Syrian Civil War: News #8

GunshipDemocracy wrote:

d_taddei2 wrote: yeah true but i knew these were already present in Syria. But i wonder if there is other countries willing to join the battle, Algerian's, Europeans etc, we have after seen Europeans fight alongside the Kurds battling ISIS.

Depends how you define Europeans. Most of ISIS fighters are from UK/France/Belgium Month ago or so. I have listened to the radio while driving and professor of sociology was trying to explain what attracts young Arabs from EU. oops young radical Europeans right?  to fight for ISIS: in plain English: lack of qualifications to have job, no perspectives to live on desired level but also not much desire to work and learn, desire to have sex slaves and shoot to show they are not jerks in society but powerful fighters...

Yeah it seems ISIS have many Europeans willing to join its ranks, and like i said even Europeans have been joining the Kurds some british born minor celebrity even went to join the Kurds, and it seems even doorman are willing to fight ISIS lol. see links below.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/21/british-bouncer-heads-to-iraq-to-join-fight-against-isis-5073476/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074978/Hollywood-s-Jihadi-Hunter-action-British-actor-seen-movies-killing-fields-deadly-war-hero-fool-Read-amazing-story-decide.html

and this is just a glance of whats out there so why shouldnt people join to fight with the SAA, even if it was just to fight ISIS, after all it is surely better to fight for the legit government.

d_taddei2 wrote:

franco wrote:

d_taddei2 wrote:

franco wrote:

sepheronx wrote:Does the SAA ever dig themselves in, in captured territory? Why I ask is that the SAA retreats quite often with little fight.  Wouldn't it be ideal to entrench themselves after capturing a village or town, in expectations they will get hit hard by ISIS or AQ group?

1 - it is a tactic of the SAA to seize ground, allow the opposition to group forces together to retake and then inflict heavy causalities on them when they do attack by use of artillery and air power while suffering as few as possible themselves.
2 - SAA is very weak in manpower. They told the Russians they had 130,000 troops ready for offensive action but when the Russians arrived they found there was only about 20% that total. A good example was the assault on Qaryatayn for which the SAA sent 3 brigades with a grand total of 4,000 soldiers. On paper each brigade should have 3,500 soldiers so they are running units at less then 40% manpower.
3 - morale, leadership, equipment, logistics, training of the mainly conscript army is also very weak. Only the Republican Guard brigades (6 of which 2 protect Government in Damascus), Marines and the Tiger force (2 brigade size) are close to where they should be. The West thought Assad would be finished by the years end before the Russians intervened.  

I wonder how much interest there would be for foreign fighters from other countries willing to fight for the Syrian Government. The Kurds seemed to have some appeal to foreign fighters to fight ISIS, maybe the Syrian Government could do the same even if its just to help fight ISIS on SAA fronts. I think they could get around 3,000 volunteers from around the world, although admittedly it never looks good for any government to allow foreign fighters to fight for them, and then there various governments who would ban the fighters from returning to their country. Its just a thought.

There are foreign volunteers fighting in Syria. Lebanese Hezbollah, Lebanese Socialist Party, Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranians and Afghani's. More to do with religious issues as these groups are Shiite Moslem's doing battle against Sunni Islamist either ISIS or non ISIS. How many is open to conjuncture and covers a broad range. My guess would be 10-15,000.

yeah true but i knew these were already present in Syria. But i wonder if there is other countries willing to join the battle, Algerian's, Europeans etc, we have after seen Europeans fight alongside the Kurds battling ISIS.

Again more of a Sunni > Shi'ite thing. There have been a few Christians fighting for the Christian militias supporting Assad.

Looks like the al Castillo road is finally cut. Video of road at link

Around 06:00 hours local time terrorists led by the group who call themselves "Nour al-Deen al-Zinki" took advantage of the Syrian Army General Command's 72 hours ceasefire orders and launched an attack on the Syrian Arab Army's units in Northern Aleppo's countryside, aiming to secure more points and secure al-Castello road, their last route into and out from Aleppo.

