After over 2 months of fighting the Syrian Army has finally regained control of Palmyra, lost December 11th in a massive ISIS offensive. The area has seen massive use of Russian and Syrian bomber aircraft and attack helicopters, who worked round the clock to make this happen. All this would not have possible without the heroism of those Syrians defending the surrounded Tiyus base back in December, which later became the foothold for this operation to retake Palmyra.
With the strategic failure of their Palmyra offensive, their failure to capture Deir ez-Zur and the collapse of the el-Bab garrison its becoming increasingly clear that ISIS has thrown most of what it had left at Palmyra and Deir ez-Zur and has come up empty. To use a WW2 analogy this was their 'Ardennes Offensive' and what we will be watching over the coming months, (ironically) will be the 'Russians' coming from the west, and the 'Americans' coming from the east. The path to Raqqa and Deir ez-Zur is now wide open.
Meanwhile in the Al-Bab area...
Interesting to note all the rumors going around that the Kurds want to cede a strip of land up to the Euphrates (give it to Assad) and create a buffer zone between them and Erdogan.
The way ISIS left Palmyra is kinda fishy, they did not show much resistance at all. Some say it was all planned since they destroyed Regime's gas resources. Regime is really in a deep shit with gas starvation that depending on anything his allies can provide him with. The attack on Dier Ezzor is not that failure. They air base is still isolated and they are thinning the defenses every while for the big push.
And for the Al-Bab, they withdraw from the whole area while they were controlling 70%+ of the city. It was clear they bleed ES enough and anymore fights will be bleeding for ISIS themselves. But now it is really interesting as it will be clear that ES won't dare to attack Regime now. They are so fucked up.
You can't defend against an enemy with Air support and you have none in a small village. You need to be fighting in large city. That is why they held for a long time in Al-Bab but now appearing to be collapsing.
On March 03 2017 06:31 Wrath wrote: The way ISIS left Palmyra is kinda fishy, they did not show much resistance at all. Some say it was all planned since they destroyed Regime's gas resources. Regime is really in a deep shit with gas starvation that depending on anything his allies can provide him with. The attack on Dier Ezzor is not that failure. They air base is still isolated and they are thinning the defenses every while for the big push.
And for the Al-Bab, they withdraw from the whole area while they were controlling 70%+ of the city. It was clear they bleed ES enough and anymore fights will be bleeding for ISIS themselves. But now it is really interesting as it will be clear that ES won't dare to attack Regime now. They are so fucked up.
If by kinda fishy you mean their positions have become undefendable then yes.... fishy... The Syrian government has been in deep energy shit for most of the war, they will be fine. Deir ez-Zor though has been a strategic catastrophe for ISIS any way you look at it, over 2000 dead and around that many wounded, the garrison at Deir also keeps over 5000 ISIS fighters bogged down. Even today there is a video of Zahreddine walking in front of dozens of ISIS bodies. ISIS has suffered horrific losses in Deir compared to their kill/death counts in Mosul and Al-Bab.
No one said they are doing completely fine. But the regime ain't any better. The energy problem really became huge after destroying Hayyan gas field and striking the Ebella field two weeks ago. Also, there are tons of dead Assadists around Deir Ezzor. They really in deep shit too.
There are multiple rumors that the forces that retook Palmyra was pure Russian and Shite (Lebanon Hezbollah and Afghan) forces. SAA is formed from Alwaites recruits from Tartus and Rebels area that choose to stay instead of going to Idlib these days like what happened with Barada's Valley and Saragaya weeks ago and soon Wa'er neighborhood in Homs.
Anyway, it looks like ISIS will leave all cities and go back to the desert until the time comes for the next push. It is pointless to hold cities when you can't defend against air strikes. Most likely they will go for war of attrition and guerrilla war from now on.
They are special ops. They participated effectively with Hezbollah forces in Palmyra battle. The main point is that there is a lack of Assadist participation in the battle. Most likely once they completely secure the area they will bring some Assadists to make a TV report and that's it. But on the ground there are absent.
Interesting to note all the rumors going around that the Kurds want to cede a strip of land up to the Euphrates (give it to Assad) and create a buffer zone between them and Erdogan.
