Syrian Civil War: News #8

Rebels capture Kinsibba in Lattakia province
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/rebels-capture-kinsibba-lattakia-province/

3 tanks captured by militants， some of them clearly Asian，after the takeover of Kinsabba #Latakia #Syria



Many people/commanders on d ground I spoke to in #Syria blame #Russia. I don't agree. No #SAA will to hold the ground
I know that some #SAA commanders does not listen recommendations of Russian advisers and fight only if they want.
and advisors said them "OK.You can fight as you like,but without our help.It's not child's game I want /I don't want"

Rebels captured multiple weapons in #Kinsabba.

Reportedly, long time Russia enemy Uzbekistan already sent 8000 Uzbeks to Syria via Turkey to kill Russians. Hunt down these bastards who went to Syria to kill Russians.

https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/4qqytj/uzbeks_in_north_syria/

NEW MAP: #FSA and their allies from #Nusra/#AlQaeda recaptured #Kinsibba and sev. other villages in #Latakia. #Syria

https://twitter.com/PetoLucem/status/749514044911017984?lang=sr

#IS claim control of Jabal Aqra, Jabal Um Saraj, Khirbet al-Roos, Jub al-'Ashra, Khirbet al-'Ashra, al-Ni'amiyah, Qar'ah al-Kabirah & Nahed

Syrian Army liberates five villages from ISIS in eastern Homs

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-liberates-five-villages-isis-eastern-homs/ | Al-Masdar News

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?

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.

Is there any plan for increasing sizes of the forces that matter like Tiger or Falcon? What about additional training for SAA from Russia or other countries? I imagine that training is absolute nothing now for them as they are fodder. As well, I see a lot of T-55's. What about other tanks such as T-62's?

There obviously needs work to be done to get the SAA in better fighting condition and more capable.

sepheronx wrote:Is there any plan for increasing sizes of the forces that matter like Tiger or Falcon? What about additional training for SAA from Russia or other countries?  I imagine that training is absolute nothing now for them as they are fodder. As well, I see a lot of T-55's.  What about other tanks such as T-62's?

There obviously needs work to be done to get the SAA in better fighting condition and more capable.

Russia does not train more SAA under the peace agreement with the Americans. One of the points of the agreements is neither side can be strengthened to take advantage of the ceasefire. Of course, Russia self imposes this because Americans have no need to honor a verbal agreement just like Reagan did not with Gorbachev. Only Russians honor a verbal agreement.

sepheronx wrote:Is there any plan for increasing sizes of the forces that matter like Tiger or Falcon? What about additional training for SAA from Russia or other countries?  I imagine that training is absolute nothing now for them as they are fodder. As well, I see a lot of T-55's.  What about other tanks such as T-62's?

There obviously needs work to be done to get the SAA in better fighting condition and more capable.

There is a 6 point plan of action to improve the SAA. Goggled but found nothing. Key points were if memory serves correctly;

- recovery and repair of equipment
- logistics chain
- communications
- unit training
- operational command & control

Can't remember any others but there are lots of advisors now working with the SAA. Both Russians and Iranians.

As for increasing sizes of those units, I suspect they are hard pressed to maintain their present levels due to their heavier combat actions. And as the media is constantly pointing out, 80% of refugees are fighting age males.

Erdogan gives Turkish citizenship to Syrian refugees on the condition they go back to Syria and annex Syria. Modern invasion is not declared. It is evil.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/erdogan-syrian-refugees-turkish-citizens-160703133739430.html

Many Russians are traitors and kiss America's ass. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the strategy America uses to annex Russia. First, start an uprising in Russia by portraying Putin as a dictator who rules for life, and then gives American citizenship to rebels to annex Russia.

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.

d_taddei2 wrote: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.

Longtime enemies of Russia like China and Uzbekistan export fighters to Syria to kill Russians all the time. China exports Uyghurs and Uzbekistan exports, well, Uzbeks. Already more than 8,000 Uzbeks have gone to Syria to kill Russians.

https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/4qqytj/uzbeks_in_north_syria/

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.

The Syrian Marines, backed by the National Defense Forces (‪#‎NDF‬) and Syrian Social Nationalist Party (‪#‎SSNP‬), recaptured the strategic village of ‪#‎Saraf‬ in the northern ‪#‎Latakia‬ countryside after a violent battle with the jihadist rebels. According to a military source in the northern Latakia countryside, the Syrian Armed Forces were able to seize Saraf after the jihadist rebels retreated from the northern peaks of Jabal Turkmen. With Saraf under their control, the Syrian Armed Forces are now within striking distance of the Qal’at Mountains, which are located just south of the Turkish border-crossing. In the coming days, the Syrian Armed Forces are expected to launch a major offensive to recapture several areas from the jihadist rebels of Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group) and Turkmen Islamic

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-recaptures-key-village-northern-latakia/

So it looks the latakia advance of terrorist was halted , with some light advances in every
other front. ie. Aleppo,homs,Damascus. So not a bad day. Major ground offensive being prepared in latakia soon.

Resistance wrote:

d_taddei2 wrote: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.

Longtime enemies of Russia like China and Uzbekistan export fighters to Syria to kill Russians all the time. China exports Uyghurs and Uzbekistan exports, well, Uzbeks. Already more than 8,000 Uzbeks have gone to Syria to kill Russians.

https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/4qqytj/uzbeks_in_north_syria/

i take it you didnt read it very well, i didnt mention foreign fighters fighting on behalf of the rebels but the opposite.

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.

d_taddei2 wrote:

Resistance wrote:

d_taddei2 wrote: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.

