Levant crisis - III

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Singha
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

this misdirected atgm from fellow jihadis killed abu umar al dagestani a high ranking nusra emir in south aleppo
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkLgOv3UYAAd4xQ.jpg
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

khalifa cubs smashing laptops, vcrs and other haram devices spread by the kuffar
https://twitter.com/Dalatrm/status/737738579078742016
https://twitter.com/Dalatrm/status/737684171972325379

in Deir azzor, lots of jihadi chatter about issam zahredine being serious wounded or dead in last few days of daesh launching some attacks to roll back the SAA from outlying buffer areas and lay siege to the air port as in the old days. they are also trying to cleave the front and separate the airport from the town.
one fellow claims russian il76 paradropped off 6 light tanks at the airport
member_24540
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by member_24540 »

+ 1 here as well. A BRF lurker for a while - but always check this thread to read the in-depth analysis/developments
Singha wrote:over the past month I seem to be the onlee one posting on this thread !! are people really reading this thread I wonder ?

if anyone is reading the posts and finding some value in it, could you pls reply with a +1

if none are reading, I might just as well save time by reading the original sources and not copying any links and materials here
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »

Unimaginable Horrors: The War-Crimes Lawyer Hunting Bashar Assad

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 95735.html
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Supratik »

I certainly am. +1
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Surya »

Check it daily

+1
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

Isis militants have publicly executed 19 Yazidi women by burning them alive in Mosul, Iraq, local activists report.

The women were burned to death in iron cages because they refused to have sex with Isis fighters, the Kurdish ARA News agency reported.

“They were punished for refusing to have sex with Isis militants,” Abdullah al-Malla, a local media activist, told the agency.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Lalmohan »

jauhar... we know what this means
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by srin »

Singha wrote:over the past month I seem to be the onlee one posting on this thread !! are people really reading this thread I wonder ?

if anyone is reading the posts and finding some value in it, could you pls reply with a +1

if none are reading, I might just as well save time by reading the original sources and not copying any links and materials here
+1. More than the links, it is your comments and analysis that I find valuable. Please continue posting
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by chetak »

Keep Posting, saar.

Pop into this thread regularly and follow links whenever.

Thanks for the effort.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

Singha wrote:over the past month I seem to be the onlee one posting on this thread !! are people really reading this thread I wonder ?

if anyone is reading the posts and finding some value in it, could you pls reply with a +1

if none are reading, I might just as well save time by reading the original sources and not copying any links and materials here
ahem :mrgreen:

is this directed towards me ?? I somehow feel so. saar, I am waiting for long for just one FOAB to drop over the rebels before making a move on this thread. Got fed up of skirmishes without any big moves on the battlefield.

yeh dil khoon mangta hain daesh kaa. :rotfl:

I am crying for positive news from Syria to motivate me to participate in this thread. For this is the first time the dark forces have stumbled .. aur yeh dil maange more. inshallah.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by vishvak »

They were punished for refusing to have sex with Isis militants
In other words, women who didn't want to get raped were burnt alive instead!

It is legit in the eyes of one true God as per rabid dogs of ISIL.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

Singha wrote:Isis militants have publicly executed 19 Yazidi women by burning them alive in Mosul, Iraq, local activists report.

The women were burned to death in iron cages because they refused to have sex with Isis fighters, the Kurdish ARA News agency reported.

“They were punished for refusing to have sex with Isis militants,” Abdullah al-Malla, a local media activist, told the agency.
I take your words as Gospel Singha ji such is trust for you, kindly don't get discouraged, unfortunately I am poor at understanding geo political wars and still unable to figure out who is winning and who is losing, hence silence.

