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

SampanViking

SampanViking

The Capitalist
Staff member
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Don't forget, Putin is an intelligence man not a soldier and he really does see war as diplomacy by other means.

He says he is looking to achieve a diplomatic settlement and maybe we should believe him.

His key task appears to be eliminating the hard line foreign Jihadis and you can see a twin track strategy to this.

a) To dishearten the less hard core and local Sunni's and convince them that victory is unlikely.

b) Not however to declare a total war on the Sunni's in which they have no hope other than ultimate resistance and sacrifice.

In short to generate an environment in which the actors on the ground decide to either leaver or seek an accommodation, irrespective of the views of their overseas patrons.

I would see this done by slowly tightening a noose and this seems in line with Putin's air campaign to date; attacking C & C and supplies and logistics..
 
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D

delft

Brigadier
Logistics are always the basis of war. The limitations are there. But with the other rebels being eliminated or discouraged allowing the continued existence of ISIL doesn't make sense. Eventually Syria and Iraq with the help of Iran, Russia and if necessary China would eliminate the caliphate but for US allowing that to happen and seeming to be incapable of doing it themselves would be madness. And even before ISIL has been destroyed entirely the way can be open to a diplomatic solution to the current unpleasantness.
BTW WaPo has an article arguing that the "moderate" rebels are even more guilty than ISIL for plundering archeological remains.
 
T

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
delft said:
The use of Iranian waters is mentioned:

But it is likely that we won't see any of this as US is already motivated to become more active in destroying ISIL as the "moderate" rebels are being "putinized" so that ISIL looses its value.
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I like the new verb you introduced into English. :D
 
D

delft

Brigadier
taxiya said:
I like the new verb you introduced into English. :D
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OT
Thank you. Every language needs to be able it accept new words and English has more experience of this than others because it is used by so many people, many of them not native speakers. But I remember hearing on BBC years ago the English cleric who translated the Papal Bulls into Latin, I don't remember for which Pope, and he told about inventing new Latin words for, among other things, the helicopter.
 
S

Scratch

Captain
US JSOC servicemembers were involed in a raid with iraqi and kurdish forces to free about 70 hostages from an IS camp. Unfortunately, one US servicemember died after being wounded in the action.
So far this is a singular action on a target with specific intel about an imminent excecution of the hostages.

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OCT. 22, 2015

BAGHDAD — An American soldier was fatally wounded on Thursday as American and Kurdish commandos raided an Islamic State prison in northern
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after learning that the prisoners faced imminent mass execution, the Pentagon said. The commando became the first American soldier killed in action in Iraq since the withdrawal in 2011.

The raid, near the town of Hawija, freed 70 prisoners, including more than 20 from the Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon said in a statement. Five Islamic State fighters were detained and several killed, and American officials said important intelligence about the terrorist group was recovered.

Some details of the classified operation remained unclear. But as described by American and Iraqi officials, the mission appeared to be a significant joint strike against the Islamic State, also known as
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or ISIL, at a time when Iraqi and American officials are trying to mount a wider counteroffensive against the militants.

Fears that the prisoners were in danger may have been reinforced by the militants’ actions in recent days. An Iraqi in the Hawija area, who asked not to be named because he feared retribution from the Islamic State, said this week that the militants had recently executed 11 young men who were the sons or relatives of police officers or other Iraqi forces. He said their bodies had been hanged on a nearby bridge.

Initial reports noted that at least some of the hostages were Kurds, but Kurdish officials involved in the operation later reported that none were. Further details about the nationalities of the hostages were not immediately announced.

Providing new details about the operation, a senior Defense Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a classified operation, said that five American helicopters had been involved, including Chinook and Black Hawk choppers. The American forces involved were part of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command.

The American and Kurdish commandos had expected to rescue about 20 prisoners only to find 70, underscoring the complications of gathering accurate intelligence in a militant-controlled area. The Defense Department official said that there had been a heavy firefight. ...[/URL]
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Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
now I went through various sources related to:
Jura said:
...
if I'm not mistaken, last week Mr. Assad launched three offensive at once:
  1. close to Damascus
  2. against the pocket around Talbiseh: https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/isis-isil-conflict-in-iraq-syria-thread.t6913/page-187#post-369654
  3. against Aleppo
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and from what I read and saw, the Regular Army has been in many situations like this:
( EDIT: the video is frightening! but not showing anything explicit)
​
and it seems to me anti-Assad forces have not (yet?) been pushed into fights over single streets, houses, I mean not in whole areas mentioned above ... (but I'm not saying urban combat is not going on in certain places or something, I of course saw some recent videos of fights in blocks turned into ruins)

Jura said:
I admit I don't know much about the Syrian Civil War ...
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you can check this chart I found in the process:
nwlpt4-syriaupdatefocuscopy.jpg
 
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