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“Temperature Rising is a riveting account of Iran’s way of war in the Middle East by a seasoned observer of the country’s regional strategy and military policy. Uskowi’s book is a powerful must-read for anyone interested in the region.” (General James Jones, former national security advisor to President Obama and former Marine Corps Commandant) |
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“If you want to understand Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and its action arm, the Qods Forces, Temperature Rising is the book you must read. Nader Uskowi takes you inside the organization, its funding, its relations***p to the Supreme Leader, and its broad mission. It is not just about protecting the Iranian regime from possible internal threats; it is about spreading the reach of the Islamic Republic throughout the Middle East. Temperature Rising explains in a compelling fas***on the threat, but also points out the new vulnerabilities the Revolutionary Guard is creating for the Iranian regime. This book reminds us that the Islamic Republic poses a threat but also is not ten feet tall.” (Amba***ador Dennis Ross, Was***ngton Inst**ute for Near East Policy) |
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"Nader Uskowi has written an important and timely book that outlines the true scope of the challenge we face from the Islamic Republic. Today, as the United States grapples anew with Iran's malign influence in the Middle East, Temperature Rising should be essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the persistence of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s radical ideology, the extent of the Iranian regime’s regional reach, and the significance of the new web of influence that Tehran is building across the region." (Ilan Berman, senior vice president, American Foreign Policy Council) |
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While the Russians were planning for another operations to free the pilot immediately, General Soleimani contacted [Russian forces] and proposed a special task force unit be formed of Hezbollah's special forces and Syrian commandos who have been trained by Iran and are fully familiar with the geographical situation of the region to be tasked with the ground operations and Russia provide them with air cover and satellite intelligence. |
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Soleimani promised them to return the Russian pilot safe and sound; a promise that was kept in the end, according to the Syrian officer. |
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After tracing the place of the Russian pilot using his GPS, it was revealed that the pilot was being kept in a place 6km behind the frontline of the clashes between the Syrian army and the opposition. |
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Six fighters of Hezbollah's special operation unit and 18 Syrian commandos approached the frontline to carry out the operations and the Russian air force and helicopters concurrently created h****fire in the region and destroyed the terrorists' headquarters in a way that most of the enemy forces deployed in the region fled the scene and the ground was paved for the special unit's advance. |
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The Syrian officer added that every move of the special units was monitored and covered precisely by the Russian satellites in a way that the slightest moves made 100 meters away from the area of operation was reported to them and every moment of the operation was reported to a very high-raking official in the Kremlin (that he thinks was president Putin) and it was clear that he was monitoring the entire operations through satellites from Moscow. |
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According to the officer who called for anonymity, the operation later turned into a hunt of the terrorists in the operation zone by the Russian air force from the sky and by Brigadier General Soleimani's operations units on the ground. |
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A Hezbollah TV station says a joint operation by the Lebanese militant group and Syrian security agents killed an Islamic State figure suspected of involvement in Beirut's deadly bombing earlier this month. |
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AL-Manar TV says Abdul-Salam Hendawi, also known as Abu Abdo, died in an ambush in an IS-held area in Syria's central province of Homs. |
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It says Hendawi was responsible for bringing into Lebanon two suicide bombers who carried out the Nov. 12 attack in southern Beirut. The attack killed 43 people and wounded more than 200. |
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The Islamist rebels from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jaysh Al-Islam, and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham launched a large-scale offensive in southern Aleppo earlier this week, targeting the Syrian Arab Army’s frontline defenses at the multiple hilltops that surround the |
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Over the past 6 days in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels from Jabhat Al-Nusra, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, and Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki have repeatedly tried to bypa*** the Syrian Armed Forces’ frontline defenses at the imperative village of Banes and Kafr Haddad; this powerful a***ault from the Islamist rebel factions has resulted in the capture of Kafr Haddad’s southern Sector, despite the Islamist rebels declaring this village as “liberated”. |
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With the ongoing firefights near Banes and Kafr Haddad, the Islamist rebels attempted to take advantage of the Syrian Arab Army’s brief hiatus from the battlefield in order to allow their soldiers to take leave for a few days before going back to battle. |
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According to a battlefield journalist that is embedded with the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division in southern Aleppo, the Islamist rebels have been unable to make any significant progress in the last 72 hours after failing to take Banes from the soldiers entrenched in this village. |
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The Islamist rebel offensive has proved to be rather unsuccessful thus far as several of their combatants have been reportedly killed by the Syrian Armed Forces. |
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General Qa***em Soleimani, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations wing, was lightly injured in fighting against Syria rebels near Aleppo, a monitoring group and a security source said Wednesday. |
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Soleimani "was injured a few days ago" in an offensive in the southwest of Aleppo province, a security source on the ground told AFP. |
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The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, also said the general had been hurt. |
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He was "lightly injured three days ago in the Al-Eis area in the south of Aleppo province," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. |
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Turkish fighter jets shot down a Russian-made warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday after repeatedly warning it over air space violations, Turkish officials said, but Moscow said it could prove the jet had not left Syrian air space. |
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Turkish presidential sources said the warplane was a Russian-made SU-24. The Turkish military, which did not confirm the plane's origin, said it had been warned 10 times in the space of five minutes about violating Turkish airspace. |
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Russia's defence ministry said one of its fighter jets had been downed in Syria, apparently after coming under fire from the ground, but said it could prove the plane was over Syria for the duration of its flight, Interfax news agency reported. |
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A Russian Su-24 fighter has been shot down in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding the plane hadn’t violated Turkish airspace and was flying at an alt**ude of 6,000 meters. |
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“During the flight, the aircraft was flying within the borders of Syria, which was registered by objective monitoring data,” the ministry said, adding that the aircraft was "supposedly shot down from the ground.” |