PHOTO: Rebel armored vehicle on the front southwest of Aleppo city (Reuters)


LATEST


Jump to Original Entry


UPDATE 1800 GMT: The lead blogger of the pro-Assad site Al-Masdar, Leith Fadel, is finally admitting that the Syrian military and its allies have failed again to take any part of the artillery base on the front southwest of Aleppo:

Fadel is still sticking to the unsupported declaration that the pro-Assad forces hold the adjacent air force college.

Rebels hit an armored vehicle at the air force college with an anti-tank guided missile:


UPDATE 0800 GMT: A writer for the pro-Assad site Al-Masdar continues the spread of false claims:

In fact, the supposed counter-attack by the Syrian military — which Al-Masdar has been building up even as rebels took more territory — has not come close to regaining a single village, let alone a town.

And even the site does not support Antonopoulos’ proclamation: it only claims that pro-Assad forces, led by the “elite Tiger Forces” militia, are attacking the town of Taibat al-Imam.

Rebels captured Taibat al-Imam earlier this week and have subsequently taken the nearby town of Souran and the large village of Maardas.

Without directly referring to a defeat, State news agency SANA implicitly acknowledged the loss of territory this morning with an entry about regime bombing of areas such as Maardas, Souran, and the village of Zalaqiat.

There are reports this morning of a renewed battle for Maardas as the Syrian military and its allies try to fight back after Thursday’s defeat.

Artur Rosinski’s map:

NORTHERN HAMA 02-09-16 REVISE


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Facing a potentially-critical situation amid a rebel offensive in northwest Syria, President Assad’s supporters have made up a “victory” near the city of Aleppo.

Pro-regime outlets proclaimed throughout Wednesday and Thursday that the Syrian military and foreign allies had taken an air force college and part of an artillery base, both captured by rebels in early August amid a major offensive that broke the pro-Assad siege of Aleppo city. Photographs and videos claimed to show the pro-Assad troops occupying buildings.

The images had a limited and out-of-date truth. After repeated attempts over the past three weeks, the pro-Assad fighters had finally breached a first line of defense at the air force college. However, they were soon forced to abandon a group of buildings as they faced heavy casualties. A rebel source explained that the area is now a “no-man’s land” amid the destroyed buildings.

The claims of a success at the artillery base — where the Syrian military and its allies have thrown wave after wave of fighters and armor for weeks, only to lose many men — had even less substance. Local sources said the pattern was repeated on Thursday, with the pro-Assad forces charging but being repelled.

One pro-Assad site Al-Masdar led the proclamations of victory on Thursday. However, this morning it writes, “The Syrian Armed Forces and Hezbollah are attempting to bypass Jaish al-Fatah’s first-line of defense at the Armament School; however, no progress has been reported so far.”

On Wednesday, Assad supporters had also spread inaccurate claims of success in an offensive south and west of Aleppo city. In the end, pro-Assad forces only held the Mahruqat hill after rebel counter-attacks, with fighting continuing in the village of Amariyah.

The Russian outlet South Front’s presentation of the false reports:

Artur Rosinski’s map:

NORTH ALEPPO 02-09-16

Assad supporters are in need of a morale boost amid not only the rebel success southwest of Aleppo but now because of the potentially-vital advance of rebels in adjacent Hama Province. Within five days, the rebel forces have taken a series of towns and villages across a front in northern Hama, establishing a position which could separate the pro-Assad units in Aleppo and Hama.

On Thursday, rebels captured another large village, Maardas, closing on the heavily-fortified village of Ma’an and attacking the strategic Mount Zain al-Abedine.

The rebels have closed within 10 km (6 miles) of Hama city. For now, an assault is unlikely, as rebels try to consolidate their lines. However, the turn of events has further dented the regime’s line — propped up by Russian airstrikes and large numbers of Iranian, Hezbollah, and Iranian-led fighters — that it can defeat the rebellion in the northwest.

Instead, the prospect — accompanied by another rebel advance, this one supported by Turkey against both the Islamic State and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northern Aleppo Province — is of a de facto partition of the country.


2nd Iranian Revolutionary Guards Killed Within Days

Another Iranian Revolutionary Guards General, Doroush Dorosti, has been killed by rebels.

Dorosti is the first named high-level Iranian casualty in the rebel offensive in northern Hama Province.

Brigadier General Ahmad Gholami was killed earlier this week on the front southwest of Aleppo.

Iran, which has sharply escalated its ground involvement since last autumn and now holds some regime frontlines, has lost several hundred commanders and troops since October.


Kurds-Led Syrian Democratic Forces Hit by Defections of Arab Units

Three Arab units have defected from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Liwa Thuwar Raqqa and its 250 troops were the largest group to quit the SDF, led by the Kurdish militia.

The Liwa al-Tahrir group left with about 50 fighters, its commander claiming, “We fought with YPG for three years to liberate North #Syria, now they want to end us”.

