Fierce battles are raging on between the Syrian Army, al Nusra and other terrorist organisations – some 23 extremist groups – in the countryside of Hama and Idlib for weeks now. The balance is quickly tilting in favour of the Syrian army, assisted by round the clock joint air raids by both Russian and Syrian bombers and attack helicopters.

Over 100,000 militants and terrorists from over 83 countries are believed to operate in these areas. While the liberation of Idlib has long been officially deemed as a matter of time by the Syrian leadership, the end of these battles is much easier said than done. There are numerous reasons, complications and considerations which intermingle and interact in a labyrinth of regional and international conflicting politics.

Despite the agreement regarding Idlib between president Vladimir Putin of Russia and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan last January, al Nusra, as well as other terrorist groups, continued to violate the so-called “De-escalation Zone”, and have launched several attacks against both civilian and military targets in the area. With Ankara’s evident failure to control those militant groups and honour its commitments and pledges to Moscow in this regard, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) have moved in.

Battles that started some six weeks ago in North-Western Hama, bordering the southern rural areas of Idlib, have gained momentum in the past few days and weeks. The SAA’s control of the strategic town of Kafr Nabudah, for the second time in one week, reflects the veracity of the fighting; with hundreds having lost their lives in just this little town alone. The SAA destroyed several Turkish armoured personnel carriers in the fighting; Turkey has made desperate efforts to prevent a total defeat of its surrogate insurgents amongst others facing the Syrian army, but to no avail.

There have been two major turning points in the battlefield so far, reinforcing the Army’s grip and reflecting its unwavering resolve to defeat terrorists and uproot them from the region once and for all. The first was the liberation of Kafr Nabudah, from where the SAA elite regiments went on to recapture a number of strongholds in nearby towns, villages, hills and mountains which control the gateway to both Idlib’s southern borders as well as the strategic al Ghab plain.

Al Huwaiz, Al Hamriyyat, Al Shari’a, Bab Al Taqa, Al Karakat, Al Janabra, the strategic Ottoman Hill and Shah Shabo mountain fell to the SAA after ferocious and deadly battles. These battles saw the use of a wide variety of land and air-delivered weaponry, sometimes even reverting to hand-to-hand combat.  As a result, the al Nusra Front and other terrorist organisations were expelled from large sections of the area, blaming each other for this humiliating defeat.

The larger stronghold rebel towns of Khan Sheikhoon, Maarrat Al Nu’man, Kfar Zeita, Al Latamneh, and Kafronbul have come under heavy bombardment and air raids targeting mainly arms depot convoys as well as command and control centres. Meanwhile, Syrian intelligence agencies have seized massive caches of arms and explosives, including over five tons of C4 high explosives, camouflaged and hidden by terrorist groups in both the southern and eastern parts of Syria.

The second turning point took place only two days ago, with the SAA recapturing Al Qassabiya, the first such town to be retaken by the Army “within” the administrative borders of Idlib itself. The city and most of its rural areas have been under the control of al Nusra and other rebel groups for over six years now. This was a devastating blow to the morales of terrorists on the ground and their operatives in Syria, the region and beyond. Idlib has long been considered a “red line” not to be crossed, according to many big players including Washington and Ankara.

All evident developments in the battlefield indicate that the SAA’s ongoing campaign is not going to stop soon – at least not before “all” terrorist organisations leave the country, dead or alive. 

Others have been using the all-too-familiar chemical weapon factories to exert tough pressure on the Syrian government in order to halt its military onslaught towards Idlib. The White Helmets, many of whom were smuggled through Israel and Jordan from the southern parts of Syria last year as the SAA took control of the region bordering the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan, have been filmed and photographed practicing chemical weapon production, as they did in Duma, Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus last year, and in Khan Al Assal in rural Aleppo a few years earlier. Both cases have now been proven false, even by some western nations and media networks.

“Every single inch of Syrian territory shall be liberated”, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has pledged on several occasions. Al Assad maintains: “Terrorism has no homeland, religion or boundaries. The cost of living with terror is far graver and greater than fighting it, therefore we have made the irreversible decision to fight terrorism to the bitter end.”

L'articolo The Final Battle of Idlib Has Started proviene da InsideOver.

