War in Syria - first major successes by Syrian Army - 11/12/2015

Breaking: Syrian Army Enters the Strategic Marj Al-Sultan Airbase in Rural Damascus

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-syrian-army-enters-the-strategic-marj-al-sultan-airbase-in-rural-damascus/

12 November, 2015

Moments ago, the Syrian Arab Army’s 105th Brigade of the Republican Guard – in coordination with the National Defense Forces (NDF) of Damascus City and the Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) – broke-through Jaysh Al-Islam’s (Army of Islam) defenses at the Marj Al-Sultan Military Airbase and reportedly entered this large compound in the East Ghouta (collection of farms) region of the Rif Dimashq Governorate.

According to a military source from the Syrian capital, the Syrian Armed Forces launched an early morning attack on Jaysh Al-Islam’s defenses on the army base located at the western sector of Deir Salman; this resulted in the Republican Guard forces imposing full control over this military installation at the southern perimeter of the Marj Al-Sultan Airbase.

Following the capture of the army base, the Republican Guard and their allies pushed towards the army terrain that is situated to the south of the helicopter fields, capturing half of the area before 8 A.M. (Damascus Time).

Currently, the Republican Guard and their allies are making a push towards the helicopter fields; if they are able to seize this airfield from the Islamist rebels of Jaysh Al-Islam, they will be in position to strike the village of Marj Al-Sultan from its southern flank.

Marj Al-Sultan Military Airbase has been under the control of the Islamist rebels since 2012; it was one of the first military installations that the militants from Jaysh Al-Islam (formerly “Liwaa Al-Islam”) captured during their summer offensive in the East Ghouta.

Syrian Army and Hezbollah Seize the Strategic Rebel Stronghold of Al-Hadher in Southern Aleppo

ISIS Suffers Another Defeat in the Kuweires Countryside as the Syrian Army and Hezbollah Capture ‘Arbeed

This news is from yesterday and the day-before yesterday

Kuweires Defeat Creates Major Issues for ISIS: Supply Route from Raqqa to Aleppo Cutoff

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/kuweires-defeat-creates-major-issues-for-isis-supply-route-from-raqqa-to-aleppo-cutoff/#prettyPhoto

12 November, 2015

The end of the Kuweires Military Airport’s long siege has created a world of problems for the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) inside the Deir Hafer Plains, as their once untouched supply route that stretched from the from the provincial capital of the Aleppo Governorate to the provincial capital of the Al-Raqqa Governorate has been cutoff by the Syrian Armed Forces.

The Kuweries Military Airport is strategically located 8km west of ISIS’ stronghold at Deir Hafer and 17km south of the imperative city of Al-Bab – both of these cities are separated by the Aleppo-Raqqa Highway.

Map showing the cities of Al-Bab and Deir Hafer in the east Aleppo countryside

Deir Hafer is situated along the Aleppo-Raqqa Highway and it provides ISIS a gateway from their capital at Al-Raqqa to the entire eastern Aleppo countryside; without control of this highway, they will have to rely on the season roads that are within range of the Syrian Arab Army’s anti-tank missiles.

Without direct access to Al-Bab from Deir Hafer, ISIS will be forced to find another supply route that will likely take them much longer to travel through, which, in turn, will leave them vulnerable to airstrikes and other militaristic obstacles.

Another obstacle that ISIS faces as a result of this siege ending is the Syrian Army’s presence at the southern countryside of the Al-Bab Plains.

This is a much larger issue than one might assume because the Al-Bab Plains looks firmly under ISIS’ control; however, those small villages to the south of Al-Bab city are very poorly defended because the terrorist group had virtually no one threatening this area.

Now, the Syrian Armed Forces are able to cross the Aleppo-Raqqa Highway to harass ISIS’ poorly defended villages in the Al-Bab Plains and there is not much they can do about it.

Al Jazeera: Free Syrian Army decimated by desertions

http://off-guardian.org/2015/11/11/al-jazeera-free-syrian-army-decimated-by-desertions/

11 November, 2015

Weapons used by the Free Syrian Army are seen at the Seif El Dawla neighbourhood of Syria’s south west city of Aleppo August 23, 2012. Reuters

Al Jazeera reports:

Aleppo, Syria – In 2012, Mohammad Matoh joined the Free Syrian Army. A year later he deserted finding work at a fast-food restaurant in Aleppo.