Longtime enemies of Russia like China and Uzbekistan export fighters to Syria to kill Russians all the time. China exports Uyghurs and Uzbekistan exports, well, Uzbeks. Already more than 8,000 Uzbeks have gone to Syria to kill Russians.

https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/4qqytj/uzbeks_in_north_syria/

i take it you didnt read it very well, i didnt mention foreign fighters fighting on behalf of the rebels but the opposite.

Don't bother reading him, he is an idiot.

ANNA news covers battle in Laraymoun

I really think Russia needs to use Chemical non lethal weapons in Aleppo. like tear gas in big
concentrations because the whole city is a house by house fight and there are thousands of multilevel buildings and on top of that terrorist dig tunnels under them. Aleppo is not an ideal
place to fight with tanks.. not even for Armata. Because snipers can easily damage the sensors.

And because there are many civilians hosted prisoners ,and mines , then the only way to
fight in Aleppo seems to be on foot ,apartment by apartment ,building by building,and with lots of well armed hellicopters with counter electronic defenses. but tanks definitively will be in a major
disadvantage in such crowded zone of aleppo with buildings.

then you have suicide bombers. that can rush to any position and wipe everyone. a real nightmare. It will be not possible in Aleppo to liberate it without unacceptable casualties,without sacrificing civilians.

So Russia will have to use chemical warfare ,to cause difficulty with vision , using gas mask.
attack at night with silencer weapons, and using night vision. Use the night and stealth attack in all fronts to clear the zone.

Because attacking in the day , on foot , allowing terrorist snipers to shoot you , or worse
suicide bomber on a motocross charge at your position.then you have mines. real nightmare.

any liberation force will have to take down entire buildings and create space, for any advancing force ,so you dont have shooting from all sides and is more predictable.

The alepo super crowded city of tall buildings nullify the advantage of tanks and artillery too.
and airforce too. lol  

another tactic Russia could use is drop a super TNT bomb FOAB and wipe everyone ,
but civilians will have to be sacrificed. If NATO was invading Syria and Russia was not there helping, they will not have much problems. they simply send a B-52 and do carpet bombing in all aleppo , regarless if a million civilians die.

So what makes more difficult the fight in Syria is the the rules that Syria and Russia needs
to follow to avoid major sanctions from US and EUrope.  but also to not provoke Turkey or Israel to invade too.  Defeating the terrorist in reality is easy. what makes complicated the fight is the political correctness of UN and human rights organizations. and the fact that thousands civilians are hostage of the terrorist and used as human shields.

If Russia was allowed to use FOAB bombs..


with a dozen of them ,capture aleppo city in just one day. albeit probably killing
all civilians too. So Russia should try instead non lethal chemical weapons to irritate the
vision of the terrorist.  they even have a weapon that create blindness . Combined with
Sound or microwave guns that China have. will force terrorist to abandon a building if
they aimed with the gun.  ALso attack at nights with silencers in rifles will help. specially if they are deep inside enemy positions.

But all this goes back to the Rules of Engagement imposed on Syria and Russia.
they are not allowed to use American tactics they used in IRAQ ,that encircle faluja
and starve the population and many surrender. Russia and Syria needs to fight clean
under western paid human rights groups. and they want food to be provided to civilians
when wars have not ended. food that ends feeding terrorist too. Because Americans controls
the world banking industry ,and Europe ,which Russia depends for trade , then Russia could
be demanded to hundred of billions dollars in lawsuit of civilians. if clean alepo in a way that cause too many civilians casualties.

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...

d_taddei2 wrote: i take it you didnt read it very well, i didnt mention foreign fighters fighting on behalf of the rebels but the opposite.

he did he is kinda of forum functional illiterate

Vann7 wrote:I really think Russia needs to use Chemical non lethal weapons in Aleppo.

apart of negative PR when Russia would do this easier is just use drones to battle test them.

Vann7 wrote:I really think Russia needs to use Chemical non lethal weapons in Aleppo........tear gas....

Tear gas in large quantities (or anything other than minimum) and especially in closed spaces is still very lethal. Humans need oxygen and being flooded with tear gas gets in the way of breathing.  Had you ever even for a moment been exposed to tear gas you would not be saying these idiocies.

Vann7 wrote:I really think Russia needs to use Chemical non lethal weapons in Aleppo. like tear gas in big
concentrations because the whole city is a house by house fight and there are thousands of multilevel buildings and on top of that terrorist dig tunnels under them. Aleppo is not an ideal
place to fight with tanks.. not even for Armata. Because snipers can easily damage the sensors.

And because there are many civilians hosted prisoners ,and mines , then the only way to
fight in Aleppo seems to be on foot ,apartment by apartment ,building by building,and with lots of well armed hellicopters with counter electronic defenses. but tanks definitively will be in a major
disadvantage in such crowded zone of aleppo with buildings.

then you have suicide bombers. that can rush to any position and wipe everyone. a real nightmare. It will be not possible in Aleppo to liberate it without unacceptable casualties,without sacrificing civilians.

So Russia will have to use chemical warfare ,to cause difficulty with vision , using gas mask.
attack at night with silencer weapons, and using night vision. Use the night and stealth attack in all fronts to clear the zone.

Because attacking in the day , on foot , allowing terrorist snipers to shoot you , or worse
suicide bomber on a motocross charge at your position.then you have mines. real nightmare.

any liberation force will have to take down entire buildings and create space, for any advancing force ,so you dont have shooting from all sides and is more predictable.

The alepo super crowded city of tall buildings nullify the advantage of tanks and artillery too.
and airforce too. lol  

an other effective way is to siege the occupied parts of the city .. cuting off water also and providing pressure 24/7 by carefull small attcks .. so having them dry and sleepless. Its a matter of weeks before they breake down. Any unarmed will be allowed to pass the lines and provided with care and water.

water shortage is the key , when the area is sieged