+ 1001
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

very well, I shall continue to plough my lone furrow here for the junta's benefit :)
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

protest march in TSP vowing to unleash hell on amrika if drone strikes continue

Image
Image
Lalmohan
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Lalmohan »

Singha wrote:very well, I shall continue to plough my lone furrow here for the junta's benefit :)
we may not contribute, but we definitely read your one man intel debriefs!
lage raho singha-bhai!
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »

Singha wrote:protest march in TSP vowing to unleash hell on amrika if drone strikes continue

Image
Image
I love them :rotfl:
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by nachiket »

Singha wrote:over the past month I seem to be the onlee one posting on this thread !! are people really reading this thread I wonder ?

if anyone is reading the posts and finding some value in it, could you pls reply with a +1

if none are reading, I might just as well save time by reading the original sources and not copying any links and materials here
One of the few threads I read regularly Singha saar. Please continue.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by andy B »

chetak wrote:Keep Posting, saar.

Pop into this thread regularly and follow links whenever.

Thanks for the effort.
GD saar echo Chetak saar's comments here some of us are like the French at Red Flag we do not have authorisation to transmit or have ability to contribute but we certainly visit regularly and absorb the trons in the air onlee. Bliss to continue your intel briefs and opinions. Rest assured they are being read by many known and unknowns :twisted:
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by UlanBatori »

70 #IS fighters have been killed during #SAA #Raqqa offensive.
SAA now 30km from Tabqa AB @PetoLucem
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by gnair »

Singha ,
Please, don't stop your very insightful posts. I share them with folks at the office and they are some times in just spaced out shock reading some of the material...including a good Russi friend of mine.
Much appreciate your very valuable time and effort...and your perception and interpretation of geo politics and the strategic space is amazing to say the least. Thank you again sir.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Suresh S »

Singha u bet we are reading it everyday bro.

+100
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by durvasa »

Singha. This is easily the most exhaustive info trove on Syria from an Indian perspective available in public domain. I am a lurker but pls continue. Others, incl me should also add but you are doing a great job.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by devesh »

http://warontherocks.com/2016/06/how-ah ... civil-war/

HOW AHRAR AL-SHAM HAS COME TO DEFINE THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF THE SYRIAN CIVIL WAR
SAM HELLER JUNE 6, 2016

It is surely a sign of the bizarre circumstance in which we find ourselves today that “What exactly is Ahrar al-Sham?” has become a question of international political importance.

As the United States, Russia, and other members of the International Syrian Support Group make a new push to resolve Syria’s civil war, the debate over which armed opposition groups are outside the bounds of any settlement has proven controversial and divisive.

Much of this debate has centered on opposition faction and Islamist movement Harakat Ahrar al-Sham al-Islamiyyah (the Islamic Movement of the Freemen of al-Sham, shortened as Ahrar al-Sham) – whether Ahrar are “jihadists,” or how they might be linked with al-Qaeda. Just last month, the United States helped block a Russian effort in the U.N. Security Council to designate Ahrar al-Sham a terrorist organization.

Now, Ahrar al-Sham has itself weighed in with an hour-long, videotaped lecture by its deputy leader, Ali al-Omar (Abu Ammar), titled “The Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement’s Position Among the Islamist Trends.” Over the course of the lecture, al-Omar explains how Ahrar understands itself. He repeatedly delineates the distinctions between Ahrar and the Salafi-jihadist doctrine of al-Qaeda and the self-proclaimed Islamic State, even as he makes clear that Ahrar maintains a fundamentally militant and religious outlook.

In the May 29 video, al-Omar addresses Ahrar’s assembled commanders with a lecture he says is meant to put forward the movement’s positive vision, which he declares has become a model for others. Yet, he also makes clear he is equipping Ahrar’s members to defend the movement against its critics. He states:

Every member of this movement needs to know the movement’s story, the reasons why it was founded, and the foundation on which it was built, so he can be an impregnable barrier, able to defend this blessed movement against the attacks of those who toss around dubious claims.

But while al-Omar makes a reference to Ahrar al-Sham’s “secularist” critics late in the video, he is more focused on another set of critics: jihadists. Nearly the entire lecture, in fact, is meant to defend Ahrar’s membership against Salafi-jihadist critiques of Ahrar’s departures from militant orthodoxy, including its international diplomatic outreach to regional states and the West.

