Levant crisis - III

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IndraD
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

Syria conflict: Bomb kills dozens in Azaz on Turkish border (toll now > 50)
Azaz is a town in North West of Syria: It is a major stronghold of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army.
Turkey is attacking IS here to gain full control of this town , 1000s of refugees from Aleppo are holed up here.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

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Admiral Kuz along with several naval vessels have started moving towards English Channel once again: this time back to Russia.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

out of all random voices why did esteban hear calls to watch isis videos?

did he discover a new faith after returning from iraq and facing trouble at work?
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

IS fighters in Mosul are not being paid their salary of $350/month. This is due to their oil bases & supply lines cut off by air strikes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z4V6OovV6X
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

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Pictured: Hero police officer who was shot dead by terrorists after he stopped them mounting a devastating attack on a Turkish courthouse and then chased after them to be given highest bravery award.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z4V6PiokIy
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

ISIS proves its talent with long range of TOW ATGMs yet again. deir azzor airport using LOS from jabal thardeh they destroy two SyaF L39 planes parked inside HAS by using a line over the protective berm

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

Erdogan has sent his man to baghdad and agreed to Abadi's demand to withdraw from bashiqa. in return iraq will pipe some oil via turkey once mosul falls and oil production in the north is stabilized - many fields were set alight by isis.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

raqqa ops making quiet progress . isis has pulled reserves from palmyra front back to defend it

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

^^ across from the tabqa dam area is tabqah town and airbase - a major den of the ISIS

meantime shift to night ops in Mosul guided by newly arrived american socom units seems to have yielded good results finally and things are getting back on track after a stalemate

Res Publica Retweeted
Mosul Eye عين الموصل ‏@MosulEye 17h17 hours ago
ISIL wounded fighters r no longer receiving treatment. # of the wounded died of their wounds r 36 fighters, ISIL decided to let them die.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

you can see tabqah airbase at bottom - well within YPG artillery range
Jabar was a major strongpoint on opp shore which YPG has taken now

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

turks have a lot of skills and practice in the genocide/deportation/depopulation thing, next only to the soviets and chinese and germans.

here the greek genocide in asia minor

https://twitter.com/AzadiRojava/status/ ... 3016162304
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »

Russia’s First Year of Operations in Syria

https://southfront.org/russias-first-ye ... -in-syria/
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »


Tupolev Tu-22M Bombers in Action over Syria


https://southfront.org/tupolev-tu-22m-b ... ver-syria/

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Bhurishravas »

Singha wrote:Erdogan has sent his man to baghdad and agreed to Abadi's demand to withdraw from bashiqa. in return iraq will pipe some oil via turkey once mosul falls and oil production in the north is stabilized - many fields were set alight by isis.
Doubt this. That Erdoo would withdraw from Bashiqa. In fact, the only statement that Turkish side has given is that it will be solved in a friendly way.
Besides the turks and Iraqis have agreed to act in support of turk-pasand kurds, the barzanis, to attack Sinjar and end PKK`s influence there.

http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/201 ... top-agenda
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

Sinjar has some conflict between yezidis and peshmerga already. the yezidis are weak and unable to stand up to the kurdish bossing around. they need a new patron and only one comes to mind - YPG. relations between YPG and barzani kurds are not that great , though for now they co-operate.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

A major attack on t4 base beaten off 115 isis dead and 9 vehicles bagged.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

Key district in Mosul captured by Iraqi army : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38532332

Elite troops captured al-Muthana following night-time fighting, an army spokesman said, putting them in a position to take higher ground nearby.
It comes days after Iraqi forces began the second phase of a push to conquer the last major IS stronghold in Iraq.

We used special equipment and had the element of surprise - the enemy did not expect us to mount a night offensive because all previous offensives were during the day," he said.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
At least 7 dead and 10+ wounded after a suicide bomber detonated himself in a market in the Shi'a district of Baladiyat in #Baghdad.


Haidar Sumeri
2h
Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
At least 13 dead and 20+ wounded after a suicide car bomb blast at a vegetable market in the Shi'a district of Jamila in #Baghdad.

Haidar Sumeri
2h
Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Heartbreaking news from #Baghdad as multiple blasts have taken place this morning.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

american drones and planes are active over Idlib, killing JFS elites daily. nobody knows where and how they get target Intel.
my theory is some track2 arrangement where Shams front and Sy mil intel pass it on and use the stealth of the drones rather than a noisy russian AF strike.

