Syrian War: News #12

The Strikkers continuing their morale boosting tour of northern Syria passing through Qamişlo today.

JohninMK wrote:Its Sputnik and an off the record source but you will find some gems in this. In particular, the Kurds currently have the US over a barrel, not a position the US is used to or will tolerate for long.

The Syrian city of Raqqa remains occupied by Daesh terrorists since early 2014. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the backing of a US-led international coalition is set to storm Raqqa and liberate it next month. It has been reported that US tanks will be used during the battle. A representative of the command of the Syrian Democratic Forces, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sputnik Arabic that the US had recently delivered heavy weapons and tanks to the SDF.

“Two days ago, as part of the upcoming battle against Daesh the US sent us tanks and heavy weapons. The armament was delivered to Rojava [Kurdish de facto autonomous region in northern Syria]. It arrived on wagons through the territory of northern Iraq, through the border crossing point Semelka,” the source said. From there, the armaments were brought north of Raqqa. “The tanks we received from the US, we intend to use during the storming of Raqqa next month. Previously, we had tanks but in small numbers and unlike those supplied by America, those were not in the best condition,” he said.

The representative of the Syrian Democratic Forces further stressed that, in case of a repeated attack by the Turkish armed forces, the SDF troops would be forced to cease the operation for the liberation of Raqqa. “If Turkey continues to attack us, we will be forced to suspend the operation in Raqqa and move to the defense of our territories. Currently, we are meeting with the coalition forces in order to prevent a possible recurrence of attacks from Turkey,” the source told Sputnik. He added that SDF has warned the coalition saying that in the event of a second attack, the troops would redirect all of the forces concentrated in Raqqa to the Turkish-Syrian border. “We were promised that a meeting will be held with the Turkish side and we will be informed about the results,” the source concluded.

Recent days have seen heavy clashes between the Turkish military and Kurdish fighters close to the town of Ceylanpinar. Earlier this week, Turkish jets launched airstrikes against People's Protection Units (YPG) targets in northern Syria, killing approximately 70 Kurdish fighters. Both Russia and the United States criticized the Turkish operation.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201704291053135224-us-tanks-to-storm-raqqa/

US tanks? How and when did the kurds received them (if they received any)? Or this means that regular US Army or Marine Corps will take part in the offensive (with their own tanks)?

For me, seeing M1 Abrams tanks under the flag of the YPG would be nothing but hillarious...

starman wrote:

eehnie wrote:
Both right. Syria has its own air defense that Russia is also supplying. The attacks to Syria will be answered by Syria.

But it's too risky to confront Israel, especially under these conditions, without a major power backing them up. If the Russians are only there to fight regime enemies so Israel retains carte blanche to attack around Damascus, no wonder Syria has shown such restraint. If the internal mess in Syria is ever cleaned up, so the only remaining enemy is Israel, the Russian presence will have no point unless its policies and priorities change.

Once mess clears out Russia will definitely try to make sure that Syria has no more enemies period. And that will be done through diplomacy (and ball twisting if need be)

They plan on sticking around for very long time and they will prefer to have the place nice and quiet

Russia has pretty good relations with Israel unlike many in the region and also unlike them they also have big stick to boost diplomacy

PapaDragon wrote:

starman wrote:

eehnie wrote:
Both right. Syria has its own air defense that Russia is also supplying. The attacks to Syria will be answered by Syria.

But it's too risky to confront Israel, especially under these conditions, without a major power backing them up. If the Russians are only there to fight regime enemies so Israel retains carte blanche to attack around Damascus, no wonder Syria has shown such restraint. If the internal mess in Syria is ever cleaned up, so the only remaining enemy is Israel, the Russian presence will have no point unless its policies and priorities change.

Once mess clears out Russia will definitely try to make sure that Syria has no more enemies period. And that will be done through diplomacy (and ball twisting if need be)

They plan on sticking around for very long time and they will prefer to have the place nice and quiet

Russia has pretty good relations with Israel unlike many in the region and also unlike them they also have big stick to boost diplomacy

The bolded part is false.

And the commented in the rest is not doable. Syria will continue being an active frontline battlefield while one of the two sides can move the frontline, something very difficult. War is assured in this area for long time. Diplomacy works but at this point no-one of the sides is ready to accept a peace that shows them as losers. There is an almost continuous war in the area (Chechnya, Abkhazia, Ossetia, Nagorno Karabakh, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey) between the two blocks since the 1990s. And everyone knows that if the war is not in Syria, will be in other place near of Syria.

