Pretty incredible that they're deploying the Su-57 into an active combat zone, it's still essentially a prototype. Very comparable to the F-22 in almost every respect though.
Not an expert in aeronautical engineering lol, but from what I've read about the specs on the jet they seem pretty similar. I'm sure the F-22 is head and shoulders above it in terms of stealth technology, are they dissimilar in other major areas?
SU-57 is theoretically faster and more maneuverable but neither have been proven yet. F22 is much stealthier. Also Russian pilots and maintainers are trash.
Had to find this info graphic I saw from a while back. It's probably why I thought they were so similar.
PBS Frontline released one hell of a good ME documentary last week that talks about the history and nuance behind the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran and its affect on the ME as a whole. Lots of Sunni/Shia perspective. Gets into how the US has entered into the fray over the decades and how it has gotten so bad over the years. Its 2 hours long, but its really well done. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/bitter-rivals-iran-and-saudi-arabia/
Thousands of well-armed rebel fighters are in Syria’s Ghouta https://apnews.com/4c8ce5cb6234419c...ll-armed-rebel-fighters-are-in-Syria's-Ghouta Spoiler BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government’s battle to recapture the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus is likely to be a long and bloody fight because of the presence of thousands of battle-hardened fighters who have had years to prepare. Many of the fighters entrenched in eastern Ghouta are originally from the area and move around using an elaborate network of underground tunnels, giving them an advantage against President Bashar Assad’s forces and their Russian- and Iranian-backed allies. The territory of some 400,000 residents is the last major opposition-controlled area near Assad’s seat of power, and the rebels have been targeting the capital with volleys of mortar shells, disrupting life in a reminder that they can deprive the city of peace as the government, backed by Russia, rains down bombs and carnage on the besieged area. If government forces retake eastern Ghouta, only one small pocket south of the capital held by the Islamic State group will remain out of government control. Among the more than 20,000 fighters in eastern Ghouta, a few hundred belong to the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, giving the government a pretext to continue with its assault. Rebel factions want the al-Qaida-linked fighters to leave and blame the government for preventing it. Syrian insurgent group Army of Islam fighters fire artillery rounds during clashes with government forces in the southern Syrian province of Daraa. (Army of Islam, via AP) In a letter on Monday to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the three main rebel factions in eastern Ghouta said they were committed to making al-Qaida-linked fighters and their families leave within 15 days. An official with one of the most powerful groups, the Army of Islam, said that if the al-Qaida-linked fighters don’t leave or abandon the fight, “all options” are open against them, including the use of force. Here is a look at the rebel groups involved in the battle for eastern Ghouta. ___ A member of the Syrian insurgent group Army of Islam loads a heavy machine gun during cl;shes with government forces in the suburbs of Damascus. (Army of Islam, via AP) Members of the Syrian insurgent group Failaq al-Rahman fire their weapons during clashes with government forces in the suburbs of Damascus. (Failaq al-Rahman, via AP) ARMY OF ISLAM One of the most powerful rebel factions in Syria, the Army of Islam is backed by Saudi Arabia and adheres to the ultraconservative Salafi ideology of Islam. It was founded by Zahran Alloush, who was in prison for anti-government activities and adopting a hard-line Islamic ideology when the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. He was released months later. Since the rise of the Islamic State group in 2014, the Army of Islam has repeatedly clashed with the extremists, as well as with al-Qaida-linked fighters. The