(Damascus) The Syrian Army has been the main force fighting terrorists, jihadis and other rebel belligerent factions on the ground over the past eight years of conflict. Shedding light on the military aspect might help one conceptualise a broader vision and a clearer picture of the massive arsenal of weaponry which has regrettably been used in the Syria war, by all parties involved, left right and centre.

The US-led coalition that was theoretically formed in order to remove the presence of ISIS from Syria has directed a good deal of its military and intelligence operations against the Syrian Army itself as well as a number of civilian areas, killing hundreds and injuring thousands of innocent villagers and ordinary citizens who had nothing to do with politics of the conflict.

The US army deployed Tomahawk cruise missiles, from thousands of kilometers away, at least twice, to target Al Shuayrat strategic airbase in central Syria, as well as premises of the Syrian Centre for Research in suburban Damascus. Whereas American and other coalition members have to resorted mainly to aerial bombardment using F 35s, F 15s, and F16 jetfighters from regional bases as well as US aircraft carriers in both the Mediterranean ad Red Sea.

In addition, the US has deployed Chinook, Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, as well multipurpose drones during its intervention in the Syrian war. The remaining 2000 US troops in Syria deploy a range of M113s, AAVPs and LAVs; armoured vehicles, amphibious and personnel carriers, towed artillery as well as a range of personal rifles, sniper guns, hand-held rocket and grenade launchers.

Israel has launched scores of air raids and rocket attacks in Syria over the past few years using more or less, the same US aircraft, jets and weaponry.

Last month, Israel Hayom confessed that Israel fired, for the first time, advanced Rampage stand-off-air-to-surface missiles against targets in Syria.

An Israeli F35, and another F 16 were shot down by Syrian air defence missiles, the SAM 200 modified by Syrian researchers, the latter on Feb 12 of 2018; an incident that shock the Israeli air force and changed rules of engagement following the downing of the jewel in the crown of Israeli thereto unstoppable air supremacy. The recent deployment of S300 anti-aircraft batteries in Syria meant the near-impossibility of any enemy aircraft entering Syrian airspace.

Turkey has been directly intervening in the Syria war from the very beginning. In June of 2012 a Turkish air force F4 Phantom jet was shot down over the Mediterranean by a Syrian anti-aircraft battery off the cost of Latakia. The 2 Turkish pilot who ejected into the sea were both killed in the accident. This has not stopped Ankara from further intervention in support of its subordinate militias, mainly the so-called Free Syrian Army. Turkish forces on the ground, in some 10 observation posts inside Syria, as well as in the occupied city of Afrin, have been deploying

Leopard, Altay tanks, M113, ACV 15, Ejder and Kirpi APCs, M109s and M110 and other heavy artillery. Turkish Cobra helicopter gunships, F4s, F15s and F16 fighter jets have also been involved.

Moreover, Turkey has been deploying drones a range its own versions of both attack and surveillance drones, mainly Anka (Phoenix) and Bayraktar TB2 tactical combat UAVs, to carry out operations in Syria, mainly against YPG, the Kurdish separatist militia Ankara sees as the Syria arm of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party, the PKK. Turkish heavy artillery has pounded Kurdish bases, forces and villages across the Syrian borders on numerous occasions.

ISIS/ISIL, Al Nusra (Syria version of al Qaeda) and other rebel groups have a wide range of weaponry at their disposal, financed mainly by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. In addition to light personal AK47s, M16s and other NATO-used rifles, guns and snipers, RPG launchers and mortar guns of various calibers those militias possess an array of anti-tank missiles such as the infamous NATO version of the TOW missile, shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles; MANPADS including American Stingers and Chinese FN-6s and QW-2s.

Although ISIS, Al Nusra and other Jihadi terrorists have at their disposal scores of US-made M1 Abrams and Russian-made tanks captured by terrorists in Iraq and Syria, as well as Hammers and Humvees, their most common, and may be preferred lethal weapon has been suicide bombers, massive explosive booby-trapped cars, trucks and armoured personnel carriers. In operations such as the suicide attack which targeted Al Kindi Hospital in Aleppo in 2013, one of the largest and most modern hospitals in the region, the suicide bomber detonated a truck laden with over 20 tons of TNT explosive, a mini nuclear explosion!

