This map provides a general look at the situation in the eastern countryside of Aleppo on March 26, 2017. Dear firends, please, take a note that Deir Hafer is not under the control of the Syrian army. Government troops had not entered it. More about this issue is HERE.
Click to see the full-size map
I find this Deir Hafer is not under SAA control confusing. Either ISIS abandoned it and left it full of mines it doesn’t matter squat, its now inside SAA territory, not going anywhere and just a big pile of work for sappers to finish but the town is de facto in the hands of the SAA. If its not under SAA control it implies that there is still something more inside that town under then a bunch of explosives.
They must be waiting for Russian sappers to arrive from Palmyra. Good to see SAA making progress towards the airfield after most Tigers where withdrawn to N Hama front.
What do u think should be next on the menu after jirah? I was thinking to finish off the rebels/militants around hama/idlib/Damascus for good so SAA can concentrate on deir ezzor and then raqqa
Oh, those nice dreams… Only pity there is reality. SAA would indeed be wise, seeing as to what happened near Hama, to clear Idlib. This will not be easy as Turkey restarted arming those rebels, terrorists or not. This will not be easy as we are talking in the tens of thousands of jihadis, reasonably well armed and more united then before.
Long before Idlib will be cleared, Raqqah will have fallen to SDF. The question will be whether DeirezZor will fall to IS or, maybe with the exception of the military base and airport, to the SDF, creating another Qamishli situation.
Qamishli?
I imagine that SAA is not entering to town because there are left behind suicide bombers sitting on large stores of explosives. If the locals have tipped them off they will only enter the town very carefully over time, perhaps led by Russian bomb disposal robots.