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

delft

Brigadier
The BBC website published this news a few minutes ago:
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Syrian rebels 'start Aleppo offensive'
  • 10 minutes ago
Syrian rebels have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of rebel-held east Aleppo.

A UK-based monitoring group said rebels had fired "hundreds" of missiles into western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians.

They are also reported to have targeted al-Nayrab military airport to the east.

About 275,000 people have been besieged by pro-government forces since September.

Syria and its ally Russia have recently intensified air strikes on the east.

The attacks are so far coming from rebels outside Aleppo, but it is understood that rebels inside the city will join the offensive.

"All the revolutionary factions, without exception, are participating in the battle," the military spokesman for the Fastaqim faction inside the city said, AP news agency reported.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said rebels had fired Grad missiles at al-Nayrab.
So all moderate and extremist factions are together attacking Aleppo, bombing the civilians in Western Aleppo. So there is no reason to try to avoid hitting the Western sponsored "moderate rebels".
 

flyzies

Junior Member
The BBC website published this news a few minutes ago:
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So all moderate and extremist factions are together attacking Aleppo, bombing the civilians in Western Aleppo. So there is no reason to try to avoid hitting the Western sponsored "moderate rebels".

Exactly! Notice how the article never mentioned the attack is led by the former Al-Nusra Front, nor how the attack started with massive indiscriminate shelling, suicide bombers and suicide vehicle bombs.

But anyways, this looks and smells like a last desperate attempt to slow down the government onslaught. Judging by the news that came out of Turkey earlier today (or was it late yesterday?), Ankara's mind is purely focused on the FSA setting up a buffer zone in northern Syria and stopping the Kurds from gaining any meaningful territory. This is the last roll of the dice; it's do or die...literally!
 
while I was in a pre-WW2 Czechoslovak bunker ...
Cv2Cx62VIAE1lvJ.jpg:large

(reportedly the attacks from three directions as of 1300 hours, local time:
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)​

I'll now check Twitter (fanboish "reporting" will be on maximum, I guess :)
 
I scrambled this just to see the scale; the minimal distance between Government positions outside (currently under attack) and inside Aleppo is something like five kilometers (of urban terrain!):
nbUX0.jpg
it seems the outer perimeter was breached in the area I marked, and south to it (close to the large junction, where the southwest most part of Government held Aleppo was)

in my comfortable chair I wait to see who will seize the initiative now

(I have to repeat though
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/is...o-oped-no-politics.t6913/page-462#post-421801
reportedly attacks in several other areas are ongoing)
 

delft

Brigadier
I suppose they want to break through to East Aleppo before the arrival of the Adm K task force. But 5 km is a long distance and I expect that enough air support will be available to let Syria win this fight. Then Adm K can concentrate on Idlib.
 
Today at 3:37 PM
I scrambled this just to see the scale; the minimal distance between Government positions outside (currently under attack) and inside Aleppo is something like five kilometers (of urban terrain!):
nbUX0.jpg
it seems the outer perimeter was breached in the area I marked, and south to it (close to the large junction, where the southwest most part of Government held Aleppo was)

in my comfortable chair I wait to see who will seize the initiative now

(I have to repeat though
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/is...o-oped-no-politics.t6913/page-462#post-421801
reportedly attacks in several other areas are ongoing)
now, according to pro-Government Twitter accounts, it seems action moved towards "Al-Assad Military Academy" (I put two blue question marks below):
lDK9h.jpg


looking south to 3000 Apartments makes me wonder who
have advanced to virtually the entire 1070 Complex
now?
 
Yesterday at 3:37 PM
I scrambled this just to see the scale; the minimal distance between Government positions outside (currently under attack) and inside Aleppo is something like five kilometers (of urban terrain!):
nbUX0.jpg
...
now I read the anti-Government Forces closed the distance to two and half kilometers after dusk (somewhere in "3000 Apartments" area"; saw a vid but ... I of course can't tell an exotic place in the dark :)
on a side note, I noted "Cassad" had conceded somewhere in
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there could be five thousand attackers in this direction (pro-Government sources were at first saying three thousand, other sources: eight thousand) who knows anyway

in my comfortable chair I wait to see who will seize the initiative now

(I have to repeat though
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/is...o-oped-no-politics.t6913/page-462#post-421801
reportedly attacks in several other areas are ongoing)
the other attacks have turned out to be minor so far
 
Yesterday at 8:50 PM
***
concerning southwestern Aleppo:
... now:
Cv3-d17XgAArsqD.jpg

(it's
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)​
most recently several pro-Government Twitter accounts announced, what else, the counter-strike by Government (perhaps from where the two middle arrows end in the above map EDIT to regain the area with an ironic name marked below:
RGDXA.jpg

let's wait and see
 
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