ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

they say History Repeats Itself ...
LOL since I was quoted twice, let's hear the Russian denial:
Turkey says Su-34 violated airspace, Moscow shrugs off report as ‘propaganda’
Moscow has denied Turkey’s accusation that a Russian Su-34 bomber violated its airspace on Friday. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that Ankara couldn’t have determined which country the jet belonged to under the circumstances they described.

“There have been no Turkish airspace violations by the aircraft of the Russian airborne tactical formation [acting] in the Syrian Arab Republic. The statements from the Turkish side concerning the alleged air incursion by a Russian Su-34 are proof-less propaganda,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Iror Konashenkov said in a statement on Saturday.

He stressed that the airspace controlling radar stations that Turkey has can only determine the altitude, flight line, and speed of an aerial vehicle, but not its type or state affiliation. To determine which country owns the jet requires visual contact from another aircraft, Konashenkov emphasized, adding that no visual contact had been reported.

He denounced the claim that Russian pilots had been warned “in English and Russian” via radar as a story made up by “ignorant propagandists who watched too many Hollywood action movies.”

Konashenkov also stressed that neither Russia’s air defense systems in Syria, nor Syria’s airspace controlling radar stations, had recorded any violations of the air border between Syria and Turkey.

Turkey summons Russian envoy
Earlier on Saturday, Turkey summoned Russia’s ambassador, claiming a Russian fighter jet had violated its airspace. According to Ankara, the incident involved a Russian Su-34 and took place on Friday. Several warnings in Russian and in English were allegedly sent to the jet.

“We are making a clear call to the Russian Federation not to violate Turkish airspace, which is also NATO airspace,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.

“We are emphasizing once again that the unwanted consequences of such irresponsible behavior will belong fully to the Russian Federation,” it added.

The ministry also said it views the alleged violation as a clear sign that Russia is seeking to escalate already existing tensions.

At the same time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced readiness to meet with Vladimir Putin in the wake of “the incident,” Reuters reports.

Russia’s envoy has already met with the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Russian embassy in Ankara confirmed. No details on the meeting were provided.

NATO also reacted to the reports, with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calling “for calm and de-escalation”.

Stoltenberg urged Russia “to act responsibly and to fully respect NATO airspace,” as well as to “ensure that such violations do not happen again.”

In November, Turkey downed a Russian a Su-24 bomber, also claiming that it had violated the country’s airspace, albeit for 17 seconds. The plane went down in Syria. Moscow has denied that any breach occurred and has accused the Turkish government of supporting terrorist forces in Syria.

The incident provoked a deep political crisis between Ankara and Moscow. President Erdogan has so far refused to apologize for the incident and blamed the downing on the Russian pilots, one of which was killed in the incident.

As a result, Moscow imposed multiple sanctions on Ankara, banning agricultural trade with Turkey, reintroducing a visa regime, and suspending most bilateral economic projects, including the Turkish Stream gas pipeline construction project.

Moscow has been carrying out an anti-terrorist operation in neighboring Syria since September 2015 at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Russia’s Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets, Su-34 and Su-24 tactical bombers, and Su-25 attack aircrafts have been carrying out airstrikes on Islamic State (IS, former ISIS, ISIL) and other Syrian terrorist groups.
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(in the Russian text I checked the "Hollywood part" :)
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and
here's the Gazantiep province in wiki map:
1280px-Gaziantep_in_Turkey.svg.png

and now I'll try to find what exactly the Turks said)
 
...
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(in the Russian text I checked the "Hollywood part" :)
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and
... I'll try to find what exactly the Turks said)
No: 33, 30 January 2016, Press Release Regarding the Violation of Turkish airspace on 29 January 2016 by a RF aircraft
Yesterday (29 January 2016) at 11.46 hours local time, a SU-34 type Russian aircraft violated Turkish airspace.

Before the violation actually took place, Russian plane was warned numerous times by Turkish air radar units, (through appropriate channels) both in English and Russian languages.

Despite several previous explicit staments of warnings by both Turkey and NATO, this new violation is yet another concrete example of Russian escalatory behavior.

We once again explicitly call on Russia, to act responsibly and not to violate Turkish Airspace, which is NATO airspace. We underline that such actions could lead to serious consequences, the responsibility of which will totally rest with the Russian Federation.

