Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and its allies have withdrawn from 3 more villages in the northeastern countryside of Hama under the pressure of government forces.
Last night, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the National Defense Forces (NDF) liberated the villages of Rasm Abu Miyal and Murayjeb Jumlan located west of the important government-held town of Ithriyah, near the administrative border between Aleppo and Hama provinces. Some sources say that the SAA and the NDF also took control of Al-Khafiyah.
If these reports are confirmed with photos and videos, this will allow to conclude that government forces are successfully using the ongoing clashes between ISIS and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) for own operation, which could be wider than experts had expected.
Green Daesh have even less hinterland to retreat to than Grey Daesh does. Their ending will be the same. Soon.
The SAA and NDF should be very wary of the Green Daesh and expect a possible major counter attack in my view.
But I do you hope you are right on “Their ending will be the same.”…….. but for me, something doesn’t fit right, its too easy !!.
Caution is always wise. The Ottoman resupply and re-arming of Green Daesh looks to be accelerating. So the Orcs are going to be well armed. I’m looking for RuAF to be the decisive factor in the upcoming offensive. I especially like the recent use of thermobaric “bad boys”. HTS might be so filled with arrogance that they attempt ‘set piece’ battles. I look forward to the spectacle of decimated Orc armies! :D
Well this is where I get further confused, because it was only yesterday, that Russia stated it maybe will decrease its air capabilities in Syria …….
They have said and done that a number of times. Yet, their bombing continues and it is increasingly devastating. No worries.
Yes. A year ago, or so Putin announced the end of Russian air missions in Syria. It’s called maskirovka. The Russians perfected the strategies in WW2.
Thank you for excellent colour based classification. It was in front of all of us all this time but very few of us actually saw it the way you did.
I intend to use it if it’s alright with you.
Of course. I forgot where I heard it first but I wasn’t the first.
Then thanks the first one who coined it and you again.
Green Daesh, here I come!
I fully expect the shit to hit the fan at some point. Like some Al Qaida counterattack that sees them retake everything and sends the NDF in particular back running. It’s after all not for nothing that the frontline has been static for years now in this area. WWI trench warfare has moved more radical then this frontline. And most of the SAA crack troops that could take on Green Daesh (we should use that name from now on), if not all, are currently fighting Grey Daesh along the Euphrates.
Of course if they do manage to gain further momentum it could indicate that Green Daesh may have become a lot weaker then expected. But I’m not holding my hopes on that.
Great, congrats; those villagers will be better off without HTS around. But does anyone still remember that you’re supposed to take al-Bukamal? How long ago was it again that the Russian MoD prematurely colored T2 red on their map? You’re not a country unless you control your *borders*; at the moment, Iraq displays more awareness of that truth than does Syria.