Starman is right, but Syria has Russia backing them. The attacks of Israel to Syria are being limited by the Syrian Air Defense, taking into account that Russia controls the answers of Syria to Israel, to Turkey to Saudi Arabia and to the US. Missile attacks will not defeat Syria, unless nuclear weapons are used, but in this case the war will not be limited to Syria.

A strong enough land force is necessary to win the war in the long term. Russia and other countries of the continental platform of Asia are assuring Syria has it, and are doing it at low cost, with material that was waiting to be scrapped. The strategy of not scrapping of the Soviet Union finally proved to be right. For sure, the US and the NATO regret to have not older material, because newer material like the Turkish tanks Leopard 2 are also defeated, and are significantly more expensive.

US is jumping into a 40 y conflict that addresses Turkish national integrity for a short-term goal: Raqqa.
Turkey must be infuriated

US troops reaching to place of funeral ceremony of #YPG fighters in Derik.
https://twitter.com/M1Massoud/status/858331640778686464


#US army attending funeral ceremony of #Kurdish #YPG/#PYD with terrorist #PKK flags in #Syria after #Turkish strikes. #TSK #Turkey

One thing is for sure, the Syria war will last longer than the Thirty Years War. Russia is not committed to ending the war. No modern arms is supplied to SAA. No modern training. SAA is fighting with 1970s hardware. That's why they cannot win. Russia flies a few sorties a day and drops dumb bombs on a few empty buildings as target practice. That's it.

Good news: Rebel infighting in East Ghouta again


SOHR: At least 74 militants killed in East Ghouta as infighting among Islamist factions enters its 2nd day

Jaysh al-Islam, trying to be "FSA" group of E-Ghouta (after years of salafi speech...), advancing on its rivals since 72 hours (1)

Some HTS HQ already taken in Misrabah and KafrBatna. Jaysh al-Islam also about to enter F-Rahman stronghold of Irbeen (2).

Jaysh al-Islam is taking advantage of calm situation at Ghouta frontlines (as regime focusing on Qaboun and Barzeh)

Last time Jaysh al-Islam entered war with its former allies, regime could take 1/3 of #Ghouta in only three months

Rebels fired on unarmed civilians protesting rebels' infighting in East Ghouta. Media would have played this clip 24/7 if it was Assad
https://twitter.com/BBassem7/status/858340270105964545

Control of the Rahman Corps (grey) against their rivals Jaish Al-Islam.



Both side send their armoreds to frontlines

Another noose being tightened;

http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c7c4/un5l3xkhub8bbcrzg.jpg?size_id=d

ultimatewarrior wrote:One thing is for sure, the Syria war will last longer than the Thirty Years War. Russia is not committed to ending the war. No modern arms is supplied to SAA. No modern training. SAA is fighting with 1970s hardware. That's why they cannot win.

Are you an idiot? or have a severe brain dysfunction?

The war in Syria will  NOT  END..  by defeating all the terrorist in Syria ,because Turkey ,Israel,
Jordan,Saudi Arabia ,Americans ,British and French will continue sending more and more and more.  the Syrian conflict is a world war by proxy , and you don't end world wars "quickly"
unless you use very lethal force against the nations fueling the conflict in Syria. Did you understand this? is a world war against Russia by proxy.

Russia is the real target not Syria. So to defeat the terrorist you need
to cut the hands who help them.  at very least either by politics or FORCE ,to stop Turkey,israel and Jordan sending supplies ,weapons and terrorist through their borders into Syria to partition it.  

And your retarded arguments of Russia to send Anti artillery radars will do nothing. since terrorist do not have long range artillery ,they are only using portable mortals that they can move from position ,so your counter artillery is useless .what really helps Terrorist to win territory is their suicide bombers in fast armored cars. And if you have any brains ,you will know that all the weapons you want Russia to give to Syria cost a lot of money ,who is going to pay for that? Russia is already spending $ 600 millions a year in their operations alone ,not including the cost of sending humanitarian aid ,or rebuilding Syria infrastructure.   Russia can send its entire Army there and after they clean Syria from terrorist ,who is going to finance Syria economy? who is Syria going to trade?
Russia will need to feed 20 millions of jobless Syrians ,that receive no salary ,and Russia also have the Ukraine battle field too.  with 40 millions of people that will need to feed there. What all this means is that to win wars, you need a lot more than bullets ,technology and soldiers . you need also to take into account the Cost to your economy ,the massive impact in social unrest too if lose soldiers. and create the political dialogue too ,so that Syria can achieve a peace with its neighbors. At least with Turkey and Jordan. Because the terrorist Israel state will never abandon its ambitions of destroying Syria. If Russia send all its army to Syria ,it will be like Vietnam.Where americans won all the battles but lost the war and with losing many thousands soldiers and wasting trillions dollars in the war. Because in the end ,they had to leave ,since could not continue financing the war.

