On January 5, thousands of civilians including women and children protested in the towns of Babbila and Beit Sahem south of Damascus city against the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Hamas-affiliated militant group Jaysh al-Ababil, according to Syrian pro-government sources. The Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV said that the protestors condemned the terrorists acts of HTS and Jaysh al-Ababil during the protests and called on the two Islamist groups to leave the area. Local sources reported the Jaysh al-Ababil fighters injured several protestors with machine guns. Last week, dozens of children protested in the towns of Babbila and Beit Sahem against Jaysh al-Ababil, after it had arrested their relatives because they were planning to join the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). Click to see the full-size image The Syrian government has been negotiating with HTS and Jaysh al-Ababil to expel them from the towns of Aqraba, Beit Sahm, Yalda and Babila  since Dec

Illustrative image Written by  Prof Michel Chossudovsky ; Originally appeared at  Global Research In 2003, the war on Iran project was already Déjà Vu.  It had been on the drawing board of the Pentagon since the mid-nineties.  Since the launching of the  Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT)   war games scenario in May 2003 (leaked classified document), an escalation scenario involving military action directed against Iran and Syria had been envisaged, of which Syria was the first stage in 2011.   The initial invasion of Iraq under “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was launched on March 20, 2003, April 9 marks the Fall of Baghdad;  officially the invasion was completed on May 1st, 2003. In May 2003,  immediately  following the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the TIRANNT (Theater Iran Near Term) war games scenario were carried out as revealed by William Arkin, a former US intelligence analyst: “In early 2003, even as U.S. forces were on the brink of war with Iraq,  the Army had alre

Click to see the full-size image Houthi fighters killed 399 Saudi soldiers and 1,894 fighters loyal to Saudi-backed President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2017, according to a report released by the Houthis media wing on January 3. In the report, the Houthis also claimed that their fighters destroyed 8 M1a2 Abrams battle tanks, 31 battle tanks of other types, 196 infantry fighting vehicles and 1,337 other vehicles of the Saudi-led coalition and pro-Hadi forces. Furthermore, the Houthis announced that they were able to shoot down 19 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and to hit eight naval vessels of the Saudi-led coalition. The Houthis media wing report also claimed that in 2017, the Houthis launched 45 ballistic missiles at targets in Saudi Arabia. The numbers in the Houthis’ report were not verified by any neutral source. However, some figures, like the number of the launched ballistic missiles, were confirmed in previous reports of the Saudi-led coalition itself. On January 4,