TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Syrian army backed by allied forces managed to recapture some towns and villages in the west-central province of Hama from Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra Front) terrorists, killing some 300 members of the foreign-backed terror group. Following the Syrian army’s operations on Monday, the units restored security and stability to the towns and villages of al-Masaseneh, Zour al-Heiseh, and Zour al-Teibeh in the northern countryside of Hama, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported. In the operations, army units killed nearly 300 terrorists and injured a large number of others, destroying 20 vehicles, two ammunition warehouses and two tanks. Fierce clashes are now underway between the government forces and the militant group in the surrounding areas of Hama. The latest developments came after the army on Sunday succeeded in liberating the areas of Halfayia, Zalin, al-Wabida, Zour al-Nasiryia, Zour Abu Zaid, Talet al-Nasiryia a

By Nick Xenophon  We are faced today with a question that has never before arisen in our history. From January 1788, when the First Fleet sailed into Botany Bay, to 2008, during the Global Financial Crisis, we've had first Britain and then the USA as both trading partner and strategic ally. But now China is our largest two-way trading partner in goods and services ($150 billion), our largest export market ($86 billion) and our largest source of imports ($64 billion). And the integrated East Asian economic zone is the world's fastest growing. So, how do we negotiate the tension between our major security partner and our major trading partner? China sees as vital to its security the string of archipelagos from northern Borneo to the Kuril Islands north-east of Japan. It has piled sand onto reefs in the South China Sea, creating seven new artificial islands, and has installed missile batteries and radar facilities, giving it effective control over sea and air traffic in the r

By Jacob G. Hornberger The best thing that South Koreans could ever do, both for themselves and for the American people, as well as the Japanese citizenry, is boot all U.S. troops out of their country. Isn’t the reason obvious? If President Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA succeed in instigating a war with North Korea, guess who is going to pay the biggest price for such a war. No, not the United States. At the end of such a war, the continental United States will remain untouched, just like it was after World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and all the other foreign wars in which the U.S. government has become embroiled. The same cannot be said about South Korea and Japan. While North Korea would undoubtedly end up losing a war against the United States (assuming that China doesn’t enter the fray), South Korea will end up as a devastated wasteland. That’s because as it is going down to defeat, North Korea can be expected to cause as much death and de

© Sputnik/ Lugansk People’s Republic people’s militia By  Zorana Dobriza ; Originally appeared at  Globalresearch The Ukrainian army continues to increase its activity in the east of the country in the combat zone between the Ukrainian armed forces and the Luhansk People’s Republic’s units. Thus, in the morning of April 23 a patrol vehicle of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) blew up on a mine in not controlled by Kiev Slavyanoserbsky district of the Lugansk region. As a result of the explosion, a US citizen working as a medical officer of the mission was killed and two mission employees were injured. Being unable to conduct active armed actions, Kiev focused its efforts on asymmetric combat operations against the Donbass insurgents through sabotage actions. A.Marochko , an official representative of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic, said that the undermining of the cars of the OSCE mission is a terrorist act of Ukrainian special services that w

President Donald Trump salutes military personnel as he leaves Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, after taking the presidential oath. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP) Written by  David Hungerford  exclusively for  SouthFront The missile attack by the United States against Syria on April 7, 2017 came as a shocking reversal of Trump administration foreign policy. Substantial steps had been taken to depart from the Obama policy of “regime change,” in favor of acceptance of the recognized Assad government. Peace and an international agreement on settlement of the war in Syria were in prospect. Suddenly, everything went smash. A chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians was reported on April 4. Trump blamed it on the Assad government with no investigation. The missile attack, a flagrant act of aggression, came soon after. It is useless to go no further than to hurl personal invective at Donald Trump. The concentration on personalities only gets in the way of the re

Click to see the full-size map Pro-government forces, led by the Syrian Army’s  5th Assault Corps , have recaptured a key gas field from ISIS in the province of Homs. Pro-government fighters, backed up by Syrian and Russian warplanes and attak helicopters, have enter the ash-Shair gas filed and got a full control over the field and its gas plant. Earlier this week, government forces had captured a number of small hills near the ash-Shair field. So, ISIS terrorists were pushed to withdraw from the area without a stiff resistance. The advance on ash-Shair is a part of the broader effort aimed at securing the countryside of Huwaysis and the nearby gas fields. If the Syrian army successes in the area, it will be able to secure the road between Salamiyeh and the T4 Airbase as well as gain control over gas fields located along the road. The Russian media outlet “Riafan” released a video from the Ash-Shair gas field area:

Click to see the full-size image China has transferred its newly built aircraft carrier into the water. The aircraft carrier was launched in the Dalian shipyard in the province of Liaoning on Wednesday morning. The ceremony took place amid the growing tensions in the region: the US-North Korea confrontation, the US deployment of THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea and the continued crisis in the South China Sea. Now, the People’s Liberation Army Navy officially has two aircraft carriers. Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image Click to see the full-size image REUTERS/Stringer REUTERS/Stringer