The US-backed “Syrian Democratic Forces” cleared the ISIS pocket east of the terrorist group’s self-proclaimed capital of Raqqah. Turkish forces seized al-Bab, Qabasin and Bzaah and the Syrian army liberated Rasm al-Sheikh and Rasm al-Hermel al-Khabaz in the province of Aleppo.
Click to see the full-size map
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/isis-serious-trouble-east-aleppo-syrian-army-cuts-supply-line-map/
Am hoping that ISUS has to struggle over some dirt roads to get out of Al Bab area. Remember the videos of them vacating Fallujah. Those Hinds did one hell of a job there. They blew the Daesh convoys to hell. Let’s hope for this!
Knocking off Toyotas with 23mm is big now, ISUS has lost numerous weapons caches, and junk yard bodge shops. Each time they run….they leave behind key builder tooling. The ISUS in Der Ezzor had a dramatic drop in vehicle assets. Now…their forces mostly sniper and mortar at SAA,….their offensive punch In Der Ezzor….decimated. They did attack from the south of the city recently, …that would be loose units Out in the hinterland getting forced to make an assult.
These maps of ISUS turf are probably empty and few soldiers. It’s to bad SAA are not having air mobility and 30,000 soldiers , I’d wager they could get behind the ISUS lines and roll them up to killing zones.
Russian Helicopters have the night vision targeting and real time uplink. Syrian Hind need to know what they are going to do….then possibly some radio Com on route or a radio instruct via Forward controllers. The Russians can really mow the ISUS Down,…Question is,…are there only a few Attack Helicopters in play at Palmyra and near Al Bab.?
So ya….it’s frustrating things are going so slow, Yet hopefully…..every area liberated. …Is….for the last time : )
Real important thing syrian needs now is surveilance like uav or small drone to prevent another palmyra and mass attack like in aleppo before, then armed them with some small caliber mortar or bomb to make some cheap small bomber airforce squadron like isis did in mosul, hate those b*stard still able to see a sun while sky already owned by saf or ruaf
Why did ISIS put up such a ferocious fight for Al Bab?
The position was hopelessly exposed with enemies all around them on a salient. Were they hoping against hope to keep or make contact with the Jihadis in the Idlib area, this just didn’t seem to make sense. Granted, they kept the Turks at bay for a long time. I suppose they did take a lot of their foes down with them, maybe it was really good defensive terrain, don’t know.
My theory is that for a long time ISIS was able to hold off the Turks and the FSA by waggering that fanaticism would prevail over undisciplined, and poorly motivated FSA and the Turks over-relied on their aging armor. ISIS demonstrated that tanks are mostly useless today because of incredibly accurate artillery fire and advancements in missiles and close air support as well as the ability of a small crew of soldiers with anti-tank missiles to lay waste to divisions of armor. My theory is that there was no reason to leave Al-Bab because there was no real possibility of the Turks taking the city, that is until the SAA showed up to the south and cut ISIS supply lines. As the Tigers moved East, ISIS became faced with a choice, conduct an orderly retreat or continue bleeding the eager Turks. They chose the former, and decided not to risk losing a substantial portion of the Al-Bab Northwestern force to encirclement, feb 22 ended up leaving the city. The plans seems to be a retreat east facilitated by ambushes, mines, village fortification, and flooding of the valley from Lake Assad. I would say that the main precipitating factor was the rapid progress of Tiger forces and the looming threat of encirclement.
Funding for the FSA has suddenly stopped. The CIA ability to support ISUS may have declined markedly since Trump’s election. Not knowing exactly what Trump would do upon discovering the CIA was arming ISIS. Either Trump knows….or He is dumb. With Investigations raging in DC and Media spinning fake news, It may be too hot….for the CIA to run their game.
The new Lunatic NSA…Lt Gen McMaster. …may be on board with CIA, …as He was For Hillary Clinton . Just another double agent in Trump’s admin….stuffed in By Rience Preibus.
The Deep state may go with Arm the Kurds and go with them to break Syria up In the future… Use them to tangle with Hezbollah and IRGC.
US probably want to keep their bases in Kurd NE Syria….to chess piece move vs the Russian bases in Syria and the Missiles placed there. Israel no doubt wants the comfort of having US presence this close to Hezbollah and IRGC.