On February 25, Turkish-backed militants showcased heavy weapons and equipment which had been seized from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in in the town of al-Nayrab.
Both al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the National Front for Liberation (NFL), which led the attack on al-Nayrab late on February 24, shared photos of the seized weapons and equipment. The attack was backed by Turkey, that provided armament and fire support.
The weapons and equipment seized by the militants included:
- A T-62 and a T-55 battle tanks;
- Four BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs);
- A ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system (SPAAG);
- A GAZ-3308 4×4 utility truck;
- A ZSU-23-2 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon mounted on a GAZ-3308 truck;
- Two bulldozers;
- Five Konkurs and a single Metis-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).
T-62 battle tank
T-55 battle tank
BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled, radar guided anti-aircraft weapon system (SPAAG)
GAZ-3308 4×4 utility truck
ZSU-23-2 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon mounted on a GAZ-3308 truck
Two bulldozers
Five Konkurs and a single Metis-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs)
Ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) failed to hold onto its positions in al-Nayrab in southern Idlib due to poor coordination between its forces there. The army’s elite units were also far away, advancing in the Arba’een Mount.
The militants’ first attempt to capture al-Nayrab, earlier this month, ended up with them and their Turkish backers sustaining catastrophic losses.
The army will likely push to recapture al-Nayrab once it complete its ongoing operation in the Arab’een Mount, Shashabo Mount and the al-Ghab Plains. This could happen within a few days.
yeah yeah the hts also lost 30+ villages in the south… no one gives a sh*t about what you seized stick them launch rockets up your asses
this can be everywhere. so what, normal camelfucker propagande. but i always wonder why SF is promoting this terrorist shit??
They are not promotin anythin , they show cases of war. So what terrorist size gear, this happens in war. In summer 2015 SAA left shitload of gear behind in hasty retreat to fight another day.
Speaking only about the victories of our side creates a false sense of strength and “we can’t do wrong”. Just look at what Americans and Israelis do in their reports: never lost anyone and never made a mistake. Vietnam and Lebanon were a victory.
We learn from our mistakes and set-backs too. These reports are reminders, don’t look at them as promotion of terrorists.
Why do you see the world only in black and white? Why do you asume the SAA is not failable? And that the Jihadis are unable to win? HTS are tough fighters, willing to run into fire and die, opposed to most regular SAA troops that run away in that situation.
The regular SAA troops are still worlds apart in fighting quality from the elite units. Same shit has happend all war long, and it seems it will never change. Only the elites units, trained and build up by Russian, Iranian and Hebollah with air support will turn the Jihadis back, just like since the beginning of the war. Believing only good and claiming bad to be lies is not a sign of either a sane mind, nor of seeing reality as it is.
Hopefully SAA can stand ground in Saraqib meantime
without CAS there lame sitting ducks
the next days will be just BEAUTIFULL to see turkish proxies burning :) :)
yeah hts just captured majariz near saraqib, the saa needs to defend saraqib at full cost !!
Agree
The head-choppers are now bringing in TIP uyghurs from Jish al Sughur to help retake Saraqeb. That’s not ‘strategy’, that’s desperation and lack of enough HTS/NLF head-choppers. And while Turkish armor columns coming across the border are impressive, I don’t see nearly as many supply convoys. These forward armor units need truckloads of rockets, missiles, fuel and food. I don’t see Turkey’s logistics strategy here. This isn’t like supplying a few thousand head-choppers on foot with small arms ammo.
Saraqeb is of no immediate use to the SAA if they don’t also have M4 opened to Latakia. Just like Nayrab, it can be leveled by air and artillery attacks to take it back when the time comes.
