big rebel assault on Jobar to link up with Qaboun today, looks like the SAA is counterattacking now Syrian forces and rebels fight fierce clashes in northeast Damascus http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-jobar-idUSKBN16Q09X
Still too early for that imo and sure enough it fizzled out and the SAA retook the positions lost. The Damascus rebels are pretty much fucked regardless, even though they can resupply through tunnels or paying off SAA troops at checkpoints it's nothing compared to the regime's air power.
The numbers after a big battle always surprise me. I mean thousands died at the battle of the bulge or other battles in ww2. Dozens died just doesn't move the needle for me, sadly
It says a lot about how worn down both sides are after years and years of this shit. The Southern Front's (FSA) last big offensive in 2015(Southern Storm) resulted in somewhere between 70-200 dead and its failure kinda signaled the end of their offensive capabilities. The SAA itself is literally sending people from prison to fight for the regime and there are articles about young men in regime territory who won't leave their home for fear of being forced to fight. I guess the Iran Iraq War in the 80s is probably the most on par with casualty figures you'd expect in World War I and II, largely because commanders still used tactics from those wars combined with modern weaponry.
Can only imagine how messed up the country is going to be when the rebels are finally defeated, and then Hezbollah, Iran, and the other foreign militias go home. Assad's once mighty security apparatus is totally gone. He'll basically be a figurehead of a country technically run by various warlords. Basically Somalia with a queen.
It's hard to compare anything to the world wars. Around 500,000 people have died in the Syrian civil war. That's a fuck load of people in a fairly small country.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 33 people were killed in an airstrike that hit a school sheltering displaced people near the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa, a group that monitors the war in Syria said on Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it believed the strike was carried out by the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. Observatory activists had counted at least 33 bodies at the site near the village of al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa, Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters. The air strike took place on Monday night, he said. The U.S.-led coalition has escalated its aerial campaign against the militant group around Raqqa this month, causing numerous civilian casualties, Abdulrahman said. The nearest Islamic State installation to the site of the air strike was a religious school 3 km (1.9 miles) away, he said. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition has previously said that it does everything it can to avoid civilian casualties and that it investigates those that are reported as a result of its air strikes. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led group of militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition, is fighting to isolate Raqqa ahead of an anticipated assault on the city, which Islamic State has used as a command node to plan attacks abroad. The head of the YPG militia, the strongest in the SDF, said last week that the offensive to retake Raqqa would begin in early April but a spokesman for the U.S. Pentagon said no decision had yet been made.
GoPro footage of HTS(Hayat Tahrir al-Sham the new Nusra) attacking a checkpoint in the Hama offensive edit: looks like the NDF/SAA fled beforehand so nothing too exciting
Seemingly all sides involved spend a lot of time shooting at nothing, just spray and pray at where you perceive the opposition is.
