The Levant crisis.(Israel,SYRIA,Lebanon,etc)

[Satya_anveshi]

Syria's War Battlefield Update for 9th November, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd2XuoFW9wI

[habal]

So what does KSA get in return?

Russia Could Propose Saudi Arabia Arms Contracts Worth $10Bln

Assad head on a platter
Or

Assad enjoys walks along the river Moskava also a dacha in Urals

Assad has already said bye-bye to many of his detractors, Tony Abbott, Stephen Harper, Nikolas Sarkozy, next year he will say tata to Obama.

[Satya_anveshi]

Nov 10, 2015
free and frank discussion about why not distract Russia in Ukraine so they can ease up in Syria.
But wait, that card has been played/burnt. Minks deal is similar to Vienna in spirit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb58ipOxPOY

[habal]

Lot of clues of metrojet crash in this article, a bomb cannot cause severing of communication between ATC and plane. Bomb cannot cause erratic flight path of going up & down. It will be all down after bomb explodes. So either cockpit radio/sat link was hacked and then plane was struck by missile fired from ground OR after AA missile strike an engine was disabled and hence cockpit radio was hacked to prevent any mayday call OR FBW controls + radio jammed by external operator.

USA-Israel 'airforce games' were also going on in vicinity over Israel. Nice folks to have around. Maybe they spared an Apache with a jammer to supervise the entire mission.

The fact that the pilot's last communication, from 30,000 feet, reported a malfunction in the airplane's wireless devices and that he asked for an emergency landing indicates that the airplane may have been in the process of being hacked externally through its satellite wireless connection. It is interesting to note that the report of the "malfunction in the wireless devices" has not been published in a single U.S. newspaper or media outlet.

Secondly, the fact that this was the pilot's last communication is significant. Even if the plane had stalled, as it seems to have done, and fallen from 30,000 feet, the pilot still would have had several minutes to communicate with air traffic controllers in Cairo - unless his communications link had been cut, which appears to be the case.

Viktor Yung, a director general of Metrojet, said, "from the moment since the events took a tragic turn, the crew became incapacitated," adding, there was not "a single attempt to get in touch (with air traffic control) and report the situation on board."

NO MAYDAY

Egypt's Civil Aviation Authority reported that no Mayday signal was sent from the plane and that communication with the aircraft was normal until the aircraft disappeared from radar. This is a very telling piece of information because it indicates that the normal communication channels with the cockpit crew had been cut before the plane was remotely hijacked and sabotaged.

Last contact with the flight from flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbing to 30,875 feet, after which it showed erratic altitudes and speed indications. Last altitude recorded was 27,925 feet at a speed of just 62 knots. Apparently, the plane had lost all engine power. The fact that the last altitude recorded by Flightradar24 was 27,925 feet indicates that the plane's ADS-B transponder stopped functioning - or was turned off at that point.

- See more at: http://www.bollyn.com/index.php#article_15282

An official in the Egyptian Air traffic control has told local reporters that the last communication with the pilot of the Russian plane was while he was flying at 30 thousand feet. The pilot complained of malfunction in the wireless devices and he asked for an emergency landing at the nearest airport.

- “Russian plane crash,” The Telegraph (UK), October 31, 2015
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... nsula.html

[Singha]

SA captain Graeme Smith also oversaw the departure of many a eng and aus skipper. He was always around with a evil smile

[habal]

Herr Dr. Assad has actually bid farewell to a large list of luminaries. He has successfully waved off Hillary Clinton, Jose Zapatero, Guido Westerwelle, William Hague, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sergio Berlusconi, Robert Ford, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Prince Hamad bin Jassem, of Qatar, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister and FM of democratic state of Qatar, Stephen Harper of Canada, Tony Abbott of Australia and so many others who, frankly, deserved to be dragged before an international court to answer indictments for war crimes against the people of Syria.

[habal]

So why did USA under Obama send 50 spec ops to fight alongside the Kurds ??

Some speculated they were sent to die, some speculated too little too late .. and other's speculated that he had to be seen to be doing something. Well wait for the answer.

http://atimes.com/2015/11/the-pentagons ... f-whining/

And now, the 50 immortals

But first the Special Forces deployed to northern Syria — Obama’s 50 immortals — need to fulfill their mission. Say one name: Kuweyres. Everything depends on what happens in Kuweyres, a military airbase.

