Levant crisis - III

[Lalmohan]

Singha - could I request that you or other learned maulaner here open a dhaaga on non-linear warfare...?

[Singha]

^^ feel free to open it yourself with a initial post explaining the mission statement

(TASS) About 6,000 gunmen are trying to fight their way through towards eastern Aleppo, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"The most serious situation in Syria is still around Aleppo," the diplomat said. "Jihadists attacking from southwest continue their attempts to force a corridor towards eastern neighborhoods of the city," she went on.

"According to different estimates, up to 6,000 gunmen are engaged in the operation, the tactical direction carried out by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (former Jabhat al-Nusra) through the central headquarters," she said.

[Y. Kanan]

assad = pitiful, pathetic and douche bag performance. just like most ME armies. the hooties excepted. with a name like hootie you better be tough because everybody in the neighborhood will want to kick your rear end.

boo hoo cry me a river.

I wonder how well US infantry would fare against a well armed numerically superior foe, fighting without the massive artillery, drone, air and space support American forces enjoy. On meager rations, and for years on end.

Any American unit would have collapsed, surrendered or routed by now. US troops do well only when they enjoy a MASSIVE advantage in logistics, support and combat power. When the going gets rough they collapse.

Under the same conditions there is no way in hell US troops could do what Syrian, Hezbollah and Iranian forces do. Not even close.

FACT.

[Rishi Verma]

Y. I Kannan, request you to drop getting personal with TSJ and also stop imaginary scenario of If American troops would collaps or not. Let's just discuss Levant Crisis as it unfolds.

[Singha]

I support that request

[TSJones]

I would point out that assad has had superior air and armor power during the whole current syrian conflict and is a long time russian client and equipment user. a few years ago syria shot down a turkish plane off its coast. I tremble to think what the hooties would do with that. some decent chow, boots and uniforms backed by armor and air superiority???

[Lalmohan]

the hooties have a long history of being superb guerrillas. not sure they would work well in a conventional army

[Singha]

Their terrain is also mountainous and saudis can only fight from fortified places and mraps...hence very vulnerable to houthi ambushes. They are looking to buy some uav to get around that.

Syaf except few mig29 is very very old kit.

Their armour proved vulnerable in open terrain to atgm but they learnt how to fight in urban areas incl cage armour

Their most pressing issue is too many fronts and too little men hence the need for guest militias...iraq has no such manpower issue and taking it one fight at a time which luxury assad never had...he was swarmed all over the place. By rights aleppo and deir azzor would be lost long ago

A section of saa vets are dead and another deserted to the fsa like the tow shooting atgm ace colonel from infantry school who kia in aleppo last week..sch seasoned vets are worth a lot to bring ppl up to speed nd help them survive. Hezbollah probably has seniors in every platoon so they usually do ok.

[Singha]

15h
Al-Masdar News ‏@TheArabSource
Rebels accuse the #US of attacking their forces in #Idlib https://aml.ink/QNTB0 #Syria

[Austin]

Combat application-500PM bombs ODAB in Syria

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2242974.html



In the bow is a complex electromechanical device designed for arming and spraying the explosive. The bomb contains 193 kg vysokoenergiticheskoy volatile liquid. The tail section is placed parachute brake. After resetting the bomb through the set time begins spraying warfare agent. The resulting aerosol is converted into a gas-air mixture, which in fact undermined by the fuse. Explosion forms extremely strong wave of overpressure. The effective range of the full explosive against enemy personnel in open terrain is 30 meters against aircraft equipment on parking - 30 meters against the manpower in the trenches and field facilities - 25 meters.

[habal]

Gentlemen,

It's that time of the year again



Now joining a long list of luminaries.

here is da latest one.

ta daaaaaaa








Now inducted in GREAT WALL OF SHAME

WALL OF SHAME

[habal]

JIhadists in Aleppo heartbroken and weeping at Hillary's loss.

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Walid
‏@walid970721
Hadi Abdallah's dream of a no-fly-zone was shattered when he heard of Hillary's defeat. He &a fellow jihadist comfort each other as they cry

https://twitter.com/walid970721/status/ ... +272699392

Tupolev Tu-22M Bombers in Action Over Syria

[Singha]

still no strikes off the kuznetsov - hope she has not broken down or awaiting for Trumps coronation which is only in Jan.

