Syrian rebels are claiming to have captured another military base today, an army base near the city of Daraa, where the first shots of the civil war were fired over a year ago, and a base whose tanks are now under rebel control.
A number of bases have fallen in recent weeks to the rebels, as the regime struggles with its supply lines and retracts more and more of its troops into the area immediate surrounding Damascus in an attempt to secure the capital, if nothing else.
The rebels have tried to spin the new bases as proof that they are nearing a victory, while the military is denying those gains, insisting that several of the “captured” bases actually remain under their control.
Changes of control also don’t mean permanent losses in some cases, as locals say the Aleppo military college captured by the rebels has fallen back to the military after fierce fighting over the weekend.
As mentioned before, obviously the almighty "rebels', by their own accounts, and doing "just fine" on their own and no longer need outside assistance…
So what exactly is the issue?
These so-called "rebels" want to have it 'both way's", so to speak, with this "narrative"…. They want to be both on the verge of toppling the "Assad regime": amassing stockpiles of weapons, artillery, territory, "people" 'support', while they're allegedly (according to them) accumulating these so-called "gains" and "advances"; yet, at the same exact time, these same so-called 'almighty' "rebels" still whine and plead for outside support and even (and particularly) direct military intervention…so as to "tip the scales"…if even ever so slightly…
These two narratives are diametrically opposed to one another…any fool should understand both narratives simply cannot be accurate; as they, as mentioned, contradict one another… You don't need to be a CIA agent with 'access' to certain "classified" so-called "information" to figure this one out here…
How does Ditz know this claim is true, especially since this comes from one of the parties involved in the fighting? .
Nearly ALL of the reporting in the MSM consists of nothing but "Rebel" propaganda – including the ludicrous Peter Engel "kidnap" story which doesn't pass the smell test (will someone on antiwar.com look into this?). Ditz did state "claims," but then preceded to somewhat leave the impression that the story is true. Patrick Cockburn pointed out that many of the stories coming from the MSM trumpting rebel "advances" are hogwash and that the government is still in control of the major cities, especially Damascus.
One thing is certain: The "rebels" must be receiving TONS of aid to last out this long against an army with attack helicopters, fighter jets & tanks. They're reportedly being killed in large numbers but keep coming — another sign that this "rebellion" is really an invasion.
Are these overage tanks in long term storage, or current tanks abandoned by crews? Those would be very different events.
Are these Obama's AL-CIA-DA rebels that the TSA are busy looking for at American airports and in our pants?
Syria maintained a conventional Army of sufficient strength to provide Syria with a good degree of security from an Israeli attack. Israeli has a very large and one of the best equipped military forces in the world. Yet Syria would have been able to put up a strong defense. They would be defeated for sure, but only after a long hard battle.
How can these so called rebels with some AK-47's, RPG's and a few more modern weapons be able to defeat any unit of the regular Syrian Army? Seriously, Syrian forces have air support, armored divisions and large infantry formations trained to fight Israel. How can they be kicked around by these foreign fighters and rebels?
I honestly do not understand what the main force of the Syrian army is doing. Are they even in the fight, or is it just small units of the army and reserves engaged with the fight.
One Syrian armored division with air support and rocket and missile batteries should be able to roll over the rebels. What is going on, where is the large, well armed and trained Syrian regular army at????