 Russia main priority is Russia ,and it cannot allow the Syrian conflict to sink its economy
which is also another objective of Americans. To cause Syrian conflict to collapse Russia economy. and what will be the point to "SAve Syria" if they lose later Russia in a civil war
when the economy collapse?  To have your country economy collapse with social unrest ,is more dangerous that losing a million man army. Because if you lose control of your country
for economic issues and social unrest it will disband ,just like Soviet Union did.

, and also something very important that ignorants like you not aware. Is that Russia cannot reveal all the technology it have to the Americans and its NATO allies in Syria.  So that later they can study and develop tactics to counter it. Russia needs to keep their things for surprise for NATO. They already revealed too much in Ukraine ,with their counter electronic capabilities. that NATO was not aware. and revealed that Russia can hit any part of middle east from Russia ,using long range cruise missiles too.

 In short you are an idiot. Stop requesting useless things that will not help in anything or that Russia ends quickly the conflict ,when that is impossible.  The only way to stop the war in Syria  quickly and cut the hands of the nations who sponsor terrorism in very small time ,is with nukes ,that Russia nuke Turkey and Israel one time ,a direct hit on their country killing many Turkey and israeli soldiers. so they see Russia is not bluffing ,so they stop attacking Syria. that will work but it could trigger a major world war 3,with nukes flying in both sides and ultimately with Israel completely wiped of the world map and Turkey half of it destroyed.

NATO wants to see A full scale Russia invasion in Syria , to grind their army. and damage their economy. They tried that trick in Ukraine too. Which idiots like you also complained why Russia did not invaded , that Putin "betrayed ukrainians". Kiev banderas were literary bombing inside
Russia main land territory , to provoke Russia to invade. Is a tactic moron . Ukraine knows it cannot defeat the Russian army. but they know that it can damage its economy if manage to
lure Russia into a major economic trap ,forcing Russia to invade kiev ,so they will have to feed
40 millions of ukraine citizens . while US and Europe continue financing unrest and giving Russia another vietnam.  Military alone don't win wars , as long enemies /external forces are allowed to continue fueling a conflict. public support and political dialogue too ,to negotiate the end of the war.otherwise the war will not end.

If the US can protect the Kurds, so, it looks like, can Russia

Rami al-Lolah‏ @RamiAILoIah 1h1 hour ago

#BREAKING #Russia|n army Special Forces troops and army heavy vehicles deployed in Afrin near #Turkey borders northwest of #Syria

Vann7 wrote:

ultimatewarrior wrote:One thing is for sure, the Syria war will last longer than the Thirty Years War. Russia is not committed to ending the war. No modern arms is supplied to SAA. No modern training. SAA is fighting with 1970s hardware. That's why they cannot win.

Are you an idiot? or have a severe brain dysfunction?

The war in Syria will  N O T  END..  by defeating all the terrorist in Syria ,because Turkey ,Israel,
Jordan,Saudi Arabia ,Americans ,British and French will continue sending more and more and more. If a world war by Proxy what is happening there. Did you understand this? is a world war
against Russia by proxy.  Russia is the real target not Syria. So to defeat the terrorist you need
to cut the hands who help them.  at very least either by politics or FORCE ,to stop Turkey,israel and Jordan sending supplies ,weapons and terrorist through their borders into Syria to partition it.  

