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On Monday, The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies liberated the Salbah Electricity Station from ISIS in the eastern Hama countryside.
The Salbah Electricity Station is an important infrastructure site located near the oil pipeline in the area. It could also become a launching pad for the SAA advance on the ISIS-held village of Abu Hanaya.
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Why is this pocket taking so long to clear? have all left for Deir Ezzor or is it very hard in this area.
Probably because most of the troops doing this are 2nd and 3rd tier troops, whereas most of the 1st tier troops are fighting around Deir Ezzor now?
Which makes sense, when you have two options, like relieving Deir Ezzor and take East Syria before it falls in Kurdish/US hands, and eliminating a pocket that’s not posing much problems right now, you’re not going to deploy your crack troops on the latter.
Low tier troops against a defensive enemy on a very hard terrain :D
Oddly enough, all the pictures they show so far of captured places have that terrain as flat as a pancake.
I can see the difference , not sure if you are someone who lives in the lowlands or by the sea. Most towns and villages are usually built on the flattest areas , and you can notice a general slope if they are in hills.
The region is quite hilly and the Qualomoun shield forces and others are dealing with them , this is a well entrenched enemy leaving them to be very difficult to remove as this area has many linked tunnels. Much of the Forces in the region are on defensive duties as they seem to pop up through the network of tunnels and are dealing with attacks by the HTS and FSA. This area had once upon a time harbored the Muslim Brotherhood and still holds ties to that group.
It is not high priority. Those pockets and the ISIS warriors in them are going nowhere.
ISIS there are trapped there. No way of getting resupplies.
Eventually, they will lose food, man power and ammunition for their weapons – no choice then but to surrender.
So there is no need to risk too many men to try to take them out.
Important info here would be if they got the plant intact or destroyed. The latter would pose a problem for rebuilding the economy.
Did a lot of the Hama front forces leave for another area? Thought this was closing fast yet now they are just chipping away at it!
If you are following my comments on the East Hama liberation fight: you should be able to remember my comment that this battle will last considerable longer than even SouthFront predicted. SouthFront was the first to say that those pockets will be cleared in several days. But I have good source over there that informed me about the real situation on the ground. The battle will last longer guys to our dislike.