Battles are reportedly ongoing in the Syrian capital city of Damascus after a sudden attack by ISIS fighters has left them with possession of part of the Qadam District, the first time any rebel faction has had anything meaningful inside the capital itself.
Actually how much is held in the city is unclear, with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claiming that ISIS only holds a couple of streets, but ISIS themselves saying they hold half of the very significant district, and showing video of their fighters advancing significantly.
ISIS’ main target in the area near Damascus has long been the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, which had been a de facto suburb of the capital before the war. Now, the fighters are pushing into the city itself, something that was once seen as unthinkable.
Attacks inside Damascus during the civil war have previously centered on hit-and-run strikes or bombings in important neighborhoods, with the Syrian military so heavily shoring up the defense of the city even as it loses more of the country.
In recent weeks, however, there’s been talk that the Syrian military is just plain on its heels nationwide, and that appears to have convinced ISIS, which has been previously taking the country’s central region, that the capital is no longer completely unthinkable to target.
This also raises the possibility that a rapid collapse of the Assad government to ISIS, considered a “worst-case” scenario
by the international community, if they don’t have any place that is so defensible that it can’t possibly fall to a sustained offensive.
Damned.
The AP article I just read by Sara Deeb claims that ISIL captured the suburban Damascus territory from rival rebel groups and that dozens were dead on both sides. The in fighting between rival rebel groups, if true, might benefit Assad. And there has been shelling of Damascus suburbs for months.
The CBS report you site in your article appears to say these Islamic rebel militias are allied with Assad. Very confused fighting to say the least.
I believe you are misreading the articles you present as evidence for a declining Assad position.
The articles you sight clearly say ISIS is gaining on rival rebel groups and Assad forces are delighted to see the rival groups weaken each other.
Where is the SAUDI city of Damascus? Just wondering.
I think there’s a typo: the article says “Saudi capital city Damascus”. It should be Syrian, shouldn’t it?
Even the otherwise superb moderator Thomas L Knapp must admit that the claims of ISIS/Al Nusra et.al´s own "Bagdad Bob" here at Antiwar, a certain keyboard/copy-and-paste journalist, STILL comfortably far from anything even remotely related to the conflict or any conflict or unrest at all i would suggest, Jason Ditz, is past way beyond any of his wildest wishful thinking's. A reality check is certainly recommended before A.W goes down the drain with the MSM in this regard.
And the unsubstantiated and ridiculous predictions are of course his own, often presented as soon-to-be facts here at A.W but you wont find them anywhere else, even CNN & FOX has, after 4 years of doing so,gotten tired of claiming that "Assad will fall any minute now".
His sources are the same as always, those of the war party and of course the notoriously "Syrian" lavatory for human rights, a (openly "rebel" supporting) one man band and a telephone under Cameron and his regime´s payroll in an apartment England.
Reality: The ISIS(rael) or any of their affiliates has been in-and-out of Yarmouk since 2014, nothing new there except for Ditz i guess but in very small insignificant numbers and they are routinely ousted by SAA together with the Palestinian militias of said camp.
It also has to be said, in this regard, that real "freedom fighters" are not feared and hated foreign wahhabi mercenaries paid by medieval kingdoms and trained by the US, terrorizing, killing, destroying and bombing the hell out of the land and any civilian in it they are trying to "liberate", but mostly native to the land they are fighting for and with immense popular support and they usually also build up an alternative infrastructure. The only place we have seen an "alternative infrastructure" is in the remote desert town of Al Raqqa and the "popular support" isn´t exactly voluntary. Not even Ditz can call that a success…
marc,
Flattery will get you most places, but it won't get you to any negative admissions from me regarding Jason Ditz.
If Antiwar.com had the money and could find the people willing to undertake the task, I'm sure we'd get our own correspondents out to e.g. Damascus and Aleppo (even if Damascus was relocated to Saudi Arabia).
We don't have that kind of money. What we have is Jason, who busts his ass trying to round up the news from Syria from the sources available to him.
And no, he never cheers the Islamic State or al Nusra or the rebel forces. The claim that he does seems to be an artifact of the idea that if you aren't in the tank for Assad, you must be in the tank for Assad's enemies. That idea doesn't hold water.
Take it as you wish. What i meant is that You are reasonable in almost any other issue except in your hell-bent defense of Ditz whatever and no matter what his outlandish and absurd claims, that´s not very constructive. let, or rather encourage the man to talk for himself here every now and then im sure it will benefit him and widen his horizon a bit.
His reports are clearly sometimes just copy/pasted "news" we heard on CNN the other day or his own assumptions and interpretation on events and what he thinks his one-sided source of information mean or are trying to sell.
marc,
I can't guarantee that it will get you anywhere (I don't do the hiring, firing or article approvals here), but if you don't care for Mr. Ditz's content and style, why not try to do better?
http://antiwar.com/submissions.php
Agreed. This is a multi front civil war. Very confused fighting going on all the time. Patrick Cockburn has been close to the action for years and his recent article published at Anti War a few days ago gives a good picture of what is going on with Turkey and the PKK and YPG.
Assad is getting renewed support from Russia and Egypt, also reported here. No one can predict the future of this war even if he is on the front line. The four year stalemate might just continue.
Exactly Marc. Right on the money.
Mr.Ditz's reporting of the war in Syria is terrible and you are correct about the copy and paste from msm which in turn uses the so called sohr, what a pompous name for a propaganda operation.
Assad's government looks like its on the brink of collapsing more and more every day. Not surprising either considering that half of its military has been killed, captured, or deserted, they're almost bankrupt, officials are fleeing to Russia, and the rebels as well as ISIS are capturing more and more territory every day. The Douma market strike was a sign that the government is getting desperate and ISIS seems to have a sixth sense for recognizing weakness. The governments of the world right now need to understand that ISIS could actually take over Syria at this point. ISIS is advancing on the capital, and who knows, maybe tomorrow Assad will decide to give it all up and leave for Russia leaving us facing the situation of ISIS becoming even more powerful.
The problem is that there has been so much focus on Iraq even though the government in Baghdad isn't going anywhere soon. The Iraqi army and police force despite suffering from massive desertions is still way too large for ISIS to overpower. Syria though, is at a breaking point. Assad and the rebels have bled each other dry of most of their manpower and resources fighting this war. ISIS on the other hand is fresh, eager, and has just as many fighters in Syria as the government or the rebels do. We need to stop focusing so much on Iraq and focus more on Syria because I feel like Iraq will eventually get its act together but if something isn't done about Syria soon ISIS will take it over.
The Saudi capital of Damascus is just north of the Turkish capital of Beirut. I thought anyone smart enough to be able to add 2 and 2 to make 22 knew that.
Probably special forces units of someone actually doing this fighting. Could be the French Foreign Legion who were used in Libya.
While the import and validity of this news account is open to question, it does raise an interesting point. What if Assad's government falls?
For all of the US led (and Saudi backed) opposition to Assad, does anyone think the replacement regime or regimes would be any better? Unlikely. At best they are opportunists. At worst, well, welcome to the 7th century.
This unhappy development would ensure widespread foreign intervention becoming more likely.
Is the prospect of another Iraq in Syria something rational people want? So why the anti Assad coalition? He seems to be the least bad option.
I've lost count of how many times I've seen this notion here that the Syrian government is about to collapse or whatever… It seems to me that for such false reporting one could simply go to the msm, aka, propaganda ministry.
Damascus is very well defended and far from falling into the hands of isis or any other wahabi outfit.
Isis have not even managed to take Hasakah or Dei-Ezzor, all their efforts have resulted so far in defeats and very heavy casualties, and this all in the eastern areas of Syria.