This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Syrian Showdown: Russia, Iran Rally Forces, US Rearms Rebels As "Promised" Battle For Aleppo Begins
On Friday, we previewed the battle for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city prior to the war.
It’s now run by a hodgepodge of rebels and militants including al-Qaeda, the Free Syrian Army, and ISIS and for the Assad regime, regaining control of the city is absolutely critical. As Reuters noted last week, "the assault means the army is now pressing insurgents on several fronts near Syria's main cities in the west, control of which would secure President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power even if the east of the country is still held by Islamic State."
In other words, if Assad can secure Aleppo, Iran and Russia will have successfully restored his grip on the country for all intents and purposes.
Here’s a look a map showing where Aleppo is in relation to Russia’s base at Latakia, along with the before and after images we highlighted last week which depict nighttime light emissions on the way to vividly demonstrating the effect the war has had on the city.
For reference, this is one of Syria's most war-torn areas. To give you an idea of what's taken place there since the war began, we present the following stark visuals from in and around the city ca. 2012 (as you might imagine, it's only gotten worse since):
And here's a short audio clip from NPR which explains why Aleppo matters (it's largely objective and thus worth the three minutes):
The offensive is also notable for the scale of Iran’s involvement.
Between Hezbollah and Iranian forces, the battle for Aleppo is shaping up to be the largest ground operation orchestrated by Tehran to date. Underscoring how deeply involved Iran truly is, Quds Commander Qasem Soleimani (who we profiled here) showed up near the frontlines late last week to rally the troops. Here’s GOP mouthpiece Fox News (who are most assuredly not Soleimani fans):
Iran's shadowy top military commander has been spotted in Syria addressing Iranian military officers and members of the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, according to photos that emerged Thursday on social media.
Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani -- the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or Qods Force -- was pictured rallying Iranian military and Hezbollah members in western Syria in photos that appeared on Twitter.
On Thursday, Reuters confirmed Soleimani's presence in the western province of Latakia in Syria. The news agency said Soleimani was seen addressing Iranian officers and Hezbollah fighters with a microphone while clad in dark-colored clothes.
Here are the images Fox references:
As WaPo, goes on to point out, some of the fighters called to Syria by Soleimani are from Iraq's Shiite militias, supporting our contention that as soon as Syria is "secure" (whatever that means in this context), Russia and Iran will take the fight across the border, where militiamen loyal to Tehran are already battling Sunni extremists:
Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds forces and the public face of Iran’s military intervention in the region, has ordered thousands of Shiite militiamen into Syria for an operation to recapture Aleppo, according to officials from three Iraqi militias. The militiamen are to join Iranian troops and forces from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia, the officials said. The Iraqi Shiite militia Kitaeb Hezbollah has sent around 1,000 fighters from Iraq, one said.
The new arrivals shore up the position of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose beleaguered forces had been losing ground before Russia began launching airstrikes three weeks ago. Pro-government forces have claimed victory in a string of villages around the Aleppo in recent days, in a conflict that Shiite militias frame as a single regional struggle between Shiites and Sunni extremists from the Islamic State.
“It makes no difference whether we’re in Iraq or Syria, we consider it the same front line because we are fighting the same enemy,” said Bashar al-Saidi, a spokesman for Harakat al-Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi Shiite militia that says it has fighters around Aleppo. “We are all the followers of Khamenei and will go and fight to defend the holy sites and Shiites everywhere," he said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah and the Quds Force, which is part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, have also sent reinforcements, he said. Last week, a U.S. defense official said hundreds of Iranian troops were near the city in preparation for an offensive.
“It’s not a secret. We are all fighting against the same enemy,” said Saidi.
His militia released a photo of Soleimani, the Quds Force commander, with its fighters near Aleppo on one of its social media accounts last week.
“The operation is an extension for our operations in Iraq because it’s the same enemy, and when we hit them there it means that it will get results in Iraqi lands,” the Kitaeb official said. Soleimani “specifically requested they go there for the launch of the operation for Aleppo,” he said.
