ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Jura said:

I'll quickly use "miladvisor" map I posted about one week ago
Thursday at 5:53 PM
https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/is...no-oped-no-policis.t6913/page-377#post-401087
of Southern Aleppo area, as the Government Forces have been under attack(s) for two days now (that seems to be confirmed by videos), counterattacking (? this depends on the source one reads approximately in the red rectangle I added:

...

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Jura said:

... I don't have time for Iraq, so ...

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Jura said:

... how the situation in let's say east-from-Damascus part of Syria looked like yesterday (ACCORDING TO A SOURCE I DON'T KNOW):

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RuAF
Targets a number of ISIS positions, infrastructure and vehicles at the Tabqah Military Airport

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Updated 0050 GMT (0850 HKT) June 18, 2016

Russian warplanes bombed U.S. backed Syrian rebels near the Jordanian border, Pentagon officials say, causing the U.S. to divert armed aircraft to the scene of the strike.
The strikes, which the U.S. says killed some New Syrian Army troops, occurred about six miles from the Jordanian border, according to a U.S. defense official. The U.S. diverted armed FA-18s to the area after the first round of two strikes, and the pilots then tried to call the Russians on a previously agreed-upon pilot-to-pilot communications channel but did not receive an answer.
As soon as the U.S. jets left the area to refuel, the Russians came back for another round of bombing, the defense official said.
"Russian aircraft conducted a series of airstrikes near al-Tanf against Syrian counter-ISIL forces that included individuals who have received U.S. support. Russian aircraft have not been active in this area of Southern Syria for some time, and there were no Syrian regime or Russian ground forces in the vicinity," a senior defense official said. "Russia's latest actions raise serious concern about Russian intentions. We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again."
The first two bombing runs by the Russians were carried out by two SU-24 Russian jets coming out of their base near Latakia. The jets dropped what is believed to be the equivalent of U.S. 500-pound bombs and possibly cluster munitions, according to the U.S. defense official.
Asked about the strikes Friday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said it raised questions about whether the Russians were actually in Syria to fight Islamic extremists.
"Here's a case where they actually attacked forces that were fighting ISIL. And if that was their intention, that's the opposite of what they said they were going to do," Carter said. "If not, then it says something about the quality of the information upon which they make airstrikes."
U.S. and Russian forces in Syria have had tense relations since the country devolved into civil war. The U.S. has backed rebel groups while the Russians have supported Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

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  , Istanbul

17 June 2016 • 6:38pm


Russian warplanes bombed an elite force of US-trained Syrian rebels on Thursday in an attack apparently aimed at weakening the group’s ability to fight Isil.

The New Syrian Army (NSA), which

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, said their base had been struck with cluster bombs.

The strike left two people dead and another 18 injured, appearing to incapacitate at least half of the force and drawing a furious reaction from Washington.
"Russia's latest actions raise serious concern about Russian intentions," a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We will seek an explanation from Russia on why it took this action and assurances this will not happen again. "

The attack took place in al-Tanf, a southeastern village near the Jordanian and Iraqi border that the NSA recaptured from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in May last year.

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in the fight against Isil has faced scathing criticism for being ill-conceived and largely ineffectual.

But experts say the NSA stands out as a rare success story - and it was slated to lead a crucial assault to split the extremist group’s so-called caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq.

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Monitors say there is no known jihadist presence around al-Tanf.

The direct assault on one of Washington’s most important anti-Isil proxies will further shake the frail relationship of convenience that has developed between the US and Russia as both sides try to bring an end to

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.

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Khaled al-Hammad, one of the grop’s founders, said on Friday that the al-Tanf base had only housed around 30 fighters before the attack, which killed two and wounded 18. Asking why the US had not come to the unit’s aid in their hour of need.

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It is understood that Washington planned to back the group in the battle to retake al-Bukamal, a strategically vital border town connecting Isil’s territory in Iraq and Syria. The unit has the potential to win support there because its members are largely drawn from an umbrella fighting group in the nearby province of Deir Ezzor, now an Isil stronghold.

"Militarily this is critical to beating Isil in Syria,” said Faysal al-Itani, an expert on south Syrian rebel groups and a fellow with the Atlantic Council.

But the NSA was already embattled, even before the Russian attack and its fighters complain they are not receiving the support they were promised from the West. In April, 11 of their number were killed by an Isil car bomb.

Pleas for US back-up were not answered swiftly enough to end a follow-up attack. British troops later crossed into Syria from Jordan to help rebuild the group’s shattered defences.

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Jura said:

the page which collects videos of Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided missiles used against them:

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as you can imagine, some scenes are gruesome (it even asked me to confirm my age after I had entered it for the first time)

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delft said:

Bizarrrre:

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..., one of Washington’s most important anti-Isil proxies, ... Doesn't this journalist reread what he has written?

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Jura said:

... if I find news from

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, I'm going to post

...

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Jura said:

... and now saw two pro-Government Twitter accounts saying not just Zaytan and Khalasah (in the red rectangle above), but also Birnah had been lost yesterday, which is not indicated in the most recent "miladvisor" map though: ...

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(it's

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)​