Iran positioned to pounce in Syria
Moscow admits air strikes include militant as well as non- ISIL targets
Iran ground forces were on the move Thursday night in Syria in preparation for an attack to reclaim rebel- held territory under the cover of controversial Russian air strikes, according to sources close to Damascus.
The Russians are predominantly targeting those rebels not aligned to ISIL who present the biggest threat on the ground to Bashar Assad’s regime.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia that has come to Assad’s rescue in battlefronts throughout Syria during the past two years, is being prepared to capitalize on the strikes, a source said.
Iran, which is the main sponsor and tactical adviser to Hezbollah, was sending in hundreds of its own troops to reinforce them, sources in Lebanon said.
Iran made no comment on the claims but Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said the move would be an “apt and powerful illustration” that Russia’s military actions had worsened the conflict.
Russia’s long- term aim would be to defeat or demoralize the non- ISIL opposition, so that ISIL became the regime’s only enemy. That would force the West to back Assad, the Syrian president, against the terror group.
“They want to clean the country of non- ISIL rebels, and then the U. S. will work with them as ISIL will be the only enemy,” the Damascus source said.
In the first instance, an attack in northwestern Homs province, the apparent chosen battlefront, would help distract the rebel alliance from attacking Latakia, the stronghold of the Alawite minority from which much of the Assad regime is drawn.
It would also secure the corridor from Damascus to the northwest, at least ensuring a clean partition between regime- and rebel- held Syria.
The Russians continued their aerial bombardment Thursday. Targets included Jisr al- Shughour and Jabal al- Zawiya, areas under the control of Jaish al- Fatah, the Army of Conquest, an alliance of Islamist groups that has won significant victories against Assad’s forces this year.
The Russians included ISIL targets in Raqqa and Deir Ezzour provinces, including a Syrian airbase which fell to ISIL this year.
The Kremlin admitted Thursday that objectives included non- ISIL targets — something it had previously denied.
“The aim is really to help the armed forces of Syria in their weak spots,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said in New York that its campaign was little different from the American one, which has hit al- Qaida targets in Syria as well as ISIL ones.
“We see eye to eye with the coalition on this one,” he said.
“We have the same approach: it’s ISIL, al- Nusra and other terrorist groups.”
However, rebels claimed that the “other terrorist groups” included moderate elements, some trained by the CIA as part of the American program for supporting the opposition.