Two weeks ago, the Syrian military had claimed a major early victory in their high-profile Aleppo Province offensive, seizing several towns include Tal Bajer. At the time, this was seen as a huge momentum shift as Russian warplanes backed the offensive.
This weekend, however, those gains are looking fleeting, as al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front has already retaken Tal Bajer and is looking to contest other towns in the area. Al-Qaeda released drone footage showing their forces advancing on the town in tanks.
Al-Qaeda claimed the video showed the military, as well as Hezbollah and Iranian forces, fleeing the town. Though this has not been confirmed as an accurate video, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did confirm the town was lost to al-Qaeda.
This mirrors fighting elsewhere in Aleppo, where the military has gained, lost, and regained villages around the major northern city of Aleppo with alarming regularity, and in no place do they or anyone else in the province seem able to make sustainable gains.
Were is Al-Qaeda getting the drones and tanks from?
Where does al-Quaeda get tanks?
I am amazed that Jason Ditz should give the ISIS mouthpiece the so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" a moments attention. This propaganda outfit is run from the UK and it has no idea what is happening in Syria. It's sole function is to give the nut-jobs in Whitehall and the White House a fig-leaf for their policies regarding Syria.This report objectively serves to boost ISIS.
Thanks
Looks like the Turks slipped another special forces battalion across the border with a resupply of weapons and munitions for the mercenaries, er the brothers in arms. How can anyone seriously believe that an "insurgent" organization is capable of driving an organized military force out of a city? Well, it turns out that ISIL publishes metrics-based annual reports: http://www.understandingwar.org/sites/default/fil…. This fits with the fact that the ISIL general staff receives program analysis training from folks based in the DC area, along with other, more practical training in tactical and operational techniques: http://yournewswire.com/declassified-documents-ob…
May Assad and his men eliminate the rats financed by Saudi Arabia & Turkey. These countries are the true masters of genocide and we won’t forget what these bastards stand for…
My response is "so what"? That is the way with this type of warfare where there is no solid front line. Sometimes one party concentrates enough forces to capture ground and then the other concentrates its forces to recapture it. Without the massive quantities of men, aircraft,and material the United States poured into Iraq, it's what would have happened in Iraq.
Try finding Tal Bajer on Google or Bing maps. Sure, al-Eis is there as well as Banes ans Al-Hadher (aka Al-Hadar), but no I can't see Tal Bajer which means it's not really a town, more likely a village or hamlet. So why would the SAA and its allies waste soldiers defending a collection of buildings that have no strategic and most likely tactical value? Is Al-Qaeda going to leave its tanks there to protect this "high-value" target. I doubt it but I hope they are stupid enough to do so as they will be cheap fodder for close air support. BTW, since these are Al Qaeda tanks, you would have thought that the USAF would be desperate to destroy them, you know, 9/11 and all that' but some how I doubt it because they are now "moderates" (OK, compared to ISIS they probably are but not by much).
BTW, perhaps someone should launch a reality TV show called, say, "Target of Opportunity" where they publish details of ISIS and Al Qaeda targets in Syria, allow people to phone in and vote on what targets should be destroyed and then provide details of the winning targets to the United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia. They could include "instant games" with a drone flying above a moving target, say of oil tankers, and the winner is the country that destroys it. The subsequent program would start with seeing which country destroyed which target.
I think Russia would win hands-down. The US would win the prize for deliberately missing the most targets. The French would win the prize for avoiding attacking ISIS and the UK is just too muddled to contribute much of anything.
Al Qaeda now has drones and tanks? I guess the "defeat" of al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Iraq didn't last.
But then, al Qaeda originated as our guys, paid for by the Saudis. Are we back to that again?
Notwithstanding, surely the western powers, namely the NATO corporate rich, did not design the Islamic State to withstand the carpet-bombing that Russia is dishing out. It's all a matter of time, gentlemen, unless our Empire builders want to start a nuclear war.
Arab armies are quite useless. This dysfunctionality reflects Arab societies as a whole.