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Thread: SYRIA thread

  1. #361

    Default Re: Syria

    Iraq is also still having an ISIS problem:

    Wooooo!!!

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  2. #362
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Well that was really terrifying. They are so calm, I don't think I could be of any use when stressed so much I am a total wuss and I know it

    edit, kudos for the reporter as well, going in when you know what could happen to you
    Last edited by Fragony; 05-18-2017 at 05:20.

  3. #363

    Default Re: Syria

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...omb-Mosul.html

    Iraqi soldiers have built some serious steel over the years.

  4. #364

    Default Re: Syria

    The Iraqi government is pushing to declare victory by the holy month of Ramadan, expected to begin on May 27, even if pockets of resistance remain in the Old City, according to military commanders.
    There have always been elements of "steel" in the Iraqi armed forces - among the insurgents as well - but old-fashioned political meddling will overcome.
    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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  5. #365
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
    There have always been elements of "steel" in the Iraqi armed forces - among the insurgents as well - but old-fashioned political meddling will overcome.
    And how exactly do you see that working favourably, without knowing all that much about the situation I find what you said pretty stupid

  6. #366

    Default Re: Syria

    Quote Originally Posted by Fragony View Post
    And how exactly do you see that working favourably, without knowing all that much about the situation I find what you said pretty stupid
    If you think I was saying that political interference will benefit military affairs, you misunderstood me.
    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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  7. #367
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
    If you think I was saying that political interference will benefit military affairs, you misunderstood me.
    I am sorry I said what I said you didn't deserve it. Overreaction from me, apoligies

  8. #368
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    So now that Trump has bombed the Syrians twice, I wonder how all these far-right partisans, who idolised Assad and Trump, while they were disgusted at FSA, feel.
    Has their hero betrayed them? Is SAA Islamist, too?

    Do they try to rationalise the fact that the objects of their worship are dishonest or have they accepted their mistake?
    Golden Dawn is very lucky that her fanbase is illiterate or otherwise the disillusionment would be fatal.

  9. #369
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    I am not that type but do I feel stupid in retrospect, yes

  10. #370
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria


  11. #371
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Meanwhile, in Raqqa.

    'Staggering' civilian toll in strikes on IS
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  12. #372
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Quote Originally Posted by Dâriûsh View Post
    We should start praying for Raqqa. I eagerly wait for the time a 7 year old will tweet urging President Putin to initiate WW3, so that we can avoid a second Dresden.
    Last edited by Crandar; 06-14-2017 at 20:10.

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  13. #373
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crandar View Post
    We should start praying for Raqqa. I eagerly wait for the time a 7 year old will tweet urging President Putin to initiate WW3, so that we can avoid a second Dresden.
    I'm afraid I do not understand that comment. Would you care to elaborate?
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  14. #374
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dâriûsh View Post
    I'm afraid I do not understand that comment. Would you care to elaborate?
    It's a reference to the Bana Alabed controversy. When Eastern Aleppo was about to be liberated, the Qatari-sponsored activists had gone amok, crying about the second Grozny and the inevitable Rape of Aleppo we are still waiting for. They had even found a girl with hipster glasses. It was hysterical.

  15. #375
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Quote Originally Posted by Crandar View Post
    It's a reference to the Bana Alabed controversy. When Eastern Aleppo was about to be liberated, the Qatari-sponsored activists had gone amok, crying about the second Grozny and the inevitable Rape of Aleppo we are still waiting for. They had even found a girl with hipster glasses. It was hysterical.
    I fail to see anything hysterical about the destruction in Aleppo. Do you deny that government (and their allies) and rebel forces (an their allies) destroyed the city and killed thousands?
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  16. #376
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dâriûsh View Post
    I fail to see anything hysterical about the destruction in Aleppo. Do you deny that government (and their allies) and rebel forces (an their allies) destroyed the city and killed thousands?
    Yes, of course. There was one single, unverified report about a massacre following the liberation of the eastern half and another one, about a mass killing of over a hundred Syrian Army POWs by the rebels
    .
    Generally, the pro-opposition SOHR, which has a history of attributing rebel massacres to government, reported that 465 civilians were killed by the government and 149 by the rebels, in Western Aleppo, which didn't exist in Western media.
    https://www.dawn.com/news/1302622/hu...ed-from-aleppo
    There is always the chance that the rebels are indirectly responsible for a portion of the 465 dead, by stopping civilians to run away, in order to use them as human shields.
    Last edited by Crandar; 06-15-2017 at 13:33.