[habal]

Turkey gets that season itch .. again

watsit called ... wat should it be called .. the sultan's haemorrhage.

via George Ades, 8 hrs ago Nicosia, Cyprus
TURKEY READY TO INVADE IRAQ

The Iraqi Ambassador to Ankara was summoned and issued an ultimatum: “If the Iraqi government does not remove Shia Militias and PKK Kurds from the Mosul area in the next 24 hours, it will be done by the Turkish forces.”
According to sources in Greek Intelligence, senior military officers have already established themselves in the Turkish town of Sirnak on the border with Iraq to be in close proximity of the operations. Also that Turkish Special Forces are already on Iraqi soil carrying out reconnaissance.

[Singha]

at the end of that video there is a brief glimpse of a pakda cg.

[Singha]

turkish armour will get slaughtered is my prediction. everyone in iraq is prepared to fight them barring a limited section of turkoman munnas.

barzani takes money from both istanbul and baghdad and tried to play both sides, but when he has to choose saving his own hide will choose baghdad as his life will be tough otherwise, so he wont help this invasion but sit out.

[Austin]

still no strikes off the kuznetsov - hope she has not broken down or awaiting for Trumps coronation which is only in Jan.

They might be striking other parts of Syria need not be Allepo.

All Eyes are on Allepo strike these days but there would be action in other areas

[Philip]

Mosul isn't the tasty morsel that could be swallowed up in a jiffy by the Crusader led coalition! Snipers are having a field day trx to the tunnel network of the ungodly bands of ISIS.

The anti-Assad bumchums are desperately trying to force a corridor into safety They expect the worst v.shortly and after Don Trump has become the "Capo de Tutti Capi" of La Merica,"with a view to a kill",the vermin must be in abso panic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/ ... ps-victory

Syrian opposition left with nowhere to turn after Trump's victory
US president-elect likely to endorse Russia’s policy of bombing rebels to the negotiating table
Syrian pro-government soldiers gesture as they walk down a road in eastern Aleppo.

Friday 11 November 2016
As Donald Trump was claiming victory on Wednesday, Syrian opposition leaders were wrapping up a meeting in Stockholm that was supposed to map a way out of the mire in Aleppo, but instead ended their hopes of winning the five-year civil war.

The group of political leaders and heads of militant groups had invested much hope in Hillary Clinton, who had suggested as secretary of state that robustly supporting the opposition could serve the US’s interests.

The Donald Trump doctrine: 'Assad is bad' but US must stop 'nation-building'

Trump, on the other hand, had spoken in support of Bashar al-Assad. And, more importantly, he had expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president whose support for the Syrian leader has already tipped the conflict in his favour.

“The reaction was simple,” said one of the participants at the meeting, talking of Trump’s victory speech. “One of the leaders shrugged and said ‘we are like cockroaches, nothing can kill us’, and then they moved on.”

Beyond the bravado, there was a clear recognition among those present that Trump would endorse Putin’s policy of bombing the opposition to the negotiating table, while starving communities that support them into surrender.

Opposition political leaders expect the US president-elect to frame his Syria policy as a fight against Islamic State in its last strongholds in the country’s north-east. The position is not completely dissimilar to that of the outgoing president, Barack Obama, although his administration had also spent several years trying to organise a cohesive opposition force – providing training and limited weaponry to 70 opposition units – and consistently demanded that Assad leave and cede power to a transitional government. Trump’s own transition team is reportedly skeptical of investing anything further in the opposition.

One influential Russian foreign affairs analyst, Vladimir Frolov, on Thursday confidently declared that Trump would be unlikely to stand in Putin’s way, and would in January accept as a fait accompli whatever Russia presented him with.

Rebel fighters in Aleppo follow news about Donald Trump’s election as US president.

Rebel fighters in Aleppo follow news about Donald Trump’s election as US president. Photograph: Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters
“That might not be too far from the truth,” said a senior European official involved in discussions over Syria. “We expect that he will defer to Putin on many things. This one is actually rather simple for him. He will outsource it and concentrate on Isis.”