“Five members of our family were with the FSA. Now two are in Turkey after getting injured and two are still with the FSA,” he told Al Jazeera.

Matoh, 27, recalls other friends leaving as well. One of them, he said, “was forced to leave as a result of the inadequate salary, which was at best 18,000 Syrian pounds [$95] a month”. Matoh himself claims his salary started at only 8,000 Syrian pounds ($36) a month, before rising slightly.

Ahmad Jalal, 21, a field commander in the FSA, admitted that the salaries “can be as low as $50 a month, and sometimes salaries are not paid due to [lack of] support”.

The FSA, once viewed by the international community as a viable alternative to the rule of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has seen its power wane dramatically this year amid widespread desertions.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city where many FSA soldiers are leaving the group, citing inadequate pay, family obligations and poor conditions.

In the past month, Russia’s bombing campaign against Syrian rebel groups and the FSA’s rejection of Russian invitations to participate in negotiations have further weakened it, raising questions about the group’s place in any future settlement.

On Wednesday, reports of a new Russian ‘peace plan’ were revealed. The eight-point proposal cites a constitutional reform process lasting 18 months that would be followed by presidential elections. According to the plan, ‘certain Syrian opposition groups’ should participate in the Vienna talks, expected to take place next Saturday.  […]

US-Turkey Invasion Derailed by Syrian Army Triumph at Kuweires 
By Mike Whitney

Information Clearing House,

November 11, 2015

"Counterpunch" -

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) achieved its greatest victory in the four year-long war on Tuesday when it recaptured the strategic Kuweires military airbase in North Syria. Hundreds of ISIS terrorists were killed in intense fighting while hundreds more were sent fleeing eastward towards Raqqa. The victory was announced just hours after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in an interview with CNN’s  Christiane Amanpour that Turkey would be willing  to invade Syria as long as Washington agreed to provide air support, create a safe zone along the Syrian-Turkish border, and remove Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

Now that Kuweires has been liberated, Davutoğlu will have to reconsider his offer taking into consideration the fact that  Russian warplanes will now be within striking distance of the border while troops and artillery will be positioned in a way that makes crossing into Syria as difficult as possible. The window for Turkish troops to enter Syria unopposed has closed. Any attempt to invade the country now will result in stiff resistance and heavy casualties.

To fully understand the significance of Kuweires, we need take a look at Amanpour’s interview with Davutoglu and see what was being planned. Here’s an excerpt:

Christiane Amanpour:  Would Turkey, under the right conditions, agree to be a ground force?

PM Ahmet Davutoğlu:   “A ground force is something which we have to talk [about] together.  There’s a need of an integrated strategy including air campaign and ground troops. But Turkey alone cannot take all this burden. If there is a coalition and a very well designed integrated strategy, Turkey is ready to take part in all senses.”

C.A.:  Including on the ground?

Davutoğlu:  Yes, of course….We have to solve the Syrian crisis in a comprehensive manner.

C.A.:  So I understand what you’re saying is that the condition for Turkey to be more involved would be an agreement by a coalition to also go after Assad?

Davutoğlu:   Yes, and against all groups and regimes that are creating this vacuum and this problem. On many days we are assisting the coalition in (the fight) against ISIS, but it is not enough. Now we are suggesting to our allies for many months–and now we are suggesting again–to create a safe haven and to push ISIS far away from our borders.

C.A.: So what do you make of the US, Europe and especially Russia saying Assad must and can stay for a period of time?

Davutoğlu:  …..The question is not how long can Assad stay, the question is when and how Assad will go. …What is the solution. The solution is very clear. It is when millions of Syrian refugees are able to return home, assuming there is peace in Syria, then this is the solution. And if Assad stays in power in Damascus,  I don’t think any refugee will go back. There is a need of a step by step strategy, but what is the endgame? What is the light at the end of the tunnel, that is what is important to the refugees.

C.A.:  Why is the Turkish government making it hard for the US government to arm and train and use Kurdish fighters as their ground troops?

