On December 10, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Hezbollah launched a military operation in order to clear the desert area in eastern Syria from ISIS. According to pro-government sources, the SAA and Hezbollah liberated about 2,000 km in the area between the T2 pumping station and the city of al-Mayadin during the first day of the operation.
The US-led coalition believes that about 3,000 ISIS members remains in Iraq. If this is true, a notable part of them should hide in the Syrian desert. The liberation of this area will be an important part of the preparations for future anti-terrorist operations of the Iranian-Russian-Syrian alliance in Syria.
Recently, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also resumed their efforts to take control over the border with Iraq sparking clashes with ISIS. According to the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq, members of ISIS captured three positions from the SDF around the village of Hawi Abu Hamam as well as killed 14 members of the SDF and destroyed a Humvee and another vehicle of the SDF. Amaq also claimed that a SDF member was killed by an IED and two others by ISIS snipers south of the Omar oil fields.
ISIS was forced to intensify its operations against the US-backed forces because its members had been locked in the Syrian border area as a result of an advance of the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Units on the Iraqi side of the border.
On December 10, the SAA and the National Defense Forces liberated the village of Zafaria, Tell Boulus, Umm Turaykiyah, Rujm al-Ahmar, Shutayb, Mushayrifah and al-Hawiyah from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) in northeastern Hama. Thus, government troops deployed near the important village of Abu Dali, which is described as a mid-term goal of the SAA advance against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the area.
According to pro-government sources, the Tiger Forces and their commander General Suheil al-Hassan will be the main striking force of the operation. Recently, Al-Hasan was spotted in the town of Khanassir.
Pro-HTS sources report multiple air and artillery strikes on positions of HTS across the entire area west of the Khanassir highway.
On December 8, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced said the situation in Idlib remains “complex” and Iran, Turkey, Russia and Syria are working to launch a de-escalation zone and added “there are no plans with the United States on this specific region” because they would be “counterproductive”. The statement indicates that nobody will take into account opinion of Washington about the so-called moderate rebels if the Syrian-Iranian-Rusian alliance launches a large-scale operation against HTS.
On December 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Russian military airbase of Khmeimim in the province of Latakia and ordered the start of the withdrawall of Russian troops from the country. The president added that if terrorists gain upper hand in the country, Russia will carry out strikes that “they’ve never seen.”
US-Backed terrorists get owned
Putin goes on parade
Syrian mothers cry tears of joy
John McCain cries himself to sleep
The Neocons plan false-flag vengeance
The people are awakening
Crypto is rising
I suck at poetry.
Your poetry is excellent. I savored it like a good port wine.
Facts:
– The SAA only controls 35% of the entire country
– Russia will now limit itself to provide air support and logistics to the Assad regime
– IRGC & Hezbollah now have the entire burden of fighting ISIS, SDF, Daesh, Al-qaeda, etc on their own
– SDF has the support of most of the Arab league members, plus NATO, the US and Israel
The Partial Withdrawal Of Russian Personal From Syria Only means That The Door Is Now Open For Saudi Arabia To Start Its Military Campaign Against Hezbollah And For Israel To Destroy All Iranian Posts Deployed In Syria.
(Caps violate the blog rules and were removed,MOD)
Celebrating (and cheerleading) Putin’s decision is totally out of touch with the realities on the ground in Syria.
Those are not facts, they are opinions…..
, you might recall Russia pulled its troops out before…..
@Gonver: “SDF has the support of most of the Arab league members, plus NATO, the US and Israel”
Choose your partner wisely.
@ govner
What has Russia’s military done so far, in either Ukraine or Syria, that makes you think they are likely to make a major schoolboy blunder at this point?
Try thinking in terms of chess, fencing and bull fighting, not tag wrestling or cage fighting.
Answers on a postcard.
Putin is moving Russian personnel out of the way before General Soleimani opens the doors of hell on the illegal occupation forces lounging in the desert, as promised.
Surprise,surprise !!! ISIS are fighting Evil Empire’s terrorists SDF. Perhaps they finally realised they fought the wrong party and that the true enemy is the Great Satan. Putin trying to save his Jewish brothers asses with his shuttle trips talking about al-Quds not Turkish terrorist in Syria. He’s trying to influence Arabs’ summit on Wednesday. Good piece by James Petra’s on informationclearinghouse.info
Ok, so again, Mr. Putin is withdrawing Russian troops – exactly when these troops are extremely close to the victory in Syria – but not yet victorious.