Donald Trump at the White House: Obama reports 'excellent conversation' – as it happened
Russia has so far not carried out its threat of using a carrier group it has stationed near Cyprus to obliterate what remains of opposition-held east Aleppo, the fate of which will be crucial to who wins the war. The lead-up to Tuesday’s vote in the US was seen as a tempting window for Putin to finish the job he started more than a year ago and ramped up sharply over the summer with a relentless blitz of rebel-held districts that has rendered much of east Aleppo uninhabitable.

Trump had already indicated he would withdraw remaining US support for the Syrian opposition, which remains dug in in east Aleppo and the countryside between the Turkish border. He had also suggested that shoring up Assad could prevent further extremism. Assad was quick to embrace Trump, with his spokesperson Buthaina Shaaban telling US public radio, NPR, of a “readiness to cooperate”, adding that the presidential election had sent “a very important message to the world”.

Both of Trump’s pre-poll positions had been strongly rejected by rebel figures over several years of meetings, in which they had repeatedly pleaded for arms that could defend them from Russia’s battle-changing weaponry and insisted that – far from being a victim of terrorism – Assad had fostered the extremists’ rise, in order to splinter the insurrection’s goals.

Opposition officials have constantly argued that they have invested much in ousting Isis from much of northern Syria, pointing to more than 1,500 casualties and ground lost to Syrian forces while fighting Isis.

The binary “Assad or the terrorists” line has been levelled constantly by critics of the opposition, who say they cannot claim to be keeping extremists at bay while a another jihadi group, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, is embedded among them, and leading a current push on loyalist west Aleppo.

If the US was to withdraw its support, it would mean the CIA would play a much lesser role, or no role at all, in vetting weapons that are sent into Syria from Turkey. A core CIA function has been to ensure that anti-aircraft weapons, which could be lethal against civilian airlines, are not given to rebel groups for use against the Syrian and Russian air forces.

The southern front, which was an active area of operations for the CIA and Jordanian officials has been all but closed to weapons re-supplies for the past six months. The Turkish border remains the only meaningful supply line for rebels who are fast running out of options – and are leaking support elsewhere.

Saudi Arabia, which had supplied CIA-vetted rebel units with anti-tank missiles that had decimated Assad’s ageing armour (?), has increasingly disengaged from Syria. One senior Saudi official told the Guardian in September that Syria was no longer in the kingdom’s top five regional priorities. Turkey too has adopted a different posture in recent months, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – once the most vocal proponent of the Syrian opposition – remaining mute as the Russian blitz of east Aleppo drew widespread international outcry.

On the ground though, Turkey has taken a more direct role inside Syria, sending its armour in support of Syrian Arab forces 11 miles from the Syrian town of al-Bab, the most western stronghold of Isis.

At the same time, it has insisted that the US, which has partnered with Syrian Kurdish forces to advance on the Isis epicentre of Raqqa, does not enter the city itself. Turkish officials say they have received assurances from the US military that its Kurdish proxies will only isolate Raqqa and that no decision will be taken to enter the city before Trump’s inauguration.

One senior rebel leader, whose unit still receives weapons through Turkey, said there was little option but to fight on, even with waning support. “At least he isn’t pretending,” the official said of Trump. “I watched the TV and it said we were getting all these weapons from Obama. Where were they? I didn’t see them!”

n

[Singha]

Wapo - this explains the mysterious strikes in Idlib

By Adam Entous November 10 at 4:42 PM
President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to find and kill the leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Syria that the administration had largely ignored until now and that has been at the vanguard of the fight against the Syrian government, U.S. officials said.

The decision to deploy more drones and intelligence assets against the militant group formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra reflects Obama’s concern that it is turning parts of Syria into a new base of operations for al-Qaeda on Europe’s southern doorstep, the officials said.

The move underlines the extent to which Obama has come to prioritize the counter­terrorism mission in Syria over efforts to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, as al-Nusra is among the most effective forces­­ battling the Syrian government.

[Amid a world of problems, Trump’s policy prescriptions remain opaque]

That shift is likely to accelerate once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has said he will be even more aggressive in going after militants than Obama, a stance that could lead to the expansion of the campaign against al-Nusra, possibly in direct cooperation with Moscow. The group now calls itself Jabhat Fatah al-Sham — or Front for the Conquest of Syria — and says it has broken with al-Qaeda, an assertion discounted by U.S. officials.