And your retarded arguments of Russia to send Anti artillery radars will do nothing. since terrorist do not have long range artillery ,they are only using portable mortals.. and suicide bombers. And if you have any brains ,you will know that all the weapons you want Russia to give to Syria cost a lot of money ,who is going to pay for that? Russia is already spending
$ 600 millions a year in their operations alone ,not including the cost of sending humanitarian
aid ,or rebuilding Syria infrastructure.   Russia can send its entire Army there and after they clean Syria from terrorist ,who is going to finance Syria economy? who is Syria going to trade?
Russia will need to feed 20 millions of jobless Syrians ,that receive no salary ,and Russia also have the Ukraine battle field too.   What all this means is that to win wars, you need a lot more than bullets ,technology and soldiers . you need also to have an economy to sustain the war and create the political dialogue too ,so that Syria can achieve a peace with its neighbors. At least with Turkey and Jordan. Because the terrorist Israel state will never abandon its ambitions of destroying Syria. If Russia send all its army to Syria ,it will be like Vietnam.
Where americans won all the battles but lost the war. Because in the end ,they had to leave ,since could not continue financing the war.  Russia main priority is Russia ,and it cannot allow
the Syrian conflict to sink its economy , and also something very important that ignorants like you not aware. Is that Russia cannot reveal all the technology it have to the Americans and its NATO allies.  So that later they can study and develop tactics to counter it.  In short you are an idiot. Stop requesting useless things that will not help in anything or that Russia ends quickly the conflict ,when that is impossible.  The only way to stop the war in Syria  quickly and cut the hands of the nations who sponsor terrorism in very small time ,is with nukes ,that Russia nuke Turkey and Israel one time ,a direct hit on their country killing many Turkey and israeli soldiers. so they see Russia is not bluffing ,so they stop attacking Syria. that will work but it
could trigger a major world war 3,with nukes flying in both sides and ultimately with Israel completely wiped of the world map and Turkey half of it destroyed.
 

Just ignore him, he is a troll

Jaish Al-Islam executes Al-Qaeda commander as rival jihadists slaughter each other in Damascus
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/jaish-al-islam-executes-al-qaeda-commander-rival-jihadists-slaughter-damascus/

Once Isis is defeated, what can Russia and Syria do diplomatically to prevent the West from recognizing Kurdistan as a new country and putting permanent military bases there on that pretext, just like Kosovo.

How many countries can potentially recognize Syrian Kurdistan as a sovereign nation?

KomissarBojanchev wrote:Once Isis is defeated, what can Russia and Syria do diplomatically to prevent the West from recognizing Kurdistan as a new country and putting permanent military bases there on that pretext, just like Kosovo.

How many countries can potentially recognize  Syrian Kurdistan as a sovereign nation?

They won't have to do anything because it will not happen

Turkey is too important for USA

KomissarBojanchev wrote:Once Isis is defeated, what can Russia and Syria do diplomatically to prevent the West from recognizing Kurdistan as a new country and putting permanent military bases there on that pretext, just like Kosovo.

How many countries can potentially recognize  Syrian Kurdistan as a sovereign nation?

The UK, Israel, Canada, France (with Macron), Sweden, Norway, Poland, Ukraine (lol), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Colombia...etc

Oh baby it's triple. 3 Israel strikes on Syria in same month. All against Syrian army. So how many Israel F-35 were shot this time?
http://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-media-reports-israeli-strike-on-syrian-army-near-border/

Its amazing and bizarre how on Wikipedia and other sources it clearly shows isis on israel border and yet no one in media or politics is calling on israel to help in war on terror by bombing or killing isis on their door step

Journalists are as thick as pig sh**

SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES CAPTURED AL-NABABLA AND AL-ZAHRA DISTRICTS IN TABQA

On April 29, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by the US-led coalition, captured Al-Nababla and Al-Zahra districts in the southern part of Tabqa. The advance followed the liberation of Al-Iza’a and Al-Wahab districts. 27 ISIS terrorists were killed in the clashes.

During its advance in the Ayed al-Saghir district in western Tabqa, the SDF discovered a 15-cell prison belonging to ISIS. According to the SDF, ISIS had evacuated the prison before the attack began and transferred prisoners to the ISIS-held part of Tabqa and the Tabqa dam.


US-led coalition warplanes have continued pounding ISIS positions in the province of Raqqa.

According to local sources, a family of five people were killed after coalition forces shelled their house in al-Wahab district in the town of Tabqa.

From its side, ISIS said that ISIS members had damaged a SDF battle tank in the village of Al-Hekma north of Raqqa. ISIS also announced the killing of two Kurdish fighters after targeting their vehicle with an IED south of the town of Qahtaniya northeast of Hasaka.