Could anyone of local professional court apologists be so kind to apply their finely honed skills to rationalise His Majesty’s present move? This uncannily reminds of His profoundly sagacious legendary Snatching Of Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory in February 2015 at Debaltsevo, Novorussia … um … pardon, Ukraine. Oh, c’mon, don’ be shy, “explain” it to us. If you could do it even then, you certainly can do it now.
It is not a secret that, the most important Political and Economical Keys of:
USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Russia, are in the hands of Jewish People.
Theaetetus
You were in Debaltsyevo? Didn’t know that but if you were you may have run in to some folks we know up there. Where were you in that AO?
Fact: Roughly 7,500 orcs were in and around Debaltsyevo and to the north east of Gorlovka, plus around 200 ‘advisors’ from europe and usa.
Fact: Novorossiya Forces never numbered more than 3500 during the entire campaign.
Fact: Novorossiya Armed Forces reluctantly stood down for 24 hours to let these golden pheasants get out. The foreigners were allowed to carry their backpack and personal weapon, nothing else.
Fact: After the stand down, the fight was on. In the end, less than 2,000 orcs made it to safety, most of the rest are fertilizing the fields and forests in the cauldron AO. The deal for the orcs was the same as for the pheasants, your backpack, your personal weapon and your trucks to take you out through the corridor. Everything else, arty, tanks, BTR’s, BMP’s, missile systems, support and logistics systems and materials, was to stay in place. Everything.
As they are wont to do the orcs, after the first two small units successfully evacuated the cauldron to relative safety of the orc lines to the north, decided they would take everything they could with them including untold amounts of stolen civilian goods from the town and environs.
Most didn’t make it and that disaster brought on Minsk 2. Whether or not Minsk Agreements have been enforced is not the point, the point is after the remains of the orc army straggled back to their lines Merkel, Golland and what’s his face from uk went running to Moscow, begging an audience with President Putin. President Putin shoved a poison pill down their collective throats that they will live to regret.
Auslander
Author
Never The Last One http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK A Deep Look In To Russia, Her Culture And Her Armed Forces
An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.
Just as predicted.
All the things you list here are true, 100%, all of them.
You merely omit the mastodon in the room.
The heroic Novorussian fighter were in full swing at the time of Debaltsevo. Following that great victory they were on the threshold of liberating the rest of Novorussia, routing the fleeing fascists – all the way to Kiev! When at that moment … His Mousy Majesty then suddenly intervened – and hurriedly invented Minsk 2 – lest his western partners lost that war … Novorussia … Ukraine … their faces … and got seriously, oh seriously sore at Him. (BTW … was it then when “Time” gratefully published His colour pic under the title “Man Of The Year”?…)
Putin Orders Withdrawal Of Russian Troops From Syria At Khmeimim Airbase.
https://southfront.org/putin-orders-withdrawal-russian-troops-syria-khmeimim-airbase/
It is hard for me to believe that “Iranian Revolution” may stay alive, without Russian Support in the Region.
While Russia is withdrawing America has built up 10 bases, which are ,in effect “Permanent”, because they have never announced any withdrawals and in fact, they have stated, the opposite.
Time will tell whether this venture is a success.
The All Quds forces will likely soon change the calculus for our Dotard-in-Chief and his cadaverous SecDef.
OK since is related to this Saker blog report, I’m posting the following Russia Insider video with clear English subtitles about Pres Putin, in Syria, giving formal orders to his troops for redeployment back to Russia. This is classic Putin, in his own words, with no bs commentary.
I’m really pissed at those slobs at RT for not covering this properly. Doesn’t RT understand that doing a proper translation and replaying the whole sequence through out the day is the only way you get thru to an American audience?
BTW, if someone has already posted on Saker, then I apologize for the redundancy.
The link:
https://youtu.be/pFtCMn3_pPw
Though Withdrawing from Syria, Russia ‘Is Back in the Middle East’
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201712121059916495-putin-announcement-russia-syria-withdrawal/
“”It’s also a reminder to the Americans that at least the majority of the fighting in east Syria against [Daesh] is done,” Sleboda added. “They no longer at least hold any urban areas, at least there the military mission is accomplished. The US no longer has any excuse, not that they ever had any legal remit for their operations in east Syria. But Putin was letting them know that it’s time for them to pack their bags and go home.”
Sterling elaborated on Moscow’s movements: “It’s an indication of an intent. They don’t plan on maintaining a large military force there indefinitely, but they can come back if needed. The fact is that Russia is not very far from Syria, only about 600 miles from Sochi, their air base. It’s not very hard for the Russian Air Force to move at least some of their airplanes and pilots and so forth up into southern Russia, and if needed they can still be called into duty in Syria.”