  17. #377
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    To address one of your earlier statements, being an anti-government activist does not automatically mean you are bought by the Gulf. Likewise not all activists on the government side are stooges for the regime.

    Anyway, we may be arguing about two different points. I agree that the statements about genocide and holocaust and such hyperbole was out of proportion. I understand why, though, as I guess proportion gets muddy when you are stuck in a warzone and shelled by all sides. The brutality of the Syrian government is well documented. Unfortunately the rebel crimes less so (at least in the West).

    Aleppo has suffered enormous damage, I doubt anyone can deny that. We may never know what happened in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Aleppo, but the time up until its fall was stained with blood and having your family blown apart by government/Russian/rebel high explosives is still a massacre.
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

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  18. #378
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    I don't disagree with anything you said.
    Qatar was a reference to Charles Lister, one of the most vocal advocates of war, and the fact that the first contact of Bana Alabed twitter account was a journalist from al-Jazeera.

  19. #379
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Crandar View Post
    I don't disagree with anything you said.
    Qatar was a reference to Charles Lister, one of the most vocal advocates of war, and the fact that the first contact of Bana Alabed twitter account was a journalist from al-Jazeera.
    Indeed. Qatar is heavily involved in Syria. This of course makes the current Saudi campaign borderline hilarious for its copious amounts of hypocrisy. But still. The regime of Qatar has as much Syrian blood on its hands as the regime of Iran, and so on.
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  20. #380
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Russia claims to have killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

    Pictured: the next Caliph in line

    Click image for larger version. 

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    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  21. #381
    Headless Senior Member Pannonian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dâriûsh View Post
    Russia claims to have killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

    Pictured: the next Caliph in line

    Click image for larger version. 

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    And in their next statement, ISIS vows vengeance on Britain and France for this outrage.

  22. #382
    Intifadah Member Dâriûsh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
    And in their next statement, ISIS vows vengeance on Britain and France for this outrage.
    Possibly. But if they play it smart, they should just take credit for this as well!

    Quote Originally Posted by Islamic State™
    With God's grace and support, a soldier of the Khilafah managed to hijack a Russian bomber and launch explosive devices upon the dear leader, in revenge for his inability to dunk at the annual IS basketball tournament, and in response to his transgressions against the basketball-pride of the Muslims. All praises due to God.
    "The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr."


    I only defended myself and the honor of my family” - Nazanin

  23. #383

    Default Re: Syria

    Looks like Old Mosul is become numbered among the lost Old Cities of Central and Eastern Europe.

    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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  24. #384
    master of the pwniverse Member Fragony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Great more 'refugees'. Leftist intellectolocos know, for a fact, that defeated IS travelers need a hug house and breakfast. Let these Kurdish revenge-crew women handle this, women are more unforgiving, just what's needed
    Last edited by Fragony; 07-12-2017 at 12:33.

  25. #385
    Headless Senior Member Pannonian's Avatar
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    No more admissions of refugees. We're not legally obliged under international law.

  26. #386

    Default Re: Syria

    I haven't found anything more of interest on this in the past couple weeks, so I'll mark a controversy around the end of the Battle of Raqqa.

    The details: SDF Kurdish and Arab forces negotiated a deal (with US leadership deferring to the wishes of the ground forces) allowing several hundred fighters (~250), including at least some foreigners, to evacuate the city in a very large motorized convoy. The fighters took with them a weapons cache and 3,500 civilians, mostly hostages, sex slaves, and children. Coalition aircraft monitored the convoy's progress for some time but did not interfere.

    The BBC called it a "dirty secret". OTOH The Region pointed out that the agreement was publicized for weeks ahead of time.

    Now, I assume (as others have) that the premise of this deal was to avoid further costly siege warfare, and spare civilians from violence. Indeed, this tactic appears to have been relied upon by all major state factions in the conflict. It was employed a few months ago near the Lebanese border by Syria/Russia and Lebanon/Hezbollah. In that case though, the US forces expressed consternation at the deal (which stipulated the convoy move from SW Syria to the SE border near Deir Ez-Zor) and harried the convoy with air attacks targeting individual combatants and vehicles.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qalamo...93August_2017)
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/w...convoy-us.html

    A little earlier than that, the US Coalition secured a similar deal in the Battle of Tabqa (Dam), perhaps to prevent the IS rearguard or Coalition artillery from damaging the dam structure or mechanism. The Coalition also harried escaping IS convoys and units in this case.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tabqa_(2017)


