Anger at NATO Buildup, U.S.

NYT’s/ WASHINGTON — When the Pentagon complained about a Russian fighter plane performing a barrel roll near an Air Force reconnaissance plane in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on April 29, a quick response came from Moscow, which claimed that the American plane did not have its transponder turned on.

“The U.S. Air Force has two solutions,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a sharp statement. “Either not to fly near our borders or to turn the transponder on for identification.” (American officials said the transponder had, indeed, been turned on.)

With that, American officials and foreign policy experts said, Russia delivered its response to President Obama’s decision this year to substantially increase the deployment of heavy weapons, armored vehicles and other equipment to NATO countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The move is meant to deter Russia from further aggression in the region.

By sharply ramping up so-called intercepts of American ships and planes in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia is demonstrating its anger over the increased American military presence in a region it considers part of its backyard, White House officials said. They called the Russian actions harassment.

Obama administration officials said they interpreted Russia’s statement as a demand that the United States stay out of the Baltics — and that is not going to happen, these officials said.

“We’re going to continue to fly, and we’re going to continue to operate in the Baltic Sea,” Mr. Carpenter said. “This is not going to change our activities one iota.”

But the game of chance underway in the skies and on the seas of Central and Eastern Europe could lead to miscalculations, American officials warn. More from the NYT’s here.

Syrian Refugees Allowed in Russia, Not So Much

Posted on May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 by Denise Simon

There are some refugees in Russia yet is seems the process is highly controlled and with stipulated boundaries and conditions.

There are currently about 12,000 Syrian refugees in Russia, according to the Federal Migration Service, only 2,000 of whom have so far received legal residency papers. Human rights activists say the bureaucratic logjam is unacceptable and point out that most of the Ukrainian refugees also lack legal documentation.

“There is no policy on refugees in our state,” says Svetlana Gannushkina, chair of the Committee for Civil Assistance, a nongovernmental organization that works with migrants. “When large numbers of Ukrainians started coming here, they were at first met with kindness. But soon all official interest in them disappeared.”

Russia already has a huge and largely underground population of Muslim migrant workers, mostly from former-Soviet central Asia. Experts say that any Syrian refugees who have made it to Moscow are probably blending in with that group.

But that could change. A summary of press reports in the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda suggests that increasing numbers of savvy Syrians are entering Russia on student or tourist visas, hopping on the train to Murmansk, and then heading directly to Norway’s single border crossing with Russia.

Fewer than 200 people have been so far recorded using this unique method of escape, to Russia’s far north by train and into Norway, often by bicycle from nearby Murmansk, high above the Arctic Circle.

The paper says that local taxi drivers are charging over $1,000 for the two-hour drive, while the price of bicycles has soared. Much more here from CS Monitor.

Syrians Have No Chance Of Asylum In Russia

A Russian solicitor working with Syrian refugees tells Sky News there are “unwritten rules” preventing them gaining asylum status.

Sky News has discovered the extraordinary lengths to which Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration is going to keep out Syrian asylum seekers.

Russia has granted two Syrians full asylum status since the conflict began in 2011.

In comparison, Germany is currently accepting about 35,000 people per month.

Makhachkala, the biggest city in the Russian state of Dagestan, is a chaotic spot – with half-built apartment blocks and partly paved roads fanning out, spaghetti-like, from the western edge of the Caspian Sea.

Makhachkala, the biggest city in Dagestan, is a chaotic spot

Among the 600,000 people who live here, there is just one man – a solicitor called Shamil Magemadov – who is willing to work with refugees.

“That’s surprising, I know,” says the 37-year-old.

“Syrians who come here (seeking asylum) share the same religion as the residents, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.”

As Makhachkala goes, so does the rest of Russia.

It may be the principal military backer of the Syrian regime but that does not mean Russia is willing to accept its citizens fleeing war and terror.

We joined Mr Magemadov as he made his way to the local lock-up where five Syrian asylum seekers are being held indefinitely.

They have all applied for refugee status but lack the proper paperwork permitting them to stay.

As a consequence, each one has spent more than a year behind bars – and human rights groups believe there are Syrians in similar circumstances sitting in just about every detention centre in the country.

