Military Events in Syria and Iraq thread #3

Yes, they are already over the canal now. The latest map:

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

The whole village Qawas has been taken, and yet another nearby village too. That means, they have entered the Maskaneh plain. Congratulations.

The next natural target is, of course, the Jirah airbase. To take it will also be an important moral victory. And, of course, this would cut the N4 road. After that, one could go in above directions along the road, as well as going West to encircle Deir Hafr. At least as long as there is not much resistance, going along the road makes sense. A reasonable way would be to go along the N4, cleaning the area North of it, until there appears greater resistance near Deir Hafr, and then going South-West toward the Lake Jabbul endangering encirclement of Deir Hafr. Or, in the other direction, along the N4 to Maskaneh cleaning the area toward the Euphrat.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

US Marines arrive in Syria:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...n-the-fight-for-raqqa/?utm_term=.6fc506ba3494

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

First claims appeared that the Jiras airbase has been taken. https://twitter.com/NatDefFor/status/839812642659237889

Other sources claim that there is yet ongoing fighting. https://twitter.com/MIG29_/status/839820501908402176 https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-brink-liberating-key-military-airport-east-aleppo/

But they all agree that the Syrian army is fighting go gain the airbase. Given that Yusha Yuseef mentions heavy fighting, Daesh has chosen to defend it, so that we will, at least, see how strong Daesh really is in this region. Essentially, they had no choice but to defend it, given giving it up would cut the N4 too. On the other hand, this is very good, because it can be simply bombed into nothing without any civilian losses.

Some actual global map of Syria:

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Comrade Schmeltzer, what happened to your assertion of WW III should the US move US troops into Syria? Where is your WW III? And why do you continue to propagate Russian and Syrian state propaganda?

 

Ask yourself what happened with your inventions. I cannot help you here.

US troops in Syria clearly violate international law, given that there is no agreement of the legitimate government for this, but this is old news (the US airforce is doing this already many years) and as long as they attack only Daesh, there is not much to object.

WW III would follow if the US openly attacks the Syrian or Russian army, because Russia would retaliate.

I give simply information about what actually happens in Syria. The actual situation on the front is, btw, a thing where it is difficult to distort the information, and sources which distort it can be identified easily. If you have other information about the actual situation, feel free to give it here.

 

That's not true. I'm sure it is very easy to distort the info. When I look at news of a US military action I read two accounts: (1) the US military account and (2) what institutions in the target country say. I figure the truth is somewhere in between.

 

Reportedly the new US Marines in Syria come from San Diego, number about 400, and are intended to advise and provide fire support to the SDF now located close outside Raqqah. At least one battery of M777 howitzers is included.

Their arrival adds to the roughly 500 US troops already in Syria (largely Army Rangers advising the SDF) and comes just days after a column of US Humvees and Stryker wheeled IFV's visibly flying US flags was observed entering Manbij to deter the Turks from attacking the SDF in that town. (The US evidently doesn't want the SDF deflected from attacking Raqqah.)

I wonder whether the new Marines' arrival means that the awaited Kurdish assault on Raqqah is immanent.

 

Of course, it is always useful to read above sides. But there are things which are typically lies (war crimes of the enemy, high number of enemy fighters killed, low number of own fighters killed) while other things are much more difficult to lie about (town X taken or not).

The idea that the truth is somewhere between is nonsense. The technique to extract information from propaganda sources works differently. First, see above, care about how easy it is to lie without the lies being detected. Then, of course, detect such easily detectable lies to filter out some completely unreliable sources. But even these sources may be used to extract some information. For example, in Syria SOHR is completely unreliable about a lot almost everything, but the information mentioned above - the actual frontline - is reliable. Then, a very important technique is to identify silence. One side claims something not in favor of the other side, but the other side says nothing about it. Usually combined with a lot of talk around the critical question, but to clarify the critical question is avoided.

PS: It looks like the Syrian troops have yesterday not even attacked the Jirah airbase themselves, but only bombed it from the air as well as with artillery.

 

An actual map is all I have seen today from East of Aleppo. Not much has changed, the interesting thing is that the Syrian army has gone South of the canal not only near the Euphrat, but also West of the Jirah airbase.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

Several good news from Syria. After a few days of rest, the Syrian army has taken another village from Daesh in East Aleppo: Humaymah Kabira. The place is quite unexpected, because it is not (as expected) near the Jihah airbase, but the last village West of Deir Hafr. Essentially, this is opening a new front. People have thought that it would be too hard to attack Deir Hafr from this side, in fact there have been heavy fights around this village after the blockade of the Kuweiris airbase was removed. So there were good defense lines at this place. An explanation would be that there simply was information that in that village not much of Daesh was left, so that it was nonetheless easy to take it.

