PHOTO: Hezbollah’s Nasrallah on Friday “More leaders will go to Syria”


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Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has said that more fighters will be sent to Syria’s civil war, following the death of his top commander in the country and the redeployment of his forces.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Friday:

No death of any of our leaders has driven us from the battle. This precious blood will push us to a larger, stronger and more sophisticated presence.

We are staying in Syria. More leaders will go to Syria than the number that were there before. We will be present in different forms as well.

We will complete this battle.

Hezbollah’s commander in Syria, Mustafa Badreddine, was killed near Damascus last week. The Lebanese organization initially said that Badreddine died in an Israeli missile strike, but then changed its story to blame shelling by Syrian rebels.

Earlier this week, reports indicated that Hezbollah withdrew its fighters from northwest and central Syria to put them on southern fronts, where pro-Assad forces are hoping to gain territory near Damascus.

The realignment appears to have had some effect already, as a pro-regime offensive broke through weakened rebel defenses and took much of the southern part of the East Ghouta area.

See Syria Daily: Regime Advances Southeast of Damascus, May 20

Speaking via a big screen to a ceremony honoring Badreddine in southern Beirut, Nasrallah said the commander was involved in the planning of the East Ghouta offensive. He repeated the line that Badreddine had died from a rebel shell.

He proclaimed that Hezbollah has “a generation of leaders” to replace those who are killed: “[Badreddine] is not the first martyr to die in this way nor will he be the last.”


Photo: InterAction Presents 2016 Humanitarian Award to White Helmets Rescuers

Officials of InterAction, an alliance of NGOs for humanitarian action, presents Syria’s civil defense organization The White Helmets with its 2016 Humanitarian Award:

The award was given to White Helmets head Raed Saleh in Turkey:

INTERACTION AWARD WHITE HELMETS

Saleh was supposed to receive the award last month in Washington, but was inexplicably barred from entering the US upon arrival at Dulles Airport.


UN Assures No Permanent Settlement of Refugees in Lebanon

The UN’s Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag has assured Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil that Syrian refugees will not be permanently resettled in Lebanon.

In discussion of a report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on movements of refugees and migrants, Kaag and Bassail noted that the document “does not advocate in any specific case for naturalization or granting of citizenship for refugees”.

Lebanon hosts more than one million registered Syrian refugees, more than one-sixth of the country’s population.


Video: Regime Airstrike on Houla in Homs Province

Video today of one of scores of regime airstrikes on Houla in Homs Province this week:

The regime has stepped bombing of opposition areas in northern Homs Province since rebels and Jahbat al-Nusra took the village of Zara, reopening a link between Houla and the town of Rastan. More than 20 people in the village were killed on Friday by the attacks.


Video: Dozens Freed by Kurdish Militia in Swap Deal with Free Syrian Army in Aleppo

The opposition website Zaman al-Wasl reports that dozen of people held by the Kurdish militia YPG in the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have been freed in a swap with the Free Syrian Army, presumably for Kurdish detainees:

The YPG and rebels have periodically clashed in Sheikh Maqsoud, with a spike in violence in April.


Rebel Bloc Jaish al-Fatah Warns: We Will Attack Regime Enclaves

The rebel bloc Jaish al-Fatah has warned the Assad regime and its ally Iran against further bombing and assaults on opposition areas.

Jaish al-Fatah said that, if the bombardment continues, it will attack the regime enclaves of al-Fu’ah and Kafraya in Idlib Province.

Al-Fu’ah and Kafraya have been isolated since rebels took over Idlib Province in spring 2015.


US Rejects Russian Proposal for Joint Strikes on Rebels and Nusra

The US has rejected a Russian proposal for joint airstrikes on rebels and the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told a Ministry meeting, broadcast on State TV, that the attacks will begin on Wednesday. He said Moscow reserved the right to stage strikes unilaterally, including on convoys allegedly carrying weapons and ammunition from Turkey into northern Syria.

“We believe the adoption of these measures will allow a transition to a peaceful process to be achieved in the entire territory of Syria,” he said. “Of course, these measures have been coordinated with the leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Shoigu said discussions with military experts of the US and other countries, based in Jordan, began on Thursday.

However, US officials said they have little interest in the proposal, which they said had not been presented formally to the Pentagon. They asserted that Moscow is expected to press President Assad to avoid bombing.

Rebels are covered while Jabhat al-Nusra is excluded from a February 27 cessation of hostilities. The arrangement, brokered by the US and Russia, has broken down in much of Syria.

The US has occasionally bombed Nusra since it launched airstrikes in Syria in September 2014, killing scores of fighters as well as civilians.