First, however, a note on nomenclature: I tend to define “Salafi-jihadism” and “jihadism” as Islamists and jihadists themselves do: a specific, exclusivist subset of Sunni Islamist militancy that includes al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and some smaller factions. The movement’s intellectual basis is centered on a few key thinkers, including Jordanian-Palestinian theorists Abu Qatadah al-Filistini and Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, and is defined in terms of a single “manhaj”: a programmatic blueprint for applying religious doctrine. Salafi-jihadist groups are committed to unlimited global war on Crusader powers and the nations of disbelief, and they take a more expansive approach to declaring fellow Muslims as outside the faith and sanctioning their blood.

Somewhat confusingly, there is a broader “jihadist movement” beyond this Salafi-jihadist subculture. This movement includes Salafi-jihadists, but also encompasses Islamist groups that are committed to armed action but do not subscribe to Salafi-jihadism’s specific orthodoxy – such as Hamas and, as I argued last year, Ahrar al-Sham.

Al-Omar uses most of his lecture to resist the purism and elitism of Salafi-jihadism. For example, it is no coincidence that he stresses that Ahrar seeks advice from a broad set of Islamic scholars around the world, not from just a few theorists – that is, the narrow circle of thinkers to whom Salafi-jihadists defer.

Al-Omar actually argues that Ahrar is an entirely new school of Islamism, distinct not only from jihadism but also from other Islamist trends. Islamism, as he describes it, is comprised of four schools that emerged from the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate: purely political Islamism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood; two variations on individual-level evangelism; and jihadism, which is committed to change through force of arms.

Ahrar al-Sham, he says, is a synthesis of the other four trends. Whereas the other schools each draw on one aspect of the Prophet Muhammad’s example, he says, Ahrar’s approach is holistic. What that means in practice is that Ahrar can engage in politics just as easily as it can wage war, depending on the circumstance. This is why he argues that Ahrar al-Sham’s members are “mujahideen” (holy warriors), not “jihadiyeen” (jihadists), because Ahrar refuses to be defined solely by military struggle. The movement, its members are keen to emphasize, covers an assortment of branch political offices, relief organizations, and service bodies.

Of course, the Ahrar leadership al-Omar is addressing already understands war. As a result, he spends more time defending Ahrar’s political engagement, which jihadists have sharply criticized and by which some of Ahrar’s rank and file may be unconvinced. He cites two instances from the Prophet Muhammad’s life, and from the Battle of the Trench specifically. When Muhammad was surrounded and outnumbered, he cut a deal with one enemy camp to neutralize them; in a second instance, he deployed a member of an enemy tribe who had secretly converted to Islam to sow dissension in enemy ranks. Al-Omar asks, “Is this not politics?”

Muhammad instructed his secret agent, “Khadhal ‘anna ma istata’t,” which roughly equates to, “Do what you can to divide or neutralize our enemies and their pressure on us.” Hassan Hassan has argued that the use of “khadhal” here means Ahrar’s “political engagement and flexibility are a ploy.”

Yet al-Omar – who, again, is addressing a conservative, maybe skeptical Ahrar base – seems not to be arguing that Ahrar is duping its political interlocutors, but rather that it is doing what it can to manage a disadvantageous political process:

We don’t think that most of the issues currently being floated politically can be implemented – they’re unrealistic, distant from the requirements of the Muslims who rose up in Syria and whose blood was shed, and distant from our own requirements and our ceiling. But we’re engaging in politics in terms of, ‘Khadhal ‘anna ma istata’t.”

… Ahrar al-Sham thinks all the means that God on High sanctioned for the defense of Muslims and securing their rights ought to be employed, but according to priorities, and the nature of the conflict and the battle. As I said before, I can’t say, “Come on, let’s remove [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad politically.” It can’t be done. So that’s why what’s come to the fore now is the sound of the bullet – jihad on the path of God.

Al-Omar’s argument is framed in terms of Prophetic example and jihad, but most of his reservations about negotiations with the Syrian regime are shared across the Syrian opposition (and are arguably correct). What he is advocating here sounds a lot like normal politics and diplomacy.