L'articolo Weaponry Used by US-Coalition and Rebel Forces in Syrian War proviene da InsideOver.

(Damascus) Things are moving fast in Syria’s Idlib and Hama countryside, leading towards a final military showdown and a possible long-anticipated all-out war between the Syrian army backed by Russian aerial support on the one hand, and Islamic militant groups lead by the outlawed Al Nusra terrorist organisation and other Turkish-backed groups on the other.

The Syrian army has amassed some of its elite forces in the area, having already commenced a fierce bombardment and air raids against militants strongholds, inflicting heavy losses among terrorists and recapturing some villages in the hills and northern rural areas of the town of Hama and advanced into parts of the Idlib governorate where an estimated 70 thousand hardline militants have been bracing themselves for the decisive battle that will shape Syria’s fate in the war against terror.

The two major allies of Syria in its 8-year conflict, namely Iran and Russia, have had different approaches to solving the ultra-complicated situation in Idlib in particular. Putin’s Russia has kept open lines with Erdogan’s Turkey, with the Turkish borders being just a stone’s throw away from Idlib, Turkish forces and observation posts are scattered all over the area. Iran has always maintained a more decisive military operation in order to uproot terrorists and Islamic fanatic groups in the area.

Whilst Russia seemed to have the upper hand in averting a military confrontation that could develop into an all-out war with undesirable consequences, this time round, and following the failure of the last round of talks in Astana a few weeks ago, Iran’s approach seems to have prevailed, and a military confrontation is already underway around Idlib and Hama, with the Syrian army seemings more than ever before to be determined to end the presence of Al Nusra and other terrorist organisations in Syria, once and for all. The possibility of a clash with invading Turkish forces, albeit unwanted, remains a reasonable probability. Turkey occupies or indirectly controls large areas within Syria along the borders between Afrin and Jarablus.

Russia, however, seems to have lost faith in Erdogan’s promises and commitments under the Sochi agreement with Putin to help dismantle hardline groups in and around Idlib, and empty the intended demilitarized buffer zone there of heavy weapons. The deadline for that has passed, and Erdogan seems to have faltered on his pledges to Putin. To add fuel to an already raging fire, terrorist groups in the area have launched several mortar and rocket attacks both against civilians in neighbouring towns and villages in recent weeks, and against Syrian army positions as well.

The response was quick and devastating, with the overwhelming firepower of the Syrian and Russian air and land bombardment of fortifications, ammunition dumps and terrorist camps in the area. The scene seems to be set now for a major advance and a final showdown between the warring parties. The only consideration deterring an all-out onslaught is the densely populated city of Idlib and the massive humanitarian cost such a major battle would almost definitely inflict.

With the situation east of the Euphrates river seemingly put on a back burner for the time being at least, and Kurdish militia leaders who control vast sways of land in that strategic part of Syria, dampening down their heated rhetoric regarding separation from Damascus, all eyes are now focused on events in and around Hama and Idlib.

The mentor of Kurdish hardliners Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey has called on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to pursue solutions in Syria other than through conflict. Ocalan, who has been imprisoned in Turkey for more than 20 years, also called on the SDF to take Turkish sensitivities in Syria into consideration, relayed in a statement read by his lawyers who met him for the first time in 8 years.

“We believe that, within the scope of the SDF, problems in Syria should be solved by avoiding a culture of conflict, with constitutional assurances outlined within the framework of Syria’s territorial integrity,” the statement by Ocalan and three other PKK leaders said. The SDF is spearheaded by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, and backed by the United States.

At the time of this article’s writing, both the Syrian army and its opponents in Idlib, Hama and parts of the Aleppo countryside are deploying massive forces and fire power in the area, with rockets and artillery shells raining down on terrorist strongholds and positions day and night. The unabated bombardment, coupled with both Russian and Syrian air raids against major fortified targets around Idlib is set to continue or even expand in the coming days and weeks.

It is difficult, almost unimaginable, that it might be possible to silence the guns now that dialogue has ended between the hardline militant groups with conflicting affiliation to the east and west. This being the case, Idlib is set be the setting for a Syrian Battles like none we have seen before.

