Syrian War: News #14

franco wrote:It will be tough going to clear ISIS out of the mountains;

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/pictures-isis-ready-fight-last-man-besieged-aleppo-pocket-map-update/

How long can these maggots hold out without supplies of food and water? One can survive for so only long by drinking ones own piss and eating the corpses of your own dead....

Zakharova: Propaganda campaign on ‘Damascus using chemical weapons’ is launched

https://www.rt.com/news/394986-propaganda-campaign-damascus-chemical/

Perhaps now we know why there were those stories about a Russian convoy in Afrin

Syrian Civil War Map‏ @CivilWarMap 3h3 hours ago

Russian Generals and Soldiers visited the "Graveyard of Martyrs" in Afrin today

The Syrian No-Fly Zone is being successful:

- There is some attack of Israel but without crossing the borders of the occupied territory in the Golan.
- The maritime patrol aircrafts are not entering the Syrian territory.
- In the rest I do not see real reports of activity to the West of the Euphrates.

Every time a fast presence of the Be-12 (and the AT-T) in Syria seems likelier to me. Maybe under Russian flag for maritime patrol around the Russian bases, or maybe under Syrian flag (like the AT-T) to ground work (like France did with the Breguet Atlantique 2).

The'Nimr'Tiger @Souria4Syrians 20h20 hours ago

After defeating ISIS the Syrian Army now controls the MOST territory in #Aleppo governorate overtaking YPG and FSA/AQ jihadists

Rats leaving the sinking Raqqa ship the only way they can, over the river. Do they then escape through SDF lines or die in South Raqqa?





Why isn't or didn't the Coalition bombing or shelling those landing points on the north and south banks of the river? There does not appear to be any cratering at all.



Mind you they could be old pictures as the SDF are supposed to own the south bank according to this. EDIT Photos 11th June

Russia, the SAA and Allies need to hurry up and get to Deir Ezzor, WTF is Russia, SAA and Allies doing. Get to Deir Ezzor and take the area surrounding it.


https://southfront.org/us-led-coalition-airdrop-militants-tanf-al-shaddadi-aims-seize-border-area-media/

par far wrote:Russia, the SAA and Allies need to hurry up and get to Deir Ezzor, WTF is Russia, SAA and Allies doing. Get to Deir Ezzor and take the area surrounding it.


https://southfront.org/us-led-coalition-airdrop-militants-tanf-al-shaddadi-aims-seize-border-area-media/

This move was reported about a week ago and 100 terrorists, sorry FSA soldiers, are not going to make a big impact.

If you have a plan to get to Deir faster than the MoD in Moscow's current plan, perhaps you ought to email it to them or volunteer to go and help them in the desert.

Although it seems the ceasefire does involve Israel who keep attacking syrian troops really wish their aircraft would be shot down. Israel seems to think it can do whatever it wants and the sad thing is the do and nobody actually does anything including Palestine bombing etc. Starting to get annoyed with there bombing

par far wrote:Russia, the SAA and Allies need to hurry up and get to Deir Ezzor, WTF is Russia, SAA and Allies doing. Get to Deir Ezzor and take the area surrounding it.


https://southfront.org/us-led-coalition-airdrop-militants-tanf-al-shaddadi-aims-seize-border-area-media/

Air dropped means , they only carry light weapons.. so will be tough for them to stop
and advance of tanks and artillery. Aside any base between IRAQ and Syria will be
next to useless since Syrian army can mix with the IRAQ army and both can enter in
both sides of the border and encircle any fake "training base" created by Americans
anywhere along the Syrian-IRAQ border.  So no matter which position they try to capture
it will be encircled ,and will not have water or electricity or supplies. It will be really tough
to hold any place in the desert.

It will also be difficult to defend ,flying from jordan , if the Syrian army is mixed with IRAQ
army. they can't bomb Syria military if they are with Iraq military. So to try to close the border
of IRAQ to Syria is not possible ,since they already are connected. US military will have to bomb Syrian-IRAQ army positions non stop for hours to make them abandon their own border.
US will need no less than a thousand soldiers ,at least boots in the ground to push Syria army away of IRAQ border.