group is headquartered in the town of Douma, the most populated area in eastern Ghouta. The group started with a small number of fighters soon after protests in Syria turned into an armed insurgency, and grew under Alloush to an estimated 10,000 fighters armed with tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and mortars. The Army of Islam has been blamed for major human rights violations, including the 2013 kidnapping of a prominent opposition activist, Razan Zeitouneh, and her colleagues, who remain missing. The Army of Islam denies it was behind the kidnapping. In 2015, when eastern Ghouta was under intense government bombardment, Alloush ordered members of Assad’s Alawite minority confined to cages in public areas and markets, using them as human shields to try to prevent further airstrikes, and drove the captives around Ghouta in cages placed on trucks. Alloush was killed in an airstrike in eastern Ghouta on Christmas Day 2015 that was blamed on Russia. Former representative of Syrian insurgent group Army of Islam Mohammed Alloush gets into a car in February, 2016, as he heads to peace talks in Geneva. Alloush was killed in an airstrike in eastern Ghouta on Christmas Day 2015. (AP Photo/Bassem Mroue, File) Abu Ammar Dalwan, the Army of Islam’s political chief, vowed in an interview with The Associated Press to fight until the end. “We will not negotiate to leave Ghouta,” he said. The Army of Islam is taking part in U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, as well as negotiations in the Kazakh capital of Astana sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey. ____ FAILAQ AL-RAHMAN Failaq al-Rahman, or Al-Rahman Corps, is the second-largest rebel group in eastern Ghouta after Army of Islam. Backed by Turkey and Qatar, it controls most of the central parts of the region, including the towns of Arbeen, Kfar Batna, Saqba and Hammouriyeh, which have been among the hardest hit in recent fighting. The group also controls parts of the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar. The group has about 8,000 fighters, the vast majority of them from eastern Ghouta. Like the Army of Islam, it is well-armed, and a video released recently showed it has primitive factories that produce mortar shells and rocket-propelled-grenades. The group’s military commander, Abdul-Nasser Shmeir, is a former captain of the Syrian army. The group is also taking part in the peace talks in Geneva and Astana. Fighters with the Syrian insurgent group Failaq al-Rahman fire their weapons during clashes with government forces in the suburbs of Damascus.(Failaq al-Rahman, via AP) ____ AHRAR AL-SHAM Ahrar al-Sham has been involved in deadly battles against fighters of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee in the northern province of Idlib and Aleppo. Although at the start of their rise the group adopted an extreme ideology, now it markets itself as a moderate rebel group. In eastern Ghouta, it has a strong presence in the Damascus suburb of Harasta and nearby areas. Months after the uprising against Assad’s government began in March 2011, Ahrar al-Sham was founded by several Islamists, including Mohammed Baheya, who had links to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Baheya reportedly fought against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Baheya was killed in a suicide bombing in 2014 while trying to mediate between the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Ahrar al-Sham survived its most serious blow in September 2014, when an explosion in Idlib province killed some of its top figures, including its leader, Hassane Abboud. ___ LEVANT LIBERATION COMMITTEE The Levant Liberation Committee rejects any peace talks with the government and because of its ties to al-Qaida is considered a terror organization by the United Nations. It has about 600 fighters in eastern Ghouta, a small number compared to the estimated 20,000 rebel fighters in the area. Since the end of 2017, there have been on-and-off negotiations to try to evacuate the al-Qaida-linked fighters and their families from eastern Ghouta, but the rebels say Assad’s government has frustrated all such attempts as a pretext to keep attacking the area.