L'articolo Syria: Has Iran Won Over Russia in Hama and Idlib? proviene da InsideOver.

(Damascus) Turkish forces are spread over large sections of land in the bordering areas of northwestern Syria, but have been evacuating from some of their positions, including two of their main observation posts within the rebel-controlled countryside of Idlib and Hama, where the Syrian army has launched a large-scale military operation targeting Al Nusra terrorists and other militant groups backed by Turkey and Qatar.

The sudden Turkish pullout come in the wake of a recent attack targeting one of their bases located close to observation post number 10, south of Idlib and northwest of Hama, in which three Turkish officers were killed and several other soldiers injured less than a week ago. Turkey immediately sought Russian mediation for talks with the Syrian army in order to evacuated their injured soldiers. Four Turkish military helicopters covered by F16 fighter jets were filmed evacuating the victims of the mortar attack.

Having evacuated the base that came under attack, another convoy of Turkish Military trucks and personnel carriers were spotted last night withdrawing from another post in the area. The attack represents a major military operation by the Syrian army, following attacks and shelling by militant groups against army positions. Christian villages in northeastern Hama province were also attacked, resulting in the death and injury of scores of civilians and a number of soldiers.

The Syrian army has made significant advances over the past couple of days, liberating the two strategic towns of Kafr Nabooda and Al Madeek Castle in northeastern Hama, and is quickly moving towards the major strongholds of militant militias particularly the so-called rebel group Jaish Al Izza in the towns of Al Latamneh, Al Habeet and Kafr Zeita. Turkish, Saudi and Qatari-backed militias and terrorist organisations operate and control much of these areas that form parts of the volatile countryside of Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.

Turkey finds itself in an extremely difficult position following the last session of talks in Astana between representatives of various rebel groups and the Syrian government. Russia has been left exasperated by Ankara’s failure to honour its pledges and commitments to Moscow during the last summit between presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan last September. The ensuing Idlib Declaration that was announced in a joint press conference by the two leaders, in which Turkey pledges to dismantle terrorist groups in and around Idlib within an agreed time frame has also failed to be achieved, resulting in further discontent.

Ankara has failed to meet these promises, and recent terrorist attacks launched from that specific area against army and civilian targets, have added insult to Erdogan’s injuries. The fact that Turkey might have little or even no control over some of Saudi-backed terror groups, particularly the outlawed Al Nusra Front, make a major military operation lead by Syria and its allies to recapture Idlib and other areas under rebel control since 2014, an inevitable development.

The area east of the Euphrates river is under almost total control of the US-backed Kurdish SDF, considered a terrorist organisation and extension of PKK by Ankara. The territory stretches along the Syrian-Turkish northern border and comprises large areas of Syria’s oil and gas fields.

Ankara has backed the 25,000 strong so-called Free Syrian Army whose rebels, albeit with direct Turkish military involvement, ousted Kurdish forces including the US-adopted SDF from Afrin in March 2018. The encounter displaced hundreds of thousands of Kurdish civilians from the city and its suburbs in the northwestern Aleppo countryside, close to the borders with Turkey that span over 930 kilometers.

Despite conflicting interests and goals, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others have supported ISIS, Al Nusra (the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda) and other terrorist and Islamic fanatic groups operating in Syria.

With ISIS having been largely uprooted (some say transferred by its operators) in Syria, all eyes are now focused on Al Nusra and similar hardline militias, including the Turkish-backed Turkistan Army (mainly containing terrorists of Turkish origins). There are ongoing battles in the mountains of Latakia along the borders with Turkey, as well as the fierce fighting and major operations being waged in the Idlib and Hama rural towns and villages. The outcome of these battles, expected to culminate in a final large battle in Idlib unless a last-minute miracle occurs, shall decide the destiny of the war against terror, which has ravished Syria and threatened the whole region and beyond, having been most difficult and tragic years in Syrian history.

Wherever one looks, one immediately realizes that without Turkey’s involvement, it would have been almost impossible to smuggle tens of thousands of terrorists and Islamic fanatics from all over the world (84 countries according to some reserved estimates) across the Turkish borders into Syria.