“They are very depressed,” said Mr Magemadov, when I asked about their mental state.

“They have been in there a long time and they don’t know if they’re ever getting out.”

The detention centre where the five men are being held

What is clear is that these men have no chance of getting asylum.

Nonetheless, the ‘Makhachkala 5’ did leave the detention complex in February, when Russian migration officials tried to secretly deport them back to Syria.

A decision, says Mr Magemadov, that could have cost them their lives.

When he got wind of what was going on, he immediately tried to block it at the European Court of Human Rights.

“They were waiting at Moscow airport (to be deported) and I filed a petition to the court,” he said.

“We had no time to lose. If the court sided with me after the government put them on the plane, we knew we would never get them back.”

Sky News has learned that such deportations are common.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) and other civil society groups operating in Russia, at least 18 Syrians have been sent back directly to Syria, contravening the 1951 Refugee Convention (of which Russia is a signatory) and the Russian Constitution.

Sky News has been told the total number of Syrians deported is “almost certainly far higher” but this number represents those cases they have heard about and can confirm.

The lives of the five men in Makhachkala may have been saved but they told us they have little, or nothing, to live for.

Zacharia Berri, from Aleppo in Syria, has spent almost a year inside and during that time, he has twice tried to take his own life.

The second attempt was made in February, just before Russian migration officials tried to take them all to the airport.

In a message recorded on a telephone inside the detention centre, Mr Berri told Sky News: “I don’t want to go to Syria, I oppose the regime.

“I am a wanted man. The security services are waiting for me to send me to the army. I don’t want to go.”

We have obtained this picture of the 24-year-old after he tried to slash his left wrist two months ago.

Zacharia Berri tried to slash his left wrist

Sky News also received this picture, in the past few days, of another inmate called Rebar Kasar.

The young Syrian has taken a chunk out of his own arm because, after 14 months inside he says he is “going insane”.

Rebar Kasar says he is “going insane”

Aleppo native Sabri Koro has spent 16 months inside and told us it has been particularly difficult because he has a Russian wife and child who he is not allowed to see.

Migration officials rejected his asylum request on the basis that he has failed to provide his family with “manly and fatherly care”.

The registration of his marriage, which took place after he had been detained, was proof, said officials, of paternal negligence.

Sabri Koro and his wife Kalimat Kouro

Mr Magemadov chuckles when the subject of the migration service’s ‘rejection notices’ is raised.

The Russian migration service uses – and reuses – the same templates when issuing these rejections, telling failed applicants they are “in no more danger than other citizens living (in Syria)”.

The country is safe, add the templates, because the regime is “in control of about 50% of the territory”.

For the troubled-looking refugee lawyer, in the sprawling city of Makhachkala, the arrests and detentions, the deportations and the rejection slips, are simple proof of an unacknowledged yet active government policy.

“I think there are unwritten rules regarding Syrians,” he said.

“Why do citizens of Ukraine get asylum without problems (in Russia), but citizens of Syria do not?”

EU New Industry: Billions in Immigrant Smuggling

Posted on May 4, 2016May 4, 2016 by Denise Simon

EUROPOL: ‘The fasted growing criminal market in Europe’ netted $6.6 billion in 2015

BusinessInsider: People-smuggling gangs netted up to 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) last year, most of it from the traffic of migrants into Europe, the European Union’s police agency Europol said in a report issued on Monday.

Labeling people-smuggling as the “fastest growing criminal market in Europe”, the report said: “This turnover (of 6 billion euros) is set to double or triple if the scale of the current migration crisis persists in the upcoming year.”

Europol and police forces in countries in Europe and beyond have identified more than 12,000 suspects active in gangs involved in smuggling in migrants since 2015.

Gangs, whose members come from countries including Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq and Kosovo, are engaged in a huge range of criminal activities including document forgery and official bribery, the report said.

So-called “hotspots” where gang activities is concentrated include cities along the Balkan route from the Middle East, such as Istanbul, Izmir, Athens and Budapest, as well as major continental hubs like Berlin, Calais, Zeebrugge and Frankfurt.

