On the Turkish-Syrian border it quickly becomes clear why the FSA—the “moderate” rebels the Obama administration wants to train—have learned to loathe him.
KILIS, Turkey — The border gate was a bustling mass of human comings-and-goings—of trucks unloading bags of cement, piping and corrugated iron for no-doubt doomed efforts repairing battle damage in what many here believe is a war fated to be endless. There was a two-way traffic in combatants, with haggard Syrian rebels coming out hugged by buddies relieved to see them alive, and fresher replacements going in.
There were dazed refugees clutching what they had salvaged from ruined homes stuffed into battered suitcases and plastic bags, fleeing the madness and violence. Kids dragged, parents pulled. And then there were others relinquishing temporarily the safety of Turkey and returning to war-wracked Syria to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the big Muslim feast honoring the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son on the orders of a demanding God.
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Update: The war against Islamic State: Are American-led air strikes creating a Sunni backlash? -- The Economist
My Comment:It is not hard to understand why the Syrian Free Army loathes the Obama administration. They never received the weapons that were promised, and by bombing Assad's enemies (and not him) is only giving Assad's forces a strategic advantage that they are now quickly exploiting .... Syria's army goes on the offensive as U.S. bombs Assad's foes (Reuters).
I think the Reuters article just made bad conclusion with the US led airstrike and how much does it's help Assad. Sure it's help them, but not more than in January of this year when IS invaded Iraq. If one faction keep busy and fighting somewhere else it's always good. IS is busy mostly because of the Kurds, but US led airstrikes has effects too.
ReplyDeleteBut SAA working a bit differently. The SAAF (aka. Air Forces) are more free now, and can make more operations on other parts of Syria, instead of bombing IS that much. But the ground forces are more limited. The ground forces are taken to two very different weight section, to the regual SAA units and the NDF (National Defence Forces volunteers). The NDF forces are mostly limited to locations and provinces and only a few more organised unit were redeployed in other areas and their task in general to defending, fill out the empty space on the battlefield, slow offensives on weak frontlines, counterinsurgency and keep the order on. While SAA forces are more mobile, but they still stick to some location. The US led airsitrikes on IS not really changed the SAA ground force's locations.
In the suburbs of Damascus (general in Rif Dimashq) the SAA forces are the same in the last 2 year. Thanks to ANNA news the 4th Armored Division and the Rep Guard units are well documented, and even the tanks and the crew are almost the same from the very begining. They got some losses and started to use some older equipments in the battles, because it's not usual to see the 4th Arm. Div. use BMP1s and T55, but if it's do the job, why not. Also the operation in this area were planned long time ago. The battle of Al-Malahe started earlier this year, the large operation to free Jobar is a very well planned operation and started in August, and also the Battle of Adra was expectable and the rebel forces were weak in this section since their winter offensive. But since the fall of Al-Malahe the resistance in East Ghouta is weaker then ever, and there were minimal losses in Adra. SAA has a clear plan on what they doing, and now it's can be see how they want to liberate the remaining rebel held suburbs ( I have my theories, but it's a long story ), and this is not something that the fighting against IS could change (not even in speed or scale).
The fighting in other fronts were also planned. The late summer offense pushed the rebels back to Al-Latamija in the Hama area, thanks to Colonal 'Tiger'. But even there were no redeployed units only the cammand changed and helped to increase the effectivity of the already deployed units there. IS not let SAA rest, they attacked another Air Base in the Aleppo area, but SAA pushed back the attackers, and since then there were mainly peace. SAA also fighting heavily against IS in Der-er-Zor, where IS forces got heavy losses while they fought in the Air Base SE of the city. SAA seems like to got some fresh air in these frontlines which are clearly an effect of the airstrikes, but nothing more.