Unless Turkey pulls out its invading troops from Syria, attacks against its soldiers are expected to be mounted by anti-Turkish armed groups, despite strenuous efforts to avert any direct clash between the two armies. Turkish forces have crossed the borders and launched operations under various pretexts and names, the last of which was Operation Olive Branch in March 2018. Turkish control in Syria seems to crumbling and Erdogan’s “Olives” have been crushed in Idlib, not too far away from where they came.

L'articolo Under Fire, Turkey Evacuate Posts in Syria proviene da InsideOver.

From Damascus. The road which from Libya leads to Syria is continually dotted with checkpoints. Loyalists check every vehicle passing through because the risk of attacks is still very high. Gli Occhi della Guerra have once again returned to Syria. And in the most delicate moment of this tormented nation: following the liberation of Aleppo and the signing of a ceasefire agreement.

Assad welcomes us in one of his residences. His expression is relaxed and he greets everyone shaking their hand with a smile. We are able to ask him a few questions. Firstly concerning the Syrian migrants who are flocking to Europe. His answer is clear: “If you ask me ‘What do they want?’, I will tell you, as a Syrian: they are my fellow citizens and they want to go back to their country, they all want to go back to their country. They require stability, security and at the same time they want the basic needs for their livelihood which so many of them have lost due to the war. I don’t want to invite them to return to Syria because Syria is their country and they don’t need an invitation to return. But I’d like to say something to the European officials who created this problem by supporting terrorism directly or indirectly in our country and have created this flood of Syrians fleeing to Europe, while at the same time declaring that they are supporting them from a humanitarian point of view. They don’t need your support in your country, they need your support in our country. They (the officials N/A) need to stop supporting terrorists, they need to stop the embargo that forced many Syrians to go to Europe, because it is due to the embargo, and not only to terrorism, that they can no longer live in their country.”

According to Assad the causes of the outbreak lie in his refusal to accept the pipeline system put forward by Qatar. “This was one of the important factors. It wasn’t offered to us publicly but I think it was planned. There were two routes crossing Syria: one of them from north to south, which is the one Qatar was interested in, and the other one from east to west, to the Mediterranean, crossing Iraq from Iran. At the time we had embarked on building the one going from east to west. And I think that many countries that opposed Syria’s policy didn’t want our country to become an energy hub, whether for electricity or oil, or even a crossroads of railways and so on.”

Just yesterday the ceasefire agreement on Syria was confirmed. This is certainly an important step put forward by Iran, Russia and Turkey to try and bring peace to the country. The agreement excludes jihadist groups, against which bombing continues. According to Assad, these very same terrorists are responsible for last week’s attack to the heart of Germany. The Syrian president states he is one of the few world leaders to fight terrorism and declared: “The problem with Europe is that they don’t want to help themselves. The officials and the governments are working against their interests, they are working against the interests of their own people. They are supporting the terrorists. And if they are supporting the terrorists in our region they are also assisting terrorism in attacking Europe, so how can I help them? If You don’t have a good policy before intelligence you cannot achieve any results, whether through the intelligence, or military or otherwise.

Christians are amongst those who have suffered the most during this war. However Assad ensures they will play a role in rebuilding the country, together with other minorities: “If you look at Syria, not just today, or over the last few years but over the last centuries, it’s always been diverse, a melting pot, with different religions and ethnicities. We have a wide spectrum of diversities. Without this wide spectrum of diversities you wouldn’t have Syria, regardless of the name, regardless of the political borders, I’m talking about Syria as it was before the war. Due to this war we have had many demographic changes, caused by the displacement of people, whether internally or externally. I am confident that after the war the majority of Syrians will return to Syria. Syria will be…. I’d like to use the word reborn although Syria has not vanished yet. Secondly, this war has brought many Syrians together. They have learned so many lessons: that if we don’t accept each other, if we don’t respect each other on every level we will not have a unified society. And without this unified society Syria cannot be reborn, I think we should not just talk about the rebirth of Syria. Today I feel that once we will no longer be afflicted by terrorism our society will be much stronger than the society that you knew before the war because of the numerous lessons that we’ve learned.

L'articolo Assad: “Europe Supports Terrorists” proviene da InsideOver.