Reports said Liwa al-Tahrir had joined rebels.

Liwa Ahrar Raqqa and 30 fighters also withdrew.

The presence of the Arab units has been vital politically for the SDF as it moved into mainly-Arab areas into northern Syria this year. However, the advance has reportedly caused strains with claims that the YPG has discriminated against Arab residents.


Rebels Down Regime Helicopter in Northern Hama

Rebels have downed a regime helicopter on the northern Hama front:

The faction Jaish al-Izza claimed the downing of the Gazelle helicopter, whose two pilots were killed. Unconfirmed rumors said that Colonel Suheil al-Hassan, the commander of the Tiger Forces militia, was aboard.


Media Activist Killed in Aleppo

Media activist Shamel Ahmad has been killed in #Aleppo.

Ahmad died of wounds suffered in a pro-Assad attack on the al-Mashhad section on August 16.

SHAMEL AHMAD


Erdoğan: Kurdish Forces Have Not Retreated East of Euphrates

Countering US claims, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that the Kurdish militia YPG has not retreated east of the Euphrates River, amid a Turkish-supported rebel offensive that has advanced in northern Syria.

Washington said soon after the launch of the offensive on August 24 that the YPG, the military branch of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), had withdrawn from areas such as the city of Manbij, captured from the Islamic State last month.

However, the Turkish and rebel forces have continued to clash with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as they advanced south from Jarablus, the border town captured at the outset of the offensive, to the Sajur River.

The YPG maintains that the remaining SDF units are Arab, but critics said the Kurdish militia has remained under cover of setting up local military committees.

Erdoğan repeated on Friday that the Turkish-backed rebels would battle both the Islamic State and the YPG, which Ankara says is part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK: “Operation Euphrates Shield’s aim is to remove the threat imposed by terror groups at our border. We cannot turn a blind eye to the rocket attacks fired from bordering towns in north Syria into Turkish soil.”


Head of UN Humanitarian Operations Protests, “We Are Neutral”

The head of the UN’s humanitarian operations, Stephen O’Brien, has protested to The Guardian of London over its investigation that found millions of dollars in UN assistance has gone to the Assad regime rather than those in need:

Your articles mischaracterize the UN-led humanitarian operation in Syria, fail to offer a balanced perspective on the challenges of operating in Syria and discredit the courageous work of national and international humanitarian aid workers who risk their lives on a daily basis to help millions of people in need in one of the world’s most vicious conflicts.

The Guardian report found that the UN had paid tens of millions to sanctioned regime agencies, to a blood bank controlled by the Defense Ministry, and to organizations owned and run by President Assad’s wife Asma and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, a business tycoon sanctioned by the European Union.

See Syria Feature: How Assad Regime Received Tens of Millions in UN Aid

O’Brien responds with a justification of the contacts with the regime:

We cannot deprive people of aid because there is pressure to disengage from a party to the conflict. The impartiality of the UN’s humanitarian operations is fundamental to saving lives and our focus is squarely on reaching people in need. To achieve this, we must work with all to reach all.


UN Officials Cling to Hopes of Aleppo Ceasefire

UN officials continue to hope for a temporary ceasefire in Aleppo, despite the battles near the city.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura pointed on Thursday to US-Russian talks which are likely to continue into the weekend, while his humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said there was still the prospect of agreeing a weekly 48-hour truce to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

De Mistura told reporters that military, security and diplomatic officials from the US and Russia resumed talks in Geneva on Wednesday to give a “renewed and solid momentum to the cessation of hostilities”:

The discussions currently taking place between the U.S. and Russia at a very high level and operational level go well beyond the 48-hour pause.

We hope and are helping so that these negotiations, which have lasted too long, may reach an outcome. Time is short.

The discussions of a humanitarian pause have stalled over Russia’s insistence that aid come through the al-Castello Road to the north of the city, which pro-Assad forces — enabled by Russian airstrikes — seized in early July. The Syrian opposition and rebels say that the arrangement would provide for assistance to regime districts in Aleppo city, but would keep opposition neighborhoods hostage.

Rebels have countered with a proposal for aid through the Ramouseh corridor southwest of Aleppo, which they opened in their offensive early this month.

Egeland warned on Thursday:

It’s urgent that we get an agreement. We were informed today that there are now 4,000 food rations left. That would be enough for 20,000 people, and the population of [opposition-held] east Aleppo is a quarter of a million.

“We Failed the People of Darayya”

Egeland also admitted the UN’s failure to deal with the 45-month regime siege of Darayya, which finally surrendered to the Syrian military last week, and said that the organization must act urgently over other threatened towns:

The task force failed the people of Darayya, we all failed the people of Darayya. There are now urgent pleas from communities in al-Waer [in Homs city], Moadamiya, Madaya, and in al-Fu’ah and Kafraya [regime enclaves north of Idlib city] to break the sieges of those places….And we need to break the sieges.”