© Sputnik/ Iliya Pitalev
According to reports, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies continued their advance on Al-Tanaf and managed to take positions in about 20 km away from the town controlled by US-led forces on the Syrian-Iraqi border.
The SAA also captured the Khabrat Zarkaa area south of the Damascus-Baghdad road. Kharbat Zarrkkaa is located i about 50 km from the al-Tanf border crossing. According to pro-government sources, Russian Su-30 fighters escorted government forces in the area.
A rough map of the situation:
According to some opposition sources, the US informed Jaish al-Thawrah in Al-Tanf two days ago that it will be transferred to a another area in order to avoid conflict with the SAA.
According to pro-government sources, there was a US-Russian agreement on the deployment of Syrian forces 15 km from Al-Tanf which would be handed over to the SAA after negotiations.
There are reports that the US may establish a base south of Deir Ezzor and transfer Jaish al-Thawrah to it. By this the SAA will be able to open the Damascus – Baghdad road.
At the same time the US-led coalition and the Syrian Free Army can continue the military operation towards the town of Al Bukamal in the Deir Ezzor countryside.
Some of these reports look questionable and can be confirmed only by developments on the ground.
No more US terrorists training workshops and headquarters on Syrian land. It would be better for all US led collation terrorists to leave Syria.
I wish the SAA Godspeed to reach and secure the border with Iraq.
Which do u think is more important right now, heading to deir ezzor or the al tanf area?
Al Tanf I think as without a link with with Iraq the US de facto isolates Syria from Iraq as the crossings near Deir Ezzor will be the last to change hands. It is also a test of the US and NATO and shines a bright light on the US coalition supporting terrorism and insurrection with violence against a sovereign state is terrorism.
The results of the use of terrorism as proxies have never ended well for anyone and the suicide bombing in the UK yesterday is merely due to a terror group that feels they have been double crossed .
Its no different than paying your local crime gangs to police where you live, then favouring another gang and giving them the sheriff ‘s badge. The first gang will be pissed.
true, i will then order SAA to take al tanf :D
Can you make sure the SAA Air Defences are adequate. :) Also please try to take the Norwegian terrorists alive :) You can keep their skis as a trophy.
Sure yes 100%
Some of us having followed events and more importantly President Putin’s leadership and words for those who have ears to hear have seen this coming for some time.
November 21, 2015; Putin Out Maneuvers Puppeteers of ISIS, Declares War under UN Charter!
https://www.opednews.com/articles/Putin-Out-Maneuvers-Puppet-by-George-King-Energy_Isil_Isis_Isis-Beheading-151121-284.html
“ISIS are going to be the recipient of hell, fire and brimstone soon bringing control of the sea of Adan, Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, the entrance to the Red Sea as well as the Arabian Sea under control of the Russian coalition. Did I forget to mention the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Caspian Sea are already under lock down.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/10/29/435418/Yemen-Daesh-Aden-Salah-alDin-Mayhoub-Ansarullah-Saudi-Turkey-Qatat-UAE-Syria
I would beg to disagree or rather offer another possible scenario that is not quite as bleak as Paul Craig Roberts’s “Guile Replaces the Stick”.
“Realizing that guile can be more effective than the stick, the West is moving toward drawing Russia into the Western system by offering a coalition against ISIL. Once Russia is in a coalition against ISIL, Russia will lose control. This is Washington’s strategy for counteracting the initiative that Russia seized in Syria.”
Evidence Putin’s Russia in all that they have achieved in the past few decades from rebuilding self-defense forces and weapons to not only an emergency response to the economic war (sanctions) pursued against Russia but a stabilization in the near term and a sound stable defensive economic system for the future, BRICS.
They have enhanced and increased commercial trade unions and energy agreements while showcasing trade in military equipment of what appears to be the latest greatest technology in all areas of systems that actually work as designed. Intercontinental High Speed Rail Systems to transport people and trade, “The New Asian European Oriental Express” no navies or merchant fleets need apply. This opens up a complete replacement or diversification in trade partners. And of course we see an investment in its infrastructure for their people and their future. This does not sound like a nation that is going to capitulate to being gullible to anyone.