But Europol said there was little evidence that “terrorist suspects” were making use of migrant smuggling networks to enter the continent on a significant scale.

“Far less than 0.01 percent of terrorist suspects have had migrant links,” said Europol director Rob Wainwright at a news conference.

About one million migrants reached Europe last year, most of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, the agency said in a report issued as it set up a new center to coordinate the Europe-wide fight against the smugglers.

The European Migrant Smuggling Centre, which will be based at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, will help police forces in and outside Europe share intelligence and will help with rapid deployment of emergency police forces as new migrant routes emerge.

Read the full report here. migrant_smuggling__europol_report_2016

Irregular migrants travelling to the EU primarily originate from Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as from Senegal, Somalia, Niger, Morocco and other African countries. In addition to these nationalities, there is also a continuous flow of irregular migrants from Asian countries such as India, Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam, albeit to a lesser extent.

Within the EU, the preferred destination countries of these migrants are Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

A migrant’s journey takes them from their country of origin through a number of transit countries to their eventual country of destination. Migrant smugglers and other criminals offer a wide variety of often highly priced services throughout this journey. These facilitation services include the provision of transportation, accommodation and fraudulent documents. In many cases, irregular migrants are forced to pay for these services by means of illegal labour.

Smuggling hotspots are located along the main migration routes and attract migrant smuggling networks. These hotspots may be favourably located along routes where most migrants travel or may feature easy access to transport infrastructures used for illegal facilitation activities.

In and outside the EU, more than 230 locations where illegal facilitation or migrant smuggling take place have been identified. The main criminal hotspots for migrant smuggling outside the EU are Amman, Algiers, Beirut, Benghazi, Cairo, Casablanca, Istanbul, Izmir, Misrata, Oran, and Tripoli.

The main criminal hotspots for intra-EU movements include Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Calais, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hoek van Holland, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Passau, Rome, Stockholm, Tornio, Thessaloniki, Vienna, Warsaw, and Zeebrugge.

The hotspots channel migratory flows, act as pull factors and have grown exponentially in the last years. Migrants gather in hotspots where they know they will have access to services during their travel to their preferred destination.

During their journeys, migrants often stop over in urban or semi-urban areas to work illegally in order to pay their debts to the migrant smugglers or to save money for the next leg of their journey.

Navy SEAL Killed by ISIS

Posted on May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 by Denise Simon

Enemy Fire Kills U.S. Service Member Helping Peshmerga Forces in Iraq

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2016 — A U.S. service member advising and assisting peshmerga forces in Iraq was killed by enemy fire north of Mosul today.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter — in Germany for this morning’s U.S. European Command change of command and to convene a meeting of his counterparts whose nations are leading the effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant— announced the service member’s death.

The secretary offered his condolences to the fallen service member’s family.

The service member was killed during an ISIL attack on a peshmerga position about 1 to 3 miles behind the forward line of troops, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said in a statement, adding that the service member’s name and other information will be released after next-of-kin notification is complete.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the service member’s family,” Cook said. “As Secretary Carter noted today in Germany, this sad news is a reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face every day in the ongoing fight to destroy ISIL and end the threat the group poses to the United States and the rest of the world. Our coalition will honor this sacrifice by dealing ISIL a lasting defeat.”

*****

ISIS used multiple vehicles, suicide car bombs and bulldozers to break through a checkpoint at the front line and drive 3 to 5 kilometers to the Peshmerga base where SEALs are temporarily visiting and were located as advisers, a U.S. defense official told CNN. The gun battle was around the town of Telskof in northern Iraq, the official added. The U.S. responded with F-15s and drones that dropped more than 20 bombs, according to a U.S. official. More from CNN.

*****

Baghdad (AFP) – The Islamic State group broke through Kurdish defences in northern Iraq on Tuesday and killed a US Navy SEAL deployed as part of the US-led coalition against the jihadists.

The attack came as the United Nations said that fighting with IS in northern Iraq could displace another 30,000 people, adding to millions who have already fled their homes.

And in Baghdad, throngs of Shiite pilgrims braved the threat of bombings by IS, which have killed dozens of people in recent days, to take part in a major annual religious commemoration.

