Bharat Rakshak

UlanBatori wrote:What is the status of relations between YPG and SAA?
I thought FSA had been declared "Patriotic Syrian Opposition" by Comrade Vlad.
What about "SDF"? (whose terrists are they?) What is SDF/SAA love status?
How about Peshmarga-SAA?

YPG and SAA - ok at the moment. any secret deal is secret so far. SAA is not attempting to take over areas YPG considers its dominion and might leave azaz for them, as they are camped right on its outskirts in LOS.

FSA - I am aware of the russian statement in the initial stages of the war but its hard to define what the "good" FSA is and "bad" is. it is not a single org but a cluster of 100s ranging from genuinely provoked deserters through outright bandits to hardcore islamists. and these alliances keep shifting based on need, funding, personalities. right now everyone is being bombed.

SDF (not to be confused with NDF the syrian govt allied militia) is a coalition of 'arab tribes' east of the euphrates who came together to resist the IS rule. they work with the kurds in the east and now the west though the western SDF could just be rebadged FSA trying to 'fit in'. they have crossed the tishreen dam on the river and are said to be american supported entity slated to attack manbij and raqqa though I think they have nowhere near the training and eqpt for it....only the iraqi peshmerga not even the ypg have the heavy weapons and large units...so far they only grudgingly came upto sinjar to help. iraqi peshmerga are hardcore american munnas due to oil and a lot of american presence in erbil and kirkuk. very little to no SDF-SAA contact so far, though the Al-shaitat tribe defending deir azzor with the SAA could be called SDF in a way. future relations depend on if SDF leaders demand a sunni bantustan along the euphrates or want to be part of a unified syria.

peshmerga-SAA - they have no direct contact being separated by the SDF, IS and YPG. the more important is peshmerga-Iraqi govt/shia militias. not much love lost there and pesh will not allow shias to ride up north to attack mosul probably. reports of iran propping up another shia peshmerga (main pesh is sunni) just to needle them and keep options open.

to get a bewildering idea of the formation, evolution of the FSA read this. the original leaders and motives are long gone and its splintered into many many parts, with defections and fights as well

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

from the US pov, whoever pushes the western agenda for syria is the FSA from russian POV whoever is against Assad is != FSA and will be bombed from IS pov everyone else is wajb-ul-qatl...they routinely kill any nusra or AQ cadre they capture despite both being hardcore islamists....green vs green for turf war.

from pov of syrian war just note that a "brigade" or "division" could be no more than 500 men not the 4000 and 10-15000 of a conventional army. but teeth-to-tail ratio is very high maybe 95% - everyone is either fighting with small arms or operating artillery. the 5% may be senior leaders and armourers and cooks. Rus has commented all parties in syria eat very good food. and they have good mobility via pickup trucks and are very agile in innovating with whatever they have to fashion artillery , cots drones etc. many have access to youtube and some even have gopro's.

its the most youtube'd war in human history

UlanBatori wrote:What is the status of relations between YPG and SAA?
I thought FSA had been declared "Patriotic Syrian Opposition" by Comrade Vlad.
What about "SDF"? (whose terrists are they?) What is SDF/SAA love status?
How about Peshmarga-SAA?

YPG is getting active Russian and SAA support including arms supply in Hasakah (North Eastern Syria). Their attacks are being coordinated, most probably by the Russians.

SDF has two major components - YPG and Thuwar al Sham. Thuwar al Sham is singing its own tune where they have openly declared that SAA will reach border with Turkey over their dead bodies. Plus some fleeing FSA in Northern Aleppo have found it safer to join YPG effort in Northern Aleppo. Generals in Ulan Bator will note that changing colours is better than being thermobared by the Russkis.

@Singha Ji, saw your above post after scripting mine. Peshmerga is only active in Iraqi Syria and are actively supported by USA. YPG isn't really friendly with Peshmerga. Iraqis, themselves are getting quite upset with Peshmerga and its politics.

PYD, another leftist Kurdish group was declared non terrorists by USA just yesterday, driving Erddogun nuts. PYD is more active in Syrian Kurdistan.