However, the units of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces known as "Tiger Forces" led by Commander Colonel Suhail al-Hassan had different plans for them. The troops were anticipating their attack based on information from the Syrian Army Intelligence operatives, and managed to completely foil it. Then launched a counter offensive aiming to completely cutoff al-Castillo highway (road) the last terrorists

Our reports from there indicate that the Al-Castillo Highway has been cutoff by the Tiger Forces of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces.

Making the terrorists inside Aleppo completely surrounded and under siege.

More information from the battlefield when available.

Syrian Arab Army

https://www.facebook.com/syrianmilitary/videos/1081336741947707/

Difficult to keep tough decisions under wraps.

American warplanes were diverted from an offensive launched against the Islamic State last week by U.S.-backed rebels in Syria in order to bomb a more enticing target in Iraq, withdrawing air support at a critical moment and contributing to the failure of the rebel operation, according to U.S. officials familiar with the incident.

Aircraft assigned to provide cover for the offensive, launched June 28 to capture the eastern Syrian town of Bukamal, were ordered in the middle of the operation to leave the area and head instead to the outskirts of Fallujah, in neighboring Iraq, the officials said.

A large convoy of Islamic State fighters had been seen trying to escape across the desert after the city was recaptured by the Iraqi army, and U.S. commanders decided that the convoy represented a “strategic target,” said Col. Chris Garver, a U.S. military spokesman.

The convoy was destroyed by the U.S. and British planes along with gunships and aircraft from the Iraqi air force, which began striking the long line of Islamic State vehicles before the U.S. Air Force arrived. Hundreds of Islamic State fighters were killed and scores of their vehicles were destroyed in one of the more spectacular single assaults against the militants in the nearly two-year-old war against them.

By that time, however, the fighters of the Pentagon-trained New Syrian Army were in retreat, beaten back by the Islamic State to their desert base more than 200 miles away at Tanf, on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The failure of the operation was a significant blow to the Pentagon’s Syria strategy of building a Syrian Arab force capable of taking on the Islamic State.

Extract from quite a long article at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/07/06/u-s-jets-abandoned-syrian-rebels-in-the-desert-then-they-lost-a-battle-to-isis/?postshare=1921467888129128&tid=ss_tw

An unknown number of German and Canadian troops have recently arrived in the northern Syrian town of Tell Abyad in the northern Raqqa province, sources told Sputnik on Thursday.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The military service personnel were deployed to the area in the past few days as part of the US-led international operation to defeat Daesh terrorist group.

Syrian television reported last month that Germany’s commandos had entered Syria to join French and US military forces in their offensive against the Daesh-controlled city of Manbij.

Manbij, located between Daesh's de facto capital of Raqqa and the Syrian-Turkish border, is a strategically important area for the terrorist group.

http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20160707/1042582066/german-canadian-troops-raqqa.html

New Peto map, don't think its been posted before. This is subject to the earlier news being correct.

Look at those people, they they can't wait for nusra to "liberate" them...




In photos: President Assad visits wounded soldiers in Syria’s Homs

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/president-assad-visits-wounded-soldiers-syrias-homs/ | Al-Masdar News

Syrian Army takes control of cliff/hill which overlooks Castello Road. 400m left until Aleppo is encircled

An interesting analysis of recent SAM success against the SyAF. Although from WiB apart from the Mi-25 instead of Mi-24 typo it seems OK to me.

https://warisboring.com/syrian-rebel-missileers-are-wreaking-havoc-on-bashar-al-assads-air-force-f384df34c205#.ug3u1mn0e

This clearly shows the dangers of running the gauntlet of the now exposed Aleppo supply road

JohninMK wrote:This clearly shows the dangers of running the gauntlet of the now exposed Aleppo supply road

An MBT got it?