He goes on to draw more key distinctions between Ahrar al-Sham and Salafi-jihadism, including Ahrar’s emphasis on populism and its big-tent pragmatism. He stresses that Ahrar has worked to cultivate al-hadinah al-sha’biyyah (“the popular incubator,” roughly equivalent to “hearts and minds”), in contrast to jihadists’ more narrow vanguardism. He points specifically to the initial failure of the Iraqi insurgency and its 2007 collapse as an example of how not to engage with your popular base.

Al-Omar also says that Ahrar al-Sham has focused on holistic aims rather than narrow particulars, or small differences in Islamic praxis that might otherwise divide Syria’s Islamists. Here he cites favorably the example of the Afghan Taliban, which, he says, has succeeded by including the full spectrum of Afghanistan’s Sunnis in its ranks and leadership, from Sufis to Salafists. Al-Omar says:

The Taliban movement was able to put forward a model and to establish a Muslim state – true, it didn’t last long, but it did establish it. The Taliban movement deserves contemplation and study, really.

Ahrar al-Sham is collectively Salafist, but, like al-Omar’s take on the Taliban, it includes members who belong to a range of Sunni Islamic trends. Here he is resisting Salafi-jihadism’s narrow conception of acceptable Islamic practice and its somewhat quixotic attempt to impose the details of its program on Syria’s people – dress codes, for example. Al-Omar says:

If you get to these holistic goals, then these little partial ones will be accomplished. So imagine that we focused on toppling the regime and establishing a Muslim state in its place, one ruled by Islamic shari’ah. All these details will follow.

Ahrar al-Sham’s approach, al-Omar says, is one of gradualism and realism. He says Ahrar will not attempt to monopolize politics or try to unilaterally control a diverse Syria, and he says that Ahrar is operating according to “fiqh al-waqi’” and “fiqh al-istid’af” – reasoning based on the reality around them and on their position of relative weakness. Ahrar’s strength, he argues, is that Ahrar has “lameset al-waqi’” – that it has lived and understood the reality in Syria. Ahrar is calibrated specifically for Syria and the Syrian war.

Of course, that Ahrar al-Sham is clearly distinct from the Salafi-jihadism of al-Qaeda does not mean that Ahrar does not espouse a uniquely hardline, militant outlook. Whether Ahrar is a new, fifth school of Islamist thought or, as I argued last year, a revisionist counterpoint to Salafi-jihadism from within the jihadist movement, Ahrar is clearly still rooted in Islamist militancy.

Here and elsewhere, Ahrar has made clear that it attempts to draw on the legacy of not just figures like Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, but also Abdullah Azzam, founder of modern transnational jihadism, and the symbols of the Chechen jihad against Russia. In his lecture, al-Omar says jihad will continue to the Day of Reckoning, even if it might take different forms beyond military action – political or evangelical struggle, for example. And in his defense of Ahrar’s political engagement, al-Omar references Ahrar’s “ceiling” – the limits of its ability to compromise. It seems safe to say that Ahrar’s ceiling is lower than others’; Ahrar has historically refused to compromise its “thawabit” (fixed principles) in the service of expediency.

In many ways, Ahrar al-Sham has fused a specifically Syrian revolutionary character with a Sunni-sectarian pan-Islamism. In much of northern Syria, it is Ahrar that defends journalists, activists, and civil society against predatory jihadists, and over the past several years Ahrar has made serious efforts to integrate itself with the revolutionary political mainstream.

Yet while Ahrar al-Sham’s ambitions are Syrian, al-Omar makes clear that Ahrar also views itself as the greater Sunni nation’s bulwark against a Shi’ite onslaught. Ahrar al-Sham has framed the Syrian war and the broader regional context as a sectarian cataclysm, in which Ahrar fights on behalf of Sunni Muslims everywhere against the “Nuseiriyyah” (derog., Alawites), “Rafidhah” (derog., Shi’ites) and Russian “atheists.”

Of course, it should be clear to anyone who has followed the Middle East’s deteriorating sectarian discourse since 2011 that Ahrar is no longer a real outlier in this respect. Now even mainstream voices slip into vitriolic sectarian rhetoric, and all sides understand that a war defined largely in sectarian terms is now a regional reality.