The sailor from the special operations force was at least the third coalition member killed by enemy fire in Iraq since IS overran swathes of the country in 2014.

President Barack Obama hailed the 2011 withdrawal of American troops from Iraq as a major accomplishment of his presidency, but US forces have been drawn back into combat in the country against IS.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the death occurred during an IS attack on one of the Kurdish peshmerga forces’ positions north of Iraq’s jihadist-held second city Mosul.

A US defence official said the US SEAL’s death was the result of “an orchestrated attack”.

A coalition military official said the American was killed at 9:30 am (0630 GMT) by “direct fire” after “enemy forces penetrated” the peshmerga line.

– Firefight with IS –

The SEAL was a member of a “small team” that was present at a peshmerga encampment behind the original front line during the IS attack, which involved explosives-rigged vehicles, bulldozers and infantry, the official said.

“They fought, but they’re a small number and they’re not supposed to be in direct contact,” and they departed by American helicopter after the SEAL was shot, according to the official.

Kurdish forces are deployed in Nineveh province, whose capital Mosul is IS’s main hub in the country.

IS attacked the peshmerga in multiple areas of northern Iraq on Tuesday in an attempt to “thwart the plan to liberate Mosul”, said Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the autonomous Kurdish region’s peshmerga ministry.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said IS overran the Tal Asquf area and that the group employed suicide bombers.

Tal Asquf is a small Christian town whose population fled in 2014. According to the Kurdistan Region Security Council, the town was “completely cleared” of IS fighters later Tuesday.

Romeo Hekari, who heads a Christian unit fighting IS under peshmerga command, also said Tal Asquf was back under full control.

The United States announced last month that it was deploying additional forces to Iraq, bringing the official total to more than 4,000.

– Boots on the ground –

The coalition is carrying out daily air strikes against IS, and while most American forces on the ground in Iraq play advisory and support roles, Washington has also deployed special forces to carry out raids against IS, and US Marines to provide artillery support.

Two US military personnel had already been killed by the jihadists in Iraq: an American Marine by rocket fire in March and a special forces soldier who died of wounds received during a raid last October.

Obama repeatedly pledged that there would be no “boots on the ground” to combat IS, but the administration has since sought to define the term as meaning something other than American forces being on the ground and in combat.

“They are wearing boots, and they are on the ground, but that… doesn’t mean that they are in large-scale ground combat,” State Department spokesman John Kirby recently told journalists.

As Kurdish forces and the jihadists clashed on Tuesday, the United Nations expressed concern that “as many as 30,000 newly displaced individuals” could arrive in Makhmur southeast of Mosul, fleeing fighting in the area.

In Baghdad, tens of thousands of pilgrims converged on a shrine to mourn the death of Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 imams revered in Shiite Islam, who was killed in 799 AD.

A shrine official said that “millions” had taken part in commemorations in recent days, despite IS-claimed bombings targeting the pilgrims that have killed at least 37 people in the past week.

Iran Deploys Brigade 65 to Finish Syrian War?

Posted on April 29, 2016April 29, 2016 by Denise Simon

Two men were assigned to coordinate Bashir al Assad’s war operations.

Amir Ali Arasteh

Qassem Suleimani

******

Related: Iran’s Most Dangerous General

Related: The Shadow Commander

alMonitor/TEHRAN, Iran — Earlier this month, Brig. Gen. Ali Arasteh, deputy chief liaison of the Iranian army’s ground force, for the first time publicly spoke about Iran’s military operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. He told Iranian reporters, “Brigade 65 is a part of our army’s ground force and we are dispatching soldiers from Brigade 65, as well as other units, as advisers to Syria. This dispatch is not limited to commandos of Brigade 65, as advisers of Brigade 65 are already there.”

With the exception of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, the army had not conducted foreign operations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Only the Quds Force, the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Fatehin Brigade, made up of Iranian volunteers, had conducted advisory and ground operations in Syria and Iraq. The army is solely responsible for defending Iran’s borders, though if ordered by the commander in chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it can also undertake assigned foreign missions.