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha Jan 6
Despite this statement by other sheikhs of al-Bakkarah tribe, his defection is very significant to Damascus' interest to recapture the East

a key shia(?) ashraf has defected to assad in the east.

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha Jan 6
He traces his lineage to Imam Ali ع through Imam Mohamad al-Baqr ع

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha Jan 6
He is/was known as a notable opposition figure to the Gov based in the eastern region and backed the revolt in 2011

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha Jan 6
Born in DeirEzzor in 1954, he became chieftan of Bakkarah tribe following his father's death in 1990, he is also a former parliamentarian

Hassan Ridha ‏@sayed_ridha Jan 6
Sheikh Nawaf al-Ragheb al-Basheer from al-Bakkarah tribe has reconciled with Gov in Damascus following Iranian mediation
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

100 killed or wounded in azaz by a massive bomb hidden inside a oil tanker.
place is run by turkish proxies and has plenty of displaced civilians and smugglers.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

if DT gets real serious about Raqqa he could send in a couple squadrons of B1 to base in incirlik or jordan for nearness to theater or from al-udeid/thumrait in gulf. they could bomb the crap out of any daesh obstacles using the laser pod and PGMs in a way the russians cannot.

a single b1 which was all obama would commit was seen over kobane

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

this is the trick still missing in the ruaf bomber fleet - internal racks that take a diversity of PGMs and a laser pod borrowed from fighters.
a well fed B1 can sit all day and POUND anything one by one. and cheap gps guided conversion kits jdam. america has done a wonderful job on munitions far beyond anyone else could imagine.

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »

Singha wrote:Hde car bomb blast at a vegetable market in the Shi'a district of Jamila in #Baghdad.

Haidar Sumeri
2h
Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity
Heartbreaking news from #Baghdad as multiple blasts have taken place this morning.
Every time there is even a single bomb blast in Iraq which kill children men and women alike and there have been 100's of dozens so far , They the Iraqi People have to Mourn their Fate for the day when Saddam came to power and the day US Invaded Iraq.

These two factors have lead them to the place where Iraq is there today.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

I have Iraqi colleagues . One of them is Shia & another is Sunni . Their view regarding Saddam is 180 apart . Sectarian divide runs so deep in that country that long term peace is nearly impossible unless the whole area is sanitised and disarmed.
Shia one is bitter how he could not get into army in 90s when Saddam was in power cos he was a Shia, how Shias are fighting militancy while Sunni (North) supports them!
And Sunni complains about rampant corruption in current govt, inept, Saddam was better etc.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

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Singha wrote:if DT gets real serious about Raqqa he could send in a couple squadrons of B1 to base in incirlik or jordan for nearness to theater or from al-udeid/thumrait in gulf. they could bomb the crap out of any daesh obstacles using the laser pod and PGMs in a way the russians cannot
would that really matter , Lets say a upgraded B-1 takes on target with 1-2 m CEP with LGBs and an upgraded Tu-22M3M with SVP-24 upgrade can take a target with 10-15 m CEP with dump bomb then the difference would be marginal.

I mean US has all the aircraft fighting there and there are 300 of them if I am not wrong of US and Allies that are LGB capable , yet what result are they achieving compared to their lesser counterpart Russian Airforce

Likely these ISIS are not fighting in a open field but in areas close to civilans or mingled with civilians , the civilian casulty in case of both would be the same , this is an unconventional warfare and an asymetric one too.

If they fight in open field then both aircraft would end up damaging them similarly.

if you are taking out an industrial target or specific military infra then a LGB guided bomb or GPS one would be more effective but a CEP of 10-15 m is not bad either for 250-500 kg bomb if you are fighting a jihadi that are widely dispersed ,running , driving and among civilians
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

this is really fascinating. iraq has seen shia, yazidi and kurdish uprisings, massacres, military coups and british meddling not in recent times but starting from the 1930s. great read if you take the time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Iraq

the genesis of the turkish claims on mosul

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosul_Question
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Re: Levant crisis - III

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IndraD wrote:I have Iraqi colleagues . One of them is Shia & another is Sunni . Their view regarding Saddam is 180 apart . Sectarian divide runs so deep in that country that long term peace is nearly impossible unless the whole area is sanitised and disarmed.
Shia one is bitter how he could not get into army in 90s when Saddam was in power cos he was a Shia, how Shias are fighting militancy while Sunni (North) supports them!
And Sunni complains about rampant corruption in current govt, inept, Saddam was better etc.
Yes sectarian divide runs deep but Saddam being Son of Soil knew how to tame them either by brute force or by financial incentives that kept these divide under control even during the worst days of 90's post gulf war 1. They are Bedouins & Tribals who have their own culture and as such were to be ruled by that thousands of year of culture ......Democracy had no place in such society.