I thought the PYD and YPG was the same org and they have a male and female arm(YPJ).

a good list of all the players .... no less than 100 for sure. IS even has a british staffed unit called 'the beatles'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_a ... _Civil_War

needs a bottle of migraine pills to track all of these and their shifting network of alliances.

General Vodkovich will b saying:

Bomb 'em all, Let ATM sort 'em out

https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2016/02/ ... he-summer/

6000 “al-sabereen Unit” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Aleppo and major plans before the Summer.

Hezbollah pushes fresh Special Forces.

In reef Aleppo, more cities are negotiating and want to surrender.

Russia and Iran are planning to change the Syrian military map before the end of this coming summer.

13000 TOWs offered by Saudi Arabia helped to reduce armoured forces involved in attacks, increase the infantry and destroyed more Syrian cities.

Russia is imposing the Kurds – who control more land every day – as essential players and partners on Geneva peace talk.



Elijah J. Magnier ‏‪@EjmAlrai



Iran is sending more Special Forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to Syria. Military planes are landing in Damascus and Aleppo airports respectively carrying 6000 officers and soldiers of the “Sabereen Unit” to support the on-going ground offensive in reef of Syria.

The Lebanese Hezbollah is also injecting fresh forces to the same area where also the Syrian Kurds are advancing against Salafist Jihadist led by al-Qaeda in Syria, also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, and their allies. Russia, the leading force dominating the Syrian sky, wants to guarantee a seat to the Kurds where Turkey and Saudi Arabia rejected their presence around the negotiation table of Geneva peace talk, expected to regain meeting by the end of this month of February. Iran and Russia are determined to change the map of Syria to the advantage of Damascus before the end of this coming summer. Cities are surrendering without fight like Dayr Jamal, and others, like Tal-Refaat, are negotiating an exit to rebels to avoid the destruction of their city.

A high-ranking military officer operating in Syria said, “the IRGC Sabereen unit operating in large Aleppo outskirts (North, South, West and East reef) was established more than ten years ago in Iran and were selected as a Special Elite Forces. These are trained to participate to warfare combat, to penetrate deep into and behind enemy lines and above all to fight Jihadists. These are the spearhead against al-Qaeda in Northern and western reef Aleppo and Eastern reef against the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) group. Over 47 officers and soldiers are reported killed in the last Aleppo offensive. ”

“Iran misinformation campaign in the last few month deceived the main stream media who believed its forces are withdrawing from Syria, when the military transport aircraft were conveying fresh troops to Aleppo to plan the breakage of the blockade around Nubbl and Zahra, the two northern Shia cities besieged for over three years by al-Qaeda and its allies. Following the downing of the Russian Jet, the Su-24 over the Turkish-Syrian borders by Turkey last year, Russia reshuffled its military plans to get much deeper involved in Syria and aim to cut all supply lines and link between the Jihadist and their safe heaven in Turley. Therefore, plans were drawn to control the borders starting from reef Latakia, where the military offensive is advancing rapidly and from the north of Aleppo. An operational room was established in Aleppo to direct the northern and the southern fronts where al-Sabereen unit is mainly engaged”.

According to the source, “when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates expressed their will to send a military force to Syria, as agreed with the United States of America, the answer came from the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Mohammad Ali Ja’fari. His forces are directly involved on the ground in the North against al-Qaeda (Nusra) and the North East against ISIS. This means the IRGC and Hezbollah will be face to face with any troops landing in their operational area without any coordination with Damascus. The Iranian military operational room is in charge of recovering the bordering area between Turkey and Syria and to fight against any enemy force at the exception of the Kurds and their allies, considered non-enemy forces”.

“The battle of Ratyan was a real turn in the northern campaign. It was the most defended city and the heart of al-Qaeda and its allies, fortified since years above and under the ground. It was also the operational centre leading the siege around Nubbl and Zahraa and the northern front. The Russian Air Force destroyed these fortifications and killed hundreds of Jihadists, according to their own count. The fall of Ratyan set an example to other northern cities that are negotiating a surrender term without fighting. This is what happened in Deyr Jamal, Alqamiyah and Kfarnaya, at the outskirt of Tal-refaat, the last city before Azaz and through it to the Turkish borders. Tal Refaat is also negotiating surrender with the advancing forces. Forces are finding cities already abandoned but well fortified with several long tunnels and weapons left behind. With the breakage of the siege, thousands of fighters protecting the two cities were divided to the Northern and to the southern fronts. It helped increasing the strength of the spear-head units and giving a unique opportunity to the advancing forces against al-Qaeda and its allies”.