Ahrar was at the forefront of this newly charged, militant sectarianism – its founder, Hassan Abboud, made these same arguments in his first interview in 2013. But after five years of grinding war in Syria and poisonous, region-wide sectarian polarization, the Middle East has caught up with him.

Sam Heller is a Beirut-based freelance writer and analyst focused on Syria. Follow Sam on Twitter: @AbuJamajem.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

desert hawks are progressing some 10km daily to tabqa but on alternate days, with days in between for resupply, scouting and rest for the next jump forward.
russian artillerymen are with them and allegedly manning MSTA towed howitzers and MRLS systems or atleast helping.
RuAF and Mi28 flying from some fwd base help when they can.
the MSTA should now be in range of the Tabqa base and able to deliver heavy shells on target.

this is a deliberate and planned kind of move, as opposed to confusing fights with many leaders and militias involved. it has been chosen because unlike aleppo there are no civilians involved and the terrain is open and relatively lightly defended.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

they are slowly taking over Aleppo. They will also get to raqqa first.
the reason for this is the severe shortage of manpower, because of which they have to calibrate their moves so tight. Aleppo is the main prize here and not raqqa. Latter is just a side show to keep tabs on the kurds.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

the tsp protesters in black pants have the hem lifted above the ankles in prescribed tradition.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

a very high ranking YPG commander Abu Leyla from kobane was kia near manbij by a sniper
he leaves behind 4 daughters
the broken bridge seems to have been nearly repaired by filling in rubble over the broken spans at either end

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

Summer months are also months of dust storms which can effectively blind small tactical groups operating in coordination. Thus summer is delaying the ground operations quite a bit, we may see positive results in Aleppo in another 50 days.

tabqa dam has another potential to be a stalemate between USA & RUssia. USA is egging the kurd puppets to reach the dam first.
RU and IR are racing theirs to the dam, trying to get their before the kurds whose loyalties towards any side is suspect.

but kurds stretching upto raqqa will stretch them too thin. That is the saving grace of it all. 200 US troops embedded aren't going to make any difference there.

bypassing the airfield is pointless, because then you give an armed hostile force the opportunity to attack SAA from the rear.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

The glorious Kurds

Kurds were as usual being dirty and nasty, when a large number of Syrian army soldiers and particular officers that fled Menagh Air Base, headed to Kurdish areas they were arrested and sold for few boxes of munition to the Jihadis and they were murdered, they only became involved against the terrorist after they realized they were next on line following the Yazidi massacres.

Kurds never have been know to have acted with ethics, morality and sense of justice, in a quest for survival they have committed and indulged in horrific crimes. The Armenian genocide was largely done by the Ottoman 11th Army, which completely recruited from Caucasian People of Caucasus (Circassians, nasty Chechens, Ingush filth etc) ,with Kurds being Auxiliary Irregulars in the 11th Army, on the other hand the Yazidis managed to rescue lot of women and children and hand over to newly arrived British forces in Habbaniyah, in fact the Yazidi Chiefs paid in gold and rescued lots of Christians, there are many type of Kurds which are not related to one another the reason they used the word Kurd, in other to avoid being called Ajami, a derogatory term for Persian/Iranian after Arabs conquered Iran. People in Western Iran pick the name Kurd.

Here are Yarsani Kurds, you don't have to be anthropologist to figure out they are different than the ones in Syria, these produce a nasty and potent alcohol, and eat pork, as well at funerals they sing and dance and throw a party, which anathema to Islam.



The female species of these people are one of the most attractive women in middle east, actually every one of them young bird looks like a run away model, take look at women at back playing the stringed instrument, which sound like Guitar on diarrhea, the one in red and one to its left!
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

Some trends on US propaganda news channels


) Crediting US air strikes for the increasing number of ISIS defeats. Including the imminent fall of Falluja, and the Kurdish assault of Raqqa from the north. There is very little mention of the Syrian movement from the south.

2) Increasing mention of US special forces training, leading, and fighting on the front lines , both in Iraq and Syria, and possible future US casualties.