WHat Syria needs to do is Ask IRAN to send 5,000 more soldiers , then they deployed in Mosul
to replace IRAQUI forces.. and then 5000 IRAQUI forces moved to Syria to help wipe ISIS.
Because ISIS in IRAQ is only in defensive position ,it can't advance anywhere. is very weak there. Once eastern Syrian desert cleared and south of Syria , Syrian army can move to IDLIB
and kick Turkey army from there. but that will be the last battle of all. and can only happen
when Syria is strong enough and solidified positions across all Syria first. and got major hundred of thousands reinforcements.

Desert Hawks just received T-90As, T-72B3s (8 pieces), Tigr MRAPs (15 pieces) and BMPT

Photos in links:

http://gurkhan.blogspot.rs/2017/07/blog-post_3.html
http://gurkhan.blogspot.rs/2017/07/8-723-15.html

Interesting take if true. Could be just another warmup for a gas attack. No mention of the effect on the Kurds. This could be seen as an Afrin green light by Erdogan.

And so, three months after the US State Department famously flip-flopped, when first at the end of March Rex Tillerson said at a news conference that “the longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people" adding that "our priority is no longer to sit and focus on getting Assad out" only to follow one week later with Tillerson's warning to Russia that "coalition steps are underway to remove Assad" which in turn segued into the first US attack on Syrian soil with the launch of no less than 59 cruise missiles, the US has done it again and according to Foreign Policy, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has once again told the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that the fate of Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad now lies in the hands of Russia, and that the Trump administration’s priority is limited to defeating the Islamic State.

The striking reversal was announced during a private State Department meeting last week, according to three diplomatic sources cited by FP.

And, as FP adds, "the remarks offer the latest stop on a bumpy U.S. policy ride that has left international observers with a case of diplomatic whiplash as they try to figure out whether the Trump administration will insist that Assad step down from power. Nearly three months ago, Tillerson had insisted that Assad would have to leave office because of his alleged use of chemical weapons."

The news, which will again be met with an angry response by neocons like John McCain - as happened in March - signaled the Trump administration’s increasing willingness to let Russia take the driver’s seat in Syria. Tillerson also signaled that U.S. military action against Assad’s forces in recent months is intended to achieve only limited tactical goals–deterring future chemical weapons attacks and protecting U.S. backed-forces fighting the Islamic State in Syria–not weakening the Assad government or strengthening the opposition’s negotiating leverage.

And a startling admission by the website owned by the Slate Group:

Tillerson’s position reflects a recognition that Syria’s government, backed by Russia and Iran, is emerging as the likely political victor in the country’s six year long civil war. It also marks a further retreat from the 2012 U.N.-brokered Geneva Communique — signed by Russia, the United States, and other key powers — which called for the establishment of a transitional government with members of the regime and the opposition. The Geneva pact, according to the Obama administration and other Western allies, was to result in Assad’s departure from power.

When asked for a comment, a State Department official insisted that the U.S. remains “committed to the Geneva process” and supports a “credible political process that can resolve the question of Syria’s future. Ultimately, this process, in our view, will lead to a resolution of Assad’s status.” He added that "The Syrian people should determine their country’s political future through a political process."

The decision to cede ground to Russia on the question of Assad’s future comes on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first face-to-face meeting next week with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. It also comes at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to repair relations with the Kremlin despite a series of scandals that have plagued the White House since Trump’s election.


Tillerson said earlier this month that Trump tasked him with repairing the broken U.S.-Russia relationship. The secretary of state has also cautioned Congress that new sanctions against Russia for its alleged role in interfering in the U.S. election could undercut efforts to cooperate with Moscow on Syria.

And this is the part the neocons will hate the most:

Tillerson made clear to Guterres that the U.S. was once again shifting gears. “What happens to Assad is Russia’s issue, not the U.S. government’s,” one source said Tillerson told the U.N. chief in last week’s meeting. Tillerson’s message, the official added, was that “the U.S. government will respond to the terrorist threat,” but that it is largely agnostic about “whether Assad goes or stays.”

Tillerson’s retreat suggests the State Department is willing to skirt the ethical morass of what to do about the Assad regime as it navigates the dense thicket of conflicting alliances fighting in Syria.

“The reason the United States is involved in Syria is to take out ISIS,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters Wednesday. “That’s why we care and that’s why we are there.” Fred Hof, former State Department special advisor for transition in Syria, called the Trump administration’s stance on Russia in Syria “confusing.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-03/tillerson-russia-should-decide-assads-fate#comment-9824543

The 3* I/C Syria/Iraq said last week

Gen. Townsend promoted a young officer to first lieutenant on Wednesday — and he acknowledged to CBS News that U.S. troops won’t be leaving Syria any time soon.