President Obama arrives at the 71st annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, on Sept. 20, 2016. (Peter Foley/Via Bloomberg)
The United States has conducted sporadic strikes in the past against veteran al-Qaeda members who migrated to northwestern Syria from Afghanistan and Pakistan to join al-Nusra and whom U.S. officials suspected of plotting against the United States and its allies.

Obama’s new order gives the U.S. military’s Joint Special ­Operations Command, or JSOC, wider authority and additional intelligence-collection re­sources to go after al-Nusra’s broader leadership, not just al-Qaeda veterans or those directly involved in external plotting.

The White House and State Department led the charge within the Obama administration for prioritizing action against the group. Pentagon leaders were reluctant at first to pull resources away from the fight against the Islamic State.


But aides say Obama grew frustrated that more wasn’t being done by the Pentagon and the intelligence community to kill al-Nusra leaders given the warnings he had received from top counter­terrorism officials about the gathering threat they posed.

In the president’s Daily Brief, the most highly classified intelligence report produced by U.S. spy agencies, Obama was repeatedly told over the summer that the group was allowing al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan to create in northwest Syria the largest haven for the network since it was scattered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Officials also warned Obama that al-Nusra could try to fill the void as its rival, the Islamic State, lost ground.

Lisa Monaco, Obama’s White House homeland security and counter­terrorism adviser, said Obama’s decision “prioritized our fight against al-Qaeda in Syria, including through targeting their leaders and operatives, some of whom are legacy al-Qaeda members.”

“We have made clear to all parties in Syria that we will not allow al-Qaeda to grow its capacity to attack the U.S., our allies, and our interests,” she said in a statement. “We will continue to take action to deny these terrorists any safe haven in Syria.”

In this 2013 photo, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra sit on a truck full of ammunition at Taftanaz air base, that was captured by the rebels, in Idlib province, northern Syria. (Edlib News Network/AP)
To support the expanded push against al-Nusra, the White House pressed the Pentagon to deploy additional armed drones and intelligence-collection assets in the airspace over northwestern Syria, an area that had been sparsely covered by the United States until now because of its proximity to advanced Russian air-defense systems and aircraft.

[Who will Trump be as commander in chief?]

A bitterly divided Obama administration had tried over the summer to cut a deal with Moscow on a joint U.S.-Russian air campaign against al-Nusra, in exchange for a Russian commitment to ground Syrian government warplanes and to allow more humanitarian supplies into besieged areas. But the negotiations broke down in acrimony, with Moscow accusing the United States of failing to separate al-Nusra from more moderate rebel groups and Washington accusing the Russians of war crimes in Aleppo.


Armed drones controlled by JSOC stepped up operations in September, according to military officials.

Drone strikes by the U.S. military under the program began in October and have so far killed at least four high-value targets, including al-Nusra’s senior external planner. The Pentagon has disclosed two of the strikes so far. One of the most significant strikes — targeting a gathering of al-Nusra leaders on Nov. 2 — has yet to be disclosed, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operations.

So far, Russian air-defense systems and aircraft haven’t interfered with stepped-up U.S. operations against al-Nusra. Officials attributed Moscow’s acquiescence to the limited number of U.S. aircraft involved in the missions and to Russia’s interest in letting Washington combat one of the Assad regime’s most potent enemies within the insurgency. U.S. officials said they provided notifications to the Russians before the al-Nusra strikes to avoid misunderstandings.

Officials said the expanded al-Nusra campaign was similar to those that Obama has directed against al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

While al-Qaeda’s central leadership in Pakistan has been decimated, the United States now faces more threats involving more extremists from more places than at any time since 9/11, Nicholas J. Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a Senate committee in September.

The push into the province of Idlib and other parts of northwestern Syria coincides with ­Pentagon-backed offensives in and around Islamic State strongholds in eastern Syria and in Iraq, which have attracted the majority of U.S. military resources and public attention.

White House officials had considered launching a more systematic campaign to destroy al-Nusra from top to bottom, much like the Pentagon’s approach to the Islamic State. But that option was rejected as too resource-intensive. Many of al-Nusra’s fighters are Syrians who joined the group because of its ample supply of weapons and cash, and its commitment to defeating Assad, not to plot against the West.


Officials said the strikes on leadership targets were meant to send a message to more-moderate rebel units, including those backed by the CIA, to distance themselves from the al-Qaeda affiliate. At critical moments during the five-year-old civil war, moderate rebel units have fought alongside al-Nusra in ground operations against Assad’s forces. In fact, U.S. officials credit those rebel campaigns in the spring of 2015 with putting so much pressure on the Syrian government that Russia and Iran decided to double down militarily in support of Assad.