3) A narrative of an unfolding humanitarian disaster in Aleppo, due to Russian and Syrian air strikes and ground attacks.

4) Speculative mentions of possible US military involvement to stop the Syrian / Russian attacks against the "moderate" rebels / opposition, as the attacks break the agreement between the US and Russia to only target ISIS.

5) Also, lets not forget the August deadline.

It seems, the US government is preparing the American public. Anyone want to take a guess for what ?
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by devesh »

Singha,

+1. your analysis is a valuable addition. battlefield tactical management adds a dose of reality on how this conflict is being conducted. thank you.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

the kurds want the main assault on raqqa to also include the local arab tribes as thats well beyond their rojava pride lands. american C130s must be flying in negotiators and bags full of gold bars to buy out the arab tribes and raise armed levies to fill out the ranks for the main push.
manbij the kurds will manage shortly with arab allies. place is open on all sides and no sign of any main ISIS force. journalists are reporting 4km from the town center.

from kurd pov, raqqa gives them no great play as they will have to vacate anyway, so why waste blood on it, let the arabs take it if they can. their main focus is on kicking the ISIS out of manbij , deir hafr and al-bab and linking up with their islanded Afrin canton in the west and crush the azaz pocket that turkey has created.....rojava => the two islands must link up and control the turkish border, and it gives PKK a good rear base also.

amrika seems to have gradually ignored turkish concerns about kurds crossing the euphrates and running with them for now. ofcourse might double cross them once the dirty work is done and fall in with the nato munna.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

If you notice a trend that I see from observing US politics especially after Donald Trump started hitting at Jeb Bush and his elder brother GeeDubelyu (Dubya) for their wars in mid-east. You have seen the pro-Israel lobby USA (PC term for this may be *Wars for Israel* lobby) in USA go hammer & tongs at Trump.

BLM started anti-Trump protests and started creating tension in Trump rallies after this move of Trump against Jeb Bush & his brother.

If you look at the kaleidoscope of people who oppose Trump vociferously in USA, almost all of these are the Wars for Israel group (mostly rich jews with anglicised names), the MIC acolytes (John McCain types) and Mexicans/hispanics.

there was group cohesion and tolerance until the Syrian adventure got nixed by Putin and Obama got stumped at the St. Petersberg summit. Until then things were still smooth sailing. The tension in the air was palpable during that summit. What broke down was the tacit understanding and tolerance between the *wars for Israel* group and the *salt of the earth* US group which comprises of rednecks, nationalists, blue collar whites who did the heavy lifting in any foreign campaign.
habal
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

Meet T-72 optimized for street fighting


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Singha
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

Image
Singha
BRF Oldie
Posts: 66601
Joined: 13 Aug 2004 19:42
Location: the grasshopper lies heavy

Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

^^ month old map. the pus filled daesh pockets north-west of palmyra the maher, jazal and shaer oil fields and attack on tiyas T4 base beaten back over the past month...
habal
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Posts: 6919
Joined: 24 Dec 2009 18:46

Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by habal »

On second thoughts, giving SAA their due:

The offensive toward Tabqa/Raqqa has been one that seems to be well prepared and thought-out, the lower losses for the Syrian allied forces are a good example of that, the other one is that the availability of hardware is noticeable, proper equipment for a desert fight is visible on the troops from the pics provided.

There have been some small set backs, such as gaining a strategic point to lose it in few hours but then regaining strongly and moving on, this is the desert war spirit, of mobility and aggressiveness, the allied forces are doing a remarkable job so far.
The map below gives an excellent idea on the progress so far, the fight for the oil fields (Abiyad and Sfaiyeh) will be fierce, particularly the road from Bir Nabaj, recently secured. This road goes up north, a bit west of Tabqa airbase, this road is possibly the most important one that will give the allied forces a way to by pass the Tabqa crossroad that will see a very tough battle, and help move much faster toward Tabqa airbase, definitively the shortest way to the airbase.

https://twitter.com/hamza_780/status/739924620447485953

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=pt&lat=35.60 ... 2&z=12&m=b
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