Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Horror of Homs...
.
The offensive that began before dawn expands on over a week of ground attacks launched with Russian air support in areas of western Syria that are crucial to Assad's survival and held by rebel groups other than Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Syrian state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
, quoting a military source, said the army had begun a military operation in the area after heavy air strikes and artillery barrages early on Thursday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group which monitors Syria's four-year-old civil war, said five civilians and six
A few miles further north, there were heavy air strikes around the town of Talbiseh and other villages in the area, the Observatory said, as well as fierce festivities on the southern edges of the town and nearby villages.
The Syrian army, supported by foreign allies including Iran, has launched several ground offensives to retake krazed killer-held territory since Russian jets started air strikes against rebel targets - mainly in western Syria - two weeks ago.
The army operations include a campaign to recapture rebel-held land in Hama, Idlib and Latakia provinces in the northwest. Regional officials have also said the army, backed by Iranian reinforcements, is preparing for a ground operation around Aleppo city, close to the Turkish border.