This map provides a look at the military situation in the area of Abu al-Duhur following the liberation of the airbase and a number of nearby villages. MORE DETAILS HERE
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Military Situation In Area Of Abu al-Duhur On January 21, 2018 (Map Update)
How long will it take to bring the air-base into action?
Depends on the will to do it. First you need to secure the area then you need to rebuild the infrastructure to make it usable. I would say 4-6 months.
Less than one week to start operating if needed. Nonetheless it’s not, unlike that one in far Deir-ez-Zor.
Why would they? They’ve got Kuweires just southwest of Aleppo,Aleppo airport itself and Khmeimin nearby in Latakia. I doubt that they need this airbase so badly that they launched this offensive to get it. I reckon its the first stepping stone in a wider offensive into Idlib.province.
I wonder what their next objective will be? Take care of the pocket or steamroller further into Idlib now that they delivered Al Nusra and allies a mighty blow. The forces in the pocket aren’t going anywhere, and the Hama- Aleppo highway looks mighty appealing. And getting some more defensive perimeter around West Aleppo wouldn’t hurt either. Personally I would not go for Kafraya and Fuah until those are sorted out first, because those two towns are very close to Idlib city itself, and methinks the Jihadis will surrender a lot of other territory a lot more quicker then ground near Idlib.
The good thing is HTS/FSA are busy trying to secure Ifrin as this is the fallback region. This is a good opportunity to strike more fear into them and help take pressure off Ifrin from the south as a push towards Idlib like this would do it. While he pocket has forces pushing on HTS and ISIS and pushes towards Khan Sheikoun would be good. Shrink the front as much as possible. The SAA numbers keep growing as they liberate areas and people.
Fair enough but landing a few aircraft there to poke the local US head-chopping, heart-eating rapers in the eye would be a laugh. Damaged aircraft might find the landing ground attractive too.
It can at least work as a helicopter pad right now.
Depends on how long it takes to fix the airbase, I don’t think they would be in a rush. For the airbase to be secure, they have to advance further, it would probably only hold helicopters on the short term.
I only have a very primitive eye with which to analyze these things. I
can do little more that observe the growth of the red areas. That
said to me this looks impressive. The red areas east and west grue
from being tiny filaments to a subsantian bridge. Strategically this
looks like mission accomplished
SAA should clean the packet for SAA to have another supply road to Aleppo
I am sure they will.
yeah thats the plan! they will have 3 in fact! 2 roads and one railway line! Very good for logistics! they say logistics wins wars:)
Before anyone talks about advancing further, please focus on eliminating that Isis pocket. Isis nearly derailed the entire offensive.
ISIS never even had a chance but the HTS/FSA did and that ended getting wiped out, just SAA spread themselves to thin. What was lost to them previously is now under control and ISIS in the pocket , there is a push ongoing from the east to push the two into each other.
saa should even the north-south frontline and kill all terrososits in the pocket. after that take the whole M5 rad + 20-30 km buffer zine in direction west.
M5 is not part of the objective of this operation!
-Shorten the road to Aleppo
-Re-establish the railway corridor to Aleppo, connecting it to the south.
-Expand Khanasser bottleneck
Reeeesult!