And here's a look at an airstrike map which delineates bombing runs by date, thus giving you an idea of the extent to which the Russians targeted Aleppo last week to soften up the rebels ahead of the offensive:
Meanwhile, as Russia revved up the Sukhois and the shadow commander rallied the ground forces, the US rearmed the rebels. Here’s Reuters:
Rebels battling the Syrian army and its allies south of Aleppo say they have received new supplies of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles from states that oppose President Bashar al-Assad since a major government offensive began there on Friday.
Rebels from three Free Syrian Army-affiliated groups contacted by Reuters said new supplies had arrived since the start of the attack by the army backed by Iranian fighters and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
A number of rebel groups vetted by states opposed to Assad have been supplied with weapons via Turkey, part of a program supported by the United States and which has in some cases included military training by the Central Intelligence Agency.
And so, with the proxy war lines clearly drawn, the battle has begun. Via WSJ:
Syrian pro-regime forces backed by Russian airstrikes have expanded their ground offensive to the strategic city of Aleppo, one of the clearest signs yet of how Russia’s recent military intervention has emboldened President Bashar al-Assad and his loyalists.
In the bitterly fought multi-sided war, Aleppo is among the most coveted prizes. Losing partial control of the city, which was once Syria’s largest and its commercial capital, was an embarrassment to the regime. But with the backing of Russian warplanes, Iranian forces and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Mr. Assad’s forces could now be in position to regain large parts of the city and the surrounding countryside.
“I suspect Assad always wanted to take back Aleppo because it is such an important city and retaking it has such strategic and symbolic importance,” said Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based military and security think tank. “And it would deny the rebels a foothold in any major city.”
Since Friday, the regime has netted a number of villages on the southern outskirts of the city and thousands of civilians are fleeing fighting in the area. On Sunday, the regime captured one additional village and U.S.-backed rebels destroyed two regime tanks using American-supplied weapons as they tried to stem the regime’s progress.
The regime appears to be advancing westward toward the strategic highway linking Aleppo with the capital Damascus, rebels said.
In a rare move, the offensive is being led by regime-allied Iranian fighters, according to Ahmad al-Ahmad, a spokesman for the moderate Islamist rebel group Faylaq al-Sham, which is involved in the battles.
The city of Aleppo is now divided in two, with an array of rebel factions controlling the eastern half and the regime holding the western half.
The regime’s ground offensives over the past two weeks have been led by fighters and military advisers from Iran and forces from Hezbollah, supplemented by Syrian security forces.
So far the battles in Aleppo are concentrated in the southern countryside on multiple fronts pushing toward the crucial highway that links the city with the coastal province of Latakia and the central provinces such as Hama, rebels said.
One of the goals of the offensive could be to prevent rebel reinforcements from Aleppo being sent to help fighters along other fronts. Rebels also report an amassing of pro-regime forces elsewhere in Aleppo province that could be aimed at cutting off the rebel supply route from Turkey.
Such moves could severely weaken the array of rebel forces in Aleppo, which include Islamist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front as well as U.S.-backed rebels.
Note how shockingly close this is to an actual shooting war between the US/NATO and the Iran-Russia "nexus."
CIA-trained rebels are now using weapons supplied by the US to kill Iranian soldiers backed by Russian airstrikes. The fact that the ground invasion is now clearly run by Iran and Hezbollah means that one side of the "rebels vs. SAA" proxy label has been removed. This is now "rebels vs. Iran and Russia", meaning there's literally but one degree of separation from an outright NATO vs. Russia-Iran armed conflict. And don't forget: the nation through which the US is suppliying the rebels at Aleppo (i.e. Turkey) just shot down a Russian drone.
And so, as we wait to see whether the US will finally step in on behalf of its proxy armies before they are routed in the most critical battle yet in the war for Syria, we leave you with a few still shots taken over the weekend in Aleppo.
