Syrian Civil War: News #8

Dima wrote:^ It would also be that the twitter has blocked him from updating his account?
After all twitter has been very accomodative of jihadi/terrorists accounts.

Oryx ‏@oryxspioenkop  5h5 hours ago
Russian delivered Ural-4320-31 armoured truck knocked out by the Islamic State near the Thawrah oilfield.

Oryx ‏@oryxspioenkop  Jun 20
@oryxspioenkop Simply obliterated.

sepheronx wrote:Didn't Russia disagree with SAA push to Raqqa? Something that they were arguing with Iran over?
Anyway, they seem to concentrate in Aleppo more so than SAA. Probably best now to fall back.

The Aviation Group of the Russian Airspace Force — the Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily or VKS — is conducting an interdiction campaign against Syrian insurgents active in western Aleppo governorate with intention of forcing these into negotiations on Moscow’s conditions.
Therefore, nearly 90 percent of the VKS’ air strikes are targeting Hayyan, Anadan, Hreitan, Kfar Hamra and Ma’arat Al Artiq — five towns northwest of Aleppo positioned along roads leading into insurgent-held northern and eastern parts of Aleppo city.

One of most powerful concentrations of forces loyal to the regime of Pres. Bashar Al Assad launched an offensive against ISIS in southeastern Aleppo governorate. Theses pro-Al Assad forces include private military companies such as Liwa Suqour As Sahra and Liwa Dir As Sahel, sectarian militias such as the Liwa Nussr Az Zawba’a and Quwwat Al Galilee and also a unit of Hezbollah from Lebanon.
Their operation aims to recover Tabqa Air Base and perhaps also reach the city of Raqqah, capitol of the province of same name.

Finally, a mix of Iranian Republican Guard Corps-controlled units, primarily consisting of Iraqi Shi’a militias such as Harakat An Nujba, Katayb Hezbollah, and Assaib Ahl Al Haqq — at least the last two of which are operating Russian-made T-90 main battle tanks acquired by the IRGC early this year — is running its own campaign against Syrian insurgents and foreign jihadists of the Jaysh Al Fateh coalition, or JAF, in southern Aleppo.

Instead of deploying their air power in support of loyalist- and IRGC-controlled ground forces, the Russians did nothing as the JAF — which is including the main group of Jabhat Al Nusra units in northern Syria — concentrated several brigade-size formations supported by dozens of tanks, armored fighting vehicles and heavy artillery in southern Aleppo, in early June 2016. They didn’t move even when jihadists — supported by several Syrian insurgent units — assaulted IRGC’s positions east of Khan Touman, captured half a dozen of villages and strongpoints and inflicted hundreds of casualties
Instead, the IRGC was forced to rush reinforcements from Iran, and even request help from Damascus, which reacted by re-deploying units from quiet front lines in southern Syria.
Ever since, repeated counterattacks of IRGC-controlled troops are all repulsed by the JAF, but Russians are still not moving. The VKS continues its campaign in western Aleppo as if there were no battlefield in southern Aleppo. Indeed, it even found an opportunity to fly several air strikes against villages in northern Aleppo that U.S.- and Turkish-supported Syrian insurgents had liberated from ISIS only few days ago.

Syrian journalist Eyad al-Hosain, who is embedded with the army, wrote on his Facebook page that even if special forces "retreat for hours they will come back." He added that after two days of fierce battles, the army had to withdraw from "some" of the positions it captured recently.
Al-Hosain added that the march toward Tabqa is ongoing but will take on "new dimensions," without elaborating.
The Observatory said 40 troops were killed over the past two days, raising to 93 the number of troops killed since the offensive began. It added that 126 IS militants have been killed in the area so far, including 21 since Sunday.
The Observatory said IS has brought reinforcements of some 300 fighters from the city of Raqqa.

Vann7 wrote:................
None of this will be happening if MR PUTIN had proper airforce backing people in the ground
in the RAQQA offensive. and the Syrian army is using NOT using obsolete T-55s . to face suicide bombers armed cars full of TNT. All this casualties could have been avoided had Russia properly armed Syrian ARmy ,or at least had enough Airforce there to bomb the hell of terrorist. but it looks the Russia Airforce split from side to side and and is never all the time in any front line.  
.....................

