At 9.30pm on the 3rd of January,  a convoy of fuel tanks and three buses came under ISIS attack on the Salamiyeh to Ithriya road, according to the Hama Governor, Muhammad Tariq Kreshati. The terrorist attack led to nine martyrs, including a child (according to some reports) and injured four civilians. The remaining passengers were treated at Al Salamiyeh hospital. The attack was carried out with machine guns. Update in the tweet below:

Daesh attacked three transport buses and a number of fuel tanks on the Salamiya – Ithriya road.

4 civilians, including a 9-year-old girl and 2 Syrian soldiers, were martyred.

Three civilians, including a child, were also kidnapped by Daesh. pic.twitter.com/Rc2YeQxbr9

— Bosni (@Bosni_94) January 4, 2021

An attack on fuel tankers is a part of the sadistic war on resources, the US/UK-led multi spectrum war against the Syrian people to deprive them of essential commodities without which their lives are plunged into darkness, cold and food insecurity as the harshest winter months approach. I would include the recent attack in Deir Ezzor that has now damaged the main arterial road from the US-occupied oil-fields to the Syrian capital, Damascus and raised threat levels for any convoys travelling this route. 

On the same day, a huge explosion targeted the gas and diesel depot in the Lebanese Al Qasr region (near Mutrebeh village) on the Syrian borders, causing extensive material damage and injuries. Flames were reported to be ten metres high. 

Without a doubt, we are seeing the uptick in “swarming” warfare inside Syria – isolated attacks carried out by terrorist cells under the protection of the US Coalition at Al Tanf base in the south-east. With Joe Biden about to be inaugurated, this is an indication that the war against Syria is about to be revived. Reports have also been received of the likelihood of a false flag attack in Iraq during January that might ignite a regional conflict with Iran at the eye of the storm. 

I will do my best to update you on a daily basis on the events inside Syria. 

“We would think that hope is a small thing and rather fragile, however, it is the only thing in the world that worth having because it gives true meaning to our lives.

Whatever would happen, we must never give it away and never let anyone take it from us.

Emily Dickinson, said, hope is the thing with feathers.

The Syrian Arab Army is our hope”  ~ Emy Abbas from Syria Insider. 

Below is an excerpt from an article that I wrote for RT in June 2018:  

Every family I met with and interviewed made similar statements. Ahmed Jabr lost his 23-year-old son, Mohammed, on the 4 March 2013, fighting with the SAA against IS in Qaryatayn.

Ahmed Jabr with his family and photo of his martyrd son, Mohammed, in Salamiya © Vanessa Beeley

Ahmed told me: “We have a great army and we represent the army. The army represents us and they have sacrificed so much but thank God we have the victory on our side. They brought every foreign terrorist in the universe to our country. It is the Western countries bringing us this terrorism. Thank God we stand by our Army as one hand. Our Army defends the whole Arab world and the World from this terrorism because it will spread from Syria to the World.”

The SAA is made up of conscripts. In many cases ordinary young men and women have taken up arms to defend their people, as in Salamiyah surrounded on four sides by IS, Nusra Front, Ahrar al-Sham and a variety of extremist splinter groups. These soldiers are often inexperienced in military strategy and combat. They are facing a professional force of battle-hardened mercenaries, well equipped with more sophisticated weapons and machinery thanks to their sponsors in the West and Gulf States.

We in the West owe an infinite debt of gratitude to these young men and women who have resisted the terrorist spawn of our own imperialist nations. There will be no ‘Private Ryan’ films depicting their courage and bloodshed. There will be no commemorative statues erected in Washington or London in honour of their sacrifices. There will be no recognition of their unity, no acknowledgement of their dignity in Western media.

It falls upon us, the people, to salute these heroes, these defenders of humanity who have given their lives to prevent us living their torment. This is not some romantic vision of a world of complex nuances and multi-faceted truths, it is the realistic admission that without the SAA, we would be awash with extremism from the Euphrates to the Thames. Far from the din and cacophony of Hollywood generated conflict, these soldiers are the quiet heroes who have undeniably earned “the right to go home”.