In Palmyra, the environment controlled by the government becomes greater. The Electrical Station located south of the city has been taken.

In Homs, a new agreement has been reached about giving the government control of the last terrorist-controlled part, Al Waer. This is not the first agreement about this, some other earlier attempts have reached only partial success or failed completely.

 

The neighbor village Humaymah Saghira has been taken too. The two villages together are not that small in comparison with Deir Hafr itself, so it looks strange that they can be so easily taken.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

In Deir Ezzor there has been a heavy attack by Daesh last night. The attack has not been successful. Nonetheless, it is strange that Daesh continues to attack there. As if they have not enough problems elsewhere.

 

Except US troops in Syria isn't a violation of law and you know this. It has been repeatedly pointed out to you. The legal grounds for US and allied troop presence in Syria has been repeatedly laid for you. Your beloved Mother Russia even voted for that law in the UN Security Council.

If Russia wants to fire its nukes at the US, so be it. It will be the last thing your beloved Mother Russia and Mother Putina do. But the US and the world will not be intimidated by a 3rd rate wanna be military power. Unfortunately for you comrade the truth isn't a conspiracy. It's just the truth.

 

Whatever, if the US attacks, there will be retaliation. What comes after this, we will see.

A local war would be a possibility too, similar to the Vietnam war, which was formally only with Vietnam, but in reality there were Russian weapons as well as Russian forces there.

 

I've heard that some of the ISIS leadership (senior Islamic jurists, not fighters) have been leaving Raqqah as the Kurds (and a small number of US Marines) gather just to the northeast, and have been traveling east along the Euphrates towards Deir Ezzor. If they hope to use Deir Ezzor as their fallback position, then they probably want to better secure it.

 

You can keep deluding yourself comrade, and if history is any judge, you will. Your beloved Mother Russia would be crushed in any military conflict with the US, and I think your beloved Putina knows that.

 

In a nuclear war, above sides will be crushed. If in a non-nuclear war Russia is close to being crushed, nuclear weapons will be used. That's the official doctrine. So the US has no change to crush Russia without being crushed itself. Live with this.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/articl...sections-al-qaboun-district-eastern-damascus/ claims that the Syrian army has made quite large advancements in Qaboun. This is a suburb of Damaskus, close to Douma, actually hold by Al Qaida.

 

Quoting yourself isn't proof of anything comrade. The fact is if Russia wants to use its nuclear weapons against the US it would be suicide. And if your Mother Russia wants to commit suicide, so be it. Russia is ill equipped and prepared for a military confrontation conventional or otherwise with the US. Rattle your sabers all you want. No one other than Russians are impressed. That's a pretty low bar.

 

Obama was sufficiently impressed not to try to attack Syrian forces, after he got a clear message that any attack against the Syrians will be considered as an attack against Russian forces and answered by Russian air defense. (And nobody cares what joepistole accepts as a proof. There is no need to prove things which are well-known.)

More interesting, the water supply of Aleppo from the Euphrat today started to work again, after several years, writes https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/water-euphrates-river-reaches-aleppo-city-first-time-years/

And the Mustadirah Mountains in northeastern Palmyra have been taken by the Syrian army. This makes Palmyra much more safe.

 

There are good news from the Palmyra region, the Syrian army is liberating some gas fields.

Good news also from East Aleppo.

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

The encircled area in the West were encircled a day ago, after a failed counter-offensive of Daesh. They have been probably left by Daesh already before, and simply taken only yesterday by the Syrian forces. East of it, a small village has been taken, suggesting that the Syrian army wants to encircle Deir Hafr from the South. But, again, surprise, the latest news is that Rasm Kroum has been taken, the last village in North of Deir Hafr, on the map yet marked as controlled by Daesh.

 

The two villages South of the small circle on the map above - Zubidah and Khasaf - have been taken too.

The more interesting message today is that Israeli airforce has attacked Syrian territory (which is not really new, they do it quite often, their excuse is that they target Hisbollah), but this has not been, as before, ignored, but some Syrian rockets have been fired against them. The Syrian side claims that one plain was shot. The Israeli side denies this.

The US has hit some mosque in Al-Jinah in North-West Syria, they claim it was full of Al Qaida, the locals claim it was full of civilians. https://www.almasdarnews.com/articl...strike-obliterates-mosque-northwestern-syria/ I would say under Obama nobody would have cared, now there is a chance that some Western media will care, once it can be used against Trump. We will see.