Here are the facts on the ground. The SAA, at least for now, has secured its all-important supply route to Aleppo. What they’re aiming for next – supported by Russian air strikes – is much more complicated; cut off for good the resupply routes from Turkey for the gaggle of Salafi-jihadis/”moderate rebels.”

Arguably the only local “capable” force for this mission is the Syrian Kurd YPG. But to solidify their position, the YPG need to build a strong link between Kobani and the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

And guess why they can’t do it; because the Pentagon is telling them to strike south instead, towards Raqqa, ISIS/ISIL/Daesh “capital.” And Turkish intelligence – which controls the resupply corridor – warned the YPG they will be bombed to oblivion if they try to expand their northern Syria base.

So the YPG needs protection to keep moving. It won’t come from Ash’s people. And the Russians are far away, with no boots on the northern Syrian ground.

The SAA though is only a few kilometers away from Kuweyres. It will be a nasty battle. But if they capture the military air base, they get the perfect hub for Russian and Syrian jets to protect the YPG as they close the gap between Kobani and Afrin.

The Pentagon well knows the Russians have made a deal with the Syrian Kurds; the SAA, with as much Russian support as possible, takes Kuweyres; the YPG advances towards Afrin; and the Russians keep the Turks in check. Without this chain of crucial events, it will be virtually impossible for the “4+1” – Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, plus Hezbollah – to cut off the Turkish-enabled resupply corridor for the myriad Salafi-jihadi/”moderate rebel” gaggle.

And here’s where Obama’s 50 immortals come in. They have been sent to the YPG command to “assist” them in not fulfilling the deal. What else is new? It makes more sense for Ash’s boys to work side-by-side with Ayman al-Zawahiri’s goons. The Pentagon and al-CIAaeda; what could possibly go wrong? Gotta keep the global war on terror (GWOT) as much an endless war (remember Rumsfeld?) as possible. Now that’s a good reason to stop whining.

so they were sent so as to ensure Kurds do not coordinate on battlefield with SAA. Truly eye of Sauron kind of force USA has built itself upto be. They think 10 steps ahead than anyone else .. and only on behalf of the dark forces.

[Singha]

at present I do not think ISIS would be able to attract fresh manpower. some have deserted. others would be on fence. the KSA is having a hard time finding african mercs to fight in yemen where the going is much easier vs the prospect of fighting hezbollah + russian airstrikes + iraqi shia militias who do not lack numbers or weapons. the chances of fresh reinforcements of sunni jihadis is poor.

situation might be same for the other jihadi tanzeems between the SAA and ISIS.

if the iraqi shias could get their act together and march through anbar province , the ISIS would be under some real pressure for the first time.

[habal]

truly wonderful clip that shows various points of SAA breaking of Kuwairis seige.



some key takeaways regarding the Kuwairis defence.

1) 314 braves accounted so far.

2) They survived eating one meal each every two days.

3) Almost all of them are either wounded or with health issues.

4) Once boys-cadets when the aggression on Syria started... are now men-heroes.

[Singha]

>> They survived eating one meal each every two days.

amazing. they became old men in two years due to the constant stress. same must be case in deir al azzor.

in leningrad the germans put a siege of around 900 days. food rationing started at some 500gm of food/person daily and when rokosowsky tank army broke the siege after 3 years it was down to some 100gm. pavements and roads were torn up to expose soil to grow cabbages. a limited rail line laid across the ice of lake ladoga brought in some arms I believe in winter. people either did construction of defence lines, logistics or picked up a rifle and fought to survive.

you have to respect people with that kind of will to survive.

[habal]

SAA and RuAF have invented new technique for cities. After an initial probe into a city, they withdraw at first sight of opposition, and allow resistance forces to troop in and also expose their supply lines. Once the sattelites and drones have picked up supply line routes and pockets of resistance inside cities. SAA directs artillery fire from many kms away into the city and RuAF also bombs city blocks with thermobaric bombs.