U.S. officials who opposed the decision to go after al-Nusra’s wider leadership warned that the United States would effectively be doing the Assad government's bidding by weakening a group on the front line of the counter-
Assad fight. The strikes, these officials warned, could backfire on the United States by bolstering the group’s standing, helping it attract more recruits and resources.

Officials who supported the shift said the Obama administration could no longer tolerate what one of them described as “a deal with the devil,” whereby the United States largely held its fire against al-Nusra because the group was popular with Syrians in rebel-controlled areas and furthered the U.S. goal of putting military pressure on Assad. Russia had accused the United States of sheltering al-Nusra, a charge repeated Thursday in Moscow by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“The president doesn’t want this group to be what inherits the country if Assad ever does fall,” a senior U.S. official said. “This cannot be the viable Syrian opposition. It’s al-Qaeda.”

Officials said the administration’s hope is that more-moderate rebel factions will be able to gain ground as both the Islamic State and al-Nusra come under increased military pressure.

A growing number of White House and State Department officials, however, have privately voiced doubts about the wisdom of applying U.S. military power, even covertly, to pressure Assad to step aside, particularly since Russia’s military intervention in Syria last year.


U.S. intelligence officials say they aren’t sure what Trump’s approach to U.S.-backed rebel units will be once he gets briefed on the extent of the covert CIA program. Trump has voiced strong skepticism about arming Syrian rebels in the past, suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t have enough knowledge about rebel intentions to pick reliable allies.

[Intelligence community is already feeling a sense of dread about Trump]

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and other Pentagon leaders initially resisted the idea of devoting more Pentagon surveillance aircraft and armed drones against al-Nusra. In White House Situation Room meetings, Carter and other top Pentagon officials argued that the military’s resources were needed to combat the Islamic State and that it would be difficult to operate in the airspace given Russia’s military presence, officials said.

While Obama, White House national security adviser Susan E. Rice, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and special presidential envoy Brett McGurk agreed with Carter on the need to keep the focus on the Islamic State, they favored shifting resources to try to prevent al-Nusra from becoming a bigger threat down the road.

A senior defense official said additional drone assets were assigned to the JSOC mission. Carter also made clear that the Pentagon’s goal would be to hit al-Nusra leadership targets, not take strikes to try to separate the moderate rebels from al-Nusra, officials said.

“If we wake up in five years from now, and Islamic State is dead but al-Qaeda in Syria has the equivalent of [the tribal areas of Pakistan] in northwest Syria, then we’ve got a problem,” a second senior U.S. official said.

[Singha]

so Rus, Assad and US seem to have a covert deal - syria will be partitioned into Rojava in the east , US will go after mostly ISIS and Rus will go after mostly Al-nusra and co incl Aleppo. Idlib will eventually be won back and turkey will be made to sit aside except its buffer zone.

Deir azzor is probably ok if the CIA ops are jordan are being wound up. at some point SAA + PMU will kill all jihadis there and clean the swamp, kurds have no interest that far south.

[Austin]

so Rus, Assad and US seem to have a covert deal - syria will be partitioned into Rojava in the east , US will go after mostly ISIS and Rus will go after mostly Al-nusra and co incl Aleppo. Idlib will eventually be won back and turkey will be made to sit aside except its buffer zone.

Deir azzor is probably ok if the CIA ops are jordan are being wound up. at some point SAA + PMU will kill all jihadis there and clean the swamp, kurds have no interest that far south.

May I ask where did you get that from ?

[Singha]

just my theory of the situation thats all and assessment of assads strength + russian extent of interest in the mess. it could change next week as someone double crosses.

assad is in no position to fight a large scale war against rojava esp as the US can easily feed them high quality weapons and surveillance data.
so lets say he decides to live with them
next in exchange for assad giving up raqqa & rojava , Idlib could be taken as a chip on table - its way too close to assad and tartous to be allowed to exists a NWFP - thats why US has started dronacharya there
PMU has already said they will be willing to consider helping in syria after mosul and work with assad govt - the logical place to clean up is deir azzor

turkey would get to keep its buffer zone to keep them pacified vs the kurds and not restart another FSA invasion in latakia and idlib after current FSA are routed.

between here and then is probably 1 year and the death of 25,000 people mostly jihadis.

trump would not be keen to get sucked deeper into the mess.

