The long-standing Syrian military offensive east into the ISIS-held Deir Ezzor Province has gained a new sense of urgency after defenses within their portion of the city of Deir Ezzor have begun to crumble in the face of an ISIS advance.
Syria has an airbase on the outskirts of Deir Ezzor and some neighborhoods on that side of the city. They’ve successfully repelled several ISIS advances for years, sometimes in some very bloody urban conflicts. Defenses have been crumbling in recent days however, with ISIS desperate to sack the area before the advancing troops arrive.
This has escalated ISIS’ push, and also led the Syrian Army to push even more desperately to get there, with some speculation that they’d be there within a few hours, but having run headlong into ISIS fighters who have slowed the advance.
Hope to push deeper into ISIS territory has put Syrian forces on the advance, eager to get to the Iraqi border and to secure as much of the oil-rich territory as possible. ISIS is far from defeated in that area, however, and is looking for its own counter-offensives into Syrian territory.
This is pro-IS propaganda. Government defences in DeZ are in no danger of collapse, it’s just IS having one last fling at killing those civilians who have rejected their insane mediaeval Wahabbi death-cult. IS are finished at DeZ and this alarmism isnt useful.
Hope so. Sources? There is little to trust in Syria.
There are good sources, proven reliable year after year. One out if Lebanon, Al-Masdar News, up to the minute reliable. American one, the best for information and analytics kn Syria, but on other issues as well, Moon of Alabama. Military folks, not neocon variety. Rusdian sources very accurate.
It is natural that many are praying and rain dancing for ISIS sucess. Especially, to hold Syria off at Deir Azzor. Because US has zero standinggin the area. SDF, or better put Kurds, are still bogged down in Raqqa and Hassakah — and as Kurds are not majority population there, are running into massive local resistance to Kurd takeover. As for ISIS, they have moved into safer areas, where US is literally protecting them from Syrian troops. Like at Al-Tanf, close to Iraqi border, and on a suppy road vital to ISIS. It is darn clear that a bunch of cults would not have been able to sustain fighting without a major power assisting in intelligence, telecom, field awareness.
The menace will not disappear until we get serious and demand some people swing from lampposts for enabling the rag tag army to consume our money and our kids lives.
Are we about to see Syrian and Iraqi soldiers shaking hands on the border reminiscent of American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe river in 1945?
They already shook hands some 50 miles north-east from Al-Tanf. The original plan was to meet at that crossing, as it controls ISIS supply line. But suddenly, US special forces showed up there to block Syrian advance. This left ISIS protected between US troops and the border. You can look it up on a map. US invented a group that is supposedly protecting there, a bogus if I ever saw one. But Syria and Iraq met just a bit to north-west, and have since expanded border control.
Now that Lebanese border is ISIS free, as is Turkish border, Jordanian border needs to be secured, and last will be Iraqi border. The problem clearly is the unwillingness of some in military and their neocon masters, to leave Syria.
Contrary to rosy plans Kurds cannot more across vast areas outside of their region. People have self organized against them, making lives difficult for those that plan to stay forever. US is stranded to the West of Iraqi-Syrian border control, and are just trying to figure out how to stay in Euphrates valley, and come up with another excuse for Israel’s thurd attempt at Lebanon.
Where are these reports of Deir Ez-zors defences crumbling coming from? The New York Times? The Washington Post? Anne Barnard? Liz Sly? The Guardian? Martin Chulov? Strange that other more reliable sources on what is happening in Syria have made no mention of this AFAIK. The sources I named should be regarded as pure propaganda except for the lifestyle and art pages.
BTW, did you know that the British have withdrawn their troops from Syria. Unless you read the Daily Telegraph, you wouldn’t.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/02/british-troops-halt-training-syrian-rebels-world-powers-distance/
I will do some searching, but it does not sound credible. Syrian Army is not exactly racing. From what is available showing various positions of combatants — Syria is coming from multiple direction, one seemingly mire prominent, but another one is more interesting, as it can strike in different directions.
There is nothing in the linked article about Syrian defenses falling or about ISIS advances. In fact the SAA is now taking Deir Ezzor. Jason is having a bad day, is all.
Keep in mind — it is Reuters. Of all fake narrative media, Reuters is the most dangerous, as it weaves a picture sprinkled with bits of truth and a large doze of neocon globalist fiction. Reuters is DISGUISTING. But in this article, it did not say anything we did not know. For anyone following the events it is not new that the city has been under siege, and kept alive by air drops. Reuters, as always, is lying. UN airdrops are PEANUTS compared to large Russian planes suppliying both the city and the surrounded base.
And how did it come to be this way? Ever since US “by mistake” bombed Syrian base for over two hours, killing hundreds of soldiers. Russia was on the emergency phone — no answer. Immediatelly following the bombing, ISIS invasion followed, separating the base from the city, and having both under siege, but unable to take on.
Jason may be proven right if US finds a way to shore up ISIS. After all, US alloerd for months ISIS convoys with heavy weapons and rocket launchers to mive in open desert from Raqqa to Deir Azzor. Russian planes were the only ones targeting convoys. Heavily armed convoys. Now, it is presumably a big deal to let an unarmed ISIS convoy to pass past watchfull US military. The absurdities are amazing.