If you struggle to keep all the factions straight in Syria like I do, this is a great article. It's like a 101 of who's who and what's going on. Spoiler Where is al-Qaeda in Syria? Despite Russian and Syrian-regime rhetoric that they are fighting al-Qaeda in Syria, its presence has been shrinking. by Mariya Petkova 5 hours ago Jabhat al-Nusra had a limited presence in Eastern Ghouta with much larger armed groups fighting there [File: Reuters] In late December 2017, General Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's General Staff, told the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda that the "destruction of Jabhat al-Nusra fighters" was a priority task in Syria for 2018. About a week later, Syrian regime forces with Russian and Iranian support launched an offensive on rebel-held Idlib province. Syrian state media claimed they were fighting al-Qaeda. A month later, the Syrian regime escalated its bombardment of the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave, near the capital, Damascus. As civilian casualties exceeded 500 in just a week and aid agencies warned of a humanitarian disaster, Syria and Russia maintained the bombardment was targeting Jabhat al-Nusra (or Nusra Front, formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda). "Jabhat al-Nusra fighters are not stopping their provocations. In Eastern Ghouta, they are bombarding residential neighbourhoods of Damascus, including the Russian embassy and trade mission," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on February 19 during a conference in Moscow. Advertisement As Syria ceasefire fails, US and Russia trade blame at the UN Russia and the Syrian government have often evoked the threat of Jabhat al-Nusra or al-Qaeda to justify military operations that have violated de-escalation agreements over the past year. But according to analysts, al-Qaeda's ideological successor, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the group it formed in January 2017 called Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) have a small presence in Eastern Ghouta and declining influence in Idlib, northern Hama, and western Aleppo provinces. Internal conflicts following its split from al-Qaeda and defections have additionally weakened the armed group. Small HTS presence in Eastern Ghouta Jabhat al-Nusra was founded in January 2012 and gradually gained strength and followers in areas controlled by Syrian opposition armed groups. But unlike other areas in Syria, in Eastern Ghouta, its presence has been largely limited by other, much larger groups. According to Ahmed Abazeid, an Istanbul-based Syrian researcher, at its peak Jabhat al-Nusra had 1,000 fighters at most in Eastern Ghouta. Defections, clashes with other armed groups, and arrests have reduced the number to about 250 men. In April 2017, Jaish al-Islam (the Army of Islam), one of the main Islamist armed factions in Eastern Ghouta, attacked the HTS and expelled it from the territories under its control. The HTS had sided with Failaq al-Rahman (the Rahman Legion), another major Islamist armed group in the enclave, during clashes with Jaish al-Islam. This resulted in the partitioning of control of Eastern Ghouta between the two groups, which together have about 15,000 fighters, and the sidelining of HTS, said Abazeid. "The majority of areas which the Russians are now bombing or are trying to advance in - especially those under the control of Jaish al-Islam - don't have any fighters of Jabhat al-Nusra," he added. Even Failaq al-Rahman has sought to isolate HTS fighters. In late February, a group of armed factions, including Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam, sent a letter to the UN declaring their readiness to "evacuate" the remaining HTS fighters from Eastern Ghouta within 15 days. The spokesperson of Failaq al-Rahman, Wael Olwan, told Al Jazeera that in November 2017 the group had informed Russia that they are ready to evacuate HTS to Idlib province. According to him, the Russians did not let the evacuation happen. On February 28, Lavrov - responding to a question from the media on the sidelines of a UN Human Rights Council session - saidthat Russia "will not object" to the removal of HTS fighters and their families from Eastern Ghouta. "[The current resolution] says unambiguously that the ceasefire regime will not apply to the terrorists. If our colleagues at the UN and those who have influence with Jabhat al-Nusra coordinate this evacuation, we will not object," he said. HTS, as well as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has been left out of the February 24 UN ceasefire resolution on Eastern Ghouta and similar de-escalation initiatives in the past. Jaish al-Islam and Failaq al-Rahman have not. Jaish al-Islam was also designated "moderate opposition" in a December 2016 list released by the Russian defence ministry and participated in the Russian-backed Astana talks. Representative of Failaq al-Rahman have also attended peace talks in Geneva. Anti-HTS offensive in northern Syria Jabhat al-Nusra was part of the loose alliance of armed factions that took over Idlib city and the province in