Assad regime forces in northwest Hama Province, northwest Syria
The Russian-regime offensive in northwest Syria has made its first advance in two months.
Enabled by intense Russian airstrikes, regime forces finally captured the hilltop of Tal Malah in northwest Hama Province and then took the nearby village of Jibeen.
The May 6 offensive had failed on several occasions over 50 days to occupy the hilltop, needed to control the road between two regime-held towns. A local source and a rebel commander said fighters withdrew rather than take heavy losses from the Russian strikes.
Syrian State news agency SANA posted photos from the area and said operations against “terrorist organizations” continued. The blog Al Masdar, which relies on claims from the regime military, wrote of “more offensives” and “battles that were put on hold due to the militant capture of Tal Malah and Jibeen”.
The offensive captured several towns and villages in northwest Hama in its first two weeks, but stalled against the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front and the Islamist bloc Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. The anti-Assad forces counter-attacked in June, recovering some of the territory such as Tal Malah and Jibeen, and have carried out further raids taking weapons and inflicting casualties on regime troops.
Meanwhile, Russia and regime bombardment of northern Hama and neighboring Idlib Province — shattering a demilitarized zone declared by Russia and Turkey last September — have killed more than 700 civilians and wounded more than 2,200 people. At least 330,000 of Idlib and northern Hama Province’s 3 million population — about 20% of those remaining in Syria — have been displaced.
#BREAKING: Four people killed and dozens wounded in #MaaratalNuman after regime airstrikes targeted the main shopping area.
Putin and Assad continue their policy of intentionally bombing civilians in #Idlib, Syria.
HD https://t.co/0z3HfN6Yyp English Subtitles pic.twitter.com/ywqGVPqpgR
— TNT (@TNTranslations) July 29, 2019
In the last two weeks, more than 120 people have been killed, including many women and children and several rescuers and medics.
Syria Daily, July 28: Regime Attacks Kill 11 Civilians in Idlib; 3 Medics Slain in Hama
Bollox
“The ‘glorious’ #SAA is trying to storm Kabane in #Latakia mounts: backed by #SyAF and #Russia|n airstrikes, the Syrian Army has sent so far 3 waves of soldiers on those hills in 2 days. So far all the attempts have failed.” – @Kyruer
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A while back I said that if rebels in Latakia want their drones to help them more fending off Assadists they should change/adapt the design of the drones they use in Latakia. Let me explain. The rebels in Latakia are on higher ground (in fact isn’t the highest point in Syria overall?) which means that the drones flown by rebels in Latakia don’t have to fly/take-off at such a high angle like the drones in Hama have to because Latakia is predominantly mountainous the take-off angle can be slightly lower to be able to fly far. Which means that the drones in Latakia can have longer wings then the drones used in Hama which in turn means those ‘long wing’ drones in Latakia can both – A) carry more munitions on them to use against the regime (e.g. see Turkey’s drones and note how long it’s wings are) as their would be more space to carry them on the drone. B) Drones with longer wings can glide more the higher they fly which in turn means rebels don’t have to use the GPS on those drones continuously (e.g. ‘long wings’ drones can use the GPS up until it reaches the Khmeeim airbase where it begins ‘gliding’ till it reaches its target) which in turn makes the Russian ‘drone defense’ system at Khmeeim useless because when ‘long wing’ drones get to Khmeeim and switch off their GPS and begins gliding into regime military aircraft from high altitude the Russians will no longer be able to use ‘electronic jammers’ to bring down those ‘long wing’ drone gliders and would be forced to use their weaponry against them. And guess what? If there’s a whole ‘drone swarm’ (i.e. 40 to 60 drones) of ‘long wing’ drone gliders the regime fighters won’t be able to bring them all down except a few and the ones that get through will cause havoc.
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Also if I were rebels in Latakia right now I’d send somebody over to Afrin to study how the YPG created their tunnels & underground hide-outs because Afrin is as mountainous as Latakia is and once those persons have studied those tunnels/underground headquarters then bring those underground tunnel/bunker ideas to Latakai so rebels in Latakia have a underground base as close as possible to Khmeeim airbase.
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Speaking of drone use I’m going to re-up what I posted here something I posted weeks ago, it’s a comment about rebels drone strategy, see the first post:
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https://eaworldview.com/2019/06/syria-daily-regime-fails-again-hama-northwest-offensive/
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Excerpt from the above link “5) Why aren’t rebels combining their ‘drone swarm’ attacks on regime airbases with ‘behind enemy line’ motorcycle/vehicle raids on regime depots?
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What do I mean? When rebels are sending their drone swarm’ attacks on regime airbases what do you think the Assadists at the airbases do when they see those drones? Especially if those rebel drones are followed by rebel MLR attacks? The Assadists hide underground. When the Assadists hide underground during rebel ‘drone swarm’ attack or MLR attack do you think those Assadists will be willing to send troops to depots near the front-line? No.
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So why not launch both those ‘drone swarm’ attacks and MLR attacks on regime airbases on the same day as rebel groups launch motorcycle raids on regime depots round that regime airbase whilst the regime is distracted by those ‘drone swarms’?
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You say number 5 is stupid? Let me do the maths for you – How much 1 rebel drone cost to make? $200. How much does 1 ATGM cost? $5000. If rebels send 100 drones (i.e. ‘drone swarm’) to attack a regime airbase on exactly the same hour as rebel Inghimazi troops attack a regime depot near the regime airbase and capture from the regime 50 ATGMs then guess how much this would benefit? 100 drones = $20,000 cost, 50 ATGMs = $250,000 reward. Now tell me, if you were a businessman and someone told you that for a $20,000 risk you could earn $250,000 are you telling you won’t take that opportunity? An idiot wouldn’t so why not use ‘drone swarms’ to help you in your raids to get you more ATGMs?”
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That said I’m surprise rebels are holding out the way they are right now, it shows either rebels learning or the regime is so dud it needs the Russians to hold it’s hands always in order to fight or maybe it’s both?