How do you say surrounded to the creators and funders of DAESH, checkmate!
So he did do something, good.
SAA needs to cut the crap near al Tanf and fight ISIS; from palmyra instead!
Al Tanf is good SAA strategy – has two benefits. If SAA can get to border with Iraq they can divide US/Jordanian proxies into two pockets and the Iraqi PMU can be invited into Syria and have path through border to assist SAA. If US/Jordanian proxies cut in two then their most north-east advanced groups, that are most threatening to Deir Ezzore, are cut off from any ground based resupplies.
What good is it to cut the crap and fight ISIS, already a dead man walking, if others are setting themselves up in such a way to be in the best position to take advantage of that defeat. Do you really think that those US supported FSA headchoppers are operating in that region to fight ISIS? Why did Al Nusra launch the last Hama offensive just when the SAA was gaining ground in Eastern Aleppo and advancing towards Tabqa? It set SAA operations in that area and around Palmyra back for 2 months.
If anything ISIS can be defeated easier with the SAA in control of this border crossing, as now it can easier receive supplies from its allies and coordinate operations against ISIS better with those allies. And not have to worry about US supported headchoppers trying to grab as much territory as possible while it does the dirty work.
If SAA acts fast enough, using the forces from Al Tanf, they can reach the Iraq border via Dier Ezzor before NewSA gets there, without having to fight Western forces.
I’m not surprised to see coordination between ISIS and Al Nusra, but that doesn’t mean they are coordinating with either the US or Turkey. Neither should have been cut off from the ISIS fighting front, Trump is not going to allow that and I’m glad. I hear not even the Russians want that.
I wrote “FROM Palmyra” Al Tanf forces should attack ISIS from Palmyra towards Dier ezzor, where US backed forces are NOT.
I think the map above is not correct. The Damascus Baghdad road does not cross through Jordan on it’s way to Baghdad. The al-Tanf crossing is on the boarder with Iraq, about 7 miles North of where Jordan connects with Syria. All of the reports that I have read say that the US trained rebels control the Syrian side of al-Tanf boarder crossing. But, the Iraqi militia PMU and a few Iraqi soldiers control the Iraqi side.
The US trained rebels are in a week position, and can easily be overrun by the Iraqi militia, if they choose to do so. In fact they have asked for permission from Syria to do so.Thus, the US is not making any concession when they evacuate them further North to fight ISIS. It is just a face saving operation for the US.
The SAA could easily be airlifted into the friendly Iraqi side of al-Tanf and then walk back over the boarder and kick the rebels out. That is how weak their position is. The US is well aware of this.
Although the location of the US rebel training base is secret, it is certainly well inside Jordan, probably about 30 miles from that al-Tanf crossing. The US is calling it’s base al-Tanf merely to confuse everybody and pretend that they have important infrastructure in al-Tanf, which they must protect. Al-Tanf is nothing but a dessert outpost with a few buildings. It is the highway itself, which is of incredible strategic importance.
The US and it’s Israeli Neocon plan to create a Sunni buffer State to break up the “Shiite crescent” is in ruins. They might as well turn tale and head home right now rather than suffer further embarrassment.
Here is a link to an incredible interactive map of Syria. You can zoom right into that al-Tanf area to get a close up.:
http://syriancivilwarmap.com/ ….
The map in article is Shia propaganda. Thanks for the link.
What makes this website any more credible than others? They provide no information who they are (or it’s well hidden). They conduct online polls, which suggests that there are interests behind the website who can use this information, perhaps corporate media. It looks suspicious to me.
It is a non profit project. The map site has a pro-Syria bias.They are probably getting their info from sites like SouthFront, since I don’t think they do too much research themselves. SouthFront is the best for that, and has the information out there a lot faster. However their graphics and their interactivity is much better than SouthFront.
