KiloGolf Sun Aug 07, 2016 5:52 pm
Zivo wrote:...and it only cost them 2,000+ casualties.
Don't treat this like some masterstroke, a week ago the Aleppo front was collapsing, and they had to pull soldiers from other important fronts to reinforce it. This offensive was an act of desperation, and they won it through suicide bombers and costly human wave tactics. And this route is equally exposed, it still has to cross through the west Aleppo countryside.
The biggest disappointment is the SAA could not repeat their successful defenses, like they have at Deir Ezzor.
2,000 casualties is very low given the scale and importance of the ground gained. This is SAA turf under control since 2011, where supposedly defense and fortifications were expected to be awesome, at the very least.
Then we have an opposition side that keeps thousands of fighters on standby holidays in Turkey, en-route from EU, Russia and 'stans or fully trained and kitted up next door in Idlib (a region virtually immune to government operations). By the end of the month, if not sooner, these losses on insurgents and kit will be replaced and bankrolled courtesy of Gulf economies.
As I said before, delivering 500 kg or 1000 kg of explosives, be it via air or VBIED makes no difference. Concerning human waves, I never really saw such footage. Using superior numbers of infantry properly =/= human waves, they just could pull it off. Unlike SAA that seems to know nothing on how to fortify/defend strategic locations along the front lines, as we saw on the footage.
Also a pro-SAA city filled with citizens and tribesmen vs. IS foreigners is very different to SAA defending their own bases and ending up running away within hours.