Russian Ambassador to Ankara has been summoned to the MFA yesterday evening. At the meeting we strongly protested and condemned this violation and reiterated, once again, aforementioned concerns as to the gravity of such violations.
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(found on a Russian forum where guys were amused by Tochkas 9М79М and 9М79-1 in the same vid ... fell close to Turkish border it the caption was true ... I don't want to think about what would've happened if Turkish territory had been hit with fragmentation warheads!)
 

delft

Brigadier
related to my posts here today:
1454194356_DSC00363.jpg
  1. I've read five Su-35s were most recently sent to Latakia Air Base (related picture above), and
  2. Russians now say (РИА:
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    ) the Turkish Air Force is on some high alert level ("orange") allowing pilots to engage intruders at will (I won't go into any play of words here)
I'm curious from which type of aircraft this photo was made. Does anyone recognize this?
 
Thursday at 5:43 PM
...
now I've read about allegedly the last Rebels' stronghold (it shows on the above map in top-right):
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to be the target soon:
qaoamjunjycxb2xzg.jpg
so it's time (for me :) to take a closer look:
Cz7aE.jpg
Salma EDIT
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/is...no-oped-no-policis.t6913/page-315#post-383646
in bottom-left corner, Kinsabba mid-top (spelled differently), Touma is marked because "peto lucem" says it was most recently taken by Government Forces (the map right below), Kabanah is also shown (because of the map further below), and this time I kept the scale on :)

CaCZQ48WwAAmeKs.jpg


Latakia-31-jan-2016-1024x488.jpg

 
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SampanViking

The Capitalist
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I am reading the same as you Jura about big Government gains in Latakia and that Kinsabba is now the next big town to fall. I have not seen any up to date maps showing the gains of the last few days however.

Not so with the fight East of Alleppo
n1vudl.png


It was clear from the last map that an encirclement north of the Aleppo Euphrates Canal was shaping up with disruption actions effecting all the major roads between the Govts Allepo and Kuweries territory. This will have cut off supplies to those ISIS fighters in the Rayyan Salient.

The current map shows this process ongoing.
Like many, I have been surprised that Govt forces have not managed to expand the narrow neck of territory connecting from Aleppo to Kuweries that was cut through Shaykh Ahmad last Autumn.
The neck between ISIS held Dakwanah and UmmArkllah is narrow.
I can only assume that ISIS have thrown very considerable forces into trying to cut the salient and that while the Government forces are clearly able to keep assaults at bay, that they are reluctant to get into a high attrition slug fest to try and expand themselves into areas that must be now very heavily fortified.
Instead they seem to be cutting through the more lightly defended mid territories into order to encircle and turn into a Cauldron.
It seems likely that liquidating this cauldron and the forces inside it are a necessary precondition for further advances to Al Bab itself.
 

DigoSSA

New Member
Registered Member
related to my posts here today:
  1. I've read five Su-35s were most recently sent to Latakia Air Base (related picture above), and
  2. Russians now say (РИА:
    Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
    ) the Turkish Air Force is on some high alert level ("orange") allowing pilots to engage intruders at will (I won't go into any play of words here)

Russia deploys Su-35 fighters to Syria

Russia deploys reinforcements to to Syria. Up to four Su-35s are now believed to have joined the four Su-30SMs, already present at Hmeemeem/Bassel al-Assad IAP, Lattakia Governorate.

As the leader of a group of fighters Su-35S acts board “05” Red RF-95815, followed by “06” Red RF-95816, “04” and the red “03” red (presumably serial numbers 02517, 02518).

The Sukhoi Su-35 (NATO reporting name: Flanker-E) is a designation for two separate, heavily upgraded derivatives of the Su-27 ‘Flanker’ jet plane. They are single-seat, twin-engine,supermaneuverable multirole fighters, designed by Sukhoi and built by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association (KnAAPO).

The Su-35 is a 4++ generation aircraft employing technologies of the fifth generation. They make it superior to all other 4th generation fighters now under development worldwide. In 2009-2015, thanks to these technologies, the Su-35 will dominate the world market, outperforming other proposed multi-role fighters.

In addition to the armaments onboard the modern Su-30MK, it is planned to additionally arm the Su-35 with new types of air-to-air and air-to-surface guided missiles, including long-range types. The maximum ordnance load of the Su-35 is 8,000 kg. This is placed in 12 weapon stations.

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0930abd31fbd6ce5fbfa6b62807b5d68.jpg

c45d9c47057bb6e1b69354eba9d04c59.jpg


Source:
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based on what I read now, it seems to me it's time to look north to Aleppo; below is schematically the narrowest part, about four miles, of Rebels' held area:
eIC38.jpg

which I figured from the most recent maps:
XwzXAJv.jpg

and
CaH5nXtUMAAqZcN.jpg
 
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