My comment got deleted by someone. I’ll post it here again. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I think the map above is misleading. The Damascus Baghdad road does not cross through Jordan on it’s way to Baghdad. The al-Tanf crossing is on the boarder with Iraq, about 7 miles North of where Jordan connects with Syria. All of the reports that I have read say that the US trained rebels control the Syrian side of al-Tanf boarder crossing. But, the Iraqi militia PMU and a few Iraqi soldiers control the Iraqi side.
The US trained rebels are in a week position, and can easily be overrun by the Iraqi militia, if they choose to do so. In fact they have asked for permission from Syria to do so.Thus, the US is not making any concession when they evacuate them further North to fight ISIS. It is just a face saving operation for the US.
The SAA could easily be airlifted into the friendly Iraqi side of al-Tanf and then walk back over the boarder and kick the rebels out. That is how weak their position is. The US is well aware of this.
Although the location of the US rebel training base is secret, it is certainly well inside Jordan, probably about 30 miles from that al-Tanf crossing. The US is calling it’s base al-Tanf merely to confuse everybody and pretend that they have important infrastructure in al-Tanf, which they must protect. Al-Tanf is nothing but a dessert outpost with a few buildings.
It is the highway itself, which is of incredible strategic importance.
The US and it’s Israeli Neocon plan to create a Sunni buffer State to break up the “Shiite crescent” is in ruins. They might as well turn tale and head home right now rather than suffer further embarrassment.
The map is correct. The Damascus-Baghdad road doesn’t cross Jordan !
That is exactly what I said. The area in white below is Jordan. The road does not cross the white area where the US claims it has a rebel base
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb1846a46188ecae97b5c1a7fa7e39014d6c38958fba3ecceb7b27ed985ca804.jpg
You are confusing Iraq/Jordan state limit with the limits of IS territory in this picture, the picture is correct
Look at that front line, stretching and winding forever. I realize this works both ways (I think) but MY GOD, if you wanted to Balkanize Syria you couldn’t do a better job!
Death to the Axis of Terror//–uk/yank/israhell/saudi/qatar/isis/sham……..
What is the Syrian strategy that is now operating? For a while reports indicated an offensive east from the Palmyra area was the strategy. This would seize Deir ez-Zor or at the least As Sukhnah, a third of the way to Deir ez-Zor. Deir ez-Zor is important for the oil industry and agriculture and as a hub for controlling the areas up and down the Euphrates River. This would also have the potential to open the road into Iraq with all the logistical benefits that offers. This assault seems to be going nowhwere. The Syrian Army has a problematic history of advancing much beyond Palmyra. Its Raqqa offensive in June 2016 was a dismal failure. It got to within15 km of the Tabqa airbase (the airbase the SDF seized just recently) before IS counterattacks forced a retreat.
Now opening the road to Iraq via al-Tanf seems to be the priority. This is a long long way from Deir ez-Zor. Has the Deir ez-Zor goal been abandoned for the time being? Why this change? Why is advancing east beyond the vicinity of Palmyra proving so difficult? Some comments suggest that the Syrian Army realizes it has no hope of beating the American backed rebels to Deir ez-Zor as the American backed rebels are already on their way north up the Euphrates valley from Bukamal. There seems little direct evidence of this on social media so I wonder what the source for this claim is.
Going south to al-Tanf rather than east to the Euphrates is puzzling me.
Deir ez-Zor has just recently been heavily re-enforced. There was a story on SouthFront.
That area, on the road to al-Tanf in the far South, merely had a few recently trained US rebels defending it. And, It only required a few Syrian “technicals” and a couple of tanks to open this incredibly strategic road to Baghdad.
From now on, there is no need to fly men and materials from Tehran to Damascus. They can just drive there. Israel and Saudi Arabia and the US are screwed, and might as well go home, as a result of this very simple move by Syria. I rote another comment on this earlier (see below).
So is the Al tanf objective now secured and SAA can focus on deir ezzor now?
This is how the war was destined to go: Americans camped out in the desert trying to hide from the Syrian people because no one actually supports them