Vann7 wrote:.........
And NATO special forces are in Northen Syria US ,France and UK ,close to RAQQA. about 50km or less of Syrian Army positions ,ie. withing range Artillery. So i will not be surprised US special forces are fighting with ISIS.  Veterans Today reported one incident that Hezbolah fighters captured an American SF fighting with ISIS arrested.
...............

Vann7 wrote:............
Where are the Russian drones?
Where are the Iranian Drones?
Where is the artillery backup?
Why no T-72s in the Raqqa offensive ,Russia have more than 5,000 of them. ?
Where is the Russian Airforce backing the RAqqa offensive ?

None of this loses of ground will be possible with a strong Airforce covering SAA advance in
RAQQA. or at least a dozen of T-72s with auto targeting . Terrorist always use the same tactics of very fast suicide bombers attacks followed by a wave of terrorist on fast pickups with heavy machine guns.  Terrorist use lighting speed attacks with lots of suicide bombers  and a t-55 or a pickup civilian truck is not the correct military hardware to face that.............

Vann7 wrote:.............
Why no T-72s in the Raqqa offensive ,Russia have more than 5,000 of them. ?
............

We have so many soldiers tied up in rural Damascus. If we captured the East Ghouta and Darayya; it would free-up 10k-15k soldiers.

Dima wrote:Russia is not yet ready (say so?) to sell them aircrafts due to some stupid sanctions.

The Pentagon reported details of 16 air strikes in Syria and 18 in Iraq.

Strikes in Syria

Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed three ISIS oil well heads.
Near Raqqah, three strikes struck two ISIS-used bridges and an ISIS staging area.
Near Ayn Isa, a strike destroyed two ISIS rocket systems.
Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike struck an ISIS tactical unit.
Near Manbij, nine strikes struck nine separate ISIS tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIS fighting positions and an ISIS vehicle.
Near Mara, a strike destroyed an ISIS vehicle and an ISIS heavy machine gun.

Strikes in Iraq

Near Baghdad, two strikes struck an ISIS beddown facility and an ISIS staging area and destroyed an ISIS bunker.
Near Beiji, two strikes struck two separate ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS fighting position, three ISIS vehicles, an ISIS heavy machine gun, an ISIS recoilless rifle and an ISIS mortar system.
Near Fallujah, four strikes struck three separate ISIS tactical units and destroyed 22 ISIS fighting positions, two ISIS vehicles, 10 ISIS heavy machine guns, seven ISIS light machine guns, an ISIS recoilless rifle, three ISIS rocket-propelled-grenade systems and an ISIS vehicle-borne bomb and denied ISIS access to terrain.
Near Kisik, a strike struck an ISIS tactical unit and an ISIS assembly area.
Near Mosul, a strike struck an ISIS oil headquarters.
Near Qayyarah, five strikes struck an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed three ISIS mortar systems, an ISIS assembly area, an ISIS weapons cache and an ISIS command-and-control node and denied ISIS access to terrain.
Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS fighting position, an ISIS vehicle, an ISIS vehicle-borne bomb, an ISIS boat and an ISIS light machine gun and damaged a separate ISIS boat.
Near Tal Afar, a strike struck two separate ISIS foreign fighter command posts.

http://timesofsandiego.com/military/2016/06/19/with-miramar-marines-in-the-fight-34-isis-targets-hit-on-saturday/

calm wrote:

Russia-Iran

Instead of deploying their air power in support of loyalist- and IRGC-controlled ground forces, the Russians did nothing as the JAF — which is including the main group of Jabhat Al Nusra units in northern Syria — concentrated several brigade-size formations supported by dozens of tanks, armored fighting vehicles and heavy artillery in southern Aleppo, in early June 2016. They didn’t move even when jihadists — supported by several Syrian insurgent units — assaulted IRGC’s positions east of Khan Touman, captured half a dozen of villages and strongpoints and inflicted hundreds of casualties
Instead, the IRGC was forced to rush reinforcements from Iran, and even request help from Damascus, which reacted by re-deploying units from quiet front lines in southern Syria.
Ever since, repeated counterattacks of IRGC-controlled troops are all repulsed by the JAF, but Russians are still not moving. The VKS continues its campaign in western Aleppo as if there were no battlefield in southern Aleppo. Indeed, it even found an opportunity to fly several air strikes against villages in northern   Aleppo that U.S.- and Turkish-supported Syrian insurgents had liberated from ISIS only few days ago.