“I think U.S. troops will start leaving Syria when ISIS is defeated,” Townsend said.

But will ISIS turn into an insurgency when they’ve lost all their territory?

“I think that’s the next stage of ISIS,” Townsend said.

“We call that ISIS 2.0 — an insurgency, rural. So I think we’ll still be here dealing with that problem set for a while.”

JohninMK wrote:.....

   But will ISIS turn into an insurgency when they’ve lost all their territory?

   “I think that’s the next stage of ISIS,” Townsend said.

   “We call that ISIS 2.0 — an insurgency, rural. So I think we’ll still be here dealing with that problem set for a while.”

So they are volunteering to have their troops drive around countryside and get routinely blown to bits by IEDs?

Didn't they have enough of this in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Better them than someone else I guess but still an epically stupid approach... then again, it won't be politician's or general's kids driving around will they?

Getting to the tough part now, the real 'fight to the death and take as many as I can with me' hardcore in prepared positions in a medieval town. SDF casualties could mount up.

Hope their plan to save the architecture works.



Looks like it could be here



Syrian Civil War Map‏ @CivilWarMap

Syrian Democratic Forces captured the "Palace of the Maidens" and Abdul Malik School in the Old City of Raqqa.

Turkey raised the Turkish flag in Syria without permission obviously.

https://syria.liveuamap.com/en/2017/4-july-turkish-army-raised-turkish-flag-2-days-ago-only-1km

JohninMK wrote:

Map updated like the rest of the sources some days later, without reports of fighting in the area these days.

Ivan Sidorenko‏ @IvanSidorenko1 2h2 hours ago

#Syria #DeirEzZor A Ilyushin cargo plane dropped umbrellas of food weighing 21 tons for the besieged eastern neighborhoods in #DeirEzZor

Action hotting up, military and political.

Hassan Ridha‏ @sayed_ridha 19m19 minutes ago

East Palmyra: Clashes and shelling around al-Hayl gas field as the Syrian Army & allies advance from the west, south and south-east

Hassan Ridha‏ @sayed_ridha 1h1 hour ago

FSA in southern Syria launch new offensive dubbed "al-Saff al-Wahed" (United Line) against IS in Yarmouk Basin, south-west Daraa countryside

Hassan Ridha‏ @sayed_ridha 3h3 hours ago

Negotiations ongoing between Gov & Opp representatives in East Qalamoun regarding reconciliation in Jayroud, East Damascus

Also

Ivan Sidorenko‏ @IvanSidorenko1 7h7 hours ago

#Iraq - #Syrian / #Iraqi - #Syrian BORDER : Full Report - #PMU #PMF Repel WIDE Range #ISIS #Daesh offensive from 3 axes towards Tel Saffuq

A proper technical in Syria, made by Land Rover

This is clearly why the US is moving FSA units by air from al-Tanf

Abu Yacoub, political adviser of the Free Syrian Army-linked US-backed terrorist group Revolutionary Commando Army, has said the international US-led “anti-ISIS” coalition has plans to establish a new military base for the Revolutionary Commando Army in Shaddadi area of the northwestern Syrian province of Hasakeh.

In an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad, Abu Yacoub stated that the purpose of the latest transfer of troops from Revolutionary Commando Army to the province of of Deir Ez Zour is to take complete control of Deir Ez Zour city, where Syrian Army is currently fighting fierce battles with ISIS terrorists.

Currently, Revolutionary Commando Army controls Al Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq, while the new base would help it to take complete control over strategically important area between Al Shaddadi in Hasakeh provicne and Deir Ez Zour.

The choice of Shaddadi area to establish a military base, was mostly made due for its proximity to the oil fields in Deir Ez Zour province.

Al Shadadi base will reportedly be the third base for Revolutionary Commando Army in Syria, after the two bases, previously established in Al Tanf and Zakaf, located in the distance of about 70 kilometers to each other, alongside the Syrian-Iraqi border.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/07/desperate-with-syrian-armys-victories.html

WOW

UK Delegation OPCW‏ @UK_OPCW 2h2 hours ago

In #OPCW mtg on chem weapon use in Syria. Russia agrees that sarin or sarin-like substance used. Says no grounds to disbelieve OPCW finding.