“Russia, Iran and Hezbollah aim to change the military geographic map of Syria to their advantage before the end of this coming summer. The one billion dollars invested by Saudi Arabia to offer 13000 TOW anti-Tank guided missiles helped only to increase the destruction of the Syrian cities. Instead of pushing ground-armoured troops, Russia is using its Air Force to destroy any resistance and Iran is sending more infantry, relying less on tanks. Hence the need to inject more specialised troops to fulfil important military objectives, planned in the next six months. These forces, from Iran and Hezbollah, are still coming in large numbers to respond to future military plans”.

“Russia is also aiming to impose an ipso-facto on Geneva peace talk by supporting the advance of the Kurdish forces in the northern front to the Turkish borders. Turkey and Saudi Arabia can no longer ignore the Kurds, mainly following their control in reef Aleppo of Kiffin, Dayr Jamal and other cities, joining already controlled area. Rejecting their participation is against any logic. As the Kurds control now a large front – and are expected to control more land – the international community can no longer accept the Turkish-Saudi blackmail. The Kurds are an essential partner and will be part of a comprehensive solution to the Syrian war”, the source concluded.

this is only major town between SAA and Azaz. looks like they take tal refaat and help YPG to take azaz.

Tweets From Aleppo ‏@halabtweets 16h16 hours ago
According2 @AlMayadeenNews reporter in #Aleppo local fighters in Tal Refaat are asking #SAA not to bomb their city in exchange for surrender

Singha wrote:I thought the PYD and YPG was the same org and they have a male and female arm(YPJ).

a good list of all the players .... no less than 100 for sure. IS even has a british staffed unit called 'the beatles'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_a ... _Civil_War

needs a bottle of migraine pills to track all of these and their shifting network of alliances.

In essence yes, PYD and YPG are same. The relationship is with PKK active on the Turkish side. PYD's military offshoot is YPG and YPJ. My understanding is that the Communist Kurds created these mulitple brand umbrellas to escape the terrorism tag put on the PKK by NATO countries.

Hence, each sub group also enjoys a fair amount of autonomy in its activities. PYD is more political and YPG/ YPJ are military. I think this has allowed YPG to independently deal with the Russians while the PYD deals with the Americans.

An attempt at explaining the Kurdish soup on Quora

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-diffe ... -Peshmerga

The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq = KRG is the family business of the Barzani Clan, even though elections are generally considered free and fair. President is Massoud Barzani, Prime Minister is Nechervan Barzani while the security chief is Masrour Barzani. The Barzanis are Iranian Kurds.

Iranians are cultured people and born politicians, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Massoud Barzani is one of the most gifted politicians in the region. Barzani is also a very cruel man, e.g. he has sacrificed the Yazidis to be slaughtered by the Islamic State in order to force Obama's hand to intervene against ISIS - when that didn't work he withdrew the Peshmerga from oil fields run by U.S. oil companies (which did force Obama's hand).

Turkish Kurds are naturally born fighters, neither cultured nor born politicians, while the Iraqi Kurds are somewhere in between the two.

The Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK) with its military wing Hêzên Parastina Gel (HPG) operated from 1978 - 1999 from Syria and afterwards from the Qandil-Mountains in the PUK-part of the KRG.

The Barzanis and the PKK profoundly hate each other.

The Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YPG) is the military arm of the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD), the Syrian affiliate of the PKK. Most of the YPG commanders and fighters are Qandil-Kurds, i.e. PKK.

When the Islamic State overran Syria and Iraq, the PKK saw its chance for a make-over: from terrorists (fighting against Turkey) to freedom fighters (fighting the Islamic State) by protecting the oil fields of U.S. oil majors in the Kirkuk area as well as defending Kobanê or resupplying the Yezidis on Mount Sinjar.

30+ years of insurgency warfare has battle-hardened the PKK into the best fighting-force of the Middle East. They are feared by Islamic State fighters as they have won every single battle against them while all other armed forces are happy if they can stand their ground.



...