Doesnt look it was a kornet. was too fast ,Looks more like direct heavy fire. like a cannon. looks like it was anti tank direct artillery. ALeppo was officially closed since it was withing kornet range 5km. But they still could try and enter and have some luck at night. now the hit was from the very same road they were. a perfect ambush. Don't think any other terrorist will want to try
again. they should mine the entire road.

[quote="Zivo"]

JohninMK wrote:This clearly shows the dangers of running the gauntlet of the now exposed Aleppo supply road

An MBT got it?

Looks like a truck going as fast as it can. After the explosion it heads away from the camera whilst its load spills out towards the camera. Looks like pallets or boxes/cases of something.

a must see interview.. Reflections of Syrian war ,
by American Senator Richard Black..



The video needs to be make Viral.

Zivo wrote:

JohninMK wrote:This clearly shows the dangers of running the gauntlet of the now exposed Aleppo supply road

An MBT got it?

Nope short shot with ATGM, you can see trail before contact. If it was HE-FRAG from tank you'd hear a loud thump (cannon fire and hit).

Rebel infantry section taken out by artillery in N. Aleppo.

KoTeMoRe wrote:

Nope short shot with ATGM, you can see trail before contact. If it was HE-FRAG from tank you'd hear a loud thump (cannon fire and hit).

It still looks like a gun to me.

at least ~100 people in the congress , oppose the American war against Assad and Syria..
how many more need?




In more news..
it looks that the Syrian army successful offensive in aleppo castillo road ,closing the gate ,really put a major pressure and pain on the rebels. to the point that they are now sending everything
they have to reopen the road ,and fight in the open the Syrian army , and doing very desperate moves.. almasdar news is reporting more than 100 rebel terrorist killed in 40 hours in fighting
and without any progress. they also trying to open the siege in other parts without success.

when it comes to latakkia the fight there is more harder apparently. no advance there. with terrorist giving a lot of throuble to the syrian army there. saw a video of the terrorist in latakia and many of them look asians , perhaps the famous muslins from china.

two interesting videos.. of two major failures in aleppo, one long version of castillo offensive of rebels. and another video of rebels caught by surprise in a tunnel.



Video: Desperate rebel offensive in Aleppo Citadel region ends disastrously

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/rebel/


VIDEO: Islamist insurgents go all in to reopen vital Aleppo supply road

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/video-islamist-insurgents-go-reopen-vital-aleppo-supply-road/

Allepo .. closed to Jihadis..

More loses for Rebels today in Aleppo.. It truly feels they in desperate frustration mode now.

Leith Abou Fadel ‏@leithfadel  2h2 hours ago
Holy hell: what a turnaround in Aleppo City today! Terrorists launched an offensive and then ended up losing ground!

and video explosion of the week.

Syrian army destroys fuel truck for jihadists in north As-Suwayda CS




advances in Damascus front too ,half of daraya controlled now by Government reported.
So looks like another good day.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/video-syrian-army-tank-takes-direct-hit-islamist-insurgents-aleppo-city/

Syrian Army tank takes direct hit from Islamist insurgents in Aleppo city

the news story states its not clear if the tank was destroyed or not, i think its pretty clear from the picture in the article that the tank is fine and the ERA did its job, this tank and crew will fight another day.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/turkey-restore-normal-relations-syria-pm/

Turkey to restore “normal relations” with Syria

The Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yıldırım, said during a press conference on Wednesday that his government is seeking to normalize relations with Syria in order to combat terrorism in the region. Yildirim did not go into specifics; however, this announcement comes just two weeks after the Russian and Turkish governments restored diplomatic relations. In early April, Algerian sources reported that the Syrian and Turkish governments were secretly negotiating in Algiers to restore diplomatic ties and handle Kurdish federalism in northern Syria.
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http://russia-insider.com/en/end-regime-change-ambitions-turkey-says-will-restore-normal-relations-syria/ri15589