This map provides a general look at the military situation in central Syria on September 18, 2017. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies have crossed the Euphrates River and are now developing momentum against ISIS on its eastern bank.
Click to see the full-size map
great to know every thing is moving on the right track towards the annihilation of almost all terrorists’ held areas in syria
I think they will be annihalated all, because you can consider the trapped ISIS forces in Syria and iraq as a great pocket with no connection to get outside.
but every time they win a pocked of isis they send buses and cary them safetly in other places so they can fight again…
Only to reduce the number of pockets which were many, and shorten the length of the front line. Civilians near these pockets were always in danger.
Bizarre that the coalition air forces have only been able to find one or two targets per day to help the SDF on the east side of the river. CJTF-OIR Strike Reports
Either little air support effort is being expended to help the SDF advance, the coalition doesn’t know where any ISIS targets are, or there ARE no ISIS targets around the SDF forces because they made some deal with ISIS.
There’s always the other possibility instead of/in addition to the above: Russia told the US to keep the SDF north of Hwy. 7 or they would be bombed. That cuts off the ISIS escape route down the main east bank highway to Mayadin – the US must be furious! It can’t just keep choppering out its ISIS pals every day – people are going to start getting suspicious.
The Russians have outmaneuvered the US and what they already know is they can’t advance east or any further south without hitting well entrenched SAA forces. They kept the media blackout going to keep them off their guard and shutdown sites who had reported the crossing on Tuesday and had the stories removed. Love how Maria was giddy with laughter when she was delivering the news , the US State department and Military were trying to get a fix on their exact positions of the SAA.
Funny how Russia can play the diplomacy game better than the US who must of sounded like little screaming children with their questions as to where the SAA and Allies were. The US has never coordinated with the Syrian Govt and Russian so why should they do this now, they tell about airstrikes but nothing else. They made this mad dash without the necessary forces and have no way of defending what they captured and against the warnings of the Syrian govt to not to interfere.
The US have now fears of losing more of their advisers , they are pulling out of their bases in the south. They left as-Zakaf and soon Al Tanf will be fully evacuated soon. Their proxies are leaving them as they notice everything is lost , Damascus has risen out of the fiery ashes and has turned into the Fiery Phoenix.
It seems Daesh losing has thrown a lot of things into confusion. US chiefs are losing their retirement plans of becoming oil oligarchs in the ME, and they are afraid too of their President saying “You’re fired!” Planning goes down the drain because they just can’t win. Gulf monarchies are in a pickle, and many of them must be thinking is it worth throwing good money after bad! AQ chief are being gunned down quite frequently. Even the Kurdish Destabilisation Force (which is not monolithic, but an alliance of various groups) is wondering what’s next? Will they have to fight the SAA? Some groups in the SDF are loyal to Syria I am sure, but others may have other ideas. Everyone is trying to rescue something from the situation, but what is there to rescue when you are being beaten to pulp? And the revelations about collusion with Daesh will cause a lot of damage well into the future. Even UN is under fire because of its partiality in the war on Syria – some people are talking about a war crimes. We certainly are living in interesting times.