[Singha]

ofcourse assad can thunder that he will reconquer every inch of syria ... right now he is with much difficulty eradicating rebel pockets a few miles of his palace! and having great trouble taking over a city 1/4 the size of mosul. I have no idea how he plans to recapture western aleppo state and north hama before making a move on Idlib...it will need a huge effort.

if I were a pragmatic survivor I would take whatever deal the russians can broker for him, and live on and end the war which is 5 years old now. too long a war and he risks the elites getting tired and mounting conspiracy to depose him and sign a peace deal.

but he needs to stay sharp for now and retake Idlib and Aleppo. turkey is busy in east and does not want to antagonize russia so will make some noises but stay out of the fight.

[habal]

Assad cannot clear all places at once for obvious reasons, once Ghouta, Daaraa are clear, then those SAA will be repositioned in DeZ or Aleppo. From thereon things will end very fast. Russians will keep quiet for time being because Trump is just elected and can come under pressure from the usual lobbies against him. As it is, they are bussing in folks to keep up some kind of imaginary pressure on Trump.

The rebels are now cornered into narrow zones, once the bombing starts, it will all fold up double quick. My opinion is as per ground situation and local intelligence, the task can be completed with heavy aerial bombing within 2 weeks to 6 weeks.

[Singha]

Stratfor ‏@Stratfor 18h18 hours ago
Satellite images show Islamic State sabotage has made the #Mosul airport essentially worthless as a strategic asset.

[habal]

The reason why Rojava will not get Russian approval IMO is because it brings into play the trans mid-east Qatar-Turkey pipeline which directly targets the Russian gas monopoly over Europe. Do you think they will allow it ?

[Singha]

it could still be used as a base for helicopters though...to evac wounded, fly in essential stuff like ammo , to refuel and rearm gunships ...

[Singha]

Qatar has funded some of the FSA units who are at Rojavas throat and killed kurds. will they be inclined to allow it?

[Singha]

another Minas tirith...armies are on the march

[Singha]

Pmu scout unit moving toward tal afar
..the main infantry is much slower on foot

https://mobile.twitter.com/IraqiSecurit ... 44/video/1

[Singha]

Maybe in another few days they will contact the first line of tal afar defence

Meantime daesh have built 25km of berms to defend al bab from all sides and mined the roads

I get a spider feel that fsa saa and ypg will reach it together from different directions and somehow find a way to co operate in beating isis ... none of the 3 are serious about fighting each other....

I feel amrika will lean on turkey to let al bab go to ypg . Russia will also go along if they have covert deal for rojava and made assad agree to it

[Singha]

Reports suggest the Islamic State is eager to sever the Syrian Arab Army's (SAA) narrow supply road to the provincial capital of Aleppo, a military venture undertaken successfully several times by jihadist forces in recent years.

Although the SAA has historically reversed encroachments upon its Aleppo supply line within weeks, newly released pictures by an ISIS outlet suggests a military build-up by the caliphate's soldiers on the eastern flank of the Khanasser-Aleppo road.

If ISIS was to cut off the SAA's supply line to Aleppo city, it would likely cause SAA commanders to abandon any plans of a military campaign intended to liberate Al-Bab, the Islamic State's last stronghold in Aleppo provin

[Singha]

Daesh unleashes reign of terror in mosul

ISIS prepares sulfur pits, hangs 'traitors' on lampposts as Iraqi troops close in on Mosul
https://www.rt.com/news/366562-mosul-isis-sufur-pits/

[Singha]

West aleppo is back to april lines. Next move by the tiger is awaited. This time saa was ready with proper men and tactics....the 2nd invasion was s damp squib

[Singha]

These remnant dregs have no idea what to do and no leaders. Just leftover bandits with guns ruling over isolated villages. Will be killed one by one

81

Haidar Sumeri
16h
Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Latest in a string of ops led by #Iraq's army to cleanse the Diyala-Salahuddin border region which still serves as a Da'ish stronghold.



Haidar Sumeri
17h
Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Huge raid by #Iraq's army on the village of Mutaybijah on the Diyala-Salahuddin border. 25+ Da'ish militants killed, more wounded/fled.