The bumblebee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPO-A_Shmel is launched at anything moving in line of sight. After having cleansed the city thus the army then totally bypasses the city and encircles it from all three sides to block reinforcements. A few more thermobaric bombs later, nothing moves in that city. Rinse. Repeat.

Kuwairis was a hard fought battle though, and rumoredly Qasim Soleimani himself was directing the troops.

Fars

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian army, popular forces and Hezbollah forces, backed up by Syrian and Russian air forces, lifted the two and a half-year-long siege of Kuweires military airbase after killing hundreds of ISIL terrorists on Tuesday, as unconfirmed reports said the groundbreaking victory was gained under the leadership of Iran's renowned Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani.
The Syrian troops and Hezbollah forces rolled into the Kuweires airport at the end of their daylong last phase of massive operations.

Heavy clashes were underway around the Kuweires airport since early this morning and the Syrian army was defusing ISIL's minefield before they could reach their friends in the base.

There are unconfirmed reports from the battlefield about witnessing Iran's Major General Qassem Soleimani leading the battle.

Sources from both sides of the war said General Soleimani was the top field commander and has been leading the CentCom of the Syrian army-NDF-Hezbollah at least for the last two days.

FNA is unable to confirm or reject these reports independently.

(Syrian forces praising God after victory in Kuweires)

The Syrian army, the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Hezbollah combatants, backed up by Russian warplanes, launched the last round of their over one-month-long joint operations against the ISIL terrorists' positions in Eastern Aleppo near the Kuweires airbase this morning, and won full control over the strategic Aleppo-Raqqa Highway.

The attack started from multiple directions and ended up in cleaning up several villages from ISIL. Hundreds of the ISIL militants were killed or wounded in this morning operations.

In the next stage, Syrian and Russian Air Forces massively targeted the last strongholds of the ISIL militants around the Kuweires airbase.

In addition to the Syrian and Russian airstrikes, the artillery and mortar units of the army also shelled the ISIL strongholds to weaken their defense lines as much as possible to lay the ground for the combatants of Hezbollah, the army soldiers and the National Defense Forces to launch the final phase of their joint operations to lift the nearly 2.5-year-long siege on Kuweires airbase.

Intelligence sources said hundreds of ISIL militants were fleeing the Kuweires region to safer areas to save their lives after suffering heavy casualties in the joint massive attack of the Syrian Army and Hezbollah with the Russian air backup.

After cleaning the region, the pro-government troops had to defuse a minefield planted by the ISIL before they could reach the gates of airbase.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists have besieged the Kuweires airbase for over 2.5 years now, but the base itself is under the Syrian army's control.

Hundreds of Syrian forces are under a tight siege at the airbase as a result of the occupation of vast areas surrounding the airport by the terrorists.

The Syrian army's helicopters supply foodstuff and other needs to the Syrian troops defending the airport.

[UlanBatori]

Wonder what it's like in Raqqa, the Capital of the BOTUQKSAIS ISIS. Do they have F-16s providing cover, the poor Moderate Fleedom flighting dears? Enough M-1A1tanks? TOWs? Patriots? Stingers? F-15s? Shouldn't BO provide F-22s?

[Singha]

Kuweires for first time in that video good batallion level cohesive manpower. They did cqb in a earth berm line and killed a few rodents. Video has man throwing a grenade.

From dress and weapons these were seasoned troops not militia.

[Singha]

RT:

Syrian government forces received intelligence on terrorist positions around the besieged Kweires airbase from opposition sources, which helped them lift the two-year blockade, the Russian Defense Ministry has revealed.


“This airfield had been surrounded by ISIS [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist group] for two years,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, said in a daily briefing. “Intelligence on the locations of the terrorist fire positions and support points around Kweires was provided by the Syrian opposition and cleared by the communication center in Baghdad.”

Lifting the siege on the airbase in Aleppo provinces has been one of the biggest victories for Damascus since Russia started providing air support for Syrian government forces.

The opposition also provided data to help target a big weapons depot of the Nusra Front, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, near the village Mheen in the Homs province, Konashenkov revealed.

Russia has been calling on moderate opposition forces in Syria to strike a truce with the government and fight together with it against the common terrorist threat.

