More militants are readying to surredner to Syrian government forces in Aleppo city, according to unconfirmed reports in pro-government and pro-militant social media accounts.
After the collapse of Jaish al-Fatah (a militant coalition that unites a wide range of militant groups in the area of Aleppo city) defenses in northeastern Aleppo, many militant factions lost the hope to defeat “regime forces” and felt themselves “betrayed” by their Western and Gulf patrons.
A poor fighting spirit and the bad situation at Aleppo frontlines pushed militant factions to consider an option to take an opportunity to surrender and to leave the city. At least 500 militants already did this. Many more members of various militant group are readying to do this.
The problem is the opposition of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda), which leads Jaish al-Fatah coalition, to this choice. So, “moderate militants” have to find a way to run from their al-Qaeda linked allies.
I know militants have been surrendering for some time now. As far as I can judge they are normally given safe passage to other areas. This looks like the standard formula. As I have previously expressed this seems a risky strategy. For sure some of the militants will take the opportunity to escape a desperate military situation only to regroup, re-arm and again attack the SAA. May be it will all ultimately make sense but it does seem at face value a recipe for future trouble.
There are advantages to it. It does tend to shorten the SAA’s frontlines, allowing them to redeploy forces to other fronts. And if the militants know that they have the option of surrender and seen it happen successfully they might consider that option as well. Knowing that you can’t surrender on the other hand but face certain death usually tends to hardens their resolve to fight on, even in the face of inevitable defeat.
Also, when they arrive in rebel held territory they would still have to rearm first. Arms which may or may not be present. Chances are they will be viewed as cowards and held suspect. A quitter once, a quitter again tomorrow. Since they probably are from different factions it even increase the chances of power struggles erupting, as rival factions compete for them to join, or view them as potential rivals.
Better to dump them in a few areas to starve and without heavy equipment and fighting among themselves, than to fight these cornered dangerous rats.
Also, there has to be some movement towards the end of the war, Russia and Iran don’t have infinite resources to spend on Syria. Noone wants a quagmire.
They’d rather concentrate them all on Idlib then blast them to bits than have a bunch of cells stirring up trouble all over the country. It also gives them flexibility on how to deploy their troops, expands their territory, secures supply lines, relieves civilians, etc
The safe passage moves the Islamists out of built-up city areas to open land or villages in Idlib where RuAF and artillery is King. As a rule of thumb, you need 3:1 in manpower to attack successfully in open areas but at least 5:1 in cities and sometimes much more. In Grozny Russia had a 10:1 advantage and didn’t even achieve 100% success because some Islamists got away
If also frees SAA from guarding these pockets; the forces can be transferred to another pocket which then frees even more troops to attack yet another pocket etc. It’s a snowball effect and we’re already seeing it; the pockets are eliminated at ever increasing speed. Darayya took months, Khan Al-Sheih only weeks, and the neighboring Zakiyah gave up without a fight
Great info, the snowball effect is happening! Also consider the negative effect of relocation on Jihadist morale. Many have thrown in the towel in E Aleppo. Their will to fight seems to be eroding. Maybe more rebel groups in Idleb will lead to more infighting? The tide has turned!!
Let west destroy its own cities not Muslim cities.Let them destroy Washington.Paris,Berlin,Melbourne and London.
Ha ha the westren world is not stupid like the Muslims world, and yes the west do that too sometime but may be once each 100 years or so but the Muslims world has a habbit of it and no one can help them even Allah cannot help such people.
The Western world usually doesn’t face such a stalemate as which happened in Aleppo. Neither the SAA nor the rebels had the means to defeat the other. Until now. In modern times sieges of Western cities usually lasted weeks, months at worst. Longest siege in modern times was Leningrad and that seemed mostly driven because taking or relieving that city was neither the biggest priority for either the Wehrmacht or the Red Army.
Of course when it comes to a senseless utterly destructive stalemate lasting for years on end World War I does come to mind.
Can only hope that those US backed Nour Al Zenki militants who beheaded the Palestinian child in east Aleppo are caught by SAA and handed over to Palestinian Al Quds militia for some retribution. They certainly posted enough images of themselves all over internet to identify them easily.
I agree. It would be a big mistake to let these murderers live in a normal community. I would take them first to meet the boy’s family and if they survived that then i would hand them over.
As this gang is running with the ‘helmets’ it’s quite possible they could use that contact and turn up in any nato country.
Unfortunately the report is that in the northern suburbs Zinki surrendered themselves to YPG, expecting gentler treatment from the Kurds.
Even the people who train the terrorists and supply them think they are worthless, no matter what nato commanders tell them in their briefings. I would not be surprised if every gang/squad had a nato implant guiding, instructing and training these lost souls and idiots. As soon as the nato implant disappears, the jihadis surrender not long after.
Fake nato jihadists are about to find out just how low they are now on the nato priority list.