Two Russian journalists from the ANNA news agency – Oleg Blokhin and Igor Dimitriev – were slightly injured after an ISIS armed drone targeted them during their visit to the Deir Ezzor airport.
General Issam Zahr Al-Deen the leader of the Republican Guard in Deir Ezzor visited the two injured journalists in the field hospital and confirmed that the both of them are in good condition
Clashes continue around the Deir Ezzor airport as both government forces and ISIS terrorists are struggling for control of the area linking the airport with the government-held part of the city.
Meanwhile, 3 civilians were killed and another 11 were injured after ISIS shelled the Hrbash neighborhood with mortars.
The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) and Red Cross dropped over 5 tons of aid for civilians in the city who are suffering from the ISIS siege for more than 2 years.
The SyAAF carried out airstrikes against ISIS positions in Raqqah city after receiving more info from the Iraqi intelligence. The SyAAF destroyed a HQ of ISIS’ Hesbah (religion police) and the ISIS finance ministry building. Airstrikes also destroyed the ISIS Fatwa council inside Raqqah. Two ISIS commanders were killed as a result of to the SyAAF air strike. One of them is “Abu Baker Bin Habib Al-Hakim” a France-Algerian terrorist. He is considered to be the military leader of ISIS in Raqqah .
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Crazy bastards – I hope you get well soon. A Croatian journalist working in Syria wrote that ANNA news guys are famous among their colleagues for being batshit crazy…
ISIS probably got tipped of by their friends the BBC and CNN as to where the Russian journalists were.
Honestly, it’s amazing they survived this long. This could’ve happened so many times by now, yet here they are. Brave men, an example of what journalism is really all about!
Couple of close calls.
They lost a driver to a sniper thou.
Aleppo, right? That was a Syrian driver I think, but yeah, close call.
Reports from Raqqah over the last weeks show that Hesbah has left Raqqah. SyAF bombed an empty building.
Had they bombed IS positions around DeZ, that would have helped their forces there more. However, most likely the SDF is grateful for the support.
I guess the religious police had decided that the general population was beyond redemption so fled to Mayadin to whip the locals into becoming true believers.
I’m sure ISIS moved some other outfit into that building if it’s communication systems were still in place. Now they ain’t.
That might well be true.
Agree that SyAF should not be hitting targets around Raqqa. They have more important fronts to deal with. Where is the mighty coalition air to support SDF based on Iraqi intel ?!?
They were bombing their allies (sick joke).
Seriously, as the intel was at least partly incorrect, maybe they did assume it was all incorrect or they did not have planes available. They are to some extent stretched too.
I am not a fan of Assad or the SAA, but I do think that there should be more support for the soldiers and civilians in DeZ, however difficult that might be in a military or political way.
Russian journalists travel to the front lines of war zones to record the real facts , whilst most Western MSM ‘journalists bravely trawl the social media to record fantasy ‘news’ about Syria , or from a one man terror propaganda operation based in a small and drab 1930’s semi-detached house in a poor part of Coventry ,UK.
Perhaps Bashar won’t allow any in?
As a war leader, I am sure President Assad would let proper journalists in, but not propagandists. There was censorship in the UK during WW2, so why not in Syria during this foreign funded, inspired, armed and coordinated war by jihadists from dozens of countries, in which Syria has lost more people than the UK?
Sadly, I would not put it beyond BBC journalists to betray their Russian colleagues. The BBC is after all government funded and controlled, with the Plebs just stomping up the annual license fee of £145.50 on the threat of imprisonment. Government employees must toe the government line, especially if they have signed the Official Secrets Act.
I am sure President Assad would allow the Western journalists of CNN,MSMBC,ABC et al to report from the SAA FRONT lines.
The stench of faeces tough as the Western journalists shit their pants would of course be a disadvantage .