Konashenkov reported that over the past two days Russian airplanes have conducted 85 combat sorties and attacked 277 targets in Syria. The airstrikes were conducted in the provinces Aleppo, Damascus, Latakia, Hama, Homs and Idlib, he said.

The general said intelligence from the opposition also helped the Russian air force to deliver a series of strikes around the city of Hama and prevented a planned offensive operation of the enemy.

[Singha]

^^ moles maybe the smaller syrian army deserter outfits that were roughed up and slapped around by the well funded bigger jihadi outfits with foreign sponsors.

[Paul]

What is going on with the Chechen shock troopers. They are the elite of the Deash. They will need to be carefully conserved to fight for another day. But the Russians cannot let them get away. So where will they hide next? I can think of one likely place.....

[Philip]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... rbase.html

Russia and Iran-backed offensive helps regime break Isil's two-year siege on Syrian airbase

Regime troops reached the Kweiris airbase, state television says, where almost 1,000 soldiers were trapped

By Louisa Loveluck
7:40PM GMT 10 Nov 2015
Syria’s army has broken Isil's two-year siege on an airbase in eastern Aleppo, marking the first major success for a military campaign backed by Russia and Iran.

State television said on Tuesday that regime troops had reached the Kweiris airbase and were in the process of securing it.
Almost a thousand soldiers had been trapped on the base, surviving through air drops of food and munitions.

Kweiris was home to the first jets used by the Syrian regime to target anti-government protesters in July 2012. But under siege it had become a morgue for soldiers who died on the base, prompting rare protests in a key regime stronghold, Tartus, that demanded the bodies were brought home.

An AFP photographer at the scene on Tuesday said soldiers had broken through Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) lines west of the base and reached the troops inside.

Syrian and Iranian troops backed by Iraqi militia launched a major offensive to reach Kweiris last month, backed by Russian air strikes.

Moscow intervened militarily in Syria’s war at the end of September, launching hundreds of air strikes against rebel groups fighting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and backing regime offensives on half a dozen fronts across the country.

These have mostly stuttered as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar have poured in anti-tank and other heavy weapons in support of vetted rebel groups.

The recapture of the airbase marks the first major victory of this campaign, and banishes the looming spectre of a massacre. Isil had taunted personnel there with threats of slaughter, sending leaflets to remind them of the fate of hundreds of soldiers executed when the extremist group overran another air base, Taqba in Raqqa province, last year.

A group of Syrian pro-government fighters walk in the village of Sheikh Ahmad near the Kweyris military air base, east of the Syrian province of Aleppo
A group of Syrian pro-government fighters walk in the village of Sheikh Ahmad near the Kweyris military air base, east of the Syrian province of Aleppo Photo: AFP

But the victory was bittersweet, coming as the regime’s coastal heartland of Latakia suffered one of its bloodiest attacks since the beginning of Syria's conflict. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said that at least 23 people were killed and another 40 wounded in two explosions.

The blasts hit two separate areas of the city, one from rocket fire and the other either from a rocket or a planted explosive device, the Britain-based Observatory said.

Home to many members from Mr Assad’s Alawite sect, Latakia has been spared much of the pain of a war which has killed over a quarter of a million people in four and a half years.

Russia’s intervention is understood to have been prompted by fears that rebel forces were pushing towards the area.

Why is Russia bombing Syria? Russia says the strikes are to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). But most of their first strikes have been against non-Isil groups who are opposed to President Assad’s regime.

Why would Russia bomb non-Isil groups? Russia’s spokesmen are sometimes vague - referring to Isil and terrorists in the same breath. By “terrorists” they mean the same as President Bashar al-Assad - anyone part of the armed opposition. And it so happens that the gravest threat to the regime’s core areas comes from non-Isil rebels.

What is Russia’s position on President Assad? President Putin says he believes the survival of the Assad regime is very important. This is why it make sense for Russia to target non-Isil groups, who pose the greatest threat to the Syrian regime, first.

Are the non-Isil groups being bombed terrorists? They cover a spectrum of opposition groups: from an alliance called Jaish al-Fatah - Army of Conquest - to "moderate” brigades backed and even, according to one account, trained, by the US. Jaish al-Fatah is made up of hardline groups that include Jabhat al-Nusra, which is aligned to al-Qaeda, so they are formally designated by the West and the United Nations as terrorist.