»
- 123043 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Europe's refugee crisis escalated when Greece voted against further austerity measures. The coincidence is striking. In May, the month before the vote, approximately 26.000 refugees entered Germany. In July, the month after the vote, it had already increased to 38.000, since then a further speedup took place. The same number of people now arrives every two days.
http://homment.com/ys2Tnw6ko5
So where is Reuters et al on Brigadier Yussi Elon Shahak?
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/10/19/breaking-israeli-general-command...
The Foreign Affairs High Representative at the USA Parliament and Secretary General of the “DESI” European Department for Security and Information Ambassador Dr. HAISSAM BOU-SAID confirmed that Iraqi popular Army captured an Israeli officer whose name is Yussi Elon Shahak, based on the Intel provided by the “US international Parliament and European Department for Security and Information.
https://haissambousaid.wordpress.com/
Everythings changed since Russia launched those cruise missiles from the Caspian. The only thing we don't know is whether the US psychopathic leadership goes full retard or goes quietly into the night (which I doubt).
The White House has gone full retard with their Syria policy. Clusterfuck doesn't even begin to describe this debacle.
Syrians flooding Europe. It seems to be going as planned to me.
Kalergi Plan 2.0
Remember the USS Donald Cook incident in the Black Sea in April 2014? The ship went blind and deaf within a split second. The SU-24 which was flying in the aera put its jammer on.
So what happened in South-East Turkey airspace for the past weeks? Russian drones all over the place, gathering intelligence about Al-Nusra and Daesh supply bases in Turkey. Very difficult to monitor, because of the powerful Russian jamming systems. (it's no secret, pictures of them all over the place in Lattakie - mostly embarked on jets and UAVs) Turkey, henceforth the US, has lost total control of South-East Turkey airspace. That is the reason they shout very loud for having shot down UAV which resemble to a toy. (looks to me that is very much of the Russian sense of irony)
At the end of the day, if you want to fly over Syria nowadays, you have to ask permission to Moscow. If you don't comply, your planes may be grounded.... Well, how to put it? ...Abruptly. With no waste of Russian ammo.
Thus the US-backed rebels have little chance to last, since the supply routes will soon be cut off, if not completely already. That was probably the last delivery. Any air assistance will be very hazardous.
You are the first to mention this here. Tarpley says that this gives Russia overall military superiority to the Americans and that it will take America years to catch up. He says the balance of power in the world has shifted east and what happens in Syria represents the end of US imperial ambitions. I'm surprised this hasn't generated more discussion. Also, I surmise that recruiting disaffected youth worldwide to go fight in Syria will be more difficult for the terrorists. Not that Tarpley is a military expert, but is he right in this case?
I do hope we send a case of beer to whoever puts the first bullet in Soleimani's head. Or bags the first Russian aircraft.
Either one is beer-worthy :)
I love these kinds of wars - scum dying on both sides, and a fella can just sit back and cheer on the grim reaper. It's bring back happy memories of the Iran-Iraq war.
And meanwhile, with the average Russian salary now only about one-quarter of what an American McDonald's burger-flipper employee makes, this is a very expensive little adventure for them.
Then again, maybe that's why Vlad-o needs to do it. Nothing distracts the proles from their poverty like a nice foreign war.
Speak for yourselves.
It is US where highly educated people are flipping burgers.
It US that needs all this wars for distraction.
Not just poverty, Sir Isaac
Sometimes it distracts from an assassinated president like in 1964.
And our retarded, alcoholic president and the WTC who done it? in 2003.
Bravely bleats the hamster from the couch.
you sick fucking cunt
Reminds me of a statement made by Rabbi Reichorn in 1869;
“Thanks to the terrible power of our International Banks, we have forced the Christians into wars without number. Wars have a special value for Jews, since Christians massacre each other and make more room for us Jews. Wars are the Jews’ Harvest, the Jew banks grow fat on Christian wars. Over one hundred million Christians have been swept off the face of the earth by wars, and the end is not yet.”
And this guy says" I love these kinds of wars".
Evil loves war.
+1000rr
With that greased dildo up your ass, I'd hardly say you're siting back and cheering.
Moaning is more like it.