Because of their historical ties with the Assad regime, the PKK/YPG has a good working relationship with Assad even though they don't like each other.

No comments

Terrormonitor.org ‏@Terror_Monitor now2 minutes ago
#SYRIA
#IslamicState Preaching To Local #Christians In #Raqqa Who Continue Paying Extra Taxes. #TerrorMonitor

Finally with all those convoys moving in to Aleppo area, I was wondering when this would happen

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syr ... rn-aleppo/

Earlier today, a massive convoy of armored vehicles belonging to the Islamist rebels were reported to be heading towards northern Aleppo from the town of Ariha in the Idlib Governorate.

However, most of the armored vehicles from this Islamist rebel convoy would never reach their destination, let alone the Aleppo Governorate’s border, thanks in large part to the Syrian Arab Air Force’s (SAAF) fighter jets that were on the prowl in the Idlib Governorate.

According to several field reports from the Syrian Air Force, the fighter jets reportedly destroyed over 20 enemy vehicles that were caught traveling in broad daylight along the Aleppo-Latakia Highway (M-4 Highway).

The final destination of this large convoy was not necessarily clear because the Syrian Opposition activists did not provide details about which front in northern Aleppo that these fighters would be reinforcing.

Currently, the Islamist rebels of Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group), the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jaysh Al-Mujahiddeen, and Jabhat Al-Shamiyah are under attack along every front in northern Aleppo, leaving them in desperate need of reinforcements to fend off the pro-government forces and the predominately Kurdish “People’s Protection Units” (YPG).

The coming days will be critical for the Islamist rebels; if they are unable to maintain their ground in northern Aleppo, they will likely lose several important sites.

part of being a successful country is that large sections who do not necessarily like each other agree to coexist and share resources rather than take up arms demanding an exclusive share of the pie.

An Iraqi-led operation to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul is unlikely to take place this year, a top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday. The comments by Marine Corps Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart were more pessimistic than some recent predictions by U.S. and Iraqi officials about the pace of the campaign against the militant group. “Mosul will be a complex operation. … I’m not as optimistic that we’ll be able to turn that in the near term, in my view, certainly not this year,” Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We may be able to begin the campaign, do some isolation operations around Mosul,” he said. “But securing or taking Mosul is an extensive operation and not something I see in the next year or so.”

Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. airstrikes, reclaimed the city of Ramadi from Islamic State in late December. Mosul, however, is a far larger city with a populace made up of many sects. And even in Ramadi, Iraqi forces are still working to secure that city and its environs. Top Iraqi officials recently have suggested that Mosul, which fell when Islamic State forces routed the Iraqi army in 2014, would be liberated this year.

Vice President Joe Biden said in late January: “I promise you, after Ramadi, watch what happens now in Raqqa in Syria and what happens in Mosul, by the end of this year.” Raqqa is the capital of Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate.

Stewart said that in addition to securing Ramadi, Iraqi forces must secure the Euphrates River valley between the cities of Hit and Haditha before turning to encircling Mosul. Other U.S. officials believe an operation against Mosul, while not imminent, is still possible before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama’s term. The key, they said, is for the United States and its allies to train additional Iraqi forces.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isl ... s-general/ | Al-Masdar News

It would be interesting to analyse how the Syria adventure will influence the world. The wars in Afghanistan from the 80s onwards directly or indirectly impacted the globe, from overt consequences such as the worldwide spread of terrorism to 9/11 to, dare I say it, even how entire western economies reacted and behaved. Among other variants, at an organisational level the major strains of the Islamic virus included successfully more greener hued Sunni organisations such as the Taliban, AlQ and the ISIS, and in general the western world has fought with these in different battlegrounds. Somehow or the the other, Saudi Arabia has managed to survive what are essentially its creations this virtually unscathed.

Now that they have created a battle hardened generation of Shia/ Alawite and anti-Saudi fighters, at the very least I wonder whether Saudi Arabia will get what's been coming to it for a long time.