What will happen next? All eyes are watching to see whether these bombing raids are followed up by a ground offensive.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/321285-syria ... coalition/

‘US not interested in defeating ISIS’

Sharmine Narwani
Published time: 9 Nov, 2015 12:20

The US is not interested in defeating ISIS but would want to control its movements to create a geopolitical balance on the ground and provide the US-led coalition with leverage at the Vienna talks, said Middle East geopolitics analyst Sharmine Narwani.

RT: There are more than 60 countries in the coalition fighting against Islamic State. How hard is it for the US to keep them all united?

Sharmine Narwani: I think the US is playing loose with international law. To start off with, this coalition is illegitimate. The reason to have signed up 60 countries is more to create some kind of cover, some kind of legitimacy for these illegal operations in Syria. The main struggle is probably with the key Arab members of the coalition who were the starting members of the coalition - five Persian Gulf countries and Jordan included - because they have quite disparate objectives from the US.

READ MORE: ‘US-led coalition disjointed in fighting ISIS as some members have own plans’ – Iraq's ex-PM

RT: How many countries in the coalition are actually contributing to its goals?

SN: That is a very interesting point, because even though there are 60 countries listed in the coalition, there are only 11 who have contributed in Syria. There are two groups: like I mentioned, the Arab states – I call them the Sunni states, because they provide some kind of Arab Sunni legitimacy for the Americans; the other states are the UK, the US and France – three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and Canada and Australia.

What is interesting about this is – of those five Western countries it is only Canada that stepped in relatively early, when things kicked off last year. It was the US mainly with the Arab States, and the UK, France and Australia have only come in the last three months, as well as Turkey, who is a new entrant in this coalition of 11, not 60.

RT: It's been more than a year since the US-led bombing campaign started. Why has the coalition failed to prevent ISIS from seizing new territory?

SN: Again, interesting that Turkey is a new entrant in this coalition of 11 bombing Syria. It only came on board around I think two months ago, in August, when it launched strikes against ISIL. Now, about a month ago we, after Turkey launched its airstrikes, were looking at still only about three airstrikes against ISIL – the rest were against Kurdish targets. So Turkey is an example of another Sunni state in this coalition of 11 that has disparate objectives from the US. So Turkey’s interest may be on the Kurdish issue, but for instance, in the other Arab Sunni states - their interests diverge from the Americans, because they are interested in regime change in Syria, whereas the Americans have taken a back seat on that in recent months. So it is very, very hard to keep this coalition together, because there are no common objectives among its 11 partners.


Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Ocotber 8, 2014. © Umit Bektas

Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobani Ocotber 8, 2014. © Umit Bektas / Reuters

RT: What are the reasons, do you think the coalition is breaking apart? How can the coalition increase the efficiency of its actions?

SN: I see the coalition breaking apart or being redundant for two reasons. One is the lack of common objectives among the 11 actors participating in the coalition, but the other is more in lines with military strategy in fighting any war or conflict, anywhere. We’ve heard this over and over again in the Syrian conflict – you need a coordination of air force and ground power. The US-led coalition does not have this. Part of the reason it doesn’t have this is because it entered Syrian air space and violated international law in doing so against the wishes of the Syrian government. So it cannot coordinate with the Syrian government who leads the ground activities, whether it is the Syrian army or various Syrian militias that are pro-government; or Hezbollah – a non-state actor from Lebanon; or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their advisory capacity. The Russians of course do enjoy that relationship, so their airstrikes are not only both valid and legal, but also useful – a coordinated effort to target ISIL and other terrorist organizations.

RT: Do you think the US doesn’t have real intentions to fight ISIS, and that is the main reason of instability of its coalition?