Yeah... it is not a rumor. They said it themselves: Source
On March 03 2017 17:59 Wrath wrote: They are special ops. They participated effectively with Hezbollah forces in Palmyra battle. The main point is that there is a lack of Assadist participation in the battle. Most likely once they completely secure the area they will bring some Assadists to make a TV report and that's it. But on the ground there are absent.
It says these are SAA unit that was trained and funded by Russia. It is named as "ISIS Hunters". But not sure, they don't look that Syrian to me.
You are overestimating by quite a bit the role Hezbollah played in the liberation of Palmyra. The Republican Guard as well as regular Army forces like the 10th Mechanized, 18th Armored (shit... but not that shit), and the Russian/Iranian trained 5th Corps did most of the assault fighting in the area.
Liwa Fatemiyoun (Afgan Shia), Liwa Zainebiyoun (Iranian Shia) and Hezbollah certainly had an active role but as troops within the structure of the SAA.
The Russian MOD came out today with a statement on the results of the Palmyra offensive, enemy losses were: More than a thousand militants killed, disabled and incapacitated, 19 tanks, about 40 armored vehicles and 98 pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons. source in english
Interesting to note all the rumors going around that the Kurds want to cede a strip of land up to the Euphrates (give it to Assad) and create a buffer zone between them and Erdogan.
Yeah... it is not a rumor. They said it themselves: Source
Good news about Manbij. Love to see the so called FSA face and how helpless it is Lets see if it was worthy it to sell Aleppo for Al-bab now. Funny thing is that Kurds still get an access through Regime areas to Afrin while ES can't attack anywhere.
On February 22 2017 23:39 TheKwas wrote: The YPG are affiliated with the PKK through the KCK, but they are NOT the same as the PKK. They have different goals, different countries and different priorities, but just a shared ideology. It's like saying France and Germany are exactly the same because they both are in the EU.
As for how popular PKK is, they are very popular in the Kurdish areas in Syria, the most SouthEastern part of Turkey, and also in Shingal. They also have a moderately good relationship with PUK. You are correct that the KDP hates them, given how disruptive they are to KDP political goals and their history during the Kurdish Civil War.
ENTIRE VIDEO they say KURDISTAN is whereever the KURDS live. 1:45 for your they're different argument, there's only ONE KURDISTAN he answers.
(bonus content: at around min 5 you can see the PKK and ISIS peacefully sharing borders and kurds saying as long as they don't attack Kurdistan, they're indifferent to take any action against ISIS) Years ago they were happy when ISIS slaughter Assyrians and Arab Syrians or Turkic people. When ISIS started to kick their ass they cried so much that western media put pressure on Turkey because it did not intervene on Kobane which was the best option for us, do they ever remember Turkmen lives?
On February 22 2017 23:39 TheKwas wrote: It's like saying France and Germany are exactly the same because they both are in the EU.
Would France sympathize Germany if Nazis came back and start blowing themselves with suicide vests among civilians? This is the illusion media wants you to believe because no other way sane people like you and me, or a liberal, a democrat, would be okay to arm those militia.
The field reality, the people who talk, the warriors who fight, villagers, governing people, they aren't as strong as western media to tell their difference between each other on every chance they see a recording machine. Actually they openly claim whatever the name is, PKK, YPG, HPG, they say they're the one.
You can spot many differences between ISIS and Al-Qaeda but they share the same ideology as well, PKK has the same harmful ideology whether or not you like it, they share the Maoist extreme communist ideals what centered itself on kurdish nationality, just like the Syrian affiliate.
And if you don't agree with them, they start killing soldiers and civilians. They don't target civilians but in their final form in Turkey which is TAK they don't care civilian deaths either. Do you think is it only Erdogan who opposes kurdish autonomy? The second largest opposition party secular-nationalist CHP is also fully against it, the third non-secular nationalist party MHP is against it, Liberal Democrat Party is against it, all of these parties have many Kurds in their entities who don't like-share the ideology of PKK. Estimated kurdish population in Turkey is 20 millions, HDP gets 6 millions of votes maximum, sometimes drops to 3.
AKP gets 50% of Turkish votes lets say, 27%CHP and around 10% MHP, with liberals and other akp'ish parties it makes like 90% of Turkey, why HDP/ PKK don't accept lying down guns if almost entire county is against their ideology, why would you force it?HDP leader Demirtas once said PKK was about to lay arms but they saw the opportunity in Syria and decided not to, during an interview with HURRIYET DAILY NEWS -main opposition media-, it is as CLEAR as his statement.