Baikul wrote:It would be interesting to analyse how the Syria adventure will influence the world. The wars in Afghanistan from the 80s onwards directly or indirectly impacted the globe, from overt consequences such as the worldwide spread of terrorism to 9/11 to, dare I say it, even how entire western economies reacted and behaved. Among other variants, at an organisational level the major strains of the Islamic virus included successfully more greener hued Sunni organisations such as the Taliban, AlQ and the ISIS, and in general the western world has fought with these in different battlegrounds. Somehow or the the other, Saudi Arabia has managed to survive what are essentially its creations this virtually unscathed.

Now that they have created a battle hardened generation of Shia/ Alawite and anti-Saudi fighters, at the very least I wonder whether Saudi Arabia will get what's been coming to it for a long time.

This is the million dollar question. Not just Syria/Kurdistan/Shias, but the larger Sunnis as well. A worldwide Muslim veteran troop core will be available for further nurturing the coming generation in its attack on the rest of the world. Just ponder what they will do. Neither the Europeans, nor the Indians have the necessary radicalisation or battle hardened veteran core available in such large numbers. Consider the end result too.

battle hardened....or battle scarred?....the sword cuts both ways with concussion and PTSD...........

and there are reports of child soldiers too, not exactly the basis of victorious armies....

the enemy is facing a huge bombing campaign, it's not all candy and custard either like the mongol wants to play it.,,,,,,

those 500 pounders will rock your world. guaranteed.

please don't mistake unmotivated corrupt Arab state armies both Syrian and Iraq, and well....Saudia Arabia... as sound opposition being defeated by ISIS or Houthi "battle hardened veterans" because that is definitely NOT what is happening.

The state of Georgia USA peanut goober pea eating, National Guard units could clear out the entire situation in about 90 days flat if not interfered with by Supreme Pigeon.....but that's not happening.

I'm sure my boy Murthyji will agree with me.......

Why don't you give up, man(?)?

http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-summons-us ... 42123.html

Neo Sultan seems to be a class A idiot. Khan is the main supporter of his plan for Syria and Iraq and I do not know why he doing this rubbish based on one statement.

That's it. Turkey will now be split into Turkey and Kurdistan.

Will the neo-Ottoman sultanate now be known as .....Turd-istan?

https://www.rt.com/news/331964-syria-us ... an-lavrov/

GoK what it is. I do not the if idiots in State department want to listen to anything other than sound form their backends.

So Aleppo is also where the anti crusader jehadis emerged and Saladin eventually emerged as their leader, but first there was lots of green v green action to deal with
Seems Sunni Saladin was in charge of Shia armies in Egypt which he managed to keep under control
The blood that those stones must have seen...

A bit off topic, but interesting development:

https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18Live/status ... 1837803520

Having been thinking about this in the recent days.

Given that close to 50% of UAE is made of Indians, someone in GOI should propose to UAE to protect it from "external forces" in return for a cut in the national resources/earnings. India has a huge interest in survival of UAE.

The excuse could be "protecting Indians" just like Russia does in East Ukraine.

I wonder if there is already such a plan in motion...

per that map, the ISIS zone between azaz and jarablus and most of iblib province is kurdish populated

‘You created ISIS!’ Press conference scandal mars Kerry’s visit to Italy

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Italy was disrupted by a cry of protest at his joint press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni, when a woman in the audience shouted, “it’s you who created Daesh!”

The press conference was coming to an end, when the woman stood up from the public, her head covered up by a black veil.

“It’s you who created Daesh!” she shouted at the two ministers, using another name for the terror group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), reported the Italian state-owned television channel RAI.

The woman was dragged away from the conference by the Carabinieri.

so they arrested her for telling the truth.

https://www.rt.com/news/331209-italian- ... erry-isis/

Singha wrote:per that map, the ISIS zone between azaz and jarablus and most of iblib province is kurdish populated

Many ISIS are Sunni Kurds.

So why is US supporting Kurd ? Do they want to carve a new state from Iraq and Syria for Kurd ?

US is only supporting iraqi kurd for the rich oil deposits (kirkuk floats on a major oil basin) and because they want to keep an eye on iran from nearby

Singha wrote:US is only supporting iraqi kurd for the rich oil deposits (kirkuk floats on a major oil basin) and because they want to keep an eye on iran from nearby

So you mean Iran and kurds dont get well , AFAIK US even supports the Syrian Kurd ?

