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

PanAsian said:

I wonder if the Syrian government retakes all the "rebel" territory surrounding/in Aleppo whether it would negotiate for the "SDF" pocket or fight for it, or perhaps even leave it alone.

Click to expand...

Those negotiations probably took place other the last month or more. The Syrian government will happily cooperate with SDF to close the Turkish border against Turkey supplying/trading with the terrorists including Daesh.
See this Al Monitor article ( Al Monitor is US based ) about the hole Ankara has dug for itself:

now I noticed the very brief ТАСС announcement

of one Russian Military Advisor KIA (ISIL mortar fire directed at a Syrian Base) February 1 ... if I find any details, I may decide to post

as to the Geneva talks ... a Red Russian blogger noticed

sorta paradox, which is the official Russian goal of the intervention was the peace talks, and Syrian opposition agreed to them as a results of Russian air-strikes, but at the time the peace talks just began, the opposition demands to stop the air-strikes, and now Russian can't back off, can they?

I read related articles:

• by the New York Times
  Syria Peace Talks Are Suspended
  
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• and
  "Russian Bombs Froze Syrian Talks" at gazeta.ru:
  
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now getting back to maps
upon clicking, this should animate the Northern Aleppo February Offensive:

(found on Twitter), and here's the most recent by "peto lucem":

I just heard a director of a Dutch NGO that tries to help young refugee people get a university education say that the rebuilding of Aleppo has already begun and that an agricultural university has restarted late 2015.

While typing I heard a Dutch member of parliament for a small Christian party say that the Dutch government should not, as it plans, give EUR 10 million to FSA ( it already gave EUR 16 million ) because it is likely to end up with Al Nusrah.

it's everywhere in Russian Internet: Russian Military says Turkey is preparing an intervention into Syria

(specific statement(s) will become available in English soon, I suppose)

The Syrian Army has been expanding its bridgehead in North Aleppo - further north to help secure the supply corridor to the cities of Nubl and Al-Zahraa (and also I suspect to supply the SDF whihc is clearly operating in concert with the Syrian Army.

The news today is that the towns of Mayir and Kafr Naya have been captured from the rebels.


The latest edmap also shows these gains

SDF has found that Turkey and US kept them out of the Geneva conference. They will be happy to help cut the transport routes between Turkey and Daesh and other terrorists.

The US website Al Monitor has an article about Turks fighting in Syria:

Have Syrian government forces or anyone else been making any significant moves in the south at all? Recent coverage has been focused on the northwest and northeast. On a map large areas in the south have looked like cheese full of holes in supposedly government controlled areas for a long time.

PanAsian said:

Have Syrian government forces or anyone else been making any significant moves in the south at all? Recent coverage has been focused on the northwest and northeast. On a map large areas in the south have looked like cheese full of holes in supposedly government controlled areas for a long time.

Click to expand...

About a week ago the important town Mashkin was liberated by SAA and local militia so limiting the ability to supply terrorists near Damascus.