the spring of 2015. Its influence over the province steadily grew at the expense of other factions and despite frequent civilian protests against their oppressive presence and human rights violations. In July 2016, Jabhat al-Nusra announced its split from al-Qaeda in Syria and changed its name to Fateh al-Sham. The move came three years after a large number of its fighters broke off from its ranks to join what came to be known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which also rejected al-Qaeda's authority. "That [move] back then was dismissed as a publicity stunt. If you look at the details, you realise that this was more than just a PR move," said Heiko Wimmen, a project director at the Brussels-based research organisation International Crisis Group. According to him, since the summer of 2016, the armed group has sought to reinvent itself as a nationalist insurgent movement, giving less priority to international jihad. "This doesn't mean that they have become nicer people. It means [different] tactics, ideology and leadership," said Wimmen. In mid-January 2017, what was still called Fatah al-Sham attacked positions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and a number of other smaller armed groups in Idlib province, entering a standoff with Ahrar al-Sham, one of the largest Islamist factions in the region, which was also included on Moscow's "moderate opposition" list. As a result of the tensions, smaller factions sought protection from Ahrar al-Sham, while others joined Fatah al-Sham, which changed its name to Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham. In July 2017, tensions between the two large armed groups escalated again, and HTS attacked Ahrar al-Sham and its allies, which withdrew after week-long clashes allowing their adversary to dominate Idlib province. In November 2017, the HTS formed the Syrian Salvation Government, which in December issued an ultimatum to the Syrian Interim Government of the Turkey-based Syrian opposition to cease all operations in the province. In early January, Syrian regime forces with the help of Iran-backed militias and Russian air support, launched an offensive in southern Idlib province, causing tens of thousands of civilians to flee. In response, FSA-affiliated groups and Ahrar al-Sham, Nour al-Din al-Zinki (previously associated with the HTS) and others createdtwo separate operations rooms to counter the regime advances. In mid-January, Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, the leader of the HTS, called for unity among armed factions in Idlib, but instead of heeding his call, other armed groups accused the HTS of withdrawing from areas in southern Idlib province to the benefit of the regime. A month later, an alliance of Ahrar al-Sham, Nour al-Din al-Zinki and Soqour al-Sham attacked HTS. The factions managed to take over large areas in southern Idlib province, northern Hama province and western Aleppo province. Earlier this week, Syrian opposition media reported HTS sent reinforcements to Idlib city, its main stronghold, and Bab al-Hawa crossing on the border with Turkey. HTS fighters managed to repel an attack on the crossing and counter-attack at other locations in Idlib. Bab al-Hawa serves as a major source of income for the armed group, which imposes a levy on goods that pass through it. According to Wimmen, the attack on HTS was expected. "The way [the HTS] basked in their victory, they were getting a lot of people ready to line up against them once the [time] was right, with the external threat removed," he said. The deployment of Turkish troops in Idlib province stopped the regime offensive and gave a chance to HTS' adversaries to attack it, he added. "[The operation] has been quite successful. After it, you can no longer say that Idlib is under exclusive HTS control," Wimmen said. Before the attack, the HTS had already been weakened by internal clashes, defections and killings. In late 2017, more than 35 high-profile foreign members of the HTS were assassinated, some of them al-Qaeda loyalists who were displeased with the formal split of the group. According to Wimmen, some of the internal instability within HTS was the result of Turkish involvement. "Turkey has tried to drive wedges into HTS because they see it as very problematic, and in particular the foreign element in it," said Wimmen. "They are hoping to split it and hoping to arrive at a point where the real hardliners, who are mostly foreigners, and who you cannot make any deals with, form only a small faction that you can destroy without too much damage and cost." According to him, Turkey is likely to retain influence over Idlib and is, therefore, seeking to steer hardline armed groups into local governance. The Turkish presence in Syria's north is also likely to stave off future plans by the Syrian regime to recapture the area, Wimmen said. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/al-qaeda-syria-180301152110387.html
Absolutely, unfortunately the YPG are taking a lot of casualties as well. They can't compete with Turkey's military. And Illinihockey we need our icon back
