The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) deployed additional units of the 5th Assault Corps and the Republican Guard in several positions around the northern city of Aleppo during the last few days, several Syrian pro-government sources reported on December 1.
A video released by pro-government activists shows a convoy of the SAA consisting of several T-72 battle tanks and BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) heading towards advanced positions west of Aleppo.
A day earlier the elite 4th Division was deployed in several positions between the northwestern Hama countryside and the northern Lattakia countryside. A source in the SAA told SouthFront that the division is currently preparing for a possible operation inside the demilitarized zone around Idlib.
The zone, which was establish as a result of the Russian-Turkish agreement on September 17, witnessed numerous violations during the last two months, including a chemical attack on Aleppo. More than 100 civilians were reportedly injured in the attack.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had said the chemical attack on Aleppo shouldn’t go unpunished. However, it is not clear yet if Moscow and Damascus are willing to take serious military action.
Happy hunting boys…stay safe
I believe the two are mutually exclusive ;)
The civilian evacuation corridor from Idlib closes tomorrow. So whichever of those do not get out are the friends of terror/human shield/ hostage categories.
Or people forced by the terrorists to rest there.
Time for taking the gloves off…giv’em hell
let us hope they finish this and not turn back as before.
Front line is much shorter now, so sharingYozr hopes, now.
yes it is.
Game on.
Do you all know who the cannon fodder will be in this upcoming offensive, I do. It’s time to punish all the guilty parties, those fighting against Assad, and those fighting for him, Assad’s smart enough that he doesn’t need to punish either guilty parties, he’s actually going to make them punish each other. 15 to 20,000 mad jihadist pitted against 15 to 20,000 ex jihadist, with 100,000+ SAA and their new Kurdish friends all looking on [and waiting their turn], should be fun. In you go boys, you’re first in line, time to make amends for starting off on the wrong side of the war, go make up for it now.
In fact from Daraa there were some 2000-3500 FSA that join ranks in SAA and many others were given amnesty. As for HTS I guess you still didn’t have realized the role of Turkey in Idlib. Turkey want’s to protect all those HTS Jihadists not to fight against them, if possible to turn as many as it can into it’s own proxy NFL, because Turkey realized in Afrin how good is to have a proxies to fight your wars not to see your Turkish soldiers dying as pigs, instead someone else with propaganda as Allahu Akbar in their head will be much much better to go and die, who is going to miss them, no dead Turkish soldiers no pressure on Erdogan from its own government. Why 3 times Astana talks were failing between Russia, Turkey and Iran, well Turkey wanted to extract the HTS Jihadists into Turkey to save them. And Iran backed off, and Russia in the end proposed the DMZ, Erdogan’s proxies were on brink to be squashed in Idlib along side with the Al-Qaeda HTS. Turkeys agenda is to save those nasty jihadists not to kill them or anything. Do you see what is going on everyday HTS is attacking everywhere, Chemical Gas attack in Aleppo daily attacks on SAA positions and Turkey is silent with theirs almost 15 observation posts. Nothing their time to control the DMZ failed, to control HTS failed and now Russia, Syria itself and some Iranians will kick offensive, it will be very wise for Turkey to either start shell HTS in which I believe they will do that as a last resort only if Russia and SAA start the offensive, or if not they can go and fuck off out of Idlib or they will be the target, SAA will not stop because of the fucking Turks, all that Turkey did it was harboring all the possible terrorist since 2011 from their country. Screw Turkey and Erdogan plans to revive the HTS and re-brand as something else. He just can’t HTS don’t give a fuck about Erdogan or its proxies they just want war and war will they get soon. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56b006a3249d839a06c587d8c8ad8f68c7bbfb7cb685a46cb613b96a5c73d0d5.gif https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b970b03a5b49656a7511226b9a071ebea2b2be4a06b7eee5f27946b2aafca6b.gif
Nearly 10,000 FSA had switched sides before the Daraa campaign had even finished, by the time Assad began concentrating on Quneitra nearly every FSA militia in southern Syria had switched sides, nearly 20,000 FSA fighters actually helped Assad finish off HTS and Isis in Quneitra remember. Since then Assad has been busy adding even more conscripts to the ranks. The first few batches of FSA he sent to Idlib didn’t work out that well, nearly several hundred in one militia killed for trying to desert to the other side, nearly 100 from another militia tried to do the same with the same results, but I don’t think it will be the same this time, the trust factor is no longer important, no one wants to join the side that’s just about to be annihilated. Do you also forget Erdogan already had a truce brokered between HTS and the FSA. He managed to get them to cooperate for a while after they were beaten in the south, but hotheads in the FSA killed a few HTS fighters and it all fell apart, they’ve been fighting sporadically ever since. HTS wil also remember that the FSA quickly turned sides when they started being beaten in Daraa, and then started helping the SAA to save their skins, they’ll be very wary of joining Erdogan’s treacherous crew just because of that. Now with Erdogan having them on the Terrorist list, any of his forces that help or hide HTS can be considered terrorists too, that’ll make it hard to negotiate any defections. I can just imagine FSA/NFL fighters trying to entice HTS fighters to come and join them, but if they did there would be a fifty fifty chance they be killed in cold blood and offered as casualties of a battle for bragging rights, they’d say something like, “look we killed these 50 terrorists that were breaking the security arrangement, aren’t we good”, the HTS fighters must be thinking about that possibility every time they consider switching sides. As to HTS militias leaving and joining the NFL, that may happen and probably will, afterall there are 2 of the Turkoman clans that are not going to fight for Erdogan, they’re going to the Saudi backed HTS to fight beside them, so a few HTS militias joining Erdogan would be no surprise, but they’ll be taking a risk every time they do defect to the NFL. I don’t think there will be many defections. Cheers.
Here’s the latest South Front article. On November 30th, Khalid al-Mahamid, a prominent figure of the Syrian opposition, revealed that there is “an international agreement” to eliminate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Idlib. Al-Mahamid is known as the godfather of the reconciliation process which took place in southern Syria in 2018. The UAE-based businessman reportedly persuaded thousands of former FSA fighters in the governorates of Daraa and al-Quneitra to join the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) 5th Assault Corps. 15 to 20,000 FSA either joined willingly or have been forced to join, they’re the cannon fodder that will be sent into battle first.
Its about fuckin time. Jeeezus Christ! Lets get to finishing these fuckers OFF!
Nothing will probably happen until Russia and Turkey hammer out a deal. And Turkey does not want Idlib to be retaken by Assad. So at best it will be a limited operation to take out the most rabid anti Assad forces like Al Nusra. Or take some more ground to provide a better buffer zone for Khmeimin and Aleppo. Aleppo in particular is vulnerable.