Russia-Iran-Syria
Moscow apparently remains insistent on its own, limited — though much more realistic — aims in this war, primarily related to securing the survival of Al Assad’s regime.
By contrast, Damascus and Tehran remain insistent on their own, less-realistic aims. Top Iranian leaders — including Dehghan — are proclaiming their intention to “liberate” all of Aleppo governorate, while Al Assad is publicly announcing a “liberation of every inch of Syria” as his new war objective.
Obviously, only time will tell which of the three governments is right. But under the current conditions, any kind of a durable ceasefire in Syria is an illusion — and something like peace is completely out of the question.
https://warisboring.com/russia-syria-and-iran-have-made-a-mess-of-their-military-alliance-af5e0db30164#.ffnpzkwnn


Eyad al-Hosain report...

Syrian journalist Eyad al-Hosain, who is embedded with the army, wrote on his Facebook page that even if special forces "retreat for hours they will come back." He added that after two days of fierce battles, the army had to withdraw from "some" of the positions it captured recently.
Al-Hosain added that the march toward Tabqa is ongoing but will take on "new dimensions," without elaborating.
The Observatory said 40 troops were killed over the past two days, raising to 93 the number of troops killed since the offensive began. It added that 126 IS militants have been killed in the area so far, including 21 since Sunday.
The Observatory said IS has brought reinforcements of some 300 fighters from the city of Raqqa.

Dima wrote:Considering there is absolutely no staging ground for helos nearby

sepheronx wrote:What loss of Ka-52's? You are trolling pretty hard there Kilo

sepheronx wrote:No Ka-52 was lost.  Point it out to me please.  I read through Keypub forums and of course no thing is being pandered off.  Neither anywhere else.  If you mean the airbase strike, there wasn't even Ka-52's being mentioned there either.

Mass loss of Ka-52's in your quote is absolutely trolling.

sepheronx wrote:Yes, dig it up.  You are referring to that airbase attack? The ones with Mi-24's and Mi-8's and a MiG-25?  No, there wasn't any Ka-52's as it was a Syrian airfield.

KiloGolf wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Yes, dig it up. You are referring to that airbase attack? The ones with Mi-24's and Mi-8's and a MiG-25? No, there wasn't any Ka-52's as it was a Syrian airfield.

Oh so that's your take on it. Fair enough.
Probably all of this has to do with the disappearance of Ka-52s from Syria on those days as well.

sepheronx wrote:Its not my take on it.  Go ahead and post it.  It was discussed here by people far more intelligent on the matters than either you or I.  Too bad one of those guys decided to leave this forums.  I cant say I blame him though.  This place has been flooded with far too many trolls.

KiloGolf wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Yes, dig it up.  You are referring to that airbase attack? The ones with Mi-24's and Mi-8's and a MiG-25?  No, there wasn't any Ka-52's as it was a Syrian airfield.

Oh so that's your take on it. Fair enough.
Probably all of this has to do with the disappearance of Ka-52s from Syria on those days as well.

So you going to post same thing about lack of Mi-28's as well?  Guess you are trolling pretty hard.  Not surprising really.

sepheronx wrote:http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?136371-Russia-moving-tac-air-troops-to-Syria&p=2315027#post2315027

Last time Ka-52 was spotted was in Tartous
https://www.russiadefence.net/t5141p475-russian-military-involvement-and-aid-to-syria-9#164029

and discussion of this:

https://www.russiadefence.net/t5141p525-russian-military-involvement-and-aid-to-syria-9#164738

and it was denied:
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160524/1040164121/russia-syria-airbase-hmeymim.html

So as I said earlier, don't troll on this.

sepheronx wrote:Yes please do.  And next time when making wild accusations, please use citation.

KiloGolf wrote:.............

Russia doesn't deliver warplanes to Syria, it's also their fault.

PapaDragon wrote:

KiloGolf wrote:.............

Russia doesn't deliver warplanes to Syria, it's also their fault.

Well I can't really blame Russians for not wanting to deliver aircrafts to Syrians.

They want to export those things. How can they expect to sell any if everyone sees their burnt wrecks all over the news just because they were flown by bunch of incompetent morons?