impressive progress so far but map could be off, looks like the SAA is trying to split the pocket in half Rebels retreat in Syria's Eastern Ghouta as thousands flee https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...rn-ghouta-thousands-flee-180304202021420.html Spoiler Thousands of Syrians are fleeing a government-led offensive on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave near Damascus as President Bashar al-Assad vowed the fight would continue until the "embrace of terrorism" was eradicated. Syrian government forces have seized roughly one-quarter of the territory in recent days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday. Backed by Russian air power, the Syrian military has advanced on several fronts, retaking control of farms and villages, state media reported. Government forces seized a number of districts including Al-Nashabiyeh and Otaya and had "eradicated terrorist groups" on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, state media quoted a military source as saying. They have reached the centre of the besieged enclave to the edge of Beit Sawa, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory. The Central Military Media said Syrian forces reached the outskirts of Mesraba, in central Ghouta. Rebels were forced to retreat and regroup in Eastern Ghouta because of the Syrian government's "scorched earth" policy involving heavy artillery fire, air strikes, and helicopter attacks, a spokesman for the Jaish al-Islam rebel group said on Sunday. In a voice message, spokesman Hamza Birqdar vowed government forces would be driven from the territory they had captured. The rebels had fortified positions to confront the attacking forces, he added. Eastern Ghouta, home to some 400,000 people, has been under a crippling siege and daily bombardment for months. More than 600 civilians have been killed in the last two weeks alone. 'Destruction everywhere' An AFP news agency correspondent inside Eastern Ghouta saw hundreds of civilians on Sunday fleeing from the town of Beit Sawa in the southeast of the enclave. The Syrian Observatory said some 2,000 civilians had fled regime shelling and clashes in eastern areas to western parts of the enclave. "Everyone is on the road. There's destruction everywhere," said 35-year-old Abu Khalil, carrying a little girl in his arms with a wound to her face. "Many families are trapped under rubble, the rescue workers just can't cope." Assad's forces have seized more than one-quarter of the enclave on Damascus's eastern edges after two weeks of devastating bombardment. "The majority [of people] in Eastern Ghouta want to escape the embrace of terrorism. The operation must continue," Assad said remarks broadcast on state television. In a statement Sunday, the UN said it plans to deliver aid to Douma, the largest town in Eastern Ghouta, with its partners on the ground. An aid convoy consisting of 46 truckloads will be allowed in Monday with health and nutrition supplies and food for 27,500. The convoy will be led by Ali al-Za'atri, the UN resident humanitarian coordinator in Syria. "We hope that the convoy may proceed as planned and will be followed by other convoys," Za'tari said. The UN said it has received assurances the next convoy will be delivered on March 8.
Civilian casualties aside, like 90% of Syria is bad guys killing bad guys. They're killing Syrian Army soldiers or militia.
Russia's Favorite Syrian Warlord Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan has won over Putin and played a central role in the assault on eastern Ghouta. https://www.theatlantic.com/interna...avorite-syrian-warlord/554774/?utm_source=twb Spoiler BEIRUT—Early on the morning of February 18, Syrian regime forces gathered on a field on the edge of eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held region near Damascus. The sky had just cleared after a weekend of torrential rain that had grounded Russian and Syrian regime warplanes conducting airstrikes on the area. Soon, a stout, bearded man began to speak. Many of the men gathered held up their cellphones to film him as he delivered a message to the rebels in eastern Ghouta: They would “see hell’s flames” if they mounted any resistance to his forces. “You will find no one to help you and if you cry for help, you will be succored with water as hot as melting metal,” Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan warned them. “At your service my master the Tiger!” shouted one of the men in the crowd, using the intimidating nom de guerre he has acquired over the years. “If you’re not with God then you’re with the devil. Be on the side of God so that God will be with you,” Hassan said. Russia Is Abetting Mass Murder in Syria Putin Is Playing a Dangerous Game in Syria Russia Is a Great Power Once Again Through Syria’s civil war, Hassan, a member of the minority Alawite sect like Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, has become something of a celebrity. In the lead-up to Russia’s intervention in the Syrian war in the fall of 2015, Hassan was believed to have been fatally injured in battle. But he re-emerged, transformed into a regime hero with a growing fan base and legions