The SAA would be putting up a far more fierce defense of Saraqeb if it was the most important strategic point to them right now. It’s not, and the head-choppers are throwing a lot of men/equipment at it to take it back. It’s got to be like shooting fish in a barrel for the RuAF and SyAF as long as the head-choppers are moving in force. Those ‘extra’ forces will eventually leave Saraqeb for other battles, and the SAA can roll over the ‘defenders’ once again.
i hope you’re right im in full panic … however i do think saraqib is more important since they can roll on the m5 and take back maarat numan or go north to aleppo it’s a very high risk gamble …on the bright side the saa just captured 10 more villages a few hours ago in the souther pocket closing to albarra
No way the Syrians or Russians are going to let the head-choppers (or Turks) stay in Saraqib for any length of time. The more I look at it, the more I’m thinking this might be something negotiated between Turkey and Russia, allowing the four Turkish observation posts around Saraqib to be discreetly evacuated. In a few days, the SAA will resume attacks and head-choppers retreat from Sasaquip and Nayrab.
Russia killed a lot of Turks at their Taftanaz Airbase armor/artillery hub yesterday. Erdogan knows Russia is not f’king around here. At the same time, Russia isn’t the U.S. and doesn’t need to needlessly kill Turkish troops simply because it can. Allowing the four observation points to be evacuated without embarrassing the Turks seems like something Russia would do – especially after leveling Turk Central at Taftanaz to impress upon Erdogan that they are fully capable and willing to do the same to the surrounded observation posts.
Agree with everything you say here and above.
After a decade SAA still haven’t got its logistics in order. Why send stuff to the front lines when its not secure? This looks like raw troops were sent to hold the town but retreated without much fighting. Better than staying and dying for sure since turkey was directly supporting the attack but after all this time they should have known such things would happen.
how do we know where and when these pics were taken? just camelfucker-Goebbels stuff…
“Better than staying and dying for sure since turkey was directly supporting the attack but after all this time they should have known such things would happen.”
Ideally the point of a counter attack is to hit the enemy at a point where they don’t expect it to strategic effect. that’s exactly what the rebels …. and it’s what you would expect them to do.
Not every ‘defeat’ is a defeat. What you see as failure I see as a successfully defence of a counter attack.
Rebel forces did not get into the SAA’s rear, they didn’t cut off the M4 highway and the SAA offensive didn’t even slow down. In other words it was a strategic failure and all they got out of it was a few vehicles and small arms.
Maybe you should go help the SAA then. Mr. Grand strategist Khukov no.2 sigh. Immature people
This looks like raw troops were sent to hold the town but retreated without much fighting.
When did Russia ever train the SAA do that? The SAA commanders do not have to act for show or political reasons today. Nayrab is important to the head-choppers, not the SAA. Head-choppers/Turks had to dedicate a lot of men/equipment to ‘retake’ Nayrab – men and equipment that would otherwise have rushed south to repel those SAA attacks. The SAA would have only used minimal, but well-trained troops to put up a credible defense of Nayrab. You’ll notice the head-choppers didn’t immediately publish dozens of pictures of dead ‘raw SAA troops’ – because there were none. Fortifying Nayrab against the SAA is useless, like all the little villages on the plain. You just go around and besiege them, or level them with aircraft and artillery.
“Why send stuff to the front lines when its not secure?”
Mostly to kill the enemy. You ‘retreat’ leaving behind rigged ammunition for the head-choppers to scavenge and broken-down equipment for them to fix. Example:
“…Five Konkurs and a single Metis-M anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs)…”
The first one they use will take out the trained head-chopper Konkurs operator, launcher and anyone in the vicinity and give away the firing position. That’s worth a few sacrificial Konkurs rockets to the SAA. In the heat of battle, the head-choppers won’t suspect rigged missiles and think it was just an SAA strike. With any luck, a couple of other head-chopper Konkurs and a Metis-M operators will also suffer the same fate. A disciplined army assumes captured enemy munitions are rigged regardless of their looks or packaging and destroys all of them. Head-choppers are a scrounger army – they blow themselves up for you.
“…Two bulldozers…BMP-1…Shilka…”
Inoperable (or transport truck inoperable), and were any of those really SAA, or just old head-chopper stuff?