SN: Absolutely. The US-led coalition has failed in attaining goals to defeat ISIS, not just because it cannot lead a coordinated military effort in air, land and sea in Syria, or because it lacks legality, or because the member states of the coalition have diverging interests. But I think the US interest as well has to be called into question. I mean: does the US want to defeat ISIS? I would argue very strongly based on what we’ve seen in the last year that the US is not interested in defeating ISIS. The US is interested in perhaps controlling ISIS’ movements, so that it helps to create a geopolitical balance on the ground that will provide the US government and its allies with leverage at the negotiating table. So they don’t want ISIS to take over all of Syria [because] that poses threats to allies in the region. They don’t want ISIS and other terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, and others, and the various coalitions they have formed to lose ground, because at the end of the day the only pressure there are going to be able to apply on the Syrian government and its allies is what is happening on the ground. And they need something; they need advantage on the ground that they can take with them to the negotiating table in Vienna.

[Suresh S]

>> They survived eating one meal each every two days.

amazing. they became old men in two years due to the constant stress. same must be case in deir al azzor.

in leningrad the germans put a siege of around 900 days. food rationing started at some 500gm of food/person daily and when rokosowsky tank army broke the siege after 3 years it was down to some 100gm. pavements and roads were torn up to expose soil to grow cabbages. a limited rail line laid across the ice of lake ladoga brought in some arms I believe in winter. people either did construction of defence lines, logistics or picked up a rifle and fought to survive.

you have to respect people with that kind of will to survive.


bloodiest battle in the history of humanity at Stalingrad. more than 1 million Soviets/Russians dead. half a million of best soldiers of Wehrmacht dead.Some russian soldiers are said to have survived and fought by eating the bodies and internal organs of their fallen friends and comrades to live to fight. When you are this determined to win and protect your motherland only God has the power to stop you.

[habal]

What is going on with the Chechen shock troopers. They are the elite of the Deash. They will need to be carefully conserved to fight for another day. But the Russians cannot let them get away. So where will they hide next? I can think of one likely place.....

Daesh doesn't have many chechens, most chechens joined Nusra which later whitewashed itself as moderate rebels and hence were subjected to moderate bombing. The chechens are now primarily in idlib, homs, latakia waiting fumigation.

[Satya_anveshi]

Syrian opposition provided intel to target terrorists around besieged key airbase - Russia
https://www.rt.com/news/321563-syria-op ... ssia-base/

“This airfield had been surrounded by ISIS [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist group] for two years,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian defense ministry, said in a daily briefing. “Intelligence on the locations of the terrorist fire positions and support points around Kweires was provided by the Syrian opposition and cleared by the communication center in Baghdad.”

Russia continues to divide Syrian opposition.

[Y I Patel]

Syria is the New Angola of 1970 80s, In Angola SU US PRC and Portugal via NATO screwed the people.

This is a venerable and patented brand name on BRF. I hope it is old whiskey back in old bottle; in which case, welcome back!

[UlanBatori]

Now if we could have Gen. Schwarzkopf back...

[Singha]

well YIP you have been AWOL for a while too...

[Singha]

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/the ... o-victory/

314 soldiers held out at the airbase for 35 months and beat off almost every terrorist gang in syria.

the enclave is now being stuffed and stocked with resources and expanded with an aim to the next target which is town of Al-Bab to north, but before that they need to control the highways Aleppo-Al-Bab and Aleppo-Raqqa(done town of sheikh-ahmed is in SAA hands)

taking al-bab would make it difficult for ISIS as it will narrow the funnel to Kobani in the east through which they get supplies and men from turkey. I think YPG operates in areas north of aleppo.

[Y I Patel]

well YIP you have been AWOL for a while too...

Yes, I have had phases when I have gone walkabout for long periods, but as we say back home, the mullah always runs back to the masjid!

[habal]

SFPN: Syrian Army general threatens to engage Charles de Gaulle directly - - yess yess - French blow jobs are roaming Syrian airspace, destroying Syrian infrastructure and murdering Syrian citizens and then what happens? They return to base, get on the internet, and tell the folks back home what heroes they all are.

https://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2 ... t-carrier/

[Singha]

the rebel controlled green area west of aleppo seems to be mountainous and adjacent to turkey border. some sort of low key offensive is going on there to push them back.

the orange funnel from turkey border to Raqqa to deir al azor along the euphrates is the ISIS heartland. with rich water resources and farming.

predictably the TURKS have warned the kurds not to cross the euphrates river from the east to protect the backside of their munnas down in raqqa and keep open the supply line.

euphrates is the defining river of the mesopotamian civilization along with tigris further east. further south-east it flows past ISIS areas like fallujah, ramadi....so thats one of main isis 'core areas' with nodes along a long line.