of admirers on social media. (Some speculated that the real Tiger was dead and that this man was an imposter drafted by the regime to boost morale after the major defeats it suffered before Russia came to the rescue.) Unlike the more staid Assad, the flamboyant 48-year-old Hassan has often boasted of his efforts to exterminate regime enemies. This has endeared him to loyalists—and, it seems, to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. As he delivered his sermon of fire and fury that day on the edge of Ghouta, next to him stood four mysterious-looking soldiers dressed in full combat gear and masks. They appeared to be part of a personal security detail provided by the Russians. True to Hassan’s words, Syrian government forces and their Russian backers unleashed hell on eastern Ghouta shortly after he spoke. Spokespeople for the Russian military in Syria disseminated a stream of messages via official social media accounts identifying Hassan, commander of the so-called “Tiger Forces,” as the leader of the land troops closing in on the area. The messages said that Russia was backing Hassan and his men with airstrikes and Russian-supplied T-90 tanks, BM-30 Smerch multiple rocket launchers (considered to be among the deadliest in the world) and Tochka ballistic missiles. “We will provide the necessary air support to the forces of Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan … We have real confidence in their ability to accomplish the mission,” Alexander Ivanov, the spokesman for Russian forces headquartered at the Hmeimim airbase in western Syrian, wrote on the base’s official Facebook page. Later, a pro-Syrian regime website also reported that several Russian army officers were on the ground working with Hassan in a command center in eastern Ghouta. Since the Russian-backed campaign to retake eastern Ghouta began on February 18, it has killed at least 600 civilians, of whom at least 100 were children. Several thousand people have been wounded. Last weekend, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria. The ceasefire, negotiated on Moscow’s terms, excluded groups that Putin and Assad regarded as terrorists—anyone who has taken up arms to fight the regime. On Monday, Putin ordered a daily five-hour “humanitarian pause” in eastern Ghouta rather than an outright 30-day halt to fighting. But Russia’s contribution to the destruction in eastern Ghouta has extended beyond providing overwhelming firepower and dictating the terms of surrender. The relentless assault has further revealed Russia’s instrumental role in supporting and promoting Hassan, one of Syria’s most notorious warlords. On several occasions, the Russian military has acknowledged training and equipping what it has called “detachments” operating under Hassan’s command. These groups, like the Tiger Forces and the 4th and 5th Volunteer Assault Corps, are effectively paramilitary groups attached to regime forces. There are also reports that Russia pays the salaries of these Syrian militia-like formations. Still, Russia has pointed to its support for Hassan and his forces to make two claims: That the Russian army and its local partners defeated the Islamic State in Syria, and that Russian forces, unlike the U.S. military and others, are working with Syria’s legitimate government troops rather than militias or mercenaries. “Units [commanded by] General Suheil al-Hassan accomplished the most important missions in main battles including [the] liberation of Kuweires Military Airbase, Palmyra, Aleppo, Hama, Deir Ezzour, Mayadin and the Euphrates Valley,” General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of Russia’s armed forces, said last November. “Certainly, all the actions were held under support of the Russian aircraft and other hardware. The isis main forces have been defeated.” Of course, this telling left out the instrumental role played in these battles by the tens of thousands of Shiite militiamen under the command of Assad’s allies Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Long before Hassan became Putin’s favored Syrian commander, Syrian and international human rights groups linked him to some of the Assad regime’s worst atrocities. At the start of the peaceful anti-regime protests in 2011, Hassan led special operations for the dreaded Air Force Intelligence Directorate. In Damascus, he and his men embedded with Syrian forces to ensure they carried out orders to fire upon and kill protesters, according to witness testimonycompiled by Human Rights Watch. Soldiers that disobeyed were shot dead on the spot. Not long after the anti-government demonstrations began, Hassan also oversaw the often deadly torture of protestors. He and his unit were connected to one of the bloodiest massacres against protesters in the southern province of Daraa at the end of April 2011, which resulted in Shitty AMC Show of almost 100 people, according to Human Rights Watch. As the protests gave way to armed sectarian conflict in late 2011, Hassan was transferred to Hama Air Base in central Syria. Several of those who fought alongside him from 2012 to 2014 told me that as defections from the Syrian