    This article on Russia Insider is critical of the US mission in the region but notes:

    So if anything Americans should be congratulated here for beginning to understand it doesn’t pay to break safe passage deals, or to corner an enemy in a heavily-built up area, with no escape routes, but plenty of hostages. Congratulations cowboys!
    The reality however, is that not forcing your enemy to fight to the last man in a urban setting is just the smart way to fight. In fact, the Syrian army has made the greatest number of such deals, including with ISIS.
    Recall that over 5,000 al-Qaeda and allied rebel fighters and family members were bused out from encircled eastern Aleppo in December, 2016 in the biggest evacuation deal of the war.
    Yet, when its Kurdish proxies allow ISIS to retreat in a similar fashion the US says nothing, and its bombers stay grounded. That’s understandable. While the US-Kurdish forces were bogged down in the fighting for Raqqa, the Syrian army was making good progress in the race for the Euphrates.

    To get back in the race the US-augmented Kurdish militias had to wrap up Raqqa quickly. But it doesn’t make it any less hypocritical.



    What it does demonstrate is the futility of the "destroy IS" narrative. It would never be possible to destroy a movement this extensive by military means. At this point the obvious way forward for the elite, battle-hardened IS survivors is to largely disperse to hotzones around the world and lend their tradecraft and experience to regional jihadist movements. In the meantime, the ever-present Al Qaeda networks will continue to infiltrate the power vacuum and realize their long-term strategies between the Tigris and the Nile.

    That mosque attack on Sinai Sufis, by the way, is just one milestone in Egypt's collapsing security situation.

    Fun fact: the mosque attack killed a fifth of the town's male population.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 12-04-2017 at 01:34.
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  27. #387
    Member Member Crandar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    Initially, it was claimed that no foreigner was allowed to exit Raqqa, but that obviously a lie, as BBC suggests.
    It didn't happen in order to spare civilian lives and buildings (which were already destroyed).

    The SDF had trouble advancing forward, despite extensive air-support and they also needed to rush to the south, before the Syrian army captured the entire region.
    A ceasefire was necessary for strategic purposes.

  28. #388

    Default Re: Syria

    An old video.. I didn't that there were people like him.

    Wooooo!!!

  29. #389
    Darkside Medic Senior Member rory_20_uk's Avatar
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    Default Re: Syria

    For the forseeable future, there will be people who want to fight against "the man". It's not a new thing - we used to have Anarchists in Europe and the USA and they even killed the President of the USA. And Communists. And so on.

    Having an arena where they can be drawn out to fight and - crucially - die is the best way of limiting the impact. If there is no foreign war they're more likely to start local terrorist acts. If the foreign war is being lost those there return and no more will join them.

    Yes, probably somewhat 1984-ish, but alongside all other methods of trying to sort out the problem, getting the most committed, extreme, violent ones to leave our societies to die for their beliefs is an acceptable solution.

    An enemy that wishes to die for their country is the best sort to face - you both have the same aim in mind.
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  30. #390

    Default Re: Syria

    See?

    Thousands of ISIS Fighters Flee in Syria, Many to Fight Another Day

    Gen. Paul J. Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters last week that the remaining Islamic State leadership, even while on the run, still had “fairly robust” communications with its shadowy network of fighters now on the lam.

    [...]

    Estimates of how many fighters may have escaped into the deserts of Syria or Iraq and beyond are difficult to pin down, but American and other Western intelligence and counterterrorism analysts with access to classified assessments put the number in the low thousands. Many are traveling with spouses and children who are likely to have been radicalized during more than three years of Islamic State control of the region and could pose security risks as well, analysts say.

    [...]

    Some 40,000 fighters from more than 120 countries poured into the battles in Syria and Iraq over the past four years, American and other Western officials say. While thousands died on the battlefield, officials say many thousands more probably survived to slip away to conflicts in Libya, Yemen or the Philippines, or have gone into hiding in countries like Turkey. About 295 Americans are believed to have traveled to Iraq or Syria, or tried to, American officials said.

    Of more than 5,000 Europeans who joined those ranks, as many as 1,500 have returned home, including many women and children, and most of the rest are dead or still fighting[...] But the new assessments, bolstered by reports from analysts and smugglers in the region, suggest that Islamic State fighters are fleeing to more hospitable parts of Syria and Iraq, or to third countries where they can lie low.
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    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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