Civil War in Syria

[Nhoj]

Syrian Republican Guards general Manaf Tlass, once a personal friend of Assad's, defects to Turkey along with his father.

The father is this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Tlass who was MoD from 1972 tell 2004.

[Nhoj]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/07/20127189355415804.html

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[Nhoj]

The PMs replacement is a alawite.

[Nhoj]

Lebanon isn't going to take sudden demographic changes too well.

Speaking of Lebanon a former minister and pro-Syrian regime guy there was arrested "for security reasons,"  http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/49451-michel-samaha-arrested-for-security-reasons

[Nhoj]

The Israeli official statement didn't treat it as a provocation, they said something along the lines that we understand it was an accident and that's why we fired a warning shot.

[Nhoj]

Back on the subject of Syria,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/12/2012122614513868810.html

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[Nhoj]

Yes snowstalker once again proves how much he knows.

[Nhoj]

Another ISIS leader bites the dust

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-37224570

He wasn't just the spokesperson either. He was a early follower of zarqawi and second-in-command of the organization. 

[Nhoj]

There has certainly been a rapproachment between Turkey and Russia. Turkish-Western relations on the other hand have become much more complicated. But international diplomacy on the Syrian question is far more complex than two sides or a triangle. Everyone has his own interests and engages in temporary alliances, cooperations or nonaggression pacts.

In other news: Syrian-Israeli escalation.
Jihadist rebels have started a new offensive against regime-held areas in Quneitra province, with Israel bombing some Syrian artillery positions. The Syrian air defense claims to have downed an Israeli fighter jet and an Israeli drone. Israel confirmed the attacks, but said they missed their targets. This might become interesting.

If they had taken down a jet they would have proof and a bigger retaliation from Israel , a drone is possible though.

[Nhoj]

Uh, it pretty much already has been. They have not controlled any territory since 2017.

Patently false.

https://www.theage.com.au/world/islamic-state-completely-evicted-from-iraq-iraqi-pm-says-20171210-h01x2r.html

http://iswresearch.blogspot.com/2017/12/

And also, it's common knowledge publicly available on Encyclopaedia Brittannica and Wikipedia:

"By November 2017, however, ISIL had lost all major territorial holdings."

"Following this major defeat, ISIL continued to lose territory to the various states and other military forces allied against it, until it controlled no meaningful territory by November 2017."

Your initial post claimed they held no territory which is false.  It is of course true that what they hold isnt meaningful its pretty much been a dozen villages for the last year, with the final offensive against them starting only like 2 months ago