The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, headquartered in the UK, reported that 45 people were killed because of the Russian ‘high precision’ airstrike in Jabal Akrad area on October 19. One of the rebel groups confirmed also the death of Zamo Basil, who was the commander of the 1st Coastal Division and fought in the ranks of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ against the regime of Bashar al-Assad. Basil once was a captain of Assad’s army but then left it among other officers. The 1st Coastal Division forms the basis of the ‘Free Syrian Army’ in the West of Syria. Probably, this officer was the main target of the airstrike, which was guided by the cellular signal.

The official position of the Russian Federation, which declared ISIS as the target of its air operations, comes down to the same kind of lies and information manipulations used in Ukraine. De jure Russia states that her army is engaged in the anti-terrorist operation against ‘Islamic State’s militants, but de facto 85% of all the airstrikes conducted by Russia’s air forces hit the positions where are no ISIS’s militants at all.

85% of Russian air strikes targeted where #ISIL isn’t even present; #Russia is fighting Assad’s civil war – not ISIL

These 85% of airstrikes kill rebels from the ‘Free Syrian Army’ (who also fight against ISIS and Assad’s regime) and peaceful Syrian citizens (in order to spread havoc and provoke even higher flow of the Syrian refugees to EU).

Syria Regional Refugee Response

In its turn, leaflets calling to fight against the ‘Russian war criminals‘ has started to appear in the social networks of the Arab segment of the Internet.

It is to be recalled that the activists of InformNapalm international volunteer community continue to publish the data on the Russian military pilots who take part in the Syrian operation. Within the “InformNapalm’s ultimatum to the Kremlin about the ceasefire violations“. The information about the side and tail numbers of the aircrafts, photos, first and last names of the pilots are periodically published in several foreign languages, including the Arabic. This caused an uproar in the Russian media and provoked Dmitry Peskov, the press spokesman for the President of Russia, to make careless statements. ‘Al Arabia’, one of the central Arabic TV channels, compared information published by our volunteers with WikiLeaks activities.

Today, on October 20, the arms disengagement from both sides started in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The ‘Ministry of Defense of DPR’ pledges that militants started the withdrawal of the arms with caliber of less than 100 mm in Debaltseve area. Also media assure that the pro-Russian militants have disengaged 10 tanks in the same region.

The weapons withdrawal is monitored by OSCE’s representatives. We are also keeping an eye on the implementation of ceasefire. Based on our sources we assume that the reshuffling of militant’s forces does not mean a real withdrawal. 

In case of any provocation by the joint Russian-terrorist forces we promise to give another batch of the unique data on the Russian pilots in Syria or on the Russian military infrastructure objects. And, of course, this information will be distributed in several languages, including the Arabic.

Original article by Adil al-Alim, translated by Oleksandr Klymenko