Also it's the most un-democratic thing if out of 3 parties of 4 in parliament don't want separation. But yeah, in WEST, it sounds so correct to give them an autonomy right, always pick the underdog and don't care what the majority of ppl think. Best strategy ever.
Sad truth:
All help is going to the KURDS, not to the coalition, nor the NATO ally Turkey. This is the US who -on every chance- invited Turkey to join the fight with ground troops 2 years ago.
The United States' doing the SAME mistake over and over again, never keen to change her mind on a certain subject until it FAILS miserably, it so loves to criticize itself after creating a mess, confessing it 10 years after. Don't do it? Simple as it is.
Here's a YPG soldier captured on the Turkish border with a fluent fucking turkish. What was his reason to join YPG? He fucking sentenced up to 3 years for a debt, PKK offered money, he escaped jail and joined the YPG via PKK.
Different countries, different goals? YEAH.
Do you know how fast they were to erase their ANTI-US propaganda off their websites when arms start dropping? Back then it was saying: "Turkey is not the enemy, Turkey is the teeth of the vampiric imperialist world led by the US we wage war upon." They were saying Turkey was a Nato puppet to destroy the solidarity of middle-east people etc. It is a shame to support YPG, no matter how you fetishize kurdish female milita and think they're pro-west, you will learn it one day or another.
And Assad grabbed land from Kurds, US had to force it to the Kurds or else tension was rising with her Nato ally. Who lost now? Assad wins, Turkey continues to cleanse part of its border, Russia will gain military control over there, Iran will drop many jihadists there, and US will go somewhere else with her new buddies. Is this the successful Syria plan? Alone with the Kurds who secretly hates you all the way with a bunch of child militia.
About the Kurds, long story short is that they want to create their country by taking lands from Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran (They don't dare to say anything about Iran at the moment because they know they will be raped if they do so).
After the Invasion of Iraq, the Kurds started working on their own region, now with the Syrian civil war, Kurds are working on their own region there and linking it to the Iraqi later. Next step will be arming the PKK in southern Turkey to make something like an uprising resulting in an independent Kurdish region there and ultimately leading to Kurdistan.
This will isolate Turkey from the Arabian and Islamic world and help in destabilizing it.
Probably should deploy some troops to help secure the site with the SAA's help though. Not a good idea to risk losing it again.
Don't worry, it will be overrun again. It is a pile of rocks anyway, worthless to defend.
Next step will be arming the PKK in southern Turkey to make something like an uprising resulting in an independent Kurdish region there and ultimately leading to Kurdistan.
that is a very naive thing to say; first because it already happened to some extent and failed and second because it would be a death sentence for the turkish kurds.
Next step will be arming the PKK in southern Turkey to make something like an uprising resulting in an independent Kurdish region there and ultimately leading to Kurdistan.
that is a very naive thing to say; first because it already happened to some extent and failed and second because it would be a death sentence for the turkish kurds.
Second time never hurts especially when you have a major power player in your back
Next step will be arming the PKK in southern Turkey to make something like an uprising resulting in an independent Kurdish region there and ultimately leading to Kurdistan.
that is a very naive thing to say; first because it already happened to some extent and failed and second because it would be a death sentence for the turkish kurds.
Second time never hurts especially when you have a major power player in your back
there's no way you can touch an Erdogan with close to unlimited power and russians backing him.
in some weird future in which US and Russia become best friends and decide to screw with Turkey to mess with EU, maybe; but that looks like a fairy tale now.
Next step will be arming the PKK in southern Turkey to make something like an uprising resulting in an independent Kurdish region there and ultimately leading to Kurdistan.
that is a very naive thing to say; first because it already happened to some extent and failed and second because it would be a death sentence for the turkish kurds.
Second time never hurts especially when you have a major power player in your back
there's no way you can touch an Erdogan with close to unlimited power and russians backing him.
in some weird future in which US and Russia become best friends and decide to screw with Turkey to mess with EU, maybe; but that looks like a fairy tale now.
Trump is already working on the "best friends" part. It won't take long. Also, what EU has to do with all of this? Trukey is not a member.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DtJXOgb.jpg)
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