I do think the US will not mind secretly getting rid of the Sykes Picot. That will mean it might potentially support all kinds of Kurds and the Turds.

iran would not want the irani kurds to fall in with the separate kurdistan demand. for now they seem to have cordial relations with the barzani dynasty who rule the peshmerga. there have been clashes in the iran border areas between peshmerga and iran backed shia militias last year

allegedly this lebanese media celeb is head over heels for him and started wearing hijab

Despite this coming from the US sources, I think the map shown is most accurate in terms of ISIS held territories and territories held by other parties in Syria and Iraq.

COL Steve WarrenVerified account
‏@OIRSpox
LATEST MAP FROM @CJTFOIR

SAA has started a small offensive from Hama on direct road to opp shore of Raqqa where there is airbase where IS killed 200 people. they are about 60km away from that base at a place called Ithriah now.

^^^ Yes, it is the air base at Al Taqbah. It is this airbase that IS besieged, captured and then massacred around 200 SAA soldiers. A revenge battle which is in the offing. Ivan Sidorenko tweeted about this earlier. Today, the SAA+ captured Hill 5 moving towards this base. But there is a lot of distance to cover.

TSJones wrote:battle hardened....or battle scarred?....the sword cuts both ways with concussion and PTSD...........

........
please don't mistake unmotivated corrupt Arab state armies both Syrian and Iraq, and well....Saudia Arabia... as sound opposition being defeated by ISIS or Houthi "battle hardened veterans" because that is definitely NOT what is happening.

The state of Georgia USA peanut goober pea eating, National Guard units could clear out the entire situation in about 90 days flat if not interfered with by Supreme Pigeon.....but that's not happening.

......................

I'm not saying the Syrian and Iraqi armies in some victorious apocalyptic landscape are going to form up by the numbers and start marching for parts unknown, or Saudi Arabia, either.

The Sunni conflicts happened after the US- in theory- kicked seven kinds of $hit out of the Taliban. And look what happened- the battle just mutated, inconveniently for the US, with no fixed theatre or war. I think that the same could happen here.

I'm saying that what's playing out in Syria could also change the world. If the good ole boys from the Guard units could solve the problem, they would have done it with a lot more firepower in Iraq years ago, and George Bush declaring victory on some ship would have had the historic moment he probably was gunning for, and not the late night mentions it got on the Daily Show for years afterwards.

Interesting article, has more than to cover the title.

Turkey's Erdogan denounces US support for Syrian Kurds

Austin wrote:

Singha wrote:US is only supporting iraqi kurd for the rich oil deposits (kirkuk floats on a major oil basin) and because they want to keep an eye on iran from nearbySo you mean Iran and kurds dont get well , AFAIK US even supports the Syrian Kurd ?

Kurds hate Iran more than they dislike Arabs.Iran is one of the reasons India do not have independent policy toward Kurdistan. Once Erbil gets Independence and have federation with Syrian Kurds for Sea access via Syria,India will be the only country having friendly relation with all players for mutual benefits of all parties. There is 80-85 Billion barrels of oil plus huge NG resources to be brought in "market"for good use, not to mention rare minerals .

deejay wrote:^^^ Yes, it is the air base at Al Taqbah. It is this airbase that IS besieged, captured and then massacred around 200 SAA soldiers. A revenge battle which is in the offing. Ivan Sidorenko tweeted about this earlier. Today, the SAA+ captured Hill 5 moving towards this base. But there is a lot of distance to cover.

between ithriyah and Tabqah there is some 100km of desert with one small village. so a well supplied column can move quickly in a lightning assault by night, with some hinds and frogfoots using previous drone recce to take out the few IS checkpoints . that mine clearing explosive cable thing can take care of any minefields laid. I am sure they can get there, but they have to plan carefully to not have their supply line cut by a relief column out of raqqa and get besieged there. once there they will need a logistical tail going back to Hama and Salamiyah for food, fuel, spares .... any lurking IS from the south or north could try to hit this tail.

maybe they will prefer the slow comprehensive approach in sync with a parallel push on palmyra axis - drain the malarial swamp of the rats in a broad front

RT ‏@RT_com 6h6 hours ago
Syrian #Kurdistan mission opens in Moscow http://on.rt.com/748d

^^looks like while peshmerga are american munna, syrian kurds will be russian munna.