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UPDATE 2: The Rashidin 4 is under the control of government forces. They are now securing the area.
UPDATE: Clashes in the Rashidin 4 are still ongoing. The area remained contested.
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On February 11, units of the Syrian Army and Iranian-backed militias recaptured the Rashidin 4 district in western Aleppo from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-led forces, according to pro-government sources.
If the liberation of the Rashidin 4 area is confirmed, government forces will appear in a step away from securing the entire M5 highway (from Damascus to Aleppo) for the first time since 2012.
I will repeat: Rats are running, Erdogan is fuming, those who were Russia bashing are hiding. Good.
When is something to bash, I will bash. Currently the things look ok in Syria. And you should congratualte Syrians and Iranians too, not only Russians
We have to be patient, it’s a bigger game and there are many involved. I am hopeful for Syria.
Excellent awesome super good job SAA!!!!
Go SAA and Co..!!!
LMAO. “This (Turkey) move is a pure defensive move”. A weirdo speaking out? Yes, his name is Erdogan. The Turkeys are aggressors. And they deserve to be annihilated in this battle for Syrian independence.
The 4th division have secured the highway which is good but it’s still not going to be very helpful to us yet, not while the opposition are still holding all the ground to the west of it, the opposition may not be able to use the highway anymore but neither can we, at least not until we have a 10km buffer between the highway and the rebels/terrorists.
The way things are going now, that 10km buffer will be in effect very soon.
I think you’re being a little over optimistic, if the Turks get involved we’ll need a 25 km buffer to negate their already dug in artillery, unless of course we use airstrikes to take them out, but since we’ve just lost a chopper over Idlib to a rebel/terrorist attack, the SAAF may have to change tactics to accommodate this new threat.
The SAA will be equipt with the high accuracy Russian self propelled long range guns I would think for counter battery operations I would think.. They were used about 2 years ago near the Russian airbase with guided shells. The targets were obliterated.
Russia has been very measured with the use of their advanced weapons in Syria and the best us yet to come :)
True Florian but the simple facts are that Turkey has the Russians outmanned and outgunned in Syria by a factor of 20 to 1, and I’m just talking about the forces he will deploy in Syria, not his total forces. Numbers matter in war when both sides are close to technological parity, so while a party of 1,000 cavemen may not be able to beat 100 modern soldiers, a party of 1,000 American Indians on horseback might be able to, and 1,000 WW2 German soldiers definitely could. We could easily win this war by following the fleeing refugees to the Turkish border, forcing Erdogan to dig in and protect the civilian front lines won’t help us win the war, it’ll actually just prolong it. A short while ago the UN agreed to end ALL humanitarian aid to Idlib in less than 6 months, which bode very well for Assad reclaiming all of Idlib, the Turks couldn’t afford to pay for the aid so the rebel would’ve been left with no choice but to surrender or starve, now Erdogan will demand the UN reinstate those aid deliveries to accommodate the new reality on the ground, and I don’t think the UN will have a choice but to agree. Everyone kept saying the Russian enforced ceasefires were good for the long term solution and I kept calling Putin an arsehole for enforcing them, I just wanted the SAA to keep chipping away slowly making Assad’s territory a little bigger every day and forcing the rebels, terrorists, and pro Turkish/Erdogan, anti Assad civilians to head north to the Turkish border. I’m convinced by what the Turks themselves say, that once the refugees flood through the Turkish border the Turks will lose all their ability to support the rebels anymore and lose control of everything, that’s what I wanted to happen, not an all out war against Turkey that we might just lose. But the die is cast now, what I wanted to happen can’t anymore, now everything depends on Putin’s stance against Erdogan, and even if you don’t seem too concerned about what Putin will actually do, the 15 successive Astana agreements Putin signed with Erdogan sets a bad precedent with me, add the latest statement from Iran concerning a ceasefire and I get a sick feeling in my stomach. I hope you’re right Florian, because if you’re not things will get really bad really quickly, so as much as I think you’re being way too optimistic, I’m praying to God you’re right and I’m wrong.
Some of what you say , I agree with, and some I do not agree with. This is normal in any civilised debate.
However that are so many contradictions in this dreadful conflict that time will be the final arbiter.
We can think ourselves fortunate that we are not physically involved.
YET :)