[Singha]

if someone had the resources a mechanized division with some indep brigades could first isolate the palmyra bubble for containment forces to wipe out with artillery and then lance into soft underbelly of ISIS in deir-al-zour to establish a blocking position on their main axis. this would likely panic the ISIS units in iraq to make a beeline for the KSA border, chased all the way by light desert groups of iraqi militias and helicopters.

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

british armoured cars and light artillery went a long way cross country across untracked wastes to trap the treating italians in a long pincer against the sea.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... caMap1.jpg

[Satya_anveshi]

This Weekend's Vienna Summit: Who's a Terrorist, and Who's Not? - Nov 12, 2015
http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151 ... roups.html

One of the main points of focus when world powers gather in Vienna this weekend for talks about post-war Syria will be to agree upon a list of terrorist groups so as to determine whom to include in future negotiations.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond predicted a lot of "horse trading" in compiling the list, but said virtually everyone, including the United States, is likely to end up with some allies on the list who they have to sever ties with.

Hammond predicted Saudi Arabia to fight hard against the inclusion of some Sunni Islamist factions, like Ansar al-Sham, which the Saudis have financed for years.
Turkey is likely to lobby for the inclusion of the Kurdish YPG, which is already recognized as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government. However, the YPG is backed by the United States and Russia, who will likely object to banning one of the key opponents of Islamic State in northeast Syria, Antiwar.com reported.
Another US ally that might be excluded from talks is the faction of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that operates around Hama and Idlib, which has been fighting alongside al-Qaeda.
The standoff over the terrorist list comes on top of the disagreements that remain on the future of President Bashar Assad. Russia and Iran are open to the possibility of Assad remaining in power, which the United States, Great Britain and their Persian Gulf allies oppose.

[manjgu]

CNN reporting major offensive on Sinjar...peshmerga+ US

[habal]

singha, looking once more at map, it is evident that daesh controls only those territory which is important to laying a pipeline from qatar to turkey.

[Singha]

its all about whose proxies have more land in hand when the settlement talks properly start.

control of land is power.

[Singha]

singha, looking once more at map, it is evident that daesh controls only those territory which is important to laying a pipeline from qatar to turkey.

I think the white part in the map is uninhabited or sparsely populated. the long prongs of the regime near aleppo and palmyra are advances along highways.

likewise the daesh have used the developed road network and towns/farming in euphrates valley as their main axis...it extends all the way to baghdad through falluja ramadi.

[habal]

south is daesh and north adjoining turkey is kurd .. both pro-usa ..

[Singha]

Sinjar is a well chosen target. its the lone highway from Mosul and Baiji in east to Al-Hasakah and then Raqqa in the west.
south of Sinjar is untracked desert...no towns or cities or roads ... and Tikrit is in govt hands...its tough to smuggle much across the desert vs highways.

if they block that highway, ISIS will be split into two and the eastern half rodents will be trapped in the mosul pocket.

[Singha]

any rodents trapped in sinjar must be given the same treatment they gave its residents. this is where their rage against the yazidis started.

NBC:
A statement from the Kurdish Regional Security Council Thursday said some 7,500 peshmerga fighters are closing in on the mountain town from three fronts in an effort to take control of the town and cut off a strategic supply line used by the ISIS militants.

The statement also says the Kurds wish to establish "a significant buffer zone to protect the city and its inhabitants from incoming artillery."

The major objective of the offensive is to cut off one of ISIS' most active supply lines, Highway 47, which passes by Sinjar and indirectly links the militants' two biggest strongholds — Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq — as a route for goods, weapons and fighters. Coalition-backed Kurdish fighters on both sides of the border are now working to retake parts of that corridor.

Warplanes in the U.S.-led coalition have been striking around Sinjar ahead of the offensive. Earlier Thursday, intense airstrikes pounded Sinjar as various Kurdish militia groups made their way over the mountain to begin the offensive.

Sinjar was captured by the ISIS group in August 2014 shortly after the extremists seized Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and blitzed across northern Iraq.

