LATEST: Insurgents Renew Attacks on Besieged Regime Bases in Idlib Province
FRIDAY FEATURE
Video Analysis: Beginner’s Guide to the Islamic State, the Insurgency, and the Assad Regime
Almost two weeks after the Islamic State’s victory at Taqba Airbase, threatening the Assad regime in both northern and eastern Syria, the story has been overtaken by claims that the jihadists executed up to 250 soldiers after the battle.
Supporters of the Islamic State propelled the story on Wednesday, circulating photographs and videos that claimed to show Syrian forces detained in their underwear, interrogated, and then marched to their deaths.
In one clip, a Syrian officer is questioned and told, “Who’s your father? You can’t possibly know who your father is. You’re a bastard.”
Asked why he did not defect from the Syrian army, the officer says he would simply have been conscripted again. The the interrogator replies: “They would have sent you right back to the army? And we’re going to send you right back to hell — by slaughter.”
One video of the march of the men has been removed from YouTube but footage of the moment of their executions and graphic clips of stacks and lines of corpses — one opening with a quick shot of the men on the way to their deaths— are still posted.
Scores of dead are shown in the videos, although there is no way to verify the number of dead. The Assad regime has not admitted to the execution of any of its troops, let alone 250. The Islamic State has claimed large numbers — probably inflated — of executed detainees on other occasions, notably its boast of killing 1,700 Shia members of the Iraqi forces after its capture of Tikrit in June.
It is also unclear when the men were killed and why, if it was soon after the takeover of Tabqa on August 17, the images appeared on Wednesday.
However, important political and military lessons can be drawn from the episode. One is that the Islamic State is not only advancing through Syria but is keen to display its power and intimidate its foes through the claims of the mass killings. The days when its primary propaganda strategy was joyful videos of fun fairs in Aleppo are long gone.
On Thursday, the jihadists also posted a video of the beheading of a Kurdish man in Iraq, and supporters of the Islamic State circulated footage of the beheading of one of 11 Lebanese soldiers being held in Syria after fighting last month in the Lebanese border town of Arsal — a claim supported by photographs of the decapitated body with clothing worn by the soldier.
The other, which we have noted over the past week, is that the Assad regime is in serious trouble in much of Syria — losing all of its bases in Raqqa Province in the north, at risk of isolation in the Islamic State-dominated east, and under attack by insurgents in the center and the southwest.
This is not just a military defeat. The image of political ascendancy and the prospect of “victory”, promoted only weeks ago by the regime, has been rocked by the developments. Even if the President and his media are silent about the mass killing, the story of it will be circulating throughout his country.
And if Assad’s troops as well as his civilians are at risk of violent death, what does that do to his authority?
Insurgents Renew Attacks on Besieged Regime Bases in Idlib Province
Insurgents have renewed their attacks on the regime’s last two major bases in Idlib Province, Wadi ad-Deif and al-Hamidiyah.
The opposition has advanced this summer along a north-south axis from Kafrzita to Afrin to isolate the bases.
Insurgents — including the Islamic Front, Free Syrian Army, Jabhat al-Nusra, and Jabhat Thuwar Souriya — destroyed three armored vehicles and other positions such as the Brick Factory and Mastoomeh with artillery and Grad rockets, further pressing the bases and preventing regime counter-attacks in the direction of Maarat al-Nu’man.
Insurgents burning supplies that Syrian planes tried to drop into the bases:
The regime has responded with bombing of Maarat al-Nu’man:
Insurgents Claim Full Control of Quneitra in Southwest
Insurgents claim they have completed the capture of Quneitra town in southwest Syria, near the Golan Heights and the demilitarized zone with Israel.
Completely liberating #Qunaitirah after liberating the hospital building, the last Assad fort and killing many Assad militiamen
— Islamic Front En (@IslamicFront_En) August 28, 2014
The insurgents held most of the area around Quneitra and took the last border post with the demilitarized zone this week; however, Assad loyalists had been holding out in the town.
Opposition fighters mopping up resistance:
Footage from the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra of its operations:
“Fierce Fighting” in Jobar in Northeast Damascus, Insurgents Blow Up Militia Building
Fierce fighting was reported in Jobar in northeast Damascus on Thursday, with insurgent claiming that they killed many Syrian militia by exploding their building:
The insurgents say they destroyed three tanks and an armored personnel carrier. Opposition fighters also claim they killed Syrian troops as soon as they left the protection of the APCs, with at least 30 soldiers slain:
Footage of insurgents in action:
Both insurgent positions and civilian neighborhoods were hit by Syrian airstrikes and artillery.
State media claimed “units of the armed forces…killed many terrorists and destroyed their weapons and ammunition”.