Qatar, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, they’re all now looking to Russia because Russia has showed the willpower, resolve, and capability to back up military force with hard diplomacy and achieve results in the Middle East — something that the US and all of their regime change and intervention has not shown anything with anywhere near so positive a result.”
“So Russia is back in the Middle East. They’re not leaving Syria, they have no intentions of leaving Syria.”
The Russians have maintained the minimal forces necessary in Syria to support the Syrian government. Right now they have more fighting assets there than needed. So what we will see is fighting elements withdrawn and more effort placed on “after the battle” forces, such as demining, medical, logistics and infrastructure rebuilding forces. The intelligence, training and tech support people will likely remain more or less as they are now.
You’re kidding. America doesn’t “pack their bags and go home”. They must be driven out.
Yeah, right.
His Majesty keeps “ordering military withdrawal from Syria” once every 10 to 11 months, each time saying “mission accomplished” :-)
(March 2016, AD: https://www.rt.com/news/335565-russia-start-withdrawal-syria/
January 2017, AD: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/06/russia-aircraft-carrier-mediterranean-syria-admiral-kuznetsov
December 2017, AD: https://www.rt.com/news/412748-putin-syria-visit-withdrawal/
And the next “withdrawal from Syria” is due … in October 2018…)
t
You sound frustrated. Poor dear. :-D
Dear Terpison,
First, Russia has decisively crushed the Salafist/wahabist and western sponsored terrorist groups. You need to just swallow that fact. Let’s try this again, Russia was successful and the terrorist sponsoring idiots in the west (the UK estabkishment and US neocons) and their primitive Saudi-Qatari bumpkins failed.
Secondly, the last time Putin gave the anti Assad insurgents some slack rope to negotiate with Assad, those western backed idiots proceeded to tie the rope around their own necks. So Putin returned to hang many of them with that rope, resulting in them be pushed to less than 10% of Syrian territory.
Thirdly, in his redeployment speech in the link I provided in a post above, he clearly said that if the opposition/terrorists dear their [ugly] heads again, he’ll hit them with strikes they have never imagined. It seems to me that he means he won’t just hang them with the rope, but he’ll take their heads off with it during the hanging; ie he’ll make the just concluded Russian military campaign look like a picnic.
Russia won and the evil, entitled blowhards lost.
Have a nice day.
What about the Kurdistan, East of Euphrates, that controls 25% of the territories of Former Syria, 20% of the population and 80% of the Gas – Oil resources?
They have the full N.A.T.O Support.
RUssia – the true victors withdraw in grace, triumphantly.
America – the true lossers doesn’t withdraw and wants to dig in and be buried in shame.
Apparently israel’s bum toy trump knows no shame.
US Strikes Against Syrian Government Forces ‘Lawful Measures’ – Trump
https://sputniknews.com/military/201712121059917800-us-strikes-syria-trump/
This is what NATO likes to call a “rotation”
Here’s my take on the implications of what just happened:
“President Assad once famously promised to liberate “every inch” of Syria, but there’s no way that he’ll be able to free northeastern Syria and the “de-escalation zones” now unless he “compromises” with his opponents.
In hindsight, this might be why President Putin said during last month’s Sochi Summit with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts that “It is obvious that the process of reform will not be easy and will require compromises and concessions from all participants, including of course the government of Syria.”
Russia won’t ever target the “moderate opposition rebels” that it signed DEZ deals with and invited to Astana, so Damascus will be compelled to “compromise” with them if it wants to reassert its authority over the territory that they presently occupy.”
https://orientalreview.org/2017/12/11/russias-military-withdrawal-will-prompt-president-assad-compromise/
Andrew,
“Russia won’t ever target the “moderate opposition rebels” that it signed DEZ deals with and invited to Astana,”
The DEZ premise is based on Russian “threat” of air strikes and MP enforcement on the ground. There have been instances of rebels/AQ/al Nusra violations and swift hits by the RF Aerospace. As I recall this was in Homs and Daraa zones early in the days of establishment of each DEZ.
Each DEZ has a mix of RF-Iran-Turkey-US-Jordan as guarantors depending on which of the 4 DEZs were set up. I am not certain the DEZ agreements are with rebels, like the reconciliation agreements are. Most of the “agreement” is with the RF and the counterparty being Turkey in the NW, US-Jordan in the SW, and with Turkey and Iran in the other two. All depend on the Russians to strike or permit Turkey or Iran to strike the offenders of ceasefire.
I may have it wrong, but that’s the way I have read it from the beginning.
Russia has to stay or the DEZs will melt into huge zones of warfare again.
All are imperative to refugees returning, humanitarian aid and medical aid going to the locals, and reconstruction beginning.