[Singha]

Tos1 strike mosul

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=6e5_1478879082

[Austin]

Frigate "Admiral Grigorovich" with cruise missiles "Caliber" is ready to perform combat missions in Syria - source
11.12.2016 14:51:18

Moscow. 12 November. INTERFAX - The newest frigate "Admiral Grigorovich", equipped with cruise missiles "Caliber", joined the reserves in the Syrian port of Tartus, ready to perform combat missions with the Russian naval group, told "Interfax" on Saturday, the Russian military-diplomatic source.

"Cruise Missiles" Calibre ", which is armed frigate" Admiral Grigorovich "allows to apply high-precision strikes on targets of terrorists on the whole territory of Syria," - said the agency.

He said that after entering the Tartus port on the frigate is a preparation for a combat operation, checked on-board electronic systems control missile weapons, the crew is busy training.

"currently, the ship filled up all the stocks after the transition from the Black sea to the Mediterranean. The frigate is ready to perform combat missions in a group of Russian warships, which includes the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser" Admiral Kuznetsov "and the nuclear cruiser "Peter the Great" -. according to a source

carrier-based aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov" operates flights in Syrian airspace to study the theater of operations, the ship's artist of the Russian Federation is ready to launch strikes against terrorists at any time, he said on the eve of "Interfax" a source.

on the eve of the source and He said naval aircraft carrier group of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean sea continuously conducts preparation for strikes against terrorists and "is ready to start operation at any time." According to him, present off the coast of Syria, Russian reconnaissance ships are active in exploration in the coastal zone and in the depths of the country.

"Reveals new objects terrorists to target designation of naval aviation and armed with cruise missiles" Caliber "frigate" Admiral Grigorovich, "- said the source .

in the Mediterranean, there is a Russian naval carrier strike group led by the heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Peter the great". The group, in particular, the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser "Admiral Kuznetsov", the large anti-submarine ship "Severomorsk", "Vice-Admiral Kulakov" and the frigate "Admiral Grigorovich."

on Thursday, the US military reported that the expected start soon massed Russian combined air and missile attacks on targets in Syria using, including carrier-based aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov". according to military sources in the US, based on the Russian aircraft carrier carrier-based fighter Su-33 and MiG-29K with ammunition already started flying over Syrian territory, but hitting is not yet applied.

As previously reported "Interfax", as part of wing, "Admiral Kuznetsov" - the latest MiG fighter 29KR / Kubra and planes Su-33 multi-purpose helicopters Ka-27 radar picket helicopter Ka-31. In addition, for the "Admiral Kuznetsov" was prepared by combat helicopters Ka-52K "Katran" (naval version of the Ka-52 "Alligator").

In August, two Russian small missile ship "Serpukhov" and "Green dollars" struck from the Mediterranean Sea to the terrorists in Syria, "caliber" three blows.

"Admiral Kuznetsov" was laid on the stocks of the Black Sea Shipyard in 1982. The ship can carry more than 50 aircraft. As part of his arms - as cruise anti-ship missiles "Granit", anti-aircraft missile and missile-gun complexes "Blade" and "Chestnut", automatic naval gun mount, as well as anti-submarine defense system.

The cruiser "Peter the Great" - the world's largest current neavianesuschy impact warship with nuclear power plant. It is designed to destroy large enemy surface targets provide a comprehensive air defense and anti-submarine warships connections.

"Admiral Grigorovich" - Project 1135.6 frigate. It has unlimited seaworthiness and the most modern weapons, allowing the ship to be multi-functional to meet the objectives. The basis of his arms -. Missile complex "Caliber-NK"

"It's quite a powerful carrier strike groups there and antisubmarine and antiship defense, and the possibility of strikes.", - Said earlier, "Interfax" the former Chief of General Staff of the Russian Navy, Admiral Viktor Kravchenko on Russian warships that are in the Mediterranean sea.

[IndraD]

Syrian army breaks back of Aleppo rebel counter-attack
#SyriaWar
Government forces capture Dahiyet al-Assad district of western Aleppo, reversing all gains made by rebels two weeks into offensive

[Philip]

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[IndraD]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 13346.html

Donald Trump signifies he will end US support for Syrian rebels despite their pleas to him for help