army mounted, he partnered with a ragtag force composed of loyalist units in the army and Alawite militias. One Syrian army general with him at the time said Hassan was responsible for at least one of the massacres committed in 2012 in Hama against villages accused of harboring rebels and army defectors. “In Treimseh, Suheil and I just surrounded them and slaughtered about 250,” Brigadier General Jamal Younes, commander of the 555th Airborne Regiment of the Syrian army’s Fourth Division, told me in 2014, referring to one village they targeted. Hassan’s scorched-earth methods spread to neighboring Idlib and Aleppo provinces. Hassan is among the Assad regime figures that foreign-based Syrian lawyers and activists and their Western colleagues would seek to prosecute in a hypothetical war-crimes tribunal. “Suheil al-Hassan is a barbaric figure. He is associated with countless massacres [from] when Bashar feared his regime was going to collapse in 2012 and was thinking of establishing a fallback Alawite rump state,” Anwar al-Bounni, a human rights lawyer representing victims of Syrian-regime torture, told me. The Russian military and state media, meanwhile, seem to have an unlimited appetite for the Tiger’s exploits. Press releases and stories have described him as “one of Syria’s most renowned military commanders,” and have depicted his Tiger Forces as invincible. In the summer of 2017, for instance, Russian Ka-52 helicopters conducted a night-time air raid on an isis target in the province of Deir Ezzour, clearing the way for Hassan’s Tiger Force to follow with a ground assault. Russia’s defense ministry called this “a virtuosic tactical landing operation behind militants’ lines,” while also noting that Russian military advisers controlled the operation. Moscow has openly embraced Hassan. Gerasimov awarded him with a sword during a ceremony at Hmeimim for his apparent “valor” in the operation. (A year earlier, he had been given one of the Russian army’s highest medals.) Aside from Assad, who holds the military rank of field marshal and is Syria’s commander-in-chief, Hassan was the only Syrian military commander to attend a meeting with Putin at Hmeimim base last December to mark the defeat of isis. “Your Russian colleagues told me that you and your men fight incisively, courageously and in a results-oriented way,” Putin told Hassan in Russian, according to footage broadcast by RT. “I hope this cooperation will allow us to achieve more success going forward.” Hassan, seated across from Putin, put his hand on his heart and nodded with gratitude. How long will Russia continue its assault on eastern Ghouta? The deaths of some two-dozen people in Damascus since February 18 from rebel mortar shells, some of which reportedly landed close to the Russian embassy, appear to be a good enough reason to continue the barrage. Meanwhile, the area’s two largest rebel factions, the Turkey-backed Failaq al-Rahman and Saudi Arabia-supported Jaish al-Islam have insisted the ceasefire must allow for humanitarian and medical aid deliveries to the beleaguered zone, in accord with the UN resolution. Both pledged this week to help remove the most extreme insurgents from eastern Ghouta. But Russia and the Assad regime have repeatedly accused them of taking civilians hostage and preventing them from evacuating through designated humanitarian corridors. Sporadic fighting and bombing has continued. With the battle in eastern Ghouta not yet over, some supporters of Assad, which means lion in Arabic, are already speaking of the Tiger’s certain victory at the “gates of the lion’s den” in Damascus. The Tiger himself likened Damascus to a bride waiting for him and his men to “dress her in the robe of victory.” How will this end for Hassan? While Moscow may love him, opponents of the Assad regime that I spoke to have speculated that the Tiger, a powerful, popular partner for the Russians within a regime configured to worship one paramount leader, may have become too successful for his own good. The Assad regime, they said, will likely seek to eliminate him and blame it on the “terrorists”—the fate of many inside the regime who have tried to steal the lion’s thunder.
There really isn't one that is feasible. Probably regime wins but Assad steps down, no sectarian retaliation, Kurds get an autonomous region like in Iraq and Turkey leaves.
Relative stability for as long as possible while dealing with a massive insurgency. Damascus and probably Latakia can be somewhat secure (with tons of checkpoints) but that's probably it.
The right part of the green is what the Turkish backed rebels captured previously when they prevented the Kurds from connecting the two cantons. The left/bottom lower part of the green is a mix between the Turkish backed rebels and Al Qaida HTS.
"Officially" entered the 7th year of the Syrian Civil War http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-al-assad-russia-united-nations-a8254461.html
Thread explaining how ISIS took over Qadam next to the Yarmouk Camp area of Damascus which it has controlled for years. SAA incompetence at its best, final tally is supposedly about 90 SAA dead.