At least 180 fighters, including 100 Syrian soldiers and 80 members of al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra were killed in a 24 hour span yesterday, as Nusra pushed into key military bases in Idlib Province.
The Nusra offensive led to the capture of bases on the outskirts of Maaret al-Numaan, a strategic town along the main north-south highway in Syria, which connects Aleppo and Damascus.
A significant fight was reported for the capture of the bases, but it was only today that reports began to emerge of how large a death toll there actually was. It may continue to rise, as Nusra also reportedly captured 120 other soldiers trying to flee.
Maaret al-Numaan was a major contested site earlier in the civil war, but it was eventually retaken by the Syrian military. With Syrian forces nearly surrounding Aleppo, the loss of the town could make it harder for them to reinforce from the south.
Damn it.
So this was al-Nusra and not ISIS? Could some genius in Washington please explain what the hell the difference is?
Where we bomb them, they are ISIS; where we don't, they are Nusra.
Al Nusra is the self-proclaimed and Al Qaeda-endorsed official representative of Al Qaeda in Syria; ISIS was the self-proclaimed and Al Qaeda-endorsed official representative of Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria — until Al Qaeda denounced ISIS as being too brutal for Al Qaeda. The Syrian government has never attacked or threatened to attack the US — yet has been our (US) Government's primary target for "regime change" for the past three years. Can anyone seriously contend that our Government has not been allying itself with Al Qaeda and Al Nusra during the past three years, in a common effort to overthrow the Syrian government by force and violence? Our so-called "leaders" in Washington (of both political persuasions) ought to be committed to appropriate mental health institutions, because they are certainly "dangerous to themselves and others."