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Syrian government forces, led by the Syrian Arab (SAA) Army Tiger Forces and pro-government tribal forces, have liberated the villages Wadi Kharrar, Subayat, Salim Hammad, Abu Hammad, Muqla Saghir and Muqla Kabir and fully encircled ISIS terrorists in the Sabkah area in the southern part of Raqqah province.
Following the full encirclement of the area, the SAA and its allies have started pressuring on ISIS in Zawr Sham, Jibil, Rahbi and Sabkah. When these villages are liberated, government forces will likely advane on the ISIS-held town of Madaan east of the Sabkah pocket.
Zawr Sham, Jibil, Rahbi and Sabkah those are small cities and should not be very difficult to liberate those towns, especially when you can advance from 3 sides. Maadan city is different case, as is large city. It would be wise for SAA to surround the city from all side with tide ring around, which will prevent supply of arms, water, food and continue advances towards Deir Ezzor and return to conquer Maadan after liberating Deir Ezzor. Deir Ezzor is more strategic importance. Has Air Port, which will provide another support line, would free 10K to 15K infantry, which could be rearm, regroup and redeploy to front lines. Try to liberate Maadan city at this time could be very costly for SAA, as most likely is very well defended and is large city. Have the city surrounded for while and during the time bombard the city with artillery would also lower ISIS moral to fight.
In addition, I am very surprised, SAA is not taking opportunities to liberate Southern SYria along the Jordanian border. Now when americans cut support for the FSA, this is golden opportunity to liberate southern SYria from FSA, as this opportunity may not lest for very long
Syria strategy has matured and intel of fronts is limited. I would say there is an ongoing operation or possible cease fire as to relieve garrison troops for eastern advance. These pockets have nothing left to gain and will mostly stay idle until SAA destroys isis and can turn back to interior of country. A large desert is not going to give them any upper hand at the moment and everyone knows that. Remaining FSA have no will to carry large operations and will deteriorate in time. But your right about the siege techniques, they know better now than to storm large cities without major strategic importance.
The tactics you describe could be the only one at the present along the Euphrate. Encirclement of Maadan, heading toward DE City for liberation of comrades and civilians, taking the oil-rich regions and then crossing the Euphrate to get the eastern parts of it, in direction to al Bukamal, back to Maadan. During this time the eastern Hama CS will v be cleared too.
There is a large plateau just to the East of Maadan, ideal for fire support base with artillery that could provide overwatch of the Maadan area, it doesnt look to be much bigger than Ghanim Ali / Zawr Shammar but yes I agree if they bypass south and continue down the Euphrates, Deir Ezzor isnt far and with the Republican guard freed up a lot could be done, perhaps the oil on the eastern bank should be taken before going down the Euphrates to Abu Kamal
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That is what I meant. But now it seems that SAA and allies stopp at Maadan and Soukhna waiting for the clearing of eastern Hama countryside to get all needed troops in front of DE.
They are now pushing the Salamiyah area and want ISIS leaving that area ,and push them towards the killing fields of Deir Ez zoir which is ready for liberation and an assault , for months now. Al-Sukhna will be attacked from everywhere bu the rear which is open until they close it. This is a bold yet wise strategy to push the enemy, the tentacles of the octopus can be dangerous when used in unison. The raid was a last gasp attempt which cost them as I assumed it would weakening their defenses was a bad military mistake and very much like US bravado in it’s attack. SAA need to shorten their frontlines and link up to Al Sukhna to give themselves a better position and reduce the long supply lines to Deir Ez zoir.
‘the tentacles of the octopus can be dangerous when used in unison.’ was that Master Shifu? LOL
Small fries, there’s a race to Deir Ezzor and Bukamal. Trap them, keep them pinned down there and move the bulk of the force towards the more important destinations.
It may seem that leaving pockets of ISUS fighters behind is not much of a problem. On the Euphrates it actually is a big problem. While SDF is neutral or non-hostile at present, they have many Americans in their midst moving freely in the Kurdish controlled territory. That means there are many hostile, fully equipped American intelligence gathering teams observing everything SAA does. It is all but guaranteed that they will tip off the isis fighters about any opportunities that they spot. They have no love for the SAA, we have seen that. They intend to cause as much trouble as possible. An ISUS suicide bomber with accurate intelligence about locations would be disproportionately destructive. Why do you think ISUS managed to kill 40 SAA soldiers the day they arrived at the Euphrates? Those kinds of things are virtually always because of superior, accurate intelligence. Not luck. Leaving behind pockets of suicidal jihadists guided by expert CIA intel gathering teams is inviting trouble. It is inviting death to your own soldiers. It is definitely not a good idea. Leave no one behind!