Brigade 65, also known by the abbreviation Nohed, is a special airborne force, and one of Iran’s most elite military units. It was formed prior to the Islamic Revolution, and had a very successful record during the war with Iraq. Its original core was formed in the 1950s, when the army sent 10 senior officers to France. In the ensuing years, two new brigades responsible for hostage rescue missions, irregular warfare, psychological warfare and support were added to the airborne force while Brigade 65 was created. Improved training alongside successful combat experiences — such as at the Manston Dhofar military base in Oman in the 1970s, and reportedly even in the Vietnam War — led this unit to become one of Iran’s best, alongside the Imperial Guard, by the end of the Pahlavi era.

Brigade 65’s participation in operations in Oman was official. This apparently was not the case in Vietnam; however, before his death, Gen. Alireza Sanjabi shared a memory with this author about how he had served as a sniper in Vietnam. Sanjani added, “Before the revolution, most of the training of this brigade was done in the form of joint operations with the British SAS.” Indeed, Brigade 65’s power increased so much that during the early days of the Islamic Revolution, certain members of parliament urged its dissolution since they feared it might attempt a coup. However, it was not dissolved and remains as strong as ever. In the 1990s, there was a mock military operation in Tehran where airborne forces were asked to take hold of all important military and political centers in the capital. Despite fierce resistance put up by the security forces guarding these centers, the powerful “Ghost Forces” were able to occupy the capital in two hours. Ever since, these army green berets have been known as the “Powerful Ghosts.”

Prior to its current deployment, Brigade 65 had not conducted foreign operations since the war with Iraq, as far as is officially known. There are, however, certain unconfirmed reports indicating that members of this brigade conducted reconnaissance missions in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While the IRGC has been in charge of providing support for the Syrian government since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the army during the past two years has taken pre-emptive measures in the fight against IS in order to neutralize any possible attack on Tehran. Last year, the commander of the army’s ground force, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, mentioned operations involving the deployment of troops to the Iran-Iraq border and cross-border artillery strikes. He also said that “a rapid response unit as well as specialized sniper training schools have been formed during the past few months.” In addition, advanced military equipment has been delivered to these forces to prepare them to confront any threats.

Iranian classifications put the size of brigades at about 6,000 to 7,000 troops. Thus, it is probable that about 100 to 200 Brigade 65 commandos have been deployed to Syria. News of this deployment was heavily covered by Iranian media outlets. Indeed, only a few days after the deployment, reports of four Brigade 65 fatalities in Aleppo shocked public opinion. Pourdastan quickly described the situation to the press, “During an attack conducted by a few thousand takfiri [militant Salafi] forces and forces of Jabhat al-Nusrah on south Aleppo … four dear members of the [Iranian] ground forces were martyred. In this confrontation, a number of tanks and armored personnel carriers of the terrorist group al-Nusrah were destroyed and 200 terrorists were killed as well.” Based on the latter, it appears likely that the Iranians were the target of a surprise attack.

Following the wave of intense reactions to the deaths of the four Iranian commandos, army commander Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi said that the regular forces have no responsibility to render advisory services to Syria, and that there is an organization in Iran that carries out related measures. Salehi said that some volunteers have been dispatched to Syria under the responsibility of that organization and that there may have been some members of Brigade 65 among them. He added that due to the strict rules of the army, it seems very unlikely that its officers would enter Syria on their own and that they had probably done so under the orders of the armed forces’ general staff. This statement conveys Salehi’s dissatisfaction with the presence of army forces in Syria.

The Syrian civil war appears poised to enter a new and more serious phase in the coming months. While Russia is reducing its military presence in Syria, Iran is trying to make up for that by deploying its own special forces. Considering the small number of Iranian troops that have been deployed, this may not be an important development from a military standpoint. However, it clearly shows that Iran is determined not to let the balance of power be disturbed in Syria. In the past few months, Iran has participated in the UN peace negotiations, clearly showing that it is not willing to capitulate to its regional rivals, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, after five years of having its soldiers injured and killed and having spent billions of dollars. Thus, it is possible that if the Syrian government is threatened more seriously, even more army forces will be deployed in Syria alongside the IRGC.