Government forces are steadly advancing east of the al-Busairi crossroads in the southeastern Syrian desert. The goal of this advance is to expand a buffer zone south of Palmyra and to set a foothold for possible push towards the border with Iraq.
In turn, the US-led coalition has set up the second military facility at the Syrian-Iraqi border. The coalition set up the facility near Al-Zquf in order to train “moderate opposition” for a “battle against ISIS”. Another military facility of the US-led coalition is located Al-Tanf.
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US-affiliated Jihadists have absolutely no intention of fighting against ISIS.
Somebody has to fight ISIS since the SAA doesn’t have the balls to do so. Those assholes can’t advance against ISIS unless their fighters are retreating and even then they do so at a snail’s pace.
They will continue to create more of these bases/facilities to prevent Syria from reaching the Iraqi border.
yep.
These bases cant defend themselves.. And are not viable.. Sooner or later they would have to leave. Or will be made to leave. The iraqi’s on their side can just stop all logistics to them. Rather useless but just shows spite while wacking themselves off.
Yes, when the Syrian govmn. will have the definitive upper hand among their own people, the bases in the south will be much easier to remove than those in kurdish parts.
Very difficult to define ” their own people” at this point. There are some that would fight for naked survival against ISISI ( vs being beheaded once captured), other because they really want to support a secular regime, yet others ( too many in this conflict) would fight for the highest bidder and who happens to have the upper hand and prevail on the battle field. The fight is really for the latter category. Whoever wins this group, will win the war.
The Syrian people support the government, not all but the majority does. You can’t wage a war for 6 six without the majority of the people. The president said it himself.
Correct, Al Zquf is just a desert dry lake with 2 water tanks and a few buildings.
Put a few holes in the water towers and the “base” would have little value.
The bases can be supplied from Jordan.
At some point when ISIS is routed and Iraqi and Syrian National forces move to control their borders the US is going to have a tough decision to make.
With ISIS gone the US will theoretically have to declare war on Syria or justify it some other way, the blanket WOT authorization no longer applies. You could only sell this to the American people as part of a war with Iran.
The SAA won’t have the manpower to maintain control over former ISIS territory while trying to eliminate the rest of the Islamic extremists in the west. The US backed SDF and NFSA will remain in their liberated territories until Syria becomes quiet again with new stable government. That may take several years if some strongmen behind Assad’s regime decide to stage a coup which sparks renewed fighting.
IDK. It is my belief they are willing to put a hold on further operations in Idlib to press forward along the border with Iraq. It is imperative they reinforce Deir Ezzor – this is turning into a pivotal fight they need to win ASAP if they are to limit US incursions.
Even if they cannot effectively administer areas falling under their control, linking up with PMU on the frontier is now a strategic priority.
Its about to get real serious.
So the new Tactic is to just attach US name to any terrorist group fighting for control of Syrian land and the SAA will simply relinquish any area occupied by such group. Amazing! Seems to be working. Unfortunately, Russia is unwilling or unable to clarify it’s position, and so US takes advantage of such weakness.