This week, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) has blocked all roads linking the Idlib de-escalation zone with the northern Aleppo countryside, including the Turkish-occupied area of Afrin. The two main blocked roads were Atme-Deir Ballut and Deir Samaan-al-Ghazzawiyya. Therefore, the goods transportation and other traffic are now under direct control of the group, which is collecting funds for passage of its checkpoints.
The formal justification of the move is the alleged threat of ISIS infiltration, which Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seeks to prevent. On the other hand, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham move undermines the de-escalation zone agreement under which the sides agreed to work to re-open the roads between Hama and Aleppo and Lattakia and Aleppo.
On January 31, Turkey’s Foreign Minister even accused member states of the US-led coalition of supporting Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in an attempt to sabotage the Russian-Turkish demilitarized zone agreement on Idlib. The Turkish minister claimed that some members of the coalition are paying HTS for violations of the demilitarized zone agreement. This was the first time when a senior Turkish official publicly acknowledged that militants are violating the agreement.
A 15-20km demilitarized zone was supposed to be set up on a contact line between the militant-held and government-held areas in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Despite the establishment of Turkish observation posts there, the demilitarization effort, first of in the field of heavy weapons withdrawal, have resulted in no significant progress so far. Cavusoglu added that Russia had already provided an offer of a joint military operation to remove Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants from there.
At the same time, some opposition groups see the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stance as too moderate. On January 30, al-Qaeda-affiliated Horas al-Din accused Hayat Tahir al-Sham of indirectly assisting the demilitarized zone agreement. The group, which controls multiple positions in northwestern Hama and northern Lattakia, also called for a public mobilization to “to break the back of the regime and its allies away from the influence of regional forces”.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are negotiating with ISIS to determine the fate of the terrorists that are still hiding in the Euphrates Valley pocket, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on January 31. According to the UK-based pro-opposition monitoring group, ISIS is trying to find a safe haven for its fighters. However, the SDF and the US-led coalition are rejecting all of its suggestions.
Earlier, a spokesman for the SDF, Mustafa Bali, told the Rojava Network that the battle against ISIS in the Euphrates Valley will end within a few days. He also confirmed that large numbers of the terrorist group’s fighters are surrendering to his group.
According to the SOHR, about 36,000 people recently fled the ISIS-held pocket to the SDF-held areas. 23,200 of them are reportedly Iraqi citizens, mostly relatives of ISIS members. They are reportedly held in the al-Haul camp in southeastern al-Hasakah.
Russia and Syria (and Iran) have allowed Erdogan to play his hand. He failed. He will be in a beggar’s position because he needs Russian cover and permission from the others (Assad and Iran) to create his 5 km buffer zone to contain the Kurds and to fight the Kurd terror groups on Syrian territory.
Erdogan is going to lose his al Nusra proxies soon. The Russians will annihilate them block by block, village by village, tunnel or cave by tunnel or cave. They have been mapping all al Nusra caches, HQs, ratlines and depots for these months since September when Erdogan took responsibility for Idlib.
The cleansing of Idlib will be methodical and final. The groups left in there are from Russia, ex-Soviet stans, Xinjiang (Uyghurs) and other Turkic terrorists.
It is coming . . .
its past time – these takfiris have to go
The israeli’s pindo gofers are back to their old tricks, attacking Syrian forces in support of daesh.
Daesh Attacks Syrian Army Positions After International Coalition Raid – Report
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201902031072076400-syrian-army-daesh-attack/
“Daesh* terrorists attacked the Syrian Army positions shortly after a coalition airstrike in north-eastern Deir ez-Zor province on Saturday, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reports.
According to SANA, most of the terrorists who launched the attack were fleeing the village of Baguz, which was destroyed by the Syrian Army.
The attack came hours after a Syrian military source told Sputnik on Sunday that the US-led international coalition had carried out an airstrike on an army artillery mount located near the eastern Syrian city of Abu Kamal.
“At around 23:30 local time [Saturday, 21:30 Saturday GMT] the aircraft of the international coalition conducted an airstrike on the artillery mount of our forces operating in As Sukkariya region to the west of Abu Kamal… As a result of the airstrike, the mount was destroyed and two servicemen were injured,” the source said.”
Additional details:
Update: Syrian Army says US attack near Iraqi border was unprovoked
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/update-syrian-army-says-us-attack-near-iraqi-border-was-unprovoked/
“The U.S. Coalition’s attack targeted the Syrian military’s artillery team inside the small town of Al-Sukkariyeh, which is located just west of the Iraqi crossing and strategic border city of Albukamal.
According to a military source in Damascus, the attack on the Syrian Arab Army’s artillery team was unprovoked and unexpected as neither party had any confrontation prior to the strike.
Furthermore, when asked if the attack could have been carried out by an ISIS drone, the military source denied it was conducted by an unmanned aircraft; however, he did not go into details.”
US Dispatches Massive Military Convoy to Largest Base in Northern Syria
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/us-dispatches-massive-military-convoy-to-largest-base-in-northern-syria/
In the Last 24 Hours: Syrian, Russian Armies on Threshold of Military Operations in Idlib
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2019/01/31/in-the-last-24-hours-syrian-russian-armies-on-threshold-of-military-operations-in-idlib/
Al-Masdar News
German ISIS terrorist that starred in mass execution video of Syrian soldiers wants to go home
(video)
2019-02-04
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/german-isis-terrorist-that-starred-in-mass-execution-video-of-syrian-soldiers-wants-to-go-home-video/?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=push&utm_campaign=push%20%notificationss&utm_content=varies
If you have a radar, could you feed targeting data to a mobile phone? A poor man’s S300 could then be a mobile phone app: point your MANPAD this way, and shoot when the countdown reaches zero…