Those are also so easy to rig that a caveman could do it. Disconnect battery. Hide a head-chopper-eliminating amount of military explosives somewhere relatively inaccessible. Connect detonator to electrical system. Later, head-chopper ‘mechanic’ is delighted to find that the Shilka or whatever probably just needs the battery reconnected. Easy fix! Boom…
You have to wonder if that equipment was really something SAA brought in with them or if it was just old captured junk the head-choppers had there already. The SAA was in town for one day, I’m sure they didn’t bring all that with them and didn’t make it a priority to steal everything in sight when they had just taken the village. If their tactical retreat from Nayrab was planned, then they would have at least been sure to permanently disable this equipment whether it was theirs or the head-choppers.
I would prefer that SAA was purposefully leaving behind sabotaged equipment to cause injuries and tie up resources, but is there any hard proof of this happening here on a widespread basis? When we see SAA holding forces commonly running away unarmed from outnumbered HTS assault teams, I cant help but assume they are some of the lowest-confidence troops on the field.
SAA soldiers didn’t run away unarmed – someone just posted a video showing something like that and said it was the SAA in Nayrab from yesterday. Why just take a video? Shouldn’t the head-chopper filming that be running after such easy prey? And running away unarmed during daylight? What’s the point of that? They would be executed by HTS or taken prisoner by the SAA. I think I would want to keep my rifle with me if I was deserting with a bunch of other guys.
I like your comments but when you start excusing incompetence I turn it off.. Lots of brave syrians but if they behave like arabs.. who run away when the going gets tough, thats just being arab.. The british and ottomans have trained them that way. Arabs like any colony can not do anything without officers. This way of thinking takes generations to overcome but it seems its still difficult multiple generations down the line because the bureaucracy has not changed.
Mostly wishful thinking on my part, igybundy – I know as much as anyone else about the situation. I hope the influence of Russian training for all these years means the SAA wouldn’t post unmotivated conscripts with no leaders in a place like Nayrab or Saraqib – the gateway to Idlib city. And do that while moving the strongest units far away to the south, leaving the stay-behind guards without any armor or SF backing.
The RuAF can’t be expected to protect a weak front line from the air while simultaneously proving close air support for the ground assault campaigns and taking out other Idlib targets.
The RuAF commanders should be picking out the highest-value and most dangerous targets. It seems (to me) like the SAA intentionally repelled the expected first few counter-attacks on Nayrab or Saraqib, encouraging the head-choppers and Turks to bring their best-trained forces. The towns are depopulated. If there’s not SAA there, then anything moving is part of the better-trained head-chopper force. So: Drone surveillance. Targets of opportunity. Fuel-air explosives. Easier to eliminate them with a FAB-500 than pick them off one-by-one in urban combat.
But to your point, this could just be historic Arab army incompetence. The entire SAA is not just the Tiger Forces and 4th AD, and there’s a long front to protect. The Turk drones can see what’s going on in Nayrab and Saraqib. Maybe the SAA guys did run away unarmed. To me, that’s hard to believe considering the location and recent performance of SAA units. Maybe that is all just Tigers and 4th AD – I don’t know.
The situation is critical . SAA try to capture southern idlib and moving north at the same time Terrorist concentrate to capture Saraqib . best scenario is SAA able to hold saraqib and the army from south come to save the day . worst is saraqib fall and SAA have to recapture it (this time easier because attack from east & south )
I think the main weapons supplier to terrorist is not Turkey..is SAA useless concripts!…terrorist have ATGM and T-90!…
Nobody sends so many arms for nothing. It should be taken more seriously and not mocking Erdogan all the time and talking about mighty SAA. It looks they are going to take Saraqib even these evening. And if Russians can make serious damage to their armour from the air….so why don’t they?
SAA and allies need to strengthen Saraqib/Idlib axis for defense and future counterattacks.
Did they just run away and leave all this equipment ? It looks like SAA troops preparation and spirit are really far away from Hezbolah-Russia-Iran troops preparation and spirit ( I remember Palmira).
I hope to be wrong in this.
This is why it’s worth pointing out that the SAA holding forces are rarely, if ever, using a “feigned retreat” tactic. SAA holding forces (not to be confused with SAA assault forces) are typically low-morale, low-confidence, ill-disciplined conscripts that melt away when HTS makes a committed assault. There’s no reason why the munitions stores can’t be hastily spiked before retreat, at least, but theyre too busy routing, often dropping their rifles even before running.