I don’t see how Russian can pull the Chechen MPs and its humanitarian-medical groups en masse and not destabilize the DEZs.
The moral and physical authority of the RF MOD is supreme in all the zones of conflict and de-escalation. The Syrian People have granted this to the Russians. Assad has nodded his agreement.
Transition is political, yes. But the environment must remain as it has been.
The US and Israel will launch hell if the Russian presence is removed.
We know the next iteration will be guerrilla warfare. That is out in the open of the words and basing deeds of the Centcom leadership.
Perhaps, the IRGC and Hezbollah can handle it.
But air power is crucial to controlling the entirety of the Syrian battlefield. Turks, Kurds, Centcom, al Nusra and leftover ISIS and AQ are all poised to fight for their interests and goals if the Russians stand down. Only the threat of RF Aerospace remains decisive for peace negotiations and political realignment of the Syrian Republic.
I have huge respect for your insight and analysis. I offer my take from my armchair, using only my close absorption of open source news, as faulty as that may be.
Putin is so refreshingly different and unique that even Putin lovers are constantly surprised by each and every decision he makes. It always takes them a couple of months to compute what Putin the bully handler was up to and to recognize the brilliance of Putin’s decisions.
It’s no different this time. Putin’s order of withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria will only strengthen Russia’s balanced standing in the whole region and far beyond it in the coming weeks and months. And Zion’s bullies, once again, will find that the Putin they were barking up, was just a decoy. The real Putin has long ago moved on…
This is my follow-up analysis to today’s announcements by the Turkish Foreign Minister:
“Turkey is engaging in a cunning display of perception management techniques in hinting that it might coordinate a joint anti-Kurdish operation with Russia because it wants to put maximum pressure on the PYD-YPG Syrian Kurds in the run-up to next year’s “Syrian National Dialogue Congress””
http://theduran.com/turkeys-twisting-truth-wont-joint-anti-kurdish-op-russia/
So the VVP supporters are in a panic because he has yet again ordered a draw down of Russian forces in Syria. As someone above mentioned, it is doubted that V V Putin will make a schoolboy mistake in that regard.
There has been a steady rotation in and out of Syria for well over two years. Just about every unit in the armed forces of this vast land have seen some kind of service either in Syria or in support thereof. Just about every weapon system Russia has, and I’ll qualify that with those she is willing to let ‘the west’ see, has been tested there or in the air and sea in and around Syria.
Tactics and logistics have been tested, modified and honed as needed. Equipment failures have happened and in any test environment this happens. I would be willing to bet that any problems with equipage has been ironed out by now.
Troops have been, to be blunt, blooded and yes, we’ve buried a few including two from this AO. Hurts, but that’s sometimes the price of their particular vocation although that statement don’t do squat when it comes to comforting the mothers and wives and children at the funerals.
What has happened in Syria in a nutshell is Putin, at the request of President Assad, sent relatively small support and combat units to aid, train, support, supply and assist the government and armed forces of Syria, a sovereign state and member of UN. In just over two years what looks like a victory was snatched from the very jaws of defeat, with no help President Assad’s government would have fallen with weeks of the start of Russian assistance.
Politically the defeat of the insurgents, read terrorists, is a major blow to certain other powers, both regional and international. Politically the successful Russian intervention, I stress again by invitation, has in essence turned the political, and by relevance the economic, situation completely around. Russia is now sought after for not only military assistance by certain countries but also economic cooperation. Syria will return, with time, to being the relatively peaceful and secular country it was before this mess was started from the bowels of Langley. Trouble will continue for years, the bombings and assassinations, the killings of the innocents, but with time that will cease and even now in most areas peace has been restored to the point at least some displaced people are moving back home.
Russia, and China, will render massive assistance in repairing the damages of years of war and the destroyed infrastructure. We are talking billions of dollars for that restoration and I would be willing to bet that any country who’s aircraft and/or ‘specialists’ were involved in what for them are war crimes fighting against Syria will be rapidly shown the door if they have the stones to ask for contracts.
All in all, a quite successful military, and humanitarian, intervention was performed by Russia at the invitation of the Government of Syria. This effort was done on what The West would consider a shoestring budget and it is successful beyond the wildest dreams, or should I say nightmares, of said West. The icing on the cake was when the odd little something that was virtually unknown to Langley, Berlin and london suddenly was on scene, witness the Kalibr missiles raining down and fired from little river ships in the Caspian Sea, the Grad missile systems which somehow suddenly became pinpoint accurate plus a few other odds and ends.
Auslander
Author
Never The Last One http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK A Deep Look In To Russia, Her Culture And Her Armed Forces
An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.
Great cartoon:
https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/105993/66/1059936664.jpg