That is how the King Ruled over their Kingdom for centuries , Now with Democracy and all that is gone and the sectarian divide has taken a more voilent turn with game of one upmanship among them in terms of terror strike hitting each other.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Bhurishravas »

https://www.rt.com/news/372957-turkey-p ... d-hacking/
Turkey blames sabotage, cyberattacks from US soil for power cuts
“Yesterday, we faced an intense, US-originated cyber attack. These attacks have been carried out systematically on different parts of the Energy Ministry, but we have repelled them all,” Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said in an interview with A Haber TV.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

Mosul battle: Iraqi government forces reach Tigris river
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by UlanBatori »

The video of the ISIS ATGMs hitting the aircraft parked inside shelters - the lettering is in Hebrew, is it not?
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Singha »

yes looks like hebrew to me ... or greek

btw a suspected ISIS affiliated truck driver killed 4 IDF troopers on a road yesterday...he could easily have killed 10 more with a few degrees course change because a large group was standing on a road.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

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Julie Lenarz ‏@MsJulieLenarz 4h4 hours ago
#US special forces carried out raid on #ISIS compound in #DeirEzzor. Multiple subjects taken alive, which suggests high profile targets.

this has happened once before.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

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Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 4h4 hours ago
Huge bombardment by #Iraq's Air Force of Da'ish targets across western #Anbar specifically Rawah and Al-Qa'im.

Haidar Sumeri ‏@IraqiSecurity 11h11 hours ago
It's been a long journey but #Iraq's armed forces have reached the Tigris river that divides #Mosul in half.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Austin »

Yemeni Huthis defeated another armored column Saudi coalition

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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by Bheeshma »

More power to houtis!! May they take out rawheel and his sunni coalition.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by UlanBatori »

Singha wrote:Julie Lenarz ‏@MsJulieLenarz 4h4 hours ago
#US special forces carried out raid on #ISIS compound in #DeirEzzor. Multiple subjects taken alive, which suggests high profile targets.
this has happened once before.
Kunduz 2017? If it was after Jan 20 I might believe they are serious, but sadly what I've seen of BOWHOTUS inspires no confidence. Wonder what's the deal with ISrael vs ISpigs.
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Re: Levant crisis - III

Post by IndraD »

As per UK media Iraqi forces are making slow but steady progress in Mosul

Here CTS are seen shooting at drones flown by IS

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Re: Levant crisis - III

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some new chaal or change of plans by massa occured in massa's head since last week. mosul progress has greatly speeded up, iraqis are fighting at night now (perhaps cued by drones and socom NVG gear), VBIEDs have come down in numbers ...

ISIS looks defeated on the eastern bank, reports of dozens of wounded isis dying for lack of medical care
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Re: Levant crisis - III

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Pentagon chief claims US fighting ISIS alone, Russia doing ‘virtually zero’ in Syria
Russia has done “virtually zero” in the fight against Islamic State terrorists in Syria the US Secretary of Defense has claimed, contending that the US and its coalition partners are carrying this burden “by themselves.”

“They haven’t done anything,” Ash Carter stated in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press. “They came in, they said they were going to fight ISIL, and they said they were going to help in the civil war in Syria.”

“They haven’t done either of those things. As a consequence of course, we’re fighting ISIL ourselves,” adding that Moscow achieved “virtually zero” in Syria.

Carter moved on to praise US-led efforts to free the Iraqi city of Mosul which has been ongoing since the mid-October. He said the US campaign there is going “according to the plan” – contrasting with initial projections and US media reports that Iraq’s second largest city would be liberated in time for the US elections in November.

Criticizing Russian involvement in Syria, Carter said that it “almost certainly” made the ending of Syrian civil war “harder,” because Moscow failed to align with Washington’s intention to oust the Syrian president and failed to “help Assad move aside gently” and “bring the moderate opposition into the Syrian government.” :lol:
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