Davutoğlu:   (we are not making it hard for the US government to use the) “Kurds”, but the PYD as a wing of the PKK…

There is another Kurdish group, the Peshmerga. We allowed the Peshmerga to go through Turkey to go to Kobani in order to help Kobani to be free. If the US wants to arm Kurdish fighters on the ground against ISIS, we are ready. But not Kurdish terrorists like PKK. If they want to arm and help Barzani, or Peshmerga and help them go to Syria, we are ready to help. But everybody must understand, that today PKK is attacking our cities, our soldiers and our civilians. We will not tolerate any help to any PKK-related groups inside Syria or Iraq. If that happens, Turkey will take all measures to stop it.” (“For refugees to return, Assad must go, says Turkish PM“, CNN)

Let’s recap: Even though the Russian-led coalition is conducting major military operations in Syria, Turkey is willing to invade provided that Washington meet its demands, demands that have never changed and which (we have said in earlier columns) were part of a secret deal for the use of the Incirlik airbase so the USAF could conduct sorties over Syria.

What are Turkey’s demands:

1 A safe zone on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border

2 A no-fly zone over areas where Turkish troops are conducting operations

3 A commitment to remove Assad.

For a while it looked like the Obama administration might abandon their alliance with Turkey and join with the PYD (The Kurds) in their effort to create a buffer zone where they could harbor, arm and train Sunni militants to continue hostilities in Syria. In fact, Obama went so far as to air-drop pallet-loads of weapons and ammo to the Democratic Union Party (PYD) militia just 10 days ago. (Note:  The US has already stopped  all weapons shipments to the PYD) Whether Obama did this to force Turkey into playing a more active role in Syria, we don’t know. But what we do know is that a Turkish-US alliance is more formidable than a PYD-US alliance, which is why Washington is planning to sell out the Kurds to join-forces with Turkey.

Another sign that US-Turkish relations have begun to thaw, is the fact that Obama phoned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to congratulate him on his party’s victory eight days after the election. The delay suggests that they were working out their differences before expressions of support.   Erdogan needed the landslide victory to consolidate his power in Parliament and to persuade the military brass that he has a mandate to carry out his foreign policy.  Obama’s phone call was intended to pave the way for backroom negotiations which would take place during next week’s G-20 meetings in Ankara.  But now that the Russian-led coalition has retaken Kuweires, it is impossible to know how the US and Turkey will proceed. If Putin’s warplanes and artillery are able to seal the border, then Washington will have to scrap its plan for seizing the 60-miles stretch of northern Syria that’s needed to keep vital supplylines to US-backed jihadis open or to provide sanctuary for mercenaries returning from the frontlines.  The changing battlescape will make a safe zone impossible to defend.

The fact is, Kuweires changes everything. ISIS is on the run, the myriad other terrorist organizations are progressively losing ground, Assad is safe in Damascus, the borders will soon be protected, and the US-Turkey plan to invade has effectively been derailed. Barring some extraordinary, unforeseeable catastrophe that could reverse the course of events; it looks like the Russian-led coalition will eventually achieve its objectives and win the war. Washington will have no choice but to return to the bargaining table and make the concessions necessary to end the hostilities.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com.

International Military Review - Syria-Iraq Battlespace, Nov. 12, 2015

And from yesterday

The Tables are Turning: Syrian Army Pushes ISIL Out of Key Areas

The tide is turning in favor of the Syrian Army which began to push ISIL and other jihadist groups away from key areas in Syria, including the crucial Kweiris airbase in the Aleppo province, Dr. Mohammad Marandi, an Iranian political expert on American Studies from the University of Tehran, told Radio Sputnik.

Sputnik,

11 November, 2015

The Kweiris airbase was under ISIL siege for two-years until the Syrian Army supported by Russian airstrikes advanced into the area and cleared it of jihadists, leaving a large number of them dead and wounded in the process.

"This operation went so well, as [ISIL] casualties were very high and they were adamant that the Syrian government wouldn't be able to break the siege at the airbase," Marandi told Radio Sputnik.

The Iranian expert said the success of the Syrian Army wouldn't have been possible without the help of Russian airstrikes in the country.