What, are you embedded with the SAA in Idlib to know all this. Sigh.
Just look at the results and make a logical deduction. SAA holding forces left behind a T-90 today outside of Saraqib, which was promptly captured by Turkler. Does that sound like a feigned retreat to you?
Add 1 T-72 and 1 T-90 capured in Afes today…SAA is serious in arming its enemies.
Add a T-55 to that list.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19d2d6853a158c5fe11bed77fd9433b84330183cd4b7d865f26380caa77ad5dc.jpg
wow what a catch.. wiuld fetch at leats $10,000 in instanbull..
They too will be destroyed promptly.
Like a few MBT’s are going to change the dynamics of what is going on in Idlib. Whenever the HTS and its allies make a move, then swoops in death from above, the mopping up on the ground. It’s called ‘ Kar Far ‘ or ‘ Hit and Run ‘ – feign retreat.
Weapons can be replaced, men can’t. The RuASF and SAA can and may just destroy that equipped thro’ artillery and /or air strikes, BUT its much more important to kill every mutha-fucka Terrorists shit bags they can………..the enemy materiel is secondary.
Was there any air support by Syrian or Russian air forces during this episode?
Looks like none. All I can think is that Putin agreed with Erdogan to put a hold on any further Russian Air Force attacks on Turkish military on the ground pending talks between the sides
Can someone please tell me what Russia and SAA are playing by letting the Turks move towards the strategic city of Saraqib while they conquer other not-so-strategic regions in Idib?
Russian, Syrian jets unleash flurry of strikes over east Idlib to stop Turkish-backed Offensive 2020-02-26 BEIRUT, LEBANON (6:15 P.M.) – The Russian Air Force has joined their Syrian partners in an attempt to stop the ongoing Turkish-backed offensive in eastern Idlib this evening. According to the latest field report from the Idlib Governorate, Russian and Syrian warplanes unleashed a flurry of strikes over eastern Idlib, mostly targeting the Turkish-backed militants and their jihadist allies in and around the towns of Afis and Nayrab. The report said Russian warplanes have mostly concentrated their strikes on the jihadist rebels that have gathered near Saraqib, as they prepare to launch another push seize this strategic city along the Aleppo-Damascus Highway (M-5)
This is bound to happen. Look at the effort it took to take it. Tactical retreats are common. A game of back and forth. I would not consider this a victory for the turks, not at all. This could be a TRAP too. They are getting sucked into a fight with little gains. On the other hand, the SAA is ………… The key is to cut off the militants as planned, and bomb the crap out of them in this area. Strengthen the line and hope the Turks do not really get involved.
Many SAA soldiers are very poor fighter, that’s why SAA losing so much military hardware, but also losing territory. That’s why the war still going on in Syria. SAA without Russia support will be finish
It looks like to me that Putin agreed with Erdogan to put a hold on any further Russian Air Force attacks on Turkish military on the ground pending talks between the sides but it seems that that forbearance by Russia was exploited by HTS acting together with Turkish Army to retake the town despite the horrific losses sustained by them when losing the town less than one week ago. They are now in prime position for an attack on Saraqib and so Russia and Syrian Air Forces need to pull their fingers from wherever they’ve been resting and attack these MotherFugggers showing no mercy until they’ve been driven back to Idlib and beyond. I understand why Syrian Forces have concentrated on shortening the line across south Idlib over the past few days, with considerable success but that should NOT have enabled the Turks & HTS to counter-attack and re-take Nayrab with the consequences now to be seen in the photographs.
Were is the drones and Syria airforce when Nairab fall.How do a military man leave his tank fire arm and flee.Stop concentrating on lots of Turkey truck or convoy.Used manpads.Were is the land mines.War doesn’t have rules.
the jihadists cut M5.
Leaving behind equipment could also have the reason , broke down engine- gearbox etc,so then HTS cant use them anyway
Why don’t they have some self-destruct button after a few hours ?.
great ‘info’ provided by Turkey obviously. they knew were to strike,.
Where’s that T-90 they were bragging about?
Looks like they did expect this type of attack coming..