U.S. Airlifts Hundreds of Militia Fighters in Attack to Cut Off Raqqa The Syrian Democratic Forces, an American-backed militia, advancing last month northeast of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed capital. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the United States brought in hundreds of Syrian militia fighters to seize a dam, a town and an airfield west of Raqqa. CreditDelil Souleiman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/world/middleeast/us-airlift-raqqa-syria.html?_r=1
http://reut.rs/2nR5PRx Erdogan warns Europeans 'will not walk safely' if attitude persists, as row carries on By Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu | ANKARA President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Europeans would not be able to walk safely on the streets if they kept up their current attitude toward Turkey, his latest salvo in a row over campaigning by Turkish politicians in Europe. Turkey has been embroiled in a dispute with Germany and the Netherlands over campaign appearances by Turkish officials seeking to drum up support for an April 16 referendum that could boost Erdogan's powers. Ankara has accused its European allies of using "Nazi methods" by banning Turkish ministers from addressing rallies in Europe over security concerns. The comments have led to a sharp deterioration in ties with the European Union, which Turkey still aspires to join. "Turkey is not a country you can pull and push around, not a country whose citizens you can drag on the ground," Erdogan said at an event for Turkish journalists in Ankara, in comments broadcast live on national television. "If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. Europe will be damaged by this. We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy," he said. Germany's Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his first speech as president on Wednesday to warn Erdogan that he risked destroying everything his country had achieved in recent years, and that he risked damaging diplomatic ties. ADVERTISEMENT "The way we look (at Turkey) is characterized by worry, that everything that has been built up over years and decades is collapsing," Steinmeier said in his inaugural speech in the largely ceremonial role. He called for an end to the "unspeakable Nazi comparisons." Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said earlier that although Turkish government officials were still taking part in events for expatriate Turks across Europe, they were not campaigning for the referendum. The Union of European Turkish Democrats, which organizes events in Europe, said on Tuesday that Turkish leaders would no longer hold campaign rallies in Germany after an ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said they were not welcome. Germany, home to some 1.4 million Turks eligible to vote in the referendum, has been angered by the Nazi comparisons and Merkel has demanded that Ankara halt the rhetoric. Erdogan, however, has repeated the message in speech after speech. The Netherlands, also home to a large ethnic Turkish diaspora, has been embroiled in a similar row with Turkey. Kurtulmus, who is also the Turkish government's chief spokesman, repeated the rhetoric on Wednesday, saying the "footsteps of neo-Nazism and extreme racism" could be heard in Europe. Another deputy prime minister, Veysi Kaynak, meanwhile criticized Norway for granting asylum to Turkish military officers suspected of links to the religious network accused by Ankara of orchestrating last July's coup attempt. "This, unfortunately, in my opinion, is the first sign that Europe, which suffered from civil wars that cost the lives of innocent people for hundreds of years, ... is turning into that Dark Age again," Kaynak was quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency as saying. The Turkish foreign ministry's spokesman said later on Wednesday that the ministry had summoned the Norwegian ambassador to Ankara to express Turkey's concerns over Norway's decision to grant asylum to the individuals. Since the failed coup, which Ankara says was orchestrated by U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, some 40,000 people have been arrested in Turkey and more than 100,000 sacked or suspended from the military, civil service and private sector, while others have sought asylum abroad. The foreign ministry's spokesman said Turkey would continue to pursue the matter. (Additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in Berlin; Editing by Julia Glover and Toby Chopra)
I think I read it in this thread, but maybe not. Is it true that the groups that receive TOWs are stipulated to film themselves using them?
Yes they're required to film it, partly to keep track of them. If they're still following the same plan they only give a limited amount to each group with that stipulation so they have leverage when they need more.
MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Russia unafraid of supplying the S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey even though the country is a member-state of NATO, Vladimir Kozhin, the Russian President's aide for cooperation in defense-related technologies said on Thursday in an interview with Rossiya'24 news channel. He recalled talks on deliveries of the S-400's to Turkey, which took an interest in these surface-to-air missiles, were underway. "Yes, Turkey is a NATO member, it's true, but we are not afraid," Sechin said. "You may ask why. Well, first of all, we always regulate strictly the products of intellectual activity before we supply anything anywhere and each country assumes obligations on what it can or can't do with the [Russian] weaponry it purchases." "Secondly, what we sell today is current manufacture [not the prospective one - TASS]," he said answering the achor's question. More: http://tass.com/politics/937168
The Syrian economy has pretty much collapsed, the currency is largely worthless, and the soldiers don't make shit. War profiteering isn't some new phenomenon.
A purported selfie from said TOW strike. I have my doubts that it's really from the strike in the video. Honestly though, TOW's might be one of the most ineffectual weapons to use on groups of infantry; it's not really what they were designed for. Reports are 5 dead from that strike, which is surprising given the amount of guys clustered around in that video.
Yeah guys have survived strikes real close to them because they're not designed as anti-personnel. Gotta be damaging to morale though knowing they're always vulnerable. I'd say closer to 10 imo, both sides underreport/overreport casualty figures.
at some point you would think these groups of people would scatter when they hear that thing fire. im assuming they can hear it.