Hundreds Dead As Islamic State Seizes Syrian Air Base: Monitor -- Reuters
(Reuters) - Islamic State militants stormed an air base in northeast Syria on Sunday, capturing it from government forces after days of fighting that cost more than 500 lives, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 346 Islamic State fighters were killed and more than 170 members of government forces had died since Tuesday in the fight over Tabqa base, making it one of the deadliest confrontations between the two groups since the start of Syria's war.
The Observatory, which monitors violence in Syria through sources on the ground, said fighting raged inside the air base on Sunday. It was the Syrian army's last foothold in an area otherwise controlled by Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq.
Read more ....
More News On The Fall Of The Syrian Tabqa Airbase To The Islamic State
ISIS Militants Capture Air Base From Syrian Government Forces -- NYT
Syria conflict: Islamic State seizes Tabqa airbase -- BBC
ISIS captures major air base in Syria -- CBS/AP
Jihadists seize Syria's Tabqa airport after bloody battle: NGO -- AFP
Islamic State Captures Major Air Base in Syria From Government -- WSJ
Islamic State militants seize Syrian airbase -- The Guardian
Clashes rage over Syria's Tabqa air base -- Al Jazeera
Islamic State captures Tabqa air base in Syria -- Deutsche Welle
Isil fighters capture key Syrian air base in sign of growing strength -- The Telegraph
Islamic State militants capture key Syrian air base - giving them open road to the sea and massive store of weapons and ammunition -- Daily Mail
My Comment: This is a major victory for the Islamic State .... but apparently they lost hundreds of fighters while trying to take control of this massive Syrian airbase.
Update: A special thanks to regular reader and commentator mlacix for giving me the heads up on this story.
3 comments:
This is the 3rd Base near Ar Raqqah that has been captured.
There was the one north of Ar Raqqah that was featured in the Vice.com video
There was one near the dam west of Ar Raqqah and north of this base
The loss of the base was unexpected in some ways, because SAA sent reinforces ( if the rumors were true )to the airbase just 2-3 days ago. IS only could penetrated the defence of the base for the 4-5th attack, and then it was clear that IS will capture the base and it's just a matter of time, SAA and SAAF evacuated the base. As far as I know except 1 Mig-21 plane, all the other aircrafts , including the helicopters and the ground units were evacuated. Air units were sent to nearby (still not so close) bases like T4 airbase, while the ground forces first regrouped in a town south from Tabqa but I know no more about their future plans or where did they went after that. IS also captured some limited amount of MANPAD laucnhers and other mostly aircraft related armaments ( AA rockets ).
SAA mention many times that the evacuation was a tactical decision, to avoid the unneeded losses of SAA soldiers and equipment. They fighting their war for more then 3 years for now, they know that the one who keep stand at the end, will win, so they not rushing into logic-less operations. Also it's need to mention that the loss of this base was way more important than it's seems from the news. As Aizino mentioned this is the 3th base which fallen in Raqqa province during the last one month, but while the other two (93. Regiment and 17. Division base) were under size for a long time already, Tabqa was in SAA hold area. Upon that this was the last Radar base on the Norht, and as rumors says the radars were leaved behind for IS, and still operational. About the radars, all that I know is there were 2-4 radar at this base, all or almost all of them EW (Early Warning) radar, but one source mention 2 older radar only, while the other mention 4 radar with 2 older from Soviet times and 2 newer bought from China. I don't know which one is true, but for probably a not so short time IS could not use them because of the lack of trained crew. Also NE Syrian airspace is no longer monitored by SAA.
In tactical aspect the loss of the base was important because that was the last base on the NE area and from here IS could go to areas of Hama, Palamya and Homs, but also they can go to west and by this move they can cut the only SAA supply lines which connect Aleppo with Damascus. In Homs area the possible targets could be the T4 and another airbase, which are even more important than Tabqa, because SAAF deployed the SU-24 bombers around Palamya and the loss of them is unacceptable.
We will see how SAA will react to the loss of this base, but because of the big losses of IS I expect a bit sitdown on this front section and maybe the expected offence in Der-er-Zor ( which still could be just an act of adesinformation, to confuse IS ) and Aleppo.
I liked the update, I found the other blogs. I got more to think about here than at the NYT et al. Which is really sad, but talent is where you find it.
The SAA is under a lot of pressure since the Iraqi Shia have left and ISIS has better equipment. But ISIS is also under some pressure from American air strikes, stiffening Shia resistance and the Kurds. They did retreat from the Mosul Dam. It goes without saying they wanted to keep it. Yet they pulled back in good order.
What I don't know is if Hezbollah or Iran have shifted assets out of Syria.
Like WNU I always appreciate your posts.
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