In the Sinjar area, the group inflicted a wave of terror against the minority Yazidi community, members of an ancient religion whom the ISIS group views as heretics and accuses of worshipping the devil.

[habal]

News from Iraq about seizure of Turkish weapons and military supplies from ISIL. Turkey knows nothing about it, of course.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.as ... 0820001222

L159 light trainers already landing at kuwairis airstrip.
SAA seems to be on an offensive around kuweiris.
they are not taking a break to celebrate.
https://mobile.twitter.com/leithfadel/s ... 1275104256

Iranian, Afghani, and Iraqi paramilitary fighters arrive to the Kuweires front alongside Hezbollah. Major operations expected.

Al Bab is 20 kms north of Kuweires, Dayr Hafir is very close, some 8 kms, Sheikh Najar about 25 kms....interesting days to come.

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=pt&lat=36.28 ... 9&z=11&m=b

[Singha]

sometimes if a general momentum is kept after a enemy position falls, the entire front can unravel very quickly as panic sets in and fog of war cuts the usual means of resupply. this is a real test of military mettle for the rebels / jihadis if they can reform around new defensive lines or pull back in a panic towards the turks and raqqa. that separates a real army from a a militia/tanzeem/razakar style formation.

remember when the NA attacked kabul, the taliban lost their nerve that night (after the beating the B52's gave them on shomali plain) and decamped swiftly to jalalabad. some sleeping taliban were left behind in the confusion. one climbed a tree in a public park when the NA units walked in the next morning and tried to take potshots. he was shot down like a dog

the ISIS also advanced in a lightning way during their surge last year. Rus need to bring in heavy bombers and drop leaflets on the shivering jihadis after conducting a few 'demo' ops like dropping some 100 bombs on a strongpoint.

[Singha]

few 100 is reported as the ISIS garrison in the ruins of Sinjar. peshmerga have been creeping in on the periphery since last year.
600 men and boys were shot in sinjar town alone and 1000 women and girls abducted.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/07/middl ... index.html

Sitting next to Silu at the refugee camp is Khalil Jindil, a teacher in his early 50s with a careworn face and a cigarette always between his fingers.

He says he has no faith the Iraqi legal system will bring justice. The word on his lips is revenge. It is a debt of honor to those lost.

Another Yazidi serving in a volunteer battalion on the frontline near Sinjar declares with an icy stare: "When we return to Sinjar, there will be no Daesh prisoners."

There is no mistaking what he means.

[Singha]

CNN - kurd leaders seen akin to the rajput commanders of yore - brave but always squabbling ... even with a much bigger threat on their heads.
---
The more optimistic Peshmerga commanders think that ISIS fighters will melt away within hours once the attack on Sinjar begins, and retreat to nearby Tal Afar -- another stronghold of the group.

Others fear that the network of tunnels they have built and the landmines and booby-traps they have planted will mean a painstaking street-by-street advance, especially if battle-hardened Chechen fighters are hiding in Sinjar.

And the buildup to the attack has not been entirely smooth.

For the drones and strike aircraft, it is often impossible to distinguish between an ISIS vehicle and other traffic, which has complicated the task of degrading ISIS' presence in the area. According to some accounts, ISIS has even been able to reinforce its defenses in Sinjar.

The timing of the offensive has been further complicated by discord among Kurds from different countries.

The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has told the Syrian Kurdish fighters of the YPG, who are closely allied with the Turkish Kurds of the PKK, to leave the area.

"No need for them here," tweeted Hemin Hawrami, head of foreign relations for the dominant party in Iraqi Kurdistan.

And the Peshmerga Forces' Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Jamal Mohammed said: "We have already ordered other parties not to intervene."

But the YPG units were still very much in evidence at their checkpoints and small bases around Mount Sinjar early in November, as was their distinct yellow flag with a red star at its center.

They feel they have played the main role in fighting ISIS here and claim that Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani wants to claim the glory for recapturing Sinjar.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has been similarly insistent that Yazidi fighters, now numbering some 5,000, fall under Peshmerga command.

As for the Yazidi men themselves, going through their drills at a small camp near the village of Hardan, zero hour cannot come soon enough. But at the same time there is trepidation -- not about the battle soon to begin, but about what they may find in the ruins of their homes.