‘US, allies trying to derail Syria gains in Aleppo’

Jim W. Dean, managing editor of the Veterans Today from Atlanta, told Press TV on Saturday that the US and its regional allies are using media hype to hinder military advances of the Syrian forces in Aleppo.

“The US is doing everything it can to try to slow down this momentum, while they figure out someway ‘what we can do to derail the success of the Syrian, Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah coalition,’” Dean said.

Washington and its allies “want to keep these guys (terrorists) fighting; they want to bleed the Syrian army down; they want to drag this thing out or they try to figure out how they can somehow derail the Syrian success that is going forward.”

Dean said once Aleppo is retaken, all Syrian troops will be redeployed to counterattack in some other areas like Idlib and Hama.

Certain Western governments, he said, are trying to assure militants in Idlib that the US and its allies would do everything they can to support the terrorists.

The West is also using the policy of demonizing the Syrian army as a tactic, Dean added.

“What they’re just trying to do is control the narrative because unfortunately their intelligence agencies are very tightly woven into their media particularly in the US, especially in Britain and in Canada.”

He also ruled out media propaganda against the Syrian armed forces over the alleged use of excessive force in eastern Aleppo, saying accusations of barrel bombs being used and the city turned into a “mass grave” are baseless.

“The Syrian Army has no interest in killing civilians and destroying civilian property because it does nothing to further their cause of taking the city.”

The Syrian government’s advances have taken by surprise many of the foreign states that have been channeling financial and military support to the militants since the onset of the foreign-backed militancy in Syria in March 2011.

The conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.