As you are right about the americans in Kurdish territory and the SDF can’t be fully trusted. I will disagree with you on the rest. Maadan city sounded from all sides and being encircled with tide ring and bombarded by SAA artillery will have hand full to avoid to be killed and will not be an threat for now and the Maadan city has not very important strategically. Deir Ezzor is more important strategically as I describe in below comments. Trying to liberate well defended Maadan city right now will cost SAA unnecessary casualties in manpower and military hardware and will take time to conquer the city, as we can see Raqqa. Keeping the Maadan city cut off from arms, water and food for couple weeks will make the ISIS softer or many will even surrounded to SAA, when they realize to Deir Ezzor is liberated and other parts of Syria, then fighting will not make sense. That I will disagree with you strategically
You are certainly right about the intel , not only do the Americans have the “spy in the sky” , but as you say , lots of intel gathering teams moving freely through Kurdish held territory . It seems to be the SAA and Russian weakness , the troops and air forces are doing great work , but the intel ., seems to be a bit lacking . However , Joe is right , siege Maadan , but move on and liberate Deir Ezzor , it is too important . This window of opportunity could be short , as the Al Nusra have consolidated in Idlib , and could attack Aleppo at any time .
Yes, the Idlib province is very unstable and FSA could attack SAA position at any time. The FSA in Idlib have plenty time to rearm, regroup and rest.
Trump ordered CIA to desist after the recent meeting with Putin. Russia and Syria have both acknowledged that support of FSA has stopped. If it had not Masdar and RT would be screaming bloody hell. Certainly caution is advisable as Trump has shown the ability to change direction, unlike Obama who was solidly pro terrorist from day 1 to the end of his 8 years.
40 SAA killed? Likely an ISIS exaggeration. Even so it is war…shit happens. ISIS claims they killed 53 SDF soldiers 3 days ago. https://southfront.org/isis-attacks-sdf-training-camp-allegedly-kills-60-sdf-members/ Was this because SAA intelligence gathering teams passed the information on to ISIS? No it wasn’t!…even if 53 SDF did get killed (which I doubt) it was because they are involved in a war against ISIS. For an army whose every move is allegedly relayed to ISIS by the US the SAA is doing pretty good don’t you think?
Unfortunately it was over 50, tigers just released a report. https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/statistical-breakdown-army-losses-recent-southern-raqqa-fighting-isis/
You are completely hysterical if you non jokingly believe in the “ISUS” garbage and that Daesh is American led and funded. America did (until very recently) fund Islamist rebels under the green banner, never the black. Daesh has always been an American and “rebel” enemy as well as an SAA one. To think they would arm and help Daesh which is losing on all fronts, even to AMerican fronts, and possibly use those arms against the Kurds and the Iraqi Army which they both back up is ludicrous. You are living in a conspiracy world and seeing connections where there is none, you are paranoid.
You are free to believe what you wish. If you think that men in high places of power are not capable of lying and then covering it up it strikes me as quite naive. If you believe the overt reporting of the Syrian war you have some serious questions to answer – why is the anti-ISIS coalition so inefficient? Why did they not bomb the approx. 500 trucks/day that were taking stolen oil to Turkey on open roads? The Russians bombed the hell out of them on the first day! Why are the Iraqis regularly report witnessing western supply flights heading to ISIS territory? How come ISIS can cross deserts where the coalition’s 180 aircraft patrol and not be attacked? Could ask about 100 more questions that have no good answers.
No. Start believing it, ISUS is a western proxy force (and it is not the first time for such a proxy) and its purpose was to aid in regime change plan in Syria and be part of the partitioning of Syria. Would US share intel with ISUS? If it suits them – absolutely. No problemo! And the challenge in the Euphrates/SDF area is that they are under direct terrestrial observation by CIA funded operators. Very dangerous, if you have ISUS suicide bombers around.
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