More than 50 Russian warplanes and helicopters are currently in action in Syria – all lined up and ready at the airfield in western Syria camouflaged by their khaki livery.
Andrew Roth, Washington Post: After four months, Russia’s campaign in Syria is proving successful for Moscow
MOSCOW — Four months after launching airstrikes in Syria, the Kremlin is confident that Moscow’s largest overseas campaign since the end of the Soviet Union is paying off.
Under the banner of fighting international terrorism, President Vladimir Putin has reversed the fortunes of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which were rapidly losing ground last year to moderate and Islamist rebel forces in the country’s five-year-old crisis. Government forces are now on the offensive, and last week, they scored their most significant victory yet, seizing the strategic town of Sheikh Miskeen from rebels who are backed by a U.S.-led coalition.
According to analysts and officials here, the Russian government believes it has won those dividends at a relatively low cost to the country’s budget, with minimal loss of soldiers’ lives and with largely supportive public opinion.
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WNU Editor: For the moment the Russian military is on a roll .... but this Syrian conflict has been going on for a long time, and while the Russian military intervention has helped the Assad regime, this conflict is far from finished.
7 comments:
This can't be correct because the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military in the world said it would be a quagmire for Russia, and Bloomberg confirmed it on Dec9 after two months:
U.S. President Barack Obama, facing criticism at home over his Islamic State strategy, is turning out to be right with his prediction that Vladimir Putin’s own campaign in Syria will descend into a quagmire.
Just kidding.
WNU Editor,
In Syria, there's actually not a lot of jihadi "turf" left, some pockets in the south west and around Damascus, the large northern areas occupied by the jihadi's have been eliminated in Hama, Hom's and Latakia, Aleppo has been cut in two, with a large "cauldron" in the south of the province, isolated from a tiny part in the north, backing onto Ildib , which has also seen major gain's by the SAA.
While the MSM maps still show that large grey swath of ISIS held area's in the south east, it's been cut off from Iraq, is reduced to a single border crossing with Turkey, and is mostly unpopulated desert.
Principally it was not about area, in the classic sense, because the area is desolate, rather ISIS controlled cities/towns/villages and LOCs (lines of communications -- highways, rivers).
Here's an update.
"This conflict is far from finished." The enemy may well adapt but at this point the Russian military is on a "roll." If this continues and ISIS is defeated, this would be good.
While it's taken Russia a little longer to get to this point than I thought it would initially, I'm not surprised. After allthe Russian military and it's intellegence services are the best in the world. No one else even comes close and is unlikely to in the foreseeable future. Also, Russia's alliances and organization among them give a strategic depth that no one else can even come close to matching at this time.
If US military officials and others study this along with other Russian military campaigns of 21st century, they might learn something. If one wants to be the best, study the best!!
"Principally it was not about area, in the classic sense, because the area is desolate, rather ISIS controlled cities/towns/villages and LOCs (lines of communications -- highways, rivers). " - Don
Rome controlled the cities in the Middle East and not necessairly the country side.
"if one wants to be the best, study the best!!"
The British sent observers to the American Civil War. They were at Gettysburg
America returned the favor during the Franco-Prussian War of 1871.
No magic, just journeyman work.
The "Assad regime" happens to be the legal government of Syria, and the UN Charter prohibits any action to overthrow governments as the US and its "coalition" are doing.
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