This is absolutely disgusting. The U.S. is bombing civilian infrastructure in Aleppo (the power plants) in order to cause refugees and hinder the Syrian advance. That's a WAR CRIME.
Then they are arming the very terrorists that they are purporting to fight. Another WAR CRIME.
It's becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. is on the side of evil in this conflict.
"It's becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. is on the side of evil in this conflict."
Just his one?
Squid
Sad but true.
The US Government is now run by terrorist war criminals.
Who-da-thunk that would happen a few years ago.
Not to mention bombing Afghan hospitals. I wonder if USA managed to drone a wedding party over the weekend?
USA has been on the side of evil for a long time.
No no, this is humanitary intervention, don't you? NATO did the same in Yugoslavia. They expected the aircampaign to last 48 hours, it lasted 78 days. NATO was not hitting enough military targets. Dreading a ground invasion, they changed their tactics to bombing civilian infrastructure. Over a thousand civilians died and damage to the economy and the wider society ran in the billions. Yugoslavia was NATO's testing ground in political and military intervention.
U.S. Has reduced another city to ruble....Order through Chaos
Soleiman: The Most Interesting Man In The World
"There is a time and place for funding and arming terrorist proxy armies. The time is never. I'll let you figure out the place on your own."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpUMYQe6uHY
NPR segment largely "objective"? You mean other than calling the Syrian government "the regime" every time?
Putin and Assad wage war while Obama wages gestures and draws pink lines in the shifting sand.
If I was literally going to be putting my ass on the line, it would NOT be for or against Syria - it doesn't mean shit in the big picture. It's certainly not worth all the bad that's going to be coming out of it.
If you want to understand history, you have to look at geography.
The world is about to change forever - this is the NEW Russia and their able deputies China and Iran !
At least everyone has guns over there, so they can defend themselves. I am sure they do not even have background checks. We should have the same here in the US.
Someone is pretending those photos of Soleimani are real? That is the worst photoshop job I have ever seen. The shadows and color depth are not even close. Rita Katz productions must be outsourcing work to orangutans at the San Diego zoo.
I agree, they look fake. The General shows up with his men, no uniform, not a shadow in the whole picture.
all bushit proto photo lingustic
shamery. money shite, ongoing
They can all choke on that Muslim infested fuck hole. Not worth another American life being spent there.
Rebels battling the Syrian army and its allies south of Aleppo say they have received new supplies of U.S.-made anti-tank missiles from states that oppose President Bashar al-Assad since a major government offensive began there on Friday.
This shows where priorities are--just a couple days to deliver anti-tank weapons but my one pound package going only a couple hundred miles away takes 4 days to arrive.
"the government of Syria". not "the Regime"
for countless centuries, Syria has been the most civilized part of the world
Obama/CIA/Saudis/Qatar/Israel now intent on turning it into another Libya
Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post are some of the most credible sources of 'news' since time began....[:/
CIA and other USA agency's are training, supporting and arming known terrorist groups.
How many war criminals and terrorists are working in USA departments and the White House?
10.000? 25.000? 50.000?
We ALL KNOW the public face or leader, don't we? WHY is nothing done about that?
President? No, just a domestic enemy of the constitution.
The USA people have much work to do with prosecuting these governmental terrorists...
With Iranian soldiers and support with Russian support Syria might not win but it wont lose either.
Turkey shoots down a drone for their American mates who let them bomb Kurds in the guise of attacking ISIS, Russia rewards Turkey by arming and training Kurds to take the fight to Turkey with maybe some manpads to make Turkish bombings a little difficult. Turks should have learned the Swiss method of neutrality.
Iran needs to send in more ground forces to capitalize on this window. End of the day, Syria will become a closer client of Iran and Russia, Assad will still be president. The only difference is a million people dead. Great job nobel peace prize winner...a couple more millions and you'll be able to match Pol Pot.
Militarily , there can be no other outcome, not when Russia and Iran are so close geographically to Syria. Once they've cut the supply lines, the rebels will flee or die, without ammunition you cannot fight.