"The Russian Air Force has played a very important role not just in breaking the siege, but also over the last few weeks across Syria," Marandi said, adding that Russian airstrikes targeted not only ISIL, but also other radical Islamic extremists.

Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah have also played a role in strengthening the Syrian Army, the political expert explained. Iran, for example, sent a number of military advisers to train the Syrian army on the frontline, Marandi said.

For several years since the start of the Syrian conflict the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fought alone against all sorts of Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists, backed by foreign powers, such as the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which provided limitless funds and weapons seeking to overthrow the government of al-Assad.

"Right now, all the advanced weapons that these groups, such as al-Qaeda, have are basically American weapons," Marandi told Radio Sputnik.

The United States and the European Union (EU) tried to portray the Syrian conflict as a sectarian conflict; however, it isn't the case at all. The real situation on the ground shows that the overwhelming majority of Syrians support President Assad and prefer his regime over any other alternatives that the West offered.

And most importantly, Assad's own wife is a Sunni, so how could the current president be against Sunnis, the political analyst explained.

Whether or not peace would come to Syria depends entirely on certain groups in the United States and their desire to stop funding terrorist organizations in the region. If the US government puts pressure on its allies — Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — to stop funding and arming jihadists in Syria the conflict would end, the Iranian expert concluded.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the Syrian Army fighting a number of opposition factions and radical Islamist groups, including Islamic State and the Nusra Front.

Russia has been conducting precision airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria at the request of President Bashar Assad since September 30.

Syrian Army and Hezbollah Sweep Through Southern Aleppo: Islamist Rebels Suffer Massive Defeat

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-army-and-hezbollah-sweep-through-southern-aleppo-islamist-rebels-suffer-massive-defeat/

13 November, 2015

On Thursday morning, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division – in coordination with Hezbollah, the National Defense Forces (NDF) of Aleppo City, the Al-Ba’ath Battalions, and several Iranian and Iraqi paramilitary units – surprised the Islamist rebels from Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham with a powerful assault on the strategic city of Al-Hadher, killing several of the latter’s militants before they imposed full control over this rebel stronghold in southern Aleppo.

According to a battlefield journalist traveling with the SAA’s 4th Mechanized Division in southern Aleppo, the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies broke-through the Islamist rebel defenses around 11:30 A.M. (Damascus Time) and reportedly captured the Al-Hadher National Hospital within minutes of overrunning Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham’s positions.

Following their decisive victory at Al-Hadher, the Syrian Armed Forces and their allies shifted their attention to two different sites in southern Aleppo: Al-‘Eiss and Khirbat Al-Muhal.

With the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division attacking Khirbat Al-Muhal, Hezbollah and the Iraqi/Iranian paramilitary units concentrated on the strategic mountain town of Al-‘Eiss; this had an adverse effect on the Islamist rebel frontlines as they found their forces spread too tin.

The Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Mechanized Division rolled through Khirbat Al-Muhal and Tal Bajjar, seizing these two villages after an intense series of firefights with the Islamist rebels from Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham.

North of the aforementioned villages, Hezbollah and the Iraqi/Iranian paramilitary units attacked Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham’s positions inside Al-‘Eiss; this assault proved too much for the aforementioned rebel group, resulting in their retreat to the town’s outskirts in order to avoid being overrun.

While many activists claimed Al-‘Eiss was fully captured by Hezbollah and the Iranian/Iraqi paramilitary units, a ground source confirmed that there is still ongoing firefights at the town’s western flank – he did, however, confirm that Al-‘Eiss is under fire control.

Unfortunately for the Islamist rebels, the events that took place on Thursday proved very costly as they now face a serious threat along the strategic Aleppo-Damascus Highway, which is also their primary supply route from Idlib to Aleppo.

Much of the Syrian Armed Forces’ success was attributed to the large presence of Iraqi and Iranian fighters, who did most of the fighting inside the strategic town of Al-‘Eiss.

Among the Iranian and Iraqi paramilitary units, the largest groups participating in this attack were the following: Harakat Al-Nujaba (Iraqi), Kata’eb Hezbollah (Iraqi), Liwaa Abu Fadl Al-‘Abbas (Iraqi), and Firqa Fatayyemoun (Iranian/Afghani).