Source: https://southfront.org/syrian-democratic-forces-captured-al-nababla-and-al-zahra-districts-in-tabqa/

PapaDragon wrote:
Once mess clears out Russia will definitely try to make sure that Syria has no more enemies period. And that will be done through diplomacy (and ball twisting if need be)

You mean Russia will get the Golan heights returned to Syria via diplomacy? I don't think that can be done, and there's also the Palestinian issue.

They plan on sticking around for very long time and they will prefer to have the place nice and quiet

I don't think there will be a lasting peace even if Assad's internal enemies are crushed.

Russia has pretty good relations with Israel unlike many in the region and also unlike them they also have big stick to boost diplomacy

If Russia has good relations with Israel now, it's only because they have their hands full consolidating the current Syrian regime, hence their own position in Syria. Also because the Syrian regime is so busy fighting domestic foes and so dependent on Russian help, it's in no position either to fight Israel, or pressure Russia to help them oppose it. But if, or when, the civil war is finally resolved, and a united Syria reestablished, the Russians, to maintain their influence and presence, will have to shift to a more anti-Israel position. They'll have to rearm Syria to confront its old enemy just like the USSR had to.

JohninMK wrote:If the US can protect the Kurds, so, it looks like, can Russia

Rami al-Lolah‏ @RamiAILoIah 1h1 hour ago

#BREAKING #Russia|n army Special Forces troops and army heavy vehicles deployed in Afrin near #Turkey borders northwest of #Syria

This puts the discussion about Russia and the Kurds in the right place.

At this point Russia can protect the Kurds even better than the US, because Russia help them with some air defense (man-portable), something that the US never will do.

ATLASCUB wrote:

KomissarBojanchev wrote:Once Isis is defeated, what can Russia and Syria do diplomatically to prevent the West from recognizing Kurdistan as a new country and putting permanent military bases there on that pretext, just like Kosovo.

How many countries can potentially recognize  Syrian Kurdistan as a sovereign nation?

The UK, Israel, Canada, France (with Macron), Sweden, Norway, Poland, Ukraine (lol), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Colombia...etc

And Russia... plus likely its allies

The referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan is likely to be in 2017, and it seems to have the agreement of the gouvernment of Iraq (shii). It means it also has the agreement of Iran.
Why? basically becaus the Arab shiite and the Kurd communities of Iraq live in different places. Are not mixed, It is the Arab sunni minority who is mixed with both. Both sides win.

In Syria, Russia is trying an understanding between the Kurds and the gouvernment of Syria, something that is happening in the Kurd territory most to the West.

starman wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:
Once mess clears out Russia will definitely try to make sure that Syria has no more enemies period. And that will be done through diplomacy (and ball twisting if need be)

You mean Russia will get the Golan heights returned to Syria via diplomacy? I don't think that can be done, and there's also the Palestinian issue.

............

I doubt that Russia cares that much about Golan heights. And let's be real here for a second, it is just empty wasteland on the opposite side of where points of Russian interest lie.

Returning to status ante bellum is what they would be going for. They have been successful so far because they avoided local nonsense like this so I doubt they will be changing approach that works.

PapaDragon wrote:

starman wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:
Once mess clears out Russia will definitely try to make sure that Syria has no more enemies period. And that will be done through diplomacy (and ball twisting if need be)

You mean Russia will get the Golan heights returned to Syria via diplomacy? I don't think that can be done, and there's also the Palestinian issue.

............

I doubt that Russia cares that much about Golan heights. And let's be real here for a second, it is just empty wasteland on the opposite side of where points of Russian interest lie.

Returning to status ante bellum is what they would be going for. They have been successful so far because they avoided local nonsense like this so I doubt they will be changing approach that works.

The invassion of the Golan never has been accepted by Russia. Your pro-Israeli statements make not sense.

eehnie wrote:......

The invassion of the Golan never has been accepted by Russia. Your pro-Israeli statements make not sense.

Russia in it's current form did not exist back when Golan got occupied.

It's really cure how you think that 50 year old local issue has any effect on Russian military strategy in current day war.



Back in the real world, SAA makes gains around Palmyra/East Homs:

Similar Peto map

Peto Lucem‏ @PetoLucem 56m56 minutes ago

NEW MAP: #SAA liberated several villages and hills in Homs Governorate from #ISIS and secured vital #Homs - #Palmyra highway. #Syria