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On October 28, the joint militant forces launched a full-scale offensive in order to break the siege of militant-controlled neighborhoods of Aleppo city that had been set by the Syrian government forces. The operation was led by Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian Al-Qaeda branch). Jaish al-Mujahideen, Fastaqim Kama Umirt, Faylaq al-Sham, Ajnad al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham and the Islamic Front joint the offensive.
The attack begun with massive shelling of the al-Assad Neighborhood in western Aleppo with ‘Grad’ missiles, artillery and mortars. Then, three vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices [suicide – 2, remote controlled – 1] targeted the government positions and the militants launched the main phase of the attack in the direction of Al-Assad Military Academy.
In total, about 3,000 fighters, up to 30 artillery units and unspecified number of heavy military equipment were involved in the operation. The pro-government forces responded with massive artillery fire and air strikes. Air raids were also reported in the area of Khan Tuman, serving the rear base of attack.
Considering the sides’ military capabilities and the terrain features, SF forecasts that the terrorists will not be able to break the siege of Aleppo in case of the effective operations by the Syrian military staff.
The Kurdish YPG have killed over 30 members of Turkish-backed militant groups in clashes near the village of Tall Malid in northern Syria, according to pro-Kurdish sources. Since October 26, YPG units have conducte da series of attacks on the Turkish-backed militant alliance, known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and retook the villages of Tall Malid, Jisr ash-Samuqah and others – from it.
In a separate development, the Turkish forces seized the villages of Diwêr El-Hewa and Eblayê that had been controlled by ISIS.
On October 27, the Syrian army’s Tiger Forces and the National Defense Forces liberated the strategic town of Suran in northern Hama. Then, the government forces launched an advance on Taibat Imam. On October 28, clashes continued in the area.
Great voice! Very calm and neutral tone and good pronounciation.
I hope the SAA doesn’t forget the dangers of tunnel bombs this time. those assholes inside Aleppo had enough time to dig their little tunnels under the SAA-controlled areas…
and another little good news is that Al Quida is not leading the operation with it’s manpower. this means that they have been bled dry, and now instead of one big group terrorist group that can bully other smaller jihadi groups into submission/effective coordination, now we will see a bucket of serpents, biting not only out but each other.
i can already see the arguments of groups who will bleed the most will have a beef towards those who didn’t.
i would not swear by the notion that Al-Qaeda does not leads or man the operation. The divisions among groups are purely a propaganda stunt to make some appear moderates and some not. I’m pretty sure that there is a large circulation of men and materials between one group and another, at least where the circumstances of war allow it. Basically, I never saw al-sham or jaysh al islam any different from al-nusra. They have the same, identical strategic objectives and supporters and they share the same methods to try to achieve them. Moreover, it’s almost sure that every single “group” in Aleppo (and in fact, Syria), is being led by a single, joint command (with the ample presence of Turkish and Saudis, but most likely westerners as well). If it wasn’t like this, the war would be over by months.
what you say does make sense. yes, there is very likely an overall command for every battle front. but the groups autonomy stays regardless of the groups sharing the same ideological baseline, and i think that many of these little groups are still essentially little military fiefdoms of “renowned” commanders, who resist integration into a more hierarchic military system (such as the one i guess that exists
within Al-Nusra). the point is that because of semi-autonomous and distinct identity of the groups, they might not see other groups as “theirs” in a sense of camaraderie of belonging to the same group, which undermines their level of cooperation.i believe there’s also a lot of petty ego-squabbling among commanders. and for Syrians, this can only be good.
but, wouldn’t it – propaganda-wise – make more sense to have just one unified, strong group instead of soup of arabic expressions?
I’ve noticed that every photo of Lavrov and Walid al-Maullen does make the stern faced Lavrov smile even chuckle, what they planning might be happening, it seems ominously apparent that 9 days of no offensive defence and the Terrorists step into no-mans land put there on purpose, otherwise what could it possibly be that makes Lavrov laugh.
That the USA is supporting al Sham, which was al Nusra, which had been ‘al CIA Duh’ in Syria, which Americans have been told six million times attacked the USA on 9/11, exposes the lies that it was Ben Laden and Co that attacked us on 9/11.
What’s known from militant media about their current south Aleppo offensive is four of six suicide vehicle bombers nationalities – so far have an Egyptian, a Saudi, a Turk, and a Turkistan Islamic Party member (ethnic Turk). That’s the ‘Syrian rebels’ we hear about in US MSM driven media-speak.