ISIL War in Iraq and Syria II

[ioannis76]

It's not the Assad-aligned troops I am counting on. It's the Turkish military. They can always snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. .

http://www.aei.org/publication/is-tu...y-incompetent/

[Tureuki]

Sooo eager to see the coming days when we will see people crying us a river in this thread

-Turkey's vulnerability to terror and decreasing military effectiveness.

The effectivenes is soo decreased that after starting to lose dozens of militants every week PKK is pretty much silenced now. They lost their attempt to gain foothold in towns in 2016, afterwards they tried bombings on urban centers, returned to mountains after that and got their ass whooped by newly introduced armed drones. Now all they do is some occassional ambushes and mine plantings. From urban clashes in 2016 to this.

-And its funny how he presents urban bombings as an example of ineffectiveness when entire Europe has suffered from it. Who is "effective" in his opinion I wonder.


- Author would probably laugh at his own comparison about El Salvador vs USA if he knew Syria would shoot down an Israeli F-16 one year later. Israel is indeed combat ineffective


Turkey has carved itself a nice portion in Syria, cutting of YPG's cantons and allowing its proxies to establish themselves strongly and it didnt even costed Turkey 3 digits of casualties. Same thing will happen in Afrin. Borders will be clared, a nice portion if it will be taken for refugees, Azaz and Idlib will get united and it will cost Turkey only a few dozen men. So keep laughing to your own dreams

Man I dont wanna get involved in this childish nonsense but seriously you are asking for it.

[Principe Alessandro]

In Afrin Assad and Ocalan united forever:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Indeed a great victory for Turkey!!!

[Vanoi]

Russia has placed some of it's troops on the road leading to Afrin so the Turks can't bomb it.

[Tureuki]

Sputnik says YPG handed Tell Rifaat to SAA, which is not bad in my opinion. This guarentees there will be no YPG attempt to reach Manbij through Tell Rifaat and we didnt wasted a single bullet for that.

I laughed my ass of to that Assad poster. It always amuses me when Kurds start out with shouts of GLORIOUS RESISTANCE, EAGLES OF MESOPOTAMIA, KURDISTAN WILL BE YOUR GRAVE etc. and end up shouting WHERE IS US AIR FORCE???? SEROK ASSAD SAVE US ((.

Four villages have been taken today, 2 on Bulbul front, 2 on Maabatli/Rajo front. And there seems to be some major troop movement from Turkey to Afrin. I guess they are finally getting ready to send in ground troops. Involvement to this day was mostly limited to artillery support, ait strikes and some occassional armor support.

Edit: two more villages have been taken, now they are overlooking the Afrin-Rajo main road.

[Principe Alessandro]

Maybe you haven't realized it but your campaign in Afrin is over now that government troops are there, probably the YPG militia is going to change clothes and join the NDF militia without surrendering their weapons, Faildogan and his Islamist cockroaches have simply failed to reach their objectives.

[Tureuki]

What part of "6 villages have been taken today" and "Ground troops are being transferred in masses" you didnt understood? As you can see offensive is not halted and neither the ground movements or announcements from statesmen indicate such a thing.

Whether it will be halted or not is depends on many things. Will Russia and SAA effectively take over in entirety of Afrin district? Will the governing structure be bound to Assad? If this is whats gonna happen then Turkey has no reason to continue, the goal is reached. None of those happens and SAA/Russian(Or just SAA) presence is just symbolic? In this case we have no reason to stop and that symbolic force cannot stop the advance anyway. A few militants cannot form a defensive belt in entirety of Afrin. Even if we dont hit them(A question for future) we can still keep advancing on fronts where they are not present.

[Principe Alessandro]

Turkey cannot continue the offensive into Afrin even against the government troops without triggering a major war, I don't think that you are fully understanding what is happening right now.

In the end I think that the YPG is going to become a legitimate part of the Syrian society if it reaches some sort of agreement with the Assad regime.

[Vanoi]

Looks like connecting Idlib and the rebels in Azaz won't happen. More SAA moving into Afrin. And from what I understand they aren't simple NDF.

[Nebaki]

Turkey cannot continue the offensive into Afrin even against the government troops without triggering a major war, I don't think that you are fully understanding what is happening right now.

Major War against who? Assads or Iran and his Proxies? Only if Russia is against that then Turkey will do not going further otherwise i don´t see why Turkey should not going further since Assads Troops already been Weak due to the fact that they are since 6 Years fighting they cannot srsly face-off with Turkey in long term.

[Vanoi]

Russia obviously is against it or they wouldn't have stationed a bunch of Chechens on the road the Turks were shelling to prevent the SAA from entering.

[Tureuki]

Azaz and Idlib is pretty much connected. Just check the map. Two small pockets are left(which are purposely left because they werent on the way to primary goals). After Rajo is taken I think they will focus on uniting all those fronts.

[Vanoi]

I looked at livemap. They aren't connected yet. That's a thin strip of land for a connection. Either way the Turks won't be grabbing Tal Rifiat or most of Afrin at this point.

[LinusLinothorax]

The SDF just agreed to roam Aleppo.

[nhytgbvfeco2]

Yep, SDF left Sheikh Maqsood in Aleppo and gave it to Assad. I guess no price is too high to pay to avoid being occupied by Turkey.

[Tureuki]

Ziyarah point, where SAA militants are entering Afrin is hit by air strike. A fire has started in the area. Strike was for a YPG convoy possibly from Aleppo or Eastern Syria. Looks like those Chechens Russians placed on road did not protected them.

[ioannis76]

https://syria.liveuamap.com/en/2018/...ore-irgclinked

Video of SAA regular army (?) going to Afrin. Turkey is bombing. I guess, if there is regular SAA involvement, they realise their "intervention" is over, so they are thinking of causing as much damage as possible before leaving?

[Tureuki]

Leaving? You seriously believe they will just leave the areas they control currently? The offensive is not even halted let alone leaving. They didnt even halted air strikes in hesitation. The very door those SAA militants are coming from is being bombed currently.

[ioannis76]

You do realise that the SAA possesses the anti-aircraft capability to severely hamper both the turkish airstrikes and the UAVs which are the "eyes" guiding artillery. Furthermore, on the ground, they have troops that are more war experienced than those of Turkey, and they have defeated once the FSA (Isis) thugs.
Unless, of course, you believe Erdogan's words (I am not sure he believes them himself) that Turkey can defeat all (SAA, YPG, Assadist militants, etc). In that case, I don't think I can say anything more.

[Vanoi]

Turkey can bomb the CP all they want more SAA will get in Afrin eventually. And Turkey hasn't actually started targetting them